Convincing the Client

[David Love]

For those of us who have achieved critical mass, as it were, your comments
make sense.  But for those who are still building business and for whom each
tuning is still important as a source of income, they might think otherwise.

I have sent reminder cards for years, and still do, in fact--though I often
don't get them out on time.  But I also found that the response rate was
less than I liked until I started to follow up the cards with phone calls.
People often need to be jogged into action.  It also provides an opportunity
to discuss their needs, is a good way to discover when a piano might be
coming up for sale, and often eliminates wondering whether they have found
another technician or just aren't having the piano serviced very frequently.
If there were problems with the last service, a pedal started squeaking
after you left, and they blamed you for it without telling you, it gives an
opportunity to right the wrong, so to speak.

My attitude about building a business has always been to maintain close
contact with customers, to not hesitate to acknowledge that business is good
but we're looking for more.  Even when we don't really need more business,
we can always stand to upgrade the instruments we work on and be more
selective in how we spend our time.

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: April 23, 2002 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: Convincing the Client


> At 10:32 AM 4/23/2002 -0400, Dale wrote:
> >Hey people are just flat busy.
>
> I'm just flat busy, as well.
>
> I only do reminders when specifically asked to by the customer.
> I only have one customer who has a regular schedule: every
> 3 months. This is an active teacher who plays his Steinway A
> hard, and likes it well in tune, and I'm happy to oblige.
>
> Concerts, class recitals, a couple of festivals, and some college
> work HAVE to be done at exactly the time needed. Why clutter up
> one's book with pre-scheduled tunings which could be done at any
> time, or don't even really need to be done at all? It's hard enough
> to keep up with the unavoidable paperwork -- why make more of it
> by sending out cards?
>
> I feel that "convincing" the client to get more piano work than
> they would ask for unaided, and then having a waiting list, is not
> doing them a service. That is, if consulted, most of them would
> prefer not to be pestered and made to feel guilty if they put off
> tunings, and would prefer not to have to wait if they found they
> needed piano work unexpectedly.
>
> I leave my business card with my customers, and so far I've kept
> a couple of yellow page listings, though at times I'm tempted to
> let them go, and go back to a residential (instead of business)
> phone rate.
>
> They call me when they're ready. I go and work as hard and well as
> I can. They like it, I like it.
>
> I suppose that this means my business is now mature, or I'm just too
> "mature" to want to knock myself out.
>
> Susan Kline
>
>
>