Phone manners matter

ONE OF THE many things we've lost as humans are phone manners. Our phone rings a lot in Second String Music and we make every effort to answer it.

Remember rotary phones? No? Well, you aren't RFO (really old) like me. They had an earpiece on one end and a speaker on the other. You held it up to your ear and mouth. Now we have these tiny little cell phones where the speaker and the ears are the same thing. You just generally talk into it. Plus you can place a call from anywhere, while doing anything, and being distracted by everything. I have enough trouble strumming with one hand and fretting with the other. Doing too much while talking is not a good thing.

Sheryl thinks people are used to texting and emails and have lost the art of talking on the phone and having real conversations. Knowing what you want to say and speaking in a manner that helps the person on the other end of the phone know are skills that need to be learned by all.

When you call a business, please keep the following things in mind.

1. It Might Be Busy: Usually when people call they have one or two things they need to check, and that's fine. But remember, we are a small retail business and have people in our store. Please don't try to engage us in long winded conversations on your thoughts of the expanding universe. I don't mind chit chatting about musical instruments, but if it's busy, we appreciate keeping the conversations short and about musical instruments. 

2. We Can't Hear You: Please hold the phone up to your mouth. Please do NOT use speakerphone unless you have no other choice. Please don't yell into the phone, or have another conversation with another person, or forget why you called in the first place. Believe me. It happens.

3. Do You Have ...? Sometimes we have it. Some things we don't. If we don't have left-handed pan flutes, please don't get mad and leave a nasty review. No, we don't carry karaoke equipment or needles for record players. We don't mind referring you to someone that might have what you need but this is a small town and sometimes the answer really is St. Louis, or the internet.

4. Bring It In: If you have a guitar or amplifier that doesn't work we repair those. Well, most of those. If it is the free amp that came in your guitar pack, we can replace the fuse but otherwise they aren't repairable. Old tube amplifiers, bad pots in your guitar, replace the output jack? YEP, we do that. We also restring and intonation for guitars of all kinds, including Floyd Rose tremolos. Please remember to wear a mask.

5. Your Name Is .... We love our customers. There are a lot of them. We know most of them. But if you call us, don't hesitate to identify yourself. I'm horrible at remembering names and screw them up all the time. It's nice to hear from you, especially when we know it's you!

Second String Music's phone number is (217) 223-8008. Give us a call or come by the store.