The only problem was the way she said “sorry” didn’t sound as if she was sorry. There was no sincerity in her voice. It came across as if she didn’t give a continental that I would now waste at least half an hour of my time.

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And I’m not complaining that the doctor was running late. I know that, because of emergencies, appointment times sometimes can’t be kept.

But I would have liked her to ‘walk in my moccasins’ and understood the problems it caused for me and show me some sympathy. It wouldn’t have been difficult.

Oh, and by the way, I didn’t much like the way she placed the blamed squarely on the doctor when she told me of the delay. Instead of saying “Dr Smith says he’ll be about half an hour late” she could have said “Look I’m terribly sorry but we are running about 30 minutes behind schedule, I hope that doesn’t inconvenience you too much.” That would have been much more acceptable.

The moral of the story is that, when you are dealing with customers, clients and patients and have some bad news, please try and sound like you are sympathetic and understand the problems it may cause. Dammit, just sound like you mean it!

A little bit of sincerity goes a l—o—n—g way!