Services That Didn't Make Sense

I was invited to attend a briefing by a private hospital about a health program. Those who attended will be given a complimentary blood test voucher. I've always heard hospitals conducted talks or programs to inculcate awareness to the public about certain health issues. So I thought why not spend half a day for something that might be useful to me. The complimentary blood test voucher was not the carrot for me to attend. I can't even remember where I put it. Maybe the offer has expired by now.

They started with a 1-to-1 consultation session. I had a nice chat with my consultant. He tried to make a strong point about being aware of our health at all times so we can take the necessary measures if something goes wrong. I couldn't disagree with that. Until he introduces a confusing plan to achieve that awareness. It was a full medical check-up plan that you have to pay RM600++ per year for. I thought that was very reasonable don't you think so? In fact, very very affordable. Once he got me interested, I was introduced to the financial manager who will elaborate more about the plan.

That's when I discovered I have wasted half a day of my life listening to something that didn't make sense. Anyway, I could write about it one of these days. I'm blogging about it now just so I'll remember the event and the ridiculousness of the idea. This event took place few weeks back. It has always been at the back of my mind... I just didn't have the time to put it down in writing.

You see... I'm not a fan of paying for services not yet rendered. That would include long-term commitment to fitness centres, spas and salons, anything... By long term, I mean 1 year or more. This plan concocted by the private hospital is for 18 years or more. The plan A includes spouses which costs up to RM44,000. On top of the RM600++ paid yearly. There's a discount for the RM44,000 if we sign immediately. Only when I told them I'm not interested, they revealed plan B which is for individual and transferable which costs RM20,000++. I've forgotten the exact amount. There's a discount as well if we sign immediately.

To finance the amount, you can either use your credit card to pay in installments or take up a personal loan. They even have some panel financial institutions that would approve your application.

I know sales people. I've done sales training for sales people. They can't play up my emotions by bringing to my attention how those who knew about the cost of full medical check-up wouldn't hesitate to sign up immediately, about how non-Malays would not pass up such good opportunity. Hellooo... I'm thinking about practicality here. That old school tactic only pushed me away further. If you know non-Malays would not pass up such opportunity then why call us the cekai Melayu to attend your talk? Enlightened me if I'm wrong... but unless you're a phobic of something, I don't think that many healthy people will be so obsessed about doing a full medical check up every year. Every 2-3 years maybe. Other than that, maybe just pap smear or any special check up that you want to do every year.

Let's say you took the 18 years full medical check-up plan. What happened if you discovered you have cancer after 5 years? You'd go for treatment of course. What's the use of the balance 13 years of medical check-up. If you're undergoing medical treatment, I'm sure your health will be monitored. Full medical check will be redundant. The plan is transferable... well, why don't just sell plan B? Spouses and family members can use it together. Whatever it is, I still prefer to pay AFTER a service has been rendered. I'd rather pay RM3,000 whenever I feel like going for a medical check-up rather than get a loan to pay RM44,000 for services not yet rendered. Medical insurance... make sense. This medical check-up plan just didn't.

I've paid in advance for my spa visits. Only the 3x plan that has to be used within 1 month. I've paid 3 months in advance for my yoga classes which I ended up not using all of it but I'm OK with short term commitments like that.

I wanted to see the list of check-up done to compare it with the general full medical check-up given by any other clinic and hospital. They refuse to give it to me. They claimed to give more thorough check-up and has more in the list than offered elsewhere. I certainly like to compare them. Who knows checking our pulses is considered as one. We can only get the list once we signed up. OK if there's a cooling period for us so we can do our homework and cancel if we don't like what we found but there's none. Insurance plan clearly has better offer than this.

What's the point of me writing about this? I might be able to use them as an example in one of my training about service and the value of service, perceived or real. And also about how desperate some companies are to come up with unreasonable products and/or services on the pretense of valuing their customer. No you certainly don't value your customer. I don't feel it either in perception or reality. You only care about your bottomline... your profit. No doubt every where you go companies would give a lip service about caring for their customer but customers are not stupid.

Just like if you declare your love to someone, you better show it. That someone better feel it or else there'll be no relationship. So this company's plan A and plan B showed their love for the customer's money and not the customer themselves. So... bad strategy there.