and your point is...?

[Mikey P]

> Mike,
>
> We have been in our home for over 35 years and recently decided
> to get a bid from your organization as you came highly recommended
> from San Lorenzo Valley Floors.
>
> Your crew was due here at 2:30PM and happily and professionally they
> called to tell us they would be late estimating 5:30PM.
> This was considerate for them to call.
>
> However, in order to make sure I was home for the original time I had to
> cut short an appointment which I wouldn't have done otherwise. In
> addition I canceled my usual Tuesday booth duty representing computers
> which I could have easily done if I had known your folks were going to
> be late. My partner was out of town so we missed our exposure to the
> public completely today.
>
> Hopefully, this is not a pattern with your company of over booking
> appointments and causing some inconvenience as I have had it with
> the airlines for this.
>
> Best Regards,
> Bob

Not a habit at all Bob.

We usually try and give two hour windows of arrival (compared to all day windows like the cable and phone companies offer) and do our best to get to all appointments in that window but it's common for our clients to ask for additional work to be done after we arrive. I'm sure you'll understand that we take it when we can get it..

Thanks for your patience , concern and understanding..


Mike Pailliotet

 

[Desk Jockey]

We usually tell them something along the lines of "the crew is running late because the previously carpet was more heavily soiled that average. In order to bring it back to an acceptable level it took a few more steps and more time to do so ."

This way they can still be bothered you were late, but it's less about you making additional dollars at there expense.

It works for some, others will be pissed any way.

 

[-JB-]

big high.

 

[Mikey P]

I think he was looking for a discount.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Give him a discount coupon off his next cleaning.

 

[Ken Snow]

If your time was 12:30 to 2:30 and you were really 3 hours late that is pretty darn late. If we are even 2 minutes late we automatically give a discount. I am not sure why you posted this Mike, except to show everyone how to alienate a client with your response. I assume you will not get the job (and the 35k LTV) at this point, but who knows maybe the crew will charm the client.

 

[Brian R]

As long as you call them before you are actually late to let them know you are going to be late, I think it's acceptable...some custy's may not.

I usually let them know that we do our best to be on time to every appt but we never really know how long a job will take until we are actually performing the work. Sometimes it takes longer than expected to get the job done right and to our customers expectations. We will surely take the time and effort to clean your carpets even if it takes longer than expected as well.

This has been a moment with Brian. :wink:

 

[Wandslinger]

Didn't you learn anything at SFS?

 

[joe harper]

If your time was 12:30 to 2:30 and you were really 3 hours late that is pretty darn late. If we are even 2 minutes late we automatically give a discount. I am not sure why you posted this Mike, except to show everyone how to alienate a client with your response. I assume you will not get the job (and the 35k LTV) at this point, but who knows maybe the crew will charm the client.

I have to AGREE with KOJ...on this one.. :!:

"FLIP the SCENERO"....you would be PISSED....

WHITE LIES.....will bite you in the ASS.... :!: :!:

We give a 15 to 30 minute window... :shock:

Being that late is UNACCEPTABLE... If we add additional cleaning on the previous job.
If we are going to be running late...It must be approved in the OFFICE..The Next customer is called & asked if we can be a little late..? "AND OFFERED A DISCOUT FOR THE INCONVINOUS"

Being on TIME is 50% of the job...."WE inform the client that we usually run EARLY..So be prepared for a early CALL.. :wink: REMEMBER...we have 3 men on the truck...We can speed it up if necessary.. :!:
"IF the add-on is LARGE" We will simply stop by the shop & pick up an additional unit... :roll:


ps..If you were NOT out "playing" on your MopEd...You could have gone & handled the job
yourself.."ON-TIME"... :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

pss If you are going to be a 2 Truck operation...? MAKE the adjustments..... :mrgreen:




















pss "Thank you "Full Circle"....for sCrewInG-Up my schedule..".... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Doug Cox]

I only do extra work if I have time. They have every opportunity to schedule what they want when they call. Why should the other customers pay the price for their inconsideration?

 

[The Great Oz]

Just a suggestion:

If a crew gets to a job site and finds it will take much longer to complete than anticipated, call other customers immediately and give them the option of getting bumped back or moving to another day. Then go back upstream and try to figure out how you blew the time estimate so badly.

If an earlier customer wants to add to the job, tell them you just have to check with other people on the schedule to see if it will be OK to change their appointments. After all, you made a committement to all of them that you really should honor.

If the later customers say OK, go ahead and do the additional work. If they say the schedule change will cause them some grief, go back to the "add-on" customer and let them know you'll have to keep to the schedule, but can either come back at the end of your day or schedule a best time to come back and do the additional work. You aren't the bad guy for saying no, you come off as responsible and caring for keeping your promises to your customers. Also, the "add-on" customer now knows you won't blow off your time committement to them if the situation were reversed.

PS: Always remember that you're not a monopoly like a cable company. The last thing you want to do is create a problem for your customers as you can easily be replaced by a more reliable firm.

 

[XTREME1]

I always give a firm appointment I am trying a window schedule now of half hour.
I had one later about 3 years ago go absolutely berserk on me. I left her a message on her phone about an hour before telling I was going to be about 30 minutes late
about 10 minutes before I get there she is screaming at me on the phone about how valuable her time is and that she isn't a cleaner and is a success RE agent and she won't be there when I get there and I should be embarrassed the way my company operates.
I said I am right around the corner, she said nope I don't have anymore time to waste and need to get back to the office. So I apologized and she told me that isn't good enough she will never, never do business with me.
I said Okay, can I ask how long you thought a sectional and 3 rooms were going to take when i booked the appointment I said it could be up to 3hrs and you only left a half opening. **** you click.


The best part is my inlaws were buying a home on the water here and it came down to the choice of 2 homes and this woman was the realtor I walked through with the inlaws and the woman introduced herself to me()she was late by about 15 minutes) and I said it is nice to finally meet you I was scheduled to clean your carpets and upholstery. I told her that if my inlaws decided to buy that home we would need another realtor handling it. My inlaws bought the other home.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Should thrown the same fit she did to you.

"15-minutes late! I'm a successful carpet cleaner, I don't have time for this, I'm going to have to call someone else, that shows up on time!" :wink:

Seriously, if she were that successful, I'd have used that time to market her and tell her about how prompt your service is now that "you're under new management". :mrgreen:

I wouldn't have burned her, you never know when she could get you back and cost you some work. :shock:

I would have explained myself and asked for another opportunity to be of service to her......but then my wife only works at Sam's and doesn't get a $250,000 bonus!

 

[XTREME1]

she lived in a second rate neighborhood. She is just a real estate agent for Success RE. If she sucked as bad as she did when I had my first interaction with her I would rather not do any business with her.

 

[Mikey P]

Yeah well... he was impressed enough by the boy's to book today so KMA!


He also invited me to sit in on his Linux users club next month. :shock:

 

[dgargan]

I agree with what Ken said
.
Also I think 2 hour windows are too long. People are too busy these days and have limited time to get things done. A big discount was in order along with some a$$ kissing. Glad it worked out but why take the chance.

 

[Brian R]

When I was scheduling I woud always tell them the time slot and then give them my estimate of when we would be there. I would tell them how many jobs we had before them and tell them that there is always the chance that a job will take longer than expected.

They are human, we are human...if they throw a fit about being late...do you really want to do business with them?

How you do anything is how you do everything.

 

[Hoody]

Mike must still have that Coit charm in him.

 

[Lefty724]

The truth is....no matter how hard you try and please people, there is always going to be a misunderstanding/impatient person out there. I'm sure you guys will take care of him Mike!!

I ended up doing a $250 job yesterday for free because my older van blew the transmission and I had to re-schedule (new transmission) her for a week later...take the good with the bad I guess?

 

[Brian R]

Maybe half off, but not for free. Any reschedule should get a screamin discount. Anything over a few hours late should get something thrown in or a discount.

My mama always said:

"If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, your plain rude."

Sometimes you can't prevent rudeness....Right Bawb? :mrgreen:

 

[bob vawter]

don pick on me........
i warn ya!

 

[Hoody]

Bawb was a late bloomer.

 

[bob vawter]

Bawb was a late bloomer.

ya Steven....
YOU are on my list TOO!

 

[Brian R]

don pick on me........
i warn ya!

I'm sorry Bawb. You know you're still my favorite. :wink:

 

[Hoody]

[quote="Steven Hoodlebrink":1zsju1ql]Bawb was a late bloomer.

ya Steven....
YOU are on my list TOO![/quote:1zsju1ql]

Yeah and so is Danny......

wait a minute!

 

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

This happens in my greater area as well. A service provider will take on additional work at a job and pass on the tardiness to the next customer. In my opinion it’s not right or wrong, it’s just business. Not what I do but it’s a personal business decision.

 

[The Great Oz]

He also invited me to sit in on his Linux users club next month.

I couldn't judge the loon factor from the original message, sorry. I thought maybe he had missed a legitimate business opportunity and had a right to be upset.

 

[Mikey P]

Mike,


Here is some Linux info.
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/faq.php

Our LUG (Linux Users Group) meets
the first Saturday of every month at the
Felton Fire House at 2PM. The next meeting will be Aug. 7th. A demo install
will likely be done for the group using Fedora. Many different versions of Linux are available. I typically recommend Ubuntu.

Cheers,
Bob

 

[steve frasier]

if I was the customer I would have rescheduled

 

[Brian R]

if I was the customer I would have rescheduled

Steve, that says it all I think.

People sometimes believe that carpet cleaning is the most important thing in the world. I'm sure the carpet could wait another day as well.