Help Big Poppa...Want your opinion

[douglasspears]

I think this could be helpful, may save a trip to the store if you can email one of the experts and ask them "is so-and-so item in stock?", if so, "what's the price?" and that kind of stuff. I guess when you get more detailed, you can ask them when a new item/feature will be arriving, etc. but I think the burden is still on us, the buyers, to do our own detailed research prior to making a large purchase.

The store bio seems pretty accurate. I've been pleased with my experiences with the 2 GC's here in ATL over the past 9 years (ATL is the main one I go to, but I'll stop into Marietta when I'm up there from time to time).

I've never understood all the hate for GC. What's there to hate about walking into a store with a couple hundred guitars on the wall, and access to pretty much any other one they don't have in stock? (say nothing of all the drum, pro-audio, accessories, etc) Do your own research, show up and have half a brain about what you are talking about, and you'll get good help.

 

[Gerry]

So, I click on "Store Experts", I get an error message.

I click on "Find an Expert" further down the page and...

...I get to read some horrifically badly written bios of store's employees? Here is a real example...

"I first picked up a guitar when I was 14 years old. Countless hours, weeks and months were spent playing along with my parents Beatles records on a guitar my father won in a poker game aboard an aircraft carrier while serving in the Navy in the early 1970's."

And this helps me, how?

Some people writing in first person, some in third, no common style or focus, sometimes poor grammar and spelling. I think it all comes across as incoherent and amateurish.

One gal just wanted a part-time job six years ago and now she's store manager. Another guy's bio only mentions drums but yet he's "certified" in Guitars & Amps. They may both be fantastic at their jobs but I'm not starting with confidence.

Don't call it find an expert, because it degrades your experts. Just call it "find a store".

+1 Also begs the question if the person selling a product does not have knowledge then surely they shouldn't be selling it in the first instance. If they all do then do we have a store full of experts? I think not.

 

[Ricman]

I live in the UK. I am interested in buying used 'balls from the states and GC. This feature does little for me, as Dr Kev stated, I would prefer an enhanced user experience to get me into the store, and better info/pics on the actual thing I'm looking for..I'm not really interested in who it is that helps me. If it helps I find the Used section a bit frustrating. It's impressive that it's USA-wide, but the descriptions and pics sometimes leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Smellybum]

I'm slightly hesitant about posting this, as I'm not a US citizen, but I have called Guitar Centers about various used guitars in the past so I might be able to contribute a little. I picked guitar centers I'd called previously when testing this.

Firstly - I think this a step in the right direction. breaking down the barrier between the guy behind the counter and the customer isn't an easy thing to do. I think the Bio's and pictures are great, but to echo the comments of my peers they don't take me to the reason I'm looking at the website. If maybe I knew what the staff member played gear wise, or was passionate about (they don't have to own one to like 'em) then i would be drawn to start a dialogue on that basis. Also if it was based around brands there's a fair chance I'd be more decisive, where as reading the whole bio on some staff is 4 paragraphs, not a log but if I'm making a quick purchase I wouldn't want to have to read and asses. -just point me to the brand I want and I'll deal with your expert please.


More good things:

Length of service, I think it's important to show how long someone has been in the store as well as with the organisation, I think for the ones I've read some have worked in multiple stores, that should be should be publicised to me that shows that you care about your staff and develop them in what can be perceived as a role that has limited developments.

Certification:? I don't understand statements when it reads Certified in: Accessories, Live Sound & DJ, Recording & Keys, Drums, Guitars & Amps Is this an in house competency test that GC put staff through ? if so should be explained and part of the bio - and it's a great idea.




On the other side:

I'm not sure I like that most if not all of the bios start the same - I presume all staff were asked the same questions and told to submit stuff - some of it is repetitive.


Would this encourage me to shop? - Yes - would this build a rapport with the local staff? - probably -



Hope that helps.

PS - please open up in the UK and Europe - thank you.

 

[douglasspears]

+1 Also begs the question if the person selling a product does not have knowledge then surely they shouldn't be selling it in the first instance. If they all do then do we have a store full of experts? I think not.

I think some of you guys are getting a little too hung up on the title "experts", haha!

It's just a term they're using to represent their sales-folk, and trying to increase/improve personal customer interaction and loyalty.

Look at bank employees, about half of them are "vice-presidents", but they're a loooooong way from being 2nd in command.

 

[Jack FFR1846]

I clicked it. The first thing it did was to assume that where my IP address was based (or the server), that's where I live. My company server is in Plano, Texas. I'm sitting in Waltham, Massachusetts. It popped up with the Plano expert. Having visited with Keith, I'd go looking for Robbie in North Dallas, if I wanted questions answered.

Not too hard....I clicked "store locations" and it asked my zip and then gave me a choice of stores. I chose my favorite.

It did list Chaz (store manager) and Mike (guitar manager) as the experts. Although they have both been helpful to me, I don't know what specific things they're expert at. I would believe that they really knew MM if they had a very short list of true specialties.

The extra facts about the store (they have an in-store tech) was interesting. Something they don't say which impressed the hell out of me when I talked to Chaz during the King of the Blues competition is that when the tech doesn't have customer instruments to work on, he pulls down guitars off the wall and does a complete setup, marks the tag and does another. This is something that they need someone with trumpets outside yelling about. GC is known for opening the box and that's the extent of their setup unless you want to pay $75.

I can't say that the "expert" section is of any help to me whatsoever.

 

[Gerry]

I think some of you guys are getting a little too hung up on the title "experts", haha!

It's just a term they're using to represent their sales-folk, and trying to increase/improve personal customer interaction and loyalty.

Look at bank employees, about half of them are "vice-presidents", but they're a loooooong way from being 2nd in command.

No hang ups my end at all but my experience is that every time I meet someone who professes to be an expert its best to run. It is an adjective that you earn or demonstrate not something you are given as a title or profess to be unlike your example of Vice President. JMHO and nothing more.

 

[roburado]

What encourages me to shop at a particular place is inventory--not the info that I see in the profiles. Sure, it humanizes the experience, but if they don't have what I want, which is usually the case with guitars, amps, effects, etc., I'm not going to shop there. For instance, I recently got a guitar from an independent store. It's a very specific model made during a very specific time of an iconic guitar that seems to have thousands of variants. My home GC has seemingly hundreds of guitars of this model--just not the variant I wanted. I started looking there, but I ended up at that indie store which had what I was looking for--both a used one and an NOS one. A further example, there are some guitar makers whose stuff interests me. They're boutique-y. GC doesn't have them. So, again, shopping elsewhere.

 

[ozzyrules]

I think some of you guys are getting a little too hung up on the title "experts", haha!

It's just a term they're using to represent their sales-folk, and trying to increase/improve personal customer interaction and loyalty.

Look at bank employees, about half of them are "vice-presidents", but they're a loooooong way from being 2nd in command.

Sorta like when you go to an Apple store, are you really dealing with "Genius'"?

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

I like the personal connection. I live in Toronto as well. I know a few of the people that work at the Buffalo N.Y. Guitar Center. Now when something special comes in they can email me. I feel confident enough that if I want something ordered I can drop an email and I'll be taken care of. I like this idea a lot.

 

[douglasspears]

Sorta like when you go to an Apple store, are you really dealing with "Genius'"?

Exactly! And now that you mention it, that's probably where GC got this idea and even the name from.

 

[Gio_Force_One]

I know it wouldnt help me at all and the EBMM knowledge in my store is non existent and most of them dont like like the EBMM guitars. For awhile they always asked why I wanted to buy EBMM guitars and not the others. I just want to go in there play the guitars and decide for myself and no t have anything pushed on me.The other thing is I know most the peolplwe there and a few the are on the website dont even work there anymore and some of the so called experts do alot of lying to sell guitars si its hard for me to really call them experts. Example would be I heard a customer who wanted to buy a used strat and he said it kind of buzzes alot and the salesman said its ok thats what strats do and another time I heard a guy buying an EBMM and he liked the neck but the sales man said most people dont like these necks cause it makes there hands cramp. I just thought since they are called experts they should be a little bit more knowledgable about products and help people get want they want not what they need to push or what they like. I dont like things pushed upon me cause they want to get rid of it so i just try to avoid them when I am in the stores now.

 

[jptortor]

I think that it does humanize the experience to a degree. I think that this feature would be especially helpful to a new customer to the store. I also think that if I was browsing the used section of the website, and found a piece that I particularly liked, it would be nice to see the face of the associates at the store that piece was in and see who might be the right person to speak with. That is the positive and I think that it a huge positive.

As far as constructive criticism goes, I think that an even better website enhancement would be to list store inventories. I understand that would probably be a huge undertaking but I can share a real life example. On the website, I can order a candy red Silhouette, with no trem and a maple board. I know that GC stocks many more guitars than that. I think it would be a help if I could see where those items might be to either make a trip or call up the store, after checking who the resident Music Man expert is.

Jason

 

[dmcguitar]

The Idea is good, and hopefully with time they can make it be something really useful. I personally do not see a benefit from it. The guy I deal with at GC is listed, and he did bring the 46th Anniversary Bahama burst guitar to my attention, but I have spoken to many sales associates and, like many others on this forum find their knowledge to be lacking. The experts are on product forums, I have found so much info here and other product forums than talking to store employees.

after clicking back and forth a few times, the page of experts refreshes different every time, so i will see 10+ guitar associates. I think it would be better if i could say / search
A) genre / style of music.. im sure some know more about metal, or blues or country than others.
2) specific brands they are "experts" with. That is, if I'm looking for a Les Paul, I want someone who knows every difference between the R1,R2, 1960 RI, 2008 Std or everything about vintage gibson or.. EBMM JP models, and how they compare to the Silouette (which look similar) I want them to tell me they know the differneces between JPs 3 different pickup choices, and the tones available from an Axis SS, or Albert Lee.

obviously this shouldnt all be on their profile page, but it could say. EBMM guitar expert, Mesa and Marshall fanatic. That gives me (and im sure many others) the confidence that if i talk to the sales associate they have the knowledge I need. As of now most of the profiles seem to say, about their musical / guitar center career and that they can write songs, and like to help people get the gear they want (which sounds generic).

 

[agt]

Here are my thoughts:

I have actually been at GC's website a lot recently ... I never noticed the link until BP pointed it out. There is a lot of info on the home page and I am usually at their site looking for something specific (either a specific product make and model or a category like "distortion pedals"). I usually use the search feature or I look at the category links in the column at the left and don't pay attention to the other links scattered over the page.

So I clicked on the Store Experts link ... I know BP is looking for feedback, so I pretend to be interested in an EBMM product to simulate how the experience might unfold for a typical shopper.

I see info about my local store and photos and bios of several employees. I click on the guitars and amps tab and there are more employees. I've been looking at the page for a minute and I am not sure how this is going to put me in contact with someone who can advise me on an EBMM. I look for a search field where I can type in "Music Man" ... maybe that will bring up a link to an employee that is an expert on that brand? However, the only search box I see is to find an associate. So I click on a few of the associates presented. I see info about their favorite instruments, but none of the associates I see lists EBMM (a lot of the other big brands are omitted too).

At this point, I've spent about 4-5 minutes trying to use this feature to find out more about a specific brand of guitars I am interested in and I have not found that information. I am ready to go back to the GC home page and search on "music man" or click on the Guitars category link.

So, in summary, this feature was not particularly useful for me. Maybe I missed something. I don't know if 4 or 5 minutes makes me typical or atypical of the usual GC customer. Personally, if I am on a page looking for information and i have not found anything or anything promising within a few minutes, I use the Back button and I try something else.

I hope that this feedback is useful.

 

[OU812]

From my understanding people usually go on sites like GC and MF to search specific things, even if its a vague search such as a brand name. So why not ask the user their location when they first get on GC's website, they do their search and then have a column on the right when a user finds something they are looking for of employees in their area who are familiar with this product and a phone number below their name so they can contact them if they are wanting further assistance.

Just my 2 cents, but maybe this was already discussed.

 

[Sweat]

OK Sterling heres my take on this, first love the small guys but everyone knows I am a GC fan.

That said my take on this may be skewed; I know my GC inside out, so it doesnt help me currently, plus there are some website issues with links contenet etc.. BP have AJ or somebody PM about one of the linking issues please.

So if I am a newbie guitar/bass, instrument buyer no help, not sure what I would be looking for going to the expert page.

Now if I move to another city or am advanced and have no GC ties would find this usefull, though should say expertise in EBMM, PRS,Fender etc.

Either way it is cool to have this on their site and was cool to see people I deal with talk to all the time and their bios.

So thumbs up fix the web content

 

[ozzyrules]

AGT made a great point that I wanted to convey earlier. Substitute PRS, or Suhr, or Tom Andersen, etc. for EBMM. The GC "expert" should be a true expert of his respective brand. This would help immensely. If GC Portland,Or. didn't have an expert in EBMM, then maybe there would be a network of EBMM that they could consult(like Robbie,GC Dallas).

 

[gtrojan]

thanks to you all for your feedback. this is greg trojan, ceo of GC. we are just getting started with microsites and are looking at improving the functionality with features such as nationwide search/access to associates etc. love your passion and helpful thoughts. keep them coming!

 

[guitfiddle]

I keep getting getting a server error whenever I click on the "Store Expert" link (not the tab, but the pop-down link).
I'll try again later on in case it is a temporary issue.