Welcome to the latest update, after a fantastic summer we are now preparing for what are traditionally the busy months for the piano trade. With the start of the new school year and nights starting to draw in what better time to consider the purchase of a new piano or even to get the old one tuned and serviced! With much ground work being put in place during the late spring and summer we are incredibly excited by the prospect of welcoming new customers to our showrooms. Visitor numbers to the web site are fantastic and Facebook is attracting much attention which all bodes well for some busy times ahead!
Michelle is thoroughly enjoying her new role and has adapted brilliantly to the demands of the piano trade! She had a bit of a crash course covering everything while I disappeared on a family holiday to France in August. Needless to say Michelle rose to the challenge and, despite being slightly alarmed at how busy she was, dealt with every challenge with great professionalism and humour! I think she would tell you that her highlights were supplying a GM-10 Kawai to a family of very competent pianists and selling a Grotrian-Steinweg Cabinet grand piano to a fabulous pianist who entertained with his superb Chopin! There are many really exciting developments in the pipeline at the moment that have been made possible with the addition of Michelle to the team, all will be revealed in future updates and Facebook. On that subject I am still being encouraged to ask people to ‘like us’ on Facebook..! Apparently we had over 14,000 viewings of two pianos on FB in three days, I was staggered! I am meeting Sharad tomorrow to have a full explanation of FB now that it has finally got my attention! Sharad’s company (Cloud Pursuit UK Ltd.) designed and built the web site for us and continue to manage it with all associated marketing, they are fabulous and I would recommend them to anyone, outside of the piano trade of course!!
Although quieter months for the business we have enjoyed a steady footfall of visitors with a variety of pianos chosen throughout the summer. Three local independent schools have had new pianos delivered ready for the start of term with one more awaiting delivery of a grand piano from us in the next couple of weeks. Kawai have been a popular choice as a ever with GM-10 and GE-30 grands being selected. We have one of the last Kawai GE-30’s being delivered to our showroom next week which we are able to offer at discounted price, fabulous opportunity to own this popular 5’5” grand! Grotrian-Steinweg uprights are always admired in our showroom, we recently had an immaculate used model which only lasted a couple of weeks before being snapped up. A really fine new Friedrich upright went to a local family to replace an old family piano that we have looked after for many years, needless to say I’ll be first along to tune that one! We have also had a couple of modern used Kemble pianos that found good homes, one I had looked after since new when the Milton Keynes factory was still in operation, it was great fun visiting the factory then and seeing it in full production.
The tuning and service part of the business is such an integral part of what we do and enjoy. I recently supplied a restored grand piano to a family that I have known for over ten years, the daughter has just graduated from music college, I don’t like to think how old she was when I first tuned the piano! It is always a great satisfaction to see the pianos that we have supplied being enjoyed in the home and to hear of the pleasure that they bring. This is one of the reasons that I continue to tune myself, it is the enjoyment of people and pianos that makes life in the piano business so rewarding and enjoyable. You won’t hear much mention of piano tuning in your average careers meeting, thank goodness I have a piano tuner for a Father!!
We feel that we are in a great place with the business and can’t wait to meet many new customers in the months ahead.
Best wishes,
Ben
