Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

-z. RADIO BROADCAST be overestimated. And getting it done right means that a first-class man must do the work and must be paid well for doing it. And from the dealer's cost standpoint, it does not mean that he has to spend more money than he can afford. Good service done by the best possible serviceman is actually cheaper than "cheap" service. Relation of Service to Sales IN THIS discussion the serviceman has been considered as a different person, a different type from the sales staff of the dealer. But in the last analysis, and it is the honest analysis, the serviceman is a salesman just as much as anyone in the dealer organization is. The serviceman is selling service. If he is not, the dealer has deadwood on his hands. And service to the broadcast listener means only one thing — good broadcast reception. When the customer bought from the salesman originally, he was also buying broadcast reception and not merely radio furniture. The good serviceman is really keeping radio sold and that is real salesmanship. The serviceman, it is true, differs greatly from the pure salesman in the radio store. But it must be remembered that after the customer has actually bought his set from the dealer, it is the serviceman who maintains that contact of the customer with radio reception. Everyone is human and the good serviceman who enters the customer's home gets into as human a situation as can be found anywhere outside of a doctor's office. The patient goes to the doctor with an ailment and implicitly trusts the doctor to draw on his fund of medical knowledge and recommend and apply the cure. The radio owner, calling the radio serviceman in, is in exactly the same position. He is putting his trust in a technical expert to restore to him good reception. Now the intelligent serviceman, backed up by a good system of customer-service records, goes into the home. He examines the set with practised eye and sure hands, using his test equipment surely and expertly, just as the doctor uses his thermometer and stethoscope to detect the patient's physical ailment. The good serviceman knows what will restore the set to working order, how much it will cost, and how long it should take. He does not talk circuit-diagram language, which the customer does not understand and, therefore, suspects. He tells the customer in words he can understand what his set needs. And he gives the customer's set that cure. But the good serviceman does more. He returns to the shop and notes down on his service record — which should be available to the purely sales staff — his analysis. That analysis may show, as it often does, that the customer really needs, not a new set of tubes, or a new a.f. transformer to restore him to the enjoyment of good broadcast reception, but a new set. The serviceman does not try to sell that new set, but, while on the job and being entirely honest, he can in his analysis to the customer plant the seeds of desire for a new set and can give him reasons. The serviceman, as a sideline to his main task, is really a most important feeder of replacement sales to the retail shop. In this connection it should be pointed out that only a very small number of the sets now in use are designed to give what we all know to-day to be good broadcast reception. The advances in design in the past 18 months or more have been too rapid. It is invariably true that the customer is satisfied with his present set until he hears something better. Servicemen of wide experience say that one of the most common complaints of owners runs something like this: "Please come out and fix my set. It still plays, but its quality doesn't seem to be as good as when I first got it." Now, barring such proper complaints as failing tubes and incidental circuit conditions causing temporarily impaired quality — which the serviceman quickly repairs — what is the true situation? Simply this: the set, after minor repairs, is as good as it ever was, but what has happened is that the customer has revised his ideas of what good quality is. His set, in other words, has not failed him, the set is no different, but the customer is different. His ideas of good quality have been revised without his knowing it. How Servicemen A id Sales WHAT does the good serviceman do in this case? Does he merely tell the customer that bis set is as good as it ever was? That, the customer will never believe because he knows in his heart that the set isn't. No, the good serviceman, working under proper direction from his chief, explains how reproduction has improved in new models, tells him of the merits of the new loud speakers, revises, in fact, for the benefit of the sales staff, the customer's ideas about modern radio. Of course, the serviceman can explain that he can install special high-quality transformers and a dynamic loud speaker but he can show at the same time that the $50 or $60 involved in materials alone in this improvement in his old set might better be put toward an entirely new and modern set which has all these improvements as an integral part. Or take another frequent situation. While the serviceman is making repairs in the home to an old set, the customer plies him with questions. "What do you think of this set of mine? Is the new X-phonic receiver all the advertisements say? How much does it cost to operate one of the a.c. receivers? What set do you recommend?" These questions and a lot more like them are fired at the serviceman, and, if he is good, he answers them honestly. And when he returns to the shop his analysis of that customer's possibilities can appear laconically in the remarks column: "customer's set repaired with set of new tubes; good prospect for new a.c. set." Here the dealer makes a profit on the service call, satisfies his customer, and gets abso The serviceman's work bench should be well lighted and free from obstructions to permit most efficient work. Each tool should have a place and small parts should be stored in some orderly manner. lutely invaluable information leading to the sale of a new set. Had his reputation for service been poor his competitor's serviceman would have been there, paving the way for a r eplacement sale. So is good service tightly linked to increasing sales. Now where are good servicemen to come from? How much responsibility rests on the dealer and how much on the serviceman? Although an attempt has been made to show that the intelligent and alert serviceman, working in the customer's home, has a tremendous advantage in influencing new sales, he is not a salesman primarily. But if he is not used by making him an integral part of the sales plan, the dealer is leaving a big part of the store's sales possibilities untouched. During the regular sales meetings the dealer should help the serviceman to understand the importance of his part in the sales plan and should instruct him on how he should answer the customer's questions about new sets. The dealer's main effort should be to improve his servicemen and that means leaving no stone unturned to see that he is getting every bit of technical information which will help him. He needs the best possible tools of his profession, to be sure; good meters, setcheckers, etc., but he needs the technical knowledge of how to use them, he needs background on radio generally, he must know what other manufacturer's sets are like, technical short-cuts in his work, etc. In short, he must study. The dealer sees that he is equipped with the proper meters — the tangible necessities — but he must also see that he has the intangibles— the knowledge based on study. There are some textbooks which give servicemen the background they need or which help to develop that which they already have, there is a lot of excellent printed matter from various radio manufacturers which has lots of useful information, and there are periodicals which will help servicemen to keep abreast of the technical side of this rapidly moving industry. In this connection, one of the most encouraging signs which has been manifest is the deep interest of radio dealers and their service staffs in acquiring more accurate technical information on what is going on. Thousands of letters are received at Badio Broadcast from dealers and servicemen, and these communications are from men who are greatly interested in improving themselves with more information. • may, 1929 . . . page 7 #