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

[David Lawson]

Hi Keith,

We do 4 tunings per day 4 days a week.
If there are only 3 tunings scheduled on a particular day I will search 
through the data base for someone who is due, or overdue and call to see if 
they would like to fill the missing spot.
99 % of the time when can fill that spot for a full day of tuning.
If we have a no show, we only have the revenue for the 3 tunes that were 
done.
If I call them to confirm the day before and they have been called into 
work, forgotten & made other plans, changed their mind etc, I will search 
the data base for someone to take that appointment.
We are in a service industry so I always call to confirm the day before. If 
I have to leave a message, I leave a number to contact us on if there is any 
change of plans. I try to get at least 2 phone numbers on our data base for 
each customer, being the home number and either a work number or mobile 
number and also an email address.
By doing this it cuts out the days of only 3 tunes / day and provides a 
service that the customers appear to like and may give us an edge over the 
opposition who don't provide this service.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mr. Mac's" <tune-repair at allegiance.tv>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 2:47 PM
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=
>