Photo Credit: Flickr: edenpictures
We’ve been in an epic battle against some sort of unknown illness that has afflicted my 2 year-old son the past four weeks. It’s been worrisome, frustrating and downright baffling at times.
This isn’t intended to be a political post on the state of health care in the United States, instead an observation on how our relationships with most of our doctors have changed.
Through this process, we’ve had our doctor – who I have known for over 30 years – tell us to call in if certain things happened. Seemed easy enough. He wanted to hear the status of his patient. He instructed us to call if our toddler had changes in how he acted, etc.
When we called after our son got sick again, we were routed through a maze of maddening menus and automated phone labrynths. It was impossible to talk to a human at all. When you finally (after 13 minutes, and I am not exaggerating!) got to a answering machine with the doctor’s nurse, you left a message and then more waiting. The nurse takes another 4-6 hours to get back to you. Meanwhile your child is sick (not life-threatening mind you) and you can’t reach your doctor.
Why is it this way? If doctors are this busy, then we need to get back to smaller, more personal practices. What am I missing here?
The doctor’s answering service also no longer exists. Now, when you call after hours, our pediatrician sends you to a triage nurses line at the local childrens hospital. Again, you’re something like 12 degrees of separation from the doctor who knows your kids best.
I don’t know what the solution is to this – perhaps its moving to a po-dunk town where there is only one doctor and a few kids. But if you think of doctors offices as a business – which they are – the customer service is awful. It’s impossible to get a human at a time of need and when you do talk to one, they’d rather ride a razor blade into a pool of salt water than actually help you.
Of course we’re emotional since our little guy is under the weather. But the common courtesy you used to get from your local pediatrician no longer exists and perhaps its time to shop around. I’d hate to end a 30 year relationship with my doctor but the service level has become deplorable.
Perhaps most of you don’t think of your doctor’s office as a business where customer service should be a priority. I do and I hope doctors around the country start taking notice that their customers – and their sick kids – are not happy with the current state.
Follow Scott on Twitter @prgully or email him at scott@everyotherthursday.com. His personal blog, where he writes about public relations and social media, is www.scottgulbransen.com. Just don’t bitch to him because he has a very strong pimp hand.
As the Director of Social Media at tax giant H&R Block, Scott Gulbransen recently returned to the tax business after previously spending 1o years at rival Intuit working on the TurboTax & Quicken brands. He brings 16 years as a marketing communications professional, and 11 tax seasons, with him to H&R Block and was responsible for the launch of many key social initiatives at Intuit before leaving in 2010. A strategic thinker and business problem solver, Gulbransen has worked for some of the world’s top brands including TurboTax, Sony Online Entertainment, and Applebee’s.
In 2010, Gulbransen became the first Director of Social Media & Digital Content for Applebee’s, creating the first-ever social media strategy for the world’s largest casual dining chain. While at Applebee’s, Gulbransen lead a small but nimble team responsible for creating a robust and far-reaching social engagement channel for Applebee’s and its franchise community.
In addition to his professional accomplishments at the corporate level, Gulbransen is also a prolific blogger recently named as one of the Top 50 Daddy Bloggers in the US by Cision. Gulbransen was ranked #21.
As a member of the TurboTax communications and social media team for 10 years, Scott helped the TurboTax team launch and sustain the brand’s social media platform. He also drove and was responsible for the launch of TurboTax’s successful content strategy, including the launch of the TurboTax Blog. Recently, he launched one of the most significant social media campaigns in the brand’s history with the @TeamTurboTax Twitter project.
Gulbransen was instrumental in reinvigorating the Quicken brand almost entirely through the use of social media and, particularly, Twitter. By engaging with customers and influencers who talk about personal finance on Twitter, he and his team helped Quicken Online grow from just 200,000 users in October 2008 to over 1.4 Million in just 10 months. This led to a more focused look at the personal finance space for Intuit and, ultimately, the acquisition of Mint.com.
A former print journalist, who, after realizing his paychecks from the newspaper industry weren’t going to get much bigger, turned to the Dark Side – public relations. After working in both college athletics and inside mid-size agencies, he joined Intuit in 2000 and Applebee’s in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and is the married father of five kids.
Despite his busy personal and professional life, Scott is a digital native who never strays far from social networking. To hassle Scott, or to tell him how great you think he is (or not!), email him at scott@scottgulbransen.com, add him to your Circles on Google+, or ping him on Twitter at @sdgully. Scott also is an editor and writer for Technorati.com.
