Voicing & Owner Education

[Ron Nossaman]

> recently had a customer that
>wanted a 'Steinway' sound from a 5' no-name - 


Hey, I've tuned for that guy too. I told him that if he wants it to walk
like a duck, look like a duck, and sound like a duck, he was just going to
have to get himself a duck. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor and
replied "Instead of a turkey"?

The only thing I've found that works reasonably well to sell badly needed
voicing is to point out the problem and offer to brush the hammers so they
can try it out temporarily. Since it's not a serious or permanent change,
and I can afford to give them the thirty seconds of time (and action access
in a grand), to make the point. If they never want work done, I haven't
wasted a lot of time. Sometimes they will ask me at the next tuning if I'll
brush the hammers again. I will, and do, and charge for time. Rarely,
someone who didn't initiate the complaint will actually hear the difference
after the brushing and schedule a full frontal voicing attack.

I'm selective about who I mention this to, because I don't really want to
spend my days trying to make dead or very poor quality pianos sound less
painful if I can be trying to make good quality pianos sound better
instead. Where you draw the lines depends on the size of your backlog and
how tired you are.

A personal observation on customer education, if anyone's still there.
Certain relatively rare individuals are willing and able to be educated.
The public as a whole is not. They have more immediate demands on their
attention. From that perspective, I try to not spend a LOT of unnecessary
time trying to sell services that an individual shows no interest in, other
than outlining a few possibilities. Most people have other priorities and
just don't care if their duck is up to snuff or not.


Ron N