So I took my wife to a routine doctors appointment today and because we only go once a year I haven't set aside any memory for the exact office number. I remember from the parking structure where it sorta is, but last year I swore it was the 3rd floor when it was the 4th. So I decide to be a good chauffer and check online for the correct number. Got it right away from the online patient system. Check Google and it's in a weird location. Pull up the medical center map and guess what. None of the buildings are named with the same initials and where I am looking for the "3rd" building, the map has "east/west" buildings. No problem we will wing it. Get there in no time, found it, little wait and when we are done I thought maybe I would mention that they don't match to the receptionist. The response I got was "I'm sorry for that" blah blah blah. No worries, but it took a bit of digging to locate the correct location, I said. "I'm sorry, blah, blah, blah". So has anyone else brought this up, I inquire. "I'm sorry, no". At which point I look over at my wife who clearly has the "I'm smiling, but I want this conversation to be done, my summary to be printed and for us to be on our way" look on her face. We get to the car having walked in silence and my wife mentions her surprise that they are still checking people as they enter for COVID symptoms. My response "I'm sorry you were inconvenienced" in my kidding way and she starts screaming (not at me, but with me) that she is tired of people apologizing all the time. We had an interesting conversation on the way home about how we have become desensitized to apologies because that's the first thing out of anyone's mouth/chatting/etc. when you are discussing customer service or issues or just asking about something. And I realized and my wife feels the same that our physical and emotional response to "I'm sorry" is not the intended mellowing, but it results in anger at the severe end, but mostly irritation that I'm sorry is a replacement for "let's see if we can fix that or I can get you what you need". Has the customer service world of "just say you are sorry with every sentence" lead to the opposite, or at the least, a desensitization of our responses to "I'm sorry". So I thought I would inquire by posting here whether others find themselves actually getting irritated when they are requesting customer service and the beginning of every sentence is "I'm sorry"?
For full disclosure, I once asked a customer service rep to stop saying "I'm sorry", because it really wasn't necessary to say it more than 5 times in a conversation and her response began "I'm sorry...". And I said, "I just asked you not to say I'm sorry". And her response. "I'm sorry". At which point I asked if she was intending to be confrontational and her response began with "I'm sorry". Swear on a bible.