Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

2 ARE USED SETS LIKE USED CARS? {Continued from page 322) dealers in Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Louisville, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, and other large cities have found a way to slaughter the useless, decrepit old cars that, though worth no more than a ten dollar bill in the used car market, are continually reappearing as trade-ins on new sales. Furthermore, the cooperatively operated junkyards are in many cases paying dividends out of the proceeds of the secondhand parts business they do; and, even in the one or two cases where the junk -yards are not yet paying their own way, the dealers who finance them consider the investment a wise insurance against the loss that the old cars might cause them if permitted to return into the used car market. The used-set problem is just commencing to assume serious proportions in the radio trade. Those proportions, however, will become more serious as the years go on. And if the radio dealers, by adapting one of the proved successful automobile plans to their needs, or by devising a sound plan of their own, can avoid the experiments and costly mistakes that will come if they wait until the problem is beyond control, it seems that a little study of the accompanying table wouldn't be wasted effort. THE RADIO DEALERS' ADVERTISING DOLLAR (Continued f rom page 333) Where newspaper and billboard advertising is used to blanket the territory, direct-mail advertising should be used for a concentrated drive on a list of preferred prospects. Supplementary Advertising The most effective forms of supplementary advertising in use by dealers are: 1. Catalog and Individual Folders. These can form a remarkably complete and effective supply of literature covering every possible requirement. 2. Store Signs. Large outdoor advertising signs, illuminated window displays, decalcomanias and other attention-compelling items for store fronts and interiors. 3. Lantern slides. These can well consist of an assortment of colorful slides illustrating receivers and loud speakers for advertising in any of the various ways slides are used. 4. Novelties, such as blotters, balloons, calendars, matehes, fans, etc. When the dealer is pressed by printing salesmen who wish him to use their directmail circulars, by newspaper advertising representatives who extol the merits of their medium, the combined experiences of the dealers covered by this survey should be of great help. The dealer's dollar must be effective. PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING (Continued from page 336) first station at 9:30 and so on, through the entire evening. The call for remote-control apparatus has been felt in the "high-brow ' service shops on Park Avenue. In July, one such service organization had orders for two sets of apparatus which would enable the radio set, installed in the servants' quarters, to be operated from any part of a large apartment. The cost of the apparatus could go as high as $2000 for each installation. At that time no apparatus was generally available, and the service engineer either had to design his own equipment — which would eat up his RADIO BROADCAST profits — or to delay on the sale until such apparatus was available. Cabinet manufacturers may see some cause for worry in the advance of remotecontrol apparatus. They may reason that future sets will be installed in a closet, or in the basement, or somewhere else out of sight, and controlled by plugging a loud speaker and a push-button arrangement into outlets in each room in the house. The radio set may come to look like an electric meter, stuck up on the wall in some out-of-the-way place where it can be serviced easily. At the present moment remote control is confined to expensive receivers, but at least one designer of this new radio apparatus is planning to sell two receivers next season, one with and one without such a control feature. The difference in price is said to be only $20. Whether or not 1930 will be a remotecontrol year, it behooves radio engineers to brush up on their mechanics and strength of materials. KEEPING SERVICE SOLD (Continued from page 329) but every effort is made quickly and cheerfully to remedy the thing about which he has complained, the importance to him of that short period of dissatisfaction becomes very greatly lessened and he soon forgets about it. We have in operation a highly satisfactory plan to secure early complaints. When the report card of a job has been turned in and the information transferred to the permanent record, that card is placed in a numerical file under the date which is a week after the job was performed. Each day the cards under that date are removed and each customer is telephoned to find out whether the radio is operating satisfactorily. If the customer is not satisfied, a man is immediately sent back without further charge to remedy the difficulty. If there is no one at home when we telephone, we send a special return postcard which expresses to the customer our desire to know whether he is entirely satisfied with our service. The card has provision on the return portion for him to signify, merely by making a cross mark in a square, whether he is pleased, barely satisfied, or dissatisfied, and in the latter case just what day and time he would like to have a man call to take care of the complaint. The result of the telephone call, or the postcard, is that the number of dissatisfied customers is reduced to a low figure and a large reduction is made in the loss of customers who were dissatisfied and who, instead of complaining, went elsewhere for service. Incidentally, but of great importance, the percentage of bad debts is lowered concurrently with lowering of the percentage of dissatisfied or only quasisatisfied customers. Another small thing we do to try to make the customer realize that he is dealing with an established dependable concern and to make him feel that we are really interested in him is a form letter which goes out to each new customer the day after the first service has been completed. It welcomes him to the ranks of those who use our service, implies a solid background of many years in business, outlines our policy of maintenance of list prices, explaining that good service cannot be given at cut prices, and encloses a convenient sized card containing our prices, telephone number, and address. While the letter is multigraphed and the signature a cut, it is a very carefully done job and the fill-in is done so that it almost exactly matches the multigraphing. X HOW ONEDEALER-MERCHANDISING SERVICE WORKS (Continued from page 327) Another unit consists of "follow-up" or "thank-you" cards, designed to be mailed to the customer within a short period after a sale. Contained in each of the cards is question, "How do you like your radio receiver?" Request is made for the names of two people who "would like to hear a Kolster receiver in their home." The service is completed with a wide assortment of copy and layout for newspaper tie-up advertising. Some of the newspaper copy suggestions feature the dealer's store and subordinate the manufacturer. Mr. Breck, in commenting on the "thank-you" cards, says that on an average so far dealers are receiving approximately forty per cent, return on the cards mailed. Forty per cent, of, let us say, two hundred cards mailed, would mean the dealer received eighty, and providing each contained two names, the prospect file would be richer by a total of 160 names. In this manner the dealer who subscribes to the whole service will always have a large prospect file and a good card system to keep it readily operative. The total cost of the complete Kolster service to the dealer is $59.50. While this cost actually covers only half of what it requires to prepare the entire service, Mr. Breck says, "by paying for it, the dealer cannot escape an active appreciation of the service. If the dealer himself were to undertake a sales plan as comprehensive as this on his own initiative it would probably cost considerably more than double." FEATURES THAT SELL RADIO (Continued from page 319) indicator. Exact tuning of the set to the carrier of the station is possible — and it is only when a set is accurately tuned that the best possible fidelity is obtained. Remote Tuning Controls: With remote control one can tune the set from a box located at some distance from the receiver. Several controls may be wired so that the tuning and volume can be controlled from various rooms. Pressing the proper button on the control box automatically tunes the set to the desired station. Pressing the button closes an electric circuit which causes a small motor in the receiver to revolve the tuning condensers to the correct point to receive the station. Generally a maximum of eight stations can be tuned-in in this manner. We can now sit in an arcmahir with the control box alongside and tune from one station to another without even taking our feet off the footrest! Like the burlesque show, it's a good device for that tired business man. Other Features: Reduced hum from the loud speaker is an improvement apparent in many of the new sets. It is made possible by more carefully engineered circuits and by the use of single-stage audio amplifiers. Few features of the new receivers will have more appeal to a prospective customer than the lack of hum — which many have come to associate as a necessary evil of a.c. receivers. To many other prospects the various new types of tuning dials will have a very definite appeal. Many new receivers use a "tone control" with which it is possible for the user to vary the relative prominence of the high or low frequencies to suit his individual taste. From a modern welldesigned receiver a purchaser may expect a fidelity of reproduction and general performance that leaves little to be desired. 368 • • OCTOBER 1 929 •