Speed, Accuracy & Efficiency=Profit

[Gina Carter]

Hi Brian,

A few questions:

Is your work for the dealer on an hourly basis on a set fee?
Were these customers scheduled by the dealer or by you?
Did you know what kind of pianos these were before you went?

A few suggestions:

When I worked for a dealer, we had an agreement about my charges _before_ I
went to one of his warranty service calls/tunings. He quickly learned that
if he didn't give me accurate information about the client's piano, he would
be charged for everything additional I did while servicing his client's
piano. If he sent me on a service call and the customer had additional
complaints about additional things not working properly, I called the dealer
for his authorization before I spent the time doing the repairs. No
authorization, no repairs. I then diplomatically informed the customer that
the decision who paid was between her and the dealer. I would give her the
choice of me leaving after having completed what the dealer authorized me to
do or having me make the additional repairs then and she pay me then. If she
wanted to discuss reimbursement from the dealer herself, that was her
choice; but I made sure I would be paid before I did the work.

If the dealer scheduled these service calls and I spent time driving all
over creation getting there and/or spent downtime in traffic, I charged him
my hourly fee for the driving/downtime. Note: I didn't start off with the
dealer this way. Only after seeing how much money I was losing because I
didn't have these things covered, did I take these actions. After we came to
agreement, I didn't resent the extra time spent working on his service calls
or driving or being stuck in traffic because I still was being paid. No more
anger/frustration for losing money on my end.

About scheduling, I quickly learned to schedule my private service calls in
close proximity. I saw that driving time, on my own time, either had to be
built into my price structure or charge a mileage fee. I still schedule that
way - all tunings in one day in a general area so that the client the
farthest away will be such that all the others will either be on the way to
that specific one or on the way back from that specific one. No back and
forth across kingdom come with wasted downtime in normal traffic or on the
road.

How do I know what to schedule when? I determine this during the appointment
set-up phone call with the new customer. That's when I ask what kind of
piano, how long has it been since it was last serviced, do all the keys
work, has she noticed any special problems, where does she live. Her answers
to these questions give me a general indication of how much time I need to
allot for her piano and when to schedule the service call. If she lives on
the North side of town, I schedule her when I will be in the area where she
lives.  How do I know when I will be in that area? I pre-schedule most of my
next appointments while I'm there doing this one. This still works for me
long after I quit working for dealers.

Hope this helps some and today is better than yesterday. :-)

Gina


----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Trout <btrout@desupernet.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: Speed, Accuracy & Efficiency=Profit