Business: getting and keeping customers

[John Formsma]

Dittos on Sunday night - it's one of the very best times to call.

I've found that calling is ALWAYS better than any other method for
booking appointments. I don't always call, and I haven't been sending
out postcards lately, but calling works better than anything else for
me. I do get a small response from postcards, and it's pretty easy to
send those out to let them be "working" for you while you work other
mehods - phone calls, etc. 

I use a script so I don't sound nearly as stupid as normal (it's now
memorized, well-used, and natural sounding <grin>), and one phrase in
it seems to be effective: "Hi, I'm John Formsma the piano tuner. How
are you? Good, I'm calling because your piano is due for its next
tuning. I'm going to be in <their town> on <date> - would you like me
to tune your piano WHILE I'M THERE?"

Seems to work well as I'm in a rural area and people understand I might
not be there again for a few weeks; if you're in the city, maybe you
could modify it to suit your needs. 

JF

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: Business: getting and keeping customers
> From: richard.ucci at att.net
> Date: Sat, October 07, 2006 9:51 am
> To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
> 
>      
>  
> 
> Julia, 
> 
> I book 20-25 appts. a week by calling my people. Sunday night 7-9pm. Also book a few during the week when people call me. I leave a message on their machine usually, but after three unreturned calls I move them to six months down the road for another call. 
> 
> RU/UP
>  -------------- Original message from KeyKat88 at aol.com: -------------- 
> 
>   
> Greetings,  
>   
>         Is it advantageous to be agressive with customers, ie; sending reminder cards twice or calling if they dont call for a tuning within a month after you'e sent them one reminder? Or...is it a turn off. I tend to think it is a turn off. 
>   
>         Before I was a tuner, when I needed my piano tuned, I simply called my tuner. IMHO, it is something you just neeeed as a piano player!  My tuners throughout the years never sent me a reminder card.  I do send them to my customers. I usually ask if they want a reminder.  Thoughts? 
>   
> Julia  
> Reading, PA 
>   
>