courtesey call

[William R. Monroe]

Wim,

I share your attitude towards the doctor/dentist courtesy calls.  I agree.  I made a commitment and I cannot imagine not keeping it.  Thoughtless.

However, I long ago came to the realization that half the folks getting their piano tuned DON'T write it down/remember/pay attention/care/whatever.

It never fails, if I forget or am too busy to call the night before, I either have no-shows or folks looking at me like I'm from Neptune until they are reminded that I was coming to tune the piano today.  It takes 5 minutes to call all my appointments and then I assure myself of a day without wasted time.  Occasionally I need to reschedule appointments, but they'd have been no-shows anyway.  

I've never had folks decide they don't want service when I call.  Of course, I am fortunate at this point to not have to call clients for reminders either.  I send either a postcard or email reminder to those that are due every month and that's it.  I'm busy enough I don't feel the need to track them down and get them to take care of their piano.  It's only recently been this way, but it sure is nice.

William R. Monroe


SNIP

I have received a phone call from my doctor and dentist for several years reminding me of my appointments. Quite frankly, my reaction has always been, "Yeah, of course I have an appointment with you, I set it up, so why waste my time to remind me?" I assumed the call was because the doctor had been getting a lot of no-shows, which hurts his insurance claims. 
My reason for not contacting customers has been for two reasons. One, as I just said, the customer called me, so why remind him/her of the appointment. To me I look at it as insult. The other reason is "fear" of having the customer cancel the appointment, especially if I called her/him and had to talk her/him into getting the piano tuned. It is more difficult for a customer to send me away when I'm at the front door, than to tell me not to come on the phone before I even get there.

So what are your policies? Do you call the day before, as a courtesy, to remind your customer of your appointment, saying something like "This is a courtesy call to remind you of our appointment tomorrow at 9 o'clock.

Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
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