What do you do?

I was just wondering what you do when you remind the restuarants the night before you will be there at this time the following day. And they still don't show up on time. Do you charge them a fee for not being there? This is the first time this has happened to me . I do have it in my contract and I point it out to them at the time they sign contract. Saying that I will wait for an 1/2 hour after the appointment time. After that I leave and we have to re do an other appointment. But this is the catch I charge them a $75 fee. Do you think this is fair? WHat do you other guys do? When they miss the appointment. Thanks for any and all input.

This is a great question. First of all get, home numbers when you have a closed start time. You must remind and remind the account of times of service. This happen to all of us that service this trade-when booking the account you will get good in catching on to clues of no shows. I carry lockboxes that I give the account and they will leave a key in the box for service-it tend to reduce problems.

As for the NO SHOW FEE. I have used this on accounts that do this over and over and it tends to end the problem. I would look ant the account and the problem-work it out with them. You could lose a good account or you could lose a bad account.

Take care

David

i do interior floors, i agree with david get the keys and night time phone numbers. that will elimnate the problems.

Hey Ron!

Is there good money in cleaning Interior Floors I was considering adding this service to my company but I have not run into anyone who has been doing floors to talk with. I know depends on how hard your willing to work and how much effort you want to put into it, so let me just say I'm a very hard worker who takes pride in all of his work. Lots of times the customer raves about how great the job turned out and I'm not quite happy with it, I have learned not to point anything out or say yeah well you know--- I know better if their happy I should be but I'm kind of a perfectionist.(I was cursed!) Any insight you could provide about the floors would be wonderful.

Thanks. Andrew/Safe Clean

Safeclean
We schedule on the last week of the month before, we ask for the kitchen manager, schedule with them, we write down their name and the date and time that we spoke to them and we also remind them to write it down in their calander/scheduler, then we call at around 2pm on the day of the service to confirm.....if they cancel when we get there for what ever reason we charge them an addition $75 to reschedule

See they dont lose anything if they cancel, we lose our time and the revenue from the job its only right to charge a cancellation/rescheduling fee

Thanks for the help guys. I know this might be the first time I run into this , but it certianly wont be the last. I did finnaly tak to the owner of the restuarant and he was tring to tell me I was the one who was wrong about the time. He also told me that I must not have looked for him good enough. Ha I had me in the front of the store and my helper in the back wiht the truck and equipment. He even had the nerve to tell me he was there at 8 just parked in the back. I told him thats funny I was to and I did not see you. The guy shut up after that and just asked if I was still going to clean his system soon. I told him you bet as soon as I can fit you in again. Man they think that you can just drop all your other accounts and do them when they want.then they think that you rtime does not mean anything or cost you anything, I still had to pay for fuel out there and for my helpers time. Man I don't know about you guys but I am a really tight schedule. SO I can't drop everything for this one guy. So well now I am rethinking if I even want to deal with this guy at all. He was tring to say that I was not there when I was and crap like that. I know you guys have gone though this before this is my first time that I have and it is something to dael with. I have be blessed with great clients,other then this goof ball. Well just thought I would let you know what happened have a good day guys. And thanks for all the input.

This is a problem we all have. I have tried to get paid for no-shows. A call to them at home may work. It it is an honest mistake, they will usually pay after explaining to them that you still have to pay expenses and labor. If they lie to you, you may want to rethink your relationship with them. If I continue to work for them, I usually take the opportunity to make an adjustment in the billing. Some people I have suggested they make other arrangements, saying "you do not meet my requirements for a customer".I also try to get the insurance agents name when fill out the data sheet. I tell the customer I will send a copy of the invoice or service report to the incsurance agent when we do the work. This helps the customer when insurance renewal time comes around. I can then call the agent and tell them I no longer service the account. This may get the insurance cancelled and increse the insurance rates, but that is not my problem. I find a good working relationship w/insurance agents will pay off.

Douglas Hicks
General Fire Equipment Co of Eastern Oregon, Inc