Is there anything else I can help you with today?

I called the City of Edmonton Information line (311) to ask a question yesterday.  When we were finished the rep asked a final question:  "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"  I've called 311 a few times.  This is the first time I paid attention, but I'm pretty sure that each time the rep finished with that same question.  "Is there anything else I can help you with today?" I'm sure it's part of their script.  Reps are told they must finish each conversation with that same question.  It's the city's attempt to sound and be customer-friendly.  

I heard a radio interview once about the same subject.  This time it wasn't the City, or some mail-order customer service rep.  No connection to Cyber Monday or telemarketers.

It was a ER doctor.  For a month she conducted an informal experiment.  After each case she asked the patient, or the family, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

That's a pretty open-ended question.  She was aware of the reputation of doctors who are focused more on the case of patients than on the actual patient.  Get one done, on to the next.  Her great fear was each patient opening up with a long list of concerns and fears and put her further behind schedule.  She didn't have time to ask patients if she could help them with "anything else."

The result?  Most people said there was nothing else they needed.  Some did.  Sometimes medical concerns, sometimes non-medical, but important.  Mostly quick questions with easy solutions that put the patient at ease.  Great benefit to the patient, with surprisingly little "cost" to the physician.  And it changed the patient-physician relationship.

What if I asked that question with the interactions I had?  With people I meet for coffee, people I work with?  A basic customer-service question with the people close to me that I seek to serve?  Is there anything else I can help you with?