Early morning customer getting earlier

[Snugglepiggy]

We run a dog boarding/dog day care service from our home.registered and very professional and have very generous opening hours compared to many local kennels.All part of a more personalised service.
However one customer,who has also become a friend over the years has taken to arriving before 7am and sitting outside the house waiting sometimes 10 minutes earlier.She is very keen to get to work early and when the weather was bad I cut her some slack,but its increasingly annoying me as I feel it's rude.I am often still in the bathroom,on the loo or doing my ablutions and it makes me feel grumpy and pressured to open for business.A handful of other customers who don't seem take seriously drop off and collect times because we work from home and we 'will be in anyway' have taken advantage over the years,but I have been so tired lately that this recent early morning thing is getting me down.

So long as she's not knocking I would say don't give it a second thought, just get on with what you're doing and leave her to wait until 7.

It's not something you could really say to her, 'Could you stop sitting outside my house please, you're making me nervous'

Or you could try not looking?

Just ignore her until you are ready...she'll still do it probably as I suspect she's just making sure she does not lose a minute.

I know someone like this...always worried and likes to be early for everythign!

Yes...not looking is a GOOD idea! Keep the curtains shut etc...don't look.

Yes, I thought that about her being a worrier that she'll be late Neo, it's a control thing

I'm sure she'd be mortified if she knew it was causing you any angst OP.

As long as she's not knocking and expecting you to start earlier, then she's not doing anything wrong. At least she's waiting until 7am.

Yes, totally blank this, don't look, don't refer to it: just go about your business and open the door bang on 7. Be conistent with this and she will eventually work it out.

I agree. I work from home (teaching music lessons after school) and one pupil's mum routinely brought her early for her lesson. I would see them pull up outside but only open the door a couple of minutes before the lesson was due to start. As far as I'm concerned the time up til then is my time to spend with my family as I choose not to give pupils extra long lessons.

I'm a teacher in a private language school and if my students arrive early I politely ask them if they want to sit down but I don't start the lesson until it's time (unless I want to start early, in which case I finish early). I'm sure she understands that you don't open until 7, she's just an early kind of person. Do your thing, don't worry about business things until it's time to open.

I'd just leave her tbh - not something I would do but she's not doing anything wrong.

Yes guess that's what's I shall have to do.Guess Im a bit annoyed because when she's not in work mode she's actually not that punctual.I know because when I meet her she has kept me waiting.
I know she's had a lot of stress at work recently and I should be more tolerant.I have been opening the door bang on 7 and trying not to let such a little thing rile me.But a couple of days recently rather than waiting in her car she has taken to wandering around outside chatting to her dog and my cats and just generally making it more obvious she's there and tbh it's making me feel like moving my opening time back half an hour!Think I am just very tried and grumpy at the mo and the trouble with working from home it's so hard to establish and keep boundaries.Thanks .Just wanted a rant!

7am is an early start, I'd not be wanting to make it earlier in your shoes. You COULD say to her that you have nored that she seems to want to drop off early, so if it wold be more convenient to her you are prepared to open for her from 6.30am but that extra half hour will be just for her and therefore will be charged at twice normal rate.
If she's habitually late in her personal life then being over-punctual/early professionally must be galling.
Or else you could ignore her and open door at 7am.

If she's wandering around in your garden before you open you'll need to speak to her. You say she's become a friend, so there must be some way you can deal with this. If she's not encroaching in your space then just ignore it. You don't know, that 10 minutes wandering about might be her chill-out time to herself every morning.
Some friends of mine live near a school (don't get me started on entitled Bromley mums parking across elderly peoples' driveway...). Every day a lady parks up on the other side of the road, about 45 minutes before the school chucks out. After much speculating about her being mad to be that keen about bagging herself a space, we'd decided that she probably uses that as her own bit of quiet time, listening to the radio, or maybe reading a book.

Oh, and no I wouldn't be offering to open earlier just for her for double the price. For one thing, she'd probably pay it. For another, she might start turning up early for that time!!

I coach a specific sport/activity at a purpose built facility on our land. It bugs me so much when the parent bring their youngsters early expecting me to start the class there and then. Even worse when they (parents) let themselves in and think its OK to 'mess' around on potentially dangerous equipment despite knowing to wait outside until I am there. Now the building is firmly locked,meaning its really hot inside, until I arrive and I stay at our house, 1 mins walk away, until just before the start time.
Sometimes the polite subtle approach just doesn't cut it.

Take a look at the Childminder's forum. There is advice on similar situations there.

Could you send out a generic email,like a newsletter?
Just an update on what's happening generally. Then add in a few comments about opening hours & that because you are in a residential area,that you are unable to open earlier despite some clients asking about this service. As it is a residential service,pls be mindful when doing the doggy run. All bright & breezy & not specific to her.

You could adopt the good ol health n safety approach. 'sorry, we're not insured before 7am, we wouldn't want rover to have an accident and have to claim on your insurance' sort of thing.

I have to do the same with kids and nursery/school as I have to make sure we are there on time. We sit in the car have a chat, sing and when the weather is nice we might even get out of the car. Oh and we are never the only ones.

Could you not just ask her if there's a reason she's at yours so early - if she's barely getting to work on time when she drops off at 7 and it's causing her a problem at work, could you not agree to take her dog earlier (more £ f course) - but tell her you'll be in your PJ's - then once she's left do your morning bits & pieces?

Mind you, I'm known for being soft. I used to work from home and we had clients that would turn up really early and really late (they collected stock not live things - so no 'minding' involved!) and if I was in, I didn't really mind, as long as they didn't mind me being in my PJ's or whatever.

I couldn't just ignore her so I'd either have to take the dog in earlier or ask her not to do it (I'd probably say it's disturbing my dog/other dogs/kids/goldfish ).

LovesBeing - I think the difference here is that it's waiting outside the OPs house and putting her under pressure to open earlier... at school that isn't the case and even if you are parked outside someones house while you wait, it's not putting any pressure on them to change anything (even though it can be annoying to them in other ways).

Are you sure she hasn't dropped of her partner at the train station or something similar?
If that is the case, it may not be worth her going home.
If I drop my oldest two children at their school in the morning, I then have a 15 minute wait with dd before she goes into school, so we sit in the car and read.

TABU. Actually I think you are being a bit unfair. She isn't knocking on your door she is just waiting outside. Maybe she has to drop/pick up do something before or after that means she is always a bit early.

If it's important for her to drop dot on time she might leave a bit early in case of hold ups on the way to yours.

If she was knocking early then I could see the problem but she isn't.