Categories: Articles

Fear. Loathing And Great Customer Service In Los Angeles

No, it was not the Calypso Tumblers on Venice Beach, nor was it the trip to Universal Studios. It was not the late night run down Sunset Strip (what I wouldn’t give to be twenty-one again), nor was it running into Xzibit at the Ice Cube CD release party. It was everything that happened in a Sam Ash music store.
I went into Sam Ash on Sunset after not being able to find the new Zoom H4 Handy Recorder at the Guitar Center and some other music stores. The reason I was eager to get my mitts on the Zoom H4 was, to be quite frank, the price. From the reviews I’ve read it’s equal to the performance of the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 or the Roland Edirol R-9, but the price tag is about $100 – $150 less than the M-Audio and the Edirol.
Sam Ash was out of the Zoom H4 and the sales associate tried to convince me to grab the M-Audio. He was running through his pitch, when I said it was really just a question of saving the additional bucks as I was not looking to use the product for anything other than Podcasting.
Here’s where things got awesome and made me appreciate the slowly dying art of great customer service.
He asked me if I would be willing to buy the M-Audio if he could sell it to me for the same price at the Zoom H4. I was loving this. He went to speak to his manager as I thought about it. He came back with the M-Audio and asked if we had a deal.
The seal on the box was open, so we inspected it together and even though everything looked to be in place, there were some marks on the MicroTrack. I got concerned that someone had bought it and returned it. That’s when the manager got involved and said, “listen, you’ve invested a significant amount of time in checking out the M-Audio, I want to sell it, you want to buy it… what will it take to make us both happy?”
Everybody loves a deal, so not only did I get the M-Audio MicroTrack for less than the sale price of the Zoom H4, but the manager of Sam Ash then spent a good twenty minutes offering up great advice on what else I should be checking out in Los Angeles, and some of the better (re: non-tourist) local eats. After that, the sales associate provided me with some killer technical support on the mixing board and mic I have back home for Podcasting, but have been having issues with.
Great customer service is not about getting the right price. I wanted the M-Audio, but I also wanted the store to make money. They made an extra (and huge) effort to not just push gear out of the door, but to make friends. To start a conversation. And, in doing so, I would never cross the street to The Guitar Center again. Sam Ash has gained a lifelong customer… and one who is proud to evangelize, spread and refer people to the Sam Ash on Sunset.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.