Scheduling work

Keenanlog

Keenanlog

Location
Raymond, NH
I am just small time, just me and one other person usually. As of lately (this season) I have been getting a lot of customers who want to be there when the work is performed. I dont mind this at all, however it makes scheduling tricky working with their schedule, especially when they cancel or reschedule (this morning had an oak prune, the customer picked up a shift and asked us not to come) that really infuriates me. I am thinking about implementing some kind of contract upon excepting our quote, something saying that we will give a courtesy call the day before but the day we can come is the day we'll be there, not that blunt but along those lines. Does anyone else do this and what is your feedback from customers? Thanks for any insight
 
Is there something that you are currently doing that is making them want to be home?
We rarely have the issue of the home owner wanting to be home during the work.


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I tell people it costs more to schedule a date, as I can't absorb the extra costs of them wanting to be home.

I charge more on electrical line-drop jobs, as well, where I have to work my week's schedule around the line-drop, as it costs me more.

Alternately, they can be presented with a flexibility- discount.

When you have a doctor's appointment, your basically in line for a 20 minute session with the doctor. There isn't an 330p-350p guarantee. Might be 320p , or more likely 410pm that you actually see the Doc.


Some people might mistakenly think that Mom and Pop are available at their convenience.

If you need the work, you have to give more.

If you're in demand, you can set the terms more, if you can walk away from the job.
 
Thanks for the replies. I don't think it's anything I am doing, besides being nice. Sometimes I think being too nice is a downfall. I can kind of understand if we are doing a crane job, or a bigger removal(s). But these little half day jobs, or pruning jobs I just don't get it. It's really only this season it's started. I am not hurting for the work, I don't want to say no either (something I know I have to work on). I also dont have anything after they agree on the work besides a confirmation Email. I am thinking of something signed (still through email) that just binds them to the work and the date that is available next. There is weather to account for, unforeseen circumstances that are out of our control I would have to account for too I guess. This last week has really got the wheels in my head turning about this.
 
I get customers wanting to watch all the time, some outright say that they want to be there when the work is happening; and others just happen to be, an decide that even though its cold and windy out, that it is a beautiful day to sit out in their lawn chair and watch a tree come down. Basically it boils down to being entertaining/interesting to watch and as long as they are not in the way and keep a safe distance I let them. I think some of the draw is that such a small company (I either work by myself or with my wife) can safely take down a tree that in this homeowner's eyes in huge.

I usually do not set a date with the homeowners on when I will be there except on rare occasions, when I bid the job I let them know that I am X amount of weeks out and that I will give them a call about a week in advance to let them know what day I will be there. To date I have not had a customer that insist on being there, cancel at last minute. If I did I would probably, politely remind them that if I could not do the work during this window of time that they may have to go back to the end of the line.
 
The watching doesnt bother me. If it's at a distance. If someone asked to schedule a specific date that was far out past my workload already, I would probably accommodate that knowing I will fill in the gap before then. Just something I have been bothered by this season and want to implement a remedy. Thanks for the all the replies and insight
 
Keenanlog said:
The watching doesnt bother me. If it's at a distance. If someone asked to schedule a specific date that was far out past my workload already, I would probably accommodate that knowing I will fill in the gap before then. Just something I have been bothered by this season and want to implement a remedy. Thanks for the all the replies and insight
Click to expand...

Its a hard problem!! We get this all the time with people wanting to be home to watch. I actually really dislike the customer who wants to watch the whole day. But thats just me. We come to town sometimes with 5 different trucks and it is entertaining to watch. My problem as the owner and working the job is often the homeowner wants to talk to me all day.
In regards to scheduling I make it clear that we are booked up for several months and if they cancel....they loose their slot and move to the end of the line. If I have to make the cancelation then I try and get them into the schedule ASAP. We also always have about 5 or so floater jobs that we can throw in last minute if a customer cancels. Or, just make a phone call and bump someone up earlier that was scheduled later in the month.
I would just use really good communication and make it known that they have a slot in your schedule...and your schedule is in demand!!
 
I've had the occasional customer who wants to be present when we are working. No matter how good you are or how good of a reputation you have there will always be those customers that have to eye ball everything. Or the customers that are never satisfied. Or the ones that tell you how to do your job.

I regularly communicate with my customers on a regular basis about scheduling. My cell phone is my business phone so I will usually text my customers back and forth when we are on the way, status of the project, etc. I like to keep them informed of everything that's going on because it makes them feel better, at least from my experience. I guess you could try speaking with the customers when you originally win the bid and explain that you have a set schedule so unless it's an emergency situation it would be helpful if they do not cancel and stick to the original plan? I try to make the customers understand things from my position. If you have a weekly schedule set up and the customer bails on your original date, it can throw everything off. Maybe try to explain the situation.
 
We normally don’t have an issue. Every now and again we will get one client that wants to be around but we try to give 2 weeks notice or so to give us flexibility to make everyone happy. The verbage we use goes some thing like this:
“we will be out, the week of X with our target day being Monday. Weather and other projects will play into our final schedule. We will do our best to keep you informed on our progress on your project.”
Every once in a while even the special words don’t work for some people, and we wind up dancing around trying to get a date... but thats their date, if they pick up a “shift” we will be there working!
 
I dont mind when the clients wants to be there for the most part. Its a great way to demonstrate our technical prowess to the client. It fosters good communication and good client relations. What annoys me is clients that want to be there for a half hour PHC application. PHC is so dependent on weather and the variables involved with scheduling up to 20 jobs in one day. I try to make it known up front that hard scheduling for small PHC jobs is not likely as we need the flexibility to account for these issues.
 
We set firm dates. Generally we stick to them. We have a "catch-up" day penciled in for every other Friday, and we'll reschedule someone if we have to make something work. Usually they understand.
 
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