Customer Service (or lack thereof)

I have been seeing an orthodontist for my wife. One of the the wires broke while brushing her teeth and began to bruise her lip. We called the good doctor up to let him know that we needed to see him soon. He didn't pick up. This was thursday evening. We then sent him an SMS. No response.

I called him again on Friday and he picked up. I told him that we would like to set up and appointment the next day if possible. He said sure, he will call us tomorrow and confirm a time for the same day. Saturday came along and he never called.

The orthodontist is good at what he does. He has a good understanding of his field and knows what he's doing. What he lacks severely is organizational and customer service skills. When he failed to call to confirm an appointment, I decided to find another orthodontist who can. We are now dropping him altogether for someone else to carry on the rest of the treatment.

This was not the first incident that he displayed a complete lack of understanding for customer service. I gave him a long lecture on why communication is important and that even if he were unable to make an appointment, at the very least letting us know in advance would be fine. It seems that my pleas fell on deaf ears. His rationale is, this is Dubai and besides, his profession is a 'relaxed' one.

Right. It's not acceptable to drop the ball on your customers, regardless of what your 'profession' of choice is. I seriously don't understand why such a simple problem is so hard for people to appreciate. It makes the difference between keeping or losing your customer. It also has a rather marginal (if any) cost. So, what gives? Can anyone shed light to this?