<html>  <head></head> <body>  <DIV></DIV> <DIV>Will, I have my 11 yr. old daughter do my reminder calls , and everyone just loves it. She has this sweet and cheerful voice that says , "My dad will be over to tune your piano at ...</DIV> <DIV>My no shows have dropped drastically , and she gets paid $3 per day as well. Keeps her in mp3 downloads etc.</DIV> <DIV>Rick Ucci/Ucci Piano</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message from Willem Blees <wimblees@aol.com>: -------------- <BR><BR><WBR>Last night we were talking with our son, Chris,who is a very successful CPA, about courtesy calls. He says his secretary always calls his appointments either the day before, or even the morning of, his appointment, as a courtesy, to let the client know Chris has an appointment with him. And he receives either a phone call or an e-mail confirming appointments. He says it's a profesional thing to do. <BR><BR>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. <BR>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.<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.<BR><BR><BR> <DIV style="CLEAR: both">Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT<BR>Piano Tuner/Technician<BR>Honolulu, HI<BR>Author of <BR>The Business of Piano Tuning<BR>available from Potter Press<BR>www.pianotuning.com</DIV> <DIV class=aol_ad_footer id=u8CA6A176F5BF3E7-C6C-1B73><FONT style="FONT: 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF; COLOR: black"> <HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"> Get the <A title=http://www.mapquest.com/toolbar?NCID=mpqmap00030000000003 href="http://www.mapquest.com/toolbar?NCID=mpqmap00030000000003" target=_blank>MapQuest Toolbar</A>, Maps, Traffic, Directions & More!</FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>  </body> </html>