[pianotech] basic or full service

[David Ilvedson]

It sounds to me, if I was the customer, that you are trying to sell a bunch of other stuff...which you are.
I'd simply say.   It's $XXX.00 per service.   This includes going through the tuning twice, vacuum cleaning, cleaning the keys, adjustment of pedals, placement  of rust blocker, (health problems not known) and a little song and dance at the end instead of at the beginning... '-]

You don't sound desperate.   It is the same spiel everytime and will begin coming with authority...
Expect to not get every customer and start fixing up pianos...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: wimblees at aol.com
To: Pianotech at PTG.org
Received: 3/11/2010 11:42:05 PM
Subject: [pianotech] basic or  full service



>After digesting all the information recently about basic and premium service, I have 
>come up with a new way to answer the phone calls I get asking how much I charge. 
>As I might have indicated before, my "basic" tuning fee is one of the highest on the 
>island. But what most customers don't understand is that I do more for my basic 
>tuning than most piano tuner offer for their tuning fee. But because all they hear is 
>that high fee, they call other tuners who charge much less. 

>Well, today, I came up with a brilliant idea. From now on, when a customer calls 
>asking for my tuning fee, I will tell them that my "basic" tuning fee will be $%%%. (I 
>won't mention the actual price, because of ant- trust laws, which I don't completely 
>agree with. But that's another story), which is competitive with the other tuners. For 
>that fee, I will give a one pass tuning with an electronic tuner, but nothing else. All 
>repairs, regulations, parts, etc, will be extra. Then I will tell them that I also offer a 
>"full service" tuning, for $&&&& , which is $40 higher, but will include minor pitch 
>adjustments, minor repairs, minor regulation, some cleaning, and a Rust Blocker 
>shield, valued at $22. In a sense, I will get paid the same for what I have been 
>charging all along, but by offering the "basic" fee first, it will get my foot in the door. 
>Other tuner also charge more once they get in the door, but they don't disclose that 
>when they set up the appointment. Even if I wind up only doing a basic tuning, and 
>collect that lower fee, as I said in an earlier post, I would rather tune 6 pianos at 
>lower fee, than 2 pianos at a higher fee. 

>I think this is basically what the other tuner offered, but he called it "premium", and 
>was offering it to his existing customers. I also offer additional service, but I'm trying 
>to get new customers. Because of our current economic environment, and because I 
>don't have the luxury of relying on my 30 or 40 years of reputation in the same 
>town, I have to do all I can to gain customers. 


>Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT 
>Piano Tuner/Technician
>94-505 Kealakaa Str. 
>Mililani, Oahu, HI  96789
>808-349-2943 
>www.Bleespiano.com
>Author of: 
>The Business of Piano Tuning 
>available from Potter Press 
>www.pianotuning.com