I personally monitor my emails on my phone, as do many ladies I know. If I am not otherwise occupied, I respond fairly quickly. If I don't respond, I either have my phone off because I am occupied, am in flight, or I'm sleeping (such as a call I missed at midnight last night.)
I would give a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 2 hours for a lady to respond. If she hasn't responded by then, she is either busy, does not monitor her email frequently, etc. At that point, try contacting someone else. If the first lady gets back to you before you book someone else, fine. If not, tell her you booked someone else when you did not hear back from her. She should understand...it works both ways. We do not hold time open for someone who says he might be interested in sometime between x and y....if something else comes along that is more certain, we book it.I understand its not optimal nor the norm.
When you do need to, do you request from a few, and see who replies
Or do you contact one provider at a time and pray she gets back with you.
How long do you give a lady who has current ad?
Your thoughts if any?
I personally monitor my emails on my phone, as do many ladies I know. If I am not otherwise occupied, I respond fairly quickly. If I don't respond, I either have my phone off because I am occupied, am in flight, or I'm sleeping (such as a call I missed at midnight last night.)
I would give a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 2 hours for a lady to respond. If she hasn't responded by then, she is either busy, does not monitor her email frequently, etc. At that point, try contacting someone else. If the first lady gets back to you before you book someone else, fine. If not, tell her you booked someone else when you did not hear back from her. She should understand...it works both ways. We do not hold time open for someone who says he might be interested in sometime between x and y....if something else comes along that is more certain, we book it.
I am a rather spontaneous person and my schedule can change by the minute, much less days in advance. I hate to be canceled on, so I hate to cancel on others. The one way for me to be sure that I won't flake out on an appointment is to book same day.
The way I do things is to mainly use P 411 to book appointments. I contact my first choice, give her a few minutes to respond and if I haven't heard from her after 15 minutes or so I contact number two on my list. I always mention that I know that short notice appointments aren't always possible and that if our schedules don't mesh that day, we can always try again another day.
Another helpful tool is P 411's "Available now" section. Also I check to see if any of my favorites are "online now" which means I know they will get my PM right away. Lastly, if I haven't heard back from anyone in an hour or so, I contact one of my favorite agencies. It's not a perfect system I suppose, but it works just fine for me.
When I first entered the hobby I would scan the ads on a certain site (I know, it was and still is, hit or miss).
If someone caught my attention I texted her. If she didn't get back to me within an hour or so I'd move on.
More recently though, I've been booking more in advance. Depending on the provider. Anywhere from 48 hours to a week in advance. I guess I'm moving up in the world lol.
D