what would you like to see?

[WastedTalent]

Car audio shops font need salesman. They need enthusiasts that can share the excitement for car audio with its customers. The Installers should deal directly with their customer

Okay, I stopped reading after this comment. Where I live, we have chains and local shops. I went to a local shop to try to get my rear brake light (3rd tail light) moved, gap where the light WAS filled, painted, etc. Estimate? Around $1800. I wanted that because I kept breaking my damn tail light. Went through about 4 of them bitches and at $175 or something a pop, yeah. Too expensive (eventually... yeah, new car where wasn't an issue). But I was going to have him do something. I forget what now as it's been a long time but something. Scheduled appointment for like Friday when they opened. Showed up and the place they shared the building with said that he (the shop owner and guy who was going to do my install) had court and NO idea when he'd be there. He'd have the owner call me. I'm still waiting on that call btw. (And I look up the area's top shops, he's actually #2 I think)

I've gone to the chain stores. Mixed experiences. Depends who you talk to, who's there, etc. Had my system bumping, with no issues. Did me solid. Wasn't too expensive (imo) and great work. Went to my totaled car, at the body shop, and uninstalled EVERYTHING... Subs, box, amps, radio, speakers, wire, everything. Again, didn't charge me that much at all for that. Even stored it for me for a few weeks until I got my new car. Been there other times and beyond half assed, no face to face explanations, and beyond expensive. Difference? Who's there. Same owner, same supplies, just different people. I will NEVER go there again.

Went to different chain store just to ask how much to install a backup battery (batt in the rear). Every single thing provided. Lugs, Wire, Battery, everything. "$75". But yet the place, looked like a complete dumpster (obviously, did NOT do that).

So it's not so much shops just try to make that buck, you have to find...as alaskan said, enthusiasts. People that essentially will do the "i'll hook up your radio and you're out the door" to those who don't care (that's the VAST majority of their business) and then also the "I'll hook up your amps, I'll do this neat ass box, I'll have your mids purring while your tweets are screaming all in perfection" to the 1% people like us. I've found more people locally who do it for fun and will hook you up right, than there are shops. There's a few people on this forum (I won't mention names) who don't give a shit about profit. Like they ARE that salesman who "Hello Sir, how are you today? What brings you in? Oh, a new radio?" but yet are willing to offer to those on here "This is what distributer says, gimme few bucks extra".

It's providing details or equipment that "owners of the shops" don't want. I literally, JUST YESTERDAY, found a local DD dealer. Granted, don't need or want anything but I have DD and damn... that was sort've a hassle. So I go into a shop and Yep... Focal, Pioneer, Kenwood, JL, RF. That's about it. Any and everything else? "Sucks". Why not have those enthusiasts be like "Well, they are good. We just don't offer them." Don't see restaurants do that do ya? "Oh, you wanted Pepsi? That shit fucking sucks. Have some Coke. It used to have Cocaine in it, so much better. Gets you that REAL high."

But also, back on the owners and all, that would take too much money to train. And then there is almost no correct way to do a damn thing in audio. I remember when I joined this site, it was the general concensus that caps didn't do shit for your system. It's been proven since that as long as it's a quality cap, it does help actually. Tell me, what's the correct way to ground rear batteries? Do you do the shortest ground possible or do you run it back to the front? There's quite a few great builds with 1 or both of those. Or if you have an adjustable gain, on such as a 360.3, where do you put the gain? Would you put the gain higher on the 360 and lower on the amps, or vice versa? There is no "correct" way. 90% of the time, it's up to the person. I would say your ground should be as short as possible because that's your safety, you wouldn't want it to go through the entire car. Then I'd have the gain higher on the 360 and lower on the amps so the amps don't "work" as hard. But, that's not the "correct" way to do to it. You go into a shop and IF they know about it, you'll get about 30 different answers.

[alaskanzx5]

Exactly, shops might have the vast majority if people that just want something put in and don't have much care about how it looks or sounds as long as its better. They also have customers that will want a great install and for it to sound fantastic or just simply loud hard hitting bass. Sure they might come in saying I have $800 can you do it? You simply tell them, look this customer has $1000 into his equipment plus install. That wont even meet the expectation you have. What we can do is get you started though. For the $800 I can get you a great deck. A nice set of door speakers up front and an amp for them. Save up some money and come back, ill get you this 1500watt amp and that 15. If you want ill build a custom box for 250 but if you can build it yourself ill raw up a design for $20. By the time your box is done come back with another $400-500 and pick up the wiring and a battery. You'll be set and much happier.

[aculous]

What wastedtalent and alaskanzx5 said...

Although all too often as others have said the arrogance comes into the picture and they treat customers like sheep. It all comes back to customer service, and really if I know that DD or American Bass or Rockford put out a better product then I am going to try and be a dealer for those brands. If the margin is smaller I will STILL provide them but realize that I cannot ONLY sell those brands. Its a simple issue to me.

Its a top down approach, I am in buisness to make money, if I provide products and services consistently at a high level I will or can create demand. The more people I have come through my door the better.The more people I have that rely on my services (refferals from mechanic shops/hotrod shops/home audio places) the more staying power I have and the more legitimacy over purely internet based commerce buisness there will be. This approach starts with respecting your customers and trying to work just as hard for the kid with $50 that wants something for his first car or the guy putting down 170dB at a drag who wants you to install 50K$ worth of shit. And since time is money the kid with 50$ should take literally 5 minutes of your time and the dB drag comp setup is going to take a hell of a lot longer. So in the end you made a good fiscal decision.

All the people I deal with in a retail setting in my area are awful, and no I am not saying that they are bad at what they do all of the time (sometimes thats the case) but most times its that they will never stray out of a set mold. So they go with a formula and go for volume to make money and it just doesn't work most times for a small business. They blame customers for bad customer service and their own mistakes, the product offerings are ridiculous and most of all if you are not willing to drop 20K$ on a system they won't talk to you.

If I see that a shop a) runs two manufacturers and won't order from anyone else has a install bay that looks like a bestbuy c) the biggest power wire and terminals that they stock is 4 awg its probably not the shop for me. Someone may be able to get something done there thats decent quality but the fact of the matter is at that point my guess is that those guys aren't getting anyone to think outside the box because they themselves are not. Also they are losing money because the only thing they can offer is something that EVERYONE else offers or could do themselves. And in EVERY case the overpriced things are the ones that don't make sense, don't make your money on interconnects/cables/and accesory bs people aren't stupid and know you are ripping them off.

[KMS]

I'd like to see every shop at least own and use an O-Scope on EVERY single customer car getting an install and have their gains set accordingly before they hand the keys back to the customer to go home. If not an O-Scope, then a DD1 or at the very least the DMM method. Also, I'd like to see every shop carry at least one underground brand, either it be equipment, wire, or accessories.

[Phaeton]

sadly, most people now dont care what clipping is. they just want it done for them. I personally love it when people say "this is what happens" and then adds "this is why". My dream car audio shop is like a grocery store, but instead of food its like, amps and speakers. i can prance around and pick out what i like, have a conversation why these components sound better than these. Also somewhere to hang out and talk about car audio with people, show off what they are building. Hell, if i owned a shop i would be doing that. have stock on everything and if i dont have it, i can order it for you. cheap stuff to the uber quality stuff. Thats what i want in a shop.

[Retnuhbackwords]

Sucks to see all these people having bad experiences with local shops. I guess I'm lucky to have a decent shop to go to. The shop I go to does extremely good work. They can custom build boxes, tune your system, trouble shoot any problems, an they are true an genuine people. They're actual enthusiasts. If they don't carry a brand you want then they will order you that part an price match anyone else. So yeah, I'm lucky I suppose.

[zzSKITzz]

I have to say I've been on both ends of the spectrum with the shit shops and top of the line bad ass shop!! What's crazy to me is that the shit shop still runs the other in the ground even though the bad ass shop is literally one of the best in the country. The reason I believe is that every single person at the shop loves what they do and wants every customer to be as happy as their wallets will let them be. They don't believe in we can't do that or you can't afford that. They take the time to work with you and your budget and give you as much info as possible. I'm not gonna name drop but 1 of them is the top installer in the nation and another is personal friends with some the biggest names in the industry. It all boils down to this..without happy customers you have no business. Period.

[philrab]

Back when I worked in retail and the service industry, what kept MY (not the business', customers would come in and ask for me by name) customers coming back was my attitude. I'd work my butt off to make sure the job was done right. I'd honor my customers individual needs and requests within reason and my ability. I talked to them like people when I first met them, and old friends after they'd come around a few times. It was the little things in my mannerisms, the way I was very at ease with them or very formal depending on their personality and expectations, anticipating their needs so I was right there where and when they needed something, that made that impression.

Most of all, from what I was told by many customers, they all commented that I was just a genuine person. I wasn't putting on some phony act and trying to buddy up to them to screw them for a few more dollars, or being really aloof and cold, I genuinely wanted them to be happy and have a great experience. That carried through for several different jobs.

Pool guy - fun summer job, deal with LOTS of different types from middle class homeowners to very wealthy people and even local hotel chain managers.

Mobile Audio Retail - came in with a lot of knowledge about the equipment and how it all worked together since I did my own and friends installs.

Restaurant - wasn't for me, but it paid the bills. Couple of fun moments

Private Aviation fueler and ground handler - LOTS of direct contact with people. Handled the pilots, passengers, aircraft owners, whoever. Had to feel out each person in a group very quickly on the fly and determine if they were cool and I could be cool, or if they wanted me to be really formal and stow my personality.

Like I said before, show me a shop or even just some guy working out of his garage that does this kind of work cause he loves it, it's just genuinely his shit, and I'll give him my business. That guy is less likely to hard sell some crap he doesn't believe in, less likely to throw some janky shit together because he wouldn't do that in his builds, less likely to screw somebody for a buck because they tend to identify with their customer.

[SIDE SHOW]

^^ exactly....