What do you guys do when...

[bigchaz 157]

I cleaned a deck for customer "A" on Monday the 15th. It rained today, rain tommorow, and I'll be out of town Thurs through Sunday. I never told the customer I would be going out of down.

Customers B, C, D, and E are scheduled for next week. B and C expect me to be there first of the week.

Do I make customer A wait until after B and C are done(24th or 25th)? Or do I need to notify B,C,D,and E and push them all back to accomodate customer A asap?

Also, how do you go about approaching customer A with the potential notice that his deck won't be done for another week and a half? Sorry for the junior question, im usually able to put in double hours or saturdays and stay within 2 or 3 days of target, but going out of down potentially puts this deck 10 days off schedule.

[RPetry 564]

Charlie,

Learned this a long time ago in the wood business. Your customers have to understand from the start that the weather dictates the schedule. As well as customers that signed on for service prior to their contract. Not them, not their wants or even supposed needs. Its a deck redo, not emergency heart surgery.

We always give a customer a "projected" schedule, with a start date sometime within a week. They are made fully aware that this can change, either earlier due to a stretch of good weather, or later in the case of a lot of rain.

... Do I make customer A wait until after B and C are done(24th or 25th)?

No.

Or do I need to notify B,C,D,and E and push them all back to accomodate customer A asap?

Yes.

[Greg R 82]

Charlie,

Learned this a long time ago in the wood business. Your customers have to understand from the start that the weather dictates the schedule. As well as customers that signed on for service prior to their contract. Not them, not their wants or even supposed needs. Its a deck redo, not emergency heart surgery.

We always give a customer a "projected" schedule, with a start date sometime within a week. They are made fully aware that this can change, either earlier due to a stretch of good weather, or later in the case of a lot of rain.

No.

Yes.

+1 .... make no promises that the weather can break for ya

[RPetry 564]

Charlie,

This will not help in your scheduling dilemma, but may give you a chuckle...

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

-- Steven Wright