More Money in Tuning or Servicing?

[Delwin D Fandrich]

On the other hand....

Almost all of our work comes via referral from, or in collaboration with, a
piano technician or rebuilder out there somewhere. About half the time we'll be
doing the complete job. Board, block, strings, dampers, action, finish, etc. The
rest comes to us in pieces -- that is, the referring tech will want to do part
of the work in his/her own shop and we'll just be doing the belly work. With
these we will be doing only the board, block and plate setting for bearing.
Occasionally we will string one of these, but usually the referring tech will
want to do that.

For the most part, this arrangement works pretty well. Only a couple of times
have we run into trouble. Once a piano was brought to us in pieces after a
non-rebuilding tech and at least one other shop had had some time with it. Parts
were missing, work was badly done and had to be done over, etc. Once we had to
replace a new soundboard and pinblock that had been installed by a "highly
respected RPT." These had been fit with, I think, a chain saw. The block didn't
contact the plate flange anywhere. Many of the tuning pin holes drilled in the
pinblock couldn't be seen through the holes in the plate. Etc. Occasionally a
piano owner will be given (or will be allowed to develop) some unrealistic
expectations of the potential results. But, for the most part, our symbiotic
relationship with the technicians we work with functions quite well.

Years ago, in another city, I tried to develop this type of relationship with
some of the tuners in the area that I knew did no major servicing or rebuilding
work themselves. I told them that I did not want to develop a tuning business, I
simply wanted to do rebuilding work. I assured them that the customer would
remain theirs for normal tuning and servicing after the rebuilding was done.
Still, I encountered a decided reluctance on the part of most of these tuners to
refer work. It seemed that there just weren't any pianos out there that needed
rebuilding. Eventually, rather than go hungry, I developed the tuning end of my
business, doing some of it myself and hiring a full time tuner for the rest.
And, guess what? We started running across all kinds of pianos that needed
rebuilding. So we sold the work, did the jobs, and kept the grateful customers.
Then we started getting complaints from the tuners who had lost these customers.
They suddenly remembered that I had said I would hand the customer back to them
after the rebuild! In most cases, of course,  these customers had absolutely no
interest in having their original tuner back again. No matter how good their
tuning had been.

The bottom line was that they had never even tried to sell the work. Sometimes
they didn't even realize that any serious problems existed. We frequently heard
from piano owners that they had questioned their previous tuner about the things
we were finding and got unsatisfactory answers. Often they were told that there
was simply nothing that could be done to make the piano perform better. They
would have to buy a new piano. So, they started looking elsewhere. And,
somewhere along the line, they would find our shop.

I guess my message here is that pianos do wear out. Piano owners -- at least
some of them -- are going to realize this. If you are unable, or unwilling, to
help them solve their problem, they are going to look elsewhere. Sooner or later
they will find someone, somewhere, that will help them. And you will have lost a
potentially good customer. To fear working out a relationship with a rebuilder
because of one bad experience out of 100 is surely shortsighted. And it is not
giving the best possible service to your customer.

The working relationship between a piano tuner and a rebuilding shop is
definitely one of give and take. The expectations and realities sometimes seem
to work at cross-purposes. We often raise our eyebrows at the pianos that come
in, especially when we hear what the customer has been promised. And we try to
be pretty explicit about what we can and cannot do. We are often surprised at
some of the questions and problems the technicians we work with come up with. As
they are with ours. Life isn't perfect, we work it out together as best we can.
It may well take some time and effort to find a rebuilding shop that you can
work out a good, mutually advantageous relationship with. But, in the long run,
it will be worth the effort.

Regards,

Del

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Arnold Schmidt wrote:

> On 1998-07-01 Greg said:
> I finally got the piano back only 45 days
>    >after the expected time with the pin block too low to install the
>    >action.  I was there when his guys delivered it and the customer
>    >wqas so upset that they would not even entertain the thought of
>    >sending it back.  All trust was lost and I spent the day trying to
>    >chip away a layer or two of the underside of the pinblock so that I
>    >could slide the action in.
> And it probably never worked correctly.  See, it is crap like this that
> frightens me about subcontracting.  A hundred of them might turn out right,
> but that 101st, that is a different story.  I do as you do, and just give
> customers the name of somebody here that I recommend when they need
> something done that I don't do.  If I loose my customer to him, so be it.
> But I don't want to be the one in the middle when something isn't right.
>
> I remember when I first joined this list, there was the discussion of
> whether it was better to rebuild or buy new.  My position was, and still is,
> that it is better to buy in the condition you will play it in.  I would
> never tell somebody not to rebuild their piano, but I always remind them
> that after they spend that bigtime money on it, they are pretty much stuck
> with what they end up with if they don't really like it.  Most of the time,
> there isn't a problem and they will be glad they did it, but sometimes,
> well.  Even putting on a set of hammers, you don't know, really, what it is
> going to sound like until you hear it.  And if, after I've talked a bunch of
> words, I
> subcontract with somebody to do something and then the customer doesn't like
> it and says, "well, that just isn't the way it was supposed to be", I am not
> only in the middle, I am defending somebody's work that I personally may not
> even like myself; it just isn't worth it to me!  I am sure most rebuilds and
> reconditions turn out wonderfully, but that exception is what people
> remember.
>
>    >Greg Newell
> Arnold Schmidt, Raleigh, NC
> Arnold1@Mindspring.com