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AUGUST 1, 1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Turning the Service Department
From a Liability to an Asset
Some of the Plans Which Retail Music Merchants Are Using to Make Their Service Departments in
Their Radio Sections Become a Means of Doing More and Better Business—Cutting the Demands
for Free Service by Selling the Receiver in the Proper Manner Right at the Beginning
OW far has the retail music merchant
gone in solving the question of service
in his radio department? That has been
the big question confronting him ever since the
advent of this new product in the general music
store, and the one which, in all likelihood, cost
him the greatest amount of difficulty in eventu-
ally solving. After approximately two years'
experience, however, the average retail music
merchant who sells radio, and to-day the vast
majority of them do, finds no terrors in radio
service; in fact there are a number of them
who have turned their service problems from
a liability into an asset.
Foolish Promises
The great trouble in the earlier days of radio
merchandising in the retail music store was
the fact that many merchants gave unlimited
service with every sale of radio, with the result
that the cost of the service department ran far
beyond what it should be in relation to the
margin of profit in the goods. The radio sets
themselves were not at fault; most of the calls
made by the service department were unneces-
sary. Poor receiving conditions, something
over which no one has any control, were time
and time again the reason for time being
wasted by the service man, all at the expense
of the merchant. To-day the average merchant
gives perhaps thirty to ninety days' free service,
or even less, and after that charges for serv-
ice calls at a standard rate which approximate
$1.50 per hour, the time counting from the
hour the man leaves the store. At this rate
in many stores it has been found that, instead
of radio service being an expense, it really
shows a profit in some cases, and in a major-
ity of cases at least pays for itself.
The Solution
The solution to the radio service problem
really falls into two broad classifications. The
first of these is to make the customer under-
stand exactly what he is entitled to under the
sales agreement at the time the purchase is
made. If this is done, service demands will
be reduced to a reasonable minimum, and the
customer will have no ill will for the dealer
later on when he has to pay for service de-
mands. One example of the way in which this
is accomplished is shown in the sales agree-
ment, which every customer signs, used by one
of the leading department stores in the East
which has a large music and radio department.
This agreement specifically states that the
house holds itself responsible only for defects
in the set for a period of ninety days after
the date of purchase, providing that the set
itself has not been tampered with by the own-
er. Under this condition the set itself will
either be repaired gratis, or replaced if neces-
sary, but if a replacement is required tubes and
batteries are specifically excepted from the
replacement. The agreement distinctly states
that the house does not guarantee the reception
of distance stations, this being controlled by
elements which are beyond its own control.
Installation, of course, is gratis.
Eliminating 99 Per Cent
This firm has found that by this method ap-
proximately 99 per cent of future dissatisfac-
tion is avoided and that a steady demand for
service has been built among the first custom-
ers, at a rate of $1.50 per hour, that brings a
good sized income to this department. Here is
a case where the service department in the
H
radio section has turned from a liability into
an asset, for besides the income it obtains it
has been a source of many sales which can be
traced directly to the men working on the out-
side in service work.
Estey Service Department
The Estey Piano Co., of Philadelphia, which
was a pioneer firm in that section of country
among the music houses in installing a radio
department, is another music firm whose radio
service department has gone through the same
development. The salesmen in the radio de-
partment in this firm have been taught to sell
radio properly, for that eliminates the vast ma-
jority of future radio disagreements. The de-
partment itself maintains a good-sized force
of radio experts and, as a result, has built up
a good business in radio service among many
people who have purchased their sets from
other dealers. In fact during the period of
forced sales, which Philadelphia went through
along with most of the other large cities in the
country, the service department of this firm
was rushed with work from people who had
purchased their sets from these sales, who
desired immediate installation and who were
willing to pay for it.
Meeting "Gyp" Competition
There is another side of the radio service de-
partment which is not often taken into con-
sideration but which is extremely valuable.
That is developing the department so that the
reputation for reliable and effective work which
it obtains serves as a means of meeting the
competition of the "gyp" dealer. A house which
has accomplished this is Lyon & Healy of Chi-
cago through the formation of a service bu-
reau in its radio department. Several hundreds
of calls a month are received by this depart-
ment. At first thought this would seem to in-
dicate a good deal of trouble among purchasers
of radio sets. Some of these calls, however,
represent installations, when the radio set is
delivered by truck, and others are represented
by a man calling in the evening to see that
the set is in proper working order, and to in-
struct the purchaser how to tune it. There
are a great many unsuccessful tuners among
the radio fans, for it is, according to Mr. Healy,
something like playing a player-piano—one
man will get fine music out of it and another
one will get nothing but noise.
Trouble with horns is one of the main things
the radio purchaser has to contend with, Mr.
Healy states, and in providing relief for their
customers in this respect Lyon & Healy have
installed a service that the "gyp" stores can-
not offer. They were the first store in the
country to introduce this and the only one in
the city to have it. In a special room assigned
for the purpose a series of horns is carried,
one of each kind in stock. With the assistance
of a mechanical device installed in connection
with the radio set and controlled by a tele-
phone type switchboard, each horn can be
demonstrated separately. In this way a customer
can compare the respective merits of the horns,
demonstrated at the same volume.
What Can Be Done
It can be thus seen that the radio service
department, handled properly by the retail
music merchant, can be steadily developed into
a profitable part of his business, and an effect-
ive aid in selling the various lines of receivers
which he may handle. Like most other prob-
lems in handling a new line of merchandise
the service problem in radio is not nearly so
difficult as it appears at first glance. Good
radio men are available and should be hired
only. The department itself should be organ-
ized not from the standpoint of a necessary
evil, but from the standpoint of work which,
properly handled and organized, can be made
something that is worth while bothering with
both in direct and indirect results. It should
be made to stand upon its own feet in the ac-
counting methods used; the work it does with-
out recompense for the house should be
charged against the sales department and the
service department credited with it; the work
it does for outside sources should be credited
directly to it.
If the demands for radio service are re-
duced to a minimum by proper selling methods,
if the department employs the proper sort of
mechanics, men who know their business, if
these men are encouraged to build up sales
of accessories during the calls they make in
the homes of the prospects, the radio service
department will more than pay for itself in
direct results, and infinitely more in indirect
results through building good will for the
house and turning that good will into concrete
sales.
New Sonora Automatic
Stop Device Patent
Frank Oberst Inventor of New Device, Patent
for Which Has Been Assigned to the Sonora
Co.
WASHINGTON, July 25.—A patent for a new au-
tomatic stop device for phonographs has been
assigned to the Sonora Phonograph Co. b£ its
inventor, Frank Oberst, of New York. Among
the three claims covered by the patent is the
following:
"In a sound-reproducing device having a
swinging tone arm, a turntable to carry records
and a motor to revolve said turntable an auto-
matic stop compnsing a pivoting friction mem-
ber adapted to make contact tending to ro-
tate said friction member to effective posi-
tion, means traveling with the tone arm
and adapted to engage said pawl to cause it
to release said friction member and means to
hold said engaging member away from the tone
arm when the latter is in its initial playing posi-
tion."
F. A. Barrow Back
Frederic A. Barrow, editor of the Standard
Player Monthly, published by the Standard
Pneumatic Action Co., New York, returned to'
his desk after a vacation of several weejcs at
his home in Bridgeport, Conn.
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The Greatest Name in Radio
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