At about the thirty minute mark of my wife’s nearly two-and-a-half hours wait for a doctor this morning I came to the conclusion that there must be a better way to do doctor’s appointments. Being stuck in a crowded waiting room – usually full of sick people – is never any fun. Being stuck with a bored child is a clear and present danger banned under the Geneva Convention and the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights. It really is a ‘hurry up and wait’ situation as you’re required to be on call and remain in the immediate vicinity. Clearly this is a waste of everyone’s time, so what’s to be done?

Most waiting rooms have a range of ways to relieve the boredom. From ancient magazines to a token scattering of broken toys to the television stuck on the one channel. However the biggest problem is not the wait itself but the lack of feedback.

Consider a system where you’re told upon arriving for your appointment that the doctor is running behind schedule and that you’ll be SMSed or IMed when you need to return to the waiting room. Especially if you’re told the earliest return is likely to be in 2 hours. What would you do? Now, you could choose to stay in the waiting room anyway, but I bet most people wouldn’t.

Or how about a digital screen or board showing either the names in the queue or, if that’s too much of an invasion of privacy, a number that you’re assigned upon arriving for your appointment. At least you’d know that if there are five people before you in the queue it’s alright to dash off to the toilet.

Neither of these systems would be hard to implement. The medical staff already scan your documents and digitise the queue when you arrive, so why not keep the patients informed by making that data available? Even allowing for prolonged examinations and emergencies a 15-30 minute wait is much better than being on call for 150 minutes or more.

Medical practices are foremost a business, so it’s very wise for them to offer good customer service. Even in public hospitals it’s good practice to consider the comfort of of the patients waiting to be seen by the medical staff. Providing up-to-date information and feedback is a straightforward way to ease what is already for most a stressful situation.

This really is a great video demonstrating an impressive use of Second Life (or any other virtual world for that matter) for enhanced customer service. It does leave me wondering, however, whether anyone would choose to apply for mortgage and investment services in Second Life and just how secure the system is.

I also have to wonder about the choice of phrase ‘enhanced her satisfaction levels further by delivering other personalised services‘. In Second Life that really does take on a whole new meaning. That’s something that businesses need to be aware of when delivering their spiel.

I’ve been inspired by Bret Treasure’s post about Cafe Marketing with No Budget to have a look around my local cafes and eateries to see how they draw the crowds. I live amongst the cafe social set so there’s quite a choice. One of the things that struck me was that some of the places still had a corkage charge for BYO drinks. The question is why?

If you’re not familiar with the term, corkage, it is a small fee that eateries charge their customers when they choose to bring their own drinks rather than buy from the eatery’s selection. Usually it applies only to alcoholic beverages, but I have also seen it apply to non-alcoholic ones as well. The charge is supposed to encourage customers to choose from the house selection which is fine if you have a decent cellar. However, most cafes and restaurants have a meagre range of beverages to choose from and I’ve even seen one BYO restaurant attempt to impose the fee upon its patrons.

The restaurant and cafe trade are cut-throat businesses. Most operate on wafer-thin margins, so why would you choose to antagonise potential customers (or return patronage) by charging them additional fees? Instead of gouging them for every last penny that you can, why not adapt your range of beverages to something that your customers want to drink (you know instead of that old dishwater you picked up in bulk from your uncle)? Or better, why not realise that a cafe is never going to stock an adequate range, and encourage customers to bring their own at no charge. You can even do what the Globe has done and feature it in your marketing.