I’ve just returned from the University of Chicago Hospital Center for Advanced Medicine and I am still taking in what I experienced. I’ll preface what I am about to write by saying that the care received from our doctor was, and always has been, top-notch. Unfortunately, the people we had to go through in order to get to him could use some serious lessons in customer service!
First impressions are always an important factor in getting and retaining customers. Upon reaching the hospital for our kids’ appointments, we approached the check-in desk and were immediately ordered to step back away from the desk to a point behind a floor painted symbol about 4 feet away from the desk. This immediately reminded me of the Joliet prison scene near the beginning of the Blues Brothers in which Jake has to stay behind some floor tape while retrieving his personal belongings before being released from prison. This left a really bad taste in my mouth. I know a lot of African American men have been to prison, but I have not and I don’t like being treated that way! This is one of the reasons that I refuse to shop at the Ford City Mall, where customers are practically body searched upon entering and exiting the shops! A bad first impression will almost always drive customers away. Customers of the suburban Woodfield Mall would never stand for this kind of treatment. Well Black people don’t like bad customer treatment either!
As usual, even though we were on time for our appointment, we had to endure a long wait. During this time, the kids immediately went to play Sonic the Hedgehog on a game kiosk in the waiting area. I like video games, and kids do too, except when the controller is broken making the game unplayable. Why not just turn the d*mn thing off rather than frustrating child after child in a waiting area bereft of any other toys or books a young child could enjoy. Again, this is bad customer service! We I later told a nurse that the controller was broken making it impossible to play the game, she just denied it. It was worse than just broken, none of the jump buttons worked on the controller which meant that it was impossible for Sonic to clear any level! For Sonic, this must have been truly hellish, trapped in the same area of the same level, forever. For my kids, it was similarly frustrating. We ended up waiting about a half hour past our appointment time before seeing the doctor, which was plenty of time for other kids to approach the game and be frustrated by it. There was also a television tuned to Nickelodeon, but with the volume turned almost all the way down. What is the point of that? They might as well have just turned the thing off. This waiting area can only be described as pure hell for a child, the enticement of fun, but the reality of broken promises.
Again, our doctor was great, but the service at the University of Chicago Hospital totally sucks. Sucks is not a sophisticated expression, but I can find no other way to describe the service accurately. Needless to say, there weren’t any forms or a suggestion box where I could register my dissatisfaction, so I am writing this here and forwarding it to the appropriate hospital personnel. I know many people suffer bad service at the hospital, but it does not have to be this way. My wife has told me that the service at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Children’s Memorial Hospital is very good. I’ve also heard good things about the Catholic hospitals in general. So clearly, someone cares about customer service while the University of Chicago Hospital apparently does not.
