I've been to several OneBlood Centers to donate - and no, it's not just to jack up the Yelp reviews; I do that based on availability and travel pattern. Since I could be going east one day and west the next, and most OneBlood centers are not open every day, I need to do what's most convenient to me.
For the last couple of times, though, I've come to this Big Red Bus parked almost permanently outside the AMC theaters at Altamont. Not only did my travel take me this way (likely to continue), but there are several other factors that makes this my go-to. 1) It's easy to get an appointment * (not that it's hard to get one at the regular centers); 2) There's much shopping/walking opportunity at the Altamonte Mall; 3) There's covered parking here, almost guaranteed! 4) I've noticed that their incentive is usually nicer/richer. Let's face it, none of us give blood for 'money', but truth be known, while we didn't START out that way (there are zero incentives in HKG and Canada, where I gave probably 15 gallons over the years - or at least there used to be none), the system here has trained us well. Now I think in the back of my mind: as long as I'm going to be doing a good thing, why not get a Walmart gift card out of it? There was a nice $25 Carrabba gift card in addition to the usual swag around New Year's time, but alas, I missed it because I'd given on 12/30!
I'm going to post this in EVERY OneBlood review I write from here on in (since they don't appear to have heard), but PLEASE, invest some programming time to make your iPad questionnaire more intelligent? I mean, c'mon man - why have the donor press two times (the answer and then 'Next') on EVERY screen, making the answering process twice as long? You say, because people might press the wrong answer? Well, you have already looked after that by having the 'BACK' button! Another example: why does a guy like me have to even see the screen with the 'pregnancy' question - you 'know' when handing me that iPad that I'm a guy, cuz I'm in your system! Travel questions, too, can be streamlined for repeated donors (taking into consideration past responses). Why is this important? Well, one of the reasons more people don't give blood is that they don't have time? Wouldn't you have more donors if you can claim "NEW STREAMLINED PROCESS SHORTENS TOTAL DONATION TIME BY 27%"?
Everything went smoothly with my donation otherwise. This bus, though, is freezing cold at the back. When I mentioned it, she said, "You'll get used to it" - what a 'nice' customer-friendly response! The front part though, was a little on the warm side. One more little thing you can do for all donors - you have FOUR colors of elastic bandages there, and you're not busy: why not ask every one what color they'd prefer? It costs you NOTHING, and it goes some distance to let (some) donors know that they are appreciated, as well as give them a sense of control.
Yeah I know - I'm a pain, but that doesn't mean my suggestions aren't valid.
* Note that you can't get an appointment 'day of" for a blood mobile donation site. read more