Fees

[David Love]

That's not how I present it.  Before I ever state the fee I go through my
usual inquiries about type of piano, make, last time it was serviced, any
particular problems they are having or want me to address.  I then say that
my fee is x for a 1.5 hour service call.  I will say that that usually
covers all tuning requirements and leaves a little time to make other small
adjustments.  If it is obvious that the piano needs more work than that from
there description, I say that additional work is billed hourly at the same
rate.  I will try and estimate the time involved based on their description
if I can but always with the caveat that I really need to assess the
situation at the piano.  My response might be tailored to the customer and
their level of sophistication, but I never talk down to the customer.  I
always assume a higher level of knowledge and try to raise their level with
appropriately worded explanations.  People appreciate that.  I find that the
worst thing to do is to lead them to believe the fee will be less than it
might be and keep tacking on little charges.  In the old model, that's
called the "foot in the door technique", it is transparent and pisses people
off.  Tell them as honestly as you can what the situation is and they will
have much greater respect for you.   I can't always make an accurate
assessment in the first five minutes.  If they ask I usually say, well let
me go through and tune it first and I'll be able to give a more thorough
assessment when I'm done.  Often I find things as I am going through the
piano note by note in the tuning process that were not evident when I first
sat down.  People like to hear it right the first time, I'd rather wait and
give them an accurate assessment than to have to change my assessment later.
I don't want to be held to what I can discover initially.

But I'm not trying to convince anybody.  Use whatever method you are
comfortable with.  I'm just reporting on what I have done that works for me.

David Love


----- Original Message -----
From: "pianolover 88" <pianolover88@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: March 16, 2002 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: Fees


> I don't believe it's a good idea to tell the customer, "I charge $100 per
> hour", or whatever. I charge by the job based on everything involved, plus
> travel time, mileage and gas.
> If you went to have Laser eye surgery and the Doc told you "I charge
$20,000
> per hour", you'd run outta there so fast you'd leave your shoes behind!
That
> figure is not exact, but we know that the actual procedure takes only a
few
> minutes per eye, and costs, depending on the deal you find, between
> $1,000-$3,000 per eye! Of course, the Doc isn't charging JUST for those
few
> minutes, but for post op, all the pre-op prep, and has to pay his staff,
> office rent, and the cost of his laser.
> But if he WERE to advertise his "hourly" rate, he wouldn't be in business
> very long. I have NEVER been asked to "justify" my rate, and I don't; I
> charge for the particular job I'm doing and that's that.
>
>
>
> Terry Peterson
>
>
> >From: Wimblees@AOL.COM
> >Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> >To: pianotech@ptg.org
> >Subject: Re: Fees
> >Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 01:34:46 EST
> >
> >In a message dated 3/16/02 4:34:12 AM !!!First Boot!!!,
> >davidlovepianos@earthlink.net writes:
> >
> >
> > > Don't take me quite so literally.
> > >
> > > David Love
> > >
> >
> >David
> >
> >I realize that the story you gave is not a word for word telephone
> >conversation, and neither was mine. And I am not trying to persuade you
to
> >change your practice. I wish you all the luck in the world with it. I
just
> >wanted you to be aware that what you are doing might not solve the
problem
> >you described. It doesn't make any difference what you charge, and how
you
> >justify it. Someone is going to ask you to explain your fee structure,
and
> >they will not be happy with it.
> >
> >One of the problems we have in this business is that we are dealing with
> >two
> >different price structures. One is a set fee for a set task. ($80 to tune
a
> >piano). The other is an hourly wage to do everything else. Now we may
have
> >come up with set fees for doing other things, ($250 to put on a set of
> >bridle
> >straps, $800 to regulate an action, $350 for a new set of keytops). but
> >they
> >are all based on the amount of time we spend doing them, multiplied by
the
> >hourly rate we charge, (plus parts).
> >
> >That is why we should set our tuning fee by what we charge per hour. But
> >you
> >first need to figure out what that hourly rate is. Vivian Brooks and I
both
> >have excellent classes on this, and if you look in the archives, or on
the
> >CD
> >ROM, you will probably find many articles on the subject.
> >
> >One thing I find disturbing, is there are tuners who charge $70 per
tuning,
> >and take an hour and half to do that tuning. But then they charge $70 per
> >hour to do technical work.  That means if they need to charge $70 per
hour
> >to
> >pay the bills, every time they go do a tuning, they loose $35. If they
did
> >20
> >tunings in a week, they will have lost $700. They should be charging the
> >same
> >for a tuning as they do for technical work, which would be $105. But that
> >would be way over what everyone else charges. So something's got to give.
> >My
> >recommendation is to learn to tune faster.
> >
> >Again, David, please don't think that I am arguing with what you are
doing.
> >As I said, if you think it is fair, and the customers are satisfied, go
for
> >it.
> >
> >Wim.
>
>
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