My wife and I both had eye appointments scheduled here and fully planned on going. We had already gotten ready, were out for the day, and had basically planned our day around these appointments. Then I received a phone call and was left a voicemail that was about 45 seconds long with literally nothing being said. Shortly after that, my wife also received a call, but hers was just a missed call with no voicemail. At that point we were actually concerned that maybe something had happened with our appointments and they were calling to cancel or reschedule them. Since we had arranged our day around being there, we called back to find out what was going on. When they answered, there wasn’t even a hello or greeting. We were immediately put on hold. When we finally spoke with someone, the whole interaction felt very unprofessional. The person wasn’t friendly and didn’t have the kind of professional or reassuring tone you would expect from a medical or eye care office. We honestly felt like we were annoying them just by calling. Then we were told that my wife had canceled her appointment. She was literally sitting right next to me and had absolutely not canceled anything. When I explained that, there seemed to be even more confusion about what was going on. Eventually we confirmed that both appointments were still scheduled and ended the call. Afterward, my wife and I talked about it and decided not to go. First impressions matter anywhere, but I think they matter even more in healthcare. Some people might look at an eye appointment as something minor or routine, but I don’t. Eye health is important. You are trusting someone to examine your eyes and potentially catch a problem that could seriously affect your vision if it went unnoticed. Because of that, I want to feel like I’m being seen in a professional, organized environment where I have confidence in the people taking care of me. Unfortunately, this interaction gave us the complete opposite feeling. If there was already this much confusion and lack of professionalism before we had even walked through the door, neither of us felt comfortable trusting the office with our eye care. It’s unfortunate because our previous eye doctor is farther away now and doesn’t have the appointment availability they used to, so we were genuinely looking for a new place where we could become regular patients. We weren’t just shopping around or looking for something to complain about. We were ready to come in. That one interaction ended up costing this office two potential new patients. Maybe it was an off day, but when it comes to healthcare, that first interaction can say a lot about how comfortable someone feels putting their health in your hands. In our case, it was enough for us to decide to look somewhere else.
