[CAUT] Retesting (Diane)

[tnrwim at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: tannertuner <tannertuner at bellsouth.net>
To: caut <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 4:39 am
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Retesting (Diane)




--- On Thu, 7/29/10, tnrwim at aol.com <tnrwim at aol.com> wrote:


 How many piano technicians sell pianos, or at most recommend new pianos to their customers? New pianos sales right now are less than 300,000 per year, world wide.  
 

 
Ooh, I didn't answer this part of the question.  I think manufacturers must be completely oblivious to the reality that piano technicians are constantly recommending new pianos to their customers. I'm pretty sure the sales force doesn't realize just how important having that service force out in homes and schools is to new piano sales. Customer walks in the store, says "my tuner says I need a new piano." Salesman gets the commission, nobody ever knows the tuner said the old piano wasn't worth fixing.  But an aggressive service department is by far the most important generator of new piano sales.

This statement is very true when the technician is working for a service department of a piano store.  When I owned a store, I would recommend new, or better used, pianos to my customers all the time. But very seldom  did a customer walk in and tell me her piano technician told her to buy a new piano. 

But now that I'm an independent piano tuner, I would rather have the customer fix the piano, than tell her to buy a new one. Even though I do some work for a dealer, and I do recommend a new piano occasionally, it's not being done often enough to make a real difference. 

What manufacturers are not doing is strongly encouraging their dealers to hire, and properly compensate, qualified piano technicians to prep their pianos before they leave the store. Manufacturing sales and marketing departments need to do a much better job of educating their dealers on the importnace of having all of their pianos prepped properly before they are put out for sale. Most dealers don't do that. That, by itself, will increase sales. 

Wim



 
And we as technicians need to do more of that.  I've got an action sitting here in my shop right now. The customer begged me to just fix the ones that aren't working because it was her father's piano. She talked me into taking it to the shop, but after thinking it over, it wouldn't be ethical for me to repair this piano for her. It's a 60 year old Knabe consollette FULL of plastic flanges, plastic jacks, plastic damper levers, etc. She's looking at hundreds of dollars to fix the ones that are broken now,and there is no telling how much more will break while I'm trying to fix it. At some point we technicians need to say, "look, your grandfather also treasured his old truck, but at some point it was no longer worth trying to keep up and he had to part with it. There is also a heaven for pianos." Sure, there are a few that are worth fixing, but we really need to accept at some point that some of this stuff isn't worth keeping up.
 
When manufacturers realize how important we are to new piano sales, I think they would get on board.
 
Jeff


 



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