When Does a Counter Count?

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I was at the mall minutes ago, and passed by the clinic. It was 12.40pm, 2 hours and 40 minutes after the clinic’s opening hours. I caught a glimpse of the customer counter, the one that shows the current customer number in service…

“Now Serving: 125″

This is no surprise. Mondays are good days for clinics. The Monday monster, called “Monday Blues” does get to us sometimes.

But the point was the counter itself. I asked myself the following questions:

1. What value does it give me to know what number is the doctor currently serving?
2. Should there be another counter, perhaps something like “Est. Service Time for Each Customer”?
3. What feelings do the numbers “125″ ellicit, with relation to “Now Serving” ?

Here are my answers in brief:

1. It allows me to be certain that the doctor is present. Secondly, it enables me to choose if I want to visit that clinic, or go to the other bigger one with lesser customers (Really).
2. Different counters for different places. This won’t work. But perhaps if the clinic was customer centric, it could have a “Missed Call Alert” - We will miss call you 5 minutes before your est. service time.
3. Now Serving is the standard. “Waiting Time” could be a turn off. But why don’t we see “Now Serving” when the train comes? Like “Now Entering: 187″ at Ang Mo Kio Station? Cause people don’t care how many times the train arrives.

Tricky stuff these counters. Take a site counter for example: a measurement of credibility. But the signal a counter gives might not be apparent for the producer’s point of view. Take point 1 above: how trivial and double-edged.

So when does a counter count? I do know when a counter doesn’t count…

When it’s installed just for the sake of counting.

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