Apr 4, 2019
Congratulations! You made the sale. You're one more student closer to your monthly sales goal. Mission accomplished!
Right? Wrong!
The mission has just begun. The mission is to amaze your new customer. To go beyond the expectation. To make them feel valued, important and celebrated. This is the new battlefield of business.
This is where you and your competition will go head to head. We all teach the same notes, scales and chords. The experience you create beyond the lesson is where real growth happens. The studio that creates the most magical experience is the studio that will capture the minds and hearts of their community.
Pricing Music Lessons
The battlefield in the past has been pricing. The one with the cheapest prices becomes the leader. This can work when your product has little value in the eyes of the market. This can work when there’s nothing clearly special about your product other than price. For those who read or listen to Seth Godin-you’ve heard this idea that when lowering prices is your unique selling point that it’s a race to the bottom. The good news for music schools is we’re selling something that is of high value. Youth enrichment. Parents don’t care about music lessons. They care about the enrichment music will bring to their child's life. You are selling something parents value.
Coke is It
The battlefield can sometimes be quality but look at the Cola wars. We know who the king of Cola is. Coke! We know who Coke’s arch rival is. Pepsi. Coke clearly tastes better than Pepsi, right? Pepsi is notorious for always beating Coke in taste test. From the perspective of taste and quality Pepsi is the winner. But the Coca Cola brand better captures our hearts and minds and remains the leader in the soft drink industry. Something else is at play here.
Extreme Moments of Awesomeness
Let’s look at customer experience. Youth enrichment business, music, dance, gymnastics, martial arts, are perfectly placed to go big with customer experience. Music studios have these built in mind blowing, life changing peak experiences. The recital, the concert-these are extreme moments of awesomeness, of self-realization for a child. It’s at moments like this that kids realize or discover what they’re capable of. How much value do you think parents place on that?
A Little Magic
But what about everything in between these stand out moments? The weekly routine lessons. The mundane has the potential to be magical. You just have to create these moments for kids.
Hot Buttered Popcorn
Danny Thompson creates memorable moments by serving hot buttered popcorn every day in a vintage looking carnival popcorn maker. Take a moment and think back to when you were 8 years old. Imagine what impact the sights, the smells and the taste this popcorn would have on you. I was a guest on Danny’s podcast, Music Lessons Business Academy, and we talked about the old restaurant The Ground Round. No one went there for the food. The food was ok. Everyone went there because they served a bottomless basket of peanuts to every table. You were encouraged by the wait staff to throw the peanut shells on the floor. Kids were allowed to make a mess. It was the best.
Do you think Danny Thompson feels the $50 expense for the popcorn maker was worth it? It’s added to the culture and customer experience (not to mention customer retention) This is not about music lessons. Something else is at play here.
Status
Mike Grande creates magical moments by celebrating his students on social media. What’s so magical about it? The magic is in the feeling of pride he creates for these kids. The magic is in the feeling of pride and relief the kids parents feel when they see their child connecting with music and having a great sense of individuality. The magic is in the new status Mike provides for these kids. This kid on Instagram playing guitar is no longer just a regular kid. He or she is now a musician. Musicians are considered to be special people. Gifted people. All parents want their child to be special, unique and gifted.
Today's Guest
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Show Credits
Intro music: Dusted by Fojimoto
Transition music: Levi Simon