Midlandaudiox
Trade: Midland Audio X-Change
It’s fair to say that I do “thankfully” have a number of loyal customers
I most certainly do acknowledge this in various ways
For instance I do let them take expensive items to try without paying for them and also for prolonged periods so they can evaluate them fairly and without pressure
Also I take staged payments “credit” over months not weeks on larger amounts so to ease the enormity of outlay
I also give favourable part exchange and make the process more elegant for loyal customers
These are things I’ve adapted over the 40 plus years in the industry
Yes we are a dying breed and becoming a rarity in this small hobby of “audiophillia”
But my children aren’t going to carry on my business when I retire
And like many other specialist we will all inevitably disappear
So use us while you still can
Rare these days, the vast majority of busnesses don't believe in loyalty these days. They're certainly not prepared to acknowledge customer loyalty at least (though obviously they have an expectation that customers do remain loyal). They may have people whose job it is to try and keep customers loyal but it's only ever on a high level strategy point of view. Gone are the days where walking in to your local butcher that you may have used exclusively for 5 years or more will get you any benefit for your loyalty. Businesses are under too much bottom line pressure just to survive (or making so much profit they just don't care about customers on an individual basis).
Specialist* audiophile dealers are in an ever increasinly vanishing group of businesses that even understand the concept of individual customer loyalty.
*By which I am excluding all the major "hifi" retailers, such as RS etc.