YOU’RE ONLY AS EXPERT AS YOU APPEAR
Posted by: Brian Webb | Monday, October 1st, 2007 | 10:44 PM
One day in Dallas in 1997, a woman took her siamese cat to her veterinarian for routine inoculations. The vet noticed something that the cat’s adoring owner had missed. The cat seemed to be walking just slightly out of balance. Concerned… the vet began probing the animal with his fingertips. In this process, the doctor noticed a tiny growth behind one of the cat’s ears… a cyst that could be malignant.
The vet explained this to the owner, then anesthetized the cat, and opened an incision behind the cat’s ear. The vet located the growth, lanced and removed it, stitched up the incision, and sent the cat home later that day. He saved the life of this cat.
As a regular practice, the cat’s owner was given a survey. Among the questions was this simple one… “How do you rate your veterinarian’s medical skills?” The owner had the typical 1-10 choices, with 1 being the least competent, and 10 being the most competent. The doctor’s fellow veterinarians would’ve scored him with a 10. Most agreed that most veterinarians would’ve missed that diagnosis, and that cat’s tumor would’ve become fatally inoperable.
How did the client rate the vet? A 7 out of 10. Pretty good, but certainly not excellent, much less exceptional. How could this be? How could an expert doctor that performed beyond reasonable expectations be rated as a mere 7?
The answer was in his coat. He didn’t wear a labcoat that day. Pet owners give the lowest scores to vets who fail to wear labcoats… the next lowest to those who wear “blue” labcoats. On the other hand, the second highest ratings go to vets that wear “white” labcoats. Which vets get the highest rating? Those that wear white labcoats “and” stethoscopes… by a wide margin.
Like it or not… you’re only as expert as you appear.
Please feel free to share your comments. I’d be thrilled to hear from you.
