Clyde said: >In this part of the country people are pretty frugal. Thoughts? yes..I live in the land of Fixed Income. I have the 2nd highest tuning rate in the area(that I am aware of) and I do well, thank you. Most of my new customers, if they're not coming from the dealership, come from satisfied customers..so much in fact that my Yellow Pages ad has gone from a 1" ad to a 1 line add. This is an interesting thread. For the longest time, I felt I had to be on the low end of the scale to get the work..I was inexperienced and building my business..as I gained more confidence in my work and as my rates increased, so has my database and I have NOT lost any 'good' customers to cheaper techs. Sometimes I want to 'help' those _tire kickers_ out there looking for the cheapest rate by giving them the names and numbers of techs that I am pretty sure charge less than me, but that's not good business..when they call and ask my price, and then say, "oh my...etc.etc." I know, as most of us do, that we're probably NOT going to get that piano to work on..and I am sure many of us don't have the time to deal with a piano that has been neglicted for xxx amount of years and the customer wants us to do it for practically free....and then there are some people who call that know that their piano has not had the proper service and ask a few questions..I like them..I'll give them as much and more info as possible..because they 'appear' to be admitting, at least on the surface, that they know they've been neglectful..at the end of the conversation, if they choose to hire me or not makes no difference..I have just done my part to educate a potential customer...I can sleep at night. Be happy..be profitable...they work together. roo($) ps - model your business off of a business in your area that has a good reputation..or talk to Randy Potter..he's proof-positive that it can be done profitably.
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