R: “Well hello, how are you?”

A: “I’m fine thanks, you?”

R: “Hasn’t she gotten big, she looks so like your brother now, it’s amazing the likeness, her hair is beautiful and blonde”

A: “Thank you, she loves a compliment!”

What came next? Sounds like a fairly common conversation between old friends or neighbours perhaps?

R: “well have a seat and we’ll see you shortly”

Yep, it was the dentist’s receptionist who we see every six months for ten minutes

I am astounded that they remember us every time we go in but the level of personalisation in the service, though we’ve used the surgery for years, is pretty amazing. She remembered my brother’s name and that I gave birth the day after my Sis’ wedding, so it was clear my parents had been chatting to the team when they were in, it felt friendly and welcoming and I feel bad that that was unexpected.

We often hear about services being faceless but this is an exemplar that really surprised me, our GPs are great but we see them more frequently and they don’t have that same recall and friendliness. Just a musing but I wanted to mention it ahead of a post I am writing tomorrow about a service that didn’t listen.