No-Shows in the New Year

[Wimblees]

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