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I have not tuned a piano (but my own) since March 15th. How about you?

March 12th here.

Fri Mar. 20th last tuning.
Just changed a set of humidifier pads today on a system that was blinking red. Customer preferred now rather than waiting. They have been isolating and we have low incidence of coronavirus here.
Don't anticipate doing regular tunings again until May 17 or 18. That is for a summer resort hotel which had postponed their opening from 5/1 to 5/21. We'll see if that date holds ...

Thankfully, I have a backlog of shop work (restring 5'2" grand and new soundboard in 7'6" grand) plus keeping up with "remote piano service" like the lady that had the broken keys that mailed them in and was so happy to get a functional piano (see post "At the end of the day"). Also, we have the internet piano component sales business.

I'm thinking of doing a "next tuning free" for my music teacher clients who have been hit harder than I have.

My last one was March 12th. It was in the afternoon, and I was tuning as the customer was watching TV as the President declared a state of emergency.

I wonder how many tuners in their 60s or 70s will finally decide that the calmer life around the home is better than going back to tuning.

What is this calmer life you speak of?

I have spent a lot of the day dealing with the cancellation of our band season, plus associated issues that arose from that.

I had someone call for a tuning today, as well. She is willing to wait.

I got a call last week for a tuning. Unfortunately, they were about 9 hours away... right town, wrong state!...great SEO!!!

The last tuning I did was in the home of our county health official.

I'm glad I tuner part-time! But when things open up I doubt many people and institutions will be able to afford it. And once they get used to the piano ALWAYS being out of tune, well, why bother. Soooo... I just might run an ad offering free tunings for a couple months to local institutions as a way to "celebrate" the lifting of restrictions. But my business plan is very different than others'. I see what I do as more of a community service, and I WANT people to have tuned pianos, not just simply want them to hire me to tune. Kinda funny here. I've been able to to cash checks at a bank without ID just by saying I'm so-and-so's Dad.

Good Point, Chris. I wonder that myself "about myself". I'm already retired from my long-term employment and will be 69 in July....but I have been into tuning/light repairs for eight years so I'm wondering....but then I think it does lend to a sense of "adventure/intrigue" and get me out of the house and you meet some "interesting" and nice people (some not-so-nice....o, ya) to say the least. Maybe I'll just cut my tunings in half or perhaps follow Jeff's lead at least partially and offer "some" of them free (or half price if your on old age pension or if your dog doesn't bite me) something like that (NOT). Good point though....

I think there is a much better case for offering a service free, than offering it for half price.

Free makes it obvious that you are doing a community service out of goodwill. Half-price somewhat implies that you normally charge double what you should.

I'm not into cut-price tunings at all. Added-value services for free, yes, maybe, like fixing something that's broken or needing adjustment, during a tuning visit, and not charging for that.

Don't give people the idea that they can negotiate for you to work for half price. They know they can't negotiate for you to work for free, and that if you're doing that, it's charitable, which is fine. "The worker is worthy of his hire".

Remember that when you tune a piano for free, you are taking revenue away from another tuner that needs it. I can understand some doing some free work for charitable institutions and such.....

Doing it for free is not taking work away from anyone...Its goodwill..but frankly If someone needs their piano tuned they can afford it...

And so does tuning for money - someone else would tune if I didn't, right? But I get your point. I would only offer this in my own "territory." There are no actual boundaries set between tuners around here, but people in rural areas tend to prefer someone local.

In Russia, there is a good tradition to do any service for free. even if a client is financially wealthy, he has money to pay. For people main thing is that no one knows about this free service.
I am always doing just that. I don't care what others think it about

I've continued to work since my state & city has not had an official lock down. Some of my business has stopped like the local school system and some has picked up. Since people are home they figured it was a good time to get the piano tuned. Another interesting phenomena is that piano lessons are being taught online, therefore the teacher is hearing their home piano and telling them they really need to have it tuned. I've been tuning some really horrible pianos but, since I charge more for a pitch correction, it's helped my income a little.
Here's some protocols I've been following:

So, assuming everyone is feeling well & healthy here's some tips.

1. Be sure to wear a mask. Depending on the kind of mask you use it may not protect you but it should help protect others around you. We're finding out that many people don't show symptoms but do have the virus.
2. Wipe down the keys with an antiseptic wipe. I also wipe down the surrounding area and then wipe it off with a dry towel. I know there's some concern about damaging the keys or wood but right now there are bigger things to be concerned about.
3. Request that the person meeting you at the door wears a mask and that other people are in another part of the house.
4. Consider a UV light. I got a UV light that's battery powered (rechargable) and set it on the piano to help disinfect the area.
5. Latex gloves. This would be more for you than for the customer. It's another layer of protection although if you've disinfected the keys I think you should be safe.
6. Hand sanitizer. If you can find it!!
7. Social distancing. Do the best you can...

Yep, all good measures. I'm trying to think about what tuning post-Corona is going to look like. At the very least, it will include the 7 measures you brought up. I'm also thinking some form of contactless payment will be #8. Maybe email them an invoice and let them pay electronically. Going to be a bit cumbersome going forward, I think.

Contactless payment is a great idea 👍 There's an app called VENMO who's parent company is PayPal. My daughter uses it and I've had customers ask me about it. I actually downloaded the app and signed up but I didn't like how it posted (like social media) who I sent money to or got money from. I'm now told you can turn off that feature. So, I might give it another try.