--Forwarded Message Attachment-- From: IFixPianos at yahoo.com To: ed440 at mindspring.com; pianotech at ptg.org Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 10:00:46 -0500 Subject: Re: [pianotech] Saturday Appointments On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Ed Sutton <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote: I'm considering establishing a policy of "No Saturday Appointments." It began as a favor to a customer who lived nearby, when they both began working away from home weekdays. Once you make a Saturday appointment, you have a customer who will demand Saturday only appointments, and it doesn't take very many of those to claim most (soon all) available Saturdays. How have others dealt with this? Ed S. Hi Ed, I stopped working on Saturdays years ago, the few appointments I made on Saturdays were noisy, the people wanted me to rush, start late and everybody wanted the morning so it became a half day, frequently one tuning. I don't work them now except for the occasional concert, wedding emergency, etc. I'll start early or go late on a weekday to accomodate a schedule. I have a large honeydo list which usually fills my Saturday and frequently Sunday as well and my boss doesn't like me taking time from that to tune! (grin) Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com Ed, Apology's for the wordiness but this is not a simple subject. As a small business owner you always have to keep the customer needs (demands,wants,wishes etc.) valued against your own needs (demands,wants,wishes etc.) You should to have a policy established for each of the many variables and then stick to them. Keeping in mind that once ANY exception to a policy rule is made (or the rule is broken) that now becomes the rule. Albeit a modified version. If your customers have special needs then it is up to you to decide IF the needs are to be met and what your terms are for fulfilling those needs. As long as your rule book (game plan) is being followed a decision can be made by all. YES YES YES you are totally allowed to set the parameters. If the customer wants to play by your rules then there should be no problem. Just be absolutely certain to explain the rules before beginning the service. For example: If you want to do saturday appointments and want to charge accordingly for that type of service (say twice your regular rate) then as long as the customer knows this beforehand it is then up to the customer to decide IF they want to accept your terms for those conditions great. If not then they have to decide what to do. In my private practice I never provide a specific price (over the phone, in the mall, first time service etc) for any job until I see and or know the instrument. Ranges of price are fine since customers always shop price but again you have to determine if that's the type of clientele you want to service. Premium service commands premium price as long as the customer can justify the fee for services rendered. The opposite is true. Fedex Ground, Express, 2nd day air, Overnight and Early AM are an excellent example of this fee for service model. The customer decides on the level of service and their fee schedule applies accordingly. Simply put, as a business owner, you set the rules, the customer decides IF they want your service(s). If you want to discuss this topic off line I would be happy to carry on the discussion. It just depends upon how much and if you are willing to pay consultation fees. (wink,wink) Gerry Cousins, RPT Cousins Musical Instrument Services Curator of Musical Instruments West Chester University of PA So far, keepin' up with Steve -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090804/219c9c54/attachment-0001.htm>
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