My dentist has me fill out a postcard...i.e. my address in my handwriting. 6 months later I receive it and recognize my writing and the commitment to the appointment...of course I can make some changes... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 Original message From: "David Love" To: pianotech at ptg.org Received: 3/20/2009 8:56:31 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning in a down economy When I used to call after postcard sending I always found that there was a significant group that would not act on the post card alone but when prompted by a phone call would go ahead and book the appointment. Enough that it was always worth it to call especially during slow periods when I wanted to fill out the schedule. Also, it just allows you some contact to see what’s going on with them: do they want to put it off for another 3 months, did they just lose a job, have they sold the piano, are the kids giving up their lessons, are they ill, were they unhappy with the last service for some reason, did they not receive the post card! Just saying that you are calling to be sure that they got the reminder gives you a good reason to call. Often we don’t call because we’re afraid of what we might hear. I think you have to be confident that whatever you hear you’ll be able to handle and turn it in your favor even if it doesn’t lead to an appointment. When I called I often said that I wanted to be sure they got the card, I asked how the piano was, let them know that part of the reason for my call was to keep my files and reminder system up to date, if they didn’t want to schedule an appointment right then I never tried to talk them into one (no hard sell) but simply asked if they would like me to send them another reminder in, say, three months, six months etc. Whatever the case was, I never found that calling after sending a post card was detrimental to the relationship. I certainly never mind when my dentist calls to remind me it’s time for a check-up. Since it’s something I can easily put off, I usually appreciate it. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of wimblees at aol.com Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:35 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning in a down economy when I was in St. Louis I sent out postcard every month to those customers who had their piano tuned 6 months ago, 1 year ago, and 2, 3, and 4 years ago. I would generally get about 25% of my 6 month and 1 years customers to call me within a couple of days after getting the post card, and another 20 - 25% would call me in the next couple of months. About a 10% of the 2, 3, and 4 year customers would call me. The secret to getting them to call is to do it consistently. I used to cold call them, and I called them after I sent a post card. I discovered that the customers who scheduled an appointment when I called them, were just about the same ones who would have called with just a post card reminder. I am not getting the same response here, but then about half of my customers are pre-scheduled. Of those that are not pre-scheduled, I only get about 5% of them to call me. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Don <pianotuna at accesscomm.ca> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 6:24 pm Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning in a down economy Hi Daniel, 2% response on direct mail is "right on the money". You did *good*. At 02:17 PM 3/20/2009 -0500, you wrote: > >sent out about 250 postcards last summer, received maybe 5 responses. >LOUSY! > >Daniel Carlton Regards, Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T. Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat mailto:pianotuna48 at yahoo.com http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/ 3004 Grant Rd. REGINA, SK, S4S 5G7 306-539-0716 or 1-888-29t-uner See Your Credit Report in Seconds! Easy to Read and Viewable Online. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090320/ab7597dc/attachment-0001.html>
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