I love Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com). Like most people, I’ve had a series of “learning to see” moments in my life. Some of them were traumatic and some so gradual they went unnoticed. None were what I’d call pleasant. Except for Seth. (Could also be that this particular “learning to see” event wasn’t volcanic so much as just eye-opening.) But besides just eye-opening however, Seth’s mix of curiosity and common sense has given me skills for critiquing and communicating about procedures and policies that used to frustrate and sometimes enrage. Okay, I still get mad, but now I talk about it.

Take a recent visit to the doctor’s office. It’s just routine, nothing special, but I did talk to the receptionist twice in a week because the doctor had to reschedule.

So I leave work and drive to the office. It’s snowing like mad. I park and stumble in. Behold! The office is empty! What’s going on? I’ve been coming to this place for ten years…where did it go?

Apparently, it moved two weeks ago. “They sent out a postcard,” a nurse in the hall informs me, “but not everyone got it.” She hands me a murky Xerox of their new location.

Okay, I’m not in sales, but I do work for a business that requires and relies on sales; on making the customer happy; of anticipating needs. What business doesn’t, you may ask? Doctors, that’s what.

What other business would neglect to tell you on the phone – twice – that they’d recently moved? What other business, for that matter, would routinely keep you waiting 40 minutes (at least) for your appointment? What other business would say, “Oh, that’s okay,” when I informed them I was late because I didn’t know they’d moved. That’s okay? You mean it’s my fault and you’re telling me “that’s okay?”

Now, if this were a normal business blowing me off, say a printer or car repair, I’d walk away. And while my initial response to walking away from my doctor is trepidation, that’s mostly because of laziness: I’d have to find another. But think about it, could she, the new one, be any more anonymous than the one I have? I doubt it. Even after ten years, she doesn’t know a single thing about me apart from the stuff on my chart. Is it hard to find a new doctor? No, not really. Certainly not any harder than finding a new printer or car repair shop.

And the point of this harangue? I suppose it’s to shout out from the rooftops, I’m sick and tired of arrogant doctors and I’m not going to take it any longer. Doctors are a business after all, and as a client, I’ve got choices.

It just occurs to me that there’s another business that systematically treats its clients like they have no choice: public schools.