How do you handle a "no-show"?

If they were late or not there and did not answer the phone- I would ask if I could come back after the next appointment or at the end of the day. Its not your fault they were not there. Its terrible when that happens- runs you way behind, but I have never had a problem with the client understanding.

Drop 10 and punt. And do what 2 clean said.

I wait 15 minutes past the scheduled time
then leave a card that says call the office to reschedule.

I think Kevin has got it...appointments are made for a reason. If they complain, politely apologize and inform them you have another appointment you have to make. If they're going to make that big a stink about it they're probably going to try and tear down your work after you're done anyways...

Agree with Kevin. Reschedule for next available. I will NOT inconvenience other customers because of another customers tardiness. It's not fair to my customers who are ready at the appropriate time. I will not work late either and inconvenience my family... Life is to short.

1-Cuss like Hell

2-Wait about 15 minutes

3-Cuss alot more

4-Leave

You did it perfectly IMO. We have schedules to keep and if this client really does not understand that then you fire her/him! We confirm the night before and this basically eliminates this ever happening though. I can think maybe 3 of these in my 17yrs. They always apologize and understand though. What was this person saying that would upset your wife like that? I would handle that real quick, I promise you that! My wife answer our phones as well and is the sweetest person and anybody being unreasonable gets to talk to me! I have tore a few people a new one if you know what I mean through the years. You know, those people nobody can please, hate everything and treat you like the hired help whipping boy. Like other post said, life's to short to put up with nasty people.

When a client becomes verbally abusive to any employee or in this case "your wife" - They're not qualified to be your client. Money doesn't come before family or employees ever. Obviously many good points already mentioned regarding tactics -but when it comes to verbal abuse I have a zero tolerance policy. People will treat you how you allow them to, just saying.

Had a customer yell at my wife when she very politely called to remind him that he was late in paying for our services. I promptly turned him over to collections since he wasn't going to be reasonable. Maybe a little hasty, but he was asking for it.

Depending on what manic state i am in that day

1. Hang up

2. Laugh Out Loud

3. Become Irate and yell back, i love to argue.
Have you noticed

a friend of mine put it to me like this if you go to the doctor and you are late, they tell you to reschedule period and next time not to be late and then they charge you a fee for the technically canceled appointment. Well why do we not do the same thing demand respect from our clients to be on time. I personally do not have time for tardiness and or unruly clients. So I was having issues with that for a while, and fixed it real quick, I give my client a 2 hour window of time to show like 2-4 pm then I tell my clients that I give a 30 min lead time curiosity call prior to heading to their appointment, so they do not have to wait the full 2 hour window for me to get there at that point they usually give me two numbers to reach them. If they do not answer I don't even make the drive, unless they are a regular customer and I know I can trust them to be at the house. I also figured out that the only people that do not show and cell phones disconnected are the ones that can not usually pay for the service to begin with. Once I raised my prices I soon figured out that I had a different kind of client.

Now don't get me wrong I will do alot of things for clients but driving around to a house for zero dollars does nothing for me so I would rather go to a house that is there and will answer the door or phone and have the money to pay me.

I do not have this problem any longer.

Once they start using foul language remind them the call is being recorded for "training purposes"

I had something simular like this happen last year.. I did an estimate for basically to clean the entire home top to bottom. Furniture included..
After a 30 minute drive to custy's home. I knocked and rang the doorbell.
I patiently waited for about 5 minutes at the door then out to the Van to make the call. No answer on home phone, no answer on the cell. So I called her business line. and she was not in the office.

I started to worry a little bit. Gave a healthy 20 minute total wait. Things happen..
And going on 20 minutes now and time to leave. I give the bell another go at it. And she answered the door completely naked. and her hubby was standing right behind her also completely naked...

Needless to say it got a little too wierd so I handed them a thank you pamphlet/doorhanger questionaire and turned around and walked off.

Completely red in the face. and appalled of their juvenile actions.. I wonder if they ever called STANLEY?? It was their $99 special for new customers I handed to them.

Guess they thought you were lookin good that day.

I have taken it a step farther. Because someone calling at 6 PM the night before to cancel still leaves an opening on a route, even the day before it's tough to fill because we service a large area and we'd have to find a replacement in that routes area, usually hard if not impossible to do.

Our custy's have to confirm their appointment by an e-mail we send after the booking call. They don't confirm, they get booked over, they are told this when they schedule.

Among many more constructive things, the e-mail states the cancellation policies, cancels less than 48 hrs ahead - $25 fee, cancel less than 24 hrs ahead, $50 fee, we arrive at your home, you are not there, $75 fee (we do call ahead 30 min).

Yes, we get a lot of people that cancel when they get the e-mail, we have chalked it up to those that thought they might like to have a cleaning the day and time they scheduled, as long as nothing else came up.

All our rigs are overloaded for 3 weeks out - I don't want or need those sorts, not one bit.

Between all our vans, we lost typically the total of a full route each day, now we are maybe one cancellation and one no show a week.