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

[Mr. Mac's]

Ryan,

You're mixing apples with oranges.
Loss of income and making calls.

My discussion with Jer was about his concept of loss of income,
   which has satisfactorily been answered by him.
Never did my comments to him have to do
   with the policy of calls.

My comments to Alastair were based
   on how I view income and outgo.
Once again, no reference by me to him regarding
   a policy of reminder calls.

For your benefit:
   I do use the phone to make calls,
   not because of potential unearned income,
   but because a no show is an inconvenience to me.

Keith

On Feb 2, 2011, at 1:28 AM, Ryan Sowers wrote:

> Keith,
> 
> It is a loss. I think it is easy to lose perspective when you are self employed. A no show, is like a miniature version of being laid off. It's lost wages. 
> 
> Like Jer said, he just looked at the numbers. No reminder calls = $1500 less money at the end of the year. Reminder calls = perhaps $150 less money at the end of the year. 
> 
> So not reminding is a substantial loss of income. 
> 
> Here's another way to look at it. Lets say you tune 500 pianos a year, and do three pianos a day. You'd have approximately 167 reminder calls to make over the course of the year. If you had 10 no shows per year and your service fee is $150 that's $1500 you were not able to earn. Let's say your 167 reminder calls reduces your no shows to just 1 per year. So you are recouping $1350 in potential lost wages. Now consider how much time it takes to make the calls. Let's say it takes 5 minutes to do the calls. Multiplied by 167 means it takes 835 minutes, or about 14 hours. For those 14 hours you are saving $1350 in lost wages. That means your making over $90 hour for those reminder calls. 
> 
> It's just good business sense to do the calls. You'll make more money. That's why the dentist does it. That's why weI do it. The courtesy is an added benefit. 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 9:50 PM, Mr. Mac's <tune-repair at allegiance.tv> wrote:
> 
> On Feb 1, 2011, at 11:23 PM, David Lawson wrote:
> 
> > … If we have a no show, we only have the revenue for the 3 tunes that were done. …
> 
> Hello Alastair,
> 
> I appreciate your input on this subject,
> 
> Put the way you have, I just see this as what happened for the day.
> There was no loss, just not as much gain.
> 
> For me there are days when there is earned income,
>   and other days, there isn't.
> 
> The only thing I look at is the spread of what comes in,
>   and what goes out. Then what's left is the gravy.
> 
> The greater the spread between the in and out, the more I have to utilize.
> The lesser the spread between the in and out, the less I have to utilize.
> 
> Knowing that the most of the in and out can fluctuate,
>   I balance the more and the less with the little I do know.
> 
> That's pretty much it.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Keith
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Ryan Sowers, RPT
> Puget Sound Chapter
> Olympia, WA
> www.pianova.net