customer perception - was Re: Unison Width - was stability issue

[Tom Dickson]

Ron,

  I just wanted to thank you for what I consider a wonderful posting in 
regard to customer service.

  It always amazes me to run across situations where someone who is working 
with the public is not, apparently, working for the public.

  There are numerous occaisions where I spend 10 minutes on a return phone 
call and the person I called says something to the effect of "I sure wish I 
had called you first - no one has ever taken the time to explain to me what 
they're doing."  I see part of my "job" as informing and educating the 
public.  And, often the time put in pays off in a tuning, some repair work, 
or a word-of-mouth referral.  The key is that we don't do it for the pay 
off, we do it for the joy of sharing our gifts.  If we happen to get some 
good responses because of it, that's just icing on the cake!

   So please accept the accolades of an apparent kindred spirit!

Sincerely,

Tom Dickson,
Professional Piano Tuning & Repair
Regina, SK, Canada


>From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: customer perception - was Re: Unison Width - was stability  issue
>Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 08:00:49 -0600
>
> >Have any of you ever had the opposite response?  Once in a while the 
>client
> >will
> >say to me when I arrive, "It really needs a tuning!"  I start working on 
>it,
> >and
> >it's really not bad at all.
>
>
>This happens a lot, and I've wondered about it too. I think it's because
>people tend to automatically assume that the professional (insert
>specialty) is possessed of knowledge they can't possibly know or
>understand. Once they've decided that, they resist being further educated
>on the subject, but will often relentlessly follow the sometimes truly
>bizarre instructions from the last expert as they think they remember them
>being given, whether they make any sense or not. I don't think they're
>trying to appear intelligent, so much, as they are accepting and trusting
>what their "expert" told them without trying to understand the reasoning
>behind the advice.
>
>Someone tells them "Tune twice a year, without fail". After years of this,
>they (by any number of circumstances) happen to have me tune the piano and
>ask why so frequent tunings are necessary when they think the piano sounds
>fine. If I find the piano in decent tune, I'll agree with them and suggest
>yearly tunings unless their ear tells them otherwise before then. This is
>so unexpected and foreign to them that they immediately become suspicious
>and I have their full attention from then on. If the piano sounds nasty, we
>talk about the usual climate control issues and such. I try to get them the
>most tuning (and service) mileage I can for their dollar, rather than try
>to sell them the idea that they owe me two guaranteed tuning fees a year
>and any other service I can manage to talk them into so I can make the most
>money with the least work at their expense. I resent the fact that too many
>other "professionals" are doing that to me on a daily basis and I try not
>to abuse my people with that sort of thing. The other side of that coin is,
>of course, that I owe them the truth when they ask me what I think of their
>instrument, or if I find a real problem during the course of tuning. Over
>and over again, I hear "I wish I'd known that before I spent the money for
>that other work, I'd have just gotten a better piano" or "Why didn't the
>last four tuners tell me anything about this?" They aren't used to being
>treated as intelligent humans by professional service people and being
>addressed as something other than a source of income gets their attention.
>
>The short version is that I don't think anyone ever really 'splained
>anything to them. Yea, I know, there's a reason for it and I've talked to
>many a piano owning tree stump myself, but I still can't help but try and
>most of them are receptive and capable if given half a chance. It helps
>more than it hurts.
>
>Hope you're not sorry you mentioned it.  <G>
>
>Ron N

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