<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Kallie, One thing that worked well for me was to have coupons printed up.  I gave five of them to each current client to pass on to their friends.  It gave the new client about 20% off the first tuning, and the person who made the referral got 15% or so off their next tuning for each coupon used. Expensive?  Not really.  I had the coupons nicely done by a friend with a laser printer.  Beyond that, there was no cost without a financial return.  I quit the coupons years ago, but I still get one back now and then, and I honor them, too!  Other than word of mouth, I don't advertise anymore.  I have the smallest ad in the yellow pages, just so people looking for me can find me. Regards, Clyde Kallie Swanepoel wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE> Hi ListWhich advertising method do you find to work the best in our profession? 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 <blockquote> <div class="OutlookMessageHeader" dir="ltr">-----Original Message----- From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [<A HREF="mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org">mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org</A>]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> </blockquote> </html>