What would YOU do?

[Susan Kline]

Clyde, I tend to let people like this take their time and figure it out for
themselves. On the phone I'll tell them about my training and experience,
and ask questions about their piano. I don't think I'd encourage any visits
or observation of me at work. I might go as far as to offer to come and
look at the piano and go over it with him, and if he then didn't want me to
tune I wouldn't. Technically, one _should_ charge a service call if he then
turned one away, but in my experience such a person will think for a bit
and sheepishly ask me to go ahead. Warning him about the possibility of a
service fee might send him packing, but, on the other hand, that might not
be at all a bad outcome. 

If the phone conversation with people like this doesn't go well, I wish
them luck finding someone else, and tell them that if they meet with any
problems they are welcome to call me again. In other words, I let them chew
on it and come back to me in their own sweet time. Usually then they are
much more tractable. (At least that's how it has worked for me.)

Susan

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At 08:12 AM 6/15/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Friends:
>
>Last Saturday a man called me.  He just moved into the area from a large
>city and is looking for an RPT to service his Kawai console, which was
>purchased new 10-15 years ago and hasn't seen a tuner or technician
>since.  He's going down the phonebook listings, I gather.  He sounds
>like a most exacting person.  From his descriptions I suggested the
>piano may need less than $200 of work, including pitchraise, tuning,
>thorough cleaning and a few minor things.
>
>I am used to the normal questions from first-time clients, but this
>gentleman suggested he may want to meet me first and perhaps come and
>see my shop (I don't have any; I work out of my car).  I could
>understand that if I were attempting to sell him a major rebuilding job
>for megabucks.  He already told me he won't call one other person back
>because the RPT made him feel uncomfortable.
>
>I expect him to call again.  Would you take this job?  Is this type of
>scrutiny common in some areas?  In my 18 years of business I never saw
>anything like it.  I have visions of him watching my every move and
>checking every cranny of the piano's interior with a white cloth to see
>if I was thorough enough.
>
>I will appreciate being enlightened.  I know not every place in the
>world is as trusting as Lancaster County, and I am careful never to
>betray that trust.  Thank you.
>
>Clyde Hollinger, RPT
>Lititz, PA, USA
>
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Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com		

"The best way to advertise is simply to be unusually good."
				-- Ashleigh Brilliant