Have You Ever Wondered

By: John Hill

 

I often wonder what people do when they are waiting for a response from a vendor on the computer or phone. One thing is most of the service is automated. They ask you to review the 10,000 responses to questions that were already asked and answered. But before that they want to make sure you are not a robot. To say it is frustrating would be an understatement. We all know the reason that many of the companies do this is to save money. But do they?

There is also another quirk that really gets to me. When you call a service company the first response is, “this conversation will be recorded to improve the quality of service.” Have you ever gotten a response from one of these companies regarding their quality of service improving? I know I have not.

The next thing that annoys me is when you finally give all the information that the credit card company require; the last four number of your social security number, your full name, address, and telephone number, then type in your credit card number and end with a pound sign. When you finally get through to an agent what do they ask you? The same things all over again! What is even more frustrating is after you have gone through all of this, they ask you to stay on the line and answer a survey regarding the support that you received!

I think that most doctor’s offices have systems that are very old or certainly not very efficient. To call up and want to change your appointment takes several minutes for that person just to find your appointment. That does not consider the time it took for you to get through to the office. Then, when you get to the office, and you sign in, it may take you another half hour of waiting before you are taken into an examining room. Then you may wait another 15 minutes for the Doctor to show up. I thought the HIPAA laws changed all this.

With all the technology to make us more efficient and effective, you cannot help but wonder what went wrong. Email certainly has not helped. With all the tools to make us more efficient what has happened? Have we just gotten lazy? As we move to a more online and virtual world during this pandemic and beyond, I hope that the need for actual human interaction and connection will remain an important component of communication.