<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16640" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>My wife schedules all my work and makes my appointments.
When she makes the appointment she tells the client that she will call the day
before to remind them. No one has ever said it wouldn't be necessary or was ever
offended by it. If fact most are very happy to get the reminder call. Just
letting them know in advance that you will be doing that, makes all the
difference.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Al Guecia</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=formsma@gmail.com href="mailto:formsma@gmail.com">John Formsma</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, April 12, 2008 10:17
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: courtesey call</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 1:17 PM, Willem Blees <<A
href="mailto:wimblees@aol.com">wimblees@aol.com</A>> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><BR><BR>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.</BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>What I do is to call the night before the appointment. I have previously
informed my customers that I will be doing this. I do not inform them the
reason why I do this: to prevent no-shows, as that <SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">would</SPAN> be offensive to
them. :-)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>First of all, we must cover our own losses if the customer is not there
when we arrive. There is no "big company" who will absorb this loss. It's a
loss of time and loss of potential income, not to mention the cost of the fuel
to drive there for nothing.<BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I decided a couple of years ago that I should call every customer like
this. I was getting too many no-shows, and figured this was a way to easily
remedy it. Some customers obviously do not write down the appointment
when we schedule it. I suppose they are thinking they will be there at such
and such time on such and such day. However, if I don't call them, something
else will "come up," because I have arrived at an obviously empty house. Not
good. Once that happens to you enough, and you get frustrated enough, you must
find a solution to the problem.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>When I speak to the customer on the phone the night before, I will say
something like this: "Hi, Mrs. Jones, this is John Formsma, the piano tuner.
I'm calling about our tuning appointment tomorrow at __:__ time -- just making
sure that it's still a good time for you. OK, see you tomorrow then."
This whole process only takes about 30 seconds.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Most of the time, the customer has remembered the appointment. However,
some do not, and have appreciated the call. There are rare occasions when
there is a conflict, and we reschedule. I would rather know the night before
the customer can't make the appointment so that I can schedule someone else in
their place.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I really can't understand why someone would get upset about a reminder
call. And I also don't think we should worry about a possible cancellation
just because we have encouraged the appointment. It's our business to sell our
services. Yes, sometimes people say no. But that's how "sales"
always is.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>--</DIV>
<DIV>JF</DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>