Julia, I think that if you do what YOU are comfortable with, then over the years you will collect a clientele which is comfortable with what you do. Some folks want/need the aggressive followup calls, others resent. Personally, I am comfortable with one card, which, if ignored, does not get repeated. My clients love the reminder, sometimes it sits on their fridge for a while before they call, but eventually they call. If they never call, I don't want them as clients. Non-responders and their pianos tend to be higher maintenance than they are willing to pay for. I want clients who are attentive to their pianos' needs, and who appreciate a well-maintained piano. "I knew it was time to call for a tuning when the third key stopped working." As a result of my somewhat passive approach, my tuning business is not demanding all of my time, but then I always have at least one rebuild project to absorb the extra time. So you see it is a matter of personal preference, both yours and the customer's. And it you are consistently true to yourself, you will eventually gather the clientele that you want. Our chapter recently hosted a speaker on "business building" , a tuner from a neighboring chapter. He would mail a series of cards at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months... each time escalating the urgency of the message about the consequences of neglecting piano maintenance. Seemed like a nice compromise between my single card, and the aggressive telemarketing. JMO, and YMMV. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: 10/7/2006 8:06:13 AM Subject: Business: getting and keeping customers Greetings, Is it advantageous to be agressive with customers, ie; sending reminder cards twice or calling if they dont call for a tuning within a month after you'e sent them one reminder? Or....is it a turn off. I tend to think it is a turn off. Before I was a tuner, when I needed my piano tuned, I simply called my tuner. IMHO, it is something you just neeeed as a piano player! My tuners throughout the years never sent me a reminder card. I do send them to my customers. I usually ask if they want a reminder. Thoughts? Julia Reading, PA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20061007/d0e8db64/attachment.html
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