Scheduling customers

[Tom Cole]

IgorKatz2U@AOL.COM wrote:
> 
I'm interested in how much time the
> rest of you allow between tunings? 

I space my appointments at two-hour intervals and find that it's barely
enough time and often work into or through my lunch hour and come home
late from the last one.

The reason is that there is always more to do than just tuning. Are you
an expert voicer? If you spend even a few minutes needling the brightest
hammers, it will make your tuning sound sweeter. And you will be
teaching yourself something about voicing. Are the keys dirty or sticky?
Leaving visible and tangible evidence that you've been there counts in
the minds of customers.

I've had customers tell me that the piano sounds the same to them after
I have pitch-raised and tuned it. There are a certain percentage who
just don't know the difference. They're more inclined to be the owners
of small, poorly-scaled pianos. It is on these pianos that I try to
spend much less time on tuning and more time on cleaning, case
polishing, gluing a broken music desk - things that they are likely to
appreciate.

My point is that tuning is only one of the elements of piano service.
You have to see things from the perspective of the piano owner/player.
Sometimes, a customer is particularly sensitive to the feel of the
action and seems to be oblivious of the unisons and octaves which are
_obviously_ out. So, you need to talk to them about regulation. Others
will point out that a key is sticking or there are these noises and,
"Oh, as long as you're here, you might as well tune it."

I started out as a "Tuner" and, outside of getting all the keys to work,
I would spend nearly all of my time giving myself an aural hemorrhage
trying to achieve the "perfect" tuning. I even would shun cleaning,
thinking that a professional needs to concentrate on his specialty and
someone who would spend time cleaning the keys or polishing the case was
probably compensating for inadequate tuning skills. The _owner_ can do
that stuff.

Many years later, I joined PTG and learned that there was more to tuning
than just tuning. I've had the pleasure of working with some real
professionals who clean the keys and polish the cases. And get top
dollar for their work because they understand that you have to be
sensitive to what the customer wants. 

I know this is way more than you asked for. Maybe if I distilled my post
down to one sentence, it would be: If there is time left over after
tuning a piano, investigate what else could be done in the time
remaining to upgrade the tone and touch and charge accordingly.

-- 
Thomas A. Cole RPT
Santa Cruz, CA