April of 2020, Schmidt’s Music was one of the nonessential business that the government closed following the school closures at the end of March. Though normal store business was put on hold, the management team could still be found at the store, brainstorming and keeping the business going. It was quickly apparent that school closing two months too early would severely impact the recruiting season – meaning, in fact, that it wouldn’t be possible. Toward the end of the shutdown, Schmidt’s Music devised a plan to save the enrollment. After thorough research of safety procedures, a room was set up that would be dedicated to instrument fittings and the store implemented an appointment application to be compliant with the COVID-19 restrictions. The owner and management team began calling the directors with this ray of hope and they immediately sent letters out to their incoming student population telling them to go to Schmidt’s Music for the instrument fitting. There were hopes that COVID-19 would be gone by the fall or that instrument fittings could happen at the school over the summer, but all schools had closed their doors to parents and vendors, only allowing students and teachers on campus.
August of 2020 brought many changes for the hard-working directors, with the county average being that over 30 percent of the students had transitioned to remote learning and overall program sizes were being cut by at least 50 percent due to the inability to recruit and new restrictions placed on class sizes by the school board. Reduced program sizes, additional teaching methods, new technologies, and a truncated previous year left all of the directors stressed out and worried about how it would all work. In September of 2020, the Pensacola area was hit with Hurricane Sally, closing Schmidt’s Music and schools once more. During what was already a traumatic event, the company currently rebuilding the bridge to Gulf Breeze (which is the main thoroughfare connecting Escambia and Santa Rosa counties) didn’t secure all of their barges, leaving nearly 20 to further decimate the battered area and demolish the bridge (both the one under construction and the previous one currently in use). Schmidt’s Music serves several counties and the loss of the bridge turned a 10-minute drive into an hour-long drive for many, which made Schmidt’s free delivery service skyrocket.
A year later, another recruiting season is here, COVID-19 is still here, the bridge is still out, and programs still need students to join band. Many hours of research and trial-and-error produced several innovations for this recruiting season. The appointment system that was so successful in-store was transferred to the much larger scale of using it for school use. This application was thoroughly researched by Schmidt’s Music and chosen for the flexibility it offered parents to select their time and it also allowed the school and Schmidt’s Music to keep an eye on the numbers to ensure appropriate staffing. Parents not being allowed on campus led to outdoor “drive thru” instrument fittings. Images and other materials were created and personalized for each school to promote the appointment application for safe attendance of the event. With the new technologies and procedures, Schmidt’s Music spent hours communicating with each school’s IT department to familiarize them with how the appointment application worked and making sure that band would be obviously represented on the front page of the school website so the sign-up link would be simple for parents to find. After the success of this “drive thru” instrument fitting for one of the schools affected by the bridge, it is now being adopted at all of the schools in the entire service area of Schmidt’s Music.
Even though the past year has thrown many curveballs, the staff at Schmidt’s Music have decided to adapt instead of succumb to the stress. The success of their innovations leaves them highly optimistic about the future and already sees increased enrollment from last year for their area.
After finishing her music education degree at University of West Florida, Kari McConkey applied for a seasonal job at Schmidt’s Music (Pensacola’s band and orchestra specialty store). Over six years later, as marketing manager she manages marketing, socials, coordinating, and a little of everything else. A true “band nerd,” McConkey has turned her passion into a career.
