I have a son who is a keen piano player, and for Christmas I bought him a keyboard and stand from a new music specialist shop that recently opened near us. It was a large heavy keyboard, and upon getting it home I unfolded the stand to see if it would support the keyboard, and noticed that the stand seemed to wobble a bit. So without even trying to put the keyboard on the stand I returned it for a replacement. The salesman unfolded the stand and put some pressure on it, and immediately I could see that the stand was in fact perfectly fine – it just needed some weight on it to make it stable. Somewhat embarrassed, I muttered that in fact I’d been thinking I should actually get a larger stand, just in case that one wasn’t strong enough for the heavy keyboard. No problem, said the salesman, and showed me a far better stand which cost about R100 more. I was about to pay the difference when the salesman told me it was fine – I could do a straight swap and not worry about the difference! Very happy and relieved, I took the stand home and we mounted the keyboard on the new improved stand.

On the surface it would seem the salesman made a poor deal – the shop had lost R100. But my son told all his musical friends about it, and they told their friends – and the end result is they all want to buy from this new shop. Musical instruments aren’t cheap, and I already know that small “loss” has turned into a substantial gain, especially just before Christmas. I don’t know if the salesman had thought it through to that extent when he offered the more expensive stand, but the important thing is that he had the power to do so without having to consult with the sales manager or the shop owner. There’s a fine line between keeping a tight rein on profits and trusting your staff to make the right decisions. In this case it seems they trust their staff, and it’s good for their bottom line. I’m not surprised that the shop seems to be unusually busy, especially for a specialist music shop. I know where I’ll be buying musical stuff from now on – I have another son who’s a keen guitar player…

Arno is one of the directors of getclosure! Arno has extensive experience in IT design and development and was responsible for creating the getclosure! complaints management system. Click here to read more about Arno.