[pianotech] What do you say?

[Chuck Behm]

>I ask the customer if they want it tuned every six months or a year and
in my scheduler I mark the actually tuning date + 1 year then a little
before that time, call the customer, remind them that they agreed to the
time frame and then schedule a time with the customer.

Duaine<

My method is very similar. I ask if they would like to tentatively book a
year ahead (or 6 months and a year, if they're doing it twice a year) for
the same day of the week at the same time. That puts them one calendar date
earlier - for example for a tuning today, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011 I would be
booking ahead for Tuesday, Jan. 31 of 2011. I ordinarily put it down for the
same time of the day as well.

I always tell people that I will of course call ahead a couple days in
advance to double check, and that I am flexible. With that assurance, nearly
all of my customers do pre-book.

The flexibility is a 2-way street, by the way. I was planning to travel up
I-35 today to tune 6 pianos in Mason City, a 2 hour drive. With the weather
as bad as it is, I canceled those jobs last night, and made appointments to
tune 5 pianos in Ames (15 miles away) which were booked a few weeks down the
road. I cut them a $15 discount each for their cooperation in the matter.
(They're happy and my wife's happy, and if my wife's happy, everybody's
happy.) The $15 discount is what I generally offer if I'm the one having to
make a switch. Cuts down greatly on the grumbling, I've found, and makes
situations like today's much easier to deal with.

I go to a large number of little towns and cities around Iowa. The other
thing that I do is to earmark certain days on my calendar for certain towns.
If I need to switch dates for a customer, I will ask that they switch to one
of the other days that I will be in town.

The incentive to them to have their piano tuned on one of those days is that
I don't charge mileage (I call them "local-rate days.") On those days I
charge the same rate as what I charge my customers in Boone. Customers love
this, and it saves me from driving all over creation to get to my jobs.

To answer the original question, if I've called on Sunday, let's say, to
remind the customer of an appointment on Wednesday, and they ask me to call
them the night before, what do I say?

I say "Sure, no problem!" The last thing I want is to get to there house and
find it locked up with nobody home. I simply put a little post-a-note on the
tuning card. The evening before, I always put my cards on top of my tuning
case, so that they're ready to go. If there are any last minute notification
notes, I call them before I hit the sack.

If arrival time is an issue (for example, if they need to leave work to run
home and open the house for me), I'll furthermore arrange to call their
workplace or cell at a predetermined time before I arrive - usually when I
leave the previous appointment. Again, it beats getting there and having the
door locked. (Or having the customer having to wait for me because I'm
behind schedule.)

I'm sure this will sound crazy to some of you, but it works for me. Chuck
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