Los Angeles Chapter

November Meeting: (3rd Monday)
Date: Monday, November 16, 2020
Time: 6:00 pm - Please note the earlier time
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84918904101
Guest Speaker: Mark Purney, RPT

In our last meeting Jason Cassell laid out a strategy for growing a piano technician business. The approach had two major prongs: assuring existing customers turn into repeat customers, and growing sales of services across subsequent visits.

Cassell listed six tips for achieving these goals:
1) Do more than you are asked -Technicians who provide a comprehensive piano service are more likely to have customers who feel they have received good value. Tightening benches, adjusting pedals and other quick extras leave a customer feeling well cared for, increasing the likelihood of subsequent service calls.
2) Aurally verify your tunings - Tuning aids are great, but the software is not perfect. Notes sometimes move. Aurally verifying a tuning assures a customer is left with an instrument that sings, rather than one that just sounds pretty good.
3) Schedule future appointments - It takes just a few extra moments to schedule the next service before leaving a customer's house, a step that will fill out your appointment books in the future. Even if they cancel down the road, that dialogue is a chance for further engagement.
4) Take a paid vacation - This tip examines more than sunshine and drinks with umbrellas. Pricing structures that include time off, insurance, maintenance and other costs associated with running a proper business are more likely to achieve long-term success.
5) Offer improvements - not just maintenance - Cassell told the story of his wife's recent visit to an auto repair shop to demonstrate mechanisms for selling services beyond tuning and lost motion adjustments. Carefully written estimates and condition reports can help customers make the best decisions regarding their instruments as well as increase a technician's sales revenue significantly.
6) Branch out - Spend one week a year learning new skills so you can grow the number of services you sell to your clients.

Our next meeting will feature Mark Purney, a registered piano technician based in Phoenix, Arizona and owner of Supply 88, a tool company that creates innovative tools via 3D printing for piano technicians. Purney will explore his process for creating devices that make common tasks easier and more efficient.

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