As I said before, David, it's a karmic world, and you have done a fine job of expanding on the idea. Paul In a message dated 1/16/2010 2:06:49 P.M. Central Standard Time, davidlovepianos at comcast.net writes: This isn't aimed at anyone in particular or any specific previous remarks so please no one respond as if I'm attacking them or criticizing their approach, though of course you're welcome to comment. I know this has gone on too long but the question of what is important for a successful business is important especially these days. There's been a bit of sniping in the discussion but hey, get over it. The really germane issue in all of this, if I may distill it down, is where the emphasis lies in your business approach. My view is that yes of course it's important to have skills and to have self esteem and project confidence and not be afraid to charge and do your proper accounting and tax plan and clean your shop and your shoes and tuck in your shirt yada yada yada. But at the heart of any successful business, especially in a repeat service business such as ours, is your ability to develop and maintain relationships with your customers. Ultimately, what sticks with customers are the feelings left behind from your interaction with them. Not specifically what was said, how much they paid, whether they got a discount or not, though these things might be contributing factors. That's why often when someone complains about your price and you end up conceding and giving them a discount you never hear from them again. The discount isn't what they remember. What they remember is how they felt from the interaction and even though they got a discount they leave with the feeling of being ripped off or had they not pressed the issue they would have paid more than was necessary. So in each situation you have to make a decision as to how best to develop that interaction so that it leads to a positive experience for the customer. There are no hard and fast rules for what that means because each person is different and so the criteria will vary. The smartest business people are not those that stick rigidly to a format for everything but those who recognize the nuances that make those relationships work and are able to adapt accordingly. If that means extracting a pencil for free (that's where this all started) so that you can engage the customer in some dialogue that may mean future work, well you have to decide. It may or may not be the right solution in that particular case but you need to go in with an open mind and view the situation as an opportunity. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100116/c1ca779c/attachment.htm>
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