How do you get them to shut the #%$@ up?

[Jeannie Grassi]

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Mark,
When you are scheduling your appointment that might be a good time to
slip in a comment or question about whether the "house" will be quiet at
that time of day being suggested.  If they still don't get the idea, you
can mention, at that point, that you need to have a really quiet block
of time to be able to hear well enough to do a good job on their piano.
You might even give a few examples that you find most distractive....and
don't forget to mention that it might be best to come up with a quiet
activity for the children of the house.  I find that if people hadn't
thought of it before, they realize how much sense that makes once it is
brought to their attention.  Unless you've begun to educate your
clientele, you really can't afford to be irritated with their ignorance.
Good luck.
 
jeannie
Jeannie Grassi, RPT
Associate Editor, Piano Technicians Journal
mailto:jgrassi@silverlink.net 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Mark Dierauf
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 6:01 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: How do you get them to shut the #%$@ up?


I've been doing this for like 25 years, and I still haven't figured out
how to deal with customers who insist on using the piano tuning
appointment as the ideal time to catch up on their vacuuming, carpentry,
chainsawing, or to finish watching that copy of "Armageddon" on surround
sound DVD. Or rather the only way that occurs to me once the noise has
begun wouldn't lend itself to much in the way of repeat business. No
matter how diplomatic I try and be in requesting that they keep it down,
I'm afraid that I can't hide the fact that I'm already annoyed. I've
thought about possible solutions like painting in large block letters on
my tool box: "QUIET - TUNER AT WORK!", but given the high rate of
illiteracy I have my doubts whether that would be effective. Does
anybody have any helpful ideas?
 
- Mark

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