Help with customer service

[Big Poppa]

Dear Knuckleheads,

You know I love you and spend way too much time here! I need your help as apparently most of the key staff posting here is not enough.....We just tracked the incoming telephone calls and emails and forumite specific calls and emails are 40% of our volume. THis is crippling our ability to take care of everything else we need to do especially sell to dealers and distributors.
Some call to just say HI....Some call to see whats new, and some call to offer advice. Most usually follow up the call with a pm or email that requires a response.

When a forumite sends their instrument to the factory there is the necessary first call (actually your dealer should be your conduit...but Im ok with it)...then there is the call "Hey Dan, Did you get it?" Then the email making sure that Dan ackowledged getting it......then the requested personal diagnosis from Dan/AJ. Then the call when it comes back.....

Please oh pretty please we are there for you. When you need us. We have no intention of cutting back on customer service....but please make sure that when you call/email/pm that you really have something that can only be handled by direct contact.....Its sort of like calling the air traffic controllers to chat....!!

 

[Basscake]

I'd love to give you guys a phonecall, but unfortunatelly I have absolutely not the remotest issues with my MusicMan instruments that would justify a call.

But anyway! How's the air traffic goin on today?

 

[stingray96191]

and i was just about to call...
(not really)
But when you need them its nice to know they are there.

Erin

 

[TNT]

"Educating" those who call (as you just did) helps, but also people really should have some "basic" insights into this kinda of stuff, and what a company "really" goes thru on a day to day operational basis.

Now, if somehow we can permanently implant this on the fretboards.

 

[Big Poppa]

Lets not blow it out of proportion but I think its an extension of being so available....they want more......Forumites calls should be in the range of 5% at most.....

 

[Eggman]

I am doing my part to drag the average down!

 

[shakinbacon]

Lets not blow it out of proportion but I think its an extension of being so available....they want more......Forumites calls should be in the range of 5% at most.....

Does that imply only 5% of Musicman owners are on these forums? I would have thought it would be much higher.

 

[RobertB]

Does that imply only 5% of Musicman owners are on these forums? I would have thought it would be much higher.

Sounds about right to me, if not lower, though what do i know about it. But I don't think that the percentage of the overall customer base we represent necessarily maps directly to the percentage of customer service calls we constitute. I'd imagine that only some fraction of us ever have the need or occasion to contact them. I've done it only 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years, and in general, I'd suspect that the percentage of forumites who contact CS any more frequently than that is somewhere in the 25% to 30% range. My hunch is that we're actually less than 5% of the customer base, but since as BP said, there are multiple calls for each event/interaction, 5% is what he'd consider a "healthy" number. But again, that's just a guess, and not even an educated one.

 

[Big Poppa]

A wild and mostly wrong guess......I would not go to the trouble of this post if it wasnt getting almost stupid.....it is just human nature that you would need to get closer

 

[RobertB]

A wild and mostly wrong guess......I would not go to the trouble of this post if it wasnt getting almost stupid.....it is just human nature that you would need to get closer

BP, I wasn't doubting what you said about 40% of the CS calls coming from forumites. It would obviously be stupid to question second guess what you say about it; you're the guy supremely in the know about it, and you'd have no reason to "fudge" the numbers. When I said 25% to 30%, I was guessing about the number of forumites who contact CS on any recurring basis, which I figured was probably a different stat from the first one (40% of all inbound CS traffic). Not surprised I was way off, though, considering I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

The part I was really more so interested in and curious about was the question that someone else raised about whether your 5% mark implied that we're 5% of the overall customer base. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't care to confirm or deny that; I was just hazarding a (useless) guess. I would think we're less than 5%.

When you say it's human nature that people need to get closer, are you talking about the desire some feel to feel more personally connected to you and other EBMM folks? Me personally, I couldn't care less about that (no offense, and I'm sure you wouldn't care enough to take any), but I can certainly understand why some do feel that way ... kind of a more "sensational" form of the admiration we all feel for the makers of these great instruments. The whole "in crowd" aspect of group behavior ... be one of the "cool" people & all that. Human nature, like you said. Have you ever had a forumite go stalker on you?

 

[Colin]

Have you ever had a forumite go stalker on you?

he did have this penpal once...

 

[Aussie Mark]

This product is so good I'm surprised Customer Service do anything at work apart from surfing for New Caledonian porn and watch MLB gamecast. I mean, other than phoning them to say hi, what other reason is there ever to phone Customer Service for a product that never breaks?

 

[MrMusashi]

what is interesting is how the responses to this topic differs from the bass and guitar sides

MrM

 

[Ranger]

I've had to call EBMM CS twice; (both pre-forum for me & both times strictly biz)...

1st time, several years back I had major finish damage when my Sterling took a fall; I inquired about a factory refinish.
At that time, the CS agent said they'd do it, very fair cost, I could have any color I wanted, and if I just happened to want to pick the bass up when done, to let him know and he'd be glad to give me a look around. Unbelievable! and true.

2nd time more recent- the gigbag I bought from GC- I noticed a small tear in the seam after the 1st or 2nd time I used it.
CS- "No problem whatsoever, send it to us, we'll replace it with a new one."
Done and done.

In today's world of voice-mail and non-response etc. it's a good thing, what they do!

Rest assured I'll not call or write just to shoot the breeze, and other than those 2 non-issues, 99.999% of the time the only issues with MM basses is that

They keep making new goods that I want...
Bad.

 

[stingray96191]

resisting the urge to email customer service to find out about my Big Al.... I know they will contact me when they have information... Just hearing they are starting to ship is driving me insane.. I guess i'll focus on healing instead...

Erin

 

[Big Poppa]

THe calling us because of a tear in the gig bag is a perfect example...

GUitar Center has not bought a gig bag from us since 2002. THe bags they have are from when we shipped instruments in.

Im not trying to blow this out of proportion but the gig bag is at least 7 years old and if you have a problem the first line of defense is the dealer you bought it from. Thats why they make the margin in between you.

I think that the bass side is kind of defensive....Like I said we are here for you....just try to make sure you need us.

 

[Ranger]

BP, the gig bag thing was about 2 years ago.

They (GC) ordered it for me (from EBMM I assume) when I bought my (new) Sterling bass and gave me a good price because I bought the bass there, I assume, etc.

The tear was a mfg. (Levy's) issue... it was sewn poorly, happens.

I called GC first of course, who told me to call MM- according to them it was their (your?) responsibility.

Your CS agent (don't know who) didn't bat an eye; just asked me to UPS them the gigbag, and when rec'd, I was shipped a new one.
Just that simple.

In this instance, I the consumer, was due a new product- the one rec'd was defective. I had to pay for shipping-big deal- about 5 bucks! But again

Properly I suppose, GC should have acted as "agent" in returning/replacing the item. I went with what they told me....

Whatever, the actions of CS certainly speak (spoke?) well of the Company.

Sometimes, as in my line of work, we go the extra mile, well, because we're "swell" eh?

 

[Davecg2]

BP, the gig bag thing was about 2 years ago.

They (GC) ordered it for me (from EBMM I assume) when I bought my (new) Sterling bass and gave me a good price because I bought the bass there, I assume, etc.

The tear was a mfg. (Levy's) issue... it was sewn poorly, happens.

I called GC first of course, who told me to call MM- according to them it was their (your?) responsibility.

Your CS agent (don't know who) didn't bat an eye; just asked me to UPS them the gigbag, and when rec'd, I was shipped a new one.
Just that simple.

In this instance, I the consumer, was due a new product- the one rec'd was defective. I had to pay for shipping-big deal- about 5 bucks! But again

Properly I suppose, GC should have acted as "agent" in returning/replacing the item. I went with what they told me....

Whatever, the actions of CS certainly speak (spoke?) well of the Company.

Sometimes, as in my line of work, we go the extra mile, well, because we're "swell" eh?

I actually had a similar experience, I went to GC to get a new PG for my Sterling and they told me to call EB. Part of the problem might be lack of training on the subject at GC. The guy was helpful he was just under the impression i needed to go through EB. and I also had a great experience with EB customer service rep.

 

[oddjob]

I actually had a similar experience, I went to GC to get a new PG for my Sterling and they told me to call EB. Part of the problem might be lack of training on the subject at GC. The guy was helpful he was just under the impression i needed to go through EB. and I also had a great experience with EB customer service rep.

I too have had some similar issues with GC regarding other products (no GC bashing here trust me) - the salesman thought the "other" companies should handle it - I simply asked why and he went off on a diatribe about how they didn't make it so why was it their problem. I said that while they didn't make it they sold it and asked for the manager. He came out and everything was handled as it should have been. It happens - uninformed sales men or those that are too lazy to do their job. Just got to roll with it.

BTW, my few experiences with EBMM CS (all buisness related) were top notch.

 

[Big Poppa]

I think IM going to close the thread....Please just lets try to keep the forumite calls below 20 per day and 40 emails.....Like I keep saying we will be there for you....Do you think I would risk the smooth waters and touchy feely vibes if it wasnt a big problem these days?