Building the Happiness Centred Business
Dr. Paddi Lund had a successful dental practice after years of military service, dental school and working very hard at establishing his business in Australia. In fact, Dr. Lund had pioneered marketing in dentistry in his town. This had brought him great success, or so he thought. That fact was that he was desperately unhappy. Paddi reached a breaking point, which he calls his brush with insanity. What was the source of his depression and anxiety? It was his business.
Rather than commit suicide, Paddi decided to change his business into one that would make him happy. In the process, Paddi revolutionized his business and turned it into an even more profitable business than ever that created happiness for him, his staff and his patients (which he refers to as customers).
This book tells the story in Paddi’s very unique way of how he did it. He tells of his journey to the abyss, and what steps he took to turn his business around. Starting with the Happiness Meter, Paddi describes how he “fired” more than 50 percent of his customers, because they were a major source of his staff’s unhappiness – and subsequently his.
Paddi discusses the idea of happiness creating more profit in business. By creating awesome – not just satisfactory or great – customer service, customers are happy to pay their bill. Paddi goes on to explain how he created systems for the happiness in the business, such as the Courtesy System. By systemizing these devices, he ensured that each day was optimized for spectacular experiences by each customer.
From there, Paddi touches upon creating relationship marketing – to the point of ultimately creating a “by-invitation-only” business. The two follow-up books, “The Absolutely Critical Non-Essentials” and “Mobilsing Your Customer Sales-Force” go more into the creation of such a business.
Building the Happiness-Centred Business is not just for dentists, but for all business owners and managers who want to find a better way to do business. Whether you believe in Paddi’s methods or not; whether you want to go as far as Paddi did with his business or not – you will find this book fascinating. It will help you think of “out of the box” ways to not only build your business, but to build one that makes you and everyone associated with it happy.
Building the Happiness-Centred Business is a must-read for all of my clients, and should be for you, too.
