Presto

10
April 25, 1925.
PRESTO
COURTESY A BIG
BUSINESS BUILDER
have because of its liberal policy, but the expenditure
is certainly successful in converting many dissatis-
fied or merely passive customers in active "salesmen"
who with good words go on producing business for
the house indefinitely.
Western House Which Makes It a Special
Policy Believes That Possible Expense
Entailed by Its Observance Is Cheap-
est Form of Good Publicity.
PIANO MAN PROMINENT
IN MUSIC WEEK PLANS
CREATES GOOD WILL
That Courteous Treatment of Customers Is Not Sen-
timentality But Plain Business, Is Impressed
on Sales Force of Successful Western House.
By R. I. Herrick.
Courtesy is the cheapest commodity in business and
the most valuable. It is a paradoxical truth believed
by the keenest men in every trade. With many men
who have achieved success in the music business,
courtesy is a basic business policy. Not a mere pas-
sive thing but an active meet-you-all-the-way expres-
sion of feeling that makes customers smile in appre-
ciation while it plants a good impression in the mind.
As a result of the courtesy policy of one western
music house, the business last year was the biggest
in the history of the house.
Many courtesies considered as service might be pro-
hibitive if they occurred too often. But such incidents
of expensive service are not common and taken in re-
lation to the results they are a cheap form of sales
promotion. The music house that values courtesy
does a lot of things that apparently are costly from
the customer's viewpoint, but when the dealer comes
to count up the total of such "costly" things at the end
of the year, and figure them as a percentage of cost
of doing business, the cost fades into insignificance.
Courtesy Cost Small.
Of course, only a small percentage of transactions
in the music store involve unusual courtesy "losses."
If costly courtesies were frequent things the dealer
should, in safety, revise his courtesy policy and be
governed by the expediency of each occasion. But
even in the ordinary, every day, uneventful transac-
tions there is plenty of opportunity to show the kind
of courtesy that leaves not merely a passive satisfac-
tion, but an active feeling of good-will.
A house that observes the courtesies makes certain
that every customer entering the store is greeted by
some one. A customer does not mind waiting after
he or she has received some attention but there is
nothing more annoying that to stand waiting to be
noticed.
Unintentional Discourtesies.
But even the best intentioned salesman or sales-
woman may be unintentionally discourteous. One of
the foremost rules in the western retail music store al-
luded to is to let the customer tell his requirements
without interruptions or suggestions from the persons
who waits upon him. The salesman with horse-sense
knows when to begin to talk. Some customers have to
be "drawn out" and this may be done by suggestions
rather than direct questions. Uusually the customer
assumes an antagonistic attitude when he believes he
is being argued or coerced into selecting something.
The ground work of all courtesy is common polite-
ness but the necessity of insisting on its observance
is considered continuous by the western music house
alluded to. When a policy must be carried out by
hundreds of employes there is the necessity of con-
stantly impressing them with the ideals. Once a
month, by means of a leaflet the employes are im-
pressed with the fact that ordinary service is not
enough for the house but that it must be so much
out of the ordinary as to make a strong impression
on the customer. In the leaflet the employees are
told what the buyers demand. Individual instances
are told showing the right and wrong ways. It is
made plain that there is no sentimentality about the
courtesy policy but plain business and that it pays.
Courtesy during the sale, and proper adjustment in
case of any fancied or real dissatisfaction, is urged as
an observance.
How It Helps.
The western house believes that its courtesy policy
has been powerful in building up a business that has
defied the effects of a dull streak in business general-
ly. Of course it has a great line, full of leaders that
draw and retain trade but foremost among its meth-
ods is the courteous treatment of customers. The
particular courtesy methods may be apparently a
little more costly than the ordinary ways of rustic
houses but the house considers it the cheapest form
of advertising it can use.
In the course of a year it finds it has spent a good
many thousands of dollars than it otherwise would
J. A. Kieselhorst, Alton, 111., Leads Movement for
Great Celebration There.
J. A. Kieselhorst, president of the Kieselhorst
Music Co., Alton, 111., is prominent in extensive prep-
arations for the general observance of Music Week
May 3-9 at a committee meeting held last week in the
Chamber of Commerce rooms in the Mineral Springs
Hotel.
The reports of various committees show that the
celebration of Music Week in Alton will be general.
It will be far reaching through all the various civic,
religious and business organizations in the city and
during that week it is the intention to urge more
thought to music and the production of musical pieces
throughout every nook and corner in the city.
Some of the reports and instructions of some of
the committees are as follows:
Mr. Kieselhorst reported that his committee had
raised sufficient funds to defray the expenses of Music
Week.
The committee for public, private and parochial
schools has urged that music be played in every
place of instruction that week.
Committees from the Woman's Club, Music Club,
organists, Sunday schools and other organizations
presented reports. Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, minis-
ters of various denominations, Boy Scouts, fraternal
organizations, manufacturers, bands, orchestras and
singing societies were also represented.
FITZGERALD BRANCH
CHANGES OWNERSHIP
Store at Long Beach, California, Is Sold to
Donald E. Humphreys, But Remains
Under Old Name.
Donald E. Humphreys, who for the past nine years
has conducted a sheet music and musical instruments
business in Long Beach., Calif., has obtained the con-
trolling interest in the Long Beach branch of the
Fitzgerald Music Company. Since the Fitzgerald
Company has maintained a branch in Long Beach,
Mr. Humphreys has conducted his business in the
same store. As a result of the deal which has just
been consummated Mr. Humphreys will direct the
activities of the entire establishment.
Mr. Humphreys is himself a musician. He has at-
tended the University of California and, subsequently,
the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston,
where he studied piano and harmony.
The business will be continued under the name of
the Fitzgerald Music Company, for the present.
••Built on Family Pridt"
Doll & Sons
Represent the Artistic
in Piano and Player Piano
Construction
JACOB DOLL & SONS
STODART
WELLSMORE
Jacob Doll & Sons, Inc.
Southern Boulevard, E. 133rd St.
E. 134th St. and Cypress AT*.
NEW YORK
Becker Bros.
Manutactvtr+x* of
HIGH GRADE PIANOS
and PLAYER PIANOS
Factory and Warcraomi
767-769 Tenth Avenue, New York
STR1CH & ZE1DLER, lac
GRANLX UPRIGHT and PUYHR
AND
HOMER PIANOS
740-742 East 136th Street
NEW YORK
CITY TO OBSERVE MUSIC WEEK.
Music dealers of Fond du Lac, Wis., are prominent
in plans for celebrating National Music Week. The
celebration will open with a Sunday afternoon con-
cert, which has proved very successful in other years.
Other plans include a music memory contest for
school children, and a contest for kindergarten bands.
The celebration is under the direction of the music
department of the Women's Club.
MOVES IN TIFFIN, O.
The Hershberger Music Store, Tiffin, O., has moved
to new quarters in the Hossler Block on South Wash-
ington street. The new store has been remodeled
and converted into an attractive showroom for pianos
and phonographs, and an active sales campaign has
been launched.
NEW REPRODUCING GRAND.
A reproducing grand will be added to the line of
the B. K. Settergren Co., Bluffton, Ind., and the fac-
tory will be ready to make shipments in a short time.
The new Reproducing Grand is a combination of the
Settergren grand piano and the Welte-Mignon
(Licensee). The first of the instruments to come
through shows that it is an instrument of unusual at-
tractions and a valuable addition to the line of the
B. K. Settergren dealers.
NEW OHIO BRANCH.
The opening a branch store of the A. B. Smith
Piano Co., at 200 Park avenue, Barberton, O., has
been announced. This store will sell pianos, players
and reproducing pianos almost exclusively, although
handling a line of talking machines.
Schumann
PIANOS and PLAYER PIANOS
GRANDS and UPRIGHTS
Have no superiors in appearance, tone
power or other essentials of strictly
leaders in the trade.
Warning to Infringers
Tbla Trad* Mark is cast
In th* plat* and also ap-
pear* upon tbo fall board
of all genuine Schumann
Pianos, and all Infrtacera
will b« proseouUd. Beware
of Imitations such as Schu-
mann & Company, Schu-
mann «t Son, and alss
Shuman, as all st*ncll
shops, dealsrs and users of
pianos bearing a namo In
imitation of th« name
Schumann with th* Inten-
tion of deceiving; th* public
will be prosecuted to fh*
fullest extent of the law.
Mow Catalogue on Request.
Schumann Piano Co.
W. N. VAN MATRE, President
Rockford, IU.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/