<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">Peter, My situation is similar to Phil's.  I do some contract work for a s= tore that tells the customer that the piano only needs tuning once a year, r= egardless of the fact that it's a new piano and the manufacturers suggest 2-= 3 times in the first year, minimum.  Many of those clients I see only o= nce, and I've gotten to the point where I've stopped questioning whether or = not they liked my service.  It's usually a moot point.  Sometimes = they find a new tooner who works on the cheap and is a piano teacher for his= day job.  Sometimes they just never bother getting their pianos tuned = again. I used to take it personally, especially when I often did extra work to = get the piano functioning the way it's supposed to on the first visit, then = got stonewalled when I called back to schedule an appointment 6 months later= . If you send a questionnaire card, it will get tossed 9 out of 10 times, = IMHO.  I have asked people outright whether they thought my work was sa= tisfactory.  Sometimes I didn't like the answers (like when I missed se= veral unisions in a piano where I was teaching a couple of kids all about tu= ning).  The best answer I ever got was, "Oh, I married a piano tuner.!"=  I then spent a few minutes on the phone talking with her husband. &nb= sp;The more likely response is that it isn't as high on the priority list as= , say, a cat's annual trip to the vet. I think the key is to not take it too personally.  When one puts as= much into his work as many of us do, it's hard not to be hurt by "rejection= ."   In a message dated 12/16/04 5:11:41 AM Pacific Standard Time, phil@philb= ondi.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Peter, if you're losing '30= -50 per year' and gaining '130' you have nothing to worry about. Regardless of how you go about reminding your clientelle about next service(assumimg you do), there are various sundry= reasons why people either do not use you anymore or do not tune their piano on a regular basis. I use to take it personally, but I don't anymore. My ratio of gain vs. loss is similar to yours, but I also do contract work for a dealership which feeds me new pianos as well as all of the referrals that come into the store. My advice is to continue to do good work at a fair price, and the phone will ring..and you might be surprised when the phone rings from a long-lost client who hasn't serviced their piano since the last time you= were there. This happens to me alot. Phil Bondi(Fl)</BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>