[pianotech] Raising rates in recession

[Chuck Behm]

>Chuck

Sounds like you've got a great system worked out. Just a couple of things.
First, it might pay you to get a computer, and do all that card system stuff
that way. It might take you a few days to enter all the information, but
once you've got the hang of it, you'll be surprise how easy it is to keep
track of all your customers. Second, for your pre-scheduled appointments,
instead of calling a week in advance to remind them, I would suggest you
send them a post card. That way you can be assured that they get it. You
might still want to call them the night before, just to make sure they're
home, but I would hate to have you call and leave a message, only to
discover that they were gone on vacation, or that someone erased the
message. A post card will come back to you if they's moved, and it give the
customer a couple of days to call you to re-schedule. It's not fool proof,
but most of my customers like the post card.

And last is the Chuck Bucks. For about 6 months last year I sent a $10
coupon to each customer in a thank you letter. I sent out about 150 letters,
and got one coupon, and last week had a customer give me the coupon towards
her tuning. In other words, I spent a lot of money on printing coupons and
postage, and got one customer.

Any way, good luck with your pre-scheduling. It has worked great for me.

Wim<

Thanks for your comments, Wim. You're the one that gave me the idea of
pre-scheduling a year in advance in a post you submitted a long time ago. I
had just never gotten around to it until now, but I always had it in the
back of my mind to try.

As far as the computer, I've had all my customers on a computer data base
for years, organized by location. I just needed to reorganize my cards to
fit that system. I like having the cards, which I pull out and clip together
for each day's work. I know it's a redundant system, but that aspect of the
way I have done it works for me, so I have no plans to abandon the card
system.

I have thought about mailing postcards out, but will probably only do so
when I don't reach the person directly by phone. Most of my customers seem
to appreciate the personal call, so I'll continue with that.

I'll let you know how the "ChuckBucks" work as things progress. It's only
for adding in new customers, and only gives the old customer a discount if
they refer my name to someone who books an appointment. The jury's still
out. I'll know within a short time if I'm picking up new customers or not,
and will report back. I'll send you a sheet of "ChuckBucks" so you can see
for yourself what they look like.

Again, thanks for the comments. Have a safe trip home from Vegas. Chuck
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