Customer Service 101

I thought everyone knew the basic rule of customer service: under-promise and then over-deliver. No matter what your business, this simple rule seems to guarantee happy, satisfied customers. Example? Pizza delivery guys tell you it’ll take 30 minutes to deliver your pizza when they know quite well they can get it to you in 22. But aren’t you delighted when the doorbell rings “early”??

Well, we’ve found the one person who doesn’t realize the importance of this: Zach’s ortho doctor. Fifteen days ago, as we sat in the hospital, exhausted and helpless, we felt pretty overwhelmed as it began to sink in exactly what type of cast Zach would have, and all the limitations and challenges that would cause. So when the doctor explained how quickly small kids heal, specifically that the rule of thumb for the length of time the cast remains on is one week for every year of life, plus one week, we were quite pleasantly surprised. 3 and a half to 4 weeks?? That’s not bad – we can do that!

I’m sure you can see where this is going… nowhere good. I’ll get to the punch line: the cast will be on for another 3 weeks. And no, not because it isn't healing well - the bone is healing just as it should be. When we went in to get Zach x-rayed again today, the doctor casually said – so the rule is a week for every year plus 2-3 weeks. I suspect we were staring at him blankly, trying to make the words coming out of his mouth match the words he had said over and over in the hospital. Then he said something I couldn’t have said better myself, and I quote: “Did I say a week for every year plus 1 week? I shouldn’t have said that. I’m an idiot.” Uh… yeah.

So, while we originally were targeting somewhere between 10/5 and 10/8 to have the cast removed, the removal is scheduled for 10/15. I have decided to give myself the rest of the day to be crabby and bitter about it, and then I’ll do what I have to do – get over it and focus on making the next three weeks as painless as possible for all of us. (I don’t mean to make this sound like I’m single-handedly taking care of Zach… Scott is more than an equal partner in this. But while I know he’s as irritated as I am, I don’t like to presume that I can speak for him. Well, at least not all the time.)

Ahhh… on a happier note, I’ll include some pictures from our outing to the zoo yesterday with our friends Laura, Clark, and David. I have the laugh at the one of Zach in the stroller – what an odd look on his face! You’ve all seen what expression he makes when you ask him to smile; well, this is what you get when you ask him to laugh! I also had to include one of Koskie taking advantage of one of the many pillows we have laying around to make Zach comfortable; doesn’t he look cozy?