Why your record store's staff is everything.
The greatest value that records stores have to offer the world is the people who work at them. It’s not price or selection or product, it’s expertise and customer service. It is the one thing that digital does not offer music consumers and, like Nirvana lifting their favorite elements of the Pixies, Sonic Youth and R.E.M. and repeating them over and over and over again, I believe this is exactly what record stores should underline and emphasize over and over and over again. You might think this blog is just stating the obvious. Sometimes the obvious hasn’t been spoken in so long, it might not be as obvious to others as you remember it being to you.
The record store people I know are largely bright, funny and passionate about music, but let’s face it: the surly, snooty record store employee (see Jack Black in High Fidelity for reference) has become something of an archetype, whether they’re a crotchety old stoner, a misanthropic punk, a bitchy house music nut or an arrogant indie rocker/arrogant jazz breather/arrogant classical snob. We all know or have known people like this. I think most of us would like to see this go away and that has everything to do with the conversations you and your co-workers are having with your customers.
As one piece of the puzzle, we built this site so, at the very least, everyone who works at your store knows what the records you’re carrying sound like (preferably before they even arrive at the store). By becoming experts of your inventory, you can change the shopping experience for your customers. No record store can ever compete with the selection that digital offers, and while this ocean of music might offer infinite discovery, most people are drowning in it. As Adam Klein, CEO of eMusic said at the Bandwidth Conference recently, “All you can eat gives you indigestion.” The recognition of this, that you and your co-workers can play a valuable role as curators and navigators, is huge. Again, maybe obvious to you, but I have to ask if this shift in the market place has affected the way you speak to your customers or what you ask them. Has “Can I help you find something?” or “Are you finding everything okay?” been replaced with “What are you listening to?” or “What kind of music are you missing in your life?”
Everything you can do to underline that expertise has value to your store and customer retention. We designed what we’re calling our microbranding program to do just that. You may have noticed the “Submit a quote” option in the marketing request portion of each release. Microbranding allows us to create commercial grade customizable hype stickers in very small quantities. We can include your store logo and staff quotes right there with press quotes as well as regional sales drivers like radio charting or local press that we could never dream of using on national materials. You, the store, become the avenue of development and once again, your staff are the experts, right up there with Pitchfork and MOJO and Spin. There’s an example at the top of this post (although Dan from End of an Ear is as modest as ever and decided against an actual quote).
The very nature of this program is to give a name to everyone in your store and associate that name with expertise. The majority of us got into this business because we formed relationships with music at a young age. That relationship is often tied in with the people who introduced or sold us the music. This is something you can give to your customers that digital cannot. Again, obvious, but it still should be said.
There are many great ways to capitalize further on this, many of them already in use. Amoeba publishes a Music We Like zine. Aquarius handwrites reviews and puts them on releases as well as in their longstanding email list. Other Music is also known for a compelling and eclectic email list. Stinkweeds published a Best of 2010 book which compiled staff and customer reviews, using the new Minibuk format (introduced by owner Kimber Lanning). End of An Ear video tapes their new arrivals, flipping one record at a time. While these opinions and customer education are really important, there are other ways to cultivate the more personal nature of your service.
One idea we had is for each sales person in the store to have his/her own business card with their own unique store-specific Twitter feed and email address. The majority of your customers have mobile phones. Wire them to you. Businesses often treat their customers to one voice, but every record store is a collection of voices and we all know what a strange and cool notoriety working in a record store can offer. Every street date can be an exchange and reminder of your presence as well as an expression of many voices. If each employee can cultivate a clientele based on taste and level of service, you can do business with people even when they’re not in the store. Tying these emails to SMS function could allow you to presell releases before the person even arrives. Let’s look at Kat from Fictional Records.
Kat tweets:
FictionalKat: So excited about the new My Goodness CD coming in Tuesday. It rocks! Email fictionalkat@gmail.com w/ yr # and I’ll hold one for you.
Customer Jerry emails Kat, she gets an alert on her phone (or the email gets redirected to someone near a computer) and she calls him back to get his credit card info. If she knows Jerry, maybe she just sets one aside and emails him back. Jerry might not have ever come in this week. You can do this with collectibles, store events, etc. It’s just an idea, so if it doesn’t appeal to you, don’t sweat it. I’ve got more. Regardless, your feedback is welcome.
Next time, I’ll tell you about our Personal Shopping Session idea.