Several weeks back, I knocked a small piece of my tooth out after slightly burning a hamburger. Today, I called a local dental clinic to see when I could set an appointment.
I just got off the phone. I was redirected to the “answering service” for – and I may get this name wrong – “Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Clinics”. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi.
Person on phone: Hi.
Me: My name is Morgan Wick.
Person on phone: And what clinic are you calling?
Me: (name of clinic)
Person on phone: That clinic does not have Friday hours.
Conversation wraps up and concludes.
Now, about a week ago I called this clinic during business hours and was patched through to an automated system. Because I didn’t want to set an appointment until I had answers to some questions, I didn’t do anything at that time.
I know these people would get swamped, and I know that no one would have the answers to these questions better than the people who work at the specific clinic. But if you have a centralized “answering service” shouldn’t you use it for more than just telling people they tried to call a place that’s closed? Shouldn’t I be able to get some questions answered anyway (not that I tried)? Why can’t the same automated service that runs the clinic’s own system also tell me I can’t call right now? And WHY THE HELL don’t the people at the “answering service” have some system to tell them what number I was calling so they don’t have to ask me what clinic I was calling?