Hi James: I always take it as a compliment when someone is so interested in what I am doing that they will sit there during the entire tuning procedure. Sometimes I will engage in conversation in a limited way. I usually do not initiate any however, because I believe they hired me primarily to tune their piano and do whatever service is needed. For the occasional observer who has "perfect pitch" and who insists that s/he can hear better than I can, I do not get defensive about that. I simply explain quite briefly that tuning is a compromise and if they have a different preference than I for a note or two, I can afford to accommodate them, especially since they are paying the bill. Now, if they were to want to dictate each note location for me, I might legitimately wonder why in the world they called me in the first place. I have never had such a situation. If at the conclusion of my tuning, a customer should question my choice of location for a particular note, I usually respond that I can tune it anywhere they would like it, but that is only my personal preference and I would be happy to acquiesce to their preference. I suppose that if a customer persisted in second guessing my complete tuning, I might go on the hourly rate at that point since they had not expressed their personal preferences before I started. Frankly, these scenarios are not likely to develop if one can do a reasonably good job in the first place. It's perfectly OK for a customer to have an interest in what we do. They only get to see us once or twice a year. I also never worry about small children hanging around while I tune. Their attention span is usually so short that they will get bored and run along elsewhere soon. On the rare occasions where there are 3 or 4 children hanging around and being noisy, I may engage their assistance in helping me by keeping the room quiet while I am working. I offer to show them a magic trick when I'm done IF they do a good job keeping the room quiet. Jim Coleman, Sr. On Tue, 8 Jul 1997, james allen bickerton wrote: > james allen bickerton wrote: > > > > Performed a tuning for a first-time customer the other day. Commenced > > the pre-tuning inspection with the usual chit chat, and once she and I > > agreed on the service to be performed, I sat down and began tuning the > > piano. It was an upright Samick, 2 years old that had been tuned 6 > > months prior. > > At this point, most of my customers say something to the effect, "I'll > > be in the other room, if you need anything, just shout." But not this > > one. She sat down on a couch 10 feet directly behind me and watched me > > tune the piano pin by pin directly over my shoulder. > > Feeling a little uneasy, I again engaged her in conversation, hoping > > that she would tire of the idle chit chat, but no such luck. After 20 > > minutes, I found myself losing concentration as I attempted to both tune > > the piano and verbally engage my customer. I couldn't decide whether > > she was just lonely, since she was a single parent in her early 40's, or > > whether she didn't totally trust me with her piano. To make matters > > worse, I learned through our chat that I was her third tuner in 2 years > > (was she too demanding?), and because I have pet allergies, I had taken > > an allergy tablet prior to entering her house, so I was feeling a bit > > edgy to begin with. > > She must have been satisfied because she agreed to have me tune her > > piano again in 6 months. > > My question is, how do you TACTFULLY handle a situation like this? My > > business is young, and I am eager to please. But in this case, my > > eagerness slowed my progress, and I was an hour late for my next > > appointment. > > Flailing in Fayetteville >
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