Repeat Business

[John M. Formsma]

John,

<<How do you seek repeat business from your clients?

By phone?
By Mail?
By Email?
By booking a future appointment at the time you do service?
None of the above?>>

What I am doing now is sending out a reminder postcard based upon the
desired tuning interval, or whatever interval I think might be best. I got
500 postcards printed (around $55), with return address on one side, and my
name, ph #, etc. on the reverse. I print my own labels with a recently
purchased Dymo Labelwriter. On the same line as the customer address, I have
the date of the last service so that the customer will know when I last
serviced it.

The response varies, but I think that postcards are good because I don't
have to be tied up on the phone trying to get business. 1) I don't have time
to do what it would take 2) it gives the customer the option to decide
rather than thinking I might be "pushy." The way I figure it, if I have five
immediate responses from postcards, it is worth it (and I have at least that
many). I have many later responses as they have time to look at the card
which is hopefully on their fridge. :-)

One other thing that I plan to begin doing is sending out a newsletter. By
doing this, I hope to further educate the customer on tuning frequency, why
a piano goes out of tune, Dampp-Chaser, etc. I find that the majority of
clients do not really know how to tell when a piano goes out of tune. Most
of the time they say, "Well, it sounds all right, but I started to notice a
few of the notes are 'sort of out.' " When I arrive and play a few
chords...ouch to my ears! :-)  People are far less critical of tuning than
we are (usually). But we are the ones who need to tell them about tuning.
After all, that is our specialty.

Surely there are many ways to get repeat business. What I do is only one of
them, and if there is a better way, I will do that. :-)

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS