Joy as a Business Strategy: Creating Unforgettable Customer Experiences with Amanda Chin

[00:07] Jeff McLarty
Ever wonder what it really takes to build a business from the ground up? Welcome to Owner’s Roundtable, where successful business owners pull up a chair and swap stories and lessons from their own adventures in business. From surviving their first half-baked business plan, the time they almost went broke, the time they got lucky, and the strategies and tactics they used along the way.

This isn’t about a polished success story on the company About Us page; it’s about the real story behind the business. The pain, the people, the setbacks, and the big break that changed everything. Each episode, you’ll sit down with the owners who’ve been in the trenches, build something meaningful, and live to tell the tale. Whether you’re starting out, scaling up, or just curious what it takes to go the distance, there’s a seat at the owner’s roundtable for you. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I’m Jeff McLarty, seasoned entrepreneur, executive coach, and business trainer, and I want you to have your own seat with us here at the Owner’s Roundtable. Real owners, real stories, real insights.

[01:15] Jeff McLarty
Hello and welcome to Owner’s Roundtable. Today at the table we’ll be visiting with Amanda Chin, the co-owner and growth engine behind Norwood Dental. Norwood has built an amazing reputation for doing dentistry differently. Amanda will share her insights on creating amazing customer experiences, marketing through community involvement, and balancing a growing business and a growing family. So pull up a seat and join Amanda and at the Owner’s Roundtable.

[01:37] Jeff McLarty
Amanda, why don’t you go ahead and share with us a little bit about yourself, for listeners that don’t already know you.

[01:43] Amanda Chin
So I’m Amanda Chin. I’m a mom of two boys. I have a four and seven year old. I’m not a dentist. My husband is. And we own two dental practices together. So we have one kind of by the Kingsway Mall area, and that one’s been in business since 2018. And then our second clinic, we opened up in September 2025, so recently, and that’s on 124th Street, kind of near Tiramisu Bistro.

[02:07] Jeff McLarty
So when you met your husband, was it a plan for you to become part of the business or when did that conversation happen?

[02:14] Amanda Chin
It’s the funniest story. We actually met in undergrad at the U of A, a million years ago, when there were dinosaurs. I was the director of a program called Safe Walk, where you get like a yellow jersey, and then you get to walk people home at night. And he was a very nerdy volunteer who was wanting a medical school or dental school reference. So we were not dating then. Like I thought he was a big geek. And then when we did start dating, I was very happily in my own field, which is not dental related at all. And we were probably dating for about two years before we thought, you know what, we could actually do something really cool and dental together and decided to go ahead.

[02:49] Jeff McLarty
So, had he started his practice on his own before you became part of it or did you start it together?

[02:56] Amanda Chin
No, um, he didn’t. And I think that – and he would readily admit this – he probably would not have his own business were it not for like us working together to do it. My husband is a wonderful, kind person, and he’s a clinician through and through. So he loves to help people, he loves to be working on teeth. The business and operational side is not his job at all. So when we were first dating, he was an associate dentist, which basically means he was working at a practice that someone else owns, and then you get a commission of your services.

[03:35] Jeff McLarty
Oh, okay. And then you decided to take the big leap together. So for people who haven’t had the opportunity to visit Norwood Dental, why don’t you tell us a little bit about how it’s different than most dental clinics?

[03:37] Amanda Chin
Well, uh, they are the coolest clinics in the entire city. Which is probably the biggest thing to know. But I mean, at the end of the day, I think that the dental market is very saturated. There’s a million dental clinics, they’re literally on every street corner. You could actually make like a joke about how many dental offices there are. And I think people have certain bare expectations of dentists. They know how to diagnose, they know how to drill, they can fill and they can bill. and it’s a pretty standard and uniform experience.

What makes Norwood Dental different is that we don’t focus on the technical side. My husband is an uber-geek. He does great, amazing, technical dentistry, but it’s the experience that we double down on hard because that’s what people can actually tell and what makes a difference.

Like if someone comes and gets a filling from our clinic or another clinic, unless you’re physically in pain after your appointment, how do you know if the dentist did a good job? You can’t check the margins on an x-ray. You can’t check what it looks like in your mouth. So it’s really only the experience that the patient is going to remember and really care about. As long as the technical side is good, which is like your bare minimum.

[04:42] Jeff McLarty
So how did you approach developing a customer experience, or patient experience, that was different in something as established as dentistry? Like where did you guys start with that?

[04:52] Amanda Chin
I take a lot of inspiration from the restaurant and hospitality industry, and from spas, and places where people want to go and actually feel good. So I’m a giant foodie, I spend my life chasing down experiences and things that are going to spark joy. And so I was looking at dental clinics and thinking, what could we do that would be different and make people actually want to go and be in the chair? Because it’s a pretty miserable experience that most people I think just put up with.

And so I started to think like, what could we do that would make people actually want to do it? So we started little with little things. Like we have a comfort menu where people can specify, what do they want to have in their appointment today that will be comfortable? And at first our comfort menu had like three options: like what flavor of fluoride do you want? Bubblegum, pina colada, Coca-Cola, or non-flavored.

But then we were able to add TV, you know, Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus. As long as it’s not like sexually explicit, you could probably watch it while you’re getting your dental appointment done. And not just having a TV like on top of the ceiling, which a lot of clinics do. But actually having it on like a movable arm so it can be at the right angle so patients can actually watch the television, right? How novel.

And for people who don’t want to have that, can we have, you know, calming music? Can we have weighted blankets or weighted stuffed animals? Can we have like those autism bubble up tubes that have like the sensory bubbling sound coming, and fidget toys. Like what are all the things that we can start adding to make it customized every single time?

And then as our team has grown, this has been the biggest challenge I think, training our team to deliver on those standards of excellence and customization every time.

[06:29] Jeff McLarty
And how have you been approaching that?

[06:32] Amanda Chin
Lots of training. You’ve helped with some, which is great. But like lots of training. Whenever we onboard a new team member, I try to be intentional about getting a little bit of time with them one on one, just to share where our company is coming from, our mission, our core values. Which can’t just be cheesy things on the wall, but have to be things that you actually live.

Dentistry can be very policy and procedure driven, and it’s important to have policies and procedures. But I think it’s actually more important to be human, which means you have to know when you have to break those policies and procedures, and just respond to a situation person to person.

[07:07] Jeff McLarty
How do you draw lines in the sand about, like, supporting people and the customer experience and then saying, okay, but we can’t go further than this? Like how do you set those boundaries?

[07:18] Amanda Chin
That was something I really struggled with, especially in our early days, to be honest. In the early days of our business, we became known as a clinic that was great for people with anxiety. And I think we are a clinic that’s great for people with anxiety because we do do a lot of extra things.

But, at the same time, like, if you have someone who’s so anxious that they can’t physically sit in the chair, they can’t open their mouths, like, for some people that’s too big of a barrier. In those cases, they’re probably better off with full sedation dentistry, which we don’t offer, so they can go to sleep and get the entire procedure done.

Many people, like if they’re a little bit nervous, mildly anxious, they’ll be very successful at our clinics. But if there’s someone whose anxiety is so high that like getting through the doors is a barrier, getting in the chair is a barrier, that could be like too tricky for us to get through the entire procedure. Cause even though I try and make it fun, there will still be some unfun parts, because it is dentistry.

[08:11] Jeff McLarty
One way or another there might be a hole need to be drilled and there’s only so much you can do about that.

[08:16] Amanda Chin
Right? Exactly, yes.

[08:18] Jeff McLarty
I thought it was funny when you mentioned the Netflix and all the different channels. I thought Dentist Offices only got the HGTV channel. I thought there was only one that all dentists got. Haha.

[08:29] Amanda Chin
Or, they just put like YouTube up. We actually had a patient in a few weeks ago, and they brought a six-year-old in. We were gonna play something on the TV and his dad stops us and he’s like, no, no, like I don’t wanna have anything on the TV. And I’m like, are you sure? Like, you know, often children find it very comfortable.

The dad told me that at his last dental clinic they had just pulled up YouTube and played Paw Patrol. And when you don’t have the paid YouTube accounts, like these ads come up, right? So an ad on, like, sexual health had come up during his daughter’s dental appointment. And so this dad was like, I don’t want anything on, and I’m like, no, no, no, it’s okay, like we have the paid version, nothing is gonna pop up.

[09:09] Jeff McLarty
Wow. And yeah, for the price of a Netflix subscription.

[09:13] Amanda Chin
Surely you could afford that, right?

[09:14] Jeff McLarty
Yeah. So, how do you help kids through that experience? ‘Cause I know have a huge toy room. Are a lot of kids, like, really nervous when they first come in? How do you interact with a small person versus an adult client, for example?

[09:27] Amanda Chin
For sure. I think it actually starts before the patient comes through our doors. So we have, um, we have a book that we’re publishing very soon, and I’m so excited for it. It’s a social story that follows my own son’s journey of going to the dentist, and showing a child exactly what to expect, what the waiting room looks like, what it looks like to be in the chair. What the bib feels like when you wear a weighted vest for your x-rays, Just so that that child is able to know exactly what’s going to happen to them and to eliminate some of that surprise factor. And especially for children who are not neurotypical, and that’s an area very close to my heart, that’s really important.

But it starts with that waiting room. And so, even while children are in the waiting room, we have juice boxes for them. We have really great magic ink pads they can color on. We have crossword puzzles. We have activity books. So if the child is waiting for their parent to fill out medical history, which you can fill out in advance if you want, even while they’re waiting, it’s still going to be a good experience.

We also have one of those coin operated – where you get a little ball, and a toy comes out. And our toys are actually good toys in there too, so there’s some surprise and delight that will come from that. So it starts with a good experience in the waiting room.

And then our team is able to take the child back into the operatory. I try to hire team members who have often worked with children or people with anxiety before. So they’re not going in totally cold. So our team is amazing with kiddos. And then once the kid is in the chair, we’re able to get that show on. Like maybe they want to watch Demon Hunters, maybe they want Paw Patrol. My kids are really into this train show right now. Whatever it is, like we could put that on.

We have weighted blankets, we have weighted stuffed animals. There’s a whole fidget cart with over 12 different varieties of fidgets that children can choose. And so there’s some fun in it at the very beginning. And then our team is just patient and kind. And we have model stuffies that we’ll often be able to demo what we’re gonna do on their bodies to the puppet first. So children feel in control the entire time.

[11:28] Jeff McLarty
That’s an amazing experience you have there. How do you get people to come and try for the first time? Like is it through referral or like how do you encourage people to come check you out for the first time, and get to experience go around?

[11:40] Amanda Chin
I’m really passionate about believing that dentistry is about community, and that exists well beyond our clinic doors. So, for the summer, because there’s a lot of summer events in Edmonton, we actually have a four-person events team. And getting out in community is literally their whole job. It’s all they do, is get out with community. And that team also includes a tooth fairy mascot who – think of like a Disney princess, but like a tooth fairy vibe.

And uh we literally will set up at your local farmers markets, we’ll set up at your local community leagues. And we begin the conversation before someone’s even in the room, and just make it super approachable. Because when people have that relationship that they’ve started somewhere else, it’s a lot easier to feel comfortable having a very intimate part of your body looked at, and also advocating for your needs.

[12:26] Jeff McLarty
I think that’s an amazing approach, and I admire how involved you guys are in community. One quick scroll through your Instagram shows just how much stuff you’ve participated in over the years.

[12:37] Amanda Chin
There’s so much. No, the only source of remorse I have right now is this tooth fairy character. Man. Like I secretly would like to be a tooth fairy too. But every business owner friend of mine has said that that’s not appropriate for you to do because you’re the owner. You can’t like dress up as a tooth fairy in your day to day life.

[12:55] Jeff McLarty
Don’t let anybody tell you what to do Amanda. If you want to be the tooth fairy, I think it’s fair.

[12:58] Amanda Chin
But like, is that really a thing? So I haven’t had the costume made for myself yet, but that’s my only remorse about the whole thing right now.

[13:05] Jeff McLarty
I think for a kid to meet the Tooth Fairy is a pretty cool experience, right? It’s like going to the mall and meeting Santa. Yeah.

[13:12] Amanda Chin
Right? Like if I had one fondest wish. Santa is a big deal in our culture, the Easter bunny, like there’s so many of these cultural milestones. I actually would be very interested in taking on the project of, what can we do to add like myth and magic to the tooth fairy?

[13:27] Jeff McLarty
I’m on board with Although I have to say I was a little bit scared as a kid that the tooth fairy was living in a castle made out of teeth. I think that was one of the things I was told as a kid and I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing or not.

[13:39] Amanda Chin
It’s a bit terrifying when you think about it, isn’t it? Yeah

[13:41] Jeff McLarty
Yeah. Haha. For sure.

Um, one of the things I wanted to ask you about, ’cause you mentioned you had kinda started a business and then had kids. What was that like for you and William as you grew a family and grew a business? Like, what were the trade offs you had to make or how did that go for you guys?

[13:56] Amanda Chin
Man, it’s not easy, is it? Like having children and a business. Um, so my first son was a whoopsie baby. We were not looking to start a family at that stage. It was an accident, but a very happy one. And we’re like, you know what? Like, if not now, then when? Let’s just go for it and get it done.

I don’t think that we would be where we are and have the clinics that we do if it weren’t for my family, to be honest. Because they were so good at helping out with childcare, helping out with all the things. And then as our businesses have grown, now we have like a nanny, and that really helps too.

I think that we try and direct our time with our kids to focusing on, like, the high impact times. So this weekend, there was the Alberta Ballet recitals. We were there for that. You know, we’re there to do the reading, we’re there to do the bedtime. But you really have to be, I find, strategic about your time and energy. So that way you’re there for the high impact moments. And really evaluating what are the things that you can delegate because everyone has the same 24 hours. And how are you going to use that 24 hours to maximum impact?

[14:58] Jeff McLarty
Yeah. It is tough as a parent. Like you want to be there for your kids. It’s one of the reasons you’re growing a business and a lifestyle for them. But I mean businesses can be demanding, just as demanding as children.

[15:08] Amanda Chin
Right? Oh my gosh, it’s true. Like I remember for our second baby, they’re both c-section babies. And I remember being in the hospital, like waiting for the C-section, and like coordinating technicians to go and fix the sterilizer that was leaking.

Like I’m a very high energy, active person. So I don’t find it tiring. And I don’t think my husband does either. And I think that also really helps. Like do you have the right personality to be successful in business?

[15:32] Jeff McLarty
What do you think one of the key factors to be successful in business is, what do you think the most important thing that you’ve seen is?

[15:40] Amanda Chin
I think that you have to know there’s a market for your product or service. Like when I meet some entrepreneurs who are starting with something, it’s like, is there actually a market for this? And it’s a question I have to ask myself too.

I’ll often have people be like, you know, are you gonna open up in St. Albert? Are you gonna open up in Sherwood Park? And maybe in the future we will. But like it is so saturated. Our model is different, but you really have to look at is there a market for your product or service?

And then I really think that it’s important to underscore like having operating capital to get started, because you will need some of that in your early days. To grow your business, and pay your bills, and to get the word out that you exist. Like people are hit with so many messages today, all the time. So you have to find a unique way to get the message and you need capital often to get that out.

[16:24] Jeff McLarty
I think that’s a really good point. I think a lot of people get caught flat footed with not planning to save enough for the capital you need to actually start a business. Like it’s not just paying your first few months of rent and a couple of staff or something. It can take a lot of money to grow a business. And a fast growing business eats a lot of money very quickly.

[16:43] Amanda Chin
For sure, yes. And the investments that you have to make to grow it. We are hoping to do a commercial development in the next few years, where we move our Alberta Avenue clinic, close it down, and do a building that we own. So I literally have just been like stacking cash, stacking cash, stacking cash, because you never know what will happen. And as my first construction project, if there’s one thing I know for sure, something will go wrong. And I’d rather, you know, be ready for that than caught unprepared.

[17:09] Jeff McLarty
What’s the general rule for construction? Make your budget and then double it and you might be close?

[17:13] Amanda Chin
Well, I gotta hope that you didn’t just jinx me. I would prefer not double it. but yes, there could be some overrides.

[17:21] Jeff McLarty
I mean, with enough proper planning it isn’t quite that bad, but I think a lot of people don’t fully plan out everything that goes into construction, ’cause it’s not just two by fours and walls. And especially for something like a dental clinic you need a lot of specialty equipment that goes with it.

[17:33] Amanda Chin
Absolutely.

[17:37] Jeff McLarty
Um, what – what’s a question I should ask you, Amanda?

[17:40] Amanda Chin
A question that you should ask me. I find a lot of people when they’re looking to scale and grow is like, what is the biggest challenge or friction point? And people don’t always like to talk about those things because they can be embarrassing and tricky, but whatever, I’m a pretty open book, so I will.

For me, the biggest friction point that I find myself navigating these days is getting a team that’s fully on board with the vision that we’re trying to set. Super easy in your early days when you have like five team members. I can remember having five team members and we’re like, we’re all committed, we’re all in, we all know what we want to do.

And what we do is unique in dentistry. Like there’s a lot of people who literally go to dental school or go to hygiene school and they come out and they want to do scale, polish, fluoride, and x-rays. And so when they meet someone like me and I’m like, and do this and do that, like add some magic. Not everyone wants to do that. And getting a team that’s fully committed, fully all in on that mission, and finds joy in delivering surprise and delight? That can be the biggest challenge.

[18:38] Jeff McLarty
Is that something that you’ve tried to build into your hiring process? Like how do you screen for that when you’re looking to bring people on board?

[18:45] Amanda Chin
It’s tricky, because like really, you’re looking at two different skill sets. You’re looking at someone who has a technical skill set to do the hardcore dental task, whether it’s clinically or at the front. But then also has the personality, and the values to deliver on the way that we want dentistry delivered. Not easy to do.

And so we do try and go a bit slower in our hiring. A couple interviews, a working interview where we get to see them for the full day. And then the first few weeks, I’m trying to get more intentional, myself, about you know, going for lunch with that person, underscoring we make decisions at our clinic.

Because as much as we can have like a giant employee manual and we can build all of our SOPs into an AI system, like we can do all of that. But at the end of the day, there’s always going to be some human decision making involved when you’re dealing with people. And you want to have a team that’s going to make a decision that you would want to make.

[19:36] Jeff McLarty
That absolutely makes sense to me. I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve noticed when you’re scaling out a company is at a certain point you can’t look over everybody’s shoulder. So you have to build systems, processes, and a culture that basically guide decision making on your behalf. And that can be a lot of work, to build that out. Is that something you’ve seen as well, or?

[19:56] Amanda Chin
Totally. Like about six months ago, I still had all 30 of our employees reporting to me directly. which I now know, insane, right? Like you can’t have a meaningful relationship with that many people and do the operation and do the strategy and you know, look at this construction project. It was totally impossible, and not working. And so, about six months ago, I switched our system. And now we have leads for admin team, leads for hygiene, leads for our dental assistants. And I only have about four direct reports to me personally.

That’s made a huge difference, because I can actually have a meaningful relationship with four people. I can’t have a meaningful relationship with 30. I can see them periodically and have kind of like an annual or biannual check-in, but it can’t be meaningful leadership or supervision with that many. And that was tricky to do because I’m a very hands-on person and I would love to be able to do all of it myself. And it’s just not realistic if you want to scale and grow.

[20:49] Jeff McLarty
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. So how do you – do you have, like, a regular meeting cadence with your team then or how do you facilitate that?

[20:56] Amanda Chin
We do. So we have regular meetings with our department leads. And then they’re able to have meetings with their own departments. Typically for departmental meetings, I still will sit in on them as often as I’m able to. To give some FaceTime and show them, hey, I really care about what you folks are doing.

But regular meetings with those leadership heads and then we do training with everyone together a couple of times per year. And then fun events. Like I think it’s really important for the team to laugh together and, like, have experiences. As much as I preach about experiences for our patients, how can they know what that looks like or feels like if we’re not giving them some experiences too? And so we also try and do fun things as a team, at least every few months, where everyone’s invited and no work agenda. We’re just going to live life and enjoy together.

[21:38] Jeff McLarty
That’s awesome. I think team building is so important. And yeah, it fills in a lot of the soft things that you can’t necessarily tell people or make into process and system, developing those relationships through fun.

One of the things I did want to ask you about is, you mentioned dentistry being super saturated. And I think a lot of businesses, and especially new businesses starting up, they see like there’s all this competition. And one of the things they always struggle with is they’re everybody’s looking for the blue ocean. And if you can find one, that’s great. But how did you feel going into a market like that? Did you already have a plan to set yourselves apart and that’s why you founded Norwood Dental? Or was that, you kinda entered the market and then figured out you needed to find a way to differentiate yourself from a crowded marketplace?

[22:22] Amanda Chin
We had a plan before we bought and I think that everyone should have a plan before they buy a business. Like it’s – I mean, you’re the business coach, so it’s probably not a good idea to buy something and then figure that out afterwards. But truthfully, like the blue ocean thing, I don’t think it exists a whole lot anymore. Every market is saturated. There are a million people wanting to do what you do. But you are the only one who can do it in the unique way that you do it. And so I think that having that plan in advance is – is huge.

Like when we opened our practice, we thought about opening up in Sony Plain because I grew up there and I had a lot of relationships there. In some ways it would have been an easier place to start. But small towns can have a lot of loyalty to their local businesses and, still very saturated. So, you know, I didn’t really want to go there because I didn’t think I had the operating capital to make the difference I would need to actually get the message out.

So I think that you do need to have a plan in advance and look at how you’ll do it differently. And there’s always a unique twist that you can put on something, I think, and cool things to try. And it’s okay to try things and fail. Like, I’ve had at least two epic idea fails at Norwood Dental, which were spectacular and hilarious fails that we laugh about today. But you won’t know until you try, right?

[23:33] Jeff McLarty
A lot of people don’t get started in business ’cause they want everything to be perfect before they start. I think as long as your batting average is above five hundred, you’ll probably get there in the end.

[23:43] Amanda Chin
It’s not gonna be perfect. I mean, I like to get my face done periodically at a local place, like the Botox and filler and all that. So I’ll tell you the hilarious, like the most hilarious fail. I was getting my Botox done and they gave me this, like, vibrating wand that you can hold while you’re getting the needle in. So that way you’re not paying attention to the needle filling. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I guess it’s brilliant. I need to have vibrating wands at Norwood Dental too, because we also give needles. This will be really great. People can hold it. We have a sfija cart, this will be a great way to add.

So I went on Alibaba and I ordered vibrating wands. And…

[24:18] Jeff McLarty
Ha ha ha.

[24:19] Amanda Chin
And many vibrating wands showed up and they were for a different part of the body.

[24:24] Jeff McLarty
Uhuuu.

[24:25] Amanda Chin
And I wasn’t in that day. And when the team opened them, I just got these pictures and was like, Is this a personal shipment? What is this and why has it arrived? And and we never deployed them because I think that patients would not appreciate being handed that kind of item in the chair.

[24:42] Jeff McLarty
So you just dropped that off Village and then drove away fast?

[24:46] Amanda Chin
Yeah. But you wouldn’t know until you tried, right?

[24:49] Jeff McLarty
Totally fair. So how do you know how long to give an idea? Like if you’re gonna try something, how do you know like okay, that that’s not a good idea, or we just need to tweak it a little bit.

[24:58] Amanda Chin
I mean, some ideas are so spectacularly bad, like mine were, that you – where you know right away that this is not an idea that’s going to work. And I guess I’m very lucky that I’ve been given many opportunities in my life to fail and keep trying. Other ideas I’ve had, just took time to roll out.

So here’s an example of an easy one that we do, but I think it is really impactful. When you go into the operatory for your appointment, there’s a PowerPoint screen on your TV before you pick your show, that will say, “Welcome, Jeff. We’re so glad you’re here.” So the second you sit down, it feels very customized, very personalized. But in order for this to work, a human being, your hygienist or whoever, has gone to the screen, edited out the name prior, put your name in, to make that operatory feel like it is prepared for you.

I remember the first time we put that in place, we had some team members who were like, oh my gosh, like how am I going to find the time to do this? Like dental is already so fast paced, and sometimes someone’s running late and then I’m running late. And how do I – how do I get that set up?

And I almost abandoned ship. Because there was so much complaining at first over like changing this PowerPoint slide. And I’m really glad that we did stick it out. I told the team, let’s stick it out for three weeks and see if it can become a habit. And we’ll talk after three weeks if it’s tricky. And after three weeks, it had become a habit, and people also saw the reactions of patients. And that can be so gratifying too, to fuel you to keep going, and then they were okay to keep going with it from there.

[26:24] Jeff McLarty
How often does it go wrong, I guess, is my question. Do they forget to do it or is it now just part of the procedure and that’s what happens?

[26:31] Amanda Chin
It’s part of the procedure and now it just certainly happens. And I would say that they only would miss the PowerPoint screen now if we’ve had something that goes wrong in the day. For example, sometimes a child has a tricky time at the dentist, and what we thought would be an hour and a half might become two hours. Medical procedures can get delayed. We try not to have that happen very often, but when it does, our team is pretty good at, like, hustle and move on, but still provide that personalized care. I think that we’re pretty consistent now.

[27:00] Jeff McLarty
You guys do so many cool things that set you guys apart and I think that’s why you’re seeing your practice grow where a lot of other dentistry practices may be more stagnant or having trouble attracting customers. That unique experience I think goes a long way making people want to come back again and again.

[27:14] Amanda Chin
I think so. I think people are looking for fun, and they’re looking for something unique and different, that will stand out. Like we had an accountant in, in our Inglewood practice, brand new. And I had met her at an event a few weeks prior. And I remember just saying to her, like, my husband really likes pranks, like pull a prank on him, it’ll be great. And like this patient just had so much delight from going in and being able to prank my husband in the chair.

[27: 38] Jeff McLarty
Hahaha

[27:40] Amanda Chin
Right? And it ended up being a more fun day for both of them.

[27:42] Jeff McLarty
How did he prank him?

[27:44] Amanda Chin
So my husband is Asian. He’s from Taiwan. And growing up, his parents force fed him a lot of like mushrooms, like not the psychedelic kind, just like the vegetable kind. And he now has a full out like phobia of mushrooms. He doesn’t like them. Like if he senses it around, he’s like, No, I don’t want to eat it.

So the patient came in and you know, he’ll always ask, like, you know, tell me about your home care routine. And she acted like a crazy person and was able to be like, I really like mushrooms. I have mushrooms every meal. Every morning. They’re really great for your teeth. Like every day I had mushrooms. Before I came here, I had like 10 mushrooms.

[28:18] Jeff McLarty
Ahaha.

[28:20] Amanda Chin
And I was really hoping that my husband would crack and like, you know, have some sort of reaction. But to my disappointment, he actually was professional the entire time and was like, like I hadn’t heard the evidence that mushrooms prevent cavities, but – but like, great teeth, so like keep up the great work.

But what was really great is that after the appointment, they both called me independently to let me know. So he called and was like, you’ll never believe this patient.

[28:48] Jeff McLarty
Hahaha

[28:49]
And she messaged and was like, I told him, but he seemed to be non-judgmental. So I guess he’s really just non-judgmental. Yeah.

[28:55] Jeff McLarty
That’s amazing. Just pure professional, hey?

Well I really appreciate all the insights you’ve shared with us. If you were gonna give advice to somebody that wanted to set their business apart, where do you think they should start? What would be the best advice you could give them?

[29:09] Amanda Chin
I would say that they should start by going to as many businesses like that as they can. So, like if I were starting, I don’t know, an optical clinic, I’d probably want to go to like 10 optical clinics in Edmonton and just see what the experience is like.

Like I would book the full new patient exam and I would just go and see what happens. I would make note of what I really liked and what I didn’t really like. And then I would try and find a way to systematize those into SOPs that we can replicate, every single time, over and over again.

And then I would look at things that actually do spark joy. So for me, it’s hospitality, spas, restaurants. It’s gonna be different for every person, but find what is unique and special that they can do, that they want to do, that will bring them joy. And then find a way to integrate that into their business in an authentic way.

Because I really do think like if the owner is having fun, you’re almost magnetic and people are gonna wanna go to you. But if you’re, like, miserable and hating your life? Well, people are gonna wanna avoid that as well. Like people can sense a lot.

[30:07] Jeff McLarty
I think you’re right about that. People want to deal with people that are enjoying their work, right? And I think having fun is an important part of building a business.

[30:15] Amanda Chin
I think so. Yeah. Dentistry could be pretty boring, but you know, I find ways to keep myself busy and make it exciting. And it makes all the difference.

[30:23] Jeff McLarty
Boredom doesn’t seem like your speed.

[30:25] Amanda Chin
No, no it’s not.

[30:27] Jeff McLarty
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on, Amanda. I appreciate it.

[30:30] Amanda Chin
Thank-you, Jeff. You are an excellent business coach, and thank you for the work you’ve done with my team as well.

[30:39] Jeff McLarty
That’s all for us here at the Owner’s Roundtable. If you’re looking for more support for your business or your own ownership journey, you can contact us at www.focalpointedmonton.com.

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