04/01/2023
Hi there.
I'm breaking my usual Facebook radio-silence to point at the elephant in the Haze Guitars workshop.
Monday was a little wild and so I feel like I need to say something to address the appointment situation here at Haze Guitars.
Last September, I booked out to the end of the year within five days of opening appointments. On Monday morning, I booked out five weeks of appointments in a couple of hours. I have no availability until I reopen appointments again in February.
I don’t know what’s happened to cause this crazy level of extra demand. Yes, my appointment list has been getting longer and longer over time but it's ballooned wildly in the last year or so. Full disclosure: I had to slightly reduce my working time for personal reasons but that’s nowhere near enough to account for the change I’ve seen in demand.
At first glance this seems awesome. Woohoo! I'm the Bruce Springsteen of guitar repair. Sell-out shows! Hurrah! The phrase everyone uses is ‘good complaint’ and, while that’s absolutely true from a certain perspective, if I’m being honest, this is the most stressed I’ve been about work for a very long time. I don’t like having to turn people away or make people wait.
As I mentioned on my blog, I'm trying out shorter 'open-periods/windows' for accepting appointments. My thinking for shorter periods is this: Last September it was a scramble/lottery to get an appointment and I had to turn people away for three months. This time, it was also a scramble/lottery but at least there’s another chance on a shorter time-scale.
Is that ideal? No, it's bloody not. The truth is, I don’t really know the best way to handle this (best for me and for customers). I’m not even certain there is a good way to handle it. It’s more than a little overwhelming (on a personal level as well as professional). I’m trying this for a while and will see how it goes. It feels like the least-bad method but I genuinely don’t know. I’m open to ideas if you have thoughts. Feel free to email me at [email protected].
So. That's a lot of soul-bearing there. I feel like it's only fair to discuss things, though. Yes, this falls very much into the high-end of First World Problems but I really hate telling someone that they can't get a guitar to me right now and I'm not sure when they can. More people want to see me than I can easily accommodate. It’s both flattering and overwhelming and I’m trying to figure out the best way to deal with it.
People are being really understanding (at least to my face 🙂) and I'm incredibly grateful for everyone's patience.
I don't know how this method will pan out but I'll do my best. I hope you can bear with me.
Thank you.
Gerry
