Not giving the gift of life

Last week I signed up to Street Car – the customer service was flawless and they were keen to get me driving as soon as possible (the same experience Russell Davies wrote about in Campaign recently).

Today, I tried to give blood in my lunch hour. I expected it to take about half an hour and nipped out of the office. It didn’t. I would have been waiting well over a hour – which isn’t really possible in the middle of the working day. Instead, I waited 20 minutes and left.

Perhaps the National Blood Service can introduce after hours services for working people who find it nigh on impossible to find time during a working day? It should certainly say how long the process takes – e.g giving blood 10 minutes, assessment 10 minutes – or make clear before you sign up that you could be waiting up to an hour, whatever it is.

On this occasion, poor communication and service design cost the nation’s blood banks a pint from me and who knows how many more.

It’s a shame and I feel like a typical London pushy bitch – but if the time constraints had been clearly explained when booking the appointment I would have done it at another time.