in September & you really have to be in the right mood for Christmas music - which I only just managed to stomach yesterday when my boyfriend called me from the services on the M1 & they had some awful Christmas hit blasting through the place, the name of which escapes me right now & if I have my way, it will stay that way or I'll be humming it for the rest of the day.

 

2007 Gown Commissions.

Now that it is December & '07 is fast approaching, I might as well turn my attention to 2007 gown commissions & update the diary status, which is basically that I am fully booked for the first 3/4's of the year (2007). If you are an Autumn/Winter '07 bride & would like a gown consultation, I would suggest you get in touch sooner rather than later.

 

Consultation deposits (refundable):

In line with the problems I have been facing with non-attendance of consultation's & after considering all my options & the feedback from diary readers via my survey & my clients, I have decided to charge a £50 deposit for consultations.

Details: A £50 deposit will be required in advance (via cheque or Paypal.com) to secure Chantal Mallett's time when booking a gown consultation. Chantal assigns bridal gown consultations 4 hour time blocks & offers very flexible appointment times, so the deposit has been introduced to help reduce the amount of time wasted waiting on clients who choose neither to cancel or attend & so that customers who do wish to attend continue to enjoy the benefits of such flexible appointment times. The deposit is required to guarantee the client attend the appointment or cancel 24 hours or more in advance of the appointment. Providing the criteria above are met, the client's deposit will be refunded in full regardless of whether the client books Chantal Mallett's services. If a client fails to cancel an appointment 24 hours or more in advance or does not attend their appointment, they will forfeit their deposit. This consultation fee will be applied to all Gown consultations from 1st December 2006.

I would have preferred to have kept the status quo & carried on trusting that ladies that booked consultations would honour their commitments but it has become all to apparent that a number of ladies do not feel the need to cancel appointments (see October diary) or to follow up non attendance with any explanation for their absence. If I had a shop & had 9-5 opening hours, non-attendance would not be such a problem but it is explained on my confirmation emails I send out to ladies whom have booked appointments that I am not a shop & may be opening up especially to see them & this year I can count Sundays & a holiday Monday among those appointments which were simply no shows.

It is my experience that the majority of clientele do not fall into the above category & I hope potential clientele will not be put off by the introduction of a deposit & accept, albeit with a sigh, that in this day & age it has come to this.

     

As an interesting aside: accessory appointments have a far higher attendance rate & I am still deciding whether it is necessary to introduce a deposit for accessories.

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For those that fancy spending five on a survey, here's one I'd love you to do: