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<DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>My customer base extends out in a radius of about 50 miles, though most are within about 30 miles. I don't add trip charges. Fortunately, I have a large enough clientele that I can almost always group appointments in any given area. Since I'm usually booking 2-4 weeks in advance, it allows me enough time to fill in other appointments on a day that I've scheduled out of the area. So the first suggestion would to book those appointments out a ways to give you time to fill in the schedule. If I'm having trouble filling appoitments on a particular date, I will often go into my database for the customers in that area that I've sent reminder cards too but have not yet called me back. I call them to tell them I'm going to be in their area on such and such a date and ask if they were planning to tune the piano to see if I can book the appointment. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>I think the problem is that it can become rather gray as to where trip charges start and end. If you are trying to build a clientele and you rely on referrals, as most of us do, it can become awkward if trip charges apply in one case and not another. Though I would hope that people are having me come for my work and not my price, I don't like to put obstacles in the way of continuing to build business. The more customers you have, the easier it is to group them. When starting out and building business, I think you have to be willing to eat a few trips at first. The larger your customer base, the less of a problem it is. An expanded geographical base can be very beneficial to your overall financial picture. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>I do make exceptions, however. I have a customer who is in an area that I would not normally cover because it's just too far. I would normally tell them that they have to find someone else in their area. In this case, she wants me to work on the piano (which I don't mind, it's a nice new Hamburg Steinway B), so I charge her one extra service call fee to come out on top of what her charges are. I told her out front that I would have to do that as the trip is an extra 45 minutes each way (my fees are based losely on a 1.50 hour appointment). I book appintments in her direction on the days I'm going out there to somewhat minimize the extra driving. I also told her that I would not be able to come out easily on an emergency if some small thing were to go wrong. In addition, I installed a Dampp-Chaser system which keeps the piano very nicely in tune between tunings. I go out twice a year. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>So generally, I would not charge trip charges unless the customer is in a place that you would not otherwise travel to.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>David Love</DIV>
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<DIV><A href="mailto:davidlovepianos@earthlink.net">davidlovepianos@earthlink.net</A></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=phil@philbondi.com href="mailto:phil@philbondi.com">Phil Bondi</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To: </B><A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 2/14/2004 4:08:20 AM </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Trip Charges - when to apply and why</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Tahoma DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT size=1 DEFAULT="SIZE" POINTSIZE="9">Hello to all.<BR><BR>I am going to open a dialogue regarding trip charges. I have personally been avoiding this charge since day one, and I am starting to think that this type of charge needs to be applied in some cases. If you read on, I'm hoping you can offer some insight.<BR><BR>-I got my break in this business doing dealership work..floor tunings and warranty tunings. The dealership doesn't care where they sell to, so there are times when I go a long ways to do a warranty tuning(my price to the dealership recently went up for this work, regardless of locale)<BR><BR>-The growth in this part of the country is starting to migrate north of me - approximently 30 miles from my home and beyond.<BR><BR>-I know what you're thinking: Establish a 'territory' when trip charges don't apply, and go from there.<BR><BR>-For those that charge trip charges, is there a set fee or does it change in regards to the mileage from the home?<BR><BR>-Let's say I have 2 appts. in Tripcharge City. The 2nd appointment is 10 minutes away from the first appt. Do you apply a trip charge for the 2nd appt.? - and is it the same as the charge to the first appt.?<BR><BR>-Would you start to apply a trip charge to those in Tripcharge City that have been customers for awhile?<BR><BR>-I tend to wrestle with this kind of stuff and perhaps dwell too much on it - but I do want to be fair to my clients and especially to myself.<BR><BR>I look forward to your comments.<BR><BR><FONT color=#000000 DEFAULT="COLOR"><BR><LEFT><FONT face=Tahoma color=#000001 size=1 DEFAULT="ALL" POINTSIZE="9">Phil Bondi (FL) </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>