Do you confirm all of your meetings?
Sometimes when I have time, I find myself confirming an appointment but there are times when I get so backed up that I don’t confirm. However, I show up where I am supposed to be (or, at least I try to).
I can’t count how many times I’ve been sitting at a diner waiting for an appointment to show and that person doesn’t show.
Because of this, I decided to start confirming all (or at least most) of my appointments. But that doesn’t always work.
For example, the other day, I was planning on meeting an old colleague of mine at a local diner. I emailed him. I sent him a message on Facebook. And I tweeted him that I would meet him at this diner at 8:30 am the following morning. When I didn’t hear back from him, I assumed that we were off. I didn’t want to spend more time sitting in the diner waiting for a no show. So, I didn’t show.
At 8:30 am, I get a call. “Where are you?” my appointment asked me. I will still at home.
“Since you never got back to me, I thought we were off,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
“I did write you back,” he said. I never got a message from him.
Later in the afternoon, I not only got an email from him, but also got a Facebook message and a tweet. Mmmm, I wonder why I didn’t get these earlier? I thought.
The next week, I was meeting another colleague at a restaurant in the city. I sent him a confirmation email via Facebook and didn’t hear back from him. I assumed he would be there. I got to the restaurant five minutes early and waited. The waiters kept looking at their watches and looking at me. I wondered if my appointment would be a “no show.”
Fifteen minutes went by and I decide to order food. At that point, I was starving. Will he ever show? Then I started to think, did I write down the wrong time? I checked Facebook. No, it was the right time — 12 noon.
Another fifteen minutes went by. My food came and I ate it quickly. After the guys cleared away my plate, I decided it was time to leave.
Later that evening, I got a message from my colleague apologizing because he had a crazy day at work and forgot about our appointment. No worries, I wrote to him, you just stood me up… I’m used to it!
I ask you, what do you do when you don’t hear back from someone to confirm a meeting? Do you go anyway? Do you stay far away? I would love to hear your responses….
