What are you expecting from your Naim retailer?

1) Apart from Naim: DNM (Reson), Linn, Resolution Audio, Michell, Royd, Densen, Arcam, Denon, Audionote, Exposure, Creek, Living Voice, Rega, some headphones, good stands and LP cartridges.

2) Free delivery, repair service, 2nd hand equipment for beginners, news letter, Christmas cards can be very nice (seriously, my dealer send them!).

3) Not particularly - but open evening demos at the shop are great for customers and business.

4) Like a living room, a solid back wall with only a single pair of speakers in the room. Comfy sofa, nice decor, natural lighting, sound proofed from other demo rooms/external noises (probably an important consideration that some dealers forget until the last minute). *No* sound optimisation trinkets please.

5) No switch boxes! Single speaker demo room. I don't mind a 15 minute gap between listening to loudspeakers (but be prepared to rotate them 2-3 times).

6) Best to have a choice to have them re-capped. It may take 1 week, but customers should be made aware and can plan ahead.

7) There should always be that choice. I may have to resort to doing a home demo, as I use discontinued Kan II speakers. There have been people on this forum who wouldn't buy from a dealer because they don't do home demos.

8) Arrange a demo for regular opening hours.

9) I only arrange a demo/visit a dealer when I'm ready to buy. However, when my dealer sold CDs I did tend to be there once a fortnight (worth bearing in mind).

10) All suggestions are valuable (particularly from someone so experienced) - however I might not necessarily follow them.

11) Type and range of components is my number 1 consideration. Then there's reputation. Ability to deliver and do home demos. Good demo facilities. Coffee is bottom of my list (I don't drink the stuff!).

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

last but not least, i want my dealer to be as open minded as business constraints permit. i resent being "pressure sold"

enjoy...

ken

enjoy...

ken

A dealer should be trustable, keep doing what he is promising to do, give the best advice for buying and upgrade, set the system at his customer house and re set if the customer moves to another appartment, for example.

1. you should carry the brand you think gives Naim a good chalange (and not the one that gives you more profit...)
Also keep cheap equipment that can alow your customers buy Naim in steps, to many it is difficult to buy all Naim in one step.
2. You should be ready to answer questions by phone, and repair equipment as quickly as possible (and be able to give something that enables the customer to listen to music at home until you repair the equipment).
3. yes especially those who own more expensive systems than mine.
4. I would like a listening room that looks and "behaves" like a normal living room.
5. I'm not in a hurry when auditioning - so only a pair of speakers in the demmo room is required
6. Used equipment as is - if it plays good.
7. The dealer MUST install the equipment at my home, I always thought that Naim insists on this !
8. I prefer that my dealer will be alone with me - but I don't care about the hours.
9. only when there is something new to listen too.
10. was the most important and I think should be... now the forum here is the most trustable adviser for me..
11. The one that I like the most.

Hope it helps and I want a pay for my afford here, a nap 500 will be enough, thank you.

Arye

What I look for in a Dealer is:
1. Ability to compare across brands within my budget. So selection is important.
2. Non-judgemental. I don't like a Dealer to tell me how something does or should sound or did sound. I like a Dealer to set it up, make it play and shut up.
3. Unbiased. I respect Dealers who share my values: an interest in best sound. I don't respect Dealers who I perceive to be biased towards certain brands.
4. Value for money. As far as I understand it you are not allowed by Naim to set your own prices. This sort of thing pisses me off. I would like you to be able to get me better deals than anyone else.
5. Customer follow up. Maybe not Christmas cards, but you could use email to poll customers to see how they are getting on and remind them to contact you if they need anything. Also, email news or new product info.
6. Keep asking customers how you can meet their needs better.

BAM

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I like a Dealer to set it up, make it play and shut up

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One of the greatest sentences I'd heared here !

Arye

1) most of the brand you list are british (any reason?...) some are not available in Canada and unfortunately some brand are incompatible, that the way it is here in Canada.

Arye

7) they do, just asking if it is important for you

Bam

2) No problem with that, that's already what we do with experienced customers
3) Sorry I'm biased towards certain brands: Naim is among the best, Krapnics Audio is crap (hoppe it does not exist...)
4) you are right, it is to maintain a fair competition between dealers, but there are no limitations regarding the service...

Thanks for your answers, it is helpfull even if you will never visit my store.

Arie, just what kind of 'service' are you looking for?

I hope that dealers everywhere will take the time to learn the lessons from this thread. I've been fortunate to have excellent service, but then I wouldn't go there if I didn't.

Things important to me:

Adequate time for demo

No attempt to influence me, but at the same time be prepared to answer questions when asked

Have plenty of s/h items available, it gets newbies on to the ladder, and enables existing customers to fund their upgrades. Best if you have them already serviced recapped etc.

Loan of equipment while own is away being serviced etc.

Main thing is Trust - you may be able to 'con' people once, but if you are genuine you will get a lifetime of repeat business from them and their friends. Go for the long game.

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Main thing is Trust - you may be able to 'con' people once, but if you are genuine you will get a lifetime of repeat business from them and their friends. Go for the long game.

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This is very important, and the only way you'll maintain a long term business.

The way you treat people is the thing that can make the most difference to your customers perceptions. Often doing something outside of your core business can really add the WOW factor (see the Robert Ritchie thread for some hints on this).

My personal gripe is that often there seem to be certain 'star' staff within a shop, who are knowledgable, informed and sought after by customers. Raising the level of all staff to this level of skill and expertise should be a priority. If a new customer visits your shop at a busy time, but receives poor, ill-informed advice they may never visit again. You then lose a potential lifetime of business!

Whilst everyone makes mistakes, I have to think twice if the staff I meet are not even familiar with their own product range - they should know it intimately. Most keen staff will do this from personal interest anyway. If I'm better informed than the shop staff I need to consider very carefully whether to accept advice from them.

Take a look at some of the stories at www.thewowawards.com for superb examples of how it should be done. Note that in many examples the initial story relates to a problem, it is how it is dealt with that makes all the difference.

Andy.

P.S. I think loan equipment, whilst equipment is being upgraded / repaired is a superb idea. The loss of music to a Naim owner is a huge one

Andrew L. Weekes
alweekes@audiophile.com

I hope not as that would be illegal (at least in the UK).

Personally I am happy to pay the full price (as long as I get the highest levels of service, support and experience. In my expereience dealers who discount heavily end up compromising the quality of thier service one way or another(particularly once your cheque has cleared). If you've beaten a dealer down to the last penny can you really expect him to come out to your house 2 months later if your system isn't quite firing on all cylinders?

Matthew

I didn't think of it, but I want that naim dealer will be a beautiful woman, a very rich one and my wife (but then I'll be the one who'll tell her when, where and whom she may meet ...).

Arye

The exceptions to this rule are Grahams, Audio Counsel, Thomas Heinitz and Robert Ritchie who offer exemplary standards of service and can be confidently recommended.

I'm very encouraged by your post, as I live in the Montreal area. Could you email me the name and address of your shop, and your web address if you have one?

Some quick thoughts on a few of your questions:

4. Listening room - comfortable seating, lighting on the dim side and, as already mentioned, no extra bass from the home-theatre demo in the next room.

5. Speaker demonstration - a single pair at a time. Wasn't this at one time a condition of selling Naim/Linn gear?

6. Used equipment: my personal preference is updated with a warranty, but why not just post both an as-is price and a reconditioned-with-warranty price and give the customer the choice? You also mentioned in another post that dealers can be a source of information on clients who have equipment to sell. You might consider offering to show such equipment on consignment.If your budget will accomodate a web site,it should include a regularly updated list of used equipment for sale.

7, 8, 10, 11. What's most important to me on all these issues is a flexible policy on home auditions. We all know that equipment can sound very different in our homes than at a show or in a demonstration room. Where there is a choice of dealers this would be a decisive factor for me.

Finally, if you have any influence with Pierre Bourque, can you get him to back off on one-island-one-city? The inevitable increases in municipal taxes that will occur when Montreal swallows the suburbs next year will further delay my already very long term plans for buying more Naim equipment!

Cheers,

John Schmidt
"90% of everything is crud" - Theodore Sturgeon

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No other speakers in the same room tells of tweaks to vamp things etc.

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[This message was edited by Steven Toy on TUESDAY 06 March 2001 at 02:57.]

enjoy...

ken

At the top of my list would be that when things go wrong a dealer pulls out all the stops to help. Say I bought a piece of kit that kept going wrong, then make me a very fair offer to replace it with a new piece of kit; or if I bought a piece of kit and three months later decided I had made a mistake then again try and help me to rectify the mistake without just offering me a standard trade-in price.

A second point is that I feel you cannot be all things to all customers - decide what you feel passionately about and concentrate on that - have the courage to be different and distinctive. As an example I think you have to decide whether you offer discounts or provide top service - its difficult to do both!

Very best of luck.

Nic P

Infidelity have been my dealer for around six years now - from a wee Planar 3/Arcam combo up to a nice big, proper Naim one.

I've visited a few others in and around London in my time, but they have to rate as the best:

1. Their advice is always good (they won't always try to sell you the most expensive thing).

2.They know how to set the gear up, especially turntables (v good with my LP12).

3. They are good at leaving you alone to listen in dems (which I appreciate).

4.They are Naim afficionados and are all very experienced (unlike certain other dealers who might as well work in Dixons).

5. They will do you very good p/x deals, have a pretty extensive second hand list, and (yes) do good coffee.

When I moved house they transported me and my SBLs twenty miles from one to the other and set them up. Then they came back two weeks later to see how the system was sounding. That's what I call service.

Tim J

PS Simon - I take it the cheque is in the post.

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...Then they came back two weeks later to see how the system was sounding. That's what I call service.

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i.e. not as "bull-to-cow", but REAL service...

enjoy...

ken

An enthusiatic knowledge of music and the ability to surprise me with great records that I've never heard of.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;