Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, APRIL 26, 1919
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The Retail Player Trade Will Find a Service Department an Invaluable Aid
in Keeping Customers Satisfied, Creating New Prospects and Providing Ad-
ditional Profit from the Increased Demand for Music Rolls Which Will Follow
Of the many new ideas which have been
penetrating the mentality of the American peo-
ple since the stress of war became effective
upon our thinking processes, none has been more
interesting than that which is connected with
the idea of "service" in the relations of daily
life. Of course, no one is likely to expect that
the great impulses which the war created and
kept alive will remain as strong as they have
been in the past, unless they are most carefully
fostered. Some of them indeed ought not per-
haps to be kept alive at all, but others are of
the utmost importance for the future of hu-
manity. Among these is the growing under-
standing of "service" as an element in business.
A word or two on the subject will be not with-
out value for the music industries and particu-
larly for the retail selling of player-pianos.
"Reciprocity"
Rightly put, of course, the idea of "service"
is simply the more or less complete realization
that the aim of a business, transaction should
not be to secure gain at the expense of an-
other, but rather to effect a fair exchange of
value for money in a way which shall benefit
both parties to the transaction. This realiza-
tion it is which prompts the modern business
concern to operate, often at considerable ex-
pense, departments devoted to adjusting the
complaints of customers, complaints which are
sometimes just and sometimes unjust, but each
of which must be adjusted in such a manner as
to leave the customer satisfied.
It has been
found that two special effects flow from the gen-
erous adoption of the service idea in merchan-
dising. One is that the merchant is able to
discover the actual strong and weak points of
any particular article by the simple process of
checking up the complaint data. Another is
that the attitude of the public towards the article
—meaning by that their comprehension of its
value, intention and meaning—can be deter-
mined very accurately by careful study of com-
plaints, provided that the adjusting department
is able to obtain intelligent reports. But this,
of course, is not all. The advertising value of
a reputation for rapid adjustment of complaints
is invaluable and no wise merchant will neglect
this most obvious fact.
"Awe and Apathy"
Now, of course, all this applies to the retail-
ing of player-pianos. The day is perhaps far
distant when the mechanism of this instrument
will be so familiar to all that the services of
complaint-adjusters will have become unneces-
sary. Certainly the public are not yet well ac-
quainted with the mechanism of the player-
piano. In fact, their attitude towards it is com-
pounded of a curious mixture of awe and apathy.
They scarcely consider it a mere machine, as an
automobile, for instance, is a machine.
To
most of them the idea of lubrication, of clean-
ing, of taking any special care to preserve an
instrument in good order, is in the highest de-
gree unfamiliar. The player-piano is supposed
just to "grind out the music" in some unex-
plained way, and it is felt that to monkey with
its internal mysteries is a sort of sacrilege.
Hence the multitude of complaints, often absurd
and always illogical, which every piano mer-
chant knows.
These complaints, however, form the basis
of a sound merchandising system, strange
as Ihe statement may seem. For it is only by
analyzing the attitude of the buyers that the
merchant can discover what his goods really
do for or against his interest when they leave
his hands. Yet it is not the easiest matter in
the world to bring a merchant to see that a well-
equipped service department is not a mere nec-
essary evil, but, in fact, a real element in the
profit-making part of the business, yet this is
wholly true.
"Prevention vs. Cure"
It must also be remembered that the function
of a service department in the player-piano re-
tail business is not alone that of adjusting com-
plaints arising after player-pianos have been
sold and placed in the home. It is quite as
much that of devising means for the preven-
tion of complaints. Above all things, the serv-
ice department should aim to educate the cus-
tomer in an understanding of the instrument
purchased, both as to its mechanical and its
musical elements. This does not mean that the
customer should be encouraged to mess around
with the works, but that such matters as lubri-
cating metal parts of the pedals, and knowing
what the various levers are supposed to do,
should not be omitted from the customer's edu-
cation. It also means that the customer should
be encouraged to learn the musical side of the
instrument as much as possible without the
salesman's either forcing the attention upon him
or trying to cultivate his taste before he is
ready for the process. Here a tactful salesman
is most useful to the house. The buyer of the
player-piano should be visited after the instru-
ment has been delivered and should be instructed
in the use of the pedals, levers, buttons, etc.,
and of the music roll. A call of this sort should
be made during an evening when there is the
best chance of finding the family at home. No
suggestions should be made concerning the use
or choice of music until the salesman has had
the chance to demonstrate the use of the vari-
ous devices on the player-piano. But a pack-
age of music selected by the salesman who sold
the player-piano may be sent up and the visit-
ing salesman may, and if he is wise, certainly
will see that it is played. Some of it at
least will almost certainly have to be left be-
hind, and if this is so a definite chance is of-
fered to put and keep the family in permanent
contact with the store which sold the player-
piano, through the service which thereafter may
be rendered by the roll department.
The Roll Library
A further element of the service department
should indeed be found in the roll library.
Complaint is often made that merchants who
sell player-pianos do not sell music rolls in suf-
ficiently large quantities. This is often true
enough, but there is no reason why it should
be so. It is a legitimate function of a service
department to keep in touch with all purchasers
of player-pianos in order to see that the newest
and best in music is put before them constantly.
For if a player-piano is not well supplied with
music satiety will be succeeded by discontent
and discontent by disgust. This in turn means
more work for the collection department. And
so on.
In a word, the retail player business cannot
get on without a service department. These re-
marks may indicate some of the considerations
which should govern the merchant in organiz-
ing this element of his business.
EARL SHEPHERD CO. TAKES LEASE
New Building to Be Erected in Heart of the
Business District of Klamath Falls
KLAMATH FALLS, ORE., April 21.—Earl Shep-
herd Co. have leased for a long term a new
building to be erected to their specifications in
the heart of the business district. A number of
record, player and piano booths will be incor-
porated in the new building, which is twenty-
seven by ninety-four feet in size. In short, the
new establishment will be planned for a city
of three times present size. Knabe and Lyon
& Healy pianos as well as the leading makes of
phonographs will be featured.
Clyde King has bought the building on Com-
mercial a-venue, Crown Point, Ind., and will
shortly open a new music store there.