.....appointment and the provider refuses to answer her phone or call you back! No commitment does not apply here at all! If a hobbyist won't make a commitment for a certain time, why should anyone expect the lady to be available to see him?

This has been and interesting week as I'm sure a lot of you have read. We had some bad stuff happen to me and one of my friends that caused us to miss some appointments and some emails. We have done our best to apologize and reschedule with the guys we missed, and have managed to make the rest of the week very good for everyone involved. Thanks to all for your support and understanding.

This situation brought up a couple of threads about NCNS, and it got me wondering about another issue...the no commitment, no show on our end.

My question is...how do you guys prefer to set appointments? I am open to emails, phone calls and even texts. I try my best to respond as quickly as I can to all, but sometimes I don't have my "work" phone with me, and may not see the call or text for some time. What is an appropriate response time?

On the other side is a question about handling the no show on our end? It hasn't been too bad this week, and we really have no place to bitch since we are guilty of it ourselves. But how should that be handled?

Also, a few times this week we had some email conversations with a few clients that went back and forth for a while, and then an hour or maybe two later, I get a confirmation email saying..." okay, 5 is great!," but by that time, I've confirmed another client for 5:00. How should that be handled? A couple of times, I sent a return email stating that the time isn't available anymore, how about this time, etc, and the response was...but, you told me..."

Like I said, I'm not bitching, I'm just curious what your take is on that. For us, we don't live here, and travel into Atlanta to work. We only have so many days, and so many appointments we can make. Believe me, I wish we had more time sometimes...lol. But, when we have someone we can verify, and confirms an appointment, we do that. Is that wrong? If I email someone an available time, how long should I give them to respond with a confirmation? I will usually try to hold a time for someone for a reasonable amount of time before giving the slot away, but sometimes that doesn't work either, because the other client is only available during a short window, so I take the sure thing, instead of hoping to get a confirmation from the other.

I just want to make sure I understand how I should be handling this situation in a way that makes sense to you guys.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say...I certainly hope this doesn't open up a can of worms, or bring up any drama, cuz we've all had plenty of that lately.

By the way! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! In spite of everything that went wrong early in the week, this has really been a great week for us, and we look forward to coming back soon.

Be Safe!

Ashley

In my job, when someone wants to make an appointment and asks if a time is good, I tell them that it is good now, better grab it before it gets taken.  You might water that down because it could come across as pushy in your profession, but the message is the same.

As for response time, the quicker you respond, the more likely you are to get the business.   I'd expect you to be able to respond between appointments, so 2-3 hours normally.  I wouldn't feel bad about moving on to another if I hadn't heard from you in that timeframe.  Also wouldn't hold it against you if you responded days later.  You have no obligation to respond within a given timeframe.

My personal preference is to contact by email because I like to have an idea if there is a rapport before indulging.  Because my hobby opportunities are unfortunately infrequent, there is usually enough time for this...

Good luck!

Huh....

Sounds like you've given some good thought and applied some straight common sense.  Congrats.  The dilemna you seem to have is with the delay in emails going back and forth.  I think you could help that situation by requiring all "firm appointments" to be made by phone.  You might even explain in your initial email contacts the reason behind this, e.g. To insure that the time you want is actually available at the time you decide to make the appointment.

Hope you never deal with NCNS in the same manner as someone else has done.  Glad you recognize that already.  Congrats.

... a provider or a client.  If you NCNS you don't get another chance.  Simple as that.  Why would you even bother with anyone who can't keep a commitment?  Nobody needs to get fucked without spending a dime.  Move on.  Plenty of other opportunities out there.

Regards.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pm me

You have a pm.

I think you are asking the right questions - but at the end of the day I think what you are finding is that it is a challenge to manage a business and "be" the business.  I suspect this is the reason so many use an assistant to handle the business end, and free up their (yours in this case) free to focus on your clients.

Personally I prefer emails, but I understand this can slow the response time and can result in crossed messages and more of a challenge in setting something up.

That said, I am pretty sad to see you are in ATL and heading out tomorrow, when I just got here tonight.  I have seen you before and you are a first class lady.  Wish you were going to be in town a couple more days.

I'll give credit when credit is due. I was one of the people that commented on the NCNS thread below and stated that though i want to see you, the NCNS was a deal breaker.

After reading your post and the questions you have, it's obvious that you care about what you do. Though a mistake/misunderstanding happened, you owned up to it...I'm impressed (for whatever that's worth lol) and look forward to meeting you in the future. If you'll see me, that is lol!

Sir Cumalot

Say you have an appointment for a dental cleaning but... the Hygienist's kid got sick and she's got to run to quick-care this AM. You might have made an appointment weeks/ months before, even confirmed by phone or email a couple of days ago, but today - suddenly there's no one to clean your teeth. Sure, there might be other Hygienists in the office but they have their schedules too and no one can work you in. 'Your' Hygienist says she'll be back in at noon - but has other patients to see in the PM. end-result: You get re-scheduled, plain and simple. You hear the lines: "We apologize that Sally was unable to make your appt today, but can we reschedule? What day/time works best for you after today?"

The difference in your situation (from my limited understanding) and the scenario above is: Front Desk. The Hygienist has an office manager/front desk/receptionist to notify and re-schedule her clients. You did not.

Makes a huge difference when you imagine that if you showed to the dental office for a cleaning (like above), there was no one there. No one answered the phone calls. Nothing.  You'd try to find another office. right?

Wishing you Safe Journeys, ga_kosh

This is for both providers and hobbiest-

Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Stuff happens. Things change.
If you can't make an appointment. Let the other party know. Call, text, e-mail whatever contact method you have.
Be curtious, be an adult. Try to reschedule if possible. Don't just blow it off.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.

for the rest,
I prefer e-mail for initial contact. Sometimes the entire preliminaries are done via e-mail.
Phone sometimes, almost never txt except to get final instructions on way to appointment.

As far as speed of reply, as soon as your can... within reason.
Guys need to realize you have a life, you have other appointments. Stay up on your messages, but don't go crazy.
I've been to appointments where the girl was till taking e-mails and/or txts after i arrived and before i left. Be professional, if you are with a client, turn you phone on slient and close e-mail. Once i'm gone, try and catch up!
Treat others the way you want to be treated.


Does any of this help?

Very well said FlaBoomer

the first to secure the appointment fully is the one who gets it. If you sit around waiting for "maybe" men you will have zero bookings.

Well, we're about to get on a plane home, and I wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted and sent PMs. It was great to get your take on the questions...and the support has been really nice, too.

Thanks to all who made this such a fun trip. We have to go home now, but we are all looking forward to coming back. We really did have a great time.

Till next time...bye all!

Holy Crap please do not be gone too Long ladies. Looking forward to all your returns.

-- Modified on 9/18/2011 2:34:37 PM

All of you are looking amazingly beautiful and thank you for sharing this picture with us Ashley! Travel Safely home ladies and we appreciate you bringing the fun to Atlanta!

Ciao

Hot!!!  Who are the other three ladies?

Things do come up and both need to understand.  Text or phone calls at the last minute work best in my opinion.  However, a complete no show / no call when one is standing at the door and can hear movement inside is completetly unacceptable.  And unfortunately you have been guilty of that with me.  Common courtesy goes a long way.

Hi,

The other ladies are my sister Brittney...in blue, Tesha in white print, and Callie in black. And, yes they are incredibly hot! lol

Thank you Sir!

I really do want to do the right thing in this business. I respect people's time, and do try to be professional in the way I handle my business. Things do come up sometimes, and things get messed up, but when that happens I do what I can to make it right.

Hopefully we can meet on my next trip.

Even if the requested appointment time has passed drop the gent a line if he did it by email or text.  It builds goodwill and shows that you acknowledge his interest.  I for one if I get no response from a provider  at all will move on under the assumption she is not interested in seeing me or isn't my cup of tea.

I know the ladies get a crap load of texts and emails that are just fishing so its also ok to push back or ignore the offenders.

-- Modified on 9/19/2011 9:58:19 AM