MP : When somebody walks in the store , my objective is to have them feel my vision before they talk to anybody . When staff answer the phone , I want the way they answer the phone to impact the listener . When somebody walks in , I want them to see we ’ re meticulous in the layout .
But one of the things we do is I have a pretty large vinyl collection because I ’ m from that era , and we have vinyl all over both stores . No matter where you go , the great albums from the ‘ 60s and ‘ 70s and ‘ 80s – well I guess I ’ d stop at the ‘ 70s because there are no great albums in the ‘ 80s [ laughs ] – so you know , Earth Wind & Fire , James Taylor , James Brown , Buddy Holly , Elvis Presley , and all of those are all over the walls on any floor and in any room . And the only room that doesn ’ t have a lot of records is the listening room and the focus in the listening room is simple . You ’ ve got a Beatle wall that is about 15 ft . wide by 12 ft . high and it mimics The Cavern Club that The Beatles played in . The fun part about that is I had art students from the high schools come in and paint logos on the wall . So we had to take the 100 most recognizable names and talk about why they were iconic . So we used it as a class and then when somebody plays the room , they sign the wall , so there is a ritual there …
The store has a character and that ’ s what I mean by “ impact .” You ’ ve got about six seconds to make somebody feel when they come in , and if they don ’ t feel good , they ’ re not going to interact with you . So our way is to embrace and educate and service .
CMT : What other services do you provide to enhance the customer experience ?
lesson room
MP : I was at a home last night because any time we sell a drum set , we deliver it and I do that personally because that ’ s my instrument of trade . So here we have a 10-year-old boy who has had a lawn business and he ’ s bought his own kit from us . So at 8 p . m . last night , I take it over to the house and I go through and I take two hours to go through every lug and how it works and how to tune it , what does this , what does that , and his father is standing there with me . He is like , “ I cannot believe that you provide this service ,” and I said , “ We have families that stay with us a long time and the reason they stay with us and do the other programs and buy other instruments for other siblings , or whatever , is simple . It ’ s service .”… But the parents are very moved by that and the next thing you know , they ’ re writing you thank you blogs and stuff like that and it helps to clarify the differentiation between you and anybody else who ’ s doing it …
As I said to the dad last night , and he was stupefied at what he had just witnessed , and I said , “ Well just remember , if you ’ d ordered it on the internet , that wouldn ’ t have happened .” He was like , “ Wow , there is a huge difference .” I said , “ There is an old-fashioned term for it and it ’ s called ‘ service .’”
CMT : What would you say is the governing philosophy for CMC ?
MP : That ’ s a great question . The ultimate flag of success is not selling a piece of gear ; it ’ s when you see Michael League [ of Snarky Puppy ] get his third Grammy and know that he studied guitar at the store . That speaks to the teacher , it speaks to Michael , and it speaks to the fact we could
Photo : Craig Hunter Ross
attract a young student like that in the beginning …
Ultimately , if you ’ ve done your job well , you ’ ve helped the music industry and that ’ s really what this is about . This is about protecting something that we ’ ve begun to not be able to differentiate how special it is . So for me , it ’ s leaving it slightly better than it is today . If it ’ s slightly better tomorrow because we ’ ve put this much work into it and you have families – and at this point we have somewhere between 500 and 600 students come into the stores – and you want those families touched because you hope that they can pass that on . You hope that they do something . Michael League , every time you listen to a Snarky Puppy song , it ’ s expressing something that helps the entire industry . If you go see our guys play locally , you
realize that these are just premium people and we ’ re just so excited to have relationships with these phenomenal educators . If I make a 10-year-old kid feel special because I ’ ve set up a drum set for him last night and he knows the next time he cuts grass that that really did matter , then we ’ re affecting the outcome and that ’ s really the governing mission . It is to just make people realize that this whole thing is special and that we can contribute to it or be critical of things around it . We hope that we can get people in touch with that creative opportunity . That ’ s the big part – that we ’ re trying to advance creativity and expression . We ’ re just part of that ; we ’ re just a note in the symphony , but we hope to be the one that makes the ending sound good , right , as opposed to the one that ’ s played wrong [ laughs ].
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of
Canadian Music Trade .
rock camp
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE 33