Advice re: angry potential customer
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I know this may not be the right area to ask this question, but I couldn't find anything better so I thought I'd try.Last week I injured my foot and have been off of it completely until today. I injured it late Tuesday night and had to cancel Wednesday appointments during the morning. I rescheduled to this week, by priority.Over the weekend it did not get better, and I decided to wait until this morning to see if it felt better and then to decide whether to call the doctor. As soon as I got off the phone with my doctor with my appointment, I called my morning appointment - the same one I had to cancel last week. I called a good two hours in advance, but she wasn't there, so I had to leave a message, asking her to call me to reschedule to tomorrow or the next day at her convenience.Anyway, that is background. She called in a rage while I was at the doctor, an hour and a half after I called her, hollering about unreliability and how I called her half an hour before my appointment and how I wasn't worth being a proadvisor.I tried callling her back when I got back to my home office but she didn't answer. I left her an apologetic message. I wasn't sure what else to do.The gist of my question is this - should I have called her over the weekend outside of business hours like she thought I should or should I have waited until business hours as I did?Maybe it's a dumb question, but I've never had this happen before.
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You could have called her over the weekend(I don't know that I would have), but I don't believe that it would have helped. She may have something else going on that is bothering her that caused such a reaction.
I would not call her again, but a brief note explaining what happened to you might smooth things over. Handwritten notes are a classy move, and you can't go wrong. If she is still angry, write her off(unless there really is something seriously wrong in her life).
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Thank you for your take on that. I am often available in the evenings for clients, so the weekends have always been off-limits for me. I guess sometimes other people think differently.
I like your idea about the handwritten note. I will do that.
You're probably right that something else was bothering her. I was probably just the trigger to have a way to let it out.
Thanks again.
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Even when I worked at home, and my den/office was next to the kitchen, I refused to answer the phones when I wasn't working. If my office was in another building, I couldn't answer the phone since I couldn't hear it, so even though I could hear it I treated it as if my office was elsewhere. Otherwise people will take advantage of you.
Stand your ground! No work on weekends!
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Life is full of curve balls! Yes,maybe you could have called her over the weekend. But, her abusive behavior has nothing to do with the unforeseen circumstances we all have sometimes. For the most part this woman is verbally abusive & has no right to personally insult you.
You handled yourself extra professionally by calling her after her tantrum.
This client is not worthy of your services.
