Paul, I couldn't agree more. Be on time. I'm similarly able to be dead-on about 95% of the time and have the same policy if I'm early or late - call and let them know if I'm more than 5-10 minutes behind. It may seem silly, but people respond to that and feel respected when you do that. You're telling them that you know their time is valuable. And Wim, what do you know, we agree. ;-] I also send the postcard and then follow up with a phone call within a week or so. This way, when you call, their memories have been recently refreshed as to who you are, and they don't think you're just some scam artist solicitor. If your clients have asked you to call, they won't ever tell you they don't take phone solicitations. Now you're calling at their request. I've never gotten a snub on the phone for calling. I do waffle on messages though, for the same reason. I might leave a first message, again, it's a reminder as to who I am so they are expecting me when I talk to them, but then if I call again I don't leave a message anymore, I keep trying until I talk to someone. William R. Monroe On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 3:33 PM, Paul T Williams < pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote: > I agree with the no return calls and not showing up on time. I can't stand > when the cable guy says he'll be there between 2 and 4 for a simple call! > What's up with that? I have to sit and wait....until 4:30. Even worse, are > the drywallers who just say Tuesday, and then show up on thursday. > > When I say 8am, I mean it and even try my best to be 5 minutes early, but > usually with 90% accuracy, I can time it to ring the doorbell at 8am. This > was even when I had a 100 mile radius....I just knew where the traffic was > going to mess me up or whatever. If I was really early then a coffee break, > if more than 10 minutes late, a phone call telling them I'm on the way. > Later in the afternoon, if problems arised from earlier appointments, I > would call just before going into the appointment before asking forgiveness, > ok to be late, or reschedule. you know how some appointment can go 20-30 > minutes over, and then another, and then another, and on and on ( I never > made more than 4 in a day since I had a huge area and a ferry boat ride > mixed into the mix) > > Maybe I'm just anal about that being raised in a Navy household. I can't > stand it when somebody tells me X:xx O'Clock and 20 minutes later, I'm still > waiting! I guess it's just me. Don't start me on customer "no shows!!" > > Not returning phone calls is a sure way to kill a business as well. > > well, enough from me. > > Paul > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100818/710fc75a/attachment-0001.htm>
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