In Part II of Tracy Leenman’s guide to achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction, we pick up with “point 2” of her outline…
2) WOW! They were so helpful! Corollary: They really know their stuff!
Price really isn’t everything. I promise. If all people wanted was the lowest price, they’d do all their shopping on Amazon. com. Once they set foot into your store, you know they are looking for more. They may want information, they may want the touch-and-feel experience, and they may even just want reassurance. If your goal is not merely selling but amazement, you will find customers will pay a little more for what you have to offer.
Simon Sinek, in Start with Why, notes: “There’s barely a product or service on the market today that customers can’t buy from someone else for about the same price, about the same quality, about the same level of service and about the same features . . . For the seller, selling based on price is like heroin. The short-term gain is fantastic, but the more you do it, the harder it becomes to kick the habit. Once buyers get used to paying a lower-than-average price for a product or service, it is very hard to get them to pay more.” (p. 17-18)
Create a comfortable atmosphere for your customers, especially for the first-time visitor to your store. A parent of a beginning band student or beginning guitarist may have many concerns, and should be able to have these addressed without being made to “feel stupid.” During busy seasons, create an easy flow of traffic for your customers, so they don’t have to wait too long and yet feel as though they were given the time they need to be comfortable with their buying decisions. Offer suggestions and add-ons in an educational context (“These are the things your child’s strings teacher would like him to have in order to succeed”), rather than in a hard-sell approach.
Above all, treat each customer as though he or she were the only one you worked with that day – this may be the umpteenth rental contract you’ve done today, but it’s probably your customer’s first. Answer their questions and concerns (patiently, not pedantically). Realize that, while it’s often the mother of a new band or strings student that comes into the store to get an instrument, that mother may have to go home and explain to her husband why she just rented a $2,000 instrument for her child, when he’s never played before (and he’s already quit piano, karate, and Scouts). And why she bought “all that other stuff.”
Merchandise for the uninitiated. Today’s customers are used to negotiating Staples or WalMart without having to ask for help, so be sure they can find what they need in your store easily as well. Rather than displaying all your reeds together, place items together by instrument, so that a parent of a new clarinet player does not have to try to differentiate between clarinet, bass clarinet and sax reeds, but can find the reeds he needs easily – and find his care kit, cork grease and other items all right there too. We use a “good-better-best” approach to our merchandising, to avoid the customer confusion that comes from unorganized or overwhelming displays.
Again, training is paramount. In addition to providing exemplary customer service, we expect our employees to be able to provide a high level of product knowledge. We strive to give customers all the knowledge they need to make an educated buying decision, a decision with which they can feel comfortable for a long time to come. Use your staff “specialists” – we have a tuba player, a French comfortable for a long time to come. Use your staff “specialists” – we have a tuba player, a French horn player, a trombonist and a bassoonist on our staff – and we often call them in to provide additional information or to work with students selecting step-up instruments.
Be resourceful, think “out of the box.” Is a piece you don’t have in stock available as a Print on Demand? Never say “We don’t have that in stock,” without adding immediately, “but we can order it,” or “but we do have this.” If the customer attends a school you visit, offer to deliver merchandise there in the future. Today’s consumers are used to the convenience of shopping on line, so make shopping with you as convenient as possible.
Keep abreast of what’s said online, and keep track of what your competition is doing. That being said, be proactive, not reactive. Share what differentiates your company (without speaking negatively of others, of course). And remember, the Internet is no longer the objective encyclopedia of information it was designed to be – it has become a source for far more advertisement and opinion than fact. Your level of product knowledge and your customer’s level of trust have to be high enough to counteract the onslaught of contradictory information found online.
3) WOW! Something’s always going on over there! Corollary: Wow, they’re everywhere!
Especially in smaller towns, community partnerships are paramount. We are members of the Mauldin Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Development Council. We participate in community events and attend concerts and marching contests at area schools. We host receptions like Business After Hours evenings where local “celebrities” and our studio students help make the events special.
Industry partnerships are essential as well. Events such as NAMM’s Make Music Day can help your store achieve high visibility in your community and bring new customers in. Manufacturers and publishers can help with clinicians, and with special events like String Change Day, to help make your store “the place to be” in your town.
If you’ve been to NAMM’s Retail Boot Camp, you will remember Bob Negen mentioning that any day can be a “holiday.” The website www.holidayinsights.com can give you great ideas for promotions.
Find ways to reach new customers. Your MEA is bursting with your target customers-to-be, who may much more open to a discussion than they would be to a cold call. Go where your customers are; don’t wait for them to come to you; it’s part of being customer-focused. We display at SCMEA, NCMEA, SC Trumpet Guild, SC Flute Society, and a host of other events where we can meet potential customers. Just be careful not to grow so fast that you are not able to keep your promise of exemplary service to everyone you serve.
Be proactive. Be an advocate for music education in your community. Attend the NAMM Fly-In. Be a resource for parents and educators in your area who want to promote school music. Show your customers that you are not all about profit, but about helping people make music.
At Musical Innovations, we’re out to build long-term customer relationships. We believe the sales will follow if we share our passion for making music, for finding innovative ways to make educators’ lives easier and families enjoy playing music together. That passion energizes us and keeps us focused on our “Why,” giving every customer a magical, “WOW” experience… every time.
Tracy Leenman is the owner/CEO of Greenville, South Carolina’s Musical Innovations – named NAMM’s 2015 Dealer of the Year this past July. Leenman has over 40 years of experience as a music educator and over 15 years in the music industry. Tracy has been a longtime, valued contributor of articles and editorials to both MMR and our sister publication, SBO.
