Hi all,

Forgive me if already a post about this but I'm sick of some clients who think it's ok to text you constantly without making another booking

I was fed up of one who only saw me once last year but thought he could carry on texting until I told him where  to go.

This evening, a client who has only seen me twice keeps texting me,  He asked me if I was available today so asked him what time would suit him but he "didnt know" and would get back to me.

When I had to prompt him 2 hours later as to what time, he asked for tomorrow morning so asked what time in morning  and bloody   annoyingly said  "oh I don't know but can do  next week. but do you want to call me"

I said the big F OFF straight away.

Why are these guys doing this at the moment?

Bring back the good old days when they just wanted to see you and leave you

Unfortunately this isn't something new, approximately 10 years ago I stopped accepting text messages from new clients. This was because I found the majority who used text to book their first appointment turned into heavy texters. I used a template response for new enquiries asking them to phone, most then did indeed phone.The result was a great relief and for quite a few years I insisted on email or phone call. I did however relent as I found some were able to include all relevant specific details and sometimes text is convenient for me.

What I do to try reduce heavy texting is only work with definite bookings, I also preempt many questions. ' To book I need x,y,z' I might repeat this once, possibly twice but after that I move on and don't chase. Also I find sometimes it is easier to simply list availability, just depends who and how the enquiry is being made.

I used to get so fed up with text requests id ask for calls only they often didn't bother.
Some just kept texting stupid requests 
It was the genuine guys that called

Absolutely I was surprised how many will, similar now if I am needing to drive and receive a text, I send a brief reply asking them to phone - many actually will do this. If however the text is from a regular I know a quick text is all that is needed to set up the booking, or I can text them later.

If it's a new client, I stop answering after the 5th text.
If it's the one I have seen, I don't answer any texts that are not arranging the next booking (and again not more than 5 messages if arranging).