KNOWLEDGEFEST
ager John Haynes and president Gabi Mashal. While Haynes went over information that may have been common knowledge – Facebook pages, website design, web hosting, etc. – he also discussed how the 18-store California franchise employs Call- Works to ensure customer service is top-notch. Haynes played a recorded call with a customer, and how certain words used by an employee helped to close the sale and bring the customer through Al & Ed Autosound’s doors. Mashal raised more than a few eyebrows when he revealed that Al & Ed’s has increased its labor costs up to $125 an hour – a dramatic shift for a company that popularized the “free install.” Mashal defended the move as necessary to enable the franchise to compete with Internet retailers. “Our brand is our labor,” he said. Haynes generally advised retailers to
School of Sound
stay away from e-commerce but engage potential customers through Facebook. He pointed out to Soundman Car Audio’s popular YouTube video series showing an iPad integration as an effective way to market a 12-volt specialist. JML Audio’s Landau said he spoke with Haynes and Mashal for nearly an hour after the seminar to better understand why they advocated matching Internet retailers’ prices. “The manufacturers aren’t protecting the retailers as much as they should, so the retailer should make it on labor,” he said. “One of the best things I heard was that 90 percent of consumers are researching the product on the Internet. For you to have a chance for them to come to your store, you need to be online. The biggest thing is you want them to come to your facility, to get some face time with them.”
Presenters: Steve Turrisi, JL Audio; Mark Eldridge, Mobile Soundstage Engineering
School of Sound provided installers a greater range of under- standing about what to use for their own evaluation music when demonstrating audio systems to customers or making adjustments to installations they’ve completed. With the help of sound quality expert Mark Eldridge, Steve Turrisi of
JL Audio played multiple sample tracks of test tones with escalating levels of distortion (both inaudible and, eventually, audible) and then played music across many genres and listening tastes. “We talk a lot about DC electricity in the beginning, including its impact on the car’s electrical system when amplifiers and batteries are added, and then introduce AC signals which bridges our path into the audio topics,” Turrisi said. The purpose was to demonstrate the idea of crest factor in music as well as to identify how distortion and music recorded ‘loud most of the time’ are two different things. The goal was to identify music that sounds bad because the system needs adjustments or if the music is just recorded poorly with a low crest factor.
Continued on pg. 38 ›› 34 Mobile Electronics September | October 2011
Sony KnowledgeFest Live! at the Glass Cactus Night Club gave show attendees a chance to mix and mingle afterhours while enjoying live entertainment, cocktails and finger foods in the state-of-the-art venue.
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