Dear Ted, Especially since most of my appointments are scheduled at least 3 or 4 weeks in advance, I find it a good policy to call in advance to confirm, preferably the day before. You might consider doing this as a general policy. Also, I have noticed that many professionals, especially doctors and dentists, tell me at the time of scheduling the appointment that there is a charge for missed appointments. If your problem becomes chronic, you might consider advising your clients similarly. I recommend carrying a cellular phone for several reasons; but when you are waiting for a client to show up, you can be calling ahead checking your voice mail, confirming upcoming appointments, or scheduling new ones to make the best of a bad situation. Charles At 03:05 PM 9/16/96 -0400, you wrote: >Dear List: > You have all been helpful to me in the past and I know most of you are >University Techs and maybe don't do house-to-house tunings. Anyhow, I'd >like to pose this problem with you: How do you handle no-shows? I arrive >at the appointed time and the customer is not home. I leave my card in the >door and leave after waiting 10 minutes. Later that evening I get an >apologetic call from the customer who wants to re-schedule. I've lost the >price of a tuning that day because of the customer's forgetfulness. Do I >passively comply and give the customer a new date or do I tell him there >will be an extra charge? I'm talking mostly about first time customers. I >readily comply for customers whom I have tuned for for years and this is >their first violation. Any comments? > > Ted Simmons > Merritt Island, FL > > > Charles Ball School of Music University of Texas at Austin
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