GETTING MORE TALE #759: Talk, Talk
I was browsing local news stories, and one came up that had me choking on my coffee a little bit.
It was an interview with the owner of the old Record Store, who had opened up a new location. In the interests of keeping everyone anonymous, I’ll paraphrase instead of quoting the portion that had me shocked and annoyed.
“We want to appeal to the hardcore music fan, the kind that just want to come in and talk about and listen to music. Hopefully one day we can have chairs and make it a hangout atmosphere.”
Sounds good. Sounds a bit like Sonic Boom in Toronto. Nothing wrong with that. Except it contradicts the very first lesson he taught me at the Record Store! In Getting More Tale #575, I described a scenario where he set me up, in order to teach me something valuable about customer service.
He knowingly asked me to go help an annoying, very talky lady. After a chat that lasted longer than I care to remember, he said to me “That’s your first lesson. Don’t get into conversations with customers.”
I realise that times change, and with them so do business strategies. I’m sure somebody will say, “Well that was different.” I can’t help but think of all the times I got scolded or received dirty looks for talking “too much” about music with customers. The impression I got was they would have preferred an impersonal assembly line. Serve the customer, plug the CD wipes for $5.99, get the sale, and move on to the next one. Don’t encourage extended conversation. The handful of customers I created relationships with ended up being long-termers, however. My dad tells me I have the gift of gab like my grandfather. My regulars enjoyed our chats, though the bosses didn’t.
Now he’s talking about making conversation a main feature of the store. Does that mean he was wrong and I was right all along?
mikeladano.com 
Latter day Yes triumph rules. Talk, talk, listening.
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Will have to give it a shot.
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One of the best sounding discs in my collection. Absolutely stellar production. They recorded completely onto computers, in 1994! I think one of the first albums to do so. It’s their lineup with Trevor Rabin, so it’s “Owner of a Lonely Heart” lineup. But this album is more on the prog side, just great tunes. I like all the stuff they did with Rabin though. I also love me some noodlely ’70s progressive nut house Yes with Bill Brufford.
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Yes, he was WRONG!!! You were RIGHT!! I loved going in to a record store and the employees would actually talk with you about music. It made the experience more personal and I would always go back.
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I always felt like when bosses were around, I shouldn’t talk much. They really glared at me.
Ah well.
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It’s gloat time! Go into the new store and start talking to the employees!
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Holy shit that’s brilliant.
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It certainly means that you were right and he was wrong! Take a bow!
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Oh aye, I think the whole point of buying music in a record store, as opposed to online or whatever, is the experience of talking about the album.l
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I’m sure they wanted me to make it brief!
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You were right except that there is a time and a place for everything. If I were a customer standing in a long line waiting to make my purchase so I can get to another obligation, I wouldn’t be impressed if the person behind the till was chatting away to a customer. Not that I would think you would have done that. Still, if I know that the record shop has someone who can converse about music because they know what they’re talking about, then I would definitely return to that store.
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I don’t think they trusted me. But look, I have customers who were so good to me, like Aaron — everybody knows Aaron. This — all this community stuff — wouldn’t have happened if Aaron and I didn’t meet at the Record Store!
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History would have been a lot different.
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