[pianotech] i'll take a pass

[Ron Nossaman]

Terry Farrell wrote:
>  Which is why I always explain to a caller that if the piano is up or 
> near standard pitch, my $95 tuning fee covers what I need to do 
> regarding tuning. But if the piano is significantly below standard 
> pitch, then we will have to do a separate proceedure called a pitch 
> raise to get the piano up to standard pitch before I can tune it. My fee 
> for a pitch raise is $45 - but, of course, only if your piano needs it. 
> I approach this statement by asking how long it has been since the last 
> tuning...... (Yeah, yeah, I know - but this is how I present my tuning 
> fee structure to a caller.
> 
> That way, no surprises come appointment day.......
> 
> Terry Farrell


Me too, just like that. It gives them a chance to back out and 
go shopping for someone who quotes a cheaper price and 
*doesn't* warn them up front, and it takes the edge off the 
"service work = rip off" angst inherent to the process from 
past experience. They feel less cornered and more in control. 
Should I find a piano pleasantly within the one pass tuning 
realm, I'll delightedly do it in one pass and not, naturally, 
charge them for a pitch raise. Being presented an invoice from 
a service tech that is (incredibly) less than expected is 
something a lot of consumers have never dared dream of, let 
alone experienced. This seems to endear me to them right off, 
though I'm pretty endearing on occasion anyway (just not to 
you guys <G>), and they'll actually listen honestly to 
whatever I try to tell them about their piano, and it's care 
and feeding. I've gotten adopted as the ancestral piano tech 
many times just by treating customers as real people. Not as 
"bosses" who are always right, and not as "sources of protein" 
in the victim pool, but more as harmless relatives of the 
eccentric but benign (a nice boy, a quiet boy...) second 
cousin on the father's side. When we get to the dumb jokes and 
pithy quotes, I graduate to first cousin, or big brother, in 
some cases, and have to schedule extra time with the tunings.

It's really bizarre (to me, at least) how well showing up as 
yourself and giving them the real stuff works in some 
situations, and how abysmally it fails in others.
Ron N