Service Encounter

In this paper, I will be giving a report on my best service experience and any recommendations that could have made my encounter better from one of ten service encounters that I conducted throughout the semester. I will also be including my worst service encounter experience from one of those ten service encounter forms mentioned a moment ago as well as any recommendations that could have made the encounter one of my best.

On May 7, 2004 I had to take my son, Darian, to see an allergy and asthma specialist in Lexington, Kentucky. A few days prior to the appointment someone from the office contacted me and went over a few things about his upcoming appointment. The lady I spoke to on the phone was very nice and answered my questions adequately. When we arrived at Allergy & Asthma Physicians of Central Kentucky, everyone in the front office spoke and smiled.

The office is set up so that it is extremely organized. They have two windows, one for patients who need to register for their appointment and one for patients who need to register for their allergy injections. By having the two windows it allows for speedy service. I handed the receptionist all the paperwork, which they had mailed to me a few weeks prior to the appointment, and she said that he would be called back in just a few minutes. Well, when anyone hears that at a doctor's office they can expect to be sitting in the waiting hour for a while. Well, that is not the case at this office. When they say it will be a few minutes they mean it.

Darian was called back to a room within five to ten minutes. The nurse that took him back to the room was very nice and she was communicating with him to ease his mind a little bit. When we walked into this room it was equipped with toys, a television/VCR combo and plenty of movies for him to watch. That was very impressive to me since we were going to be there for a few hours while he underwent asthma and allergy testing. So in witnessing the friendly atmosphere and how they really care about the kids and keeping them occupied made this visit not so bad for my son as well as myself. The nurse told me that Dr. Kadambi would be in shortly. Again, I am thinking it will be a while. Within a matter of ten minutes he came into my son's room. He shook my son's hand as he introduced himself and then he sat down. He asked my son questions, such as what he likes to do and things of that nature. He was really interested in my son other than his illnesses. I was sitting there in the chair in complete awe. He then talked to me a little bit about what I did for a living and so on. He really establishes a relationship with his patients and the parents. By him being so personal with the patient and parents it allows them to feel more comfortable and relaxed, which in turn causes a much higher level of satisfaction. He then went into detail about what testing would be done on Darian that day and how long each would take. Once the testing was completed he came back into the room and told me what Darian was allergic to and what medicines he would start him on. He also said he wanted to do further testing but would wait for a couple of weeks that way it would be easier on Darian.

There are not too many recommendations I have to make this service encounter any better. One of the recommendations that I have is that the testing rooms are much too small. Another recommendation I have is that when a nurse does the testing she should know how to also read the test. During Darian's testing the nurse that administered it did not have a clue as to when the "bubble" on his back should be considered a reaction or not so she had to go and get another nurse to come in. I understand that she was new, however, we already had to be there all afternoon and had she known how to read the testing that would have saved another fifteen to twenty minutes of waiting. (Service Encounter Form. Allergy & Asthma Physicians of Central Kentucky)

For my worst service encounter experience it was a tie between two encounters. The first one of these occurred on September 20, 2004 with Geneva Messer, who owned the house I was renting. The second one occurred with a transportation service.

I had telephoned her numerous times throughout the week to report that the heat was not working properly in the house and it was getting cold at night during this time. After a week I was finally able to talk to her and she did not seem concerned at all and she said her brother worked on heat/air units and she would call him and get back to me. Two days went by and I had heard nothing so I called her again and she said that she had spoken to her brother and it would be a week before he could come look at. I then asked her what I was supposed to do in the meantime as I had my son and my brother, who has Spina Bifida, who had to have some heat. Her response was simply that she did not know. In my mind, I was thinking, okay I pay you four hundred dollars a month in rent for a house with no heat. I was getting furious at this point and told her that if I had to go stay in a hotel I was deducting the expenses of the hotel, including the cost of food, from next month's rent. She had nothing to say to that comment I had made to her. I then asked if she could call anyone else and she said no that her brother did not charge her anything. Again, the fact that I pay her rent monthly came into my thoughts. She was in no way concerned with the welfare of my family, yet the rent from the house was probably going toward taking care of her family. She did not seem to care about my feelings on this situation at all. Since she did not care about my needs I have since moved into a new place. The odd thing about this whole situation was that when I went to look at the house she had stated that she wanted someone to rent the house that would take care of it. I was fixing it up slowly, such as painting when I had time and so forth. I kept the yard mowed and trimmed. Since she did not take care of my needs I went elsewhere so she lost a good tenant (customer). (Service Encounter Form. Geneva Messer, landlord)

Geneva could have handled this situation much better than