my wife had oral surgery yesterday. wisdom teeth! the woman behind the receptionist desk offered up a few things to “keep in mind” prior to meeting the surgeon. in particular, he may want to do two teeth today and two on a second visit. not what my wife expected to hear. we can take the receptionist’s words as polite conversation, or perhaps a bit of “i wanna do my job well” — or we can assume that she is softening the ground for something else. dig a little deeper and you may find out that the surgeon is only there two days a week. if you’re sitting in the lobby at 10:30 for a 10:00 appointment, then you already know he is behind. two visits generates more income for him and helps him get back on track for the day. so, why is the receptionist in on this play?
in sales — and a visit to a doctor involves a good amount of salesmanship — you can’t afford for the good cop to be bad cop. in the case of the surgeon, he is fixing your problem. he needs to be the good cop. he doesn’t also want to be the bearer of bad news or the reason for further inconvenience. especially where a patient is surprised or blind-sided. sure, he can mask the inconvenience in something procedural or “smart medecine” — but it’s always better to have someone else begin the dirty work, get the ball rolling…soften the ground. the receptionist, in part, plays the bad cop. she prepares the possibility of undesirable things before the surgeon does. she even waits or you to nod your head. she makes you fill out paperwork. she tells you to sit down. you almost feel as though she is the one making you wait (when that is the surgeon’s or office manager’s shortcoming, of course). at the end of the appointment, she takes your money. she makes you take off work for additional appointments.
if the receptionist wasn’t there to soften the ground when you first walked in the door, including making you wait to ponder anything she’s prepped, then you would hear bad things from people you want to say only good things. your first reaction would be huh, need to think about it, insert a few questions — very messy for the surgeon and the practice in general. he wants you to come in, perhaps be surprised that the thing the receptionist offered will not be the case after all, that you will be out of there early, and that insurance is covering everything! however, if he needs to deliver medium to awful news, at least you’ve heard some or all of it prior to his saying it. you had thirty of more minutes to think about while you waited to see him. the gulp will go down a lot easier now. you’ll take the desired action where it may have been a deal breaker before, and you’ll make the decision more easily on the fly.
ok doc, you do what you feel is best for me.
