Hello all! I have already contacted some university employed technicians regarding my dilemma, but I thought I would offer it up here for any further insights you all might have. My wife and I just relocated due to extreme saturation of technicians in our old hometown. We jumped at the chance to take over an established business from a retiring technician in a different area, and indeed I have had more work the last 6 months than the entire 2 previous years spent in a saturated market! There's still room to grow but my insides are saying, "Oh! This is what it feels like to be a working piano technician!" (and its great) Though Walla Walla is small (about 50k population) we boast 3 institutes of higher learning. I was elated to get my foot in the door so soon with two of these, and have done everything to respect the longstanding relationships they have had with other tuners in the area. The first sign of trouble came when the head of the piano department at the college politely informed me that were I to maintain my prices at their current level, they would be unable to afford my services. I know for a fact that my tuning fee is quite similar to the competition in question, and soon realized they were objecting to a new charge for "pitch correction" showing up on their invoices. A charge they had not seen before in decades of service. I had a decision to make. I could stop charging for pitch corrections or I could provide an additional service discount on all of my work, such that the average cost of maintenance would be comparable to the competition. The opinion I hold, and have heard echoed plenty in the guild, is that pitch corrections are a separate service, extra time and energy, and should be charged separately. In the field I feel it is unfair to make one family subsidize another family's neglect by incorporating pitch corrections into one flat rate for everyone. In a spirit of openness I decided to level with the the head of the department, and so requested a bit of his time. I came loaded with technical bulletins, pamphlets, journal articles, etc. just in case. It turns out he is well aware of both what a pitch correction is and why it is necessary. I was glad to hear that the previous technicians were performing the task but dismayed to hear they simply charged the same for a one pass touch up as for a hairy multi-pass job. Colleges are underfunded enough, and already expect world class service at Wal-Mart prices, and to hear that a precedent is established for systemic freebies, gives me pause. So I got to thinking about the whole institute of learning environment, vs tuning in the field. It also set me thinking, from the university's perspective, about a "vendor" style relationship (involving no contracts or benefits), versus a salaried employee relationship with their piano service provider. I offer teachers discounts in the hope that they will send me more business. The concept seems sound. I offer referral discounts to all my customers to encourage word of mouth. So it seems natural that this should be extended to a university calling me on a vendor basis. Though I have no guarantee of future business, I want to keep them happy for the potential of a reliable work source. But where does one draw the line at "wholesale" pricing. 50% off field price? 70%? At present I am simply charging the university as I would a family and then giving a 25% discount off all work done. I'm happy with this arrangement for now, it allows me to fit into the business model established by the college. My problem is when I open up a grand and pull out a dust bunny 2ft long, telling me that piano hasn't been opened up in a good decade at least. This theory is supported by abysmal regulation (hammertails seized by backchecks, resulting in stuck keys), deep string grooves on the hammers etc... While other practicerooms have almost new Kawaii grands and are in good shape, the others are essentially wasted real estate for the music department.The students hate them, and avoid them, so the Kawaiis get played 24/7, accelerating their deterioration, and the cycle continues. I do everything in my power to let families know, there is no such thing as just a tuning. I always incorporate some other service into a service visit and hope to inspire them to learn the joy of a dynamic, functioning piano. Why should my ethic be different for a university? From practice room, to classroom/studio, to performance halls, these pianos are not getting enough attention. The college gives a $4,000 annual budget for 40+ pianos. Considering the performance hall might get tuned 15-20 times a year, whats left for the rest? They're lucky to get annual tunings, leave alone regulation or voicing. Yet the college is a private college, with national recognition, and great pride in art, architecture, faculty, curriculum. How does one inspire a college to view their pianos technical health as just as much a hallmark of prestige as the green hue of the grass in their landscaping? Assuming the budget becomes available, can a college attain a year round, consistent level of performance from their pianos without hiring a staff technician? Even if it is a part-time position, it seems vital to me because it gives that technician discretionary authority to make maintenance decisions, without constant thought of justifying cost, etc. How can a "vendor" truly tie his/her reputation to a college when only being paid and given access to pianos episodically? The head of the piano department is entirely on my side, has tried to petition for more funding and the creation of a technician position, with little success. He is excited to hear that I share his concern for the neglected pianos and has asked that I put together a more detailed analysis of what a possible year of maintenance "should" look like. This would give leverage for bringing our concerns to higher administrative positions. The easiest solution is simply to say, give me a salary and I'll figure it out. If I end up having to work overtime for no additional pay, so be it. This seems to be the plight of most university technicians that I've spoken with. But here it seems I need to come up with the budget and maintenance forecast, before any hope of funds are made available. I intend to write something up, broken into 1) practice rooms 2)classrooms/studios 3)performance pianos and establish a criteria for minimum performance for each category, then provide an educated guess on how many man hours are required to maintain a consistent level of performance throughout the year. I own the field guide for estimating time of various repairs that is published by the guild. This is a perfect example of an attempt at such time forecasting, but one can not predict what will be required in any given year. Is there anyway to support the claims I make, and to keep my estimates grounded in reality? 1) 4hrs tuning a year per practice room, 1 hr preventative maintenance/discretionary repairs per practice room per year (rolling voicing/regulation) 2) 6 hrs tuning per classroom/studio per year, 1hr...., 1 hr voicing per year, 1 hr regulation 3) 20 hrs tuning per performance piano per year, 5 hrs...., 3hrs..., 3hrs.... ? Sorry for the length, guess I'm making up for never having posted before, and I've been thinking about this way too much lately. Thanks so much for your thoughts! Greg Arnold www.welltemperedtuning.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070208/dde089e3/attachment.html
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