Unfortunately, it’s not viable for specialist businesses like Liquid Audio to maintain waitlists.

This doesn’t just apply to us, either. Very few owner-operator businesses doing specialised technical work with variable timeframes keep waitlists. There is one of me, and many hundreds of new and returning customers, each with unique equipment and requirements, making completion times variable/uncertain and waitlists difficult to manage. If some can manage it, good for them, but I cannot.

Trying to manage potential future bookings is difficult because:

• Customer availability changes, people change their minds, sell equipment, move on, etc
• My work and what each piece needs can never be accurately predicted
• Jobs that were predicted to be simple sometimes end up being complex and vice versa
• The management of these potential bookings would need a dedicated admin person

Given that I have more work than I can manage, without a waitlist, this just isn’t on the agenda. The solution is our booking process and booking status table. Each enquirer needs only to check as guided by the information in the table. This minimises wasted time for everyone, filters out those who no longer require our services and saves me from potentially hundreds of calls and emails.

But Mike, this doesn’t help me!

Actually, it does, because this process helps me, which helps you. It works well for most customers, but I understand that it won’t work for everyone and for those who disregard all of the above and expect a waitlist anyway, I apologise for not being able to assist.

Feel free to send an enquiry even if we’re full because it gets the ball rolling and may help clarify whether a job is viable or something we cater for.