[pianotech] discount follow up

[Pianoman]

I will disagree with Wim on his last point about calling.  I have never sent 
out postcard reminders and I do spend, some times, more than an hour calling 
past clients reminding them it has been more than 6 months since last 
tuning.  Yesterday , as an example, I had 3 slots open for Monday's 
appointments.  Within 30 minutes of calling my list I had booked 3 more 
appointments for Monday.  Some days I have an hour or so of free time and an 
open agenda for the week following.  I usually can fill those slots and into 
the future, or at least have them tell me when to call back in future 
months.  Many tell me they were meaning to call me.  If I get their 
answering machine I leave a message and many times about 1/4 of them will 
call me back. I leave a note on their listing on when I called to remind 
them or when to call back. On clients that it has been several years since 
tuning I leave one more message  and then delete them from my file.  If it 
has been more than 2 years and they put me off I delete them. This system 
works for me and I do not give tuning discounts of multiple pianos or repair 
discounts.
James Grebe
Since 1962
Piano Tuning & Repair
Creator of Handsome Hardwood Products(
314) 608-4137   1526 Raspberry Lane   Arnold, MO 63010
Researcher of St. Louis Theatre History
BECOME WHAT YOU BELIEVE!
www.grebepiano.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <wimblees at aol.com>
To: <Pianotech at PTG.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 6:23 PM
Subject: [pianotech] discount follow up



This is a follow up on offering discounts for not only tuning, but also shop 
work. Some of these ideas I learned from my recent "sale", but also as part 
of a discussion I had with another piano tuner who complained about 
customers not appreciating the extra work she did even after doing it for 
almost half price.

When people call to schedule a tuning appointment because they’ve heard of 
you, or feel confident that you’ll be able to take care of their piano, they 
will pay almost anything to get their piano tuned, within reason. However, 
when the first thing they ask is your price, and then say: “I’ll think about 
it,” they are price shopping and don’t care about quality. So unless you’re 
the lowest priced piano tuner on your area, you won’t get the appointment.



When you recommend repairs or regulations and they say they can’t afford it, 
that means they want to get the work done, but really don’t have the money. 
But when they say they have to think about it, or use any other excuse, then 
they might consider getting the work done, but for whatever reason, they don’t 
want to spend the money. There is a difference between not being able to 
afford something and not willing to spend the money. Not willing to spend 
the money means the piano is not important enough to them to get the work 
done. However, if you lower the price to where they will eventually let you 
do the wo
rk, not only will the customer not appreciate what you’ve done, but you’ll 
wind up doing the work at a loss, and you might as well have done it for 
nothing.



For those of you whocall your customers to schedule appointments, when you 
call and they give you all sorts of excuses why they don’t want to, except 
“I can’t afford it”, then they want to get the piano tuned, but for whatever 
reason, they don’t want you to tune it. But don’t take it personally. I 
learned a long time ago that you can’t please everyone. So accept the fact 
that for some reason, that customer wasn't satisfied with your work. 
However, again, if you try to talk them into it by lowering your price, they 
won’t appreciate it, and you’re working at a loss. If anything, you’ve just 
given them another reason not to have you tune their piano in the future.



I send out reminder cards asking my customers to call me. If they don’t call 
me, I figure it’s their loss. When I have called them, I find that for the 
most part, the people who set up an appointment when you cal them, probably 
would have called me anyway, even if it's several months later. Therefore, 
it’s just not worth my time to call my customers anymore. I will send them 
several postcards, and maybe offer a discount, but I will not call them on 
top of that.

Wim