Why are horsey professionals SO bad at communication?

[BrokenArrow]

This is more of a rant than anything else.

But horse service related people are the worst people I have ever experienced in professional fields for communication.

My PRE mare had surgery for a fibrous lump removal last year on her fetlock. Initially, the vet thought it was cancerous and she went to the Uni for her surgery to remove it. Surgery all went smoothly but it’s been a long recovery path with some bumps along the way. I was recommended a lady who’s done some brilliant work and gotten some hopeless cases sound again when the vet said to retire them. I chatted to her at a show and all is well. She’s had a case like my horse’s before and put me in touch with the owner and vet of that horse. Both had wonderful things to say about her so I said let’s give it a go. At this stage, I’m willing to sit naked in a puddle with a birch branch to get that 5% soundness under control and back to 100%. She does shockwave therapy, along with cold laser, massage and acupuncture.

The problem is I can not pin this therapist down for a date. Last week it was “maybe Friday, will let you know.” This week was apologises and let’s try for Friday again. The same thing as Friday came around, couldn’t get a definite time off her after a few text messages to try and pin down something at least. I get that people are busy and on the road but if you can’t do it, at least come out and say it’ll be a few weeks before you can slot me in. Or SOMETHING. Instead of vague promises.

Same thing with coach shopping at the moment. Mine isn’t doing clinics up here consistently anymore and I need some eyes on the ground. My first choice has gone to Europe. Second is booked out. The few recommendations I’ve gotten have never gotten back to me with phone calls and text messages sent.

How do these people stay in business? When I was running my own small boarding stable, I put aside an hour every night to get to the emails, phone calls and text messages I hadn’t got to during the day. Phones these days are so simple to send back a quick text, same with emails. Even my farrier has learned to text (and Facebook) which has made life so much easier for him. Even he admits that.

It drives me insane. If the therapist didn’t have such glowing recommendations, I’d just give up. But here I am, having a rant about it. Yet still sending her yet another text, because she never answers the phone, to try and pin a time down hopefully for this week :o

[clanter]

I had my own businesses, after years of doing all phases I narrowed the offering to corporations only because I just got tired of dealing with individuals.

She may be checking you out prior to commenting, I would especially after the incident in New Jersey I would want to know just who was this person who was contacting me as I was not soliciting new work

Frustrating yes but prudent

[ToN_Farm]

Many people like this stay in business because they have more clients than they can serve. Instead of just telling a new client that they don’t have time or don’t want to help them, they either don’t answer their phone/email or make appointments they later cancel and have no intention on keeping. This isn’t limited to horse people. I find it happening all over.

[Bluey]

Oh, no, horse people may be slow to communicate, but they don’t hold a candle to those in construction.

The tales we can bring to the table are epic when it comes to getting anything done that involves construction/remodeling.

Like 2 1/2 years to finish the end of the overhang and saying all along he would come in a few days and then doing other!
Finally had someone else finish it.
The odds and ends that are still to be done we can’t do ourselves?
No telling when we can get someone to do them.
The biggest hurdle, as you found out, is getting anyone pinned down and then getting things done.

My opinion, some have more work than time, have good intentions but little motivation and just get careless.
Especially the very good ones have become divas, know their value and work at their leisure.

Saying that, the well organized ones are priceless, indeed.
We lucked one remodeler for a small job that excused himself when he was a week late and then got here when he said.
Had an excellent crew that got things done well, cleaned after themselves and were gone right away, leaving a job well done and happy customer behind.

You have to weigh if waiting on someone is necessary, or keep looking if the horse needs that now, like farriers.
Ours is a week behind, but I expect that we have been over 100 for a while now is making him late.
You can only do so much out in that heat.

[high_hat]

Well, I could say something about the people who set up lesson times and then just don’t show or come for one lesson and never come back. Sorry you are having this issue but not everyone is a bad communicator. At this point I would move on as they don’t really seem that interested in helping you.

[OverandOnward]

You can cut down the stress in your life by moving on from anyone who doesn’t respond after 2 attempts to communicate. Don’t do 3 attempts - if they respond then, it’s almost worse, because you’ll end up doing business with someone who will always be a pain to schedule.

Make that a filter, so you’ll be working with people who respond. Life will be so much better.

It doesn’t matter how wonderful they are professionally, if they aren’t going to work out due to scheduling. As high hat and others said, this individual doesn’t have a place for you and can’t say ‘no’.

A lot of people don’t want to say ‘no’ because they either don’t know how, or else they fear that doing so will close the door permanently on a potential customer they may need later. It’s not a realistic point of view but I think it’s widespread.

Maybe your next (and final) message to this person is “If you don’t have a place in your schedule for me now, that’s ok, perhaps we can work together sometime in the future.” You haven’t burned any bridges, in case they are needed later, and things will be more comfortable if you do run into them someday.

[2DogsFarm]

OP: try not to tar all “horse professionals” with the same brush.
Your issues with the therapist & a new coach are 2 different issues, but could be rooted in the same result.
Those who do not respond - in what you consider a reasonable timeframe - are not interested in working with you.
Move on to Next,

My Pros: vet, shoer, hayguy are all responsive & have been my GoTos for some time.
Vet is newest as my former vet of 20yrs+ retired his equine practice last Fall.
Shoer has been with me over 20yrs as well.
Hayguy going on 5yrs+ - his predecessor had almost 10yrs in when he became unreliable < but also in his 80s by then, so…

[Scribbler]

I would say these folks are probably too busy with clients and life to run the scheduling side of their lives. They don’t have a receptionist to do that. Either they are super busy long term, or their business just spiked, or they are in a particularly busy part of their year. I bet serious coaches towards the end of show season are run pretty ragged.

[BlueDrifter]

@2DogsFarm, I wouldn’t pin it on the OP and you are VERY LUCKY to have responsive and consistent service, I don’t think that is the norm – at least not with farriers, lol.

I think the horse service business attracts a horsey person and one that doesn’t like being confined to schedules and expectations, a more “free spirit” if you will.

I hate having to keep my schedule open while I wait and wait for my farrier to get back to me about scheduling a day and time. They won’t make appts in advance, preferring to be “flexible.” I don’t use the barn farrier, and that even happens to the them, despite 10+ horses that use him and a “schedule.”

@OverandOnward , what great advice!! Maybe chase them down for a one-time consult, but you are right, doing an ongoing business will be frustrating.

[Equisis]

Sorry you’re dealing with this. If I’m having an issue like that, I tend to ask them outright- just say, thanks for the effort, but I understand if you don’t have time to take us on right now. Generally you’ll get an apology and an agreement that the arrangement won’t work, or you’ll get an appointment time. Easier that way and no playing games.

Its possible that she has a very busy schedule with existing clients and is having a difficult time fitting you in around her existing commitments. Horse people tend to be awful with scheduling, and if she is committed to regular work for people, she may be at their mercy to some degree. Once you get on her schedule, this might be solved, or it might be ongoing. Something to ask about before you begin therapy.

[caevent]

Because they get into the industry to talk with the animals, not the humans! Lol. Sounds like her business is thriving and she’s not that motivated to take on a new person. Sorry she’s not being direct and concise with you.

[OverandOnward]

OP, is there a larger barn that uses the services of this therapist, scheduling appointments for multiple horses at a time? Such customers usually get the scheduling priority. If the barn and the therapist are agreed, perhaps you can trailer over to meet your person there.

One root problem that I find some service providers have with scheduling is admitting to themselves that they can only do so much, and no more.

Parsing out appointments can be like having a plate of cookies and a shop full of customers who all want one. There are 10 cookies and 15 customers. Who doesn’t get a cookie? But sometimes the cookie-baker can’t really acknowledge that they don’t have a cookie for everyone. They can’t bring themselves to make the choice of who doesn’t get a cookie. They may try to divide some cookies, or chop up all of the cookies into smaller pieces, hoping to spread them around. Only to find that no one got what they expected and now everyone is unhappy.

The cookie-baker may also unrealistically think that more cookies are coming. so somehow everyone will get a whole cookie if some customers can just wait a bit. But the additional cookies have to be spread around even more new customers, and/or may already be spoken for as needed for the existing customers who didn’t realize how many they needed. It’s easy for the cookie-baker to become overwhelmed and not quite understand how that is happening.

Or, the cookie-baker becomes overwhelmed with requests for cookies to the point that she stops trying to respond to them all. (Very common these days.) That’s when not getting a response really means that the shop is out of cookies, and the proprietor is so busy baking cookies for existing customers that she doesn’t even have time to post a ‘no more cookies’ sign on the door.

A time-based business is the same with hours, parsed out as appointments, in the place of cookies. There are so many hours in the day, therefore there are only so many appointments that can be filled each day. There are even computer programs that help manage time slots for larger and more sophisticated businesses with multiple employees involved in each time slot.

A one-person service provider will either catch on to this and do well at time management by tightly managing their daily time slots and developing standard polite communications around scheduling, or they won’t, and will do terribly at it. The ones who don’t get a grip on it will end up losing out in with frustrated customers and lost business.

[gertie06]

I’m going to jump on this rant wagon if there’s space. I was in love with a sale horse I saw online recently. Ironically, the seller contacted ME through FB, not the other way around. She knew I was looking.

After being very communicative on FB messenger, I tried to pin down a date to visit. It involved air travel, so we needed to be on the same page. It took me chasing her three days to get a “yes” on a date. By that time, the tickets had gone up $500. Tried to find a new date, had to chase her around again. Finally said, “We need to talk on the phone.” Called her twice, left voicemails. Still waiting a week later. Lady, do you want to sell the horse or don’t you?!

Guess I have nothing helpful to add except my empathy!!!

[OverandOnward]

I had a similar horse buying situation. Had found a horse, was able to assess him and intended to buy him as soon as the PPE came in all clear. I was scheduling the PPE to be done at the farm, so the horse didn’t have to leave the farm and the current owner at the time (a busy horse pro) didn’t have to do anything but make the horse available. If the PPE was clear, it was sign the papers, pay, load and go.

I could not get a return email, text or phone call from the seller. Because I wanted this horse, I put in a little more time trying to make contact than I will usually do. Then on two consecutive days my phone call went dead almost as soon as it started ringing, which is most likely the recipient seeing the number and sending it to voicemail. I also contacted another individual who knew the seller to ask if the seller was still trying to sell the horse, and this individual said she was sure they were and would ping them to answer my call.

On day #5 of the attempt to schedule the PPE I decided to give one more day with no more attempts on my part, to give them a little space to get back to me. They did not. So I concluded they were not serious about selling at this time, whatever their reason. In any case I do see a lack of communication as a warning sign of future difficulties, even for a one-off deal like buying a horse.

I moved on and within a couple of weeks I had found another horse with a seller who communicated beautifully. This seller was cooperative and responsive. The PPE came through well, I paid for the horse and brought him home. The whole process took about 4 days from the time I saw her ad to the time I loaded the horse in my trailer to bring him home.

A couple of weeks (weeks!) later I get a voicemail from Guess Who. Yep, the seller of horse #1 wanted to know when we could set a date for the PPE so we could complete the sale. I very briefly replied that as I had had no response to 5 days of attempted contact, I was now the owner of a different horse and was no longer in the market. The seller sounded surprised. :o I did see about 3 months later that they finally sold their horse.

[CHT]

I find it is usually the people who don’t have an answer they think you will like, that just don’t give any answer. My one farrier is like that (hence why I have a second farrier now), and I have also found that when shopping (I always assume the horse is lame and they want to put me off a few days, or someone else is looking and they are hoping for a better offer). I really try not to be like that, but sometimes I get an email or question I sit on for a day or two before replying as I need time to decide how I want to respond.

[BrokenArrow]

We FINALLY pinned down an appointment for tomorrow. I got a text through this morning asking if XX time was suitable for tomorrow. Thankfully it’s also perfect timing as I’ll be finished work and home well before she gets there.

At last.

[Beck]

@BlueDrifter

I think the horse service business attracts a horsey person and one that doesn’t like being confined to schedules and expectations, a more “free spirit” if you will.

This has been my observation.

In addition, I have to agree the lack of prompt response is universal and not confined to ‘horsey’ professionals. I have often thought business must be good: nobody seems to be ‘hungry’ enough to respond to inquiries any more.

[TMares]

I can text my farrier on Sunday, get an answer on Monday, and firm up our appt on Monday.
My vet calls me back next day on non-emergencies. My old vet is a Facebook friend, so she was right there I did not abuse that privilege.
My trainer texts back same day.

I texted a house painter and got a reply that evening, a visit and a quote w/in a week, and he’s starting Wednesday.

So some of ‘them’ are ‘us’ and they don’t suck LOL.

[TMares]

To the OP- if that therapist has a full plate of customers, then you are not a priority. My DH is a contractor- one-offs don’t get priority over known entities with a good schedule and payment history. That’s just how it works.

[Foxtrot_s]

When you find someone who is solid, reliable and good at their job - value them - I’ve had my ‘team’ for ever, and only would change them if they left town or retired or something.

Instructors, tho, are a different breed often…