Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

Musicians Friend Adopting Sweetwater Customer Service Protocals?


RobB

Recommended Posts

I used to be contacted occasionally from Chris Swope when he was with Musicians Friend.  He was always there when I needed him and would go out of his way to make whatever arrangements he could to facilitate the sale without ever coming across as actively selling.  Maybe my annoyance with Sweetwater is more rooted in the silly "sales engineer" thing or the fact someone has been "assigned" to my account, but it just feels weirdly overdone if not a little condescending.  A call to gauge how satisfied I am with the most recent set of the same strings I've used for thirty years has nothing to do with customer service.

FTR, I'd also opt out of the candy if I could.  Nothing but landfill.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, cynic said:

I used to be contacted occasionally from Chris Swope when he was with Musicians Friend.  He was always there when I needed him and would go out of his way to make whatever arrangements he could to facilitate the sale without ever coming across as actively selling.  Maybe my annoyance with Sweetwater is more rooted in the silly "sales engineer" thing or the fact someone has been "assigned" to my account, but it just feels weirdly overdone if not a little condescending.  A call to gauge how satisfied I am with the most recent set of the same strings I've used for thirty years has nothing to do with customer service.

FTR, I'd also opt out of the candy if I could.  Nothing but landfill.

 

Man, if you don't like "sales engineer" or "someone assigned" you should try working in IT and buying...anything.  If I've gone to a conference and get someone's card, they call me for like 3 months, sometimes every day.  

At least with Sweetwater, you deal with the same person.  When I have to deal with Cisco for "promotions", it's a multi step process and sometimes a couple different people have to approve or get involved and Lord help me if I ask for a better price.  Then, the distributor has to fiddle with it before I can purchase.  I like Cisco's products, but they make it difficult sometimes to just give them money.  And then, about every 6 months to a year, all the Cisco people seem to change over.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, scottcald said:

Man, if you don't like "sales engineer" or "someone assigned" you should try working in IT and buying...anything.  If I've gone to a conference and get someone's card, they call me for like 3 months, sometimes every day.  

At least with Sweetwater, you deal with the same person.  When I have to deal with Cisco for "promotions", it's a multi step process and sometimes a couple different people have to approve or get involved and Lord help me if I ask for a better price.  Then, the distributor has to fiddle with it before I can purchase.  I like Cisco's products, but they make it difficult sometimes to just give them money.  And then, about every 6 months to a year, all the Cisco people seem to change over.   

One of the reasons I left the industry in 2001.  Not sure I've ever seen an industry do a worse job distilling the sales/fulfillment processes to the simplest nuts and bolts possible. I used to kid my peers that if our customer asked us to change a lightbulb in a broom closest over the weekend, we'd tender a proposal one/two months later to install a new mil-spec 10K lumen spotlight with a discrete power source and installed over a six-month period by four different teams with 20% engineering and 10% prod support markup added into the quote.  That kind of bullshite nearly drove me insane, so I left.

So, yes, I think Sweetwater has the right model for building loyalty, especially for customers that drop a lot of coin on a regular basis. That's highly unlikely to be me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/7/2020 at 11:10 PM, cynic said:

Does anyone welcome those calls or find them anything but a nuisance?  One is bad enough but can you freaking imagine if every business you purchased goods from pulled that shit?

"We just wanted to follow up on your recent broccoli purchase and hope the urine smell wasn't too overwhelming"

Pro Tip:  My wife and I have been dieting and eating a lot of chicken, broccoli, and brown rice.  We've started steaming it in an instant pot on the deck so that it doesn't stink up the house.  It still lingers a little when we bring it back in, but it's so much better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, sixesandsevens said:

Pro Tip:  My wife and I have been dieting and eating a lot of chicken, broccoli, and brown rice.  We've started steaming it in an instant pot on the deck so that it doesn't stink up the house.  It still lingers a little when we bring it back in, but it's so much better.

Dammit....I meant to say asparagus, and it's not the cooking smell that gets ya.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Biz Prof said:

One of the reasons I left the industry in 2001.  Not sure I've ever seen an industry do a worse job distilling the sales/fulfillment processes to the simplest nuts and bolts possible. I used to kid my peers that if our customer asked us to change a lightbulb in a broom closest over the weekend, we'd tender a proposal one/two months later to install a new mil-spec 10K lumen spotlight with a discrete power source and installed over a six-month period by four different teams with 20% engineering and 10% prod support markup added into the quote.  That kind of bullshite nearly drove me insane, so I left.

So, yes, I think Sweetwater has the right model for building loyalty, especially for customers that drop a lot of coin on a regular basis. That's highly unlikely to be me.

Yeah, you'd think in 2020, I'd be able to be seen in systems as whatever level Cisco partner and it would just apply promos that are available to me, but maybe that's crazy talk.  Funny enough, I deal with the Meraki line from them, which is cloud managed to..........make things more efficient and easy.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, cynic said:

Dammit....I meant to say asparagus, and it's not the cooking smell that gets ya.

There's an asparagus festival in CT in August (on non-pandemic years).  I can't imagine anything worse than being in a porta-potty on a hot August day at an asparagus festival.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/9/2020 at 11:36 AM, velorush said:

My Sweetwater guy passed me off to an underling when it became apparent I was a cheapskate.  The new guy doesn't seem to be as capable as the original guy.

I have had the same sales person for years. But recently I had the same thing happen to me where a new person said they were his assistant. I love Sweetwater customer service and fast delivery. I have never really bought a lot from them because I always felt they don't discount. Never sending discount codes or other incentives. Am I wrong ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought my Yamaha THR5 from Sweetwater. Only thing I’ve purchased from them but I did make the trek out there to try out a Friedman pink taco combo this past summer. That place is amazing and everyone is super nice and helpful, took us on a tour of the facility. It probably didn’t hurt that I went with a buddy of mine who spends thousands over there on a whim. He even had his sales guy go to his house and set up his amps, pedal board and video recording equipment so he could send me videos of himself...  🙄

But I digress. My “sales engineer” called & texted to make sure I liked the Yamaha a few days after I got it. I texted him back and gave him a good online review. Since then I’ll just get some random emails about their holiday sales, etc. Nothing too annoying. 

Don’t think I’ve bought anything from MF since I was in high school so I have no idea what their service is like now. 

I typically buy the majority of my stuff used on here anyway. But, if I was buying new, I’d more than likely buy from Sweetwater again. No local mom & pop shops around me I know about that I would rather give my business to...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, DeVai said:

I have had the same sales person for years. But recently I had the same thing happen to me where a new person said they were his assistant. I love Sweetwater customer service and fast delivery. I have never really bought a lot from them because I always felt they don't discount. Never sending discount codes or other incentives. Am I wrong ?

Yours is a better description of my situation.  I had the original guy for years, then he gets an "assistant."  When I called him to make a purchase for our church it was the assistant who called me back.

I'm right with you (hence my self-descriptor, "cheapskate"): if it's something technical I need help with, I'm fine paying full price to Sweetwater, but if I'm buying something I know as well as the Sales Engineer, I'm buying from the low-price provider. 

I do like their marketing emails / videos because they are well produced and I glean good information, but when they send me messages about discounts, I know they'll be discounts at least matched by most any other outlet. 

Are we wrong?  Absolutely not!  🤑

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/11/2020 at 11:34 PM, velorush said:

Yours is a better description of my situation.  I had the original guy for years, then he gets an "assistant."  When I called him to make a purchase for our church it was the assistant who called me back.

 

I had that for like one thing I bought, but after a while, the original guy did the communications.  I've purchased exactly about 8 things from them since 2003.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, LucSulla said:

Anyone else ever pretend you're overpaying for candy and the gear is free?

If I was 20 years younger, I'd probably worry about your sanity.  But at this age I recognize that this kind of playful delusion is the only way to make it through.  💯

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, sixesandsevens said:

If I was 20 years younger, I'd probably worry about your sanity.  But at this age I recognize that this kind of playful delusion is the only way to make it through.  💯

Hey, it's nice to still get called young at 41.  I'll take it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...