Appt. Book by Area?

[Mamabearwith2]

This may sound like a dumb question, but I'd like to know how all you Seasoned Mobilers schedule your clients. I'd like to be able to schedule all my appointments by area, but how do you do that at a glance in an appt. book? Let's say you have a client calling to book an appt in a peticular area. How do you know where you'll be per day just by looking at your book? Do you use abreviations? color coded pens? How do you set this up as far as keeping an organized appt book?
Also, once you've booked that client, do you have them fill out an info/liability form? I'm lost (LOL! no pun intended) on what to do.

[HoundLover]

im not a groomer but...maybe you can have set days for when youll be in each area? depending on how many areas you service...(say you service 3 areas and work 6 days a week.) so...say you have 3 diffrent colored highlighters. yellow,pink and orange. Yellow is for area 1, Pink is for area 2, and orange is for area 3. this way if they are looking for an appointment you can tell them...well i will be in your area on thurs and friday.this way you can memorize which color is which area and youll be able to tell at a glance...okay...area 3/orange i have an opening on friday at 3. and your not scrambling to remember which area is which clients. or you can have set days...ie,,mon and weds your in area one, tues and friday your in area two and thurs and sat your in area three. i dont know how many areas you service so i dont know if this would work for ya...but maybe it will?
just an idea
Hound

[Soap]

Scheduling is the hardest thing to get the hang of when you're new. Here is what I do. Say you have an appointment already booked for Wed. in town A. If anyone else calls and lives in that area, you book them on Wed. If they can't take that day, you start them on another day that's open and book other callers for that day too. I try to encourage the saller to book on the day that I am already there. If they can't do that, I let them know I will not be back in town A until xx date. Now a person calls who lives in town B. You would book them on a different day, and add others who call for town B on that day. Of course you have to take into consideration traffic patterns, road work/construction, and if you will be sitting in rush hour traffic. If this doesn't make any sense you've got the right idea.

[syphol]

I always have the same set days going clockwise around a map of my city (this is just an example not how my city is really laid out). I am always available for the open "middle" as that is where I live and I and overlap parts in some days. This works out really well for me and since I do this I save a ton in gas.

[Gracy Rose]

Syphol, do you schedule your own appointments or does your boss do it for you?

[syphol]

It depends. She schedules about 1/5 of them, new clients which call while I am out driving and she is available to answer the phone. The others I schedule either by answering back emails, phonecalls or just rebooks (about 3/5 of our business are pre-booked).

[azoci]

Scheduling Headaches

No matter how you try, when you first start up, things will be kind of all over. But once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to schedule clients for certain areas on certain days. I have had to do this...I have clients way over in Tempe, and way the other side (like 30 miles in Queen Creek...I just have to mark it in my book, Tempe Day, QC day...after a while, you kind of get the hang of it, and can slide client around to fit where you will be. Regular clients are a lot easier to do this too, ones that you pre-book.

I pre-book about 95% of my clients, so I have control of where and when, then if I have a slot , I can fill it will a new client that fits in. This seems to work for me.

When I move to my new location, I will have to start thye process all over...learning new territories and locations, then placing appointments where they will fir better.

[Fur Elite]

Ditto on Soaps method. It is simple and easy. You can even apply it to half days if the distance you are considering isn't that far. I will often book out of town appts on half days in the afternoon so I don't have to deal with morning traffic on the highway and can drive there quicker with less hassle. I use this method in town as well just with different neighborhoods. Even though they may only be 7 miles apart, I like to drive as little as possible!

[catgirl]

you'll get the hang out it quickly.

it's a bit hard in the beginning, many times you will start to accumulate clients in certain neighborhoods and this will dictate where you will be.
always give new clients cards and info for their neighbors cause they WiLL BE be asking. you can also offer 1st time discounts for neighbors. decide which areas you will be covering, and then pick a day for each town. like every tuesday you're in cherry hill. in the beginning you can book 2 nearby towns in one day. get the large street map book and make copies and keep them on hand. even if you make a smaller diagram so you know which towns are closer to other towns for when you are talking to a new client on the phone.
i prefer the month at a glance so i can see multiple weeks at once. that way you can say i have an opening on the April 1st, a 3pm on the 7th, a 10 am on the 14 , etc.. just writing the town in each block/day works.

[Kim in SD]

Sounds like everyone has a similar method. Here's what works for me.
I have a desk calendar. Before I had regulars, someone would call. I would put the time of appt., the name, what kind of groom, and area on the first line. On the top I would write the area in big print. No color coding needed this way. That day is now for XXXX area. I cover a large area, I pick one day for each area. At first there's really no way around wasting some gas. As far as maps the Thomas Guide is what I use.

[Verna C]

Book by Area

We use the week at a glance appt book the name of the area we will be in is written at the top of the column. Sometimes, with an outlying area, we can pick up an appt on the way back in. This is a biggie, try to schedule against the traffic patterns Ex. when we are heading home it is clear sailing BC all the homeward bound traffic is going the other way.