How to Ask Customers to Wait for an Appointment
An HVAC contractor in Kansas asked:
How do we tell a customer we don’t have any immediate appointments available without losing their business?
EGIA faculty member Weldon Long began by saying that no company is going to be fully staffed for peak season, because that would mean having extra staff not active during a shoulder season. As a result, Long suggests that before even getting to the point of telling a customer to wait, find ways to prevent this kind of situation as much as possible, through cross-training your techs and optimizing your techs’ service schedule.
Long also said that finding ways to use extra time to service clients that weren’t necessarily scheduled for any given day.
“I’m always trying to take advantage of any slack I have in the schedule on any given day,” said Long.
Long continued that if the situation can’t be prevented, then one should try to rely as much as possible on the previous relationship with the homeowner.
“If you’re in Phoenix and there’s no air conditioning, they probably can’t wait five days. If you’re in Colorado in the dead of winter, they probably can’t wait five days for a furnace,” said Long. “So in those situations, to some degree it will be out of our hands, if the homeowner makes that decision. However, our relationship with that homeowner will hopefully impact that decision that they feel like its worth waiting for us.”
Faculty member Gary Elekes also jumped in, explaining that one of the more pervasive issues was simply having enough crews for jobs and managing your job board, as well as pricing your service and whether or not a crew is working Saturdays and Sundays. “There’s also a company philosophy of ‘are you looking to take on multiple day-type jobs?’ or are you trying to make sure that your company isn’t doing that type of work,” explained Elekes.
Elekes also mentioned making sure that crews should be completing jobs in one day, even if they have to stay late, instead of leaving and then finishing it the next day. “Once you get to that second day with the crew you’re essentially killing off the day,” said Elekes.
Our faculty members have also answered questions on other topics related to sales in the contracting world, including How to Dissuade Customers from Cancelling Installs and Dealing with Comparison Shoppers.
Hear more from our “Ask The Experts” faculty members on “Cracking The Code,” our weekly web series.
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