Mike Hoffman, RPT posted: >>Here's a couple of questions I'd like to ask our experienced and seasoned technicians\business owners on the list. How do you deal with teachers that have multiple pianos? My situation is this: I tune for a teacher that has three pianos in her studio, which she tunes twice per year. (They all have climate controls, so the pitch level stays fairly stable ). She has now asked if there is any way to tune them more frequently, say monthly(!) so that they sound good all of the time. Needless to say, she's thinking that the money will be about the same. So I've been considering a monthly service contract idea. Have any of you had success with this sort of thing?<< ______ Mr. Hoffman, You never indicated whether your current situation is verbal or contractual. Assuming it is verbal and assuming you have had not problems with being paid to date, why would you want to change your relationship with this teacher by introducing a written contract? Based on the information you provided, tuning a piano with a Dampp-Chaser system twice a year to twelve times a year initially sounds like an excellent opportunity to increase revenues while spending less time. However, tuning alone will not make a piano "sound good all of the time" just because it is tuned twelve times a year. Other factors, such as regulation skills, voicing skills, quality of instrument, etc., enter in and become paramount to meeting this objective. If these other factors are not available, it won't take long for someone to become unhappy. Instead of a quantum leap from two to twelve tunings per year, it would seem more reasonable to increase from two to four tunings per year (a 100% increase) while exploring these other factors. Then, if more is desired, wanted, and/or needed, it is a simple act to up the ante until...Bingo. Keith A. McGavern, RPT Oklahoma Chapter
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