Okay, I am going to come clean here, and probably get blasted for it: Last year I made zero calls asking repeat customers to schedule another tuning, sent out zero postcards, and sent out one reminder email (to a client who practically begged for a reminder email). That's it. I have many, many of repeat customers; they just call me - I don't call them. I hate to be bugged by people, and I don't like to bug them either. If I can see that the client is the type of person who really likes to be on a strict schedule, sometimes I will even give them the name of another tuner who likes to schedule in advance like clockwork. Now, if a client wants to pre-schedule their next tuning while I'm finishing up their current tuning, that's great, and I'm happy to do it. Also, if I have completed a rebuild or major repair, I will call to schedule a followup appointment as necessary (the price of that followup is typically included in the recently-completed job, for which I will have already collected payment). I usually have plenty of work, or too much work. Once in a while I will have a slow week, but there's always shopwork to be done. Surely I can't be the only one who has decided to run a business this way. I am certainly not recommending that any particular tuner should run his/her business as I run mine. Nor do I mean to imply any criticism of other tuners who choose to make phone calls, or to send postcards, emails, singing bunny-grams, or do skywriting (I do, however, have to draw the line at singing bunnies who skywrite; you can hardly hear them over the roar of the engine, plus I'm told that the bunny suit gets really uncomfortable after a while in the cockpit). One of the great things about this profession is that we can each find a business model and a clientele that works for us and is comfortable for us. If we do excellent work, have excellent communication skills, and are reliable, we will, in time, find customers who appreciate our approach and choose to be a part of our clientele. Other potential customers will select a different tuner who runs his/her business in a way that is a comfortable fit for that customer. Joe DeFazio Pittsburgh
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