Two op-eds I recently wrote for The Music & Sound Retailer, “Why We Fired Fender” and “In Defense Of The Middle Man,” both highlighted the unique and challenging relationships that exist between MI retail stores and their vendors. I have spoken to many colleagues in the MI retail industry since those op-eds were published—on both the retail and vendor sides—and I’ve found that others have shared many of my experiences. One particular recurring theme in those discussions converged on how dealer-vendor relations mirror customer-dealer relations…and how they do not.
See if this situation sounds familiar:
A few weeks ago, I special ordered an item for a customer (or, at least, I thought I did). What actually happened is that I wrote an e-mail to my sales rep, but never hit send. When my customer called asking about her order, I immediately chastised the inside sales rep with righteous indignation concerning the whereabouts of my order. Of course, my rep had never received my order, which I quickly discovered resting complacently in my drafts folder. I apologized to the sales rep. But what was I to do about my customer?
There’s a variety of tried-and-true excuses we use to cover for ourselves when we make a mistake in the retail business. Here are some:
The simple truth is that the customer experience is at an all-time low. In light of this, we do something different at our store: we tell the truth. We owe our customers more than excuses. We owe them our best effort, the truth and, when necessary, some additional recompense to make things right. Obviously, I wasn’t happy that I had to call my customer and explain my mistake, but I did it anyway. She was very forgiving, and I gave her an extra discount to make up for my error.
And, of course, mistakes are not exclusive to the retail-consumer relationship. Anyone in our business has dealt with late shipments, back orders, delayed orders, lost orders, damaged product and a variety of other issues too extensive to list. Fortunately, there are vendors out there that have embraced the same philosophy toward us as we have embraced toward our customers.
Breedlove Guitars offered a great Summer NAMM special, which included extended terms on purchasing a reasonable dollar amount of inventory. I took advantage of this, hoping to capitalize on the extended terms and to fill up on some needed inventory for Christmas. More time than usual went by before I received my order, so I called Andy Kerr at McFadden Sales, our representative for Breedlove, and he investigated the matter on my behalf.
I’ve contributed to several NAMM U sessions that were dedicated to the topic of search engine optimization (SEO), which involves how customers search for things on Google, and how retail stores can better optimize their Web sites to be found by potential customers. For instance, I have discovered that there are at least seven other stores named Larry’s Music.
Well, one of those stores had accidentally been shipped my guitars. The guitars had just sat, amid confusion, until the store reported the issue to Breedlove. They then were call tagged, returned to Breedlove and in the process of being inspected before being reshipped to my store.
We received the guitars within a couple of weeks, but several had been badly damaged in transit. Once again, I contacted Andy, who looped in Erica at Breedlove. I also asked about extending the terms of the order because my guitars arrived much later than I had expected them.
Andy worked with Erica to make sure the damaged guitars were call tagged and shipped back to Breedlove, while advance replacements were simultaneously shipped to our store. Our terms were extended to reflect the date we received the guitars. Breedlove also went the extra mile and offered us two guitars off their B-stock list at no additional cost.
This situation could have turned out much differently. It could have been an even bigger mess instead of being merely a comedy of errors. It could have been handled by a corporation and a bunch of hard-and-fast policies instead of by good people. It happens all the time, and most MI stores can recount innumerable horror stories strewn across their years in business. Unfortunately, too many of us have encountered adversarial reps, or company policies that interfere with our ability to do business.
I once saw a quote from a pastor or a therapist—I can’t remember which—who said, “You never know who someone is until you fight.” What he meant was, when conflict occurs, the nature of relationships becomes transparent. If respect becomes part of the equation, then the conflict will likely be resolved fairly. However, if the relationship is hostile and aggressive, then the conflict will likely escalate. Similarly, if we are aggressive and hostile toward a customer when he or she has an issue, we may lose that customer.
Just as we have to be accountable to our customers, our vendors should be accountable to us. We should not expect less from them than we provide for our customers.
In this age of private-equity-owned vendors and retail stores, many of the relationships we as retailers have developed with vendors over time have fallen by the wayside, having been replaced by corporate policies and inflexible demands. Stocking requirements have gone up, and free freight and other terms have become more difficult to obtain. While shouldering these burdens, we have become accustomed to a lower quality of customer service across the board…so much so that good experiences like the one mentioned above now seem all too rare. In examining our relationships with vendors, we should remember that our needs as their customer are as important as the needs of our customers are to us.
Are your vendors exercising the same fairness and respect that you extend to your customers? Do you hold your vendors to the same standard to which your customers hold you?
E-mail me at gabriel@larrysmusiccenter.com.