Customer question

[Z! Reinhardt]

Careful -- there are "leaches" out there who will try as they might to get
you to come back time and time again over and over to take care of "this
little thing" or "that little problem" ... and oh, there's a new one that
"just happened" the day after you left.  Technicians new to the field are
their favorite prey.  I've known some people who deliberately strive to get
as much free service as is possible, be this from the piano technician, car
mechanic, or whatever.  "Well I'm not satisfied ... you need to come back
and fix it for free until I am satisfied."

The only freebie call-back I'll do is to fix a stupid oversight on my part.

First line of defense -- find out while you are setting up the initial
appointment what other concerns the customer may have with the piano.  Ask
them point-blank if there have been any problems with sticking keys or
whatever.  If they mention that there is an intermittent problem, ask them
to identify the key(s) whether or not the problem has acted up recently.
Tell them that because the piano had been neglected for so long, there may
be problems waiting to happen when people start to play it again.  Encourage
them to do as much playing as possible in the meantime so keys can be
identified and the problems described in greater detail by the time you
arrive.

If that doesn't "produce results" yet, then make notes of whatever problems
you encounter as you're going about tuning the piano.  It could be that
there is a problem of sluggishness that could eventually result in sticky
keys.  Or, it could be that you're faced with brittle action parts that will
cause keys to not work when they break.  These should be pointed out to the
customer as soon as you find them.  Or, it could be something so simple as
debris laying across the backs of the keys that would cause some binding as
soon as something fell between a couple of keys.  Obviously some fixes take
a lot less time than others.  Even in the case of something as simple as
cleaning out the debris, you might warn the customer that there is a small
chance that  something may be caught between the keys that may cause
problems later on ... ... Would they like to spend a little extra money now
and have all the keys removed and the keybed cleaned, or would they be
willing to take a chance and foot the bill for a service call should the
need arise?

Extra time demands extra money.

Sometimes it helps to be able to explain things through the use of
analogies.  Since metro Detroit is "car country" I've come up with numerous
analogies between pianos and cars.  It's all very well to give the engine a
nice tune-up after many years of neglect -- starts right away, runs nice
while idling, revs up smoothly when you hit the accelerator, but does this
mean that you can get it shifted into gear, or that you can steer it, or
that the brakes work at all?  No.  Tune-ups usually don't include any other
work on the car unless it is part of a much larger maintenance package.
Even then, when problems requiring parts replacement arise, there are always
charges to cover for the extras.

As you're packing up your tools, ask the customer to sit down and play the
piano.  Tell them this is their last chance to bring concerns to your
attention before it becomes a separate service call.

Good luck --

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sherry" <swidmer@rochester.rr.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 1:35 PM
Subject: Customer question


: I could use some input on the following situation.  I did a pitch raise on
a
: Baldwin Acrosonic the other day and also replaced a broken spring.  The
: customer just called back and said she had a sticking key and wanted me to
: come fix it (without charge).  Obviously I have not been clear enough
about
: what is "included" in a tuning call and what should be considered a new
: service call request.  I have a feeling this lady will have a lot of
things
: go wrong with this piano since it was not maintained properly for many
years
: and just keep calling pretty much forever asking me to stop by without
: charge for "little things" that are wrong.
:
: 1) Any suggestions for this particular situation.
:
: 2) How can I delineate what is and what is not included in a regular
tuning
: appointment (re:  repairs, etc)
:
: Thanks for the help.   Sherry
:
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