My dentist is stalking me, or rather her office is. They have texted, emailed, and left me two voicemails reminding me of my cleaning and asking me to confirm their confirmation.
This after the receptionist watched me enter it into my phone when we arranged it. I appreciate the reminder, but do we really need a conversation about this?
The dentist isn’t the only one. My hair salon texts and calls with escalating urgency until I personally respond, “Yes, yes, I’ll be there.” The acupuncture office harasses me until they get a return call. I actually believe they’d give away my appointment time if I didn’t confirm their confirmation. Even the medical clinic now sends a robo-call four days out and a personal call two days later.
A scheduled appointment isn’t just a notional concept to me. It goes in my calendar and figures into my weekly plan. If something unexpected comes up, be assured I’ll reschedule in a timely manner because I realize that service providers have clients on the waiting list. Reminder texts are nice, but I don’t have time to return all these calls, so stop badgering me. Trust me, I’ll appear at the appointed time.
Clearly there’s an epidemic of people failing to show for their appointments, but that’s a longer conversation for another time. Pardon me, I have to check the text and email that just came in. It’s my dentist’s office reminding me of my 11 AM appointment today.
