Jim Hinshaw
Contributing Writer
Improvement Professional, President & Sales
Had another article that I intended to share, but this is real life, and an example of what is going on today. First of all, I travel all the time. Spent last week in Alabama, coming home on Friday. My son Mike called, told me a horror story. He lives in Scottsdale near us, got a call Thursday nite from May, she was really having a hard time. A migraine had hit her hard, she was going to call 911, but could not get down the stairs to let them in.
So she called Mike, around midnight, he came over and stayed with her till morning. The opportunity was that he was moving into a new apartment on Friday, so he told me he had to meet movers, utilities, all sorts of folks. I told him to go ahead, I would step in. Got home, May was not able to get out of bed, the pain was so bad. So now we are stuck on the horns of a dilemma (been wanting to use that phrase for years, just never had the chance). She feels bad, but not able to move to get to the doctor’s office.
So I remember a show on TV, Royal Pains, about a doctor who came to the home to treat any number of problems. That show was specifically about treating rich people, but we live in Arizona where there is an abundance of people who are aged, or just feel so bad it is hard to get to the doctor. And no one wants to go to the ER, where you are surrounded by sick people and will spend thousands. OK, so there are times you need the ER, we have been there before when our son had a gall bladder attack, and when our grandson had an attack of appendicitis. But there are times when you just don’t feel like going.
So I looked on the internet, searched for doctor visits to home, found several in Phx area. Found Private Client Physician Services, founded by Dr. Devin Boothe. They showed the price for a home visit of one hour, extra for weekends, $15 trip charge was another extra. So we are not alone with trip charges. At this point May was feeling so bad, the money was not a factor. So I called. The good doctor got to our home in less than an hour. Gave my wife an injection, set up an IV, wrote out three prescriptions. Actually talked to us, found out we had our son living nearby, we found out she has two small children, it was excellent.
When I called, the person who answered the phone got my info, sent a set of forms to be filled out via email, gave me the doctor’s eta and sent an email with her photo on it! She called as she pulled into our complex, asking where to park. Turns out she is also in staff at a local hospital, works in the ER, so she sees a lot of tough cases in a week. She was actually happy to see my wife, glad to come to our home. And she did all this for less than many of my clients flat rate. Even waived the $15 trip charge! Had her bag, had a IV pole, everything needed.
How does this apply to us, many of you may be asking? If I were a doctor with a full office, staff, overhead and all, I would be concerned. Is this the future of medicine? I would call her back for the routine stuff, not a heart attack, but the things I go to my regular doctor for, like the cough that lingers, migraines, any number of things.
More importantly, is this a model for the heating and air conditioning industry? The times are changing. Darwin said: it is not the smartest of the species that survives, nor the strongest. It is the ones who are able to adapt to change that survive. So here are my questions.
Can someone book an appointment on your website? Or at least request an appointment. Do you make it easy to do business? Is your website mobile friendly, over 50{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of the people who read my newsletter do it on their mobile device. Can they fill out forms ahead of time, request time and day that meets their busy schedule? Do you send over an email with the photo of the tech before they arrive? Northern Colorado Air in Fort Collins is the company that does my maintenance work in Windsor, they have a website that rocks! They have a photo of the founder, Griff Griffin who proudly says “you have my personal guarantee of 100{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} satisfaction in our work”. Below that are videos of service techs and installers doing what they do. Then a box that says: schedule an appointment, click here! Which we use. Then there is a link to FaceBook as well as links to a testimonial page.
These times require us to do business differently, more electronically than ever. Make sure you are making it easy. Thanks for listening, we’ll talk later. And May is doing much better, thanks for asking!