What to do when a customer keeps moving the date

Everyone has to move a job now and then. A child is ill, a delivery does not come, work gets in the way.

The problem is the customer who moves it three times. Each change costs you a slot you could have sold, plus the messages it takes to find a new one.

You do not need to fall out with them. You need a rule you set out at the start.

• First move, with two days' notice: free.
• Second move, or any move inside two days: rebooking fee.
• Offer two new dates, not an open question.
• Give your reliable customers the best slots.
• After three moves, ask whether they still want the job done.

A slot moved a week ahead can be refilled. A slot moved the night before cannot.

On a half-day job at £200, a late move is £200 you will not get back that week, even though the customer still means to have the work done.

That is why notice matters more than the number of changes. Build the rule around notice.

Keep it short enough to say in one breath.

• More than two days' notice: one free move.
• Less than two days' notice: the deposit is kept, or a set rebooking fee applies.
• A second move at any notice: rebooking fee, and the new date comes from your next free slots, not from the front of the queue.

Put it in the booking confirmation. A rule the customer saw on day one is a policy. A rule they first hear when they ring to change the date is an argument.

Keep the fee close to what a late change really costs you. A fair figure is easier to enforce, and it is what consumer law expects.

"When would suit you?" hands the diary to the person who has just shown they cannot keep a date.

Offer two specific slots. If neither works, offer two more, further out.

The serial mover often settles down once the choices are firm.

Early starts and the days before a weekend are the slots everybody wants. Give those to customers who keep their dates.

The customer on their third move gets what is left. That is fair to everyone else, not a punishment.

After three moves, ask the direct question: do you still want this done?

Sometimes the answer is no, and they were too polite to say. Sometimes money is tight and a later month is better. Either answer frees the slot and ends the chasing.

• Write your rule in three lines.
• Add it to your booking confirmation.
• Look for any job in the diary that has already moved twice, and confirm it today.

First move:

No problem, things come up. I can move you once free of charge. I have [day, time] or [day, time]. Which works?

Second move:

I can move it again. As this is the second change there is a £[amount] rebooking fee, as set out in your confirmation. My next free slots are [day, time] and [day, time]. Which would you like?

Third move:

Before I rebook, can I check you still want to go ahead? If now is not the right time, say so and I will take it out of the diary. You can come back to me whenever you are ready.