[Ian Gourlay]

John do you book them into your diary at the time of cleaning for next clean

[Dynafoam]

Ian,

When I wrote my database software many years ago, I included two fields, one called "Cycle"  and the other "Memo_req".

At any point I can run an applet which compares the current or up-comming month with the date last cleaned and the cycle period (eg 12 months), then if memo_req is set to "true", that customer will appear on a reminders list.

Having said this, for the past several years I have not bothered as customers tend to mark their calendars and phone me a couple of months before the clean is due.

[Mike Halliday]

John, how many customers do you service per week? your circumstances seem perfect, no advertising and all customer traced back to an original 9 clients.

unless you only work 2 days a week  

Mike

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

A lot of people must be getting very exited as its less than 4 hours to Tuesday

Cheers,

Doug

[Len Gribble]

Doug

Not really here they and everywhere, Thursday Great one job be home by 2pm.

Len

[Dynafoam]

Hi Mike,

I have been through the 7 days a week stage but try to get most of the weekend time to myself now, with perhaps an early job Saturdays and Sundays.

I seldom do more than three jobs per day, some days only one, but that could be 10 hours or more. Tomorrow I have  about 1200 sq. yds. of commercial carpet tile, which I recon to be enough for one day.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

John although you have a data base do you find that some clients need a gentle reminder?

and how do you remind them?

Shaun

[Len Gribble]

Shaun

A very very gentile reminder not received it!

Len

[Dynafoam]

Hi Shaun,

Most customers no longer get reminders from me, but there are some (mainly commercial) who never make appointments. They have left the scheduling entirely to me - I just turn up and do what I feel is required. For example the Chinese restaurant I did this morning I do roughly every 3 or four months. I have my own key and alarm code and they get a nice surprise when they open up in the evening - and a not so nice one when the invoice shows up 

These are useful jobs to have, because if I get a last-minute cancellation, I have these as stand-bys. on the other hand, when pressurised to do an urgent job, these are the ones that I squeeze out, and sometimes by the time I do clean them, I have a harder job because of them being left too long. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

that's the way the fortune cookie crumbles!

I was mainly thinking of domestic reminders, perhaps Mrs didn't want to or forgot to book in for next year how do you get them to book for it. I appreciate if they don't want to book they will not but I send out reminders and the response I get is a 'welcome response' as clients often forget to put their shoes on the correct feet.

Shaun

[Dynafoam]

Shaun,

Some years ago I did use to use the facility built into my database programme.

I use to phone the appropriate customers and say "It's your carpet/suites' birthday next month - shall we book the party?"

The call was always well received, but there came a period when I was allowing myself to work seven days a week, getting home late, with half a dozen messages on the answering machine and I found myself spending half the evening on the telephone. The only way to reduce the phone time was to cut out the reminder calls.

Having broken the habit, I find that most customers have been educated to the benefits of planned maintenance and do not need me to hold their hands.