Its called paying attention to detail. Pianos don't scheduling their tunings; their owners do! If you want to stay in business, you MUST contact your customers! Next time you dread sitting down at the telephone, think about how much you would dread a 9-5 job!! It may be repulsive to call customers to maintain your clients, but I find not eating or the ability to pay my bills more so! Most people expect to be reminded. As many have discovered, the percentages are not as pretty as we might like, but 3 things are clear. First, I think those tuners who book the next appointment before they leave, and follow it up with a reminder call two weeks prior, are the most successful in booking callbacks. However, the reason I am self-employed is that I want flexibility in my life so I have time to deal with my family. I would personally feel that bookings 6 months in advance to be a ball and chain around my ankle! Therefore, I resort to scenarios 2 and 3. Every month I send postcards to those due tunings - somewhere between 70 and 100. In the first three days, about 10 people will call to schedule a tuning. I send postcards annually for 6 years, so I would say about another 10 calls come in every month that call about a postcard they received some time ago. I am lucky that about 10 calls come in every month just from referrals or the phone book - maybe more. So doing not much, enough work comes in most of the time to not necessitate making phone calls myself. However, I must confess, that if I DO sit down at the phone, or hire someone else to do it for me, about 2 in 5 will schedule immediately. This is very good, being that the statistics show that about only 1 in 10 respond to cold calls. With our national economy going elsewhere, piano tunings are getting lower and lower on the family budgets. However, that same economy also keeps families from traveling so much, so they stay home and repair, play and tune their pianos! It also brings in more income if you schedule appointments during evenings and weekends when men are home. Usually routine tunings come out of household budgets managed by women, and they have many, many things that money must cover. Men, on the other hand, like to see things taken care of - especially if there is something extra about the piano that is required. They will usually spring for the cost of hammer resurfacing, regulation, climate control systems, etc out of THEIR money and not the household accounts. I also charge more for weekend and evening calls, so it is a win-win proposition. Just think of the telephone as your friend - all the way to the bank! Carol Beigel >I have been thinking about calling back customers and reminding > them to get their pianos tuned. I occasionally send out reminder cards at the > request of the customer, however, I find something repulsive about calling to > find/keep work > . > I was just wondering how some of the folks on this list handle > keeping and developing steady customers. Are steady regular customers > something that will transpire over time, because the customer will like the tuning I > put on their piano, or is it something that I must put effort into ie. > phonecalls, postcard reminders? > > Thanks in advance, > Julia Gottchall
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