Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

Some Thoughts for Merchandisers HOW SALES AND SERVICE ARE RELATED IIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIII By WILLIS KINGSLEY WING THE radio dealer is primarily concentrating on the sale of a new radio set to his customer. He bends his chief efforts toward that end. When the immediate sale is consummated, the dealer looks to another new set sale and, in the main, is inclined to breathe a sigh of relief at the conclusion of the sale and to congratulate himself that it is out of the way. The customer who has just bought this new set, on the other hand, has a rather different point of view. He, the buyer, has just started his radio life. It has begun with the purchase and installation of his set. He looks on the dealer as the local representative of the entire radio industry structure. Only through the dealer can this interested customer attain good radio entertainment. The customer has bought a thing of wood and metal, whose technical working he does not understand, which promises him unlimited entertainment in his own home. Having spent his good money, the buyer expects to receive continued return on his investment in the form of constant dividends of entertainment. In other words, although the buyer may not actually phrase it in his own mind in just this way, he expects his set to be serviced properly. The buyer regards his actual act of purchase as merely the first step in his radio experience. The continued good operation of his receiver is to the buyer the most important thing. Here we have an interesting situation with the buyer and seller taking almost diametrically opposite points of view. The dealer looks toward new buyers to bring into camp — new sales, while the buyer looks toward continued and satisfactory service from what he has bought. The dealer quite naturally is apt to feel that his chief job is sales. He knows that sets, being what they are — devices with the equivalent of electrical and mechanical moving parts — will require expert attention, occasional adjustment, and repair. This repair and adjustment branch of his business, however, is frequently regarded as the minor one. Service work is, then, a kind of necessary evil. The dealer realizes that technical men must be hired and their work supervised, testing equipment bought, and a shop equipped. So the sales side of the dealer's business looks more attractive, more potentially productive of results, than the service branch. And, in many cases, the dealer unconsciously separates these two chief activities. If sales and service are separated in the dealer's outlook on his own business, isn't it because the dealer himself has made this arbitrary division? The customer surely has not. So it can be said fairly, that in extreme cases, the dealer and his customer are working at cross purposes. And it takes no massive brain to see that such a condition is not good for the dealer, the customer, the manufacturer, and the entire industry. When the customer goes to his dealer with a service problem — which to the customer at the moment is just about the most important radio matter in the world — and he senses that the dealer is not nearly so interested in him now he has purchased his set, he is most dissatisfied and disappointed. The customer wants good service and wants it quickly. The dealer may be fidgeting to sell a new prospect in his display room at that precise minute. It he lets that customer feel that service is given grudgingly, then at that A well-equipped service car is a great asset to a sales-service organization. Such a car makes it possible for the serviceman to take all necessaryequipment with him on every job and it also has a favorable psychological effect on the customer. The car pictured above is an excellent example; it is fully equipped even to a ladder for erecting an antenna. moment, the customer's confidence in the entire industry begins to be shaken. The customer looks askance not only at the dealer but at the manufacturer of his set as well. The dealer is the ambassador of the industry to the customer. He is an ambassador when he sells the set, and he is no less an ambassador The basis for this article was an address delivered before the Retailers' Section of the Federated Radio Trades Association at their recent convention in Buffalo. Here we attempt to point out the important, and inseparable, relation between radio sales and service. Far too many dealers regard sales as the most important part of their activities and relegate service far, far down in the scale of things. Judging the retailing of radio as a whole, the weakest part of the structure is service. It has often been remarked that the radio industry can learn a great deal from a study of the progress of the automobile industry and certainly the automobile owner of to-day can get service of a high order on his car no matter where he may be. The radio dealer should render better service on the sets he sells, not only because it is belter for the industry but also for the much better reason that through improved service he will make more money. — The Editor. when the customer comes to him for service on that set. Importance of Service SERVICE rendered by the dealer is of increasing importance and it has a direct bearing on sales. In April, 1929, Radio Rroadcast were published reliable figures on the sales of radio sets and radio tubes for the years 1927 and 1928. An appreciation of these figures is helpful in solving the problem under discussion. In 1926, about 2,000,000 receivers supplied from all sources were sold. In 1927, nearly 1,800,000 sets supplied from all sources were sold. And in 1928, 3,000,000 sets from all sources were sold to the radio public. The Department of Commerce figures of set sales in 1927 — that never-to-be-forgotten year when battles were waged over the respective merits of the standard batteryoperated sets and the new a.c.-tube receivers — indicate that about one a.c. set was sold to every three battery-operated sets. No such comparison is available for the year just closed — 1928, but it is probable that the majority of sets sold in 1928 were socket-operated a.c. receivers. Why did 1928 show such an astounding sale of sets? That figure of 3,000,000 is one to conjure with and the men responsible for sales can well be proud of it. Just two factors entered in. First, the public acceptance of the new convenience of radio. The light-socketoperated receiver hit their fancy. The a.c. set represented to them the "perfect radio" they wanted to own. Secondly, extraordinarily good broadcasting, represented by general programs of high quality and the • may, 1929 page 5 •