<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>Hi List</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Which = advertising method do you find to work the best in our = profession?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> Kallie Swanepoel PIANO TUNER South Africa (Member of the SA Association of Professional Piano Tuners) Tel.:           012/422-3340 (W) Tel.:   =         012/343-4946 (H) Mobile: 083-261-6942 Fax:        012/343-4946 E-Mail: kccs@netralink.com </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left>-----Original Message----- From: = owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Wimblees@AOL.COM Sent: 07 June, 2001 01:32 To: = pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Re: advertising & stuff </DIV>In a message dated 6/5/01 9:27:39 PM Central Daylight Time, = pianolover88@hotmail.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px = solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" TYPE="CITE">On a lighter note, If a customer failed to show up for a = tuning appointment, would you charge her mileage to make a second trip? = I did. Terry Peterson </BLOCKQUOTE> First, regarding = specialty advertising. I found, for the most part, that anything but the = Yellow Pages, or a constantly running 3 or 4 line ad in the classifieds = promoting your tuning business, doesn't pay. I have tried dozens of them, = and none of them produced enough additional work to make it worth while. = Sometimes they just barely broke even, and some didn't do a darn thing. = As far as no shows are concerned. I wrote a post about this subject about = a year ago. Basically, I give the customer the benefit of the doubt = for her excuse why she wasn't home. In fact, what difference does it make = what her excuse is, the bottom line is, she wasn't there to let you in to = tune the piano. Therefore, my stand on this subject is that this part of = the "job description" of being a piano tuner. It comes with  the = territory. No matter how hard we try, there are always going to be no shows. = Therefore, I write it off, and go on with my life. When I did try to collect = in the past, it created bad feelings. I just don't need that. So I let it = go, and hope we can reschedule at a later date. Of course, the customer = only gets one shot at this. The second time, I get nasty, and either = collect, or write the customer off for ever. Willem </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>