overbooked

[Tom Myler]

PS:  Had it been me, canceling the Symphony date with my wife would have
absolutely NOT been an option.  You have to draw the line somewhere; and,
the client also owes you a little loyalty, consideration, and respect.

Myler, Tom

"When All Else Fails, Do It Right"

----------
> From: Wimblees@aol.com
> To: pianotech@byu.edu
> Subject: overbooked
> Date: Monday, September 30, 1996 3:35 PM
>
> Overbooked
>
> Chris Trivilas, in his "Touchup Revisited: article in the September
Journal,
> mentioned the dilemna of having one of your best customers call at the
last
> minute for a tuning. I had that situation happend a couple of months ago.
On
> a Thursday evening I got a call from the choir director of a large church
> with many pianos, for whom I have been tuning for 8 years, (and in the
market
> for one of my rebuilt grands), to tune the piano in the sacntuary before
> Saturday, when he had 3 weddings scheduled. With no time on the calander
> on Friday, I had 3 options. 1. Work an extra couple of hours on
> Friday, 2. Cancell one of my appointments, on 3. Recommend another tuner.
>
>
> Since my wife and I had tickets to the symphony Friday night, I couldn't
work
> the extra hours. I thought about cancelling one of my other customers,
> figuring that one of them wouldn't know the difference why I cancelled.
But
> then maybe this customer belonged to a church with a lot of pianos, or
needed
> her piano rebuilt, or had a friend who needed her piano rebuilt. I have
never
> cancelled one appointment to schedule another. I have cancelled because I
was
> sick, or because of an emergency, but never to schedule another
> appointment, and I didn't want to set a president to do that. So I did
what I
> thought was best. I recommended he find another tuner. Since I didn't
know
> the
> schedules of the other RPT's in the chapter, I just told him to call
someone.
>
> I haven't heard from this choir director since he called me, to tune the
> other pianos at the church. I have been wondering if I lost him to a
> competitor, or is he mad at me for not dropping everything to take care
of
> him, or is he just late getting around to calling me?
>
> The question I have is this. Should I have given up the tickets to the
> symphony? Should I have cancelled one of my other appointments? Did I do
the
> right thing?
>
> What are some thoughts and opinions on the matter.
>
> Willem Blees  RPT
> St. Louis