Rush Jobs

[kodydog]

This year they have kept us going during our normal slow season. Question is,

Do you simply tell them to get in line?

Do you make empty promises?

Do you make an effort to juggle your schedule and fit them in including working extra hours?

[MinUph]

This year they have kept us going during our normal slow season. Question is,

Do you simply tell them to get in line?
Sometimes

Do you make empty promises?
Never at least I try not to.

Do you make an effort to juggle your schedule and fit them in including working extra hours?
Yes to juggling but no to overtime too old for that.

[sofadoc]

Do you make empty promises?

I'm very careful not to make ANY promises. In fact, my exact words are always "Sorry, but I can't make any promises".

This answer usually doesn't fly with anxious customers. They try to pin me down by re-phrasing the same questions over and over, until they think they've got the answer they want.

[kodydog]

We picked up two chairs about a year ago. It took that long for the customer to get her fabric. She called the other day and asked Rose how soon would they be done. Rose told her as soon as we had the fabric in our hands we would give her a completion date. The customer kept insisting on a date but Rose stood her ground. We now have the fabric and will start the chairs in two weeks.

Yes to juggling but no to overtime too old for that.

LOL, yes.

[mike802]

I have this little post on my blog on my website:

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone, if you have a project that you would like to have built, or reupholstered please don't hold off getting in touch with us. I say this because it only takes a few projects to tie our work shop up for months. It is not uncommon for us to be booked ahead by 6 to 12 weeks, and that's before we can start a new project, not finish one and this does not take holidays into account. As a master craftsman, I do not relish the stress of deadlines. As a business man I understand work must be completed in a timely manner, bills have to be paid. It is always a balancing act between the two. But with proper planning the two can and do work together, so please plan accordingly, I really don't like to see people disappointed, but I refuse to let deadlines become the master. Your years of satisfaction with quality workmanship and art are worth far more.

And I stick to it.  All timelines given are estimates only, it's hard sometimes because we all realize the importance of making our clients happy, but in the end my business seems to run more smoothly when I run it not my customers.

[Darren Henry]

I have a little sign in my shop

A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine

[Mike]

I shouldn't but will take a big money job and get them what they want  that delays other smaller jobs longer then they should ive got one now id like to have done last month .
but I have one small job 4 cushions on a boat , a repeat customer. anyway he got the price then waited  10 days or so to get them to me and told me how soon he needed them.  I told him impossible he was going to call around    cool          so 10 more days pass and  the seats are dropped off   get them as soon as I can.

[Mojo]

We will juggle the schedule to fit in an emergency job. Orders from dealers always go to the front. When we are booked one week out we tell them 2 weeks. If we are booked 2 weeks out we tell them 3 weeks.

In every case Ingrid always delivers a week ahead and she comes out being a hero to our customers.  I just read a post on an RV forum the other day about one of our customers going on and on about what a rock star Ingrid is because she delivered a week ahead of time. :)

We always get calls from someone who  just lost a slide topper in a wind storm. We will knock that order out right away as a slide on an RV without a topper can spell disaster from water getting in around the slides.

Mojo