Pianotech

My experience is that there are no certain days of the week that are more requested than others. Or, for that matter, more certain days of the week that are declined more than others. I have found that people that are working from home tend to have more flexible schedules than people that work in an office. For customers that are difficult to find time for I find that national holidays, usually on Mondays, are the easiest for them to take advantage of because they tend to have those days off. 

For me, if I want, or need, to keep a certain day to myself then I simply don't book it. I don't let my customers know that I am taking a personal day, or that I'm simply not available on any given Wednesday, (and since it's only one customer at a time my customer base will never see that as a trend), so I'd like to believe that to the customer that just means that I am busy and that day is fully booked. I'd also like to believe that if the customer sees me as busy and booked out for several weeks I must be good so they are usually willing to wait until I can accommodate them. 

I don't have an online calendar or provide the ability for my customers to self book via my website. It just makes controlling my schedule too difficult and provides too much exposure to the world to how I schedule my own time. It's none of their business. I send out reminder emails once a month. For the customers that reply I give them three dates/times to choose from, and that work for me, and let them choose. I'd say this works 90% of the time. For that remaining 10% I just work with them and accommodate best we can. 

The gist of this is that how you take care of yourself has to be your first priority. To me that means scheduling tunings when it's convenient for me. It also means that I will make exceptions for certain important, or special customers when the need arises. The customer doesn't need to know that I am not available on a given date/time and I don't need to let them know why. The customer only needs to know that I am not available and that a different date/time must be agreed upon. And that allows me to take care of myself. 

My experience is that there are no certain days of the week that are more requested than others. Or, for that matter, more certain days of the week that are declined more than others. I have found that people that are working from home tend to have more flexible schedules than people that work in an office. For customers that are difficult to find time for I find that national holidays, usually on Mondays, are the easiest for them to take advantage of because they tend to have those days off.

For me, if I want, or need, to keep a certain day to myself then I simply don't book it. I don't let my customers know that I am taking a personal day, or that I'm simply not available on any given Wednesday, (and since it's only one customer at a time my customer base will never see that as a trend), so I'd like to believe that to the customer that just means that I am busy and that day is fully booked. I'd also like to believe that if the customer sees me as busy and booked out for several weeks I must be good so they are usually willing to wait until I can accommodate them.

I don't have an online calendar or provide the ability for my customers to self book via my website. It just makes controlling my schedule too difficult and provides too much exposure to the world to how I schedule my own time. It's none of their business. I send out reminder emails once a month. For the customers that reply I give them three dates/times to choose from, and that work for me, and let them choose. I'd say this works 90% of the time. For that remaining 10% I just work with them and accommodate best we can.

The gist of this is that how you take care of yourself has to be your first priority. To me that means scheduling tunings when it's convenient for me. It also means that I will make exceptions for certain important, or special customers when the need arises. The customer doesn't need to know that I am not available on a given date/time and I don't need to let them know why. The customer only needs to know that I am not available and that a different date/time must be agreed upon. And that allows me to take care of myself. 

My experience is that there are no certain days of the week that are more requested than others. Or, for that matter, more certain days of the week that are declined more than others. I have found that people that are working from home tend to have more flexible schedules than people that work in an office. For customers that are difficult to find time for I find that national holidays, usually on Mondays, are the easiest for them to take advantage of because they tend to have those days off. 

For me, if I want, or need, to keep a certain day to myself then I simply don't book it. I don't let my customers know that I am taking a personal day, or that I'm simply not available on any given Wednesday, (and since it's only one customer at a time my customer base will never see that as a trend), so I'd like to believe that to the customer that just means that I am busy and that day is fully booked. I'd also like to believe that if the customer sees me as busy and booked out for several weeks I must be good so they are usually willing to wait until I can accommodate them. 

I don't have an online calendar or provide the ability for my customers to self book via my website. It just makes controlling my schedule too difficult and provides too much exposure to the world to how I schedule my own time. It's none of their business. I send out reminder emails once a month. For the customers that reply I give them three dates/times to choose from, and that work for me, and let them choose. I'd say this works 90% of the time. For that remaining 10% I just work with them and accommodate best we can. 

The gist of this is that how you take care of yourself has to be your first priority. To me that means scheduling tunings when it's convenient for me. It also means that I will make exceptions for certain important, or special customers when the need arises. The customer doesn't need to know that I am not available on a given date/time and I don't need to let them know why. The customer only needs to know that I am not available and that a different date/time must be agreed upon. And that allows me to take care of myself. 

Scott,

My most requested day is Friday, followed closely by Monday. Tuesday easily makes third place, and Wednesday and Thursday tie for least requested day, though I'm usually still busy on them. I don't work on the weekends. 

Something important to consider isn't necessarily which day you should take off, but how your business needs to change as your life changes. If you need to make X amount to live comfortably, can you cut 20% out of your business (working four days instead of five) and still hit that number? If not, what needs to change? Do you need to raise your prices to cover the difference? Or still plan to work on that day but don't schedule it until the beginning of your week? Maybe you can make it work taking only a half day off? These are all questions only you can answer. Don't assume you can make changes to your business model without consequences (positive or negative). The key is finding how to make those consequences work for you, not against you. 

Scott,

Good post as Journal editor and thank you for doing so. It brings up a good question for us all.

Since your additional duties with the Journal have unique demands on your schedule, you may consider asking yourself that same question: What days ask most from you? Maybe you could plan your calendar around your Journal needs.

If you have regular customers who like to call randomly whenever they need a tuning, suggest to them that they set up a schedule of regular service. Plan in advance. The ones who want to do so will stay with you. In fact, they will be glad for you to take the lead in doing so. The ones who are not organized enough to plan 6-12 months in advance for a tuning will eventually leave your scheduled rotation as you create your "slow down" plan to whatever retirement looks for you.

When you eventually leave the Journal, you will have blocks of time each month that you'll fill up with tunings. That's what I did to make up for lost Journal income. If you have practiced pre-scheduling well, you'll be in a better position to tune, pre-schedule, accept new customers, and pre-schedule them all. By doing so, you will be creating a 100%-full schedule. Eventually, you can give the rest of your new-customer calls to next-generation students you are bringing along. If you have not thought about who will replace you, you now have a positive thorn in your side.

-John Parham