Flakey Customer

[Kent Swafford]

Tom Cole wrote:

>It is rare that a customer will not pay me for my services.
>Occasionally, I'll need to leave a bill but soon the check comes.
>Whether it's that piano owners are more responsible or that I know where
>they live or... maybe somebody has a good answer for this one. Suffice
>to say that it's a nice aspect of this business 

Indeed, a nice aspect of our business is that we do not work for the 
general public. Our customers are a self-selected group, a definite cut 
above the general population.

My brother has a completely different view of his customers than I do of 
mine. My brother is a pharmacist. Because _everyone_ has at least 
occasional need for prescription medicine, my brother is someone who 
actually does see the general population, and it often isn't pretty.

While piano technicians often wish their customers had pianos that were 
better, newer, or serviced more often, the truth is that most all of our 
customers care to some extent about the finer things in life, things 
artistic, the broad education of their kids, etc. And while we sometimes 
wish some of our customers were not so sensitive to price point, I have 
found that the concept of stiffing the piano technician occurs to only 
the tiniest minority of our customers -- too few in number to be even the 
least bit concerned about.

My customers are the greatest.

Kent Swafford