Keeping piano customers

     Marketing is in essence creating customer good will.  With any service business when you leave the customer will either have a good impression of you as a service person and the quality of your work or a bad impression that will lead the customer to either use you again and reccomend you to others or find another tuner.  I have been employing other tuners for years and I have had some excellent technitions that could not keep their own customers and tended to drive my customers away.
     Another factor in my business is that pianos unlike air conditioners can have sentimental value to a customer.  Customers appreciate honesty to some extent but i had a tuner once who did very good work but told the customer her piano was a piece of junk and she should get rid of it and get a better one.  I could not send that tuner back to her and I had to go back and touch up her piano as she was really mad and looking for a reason to criticize his work. 
     A promotional gift is also appreciated but a little extra time if you have it will go much farther.  I try to evaluate the piano and offer at least an estimate for the cost of some further work or do something extra without charge if it is just a little bit of my time. 
     A big part of what I like about this job is interracting with the customers.  My relationship with Christ helps me see each customer as not just a prospect for income but a person just as loved and important to God as myself so I can genuinely care about their welfare. When someone calls and asks if I remember them or thsir piano I usually remember the piano more so than the person.  Pianos are very interesting machines and I also enjoy troubleshooting the problems associated with the instrument which also is appreciated by the customer and again usually only involves a little extra time.