I'd love to fix the quotes in GuiltyPleasures post two above but I can't make head or tail or it - could we
please try to be a bit more careful? I'll have another look when I get on a laptop.
I don't work from home, but that doesn't make me any less picky. If a caller isn't obviously immediate block material (where I end the call and hang up) then I have a kind of mental points system like an amber light rather than a red one. If they sound otherwise OK but do one of the things on it like not addressing me by name or greeting me properly, referring to bookings as 'meets' or asking if I'll 'meet up' with them (which for whatever reason is a pet hate of mine), asking for times/days I don't work and so on I'll let it go and carry on the call so they have a chance to get it right, but more than one and I'm suddenly fully booked for ever
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Most of the things are the same as the ones mentioned above, and the majority of people I turn away are those I've never met - I have a couple who still call that I wouldn't see again if I was starving in the street and I just don't engage with them at all; they're the ones who I don't even block because I don't want them to twig and get another number. I also turn bookings down if I'm too tired and about to go home which is lazy, but if I can't do my job properly I'd rather they came another time when I'm a bit more on the ball
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In terms of numbers I probably turn down two or three a day. More when touring, but then touring generates more daft calls, I find.