Service contracts: good, bad, or what?

[Wippen@aol.com]

Mike Hoffman wrote:

>She has now asked if there is any way
>to tune them more frequently, say monthly(!) so that they >sound good all of
>the time.  Needless to say, she's thinking that the money will >be about the
>same.So I've been considering a monthly service contract idea.  Have any of
you
had success with this sort of thing?


Mike,
I can buy a gallon of lacquer for $15.60 or I can get it in a 5 gal. drum for
$ 14.30 or I can buy it in 55 gal. barrels for $ 13.50
You might consider offering your customer a "package or block"
of tunings and discount these by an appropriate percentage.
I have a number of teachers who either want their instruments tuned more than
twice a year or they have more than one instrument. I also have a number of
churches that have anywhere from 6 to 30 instruments.
The customer decides how many tunings they want during a given period of
time,usually a year. You then contract in writing to supply these tunings for
you normal tuning fee less whatever percentage of discount you consider
prudent. The percentage would of course depend on the number of tunings
contracted for.
For instance: A teacher has two pianos in their studio and wants them tuned 4
times a year. That's 8 tunings.
Your normal fee X times 8 - the amount of discount you allow,say 10%.
Buying in bulk saves the customer money and keeps your schedule full.
Paul Dempsey
Marshall University
wippen@aol.com