You are fixing pianos to sell, right? David Ilvedson Pacifica, CA On Mar 12, 2010, at 10:57 AM, wimblees at aol.com wrote: Basically, when a new customer calls, tell her that if she is interested in a tuning, and would like to take advantage of the group discount, that if she would be willing to schedule 2 or 3 more tunings for you on a predetermined day in addition to hers (a week or so in the future seems to work well), each customer's piano would be tuned for, say, $10 less than your base rate (which is already competitive). I have done that to some extent back in Alabama and St. Louis, especially when I drove to a town out in the country. But knowing the personality of the people in Hawaii, I don't think it works. There is, however, a very strong word of mouth community here. I've been told by many customers that advertising only goes so far, but that I'll get more business from word of mouth. (Which we all know is the best advertising. that started to work last year, when business was very good. Most of my new calls were form word of mouth. But since about May or June, when the economy really hit us hard, even the word of mouth has stopped, and I get a mostly price shoppers. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Behm <behmpiano at gmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Fri, Mar 12, 2010 4:22 am Subject: [pianotech] Group discount idea for building customer base. >because I don't have the luxury of relying on my 30 or 40 years of reputation in the same town, I have to do all I can to gain customers.< Wim Wim - Along with offering a basic rate that is competitive, you might consider offering a group discount for new customers. This has worked well for me. Basically, when a new customer calls, tell her that if she is interested in a tuning, and would like to take advantage of the group discount, that if she would be willing to schedule 2 or 3 more tunings for you on a predetermined day in addition to hers (a week or so in the future seems to work well), each customer's piano would be tuned for, say, $10 less than your base rate (which is already competitive). Give her the time frame for the day (I go 9, 11, 1 and 3 o'clock for new customers), explain that there needs to be some flexibility built into the time schedule to allow for the unexpected, and have her do the legwork. Tell her you will call back on such and such a date to verify the names, addresses and phone numbers of you tuning scheduled for that day. Then, when at the homes for each tuning, explain whatever additional services might be considered, either on that day or in the future. (The key here is to offer only what is really needed) The most common additional service that I offer on the day of the tuning is a vacuuming of the action and under the keys (for vertical pianos), which rarely has been done. This is not, as has been stated, important to the performance of the piano, but is certainly beneficial from a simple health standpoint. I've become severely allergic to dust over the years of working in my shop, and I can testify that the difference between working and playing on a clean piano and a filthy one is huge. I charge half the price of tuning for the vacuuming, do it about 3/4 of the time for a new customer, and therefore more than make up for the discount that is being offered for the group. Finally, when booking future tunings, offer a $5 or so discount for the same group to schedule you in again. This works well in filling entire days with a reasonable amount of work. Beats sitting at home watching soaps. Chuck Behm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100312/610f2629/attachment.htm>
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