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In The Morning?

Our office hours are pretty normal for a doctor's office. 8:30 am until 4:45 pm Monday through Friday. Normal working hours. Yet for some reason, when I make appointments for people, they don't understand that. And I'm sure if I gave them the benefit of the doubt they wouldn't have asked had they just took a second to think before words came out of their mouth.
Example:
Me: Can you come on (whatever day) at 8:30?
Them: In the morning?
Me: Yes. **Thinks to self, "no, 8:30 at night, we'll still be here."
Them: Yeah, that works.

I mean, they really don't think I would ever schedule something after normal working hours? Better yet, I've had people ask me that when I've given them an option of 10:00. In the morning? No, 10:00 PM, I want you to pull your kid out of bed and drive down to our office for a check-up. I can't think of a time right now but I'm sure it's also happened that I try to schedule them for 3:00 and they really have to ask, "in the afternoon?" Would you really come in at 3 am?!

So, the next time you schedule an appointment, think before you speak. Should you really be asking if that appointment time is AM or PM? Probably not.

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