Rita Hartney

The centres ranged from a pathology clinic for blood tests, two medical centres to visit general practitioners, a podiatrist, a chiropractic centre and a neurology specialist.

In most instances, the customer service left something to be desired.

Where the doctors were friendly and caring the receptionists were rude, aggressive and treated their customers as if they were a nuisance for interrupting their day. Even though some customers were regular patients (including me) not one receptionist bothered to remember or use names. If the customer had a request that belonged to another section in the clinic, the receptionist would just say “I have nothing to do with that.”

Whatever happened to ‘seamless service?’

The same applied to most of the centres:  the receptionists were unhelpful on the telephone and there were no smiling faces when I entered the premises. The exceptions were the podiatrist and chiropractic centres, where the receptionists and practitioners alike were friendly, used my name and made me feel comfortable and welcome.

The neurology specialist was another matter, the specialist himself reminded me of the Cruise Director on the Titanic.

In summary, there is no reason for anyone to feel uncomfortable in a health centre: we are nervous enough about the symptoms or issues we are dealing with let alone be terrified to walk in because of grumpy dwarfs sitting behind the windows.

Thank goodness I have never heard of a hypnotherapy clinic being described in such a negative manner and perhaps it’s because professional hypnotherapists understand the workings and effectiveness of “rapport”.

For us and our staff, it’s “automatic” that we answer the telephone with a smiling voice; that we know and use the client’s name and that in all respects, nothing is too much trouble when it comes to meeting the needs of our clients.

When we are asked to describe what a hypnotherapist is or does, we tend to focus on explaining various clinical methods and outcomes but maybe one of the most important things of all is that we are positive caring people with a fire in our belly for service!