What a Visit to the Doctor Taught Me About Listening

I went to the doctor this week to get a piece of something (we’re still not sure what) taken out of my foot. Earlier this year I stepped on something at the beach and have intermittently been trying to get it out on my own. I finally caved and went to see the doctor to get it removed.

After the usual paperwork drill, I got taken back to go through the intake process, which included getting somewhere between five and seven x-rays of my foot. After the x-rays I was taken to one of those awful waiting rooms, and after a few minutes the doctor came in. He looked at my foot for about 10 seconds, knew exactly what needed to be done and, within about 30 minutes, the foreign object was removed. All good, right?

Not really.

• The doctor never looked at my x-rays because they weren’t necessary. And yet the x-rays were done and I was charged for them
• At no point in any of this process did anyone tell me how much the “surgery” was going to cost. Everyone knew that I’m more or less self-insured (such is the life of a small company these days thanks to our lousy health insurance system), but no one ever asked me if the amount it was going to cost was OK.

As a result, yes my foot is better but I have a generally negative opinion of the visit.

X-rays? Sure, even if they’re not required because “that’s what we do first.” Caring enough to understand my personal situation and perhaps let me know all of the alternatives for surgery? Nope. You’re at our office, and this is what we do here.

After absorbing the blow of an expensive hour at the doctors, I started thinking about how often we, as technology product companies, do the exact same thing with our customers. How often do we try to understand their situation specifically and adapt our solution to their needs vs. just handing them our product and saying “I’m sure this is what you need, just use it.” How often do we actually listen and then help our prospect or customer solve their problem?

Something to think about as you talk to your prospects and customers. What’s the thing in their foot that they’re trying to get out, and how can you help?