I'm sorry but why don't you think my time is just as valuable as yours?

[harbie]

Seriously! I can't stand it when people think that their time and schedules are more important than mine!

I had a client I was dealing with at the end of last year. It actually turned into 2 clients but for some reason this lady felt it was ok to play "phone tag" with me for close to 3 months. She was ALWAYS " in desperate need of my services" but was never available. I even gave her options of 2-3 days during the week and also offered to stop by on my weekend if that was easier for her. So what happened you ask???? She was going away for a vacay and was going to call me back.........that was January 3rd!!!!!!!!


Now I have another 2 clients and one in particular is BRU TAL when it comes to returning calls and committing. I received a call on a Sunday at 4:45pm to say she won't be able to keep our Monday morning appointment that we had booked just over 2 weeks prior to that!

Since we are due to meet again on this Tuesday I am still waiting on a return call for confirmation and it's Friday morning. I called her at the beginning of the week in reply to her call.

Why can they not return calls? I mean she had the nerve to call Monday and ask for me to come Tuesday -Friday of the same week. Really??? I'm sorry but I have a life and a very busy one at that. I don't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for someone to call me back. They seem to want me to work around their lives but have zero regard for mine!!!


AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

[Patty Smyth]

[Shwa Girl]

Sorry about all this OP.
Hmm. If it a doctor's appointment, and the doctor charges for missed appointments, there is about a 90% compliance rate for keeping appointments. Hmmm.

[CanadianCouponCollector]

I used to do housecleaning, and they agreed to a charge of $25 if they cancelled within 24 hours of the appointment, and full price in the case of a lock out (no way for me to get in when I showed up). My incidents went down 99%.

[abbasgirl]

I don't know what you do, but I was thinking along the same lines as Shwa girl when I read your post. Are you able to make it a policy to charge or partially charge for cancelled appointments?

[Darth Penguin]

If they are constantly making appointments and cancelling, them you may wish to rethink either having them as clients or charging for your wasted time, unless of course you are not the boss...

If it's a one time, extreme emrgancy, then cut some slack.

Sadly some people do think their time is, in general, more important than other people's time since they know the value of thier time to them but don't credit other people's time as being of equal or higher value to the person that thier actions are affecting.

[torontogal12]

Guess if she does end up hiring you you'll have to charge a bit more to cover all the blown off appointments, right?

[harbie]

I do high end residential cleaning and for the most part my clients are wonderful it's just been these last ones that are making me pull out my hair!

Luckily I've never had a lock out but I just can't stand playing phone tag and not getting a concrete yes until 2 days before the day.

Update: I FINALLY got in touch with the troublesome one and made a concrete appointment *phew*

[Ciel]

I agree with the suggestions above-raise rates to cover the blow-offs and hand out business cards with nice boldface statement about a 48h cancellation policy that will cost them $xx (just like dental practices do).
Now, it's your call to accept emergency calls (house fire/water damage/act of nature demo'ing part of residence) from your regular and trusted clients who say they cannot have you over. Consider that lost income but do say for them to keep you updated monthly in case the repairs get done/insurance/trade work moves along well.

That can be the downside of working for yourself-not always certain if you can rely on the clients to stick to their scheduled times for appointments, so one needs to not go all out with money earned>rainy day fund applies, esp. if you need gas for the car or a renewal is looming.

[Ciel]

Seriously! I can't stand it when people think that their time and schedules are more important than mine!


I had a client I was dealing with at the end of last year. It actually turned into 2 clients but for some reason this lady felt it was ok to play "phone tag" with me for close to 3 months. She was ALWAYS " in desperate need of my services" but was never available. I even gave her options of 2-3 days during the week and also offered to stop by on my weekend if that was easier for her. So what happened you ask???? She was going away for a vacay and was going to call me back.........that was January 3rd!!!!!!!!


Now I have another 2 clients and one in particular is BRU TAL when it comes to returning calls and committing. I received a call on a Sunday at 4:45pm to say she won't be able to keep our Monday morning appointment that we had booked just over 2 weeks prior to that!

Since we are due to meet again on this Tuesday I am still waiting on a return call for confirmation and it's Friday morning. I called her at the beginning of the week in reply to her call.

Why can they not return calls? I mean she had the nerve to call Monday and ask for me to come Tuesday -Friday of the same week. Really??? I'm sorry but I have a life and a very busy one at that. I don't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for someone to call me back. They seem to want me to work around their lives but have zero regard for mine!!!


AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

Tell that particular client what the meaning of courtesy is. It's putting her availability and money out when she says she needs you. Otherwise she's to consult a dictionary as you are not available for her due to client demand.

[tjthemanto]

The clients who constantly do that , you need to get rid of them permanently ..trust me their business is not worth it.

The amount of time , energy & productivity you will waste on these clients is way more than the business you will get from them.

Sometimes its a double whammy , you refuse a good customer bcoz you have an appointment with these bad customer's ..and then the bad customer cancels at the last moment..so you don't have the business of either of them