Online Poll: Appointment Schedule

NORTHBROOK, IL — Like a good doctor, how far out your appointment schedule is booked can say a lot about your business. So how far in advance is your company usually booked?

Fast scheduling can say your company is just getting off the ground, that the quality of work is questionable, that prices are too low, that competition in the area is too high, that you’re working too many hours, or a myriad of other things. Far out scheduling can say your company is well known and respected, that you’re not working many hours, that there’s simply no competition in the area, etc.

As frequent Cleanfax contributor Steve Marsh has pointed out in recent articles, types of customers can be placed into two general categories — those who are looking for cheap, no frills types of service (often of flooring in desperate need of attention) immediately and those who expect to wait a while and pay more for proven, high-quality work.

Marsh says those high-end customers expect to have to wait to get an appointment with your company, and if they don’t have to wait long, they may question how good the company really is. The opposite is true on the other end of the spectrum. If customers looking for the basics are asked to wait too long, they might go looking elsewhere for service.

With these ideas in mind, our most recent survey asks you, our readers, how long customers must wait for your services. Take part in the latest poll on your appointment schedule here:

Looking for the results of a previous poll? Visit our poll archive. There you can see the results of polls on a wide range of topics, such as how you pay your techs, what’s most important when buying a new truckmount, whether auto dialers work when fishing for new business, and many more.