Paddi Lund in Durham

Paddi Lund had become probably the world's best known dental practitioner. An Australian dentist with a remarkable story , he is a one-man marketing phenomenon listened to and admired by dentists and non-dentists around the world. He has written several books and many articles on his unique brand of customer-service driven, dental practice and much more than that, on a template for running a "happiness centred practice/business" . He is currently touring the UK with Chris Barrow , a dental business and personal development coach and mentor of mine and one time dental business coach, who my wife, Chris and I first worked with about 11 years ago. So next week, we will be flying up to Newcastle-on-Tyne and thence to Durham County Cricket Club to listen to Paddi Lund. A first for us. We like to think that we have taken on board many of his lessons but I know we dont' yet implement all of his ideas to the full.

I first heard about Paddi Lund roughly 19 years ago. One of the big four UK banks, of which I was a customer at the time, hosted a full day seminar on business marketing held at Reading University. The day was presented by an Australian marketing company looking to expand into the UK market.

Amongst the many fascinating anecdotes they told, of a variety of their clients who had benefitted from their marketing system, was a "mad australian dentist"- you guessed it - Paddi Lund. Paddi had done amazing things in his small town dental practice. Long before Seth Godin's deliberations in Purple Cow and The Big Moo, on becoming remarkable to succeed in business,Paddi Lund had done just that. He introduced a series of " critical non-essentials" to pamper his clients. An amazing and flamboyant coffee machine with beautiful china cups, "Dental Buns" were baked on the premises and offered in the client's lounge.

Guess what people talked about when they finished their dental visit? Painless fillings or beautiful crowns ? No, it was the customer service and totally unexpected free extras that Paddi and his small team provided.

Pretty soon he had people queuing up. He cancelled his yellow pages ads, took down signage and became exclusive, to the point of requiring people to request acceptance to his practice. He thus built a business around people who liked him, liked the service he provided, were happy to pay for it and to refer friends and relatives by word of mouth.

Well that is just a small part of his remarkable story and we look forward to bringing the best of Paddi Lund's ideas to our practice in Newbury after we have had a chance to hear him up close and personal, as it were.