What’s up with customer service?
By Keith Clark

How the pro audio industry distinguishes itself

Within the past week, we’ve been compelled to change our telephone service provider and our auto insurance provider, due to months and months of, frankly, getting jerked around. Nothing like sitting down at the desk with the first cup of coffee of the day, picking up the phone and hearing “click click.” And then silence. Particularly aggravating when you’ve been overpaying said telecom conglomerate as a result of its own billing errors resulting in hours spent trying to fix a problem of the company’s own creation just to get your own money back!

If I noted the names of both of these companies, you’d know them immediately. But my point is not to name names, but rather to ask: how stupid can the management of these companies really be? They spend millions of dollars annually in bombarding you and me via television, radio, mail, print and the Internet with messages attempting to coerce us into using their products/services.

But this is the part that’s truly perplexing: they’ve already got me - a paying customer - on board, presumably at a profitable fee, and then they do their level best to drive me away while continuing to outlay the massive amounts of money to coerce potential customers to also come on board. All with a backdrop of news reports noting these same companies are laying off employees by the thousands! And there, I suspect, is a primary root of the problem.

Veteran employees usually attain their status because they care about mundane things like service as opposed to vapid marketing, and further, they’ve learned a lot about their product or service over the years, knowledge that is invaluable when shared with customers. Alas, in times of mass layoffs, these very people are among the first to go due to their larger paychecks. (But hey, by all means, be sure to dump a wheel barrel full of cash into another 30-second spot during the Super Bowl…)

Where am I going with this? In the past several years, I’ve run across a significant number of pro audio enterprises (in all their various forms) that fly in the face of these allegedly more sophisticated corporations in terms of supporting their customers. In fact, from a percentage standpoint, I’d be willing to wager our industry is way more successful at providing commensurate support as compared to the average of the whole.

I’ve talked to many principles of sound reinforcement companies - concert and contracting - that don’t even have to advertise to enjoy a steady flow of profitable business in their region. In every case, they’ve attributed this success to treating the customer with respect through an approach of honesty and dogged pursuit of serving what they sell. And I’ve seen the employees of these same companies in lock step, walking this walk and talking this talk. That kind of commitment gets around.

From the larger manufacturing levels of this industry down to the single-person shop, there is a savvy that probably can’t be attained via the most noted MBA program at the loftiest Ivy League college. It is a savvy of common sense that’s so easily disregarded and/or ignored in the machinations of massive multinational corporations. A savvy that says if we are going to invest in marketing, then we’re going to develop messages that respect our customers, and if we say it, we’re gonna back it up. And it’s a savvy borne of too many experiences like the one I describe above that leads to a tireless policy of “that won’t happen to my customers.”

It’s called caring, and it’s a big reason I’m honored to be in this business.

Keith Clark is editorial director for ProSoundWeb and Live Sound International magazine and can be reached at keith@prosoundweb.com