At Safe Haven Music, I leveraged my industry expertise and strategic thinking to enhance brand positioning and build a community both in store and online resulting in increased customer retention and immense brand access to highly desirable builders. I was very pro active in contacting potential vendors I wanted to work with, and staying very active on social media and being ahead of the curve allowed me to secure brands that competitors weren’t even aware of that quickly became profitable brands and great relationships. This greatly increased store exposure due to the use of social media collaboration which also led to more brands wanting to work with us.
I was the store manager at our showroom at 237 Long Beach Road, Island Park, NY and ran the showroom myself as well as facilitated all the customer repairs, ran the social media in the beginning myself, and even did quality control once a week at our 8,000sq ft. warehouse in Freeport. I opened and closed the store myself and we started with just three people myself included which eventually turned into a 8-9 person operation.
We eventually shifted into the more boutique high end market rather then volume and and began reaching out to the builders that I wanted to work with and soon turned into a broad selection of builders that fit many niches.
I was really ‘spearheading’ this operation and it was a passion project that I wanted to see succeed for years. We had a great dynamic and I had actually known the owner, Brendan for around 10 years before we worked together. I became much more proficient in repair work while at Safe Haven Music as well. Brendan gave me all the tools I needed for the job and was able to assist in complicated situations as well. I became highly proficient with any type of setup on any type of guitar, I got really good at fretwork, and also got really good at wiring and even some structural repair work.
Guitar Center gave me a ton of experience to say the least, I learned the right and wrong ways of doing business as I find there are many things corporate business can get right and a lot that they really get wrong. I worked with highly intelligent people involved in the industry during my tenure there and ultimately allowed me to obtain the position I was in at Safe Haven Music.
• Facilitated repairs for customers
• Responsible for entering RO’s for store owned gear and ordered parts and fixed guitars.
• Assisted sales people with setting up guitars that they were selling and the customer interested in purchasing the gear ensuring the customer left with a quality setup on the guitar.
• While in the repair technician position at Guitar Center I did end up working many other roles still such as ringing up customers and advising people on gear as well as facilitating rentals occasionally and manning the floor for periods of time.
List of brands I acquired during my time at Safe Haven Music: