Day 64 - The Sleep Center

Image by Dell's Official Flickr Page, via Flickr

This is really a customer service story. I was the customer, and I didn't get much service.

It all starts with an equation I learned years ago:

Customer Service = Customer Experience - Expectations

When customer expectations are low, it is likely the experience will be greater, resulting in positive customer service. When expectations are high, it is likely the experience will be lower, resulting in negative customer service.

And the problem in this case is that the facility where my experience occured spends a lot of effort on setting expectations high. Outside the building is a huge banner identifying the hospital as one of the top teaching hospitals in the United States. They send out surveys to collect customer feedback. Between the two of us, Alex and I have already received 3 of these surveys. From the questions, it is clear that all staff members are expected to ensure that patients are greeted and treated courteously and especially that patients not have to wait longer than 15 minutes for an appointment. Just last week, I completed the survey for my first visit with the sleep center which is in the same facility as the hospital where Alex had his surgery yesterday. I gave them high marks.

Today I was at that facility for two purposes: to visit Alex, of course, and for a follow-up appointment for myself at the sleep center. My yesterday probably had something to do with how I reacted at my appointment. I should be ashamed of myself. But I'm not.

I arrived for my appointment very early, because I wanted to see Alex first. Since I was early, I thought I should check in and then go up to see Alex. I mentioned this plan when I was called to the counter and the woman on the other side said that once I checked in, I would have to stay in the waiting area. So I didn't check in right away. I went to see Alex first.

I got back down to the sleep center and checked in 15 minutes ahead of my appointment and was told to sit down and wait. There is a sign right behind the check-in desk that says if you are still waiting 15 minutes after your appointment time, you should let the check-in desk staff know, just another piece of data to indicate how important it is that patients not be kept waiting.

I waited. I had my iPhone with me, so I kept myself busy checking Facebook. Time passed and before I realized it, it was 4:00 p.m., half an hour after my appointment. I went to the check-in desk and asked the same person who had checked me in if she could find out what the delay was.  She looked at me as though she had never seen me before. She asked me my name and then seemed surprised to see that I had already checked in. She said she would check. She came back and said I would be called soon.

When I sat down again, I realized that I was the only patient in the waiting room. Ten minutes later I was brought to one of the examination rooms. After filling out the same questionnaire I had had to fill out earlier today, I had to sit and wait some more. For twenty minutes, I sat and waited while I heard laughing and conversation from the office across the hall. People walked by saying goodbye to others.

By the time it was one hour after my appointment time, my experience had depleted my expectations several times over. But instead of following my self-defined, sure-fire steps for getting good customer service, I marched across the hall and blurted out that I needed someone to help me because I had now been waiting more than an hour. The four people in that office looked at one another, no one said anything to me, and they scattered out of the room.

The Physician Assistant came in about 5 minutes later, looking sheepish. He explained that when someone checks in, it is supposed to show up on the computer in the examination rooms. In my case, it didn't. Usually he checks the waiting room when the time for an appointment comes, but his 4:30 patient had arrived early, so he decided to take that patient in. By the time he learned that I was still waiting, he was in mid-appointment. He said with a little shrug that he couldn't see both of us at the same time. Duh!

But that wasn't all that hard to say. Why didn't anyone think to tell me that earlier instead of implying that they were each going to resolve the problem, not just pass me on to someone else.

The PA didn't exactly apologize, which is all I wanted by that point. The time for explanations for what had happened had long passed, although it was useful to get the explanation.

My final word on the matter is that I suspect the high customer service expectations are well-founded and justified. The fact that those in the sleep center handled a disappointed patient so poorly is likely evidence that they don't have to do it very often. At least that's what I see with my rose-colored glasses.