Really nice response, Tim. Interesting discussion, Wim. I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses.
A major way to avoid price shoppers is to have prices clearly stated on a website. Most people who contact us have been on our site and have seen what our services and fees are. I'm also fortunate that my spouse is my business partner and handles the scheduling and customer service for us. It's easier for her to promote me than for me to promote myself.
The longer I am in this business, the more skeptical I become of the "tune and run" philosophy that seems prevalent in our industry. A once-a-year tuning that doesn't include any other work is a waste of money, in my opinion. There's more of an argument to be made for quarterly tuning. Pianos around here almost always sound much better at the anniversary of the last tuning than if you are seeing it off-season.
For this reason, I tell clients that even though a fine tuning does not last a year, it may recover to a great extent by the anniversary of the tuning, giving me more time to maintain the whole instrument. This is why I love my once-a-year clients.
Occasionally, I come across pianos I tuned many years ago that are still at pitch and sound reasonably good. On the other hand, I see pianos that I tuned 4 months ago, and they can be surprisingly off. The state in which we find pianos is highly variable, and the individual needs of the piano and client also vary substantially.
A formulaic "they just hired me to tune" approach provides limited value for clients and limited satisfaction for the technician.
It is more effective to charge for a set amount of time. Our basic service gives me 1.5 - 2 hours to do what I can to make the piano more pleasurable. If I come to a piano that I serviced exactly a year ago, I can often get by with a touch-up tuning and spend the rest of the time keeping the piano hammers well-shaped and voiced, keeping the action well-regulated, maintaining proper friction, etc. After a few years of this type of work, it is sometimes challenging to find things to improve. You might spend an hour working on half-pedaling on a console piano. We should always be practicing our craft with every opportunity.
Even though our rates may seem high compared to "just a tuning," I'm often surprised how often people who appear to be of limited means hire us. For some, piano service is going to be an every-once-in-a-while affair. If they found the piano for free, they are often willing to spend a little extra money to get the piano serviced.
Lastly, in regard to rates, I highly recommend the slow and steady, rule-based approach that mostly takes the emotions out of it. The rule is this: If we service 500 pianos in a year, the market is telling us we can raise our rates by around 10 percent. Personally, I don't want to service more than 500, so I set that as my limit. I've been amazed that every year we hit the target. I assume we will plateau at some point, but it hasn't happened yet.
The reality is we don't know what we are worth - only the market knows.
To some people, a piano has negative value; to others, the piano is their lifeline. Who are we to judge?"
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Ryan Sowers RPT
Olympia WA
(360) 480-5648
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-02-2024 14:18
From: Timothy Michaels
Subject: Can't or won't.
I've always found the game of dealing with the price shoppers to be fun. Isaac Sadigursky would use humor to deal with them and I try to follow in his lead. One thing he would do when somebody would ask for a discount is to offer them 49 cents off. His delivery and lead up to the discount would create a hilarious reaction and create immediate affinity with the client. My other mentor would use the same tactics of humor and he amassed a huge clientele as well.
There are other ways than being prideful and dismissive to deal with the price shoppers. Throwing them away as if they don't matter to you is a guaranteed way to shrink a business. They are human beings with fears and skepticism. When I treat them as a human I earn their respect and business.
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Tim Michaels
pianotechtim@gmail.com
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