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> I'm not sure where you live but a badly built online scheduler would be a huge improvement over calling my doctor's office. Fair point. I'm lucky to live in

> I'm not sure where you live but a badly built online scheduler would be a huge improvement over calling my doctor's office. Fair point. I'm lucky to live in a place where I face no such issues. My experiences are not broadly applicable. Broadly speaking though, digital schedulers offer no flexibility and offer the wrong choices. Can be a doctor. Or an optician. Hairdressers. A human can squeeze you in somewhere. Maybe reshuffle something. The person on the phone can book an appointment with the right person. A scheduler gives me hard time slots and sometimes makes me choose between a series of specialists, none of whom I know. Computer says no. A human says maybe. > Yelp/Google/apple reviews serve as a great filtering device I see them as shit/not shit filters at best. And that I can tell by checking the menu and peering inside. Clueless tourists telling me that X serves _authentic_ {local dish} tells you nothing. It's the blind leading the blind. And let's not even get in to gamed reviews.

randomdata 5y ago
> Computer says no. A human says maybe. A human says no, but with some social engineering you can often convince it to change its mind. A computer also says no, but with some technical engineering you can often convince it to change its mind.
- gherkinnn 5y ago
  Saying "please" over the phone is easier than gaining access to their database. In addition, a human might know that a regular client only uses half of the time slot and that your case is quick one. Patch it up and go. And many places have a buffer for important cases. A human might place you there. Or maybe, by pure coincidence, the person you seek an appointment with feels like working a little longer and will take you on outside of the normal schedule. It's fascinating how flexible human interactions are, when you're spending a lot of time with rigid computers. A human can also just say no because they don't like your name. Goes both ways.

randomdata 5y ago

> Computer says no. A human says maybe. A human says no, but with some social engineering you can often convince it to change its mind. A computer also says no, but with some technical engineering you can often convince it to change its mind.

gherkinnn 5y ago
Saying "please" over the phone is easier than gaining access to their database. In addition, a human might know that a regular client only uses half of the time slot and that your case is quick one. Patch it up and go. And many places have a buffer for important cases. A human might place you there. Or maybe, by pure coincidence, the person you seek an appointment with feels like working a little longer and will take you on outside of the normal schedule. It's fascinating how flexible human interactions are, when you're spending a lot of time with rigid computers. A human can also just say no because they don't like your name. Goes both ways.