Planet Waves, who make music accessories, have the customer service formula down to a science

Planet Waves tuner

The standards on customer service have been raised by pioneering retailers like Nordstrums who will take anything back at any store no matter what. Apparently they found that less than 3% of returns weren’t valid so why hassle 97% of your customers for a few bad apples.

Customer service means customers for life and higher revenue per customer, hence more profit. Planet Waves, who make music accessories, have that formula down to a science.

When I bought my first Planet Waves guitar cable, Dave Skinner the salesman said “The are guaranteed for life. Just bring it back and we’ll replace it.”

True to his word, one of the guys broke that cable and I took it back and got a new one, no questions asked.

Right then and there I decided that if Planet Waves made it, that’s the one I wanted. They make d’Addario strings, straps and all kinds of cool stuff that I buy hands down over any other product.

Later I bought a Planet Waves tuner on vacation in the States. Some little plastic part broke right away. I couldn’t go back to the States and I wasn’t going to Sobers, the big dealer in Charlottetown, since the owner stiffed me on money he owed me.

That would be bad customer service like losing a customer for life. I went to National Music and guess what – they gave me a new one in a box no questions asked. They thought I bought it from Sobers but it didn’t matter. Planet Waves says make the customer happy and all their dealers know it.

If you have customer service problems, they are costing you big time in return business. Return business is where the profit in business lies. It costs more than 10 times to get a new customer as it does it retain an old one with good customer service.