> recently had a customer that >wanted a 'Steinway' sound from a 5' no-name - Hey, I've tuned for that guy too. I told him that if he wants it to walk like a duck, look like a duck, and sound like a duck, he was just going to have to get himself a duck. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor and replied "Instead of a turkey"? The only thing I've found that works reasonably well to sell badly needed voicing is to point out the problem and offer to brush the hammers so they can try it out temporarily. Since it's not a serious or permanent change, and I can afford to give them the thirty seconds of time (and action access in a grand), to make the point. If they never want work done, I haven't wasted a lot of time. Sometimes they will ask me at the next tuning if I'll brush the hammers again. I will, and do, and charge for time. Rarely, someone who didn't initiate the complaint will actually hear the difference after the brushing and schedule a full frontal voicing attack. I'm selective about who I mention this to, because I don't really want to spend my days trying to make dead or very poor quality pianos sound less painful if I can be trying to make good quality pianos sound better instead. Where you draw the lines depends on the size of your backlog and how tired you are. A personal observation on customer education, if anyone's still there. Certain relatively rare individuals are willing and able to be educated. The public as a whole is not. They have more immediate demands on their attention. From that perspective, I try to not spend a LOT of unnecessary time trying to sell services that an individual shows no interest in, other than outlining a few possibilities. Most people have other priorities and just don't care if their duck is up to snuff or not. Ron N
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