[pianotech] Raising rates in recession

[Chuck Behm]

>You have a pretty well thought out scheme. The one big problem is that you
probably cannot easily locate a specific customer. So if Sally Jones calls
early and wants her piano done you might not be able to locate her card.
This is why I always file my cards alphabetically and rely on the computer
to do what it does best: sort records on any which criteria you want. For us
that would be when the piano is due and where it is location wise.



You need to add 3, perhaps 4, fields to your database: Date Last Tuned,
Tuning Interval, Callback Date, and Location. For the Location field, I
don't know how you categorize your customers. Perhaps you have a map divided
into sections with a different code (label) for each section. If so, that is
the coding that you would put into the Location field. Me, I just use the
Zip Code and that works well enough. Dean May<

Hi Dean - Thanks for all the suggestions. Locating a customer in my card
file is not really an issue. My current data base has 12 fields:
1. Last name
2. First name
3. Telephone number / s
4. Street address
5. City
6. Zip
7. BOOKED
8. NEXT
9. Last tuned
10. Piano
11. Serial #
12. Circa

If Sally Jones does call needing to have her piano tuned right now, I first
look her up on the computer. Files are arranged first by community, then by
name. So if she is from say Mason City, I scroll down to my Mason City
tunings, the slow down to look for her name, which are alphabetical within
each community.

Once I find Sally's record on the data base, I check to see if it is booked.
If it is, the card will be found in my card file with pre-booked tunings,
which are sorted by date and time of tuning. If she is not booked, her card
will be in my other file, which is sorted just like the data base - by
community first, then alphabetical within each community by last name.

Usually, I can find her card with the first minute I'm on the phone with her
while we're chatting.

One idea of yours which I've been intending to get started doing is adding
in a field on my data base for e-mail addresses. I used to do a ton of
mail-merge type of things back when I was teaching (printing out
individualized grade reports) and think I could easily do the same type of
thing with e-mail to make life easier - less time spent on the phone. I'll
let you know how that turns out when I get going on it.

Again, thanks a lot for your suggestions.  Chuck
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