B&H The Professional's Source

Earlier this week I attended Affiliate Summit in NYC.  DealTaker has worked online with B&H Photo – Video – Pro Audio for a long time.  Rarely do we get to actually meet with one of our merchants offline, let alone get a personal tour of their store.  However, B&H is the consummate consumer experience and the gentleman that runs their online affiliate business invited us to tour their store and made sure that Alan and I understood, from top to bottom, exactly what B&H stood for and how they do business.  At B&H, the motto is “we don’t make sales, we make customers”.  That is apparent in all that they do.  They have one store (yes only one store for the whole company) at 9th Avenue and 34th St. in the heart of NYC.  When you walk in the door, the place is buzzing with thousands of customers (and it was a “slow day” when we were there) complete with conveyor belts to move items to the checkout, associates in every aisle to always answer questions, and every kind of imaginable product right there to be touched, tested and understood.  Check out this video they have produced that shows their store - B&H in NYC.

Meanwhile I am reading a book called Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz (save 40% through buy.com).  As I am reading it I realize time and time again that B&H is the embodiment of a concept that feeds word of mouth marketing.  They provide service people want to talk about.  They sell products people need that then tell others where to find it.  They have free candy on their counters.  They close for ten days at a time to celebrate holidays – and people respect them for that.  They make customers – not sales.  It is no wonder they are successful – not just in their one store in NYC; not just online in the US, but world-wide.

“Impressed” does not begin to describe how I feel about this valuable partner with whom we have the privilege to work; nor does “amazed”, “proud”, or “awe-inspired”.  I am glad that DealTaker.com gets the chance to help B&H make customers.