This week’s Industry Voice is Sarah Lockett, Sales Manager at C.Bechstein in Manchester. Matt spoke with Sarah about creating a positive and memorable experience for customers, community interactions, in-store practice facilities and her career so far.
It’s a year since the opening of C. Bechstein Centre Manchester. How has it been?
It has been a wonderful and busy year! I am very proud to say that we hit the ground running and have supplied many pianists with some beautiful pianos this year. The feedback we have received from our clients has also been overwhelmingly positive and extremely encouraging, and our practice studios have been an absolute hit with locals and travelling musicians alike. We are just getting busier and busier. I can’t wait to see what this year brings for us!
The practice studios are a key feature of your premises, how important are they to the business?
We have six purpose built practice studios that contain C. Bechstein Academy pianos, which are an every day part of the business. Since opening we have gained many frequent users either for private practice or teaching, and we even have the wonderful Jean-Efflam Bavouzet frequent our rooms when he is working in Manchester!
There is currently nowhere in Manchester, available to the public, that has such beautifully designed, purpose-built, sound insulated rooms with concert standard pianos for practice. Especially at such an affordable price!
We have a number of private teachers who use the studios as their city centre base whom have all commented on the importance of having a professional and welcoming environment to teach from. They know their clients will be greeted and looked after by the staff here, that there is somewhere comfortable to wait, and a fantastic piano to accompany them. We have created a wonderful community here of regular clients and we also host Trinity College London music exams.
In what other ways do you connect with the local music community?
We host our own recital series where we provide young pianists/musicians with a platform to showcase their profession of which they have spent many years studying. We have worked with students from the RNCM, Chetham’s School of Music, St Bede’s College and even The Royal Academy of Music.
The recital space is also available for hire for private events or recitals. We have hosted many student recitals for a number of local music teachers all of whom have commented on what a fantastic opportunity it is for their students to perform on a world-class C. Bechstein Concert grand piano in a beautiful venue, who would never have had the chance before.
We have also supplied a number of the local educational institutions with pianos and we offer discount on the grand piano practice studios to students.
What do you feel are the key elements which make visiting your showroom a memorable experience?
The expansive selection of beautiful acoustic pianos to chose from in a unique and elegantly designed showroom is certainly part of the experience! We have the full range of C. Bechstein, W. Hoffmann and Zimmermann pianos to compare and choose from.
It is also our exceptional customer service, which we take a lot of pride in, that exceeds our clients expectations and which will be with them for years to come! We offer a welcoming and friendly environment where our clients are given room to breathe with no over bearing sales person following their every move. Our small team of four, collectively, has over 80 years experience between them and whom all are passionate about the instrument, which shows! We are here for the entire journey; from the moment our clients enter the showroom and for the after care of their pianos too. You should read our Google reviews!
Your career so far has been very interesting. What attracted you to working at Bechstein?
I have been in the piano industry since 2014 and have loved every moment of it. It is such a niche, and wonderful industry to be in! I have worked closely with a number of different piano brands now and C. Bechstein are arguably the best pianos out there. Of course this is completely subjective, and whilst I have a lot of respect for other manufacturers, C. Bechstein are certainly my favourite.
Coming to work at C. Bechstein Centre Manchester was a natural progression in my career. To be a part of a global world class piano brand and to start from a complete new showroom has been an extremely educational and fantastic experience for which I am grateful to be apart of.
Bechstein makes a huge range of pianos under several marques, do you have a favourite model? What is it that draws you to this piano in particular?
There is such a huge range, both for uprights and grand pianos! When it comes to the hand made C. Bechstein series, (let’s face it, my favourite is definitely going to be in there!) each piano, regardless if it is the same model, is a complete individual. We have an absolutely beautiful example of the new C. Bechstein model C8 in our showroom which has such a wonderful and powerful tone and a big improvement from the Concert 8. I also recently sold an Academy A175 to the Isle of Man, and that piano was just beautiful in every way! It had such a warm and clean sound with a fantastic responsive touch.
