new piano

[Avery Todd]

Hi Warren,

Glad to have you back, BTW. ::-)

A good post. I'm one of the lucky ones, I guess. Otherwise, I wouldn't be 
doing
dealer work while working at the university. Fortunately, he can tell the 
difference
before I work on the piano and after. And, he's made several sales because 
of the
work I've done. He's also willing to pay a reasonable price for the work. 
Too many
dealers aren't! Like the one Les B. posted about.

Avery

At 06:28 PM 06/24/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Les & Susan,
>
>I worked for several New Orleans dealers for a whole lot of years and 
>prior to that sold chemicals for a national corporation for fourteen 
>years. So I think I can give you a view into the sales-oriented mind.
>
>First, the sale is the only thing that keeps them in business 
>initially.  The mind of a customer is carefully nurtured until he or she 
>believes that this piano is the solution to all their musical problems 
>(whatever they are!).  The customer is carefully kept in a positive state 
>of mind until the sale is consumated.  A great deal of care is taken to 
>avoid ANY problems which may crop up (like regular tuning, etc.).  They 
>don't necessarily lie, but sidestep carefully around any land-mines in the 
>process. They are deathly afraid that by being too truthful about these 
>things, the customer will be scared off to one of their competitors and 
>the sale will be lost.  If they lose too many sales, they go under.
>
>The savvy dealers, have a lot of work done on the pianos before they are 
>even seen by the customer.  My favorite dealer in this area tunes and 
>completely regulates every piano that comes in before they are put on the 
>floor. They are retuned regularly on the floor until they are 
>sold.  Several of his customers have bought two or three pianos over the 
>years as theirs means increased.  In my mind this is what makes a 
>successful dealer.  Repeat business.  It's the core of our business!
>
>When I first started doing these tunings, I would tune it where it was and 
>repair what was broke and walk out.  Then I found that six-months or a 
>year later when I was back in there to re-service, that the problems were 
>still there, and were worse.  Then I had a great deal of trouble 
>explaining why the thing needed a pitch raise or loss motion adjustment to 
>"work right".  When I thought about it, I realized that these were now my 
>customers and not the dealer's and it was up to me to make sure that the 
>piano was correct.  For a while, I just took it on my self to do whatever 
>was necessary and chalked it off to customer aquisition, and planned on 
>making it up later.  Unfortunately, neither of the dealers for whom I 
>worked, sold very good pianos.  About half of the customers, for whatever 
>reason, did not need or want additional service for two to five years. I'm 
>sure some of the problem was the lousy tunings I was doing then, but not 
>all.  When I realized what was happening, I talked to the managers of the 
>stores explaining the problem. One of them was astounded that the pianos 
>were in such poor shape out of the factory (the brands shall remain 
>nameless. Most of them are dead now anyway). We set up a pricing schedule 
>for stuff I could go ahead and do without his authorization and others, I 
>needed to call him about. He praised me for making him understand, because 
>he wasn't aware of the problem and he had wondered why he wasn't getting 
>the after-market sales he had expected.  We talked for about two hours 
>about the problems I was seeing.  He made careful notes so he could talk 
>to the manufacturers about them.  He told me later that they told him that 
>it was his problem. Deal with it!
>
>Dealer margins are eroded quickly by overhead and the floor plan expense 
>that they owe on their inventory each month, so they often get into cash 
>flow problems.  So the bottom line is to sell it quick to have the best 
>profit.  Don't let anything mess up the customers mind.  I heard several 
>times that customers were told that the piano wouldn't need anything done 
>for four or five years. Usually, I lift the lid, take out the owner's 
>manual and let them read the manufacturers recommendations about service. 
>Many say four times the FIRST year.
>
>It's our job to educate them on what the piano needs to stay healthy. 
>Don't bad-mouth any dealers.  Eventually, you will regret it.  They have a 
>lot of influence in town and you may find that doors close on you 
>unexpectedly.
>
>The second dealer, looked at me like I was from Mars. Told me he wasn't 
>paying any more for tunings and that was that.  I told him goodbye.  He 
>called me for a year after that, but I didn't do any more work for him.
>
>Warren
>
>Leslie W Bartlett wrote:
>>I tuned for a new customer today, a Kawai baby grand.  Low part was out
>>about 35-cents, top out about 65 cents.   New piano.  I told them it
>>would take more tunings, showed them why, etc. etc., but they were
>>incensed that their piano, major investment, was so unstable. Shouldn't a
>>major investment be "ready", and not require all this extra
>>cost?????????????- they inquired.
>>
>>The relationship between stores and techs in this town hasn't been
>>incredibly positive, at least in the seven or so years I've been around
>>the business.  What's a guy to say to these people??????
>>les bartlett
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>--
>Warren Fisher RPT
>fish@Communique.net
>1422 Briarwood Dr.
>Slidell, LA 70458-3102
>