Sorry for the inconvenience

Inconvenient

I’ve been in IT now for more than 30 years and during that time customer service has always been one of my hallmarks. As the old adage goes, if we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will, right?

So it was with interest that I read issue #19 of Inside Link, the newsletter of an author and agency owner I know on line, Jonathan Jernigan. Click on his name to go to his site, he’s a pretty insightful guy, and really sharp. He knows his trade very well. He writes about a recent experience at an urgent care that he visited…

I arrived shortly after they opened and it was dead quiet.

Of course I wrote down all my symptoms on the check in paper, told them to the front desk staff, and then was immediately asked again what the problem was by the doctor right as I was seen.

During this time, the doctor was rushing from the second he got in the room. It was like he had somewhere else to be and wasn’t really paying attention, yet there was one other person in the waiting room after me. Just a single person in a facility that could easily see 4-6 patients at once. 

All in all, the doctor spoke to me for probably 4 minutes or less. I couldn’t even think of my questions before he was rushing out the door. 

Did I do something to inconvenience him? Did I not pay enough upfront for him to feel I was worth his time? 

I left there with medication that basically did nothing and a lingering resentment for that interaction. In fact, I will (obviously) never go back there and it meant I had to go to someone else to get a proper medication. 

These types of interactions always make me think about my own business and our line of work. 

Clients come to us and pay a lot for our expertise. What are we doing to ensure they don’t feel like a burden or like they aren’t getting rushed out the door? 

I think it’s the little things. I would’ve been fine if the interaction with the doctor was brief, but he was slower and I had a chance to ask all I wanted to without him opening the door on me. 

Same goes for our clients. Taking even just a few extra few minutes on that email or call is a subtle sign we care about them and aren’t just there to collect a check.

I don’t say it as concisely or eloquently as Jonathan does, but when did we get away from paying attention to our customers and not meeting their needs in a way that communicates that we really are earnestly looking out for them, that we’re on their side, we’re in their corner, we want them to succeed and for their businesses to flourish! That’s why they partner with us!

The other old adage that comes to mind when I read things like this is, everybody has a customer!

I’m very customer centric in my 9:00 to 5:00 job and I work hard to make sure my customers know how important they are to me, and how grateful I am to have them to take care of. I have a mortgage and four cats at home, after all!

There are so many different spokes to this topic. I may very well have to use this for the catalyst of more posts, but I’ll leave it there for now.

To Jonathan, thanks for the time you take with all of the Inside Link newsletters and the thoughts they provoke!


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