The talking machine world (Jan-June 1919)

4 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD January IS, 1919 Backing Up an Elaborate Front With the Proper Kind of Inside Service By H. L. Benjamin A talking machine dealer recently received a request from a customer to call at an apartment in a locality generally recognized as "swell" for the purpose of talking over the private sale of a machine. The request was written on beautifully monogrammed paper of high quality, and the dealer hastened to answer. He found that the entrance hall of the apartment house, o'f which the decorations were of rich marble, took up most of the ground floor, and was elaborately decorated with statuary, and ebony hall boys. The elevator, however, took him to a four by six apartment, furnished like a mountain camp. In other words, rough. The result was that in talking over terms the dealer would see nothing but cash. It didn't look as though the money was there. That happened to be one dealer's experience, and, yet, customers have similar experiences every day in doing business with talking machine merchants in their stores. The dealer hires a store in a prominent location, pays some attention to his window displays, advertises liberally perhaps and then ushers the customer into a store that looks and smells as ancient as the Catacombs. Moreover, the customer is like as not to be met by some clerk who acts as though simply to speak to the prospective buyer is a matter of condescension on the part of the sales person who had more important things to do. To sum up, the dealer's equipment consists of 90 per cent, front, and 10 per cent, service. The result is that, although the customer, being in the store, may buy, that same customer is not inclined to come back and enjoy a similar experience. Advertising is intended primarily to attract the customer to the store, and it depends largely upon the impression made by the store upon the people therein whether the customer becomes a permanent patron or goes away disgusted after the first visit. If the advertising is only going to bring the customer in once, then it represents very costly publicity. It is what the customer finds after he gets into the store, the service that is rendered, the general attractiveness of the interior and the stock, that serve to keep him interested and encourage him to come back to the same store for more goods. There are still a good many retailers who believe that the customer comes into their store because he must have a certain machine, or a liillimililliliiMilllMlilllilliliiilllMlllffllllllllllll certain record, and that the manner in which he is treated makes little difference, provided he makes the purchases originally intended. But if each customer is handled only once, and each new sale means another patron brought into the store, then business is of the most unprofitable kind. It is the trade that comes steadily and regularly that makes for profits, for the proportion of selling expense in handling this class of business is sufficiently low to be worth while. Big advertising and a good location are not I Ninety Per Cent | I Front and Ten B ■ Per Cent. Service | ■ Don't Balance ■ sufficient assets to the retailer. The store must not only be well arranged, but clean. There are some who would resent the thought that their stores were not clean, but the writer has frequently seen machines in demonstrating rooms which were covered with dust, and with the metal work looking as though it had not been touched by the polishing cloth for months. This is not calculated to impress the buyer. Then, again, many employes are inclined to be careless, and at times actually uncivil in their treatment of the customer, and it is surprising to note how this tendency has increased during the war period when stocks were short, and employes felt that the dealers must retain their services, or that new jobs could be had without difficulty. With the improvement in the labor and stock situations, the average salesman or saleswoman will, if they have any sense, take warning and change their attitude toward the buyer. But the dealer or the manager will do well to see that this new attitude is compatible with good business practice. His help need not of necessity be servile, but should be distinctly '■lllll courteous and leave with the customer the impression that he has been treated considerately. A big front means nothing unless there is something back of it, and the little things are what count. If a record is not in stock it will not do for the sales person to inform the customer of the fact and then turn away, but it is incumbent upon him to at least express a certain measure of regret and endeavor to ascertain if the customer might not perchance be interested in some other records of a similar character. The average salesman declares that this is just what he does, but as a matter of fact on more than one occasion the writer has heard a clerk say to a customer that "I haven't got that record and do not know when I will be able to get it" and then walk away to resume an interrupted conversation with some other clerk. Then, again, it sometimes happens that the desired record is in stock, and the customer is ushered into a demonstrating room to hear it. Sometimes a fresh needle is not available and the salesman has to go after it, or the needles in the cups are all loud toned and the customer's ear drums receive no consideration. Just little things, but they don't fit in with the idea of retail service. Competition within the next few years is going to be very strong, particularly after factory production reaches a pre-war standard or better. If the retailer wants to keep trade coming to his store he will make it worth while for customers to do so. It means spending some money for booths and fittings. It means hiring competent help and watching that help. It means keeping machines polished and dusted and floors clean. It means putting forth every effort to not only keep stock up to date, but to make the customer feel at home and anxious to come again. Simply spending money on equipment is not all. There is one man who spent over $20,000 in fitting up a talking machine store on the second floor of a medium-sized building, and the results are truly remarkable, but even that $20,000 would be wasted were the selling system not watched carefully, and the interior given constant attention. If the dealer's available capital is limited don't put it all in the front. Let the interior of the store and the service that goes with that interior receive its due proportion of attention. Illlllllllillllillllllllllllllliliilllllillllllllllllil The Spirit of 1919 VICTOR Exclusively in ill DITSON Service Keeping adjusted to the ever-changing conditions of the Reconstruction Period — overcoming with as httle delay as possible existing stock and shipping problems — co-operating with our dealers in every possible way. Our Object Is to Help Our Dealers Make 1919 a REAL VICTORY YEAR. OLIVER DITSON CO. BOSTON CHARLi:S H. DITSON CgL CO. NHW YORK