Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

astounding effect of the public interest in the broadcasting of all the events in the political campaign. There is much more to be said on these two points, but this will suffice. It is no idle phrase to say that the a.c. set has been accepted by the public; the sales for 1928 demonstrate that. But in 1929 a.c. sets must be sold to the public. A radio set operating direct from the light socket is no longer a marvel to the prospective buyer. The phrasemaker who described radio as a seven-day wonder was more right than he knew and for all practical purposes might have been describing the sales situation last year. When the seven days were up, the a.c. set was accepted. From then on, it had to be sold. Now those who bought a.c. sets last year, those represented in that 3,000,000 set market, bought a.c. receivers because they were the cream of the market. Radio for them had arrived and they bought it. Radio set sales in 1929 will be more difficult. The cream of the market has been skimmed, as far as those interested in a.c. sets for their own sake are concerned. Now how can the tough sales problem in 1929 be licked? In just two ways: first by better, more intensive, more intelligent sales methods. The dealer cannot content himself with taking orders like salespersons in large and successful department stores; he must sell. How he must sell, is, as the saying is, another story. The second method by which the sales problem of 1929 can be conquered is in the improvement of service. On January 1, 1929, there were 11,000,000 radio sets in use in the United States. Of these 11,000,000 not more than 3,500,000 are a.c. sets. That last figure is probably high, but will be accepted for the purpose of this discussion. Therefore, there remain 7,500,000 sets now in use which can be replaced with modern complete light-socket-operated receivers. Of course, a respectable quantity of these 7,500,000 sets are in homes which are not supplied with a.c. lines. But if a generous subtraction is made for all reasons, there still remain a tremendous number of batteryoperated sets which can be replaced with the a.c. set of 1929. The Resale Market IN CONSIDERING the 1929 market one cannot avoid the growing importance of the resale market. The dealer can and should sell new sets to people in 1929 who have never owned a radio before, but he also has an enormous prospect list made up of those who have sets, sets which are battery-operated, of poor quality of reproduction, expensive to maintain, and otherwise antiquated and unsatisfactory. Now most of these present owners of unmodern, outmoded sets are in contact with a local dealer, And the chief contact the dealer has with them is through his service department. When it comes to salesmen everyone is pretty much the same; one does not willingly expose himself to a sales canvass if he is not absolutely convinced he wants what the salesman has to sell. But the dealer with a wellrounded organization has a great advantage. One branch of his organization is welcomed in the home of the prospect for a resale. And the representative of that branch is the serviceman. The customer tends to hang on to his radio as long as he can. He reiterates that his radio is "a little old, but good enough." He loves to tell how his set still gets all the stations he wants, of its "fine mellow tone," and other phrases we all know so well. But when he calls in the dealer's serviceman, he establishes contact with the sales organization again. He asks to be sold service and he should get it. And if the dealer's sales and service organization function smoothly, the dealer can get an immediate line on whether or not that customer is a good prospect for a resale, through the report of his own representative — the serviceman. Returning to the 1929 sales problem again, the relation of the resale market to the new sale possibility will be considered. John S. Dunham, president of QRV Radio Service, Inc., one of the largest and best purely service organizations in New York, has told the writer of a situation he has discovered. In a representative Riverside Drive apartment house where, with a total of 73 apartments, only 60 families owned radio receiving sets. That is the condition in one of the wealthiest sections of New York City, where the majority of families can well afford a radio receiver. Every one of these 60 families is a prospect — F. A. D. Andrea, Inc. In order to perform tests efficiently the dealer's shop must be equipped with well-designed testing apparatus. This picture shows a serviceman performing a continuity test on a Fada receiver in an approved fashion. for a new and modern set in 1929, but it is going to take some expert selling to bring the 13 unequipped families into the radio fold. The dealer is most certainly going to sell many of these families who have never owned a radio before the history of 1929 is written, but he should not lose sight of the ripe prospects among those who already own sets. What is Good Service? VOLTAIRE once said, "If you will argue with me, first tell me the terms of your discussion." And it is fair enough here to ask, "What is good service?" Good service is what keeps the customer sold on radio. The dealer must render satisfactory service during the period of the free guarantee in order that the set remain in the customer's home; the set must not come back. And barring earthquakes or other acts of God, the set can stay there to the customer's complete satisfaction during that time. If the dealer cannot keep the set sold through good service during that period, it is plain that the customer becomes completely unsold on radio, from the dealer right back to the maker of his set. And what about the period after the free service guarantee has expired? Here again, the dealer should render the best of service for the best of reasons. Through good service the dealer should keep the customer long enough to sell him another set. Through good service, the dealer can make a profit on service transactions and certainly on the sale of tubes and other accessories the purchase of which results from service calls. And here is a most important point: estimates indicate that about 10 per cent, of the total radio retail outlets are exclusively radio stores. In the case of the remaining 90 per cent., the other outlets, good service on the part of the dealer is going to retain customer confidence and satisfaction and make that customer come to his store for the other merchandise which that dealer handles. Furthermore, the dealer's main interest is in selling radio sets. He has to watch carefully the cost of getting his customers. Good service after the free service guarantee has expired means the difference between keeping a customer already acquired and going through the expensive process of getting a new one. Let's put that important point in another way. If it costs a dealer $5 for each new customer and through poor service he loses half of them it means his year's new customers cost him $10 each. If he gets 100 new customers and poor service loses half of them, he must get 200 new customers to keep 100. So good service is closely connected with the dealer's new set sales, not only to those customers already in hand but to the friends of those customers. And the recommendation value of good service with customers already owning sets is no small factor in entirely new sales to the friends of the dealer's present customer. Almost every radio dealer, no doubt, recalls many instances in his own experience where satisfying his customer through accommodating and efficient service resulted in a good prospect and sale among one or more of that customer's friends. Now is this good service which has been discussed too heavy a burden on the dealer? Well, the customer looks on the dealer as a means through which he can get good radio reception. Good broadcast reception is to the customer the only end. To the customer the dealer represents the chief source of radio information and expert ability. In the customer's eyes, the dealer sells him first, the mechanical-electrical means through which he gets the broadcast reception he desires, and through that same dealer he buys the continuance of the reception on which he insists. Good service on the dealer's part to the customer does not represent men or materials but only the restoration of good broadcast reception. Service Requirements GOOD service on the dealer's part requires: first good servicemen; secondly, a simple and easily maintained system of service records at the store; and thirdly, good testing and repair equipment in the hands of the servicemen. Perhaps the average dealer, looking at his service problem as of secondary importance to his sales problem, has been prone to hire the cheapest men he could get, or to put it another way, has felt that servicemen were not worth a very large salary. It is probably true that the average serviceman makes little more than $25 or $30 per week. However, would it not be better for the dealer to hire fewer men and pay them more? Even the simplest system of cost accounting applied to the dealer's service work will show that it is more economical to reduce the total number of service calls. For example, a mediocre dealer's serviceman makes two calls within ten days at a customer's house, each call involving in time alone a charge of not less than $1.50. The two calls cost $3.00. One call, which in the charge of an expert efficient serviceman at $3, is better economy. Economy from the dealer's standpoint, certainly from the customer's angle, and it is economy of the time of the serviceman himself. It would be better from the dealer's position to hire one serviceman at $50 per week and expect topnotch performance than to hire two fair servicemen at $25 each. The dealer has a right to expect the very best of work from the good man, while he always knows in the back of his mind that the mediocre men cannot be expected to do really first-class work. The importance of having the service job done right, the first time cannot • may, l>)2>) puiir 6 •