[pianotech] age-old question of what to charge for almost nothing

[John Formsma]

I was gonna say that I probably wouldn't charge unless it was a special
trip. But how many other service guys would charge nothing? That's why we
have the service call. And that's why we should explain that to the customer
ON THE PHONE before we take OUR time to make the service call. [Note to
self: do the last sentence! :-)  ]

We are not just tinkerers. OK, maybe we are. But, a huge effort was required
to learn these skills and have them ready at a moment's notice to solve
problems that are now ORDINARY TO US, but extraordinary to the customer.
Yeah, if they peered at it and pondered over it for a long time, they could
easily fix it -- just like we learned to do. Or maybe not. Some people just
don't understand mechanical things. E.g., I was trying to explain to one of
my biking buddies how to avoid stripping screw threads by turning
counterclockwise first and feeling the screw slip into the threads, then
turning clockwise. He just didn't get it. And there are others like that.
It's not innate genius with pianos, but people assume we're wizards. Maybe
the bushy eyebrows help, but the chief reason why we know our stuff is
because we spend so much time doing it and thinking about doing it. We
should be compensated for our time, since there are fewer and fewer people
who do really good piano work.  The unfortunate thing is that there are many
shade-tree technicians who can make stuff sort of work; and there are many
piano owners who are accustomed to poorly functioning pianos. But just
because that's so doesn't mean we should shortchange ourselves.  I gotta
stop --- starting to sound like David Andersen. :-)

CHARGE!

<G>

For good customer relations, maybe it would be wise to offer to evaluate the
piano while you're there. Take 15 minutes, check things out. Then you've
offered reasonable service besides just removing a pencil. It removes all
perceptions of greed, whether or not that perception is warranted.

Now ... don't you guys do as I do; do as I say do. <G> ('Cause I'm one of
the world's worst about not charging for service.)

Speaking of the matter of charging for our services, I was on the phone
yesterday with Young Chang discussing some needed warranty work for a
vertical piano. John Chang said that it was YC's policy to pay a maximum of
$35 per hour. I was rather shocked, as that rate is low for an independent
tech. The work needed would take all of a long day. The idea of a really
long day of precise work, with only $350-400 at the end of it, with no
mileage allowance, did not appeal to me.  Now, in a terrible economy, I'd do
the same work for survival rates, and perhaps $350 will sound dreamy in the
future. But I don't think we're at that point yet.

--
JF

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 7:48 AM, Brian Trout <brian_trout at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  I do like the "good will" attitude of "just do it" and call it active
> advertising.
>
> But if you do charge for your visit, and it really wasn't much out of your
> way and didn't take long at all, you could always offer some kind of coupon
> for $XX off their next piano service.  It's sort of a way of saying, "Yes, I
> have to charge you for the house call, BUT, you'll get part of it back when
> you call me again (by using this coupon for a substantial discount)."
>
> Personally, I'd rather just do it than deal with the future discount.  But
> it's an idea.
>
> Brian
>
>
> > From: da88ve at gmail.com
> > To: pianotech at ptg.org
> > Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:49:44 -0700
>
> > Subject: [pianotech] age-old question of what to charge for almost
> nothing
> >
> > A piano teacher (not my client) calls me out of the blue to
> > come remove a pencil as soon as possible. It sure seems
> > callous, unfeeling, gouging, and unprofessional to charge a full
> > minimum 1-hour billing fee of $75 just to remove the pencil.
> > But if we don't, then word gets around that we're cheap, so
> > everyone calls expecting low rates, and we end up working for
> > free, almost. So do I go ahead and charge $75 just to remove a
> > pencil?
> > --David Nereson, RPT
> >
>
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