How does everyone deal with having to reschedule customers? For istance if an employee is sick or you are sick or jobs take longer than expected. How does the customer respond to rescheduling?
I hate having to reschedule customers but it seems I do it alot. I am trying to come up with a quality solution to this problem so I maintain a good reputation.
If I have to reshedual which is seldom I usually say a doctors appointment opened up that I had to take or school called and one of my kids were sick and I have to pick them up. Yes its a lie. But clients understand its hard to get an appointment with a doctor and most have children and understand what comes with them.
I will rarely reschedule. For me, it is usually a customer that throws the wrench into the machine. This past Tuesday, I had 2 customers call off because it was 22 degrees.
When I have to reschedule, I call the affected customers, tell them honestly what is going on and let them make decisions at their convenience
I just come out and tell the affected customer the truth, apologize about a million times and get it in as soon as humanly possible, usually within a day or two. Some are okay with a week, but I think that’s pushing it.
Are there other resources available to you to service customers? Part-time helper, subcontractor, friendly competitor?
In the past I have not been pleased with the results using subs and I am not sure how it would look using a competitor. In a pinch When a customer really needs to be taken care of I wouldn’t mind using a trusted competitor, but Otherwise I don’t see it being a good solution. Good thoughts though. In making me think on using subs an idea did spark in my mind though. I may line up a few solid subs to use in a pinch at a premium rate as an insentive to be readily available on short notice and to give the customer an outstanding job. This might be a good long term solution. Thanks for stirring my mind a little IIaczko 
We are totally upfront w/ them. If we are sick then I let them know and reschedule as soon as I can. I find most are very understanding especially since they don’t want us bringing a cold or flu into their home.
Sickness is one thing. Its understandable, and the client understands as well. As far as a job taking too long, that should only happen a couple times and you should be able to tell if you can bang it out in a day or not. When you think you may be pushing 2 days on a job, explain it to them, and ask them how they would like it done…on day one we can completely finish the interiors for you and get a good portion of the exteriors done. Then we can start as early as possible for you in the morning and finish the exteriors, this way we won’t be in your home longer than we should be.
I haven’t had that issue yet, but that is how I would handle it. I use others in my area though that have the time if I am under manned.
Thanks for the tips. When I spoke of Rescheduling because of job delays I was speaking of when a job takes longer than expected and does not leave you with enough time to complete another job you may have scheduled that day. I usually stack my shedule pretty tight. I don’t do this by choice but out of necessity to make a certain ammount each day. If I had a choice I would schedule less each day and leave some extra time each day just as a buffer. Right now I can’t do the because I need to maximize my income. 95% of all my estimates are given over the phone so I can run into unforseen variables that increase job time.
I think my problem is more a combination of things that cause me to rescedule jobs and together they add up and I end up rescheduling jobs often. I might get sick now and then, I may run into delays on a job, weather, or Customer demands cand put a pinch on my schedule. All these I think add up. My biggest challenge is I have high personal bills so I don’t have enough business to have guys full time to do the work and I still make enogh to cover things on a personal level. But I need to make more than what is probably possible without running into snags. I have tried several times to shift into hireing employees but things seem to fizzle out after time. I have been adjusting my business a little at a time to make it over this hill but it is hard to set asside the time to make changes when I have to make the money I need to make every day. It does not leave me with much time to devote to the planning side of my business. Because
Yeah, I hear you on that one. Thats a tough one. I would say its time to hire if you run into this problem often. You HAVE to make time or you are gonna get burned out man.
I was burned out along time ago. The main thing keeping me going are my wife and two babies and one on the way, along with an strange never give up personality glitch. I want to hire but I need to make my business plan a little more solid first so it succeeds long term. I was going good with 2 full time guys last year when the market changed drastically and killed my momentum. Now I am having to redevelop my plan so I can give it another go.
