| Two simple steps to start:
Nation's Lowest Price. Either mean it or quit saying it. A simple monthly scan of Google Products will tell you how you're doing (and you need to be doing *better* than the competition, not merely meeting their mark). I know that anyone with a relationship in good standing can do better than what's on the tag, but again, if you're not going to make an effort, don't bother with the signage.
Likewise, on the guitar/bass side, it's long past time to cut the 'no, that doesn't include the case' nonsense. The list price of which the company is so fond is *most often* for the instrument in question with its case. Taylor, EB/MM, Martin, yada yada. Again, a simple scan of the manufacturer's sites will confirm that the number from which you're deriving my inaccurately named 'Nation's Lowest Price' is, in fact, pricing for the entire product - instrument and case.
I walked away from an exceptional deal this past week on an EB/MM Stingray simply because the case had been separated. 'That's our bone cost.' Great, glad to hear that I'm getting a strong deal, but what you paid for and what I would like to pay for is the entire product, instrument and case. It doesn't come any other way from EB/MM and it's not leaving with me any other way, either.
It comes down to the simple matter of my intelligence being continuously insulted. I'll buy from Cheney at the Marietta, Georgia store because I like him, trust him and enjoy doing business with him. Unfortunately, that comes *in spite* of the fact that it's GC.
I hate the fact that I know the company is insulting me, the company knows that they're insulting me and the company knows that I know that they know... It's just disheartening to know that an organization that could do it right/straight chooses to out-used-car the used car guys.
Michael Schultz
Marietta, Georgia |