I never realized how important it is to say the right words to the right person until several years ago when I had the opportunity to travel with another technician while he was estimating repairs on three different pianos. The first was '48 vintage Lester spinet. He checks everything out and approaches the customer with a sad look on his face (a nice touch, that!) and says, "You have plastic elbows!" The customer's mouth dropped open, her eyebrows went full up and so help me, she looked down at her arm!! By the time my friend with a great deal of awkwardness explained the situation, the lady was totally mortified and testy about the whole situation. My friend told me later that it took him a month to get on with the elbow replacement! The second piano, was a "corfam" era Hamilton and my poor friend who hadn't learned a thing from the first debacle says, "Ma'am, your butt leather is bad and needs to be replaced!" This lady, who had a clear pale complection, flushed such to put a rose to shame! The third customer, a lawyer, whose old upright had unglued jack flanges, who was told that his "jacks were loose" asked what was jacked up in his piano! My point here is our profession has many technical terms that 1. mean somthing else to our average customer and/or 2. mean nothing at all! If we use these terms while trying to convince a client to have us put their piano in first class condition, we may do more harm than good! Now, in my experience we have three general types of clients in our business. 1. Those who believe us to be super-technicians and have faith that we will bring out the best from their instrument no matter what the problem, and willingly pay whatever we charge to accomplish this! Don't you love them? They are the Salt of the Earth! 2. Those who will have the work done if you convince them it is necessary. These are the majority for most of us I'm afraid, and to earn the most money, we need to explain clearly what needs to be done and why it needs to be done now and not sometime in the next 5-10 years or never! 3. Those who are not mechanically minded, who do not understand anything you say about pianos. A lot of non-working spouses of both sexes fall into this category, as well as many piano artists and other artists of various persuasions such as astronomers, mathematicians, phychiatrists and others who can't be bothered with the mundane facts of existance with which we mere mortals have to deal. Now, I'm not going to say anything about Class 1. It is very hard to mess up that situation, but I'm sure somebody will manage it. Class 2 is what makes us or breaks us in piano work. Somehow we must turn Class 2 sceptics into Class 1 gold nuggets! The first and foremost principle in this process is to tell the customer exactly enough tech stuff to convince her/him that you know what you are talking about!(I was always taught to put ladies first!) Let me give you a clue. If their eyes roll up into their head, you've gone too far! Same thing if they start looking at their watch! A good rule of thumb, is to use as little technical information as you can to get the job done. Another thing is to be sure you have their undivided attention before you launch your explanation. A third is to use visual aids. If a jack is broken, have it in your hand or show the customer where it is in the action and how it works. Show the customer the crack in the key. Class 3 is a crap shoot! If they are smart enough to realize they don't know everything, they are probably in class 1 already. If not, whatever you say may not be enough to budge them. The ones that haven't a clue, will probably defer to the spouse or someone else that knows "all about it" whatever "it" is. I try not to use tech terms with them at all unless they ask intelligent questions. The point of all this is that we have a lot of dandy technical terms in our business about which we should think twice before dropping them on our custumers in normal conversation. If we talk down to customers with vaulted terms, many will resent the process and you personally for doing it to them. Below are a few technical synonyms that I use which, more times than not, give my customers a clear idea of what I'm talking about without a lot of added explanation: Action (Which lounge is it in?) Mechanism Jack (Like the one in the car?) Trigger Butt (of a joke,my sitdown,cigarette)(Part of)Hammer,String striker Agraffe (What?) String guide I am compiling a list of similar alternatives which I will publish on Pianotech if there is sufficient interest. If not, post me directly and I'll send it when I'm finished. These are my terms. I'm positive that many of you have better ones that you use and I wish you would send them to me directly to be included in the final list. All that are sent will be attributed to their donors on that list. Happy Easter All, Warren -- Home of The Humor List! Warren D. Fisher fish@communique.net Registered Piano Technician Piano Technicians Guild New Orleans Chapter 701
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