[pianotech] No Shows (was What do you say?)

[Gerald Groot]

Hi Keith, 

Well, if you're tuning pianos for a living and have certain goals to meet
and I have always set goals in my business and still do, and you then we
lose a "planned tuning," you have now just lost income and it cost us money
to get there which is something quite viable.  

Another way to look at it would be that if a client makes an appointment
with me to tune their piano, regardless of if I called them from a call back
list or if they called me, they still made an appointment with me.  In good
faith I showed up.  It is something they are hiring me in advance to do.  I
am planning on that tuning as being a part of my income.  If they fail to
show for whatever reason, it now just became something that I now lost,
permanently.... Sure, I can return later but, at that particular moment in
time, that income and appointment is gone.  So now, I have not only lost
income, but I lost a potential new client, or possibly a past client.  Plus,
our business vehicles do not run on air so it is not just an inconvenience
to me.  It cost me money over all as my business expenses continue
regardless.  :)

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Mr. Mac's
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 10:48 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] No Shows (was What do you say?)

Jer,

Your explanation helped to me at least understand how you arrived at that
figure.

What intrigues me now is this concept of a no show
    being considered something that was lost.
I don't see how one can have lost something
    when it was never in their possession.

I can possibly reinterpret it to being a missed chance of earning something.
Maybe I'm too simple minded, but a no show just means
   an inconvenience at the most to me.

Is there another way that you might be able to share with me
    that could better translate this novel way of looking at no shows.

Sincerely,

Keith

On Feb 1, 2011, at 8:48 PM, Gerald Groot wrote:

> Hi Keith,
> 
> Easy, well, a little time consuming really.  Back in those days, I was
using
> an appointment book for scheduling yet.  For each person that was a no
show,
> I had a large red X over their appointment.  I went day by day adding up
how
> much I lost on each tuning or action job, etc., until I came up with a
total
> for the year. These days, it only takes 10 no show tunings to amount to
> roughly a minimum of $1,500 in lost revenue.  Well worth a reminder call
for
> me.  
> 
> It's not always easy to just drive to the next job.  If the client is
> planning on a certain time, and a lot of them are, I find that many do not
> come home until close to their appointment time.  If you're scheduling 4-6
> tunings a day or more, it doesn't take long for the figures to add up.
> Especially if one of them is a church with 5 tunings.  I've gotten plenty
of
> keys to churches since then to avoid just that.  It's either " please give
> me a key to your church or I give you a bill for lost tunings..."  We're
> both happy then.  
> 
> Jer
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On
Behalf
> Of Mr. Mac's
> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 9:29 PM
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] What do you say?
> 
> 
> On Feb 1, 2011, at 7:30 PM, Gerald Groot wrote:
> 
>> . Years ago, I added up the loss I took from no shows.  I can't recall
the
> exact figure any longer but, it was something like $4,000 that year
> including a couple of nice action jobs. .
> 
> Jer,
> 
> A person drives somewhere, has a no show,
>   then goes on to the next order of business or activity.
> 
> How did you manage to calculate a tangible amount lost in those
experiences
>   that resulted in a total amount of "something like $4,000"?
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Keith=
>