Brand New topic/Referral Fees

[David Love]

There are several issues here.  First, the agent.  I'd tell him to go tune 
it himself.

Referral fees are a more complicated area.  I commonly offer discounts to 
the trade.  If another technician approaches me to do a job such as an 
action rebuild, or restringing, for a customer of theirs I will extend a 
discount of 10-15% for the work being performed.  Often the other technician 
will still have a hand in the job:  they may deal directly with the 
customer, pick up and deliver the action, do the final fitting or voicing, 
the follow up tunings, etc..  I always approach these type of situations 
with a great deal of respect for their relationship with their customer and 
try to maintain a professional distance so that their relationship is not 
compromised.  Such a situation benefits both parties, I get more work, the 
other technician gets a discount to accomodate their time and energy, and 
the customer does not pay more than they would have had they come to me 
directly (assuming a basic parity in prices).  I do think it is important 
that the customer does not pay a higher price because the job is being 
subcontracted, otherwise the original technician may be put in a potentially 
compromising position.  The other technicians I work with trust that I won't 
try and "steal" their customers and are more inclined to subcontract me for 
work that they either can't handle or don't have time for.

As far as straight referrals go, i.e. somebody calls me and I can't handle 
the job for some reason, geographical, time, etc., and I refer them to 
another technician, I don't ask for and don't expect a fee.  I have referred 
calls I have gotten on many occasions to other techs for various reasons, 
never once have I asked for a fee.  I refer them to techs whose work and 
professional ethics I trust and I figure what goes around comes around.  I 
have benefitted many times from these types of referrals and others have 
benefitted from mine.  I consider it part of a level of professional 
courtesy that it behooves us all to extend and maintain.

David Love


>From: Wimblees@AOL.COM
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Re: Referral Fees
>Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 22:05:00 EST
>
>In a message dated 2/7/01 6:06:47 PM Central Standard Time,
>mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:
>
>
> > I would think a referral fee would entice those non-shop oriented techs 
>into
> > pursuing these types of arrangements. Does anyone have any experience 
>with
> > this type of thing. I just did a bridge repair for another tech and gave 
>him
> > 10% of the job fee. Any thoughts?
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> >
>
>This is kind of interesting. We are willing to give another tech 10% of our
>bill for referring a customer to us, but we find giving 20% to an agent for
>referring work to us appalling. Now I would agree that 20% is high. But in
>either case, I would think both of these are considered "kick backs."
>
>If you do work for other techs, charge what you normally would. It is up to
>the other tech to charge the customer. If the other tech wants to charge 
>the
>same as I am charging, that is his/her problem. If he/she wants to charge 
>the
>customer more, that is his/her prerogative. If an another tech refers a
>customer to me, I don't feel obligated to give a "commission." Why should 
>I?
>I do rebuilding work, the other tech doesn't. If the other tech wants to 
>make
>more money, let him/her learn rebuilding.
>
>Willem
>
>

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