ZocDoc Real World Review 2: Dentist Bad, ZocDoc Support Good

Last summer I wrote a real world review of the NY-based appointment planning and physician review service ZocDoc. The first usage went very well and I was looking forward to testing out the service with a dentist. Let’s just say the experience was the complete opposite but the story has a positive ending.

Early this morning I headed down to the Financial District are of Manhattan to meet my new dentist. I found him on ZocDoc and while he had no reviews, he had a few openings and accepted my insurance. I entered the dentist office 10 minutes before my appointment to fill out the silly paperwork. I sat and waited 25 minutes, finally get called, sit down in the chair and then learned that they had no one to perform the services I specifically requested on the ZocDoc site. Not one apology except to tell me that if I was willing to sit out in the waiting room for "hours", maybe they could fit me in. I lost three hours when I could have been writing startup reviews! I told the office manager that their first review on ZocDoc wouldn’t be pretty.

So you are wondering why in the heck I am telling you about my dentist appointment. Here’s why…

I arrived back home and within minutes the phone rang. Karsten from ZocDoc called me to apologize for what happened this morning. I told him that it wasn’t ZocDoc’s fault. We spoke for about ten minutes and he offered me an Amazon gift card for the trouble. I couldn’t take the card as it wasn’t their fault but very much appreciated the offer. I hung up the phone and smiled – not a form email but a personal call to tell me they were sorry for what happened. Remember that ZocDoc is basically a marketplace service.

Have you planned out what your support strategy will look like? Do you have processes in place to monitor and report on your support inquiries? It does not mean you need to go out and buy an expensive package but having a way to classify and categorize your support inquiries will give you an eye into the business.

Isn’t it amazing that so many of us running web service startups are willing to help our customers and potential customers at any time of the day or night but those in the real world can get away with horrible service? It’s almost where if we don’t reply to an email, Facebook message, Tweet, etc. in minutes at any hour of the day or night, people wonder.

Last week I commented on another blog that what we write is what the new crop of developers think about and build. I don’t think enough bloggers think about this when they write. And I believe that it’s services like ZocDoc that developers should be looking at for inspiration in process and details (concept will be different) rather than wondering how to build the next Fart app or Twitdock.