In a message dated 98-01-05 22:33:56 EST, Zen writes: >Yep -- first appointment of the New Year and the customer was a no-show. >Now I'm curious -- what do people do about the no-shows? (Or should I ask, >what Resolutions have some of you made concerning the handling of >no-shows?) > >When you face a potentially no-show situation, how long do you wait, hoping >that the customer will return? The first thing I do is call the customer from my cell phone. I have found that 3 out of 4 times the customer is home but cannot hear the doorbell or the knocks on the door. If I am running on time when I get there, and if I have the time, I will wait maybe 15 minutes. If I don't have time, or if I get to my cusotmer late, I will leave right away. >Do you charge for the missed appointment? Your full tuning fee or some >fraction thereof? I consider a now show one of the "expenses" of my business. Again, with the cell phone, I hardly have any no shows any more. >Do you make an effort to reschedule or do you wait for the customer to take >the initiative? If the customre is not there when I call, I leave them a message telling them I was there, and asking them to call to reschedule. If they want their piano tuned bad enough, they'll call. I do not call them to reschedule. >If the customer does call wanting to reschedule, do you try to squeeze them >in or do you politely tell them to "take their turn at the end of the line" >and schedule them accordingly? Unless it is a very good, regular customer, I treat them as if they called for the first time, and they get the next available spot on the calender. >Today marks the first no-show I've had since striking out on my own after >leaving a full-time job with a dealer, in which the customer didn't call >right away to explain or to apologize. I've had only 3 other no-shows, all >of which were the results of medical emergencies. There are customers who do not understand that this is how we make a living. To them having the piano tuned is not important enough to realize an appology is necessary. No matter what the excuse, however, a no show means a loss of income. Maybe I am too nice, but most of the time I don't let it get to me. I look at a noshow as a chance to take a nap, or get to my next appointment early, or even go shopping. BTW, my first no show for 1998 was a 9 o'clock appointment on January 2nd. She called to reschedule, and the piano was a POS. She did not appologize or offer any kind of excuse as to why she wasn't there. On the other hand, yesterday I tuned a piano for a customer for whom I have been tuning for 20 years, and she appologized for missing an appointment in Spetember. When I told her we didn't have an appointment in September, she looked again, and found a piece of paper with the appointment date on in, but it was for 1996. Willem Blees RPT St. louis
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