Got caught off guard

I was working on the van today when the phone rang....number looked familiar and thought it was a buddy of mine. Turned out to be a customer looking to schedule a cleaning. I was under the van with a hand full of oil and grease and obviously without my schedule in front of me.

I tried to wing it and ran through some dates that I knew were open next week, but she couldn't find a workable one. So, we ended up into the next week and I had no idea of my schedule. Not wanting to place her on hold to run to the office, I shot from the hip and booked a day.

Now I know that I booked badly and have an event out of town on that date. So, my options are to call her back and try for another date, which will take me into the 3rd week and likely lose the job, or roll with it and try to free up the time to knock out that job and keep the other appointment. Leaning towards the latter at this point.

It sure pays to stay prepared and organized....I wasn't. You never know when a job will come calling or when you will need a business card. I have to stay better prepared for both.

Been there, done that. Be upfront with her, offer her something extra. "Mrs. A, I mistakeningly double booked you and I already had a job that day/time. So what OTHER day works?."

Good luck.

Whenever I take a call and book a job with out my schedule in front of me I always explain this to my customer and before the call ends I tell them if there is any problems on my end I will notify them as soon as I look at my schedule.

It happens to most of us, I hate when you are in the middle of something never fails oil and grease are involved hands covered in it and phone rings.
I did this not to long ago myself...PM called and set up time to clean 3 occupied units about two weeks out..This time of year two weeks is pretty safe to say yeah sure...NOPE that day was booked couldn't believe it.

At least I am not alone.

I guess it was a pride thing that screwed me. I didn't want to sound like a guy lying under a van doing repairs, so I acted like an organized manager to keep up an image on the phone. End result was an ooops.

Next time, I let the voice mail take it and I will call back when cleaned up and ready to discuss bookings.

Here's a tip, always use disposable rubber gloves when working on the van or TM, and have your schedule near by, if it's a repeat customers I usually tell them that I'll call them back in a half an hour or an hour and they are usually OK with that but for most new customers I would never schedule them without knowing my schedule, you never know who you're dealing with, an obnoxious OCD can give you a bad review online just for asking to reschedule their appointment.