[pianotech] Raising rates in recession

[Dean May]

Chuck

 

You have a pretty well thought out scheme. The one big problem is that you
probably cannot easily locate a specific customer. So if Sally Jones calls
early and wants her piano done you might not be able to locate her card.
This is why I always file my cards alphabetically and rely on the computer
to do what it does best: sort records on any which criteria you want. For us
that would be when the piano is due and where it is location wise. 

 

You need to add 3, perhaps 4, fields to your database: Date Last Tuned,
Tuning Interval, Callback Date, and Location. For the Location field, I
don't know how you categorize your customers. Perhaps you have a map divided
into sections with a different code (label) for each section. If so, that is
the coding that you would put into the Location field. Me, I just use the
Zip Code and that works well enough. 

 

For Callback Date I always enter the first of the month. So if I tune today
and the Interval is 4 months, I'll enter 6/29/2010 in the Date Last Tuned
Field and 10/1/2010 in the Callback Date field. 

 

For July's callback report then I'll print out all the records with a
Callback Date of 7/1/2010 or earlier. I'll sort by Zip Code first then by
Subdivision (I also have one of those fields). Now you have a list for your
callbacks sorted by location. You can work right from the spreadsheet in
your computer or make a printout that you can markup. I use ACT! and it
allows be to do this Lookup pretty easily so I make my calls right from the
computer. Actually, with ACT!, I just have groups defined for all my major
location areas so when I am making calls to an area I just use that group.
This allows me to overlap groups which can be pretty helpful. 

 

If a customer has explicitly requested no phone calls, then I enter 1/1/2200
in the Callback Date field. This way they will never show up on the report.
I do the same for customers that I do not want to call back (have any of
those?) or have sold their piano. 

 

For my mailing report I pick every record that equals 7/1/2010. Then I have
a scheme for mailing to those who are overdue so that all of my due/overdue
customers get a mailing 4 times a year. I send a report to a spreadsheet for
every record due on or before 7/1/2010. I choose all 7/1/2010 first. Then I
look at Date Last Tuned. I extract the month from that date into a new
column and then sort on that. Then I will pick all of the following months:
1, 4, 7, 10. Now I have my mailing list and I'll do a mail merge post card
right from this spreadsheet. 

 

But first, I'll do an email merge (you are collecting your customer's email
addresses, right?). Sort on the Email column and all those records with
email addresses bubble to the top. Export those records to a new email merge
spreadsheet and use it to do an email mail merge. This is a FREE reminder
for your customers and you will be surprised at how many respond. I offer a
$2 discount to those who schedule by email and I get several hits. 

 

For my mailer I use Photoshop Elements to design a nice ad- actually 2, one
for the front and one for the back. I save them as Jpeg files and then paste
them into a Word document. I use the Word document then as my mail merge
template and print out my flier onto my color laser jet printer (I highly
recommend the Ricoh C420DN) that will automatically duplex. Attached is the
address side of my mailer. I include a line at the top that says:

 

Hi Sally,

 

Our records indication your piano was last tuned on {Date Last Tuned} and is
due to be retuned.

 

Then I put the address fields in the white space on the right.

 

The thing to remember about sending mailings and emails is that even if they
don't respond, it often softens them up for your phone call. They have
already been thinking about it and it makes them much more receptive to
scheduling. 

 

 

 

Dean

Dean W May                (812) 235-5272

PianoRebuilders.com    (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Chuck Behm
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 8:06 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Raising rates in recession

 

>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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