Yesterday, I had an appointment with a new doctor.
Being the terminally early sort, I showed up at the doctors office 10 minutes early for a 1:00 appointment.
After waiting just a brief time, until the top of the hour, I was escorted into the examination room. The medical technician asked why I was there, took a blood pressure reading, and said, as she closed the door behind her, “the doctor will be in shortly”.
This of course would infer, to any right minded person, that everything was in order and I’d be well on my way to having my appointment and getting on with the balance of my day.
At 1:25 I poked my head out of the door of the examination room. I asked the woman at the front desk how much longer I’d be waiting and she said “we’re not sure, we haven’t heard from the doctor yet”.
What?
I felt the blood pressure rising so fast that my ears must have turned red.
I retreated back into the exam room where I stewed for just a minute or two and then I decided.
Just like in any other business, the choice of physician is mine and if I choose that this one is going to be more hassle than she’s worth, that she doesn’t respect my time, I’ll choose to look elsewhere, and that’s exactly what I did.
I told the woman at the front desk that in 2010, with the ability of everyone to be hyper connected by way of text, e-mail, voice mail, cell phone, or land line there’s absolutely no reason why anyone (her boss, the doctor) can’t alert their prospective customer (that’s me), that they’re running late.
She did exactly as you might expect – she raised her hands in an exasperated manner and stated, “it’s not my fault”.
Oh, and do you suppose the doctor was compelled to reach out to apologize and potentially ‘save the sale’?
Never mind…..
