Appointments, these days, seem to be exercises in theory;
like, “…if we hadn’t scheduled all of these other people at the same
time we told you to come in, we could’ve honored your appointment.”
No bigger perpetrator exists than the medical professional. Doctors overbook and cross-book patience to maximize revenue, all with the arrogance of knowing that we need them; so we wait, and if we don’t like it, we can leave.
At a recent 5:00 p.m. apointment with an eye doctor, for which I showed up 10 minutes early to complete the annoying paperwork, I didn’t get called in until about 50 minutes later. Now, by medical standards, that’s not bad. But the exam literally lasted 15 minutes. A puff of air, an eye chart, and I was done. So for every minute of that short exam, I had to wait three. Something seems wrong there.
Rental car companies and hotels often commit similar abuses, only they distort the meaning of the word reservation. Haven’t you ever shown up at the airport car rental desk, only to be directed to a competitor because they didn’t have any cars left? Huh? I thought I made a reservation, as in, I reserved a car from you?
And look at what the Long Island Rail Road does to the word schedule. At my connection in Jamaica, NY, the 8:25 a.m. to Penn Station arrives like clockwork, consistently 3 minutes later than the 8:28 a.m., which has already left.
My brain hurts from trying to wrap my head around all these numbers.
I understand. Things come up, and as a member of the public that is being served, I am totally OK with this and am prepared for it. But this shouldn’t be how businesses operate.
Why are we so willing to put up with this behavior?
No bigger perpetrator exists than the medical professional. Doctors overbook and cross-book patience to maximize revenue, all with the arrogance of knowing that we need them; so we wait, and if we don’t like it, we can leave.
At a recent 5:00 p.m. apointment with an eye doctor, for which I showed up 10 minutes early to complete the annoying paperwork, I didn’t get called in until about 50 minutes later. Now, by medical standards, that’s not bad. But the exam literally lasted 15 minutes. A puff of air, an eye chart, and I was done. So for every minute of that short exam, I had to wait three. Something seems wrong there.
Rental car companies and hotels often commit similar abuses, only they distort the meaning of the word reservation. Haven’t you ever shown up at the airport car rental desk, only to be directed to a competitor because they didn’t have any cars left? Huh? I thought I made a reservation, as in, I reserved a car from you?
And look at what the Long Island Rail Road does to the word schedule. At my connection in Jamaica, NY, the 8:25 a.m. to Penn Station arrives like clockwork, consistently 3 minutes later than the 8:28 a.m., which has already left.
My brain hurts from trying to wrap my head around all these numbers.
I understand. Things come up, and as a member of the public that is being served, I am totally OK with this and am prepared for it. But this shouldn’t be how businesses operate.
Why are we so willing to put up with this behavior?
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