From: Mary Pat Raynor
Hey there ladies!
Last night after the dinner was cleaned up the kids headed upstairs to finish homework and get ready for bed, Glenn went to tackle some paperwork at his desk and I headed into my office in preparation for my 7:00 appointment. One of my skin care customers was coming over for a color makeover -- she'd called me a few days before to tell me she was looking forward to it and I'd phoned and left a reminder message that morning. At 7:30 Hillary came downstairs and saw my office door open so she came in (and found me at my desk making phone calls). "I thought you had somebody coming over at 7:00 for a makeover. What happened to her?" she asked.
I responded, "It doesn't matter. She's not here and it really doesn't matter what her excuse is!"
However, the urge was strong to "explain away" the fact that she hadn't shown up. Somewhere along the line, we have convinced ourselves that if the postponement or cancellation has a good excuse, the appointment still has value!
For example, "I had 2 guests coming to the meeting tonight but one had a daughter come home with strep throat and the other just got a lay-off notice from her job this afternoon, she was pretty devastated." How about, "My interview for this evening postponed because her husband had to go out of town unexpectedly this afternoon and she didn't want to leave the kids with anyone else." Or maybe, "My class for this evening rescheduled because the hostess just had her carpets cleaned this morning and they're still wet so she doesn't want guests over for a few more days!" So what!!!
It's not that people's life situations don't matter, it's just that we empower the canceled, rescheduled, postponed appointments by repeating the reasons to anyone and everyone who will listen!
3 appointments canceled, EVEN FOR GOOD REASONS, are still worthless!
A postponed appointment won't write you a check for a Miracle Set.
A canceled appointment won't sign a Beauty Agreement and become your new business associate.
A rescheduled appointment won't have a better day because you treated her to a facial and makeover.
I am reminded of one of my favorite Jan Harris stories, which goes something like this:
While plowing his field one afternoon, a farmer's tractor had mechanical problems and stopped working. He headed over to his neighbor's property and shared his misfortune with the farmer who lived there. "I was wondering," he asked his neighbor "if I could borrow your tractor for the rest of the afternoon."
"Well," replied the neighboring farmer, "I'm afraid I can't loan it to you. You see, my wife's making turkey for dinner."
Puzzled and disappointed, the first farmer asked, "I don't understand. Why does that make any difference?'
"Oh, it doesn't, really" the other farmer replied. "I just figured one excuse was as good as another!"
You see, the truth is, whether she had a death in the family or just decided to go shopping at Target, the result to us is the same! And if we repeat her "meaningful excuse" we're saying that there's somehow value in that canceled appointment because she had a good excuse! We need to do 2 things differently:
1.. We need to stop repeating people's excuses -- no matter how dramatic they are! Learn to say simply ( if asked -- if not asked, say nothing!) "she canceled", "she rescheduled", "she didn't show up", or "she postponed"! Period. By doing this, we will become more aware of the reality of working with people, instead of pulling the wool over our eyes by thinking every cancellation or postponement is somehow exceptional -- they're common and part of life! That will lead us to....
2.. 50% -- I said HALF of all appointments we book will cancel, reschedule or postpone. You may know this intellectually but do you really incorporate that knowledge into your schedule? Furthermore, it takes time for that law of averages to work itself out. For example, yesterday Margaret had a little math challenge to do. It required that she and I each take a coin and toss them simultaneously 40 times. She was to make a hash-mark each time our coins were the same (both heads or both tails). There were times when 6 or 7 tosses in a row our coins landed on different sides, then 5 or 6 all in a row the same -- but after 40 tosses exactly 20 were the same! In the same way, if you book 40 appointments, at the rate of 2 per week, over the course of 20 weeks (or 5 months!) you will hold 20 of those appointments. HOWEVER, it's completely possible that 6 or 8 IN A ROW WOULD POSTPONE OR CANCEL! That could be 2 months of nothing but cancellations! Or, 6 or 8 in a row could hold -- giving you a false sense that 100% of your appointments hold! But if you booked 40 appointments in 1 month, or 10 a week, even if 6 or 8 in a row postponed, you'd still have 2 - 4 to hold! And when 6 or 8 in a row hold, you'll have a $1,500+ week!
Let's deal with reality to create the success we have planned!
Go FOR IT!!