lucky enough

“The doctor will be with you in just a second.”

25 minutes is the new second. I timed it.

(what other professions allow this?)

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Last night, The Spaniard and I went to one of our favorite restaurants. Reservations were for 7:40 and we were seated after 7:55.

I love the place.

But when I have a reservation, I find a quarter of an hour wait to be inconsiderate. It starts everything off wrong (so the food better be fantastic… and in this case, it is).

Seth Godin recently blogged about the importance of “the last interaction” of the customer experience (very much a 212 message) but I don’t think it’s a beginning or end thing. I think it’s an all the way through thing.

Start strong. Work strong. Finish strong. Repeat.

If we’re lucky enough to have people talk/engage/buy/hire us then we should obsess over their experience… the whole experience... making it better and then better again. Very tough to do consistently but that’s the goal.

If we take any of it for granted, it makes it much easier for someone else to teach us a lesson… the hard way.

(this includes the work we do for our colleagues)

Comments

[richard brisson]

15 minutes is inconsiderate? what do you suggest? that the server tells the guests that parker and the spaniard have a reservation and we need this table? hey parker and the spaniard you have to leave now cause we have a reservation for this table in 10 minutes. as for the doctor. i would like to think that if i have questions he will answer them and not blow me off. i would like to think that if i am hospitalized and he gets a call from the nurse about some problem i'm having that he'd take the call. i'd like to think that if i had cancer and this was the visit he was telling me that it would not be: i'm sorry to tell you--you've cancer. gotta go. got parker and the spaniard in the other room and their appointment is for now, can't keep them waiting.....i'm a pharmacist and when you come in and hand me a prescription and you ask how long. i'll tell you 10 to 15 minutes. then i try to put it thru the computer and it comes up with an drug allergy (you told us you were allergic to codeine--well, you weren't really it gave you a tummy ache -- that's a side effect not an allergy). so we have to check. then we transmit it to your insurance company and the claim is denied cause you had a similar prescription filled a few days ago at another pharmacy and they won't pay for this one. so then we call the insurance company and go thru a lovely series of prompts only to be told that they are extremely busy and the wait is 10 minutes so could you please call back later or please hold, and hold, and hold. we finally get thru and they give us an override code. so we thank them then enter the override code in the computer and transmit the claim again. and it's rejected again....this time for a different reason. it's a newer, much more expensive pain killer and we need to contact the doctor to request a prior approval because the pain inexpensive pain med you got a couple of days ago didn't work. and you wonder why it's taking so damned long, cause i'm only pouring pills from 1 bottle to the other. and you have better things to do than wait around. well guess what? the world doesn't revolve around you (thank you lord) and you're not waiting for a burger and fries at mcdonald's. hey have a good day......