Demand accountability on appointments

If we could harness the “frustration energy” expended in medical waiting rooms, kitchens and living rooms, waiting for skilled tradespeople or cable or satellite installers, I am convinced many of our power bills would fall like a rock.

Every once in a while the response I get to a column comes as a bit of a shock. My June 7 article about clients who miss or arrive late to appointments prompted readers to share a bit of that energy with me. I did hear from a fair share of service providers who applauded me for pointing out that when you disregard your responsibility in that scheduled meeting, it costs the provider. But the vast majority of responses came from the near-angry customers.

Consider time and how our perception of it has changed in the past 10 years:

•We expect Google searches to respond immediately.

•A Web page that takes more than four seconds to load raises our blood pressure.

•If we e-mail someone in business, we expect a response quickly, akin to a phone call.

Varghese Thomas, vice president of Savvis, said in a New York Times Magazine article: “The time to communicate between servers is down to a millionth of a second. … A 100-millisecond delay reduces Amazon’s sales by 1 percent.” Simply amazing. But translate that to sitting in the lobby at the doctor’s office, and it is no wonder people are frustrated.

Why is it we will sit and wait 30 to 90 minutes past our appointment time and not say anything when we finally see the electrician or the doctor?

•We fear that the care or service will be hurt if we complain.

•At times we are so relieved to have the attention or services, we simply ignore the inconvenience.

•We know emergencies happen, and we make all sorts of excuses for the provider and keep silent.

A number of years ago I brought up the repeated extended wait time to my doctor. It was not a once-in-a-while thing; it happened every time I saw him. He was shocked and had no idea that the appointments were that backed up. Nobody ever challenged him, so he was in the dark. He called me several weeks later and thanked me for being brave and kind enough to gently raise my concern. He discovered that his scheduler could simply not say no and just kept booking people. He apologized and admitted he should have seen it sooner. We have all been there.

Failure to honor the value of time on both sides of a transaction or service is a great way to ruin a relationship. But if as a provider you allow someone to miss appointments over and over again, and do not hold them accountable, you deserve that kind of treatment. The other side of the story is the patient or customer who waits and waits and does not bring up the lack of respect to the provider. As I said in my last column, spelling out clear expectations is the best way to begin a relationship.

To start off on the right foot:

•When scheduling, ask about how well the office or service holds to a timeline.

•Call ahead and see if the provider is running on time.

•When you check in, ask what the wait time should be. If it is too long, reschedule or change providers.

•Ask that a home repair provider call you 30 minutes before they arrive. If they refuse, call another provider.

However, if you are habitually late or miss appointments, you have absolutely no standing to ask any of these questions. Kind, open and accountable communication can solve almost everything.