Appointment Scheduling Changes
UPDATE: I’ve modified this to reflect the fact I’m now using a straight waiting list system.
Click the appointments button above to get on the list.
The whole ‘lottery’ or fastest-finger-first system for getting an appointment was a bad idea. Sorry about that. Nobody likes waiting lists but they’re much more fair. Sorry for the messing about.
I’ve crossed out the obsolete instructions below but left the rest there for the sake of history and context. And to remind me of my terrible idea.
Hi there.
I'm making some changes to how I schedule appointments here at Haze Guitars. It's necessary that I do something to try deal with the fact I've recently been booked out for long periods of time, leading to a long wait for many people.
The short version is this:
I'll be running with open periods for booking appointments from now on. I'll open my schedule for a number of weeks (four to six) and you can book as usual. When all slots are filled, I'll stop taking appointments until the next open period.
During the closed periods, you can leave your email address to be notified when the next appointment open period begins.
The longer version has more context if you’re interested:
When I stated this job, I did what most others did. People called with a guitar, I held on to it until I worked through what was in the pipeline before it, and then I repaired that guitar. This was fine for a while but, as I became more busy, those times got longer. I moved to an appointment system. There was still a wait but, at least people had their guitars during that wait (which was good in all but the most catastrophic repairs). Once the appointment arrived, I turned around most stuff in a day or two. Yay. Everyone's happy.
But, I became more and more busy. In 2022, I regularly had a three month wait for appointments (three months because that’s what I make available in my schedule at any given time). I tried adding a 'circuit breaker' closed period in late summer to see if it helped but it didn't—a week after reopening appointments in September, I was booked to the end of the year.
Don't get me wrong: This is what people call a 'good complaint' for a business owner and, being completely honest, there's a big part of me that quite enjoys feeling like a rock-star repairer. It's fantastic and I really (really!) hope this sort of demand means I'm doing a good job. However, I know that it sucks for someone who just wants to get their guitar fixed quickly.
So I had to do something. I've run through a heap of ideas in my head and none of them is ideal. Because I typically over-communicate these things, I've outlined some of the stuff I've considered.
Make no changes and continue to expose a rolling, single day of availability at the end of my three-month window. This is less than ideal for you and for me. It's a very long wait for you and it's a little overwhelming for me. Plus there's that thing of catching the new day's appointments before someone else does. I don't want this to be like the closing seconds of an eBay bidding war.
Drop my appointment window to one month instead of three and let the rolling day be only four weeks away instead. Better. Less of a wait; not so overwhelming but the thought of someone waiting until midnight rolls over to book an appointment with me is just too weird.
Expose six months or a year of appointment window instead of three. Are you trying to kill me?
Specialise and turn away 'less involved' jobs. Just take on the complicated repairs and pass on the setups and similar. Oh, god no. Apart from feeling like some sort of elitist, I like doing that other stuff. I'd go nuts if all I had to do was neck resets for ten hours a day. And who am I to tell someone who wants me set up their guitar that it's beneath me? No. Not this.
Increase prices to manage demand. This is probably the proper business school response (maybe: I've never been to business school). And maybe there's something to it but I don't think I'm enough of a ruthless capitalist that I could increase prices to the point where it made an actual difference. I put a lot of thought into my pricing. I charge what I think is a fair amount for my time, effort, and expertise. I'm not cheap but you definitely shouldn't believe that anybody's getting rich in the guitar repair business. I charge enough to try to get a reasonable income after subtracting taxes and all the other stuff. When I revise my prices, it won't be to manage (or capitalise on) demand.
Take on additional help. There are plenty of nuanced arguments here but I can bypass them all and say, "I just don't want to." I like my own company for long spells of the day and I'm happy working alone.
Change how I handle appointment 'windows'. Yeah, I think this is the one has to happen.
So, open periods for appointments. That’s the plan.
I'll open appointments for a period of around four to six-weeks and notify people. When all appointments in that window are filled, I'll close appointments until the next open period.
Is it ideal? Nope. I think it's the best option right now, though. It's more open and seems more fair than that rolling one-day window at the end of my appointment period. The four-week windows are not so annoying for you and so overwhelming for me. The downside is that, if you contact me when the window is full, I'll have to apologise and promise to notify you when appointments are open again. Like I say, not ideal but, in most cases, not the absolute end of the world. I've spoken to a number of other busy repairers and techs around the world about this, and open/closed periods seems to be a common way of handling things. There's a general consensus that it's the least-bad route.
So, that was long, wasn't it? Sorry if I rambled but I felt I owed it to you to give you the fullest picture I could. I'm not taking any of this stuff lightly and I want to let you in on my thought process as I try to work through things. It's amazing to know there are enough people who want my help that it's causing a long wait and I want to try deal with the implications of that as fairly as I can.
Thanks for bearing with me on this long post and thanks to all of those who have been patient enough to wait for an appointment. I can't tell you how much it means.
Drop me an email to gerry@hazeguitars.com if you need to give me your thoughts (or if you want to shout at me).
Thank you
Gerry
UPDATE: See also, the update after opening appointments after writing this post.