Scheduling and re-scheduling- advice needed!

M

Momjeans

Location
Albany
Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and new to tree work. I recently took over the business side of things for my family’s tree maintenance company. I’m trying to get things more streamlined and organized, and one thing that’s really bothering me is how we do rescheduling.

Right now, a customer is given a specific date that we will be doing the work, but this often gets pushed due to weather or equipment issues (I feel like we have an awful lot of equipment issues, but that’s a whole other issue!).

Previously, if a customer had to be rescheduled then they got pushed to the back of the line, to the next open date, which was sometimes up to a month out! As you can imagine, this made for some really unhappy customers and I’ve had to deal with several people who have been waiting almost a year for their work to be done. Frankly, I’m surprised they stuck around with us. I’m now experimenting with moving the whole schedule back when we have a weather or equipment issue, which means people are only getting pushed back a few days but it’s a ton of work to shuffle everyone around like that.

I’m wondering if there’s a better way to do this. Does anybody have any suggestions? I tried to search previous threads, and it looks like some people give customers a range rather than a specific day, so they have some room for reschedules in that time period. I also think we should be leaving one day open every other week as a make up day, but I’ve gotten a lot of pushback on that from the crew who don’t want a potentially open day with no jobs. Thoughts on this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
I'm not a production company, but I have the same problem sometimes. Identify the clients who need to be present during the estimate process and tack on 10-30% extra depending on how much they need that (sort of pesky homeowner -> highly orchestrated commercial timeline). Then schedule those people at times when you're most likely to meet the commitment - e.g. after a small job when it's less likely that equipment will be damaged (or you can use other equipment), or leapfrog your equipment (for me, ollie do one job with an arbor trolley and one with the skid steer) over the critical jobs.

Inform your clients that they will receive a broad notice (e.g. probably this coming week), then a short notice (e.g. evening before). Always share with them the uncertainties of weather and workflow, but not equipment breakdowns unless it happens at their site. The more they can identify with your company's challenges, the more they can tolerate in good community with you.

Increase the redundancy of your company - employees, equipment, etc.

Have crews identify critical aspects of workflow before beginning a job, and hold equipment in reserve for that. For me, that means hauling out trunk wood first because I can get the brush with my hand trolley, not using my big saw on small wood, etc.

Increase the capacity to work in and around inclement weather. In winter, get jobsite lighting for the night, to extend the day. Take on a greater proportion of consulting or wood management for work on rainy days.

If you really need to, just have the attitude that you are always running downhill no matter how uphill you're actually running. You need to give out carrots if you impose that on a crew, but I see it work for some operations. @ROYCE seems to roll that way. Might be good to ask him what they do.
 
We ask at initial call if they want to be present for estimate and or work. We let them know it will be longer timeline for either/both. If H.O. not present for estimate we then ask again at point of sale reitterating timeline and if so ask for ideal dates/times. Our office gal starts scheduling after checking in late morning for the next day and schedules other days of the weeks work as necessary, customers are always told weather depending. If poor weather is expected small jobs/no H.O. needed are called and told weather depending. If something falls through she tries again the week after. Sales people are instructed to tell peoplewe are apprx 1 week longer backlogged than we are to account for issues and so we have room to asap jobs if necessary. People who call asking for work to be done, she tries to schedule a date for following week and update if issues arise. Its not perfect but our office lady is awesome!
 
@colb @TCtreeswinger Thank you for the thoughtful responses! I like this idea of giving a timeframe as opposed to a specific date, then confirming shortly before, and telling customers we’re a little more booked out that we are for that extra cushion.

Our challenge is we don’t have a lot of redundancy- no back-up equipment, and barely enough staff for two crews. On a good day, we can run two crews at two different job sites but often the jobs we get are big and require everyone and almost all the equipment (crane, bucket, etc).
 
You will never get away from it entirely.

I don’t schedule fixed dates more than a week or two. I’ll give folks a ball park idea.

Sometimes I will leave a day open per week, or a few days at the end of the month. This allows me to shuffle things around a bit.

Another way is to schedule backwards. Fill the last days of the month first. If you can’t fill the month, you can start bumping folks up. Most of the time they are happier to see you sooner, than having to wait beyond their scheduled date.

I use jobber, which give the clients a porthole link. They can see where I have them on the calendar if they wish. I also have it programmed to send out a email reminder when they are up on the list a set number of days before hand.
 
We tell people and approximate time range, i.e., “we are 3 to 4 weeks out”. And then about a week ahead of time we will give them a date.

We usually only schedule for days of the week, leaving Friday is open. If the week is going well, Wednesday afternoon we will fill in Friday. It’s never a problem to find a project to put in on a Friday, there’s always someone who is quite willing to let you show up early and on relatively short notice. Small projects are great for that too, and if there is an opening there’s always something at the shop that needs washed.
 
I fought this too...Finally my solution this year was to schedule all of my bigger jobs the first 3 days of the week. Thursdays I leave open for catch up for rain days/emergency jobs/delays due to breakdowns, and then on Fridays we have a scheduled maintenance/bid day. I will schedule small jobs, or jobs close to home on Fridays to fill up the day. You can always bump jobs forward then if you end up having extra time. I was amazed at how this program eased the scheduling headaches!
 
OasisTree said:
I fought this too...Finally my solution this year was to schedule all of my bigger jobs the first 3 days of the week. Thursdays I leave open for catch up for rain days/emergency jobs/delays due to breakdowns, and then on Fridays we have a scheduled maintenance/bid day. I will schedule small jobs, or jobs close to home on Fridays to fill up the day. You can always bump jobs forward then if you end up having extra time. I was amazed at how this program eased the scheduling headaches!
Click to expand...

This was close to my strategy this year as well. We tried to leave a day every 2 weeks open for weather. The problem wound up being we didn't get any rain for 8 weeks so I got a little comfortable scheduling all of my days.... Well now we have lost 3 days to rain in the last two weeks. One of those days we had to complete storm damage all day so that client (very understanding gets moved 6 weeks out to our next available make up day. At least its not to the end of the list, 10-12 weeks.
We try to schedule our big projects the same way so we aren't busting stones on Friday trying to blast out a crane day or leaving debris over the weekend until the log truck or grinder can get out.
You will never get away from it totally. You just have to roll with the punches. One thing that really helps us is our estimate/jobs/invoicing is attached to our scheduling so its easy to see what needs to be completed still and easy to see where people are on the actual days.
 
This is what we do


We are a 2 man operation though, and wife does the office work (scheduling, billing, accounting) part time...usually. Since July it has just been the 2 of us...thankfully I think we finally found a employee again. We rarely answer the phone directly, but always return calls within 24 hours. Any questions towards scheduling, we direct them towards our online calendar. Our customers seem to love it, they can check on it whenever they want to check for changes.

We build in "flex" time for rain days etc. If these flex days don't need to be used for weather etc, then we use it for the next extreme hazard tree on our list ( usually a dead tree).

PS- We been booked out for 6 months in advance (all year around) for 2-3 years, and have not been taking new clients (unless referred) for over a year. Currently booking new accepted jobs in July. BUT I have been in business since 2002 and developed a really good reputation as to work quality etc. Also one of the few certified arborist in my area. Getting back to people within 24 hours has also been a game changer for us...we get tons of jobs because no one else is getting back to them.
 
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