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How do you build customer loyalty when Amazon has better prices and Guitar Center has a bigger inventory? For small music retailers, that question keeps owners up at night.
Tara Noble, manager at Dubs Drum Basement (Dubs) in Dublin, California, has an answer: Stop trying to compete on price and inventory. Compete on relationships.
Over her six years at the drum-only shop, Tara’s watched kids who bought their first drum set in elementary school return during college breaks to upgrade their cymbals. She’s helped retired doctors finally buy the kit they’ve always dreamed about. She’s even casually hung out with Tower of Power’s legendary drummer Dave Garibaldi — though she didn’t recognize him at first.
That’s the culture Tara and owner Darren Phillips have built at Dubs — one where customers return year after year because they genuinely want to.
In this blog, you’ll learn how they turned a small drum shop into a community hub and what you can apply to your own music store to build long-term customer relationships.
Let’s get started.
1. Know Your Customers by Name
At major retailers, customers are dollar signs. You can visit the same Guitar Center for years and never hear your name. High turnover means you’re always explaining yourself to someone new, and there’s no incentive to treat you like you matter until you’ve spent enough to earn it.
At Dubs, it’s different from the moment you walk in. “People come in, they know my name, they know Darren’s name. Sometimes they think we’re married,” Tara laughs. That familiarity means when a customer mentions they’re hunting for a specific vintage snare, Tara remembers. When it shows up three weeks later, she calls them. No re-explaining. No starting over.
She can crack a joke, remember what someone’s working on, and pick up conversations from weeks ago. That comfort level turns buying gear into something more like consulting with someone who actually knows you.
“We still get people who say, ‘Oh, the first time I saw you guys was the Weckl Clinic seven years ago,’” Tara notes. “And those are the people that keep coming back.”
When customers feel known and valued, they stop shopping around. They become advocates.
Related Read: Retail Customer Experience: 11 Best Practices for Music Stores
2. Specialize and Own Your Niche
When Tara tells people she runs a drum shop, the response is always the same: “You can make money running just drums?”
The answer is absolutely — but it requires commitment.
“If Guitar Center would’ve just stuck to guitars, they would’ve been fine,” Tara observes. While big-box stores try to be everything to everyone, Dubs has planted their flag firmly in the drum world. They don’t sell trumpets, violins, or guitars, and they have zero temptation to expand beyond drums.
This specialization delivers something the generalists can’t: true expertise. When a beginner walks in confused about what they need, or when a touring professional seeks specific advice, they’re talking to people who live and breathe drums, not high school students filling retail shifts.
“We are 100% settled,” Tara says confidently. Even hand percussion feels like a completely different world to her. “To me, somebody could probably open a hand percussion store and be very successful at it. But no, we have no intention of ever expanding to anything past drums.”
Being the undisputed expert in your niche beats being mediocre at everything. Customers travel farther and pay more for genuine expertise.
3. Invest in Community Events
Before the pandemic, Dubs was hosting drum clinics almost monthly — sometimes three in six weeks. They’d bring in artists like Dave Weckl, Nate Smith, and Paul Bostaph, packing 40–45 people into their 1,700-square-foot space.
Did these clinics make money? Not directly.
“We didn’t make money off doing clinics,” Tara admits. “But it was seeing these kids being able to sit in front of the drummer from Slayer, I mean, like 10 feet from his bass drum.”
The clinics were an investment in long-term customer relationships. They brought the drumming community together, established Dubs as the heart of Bay Area percussion, and created memories that customers associated with the store forever.
Eventually, the strategy shifted. What started as chasing after artists became artists and companies reaching out to them. “It’s amazing to watch something turn like that, where it’s you chasing after everybody, and then us actually having to tell people, ‘No, you know, that doesn’t really fit us or the timing is bad,’” Tara says.
If you want to try this approach in your own store, here’s what worked for Dubs:
- Pick artists your community actually cares about: Dubs brought in everyone from jazz legends to metal icons because that reflected the Bay Area drumming scene. Don’t book someone just because they’re available. Book someone your customers will drive an hour to see.
- Keep it intimate: 40–45 people in a small space meant every attendee was just feet away from world-class drummers. You don’t need a concert venue — your store can work if you’re strategic about capacity.
- Build anticipation: Dubs sold tickets through email announcements, and clinics would sell out. Give people a reason to act fast. Limited spots make the event feel valuable.
- Stay consistent: Monthly events kept Dubs top of mind in the drumming community. One clinic is nice, but a regular series makes you the hub.
Community investment pays dividends, just not immediately. Plant seeds through events, workshops, and experiences that customers will remember years later.
4. Treat Every Customer Like They Matter
Not everyone who walks into your store is a professional musician or a wealthy hobbyist. Some are kids on tight budgets buying their first instrument. Some are parents trying to figure out whether their child will stick with lessons for more than three months.
At a big-box retailer, those customers get pointed toward whatever starter package is on the shelf. Employees can’t make executive decisions to customize a kit or mix and match used gear to fit a budget. Everything is sold as is.
As a small business owner, you have flexibility they don’t.
“When someone comes in and they want their first drum set, but they’re on a budget, we try and throw something together for you so that you can experience playing drums for the first time,” Tara explains. Dubs started buying used gear specifically to serve customers at different price points. With a POS system designed for music shops, you can quickly bundle items, adjust pricing, and track what works for different customer segments.
Those budget-conscious kids grow up. “We’ve seen kids who were in elementary school, now they’re in college, and they’re coming back during their summers and buying cymbals from us,” Tara notes.
The kid who can barely afford a starter kit today might be the touring musician who upgrades to a $4,000 custom setup tomorrow. Your future best customers might be making their first purchase right now.
Related Read: 7 Music Store Customer Management Ideas To Drive Sales
5. Adapt Without Losing Your Core Identity
The market is constantly changing, forcing all types of retailers to adapt to survive. Your customers likely feel the strains of changing markets too, and they’re willing to work with you when you show the same flexibility.
Big-box retailers have corporate mandates that move slowly. New policies require approval from regional managers, then district managers, then corporate. By the time they adapt, the market has already shifted. You don’t have that problem.
If you’re thinking about making changes to stay relevant, here’s what to consider:
- Add revenue streams that serve your existing customers: Help budget-conscious customers by offering used gear, trade-ins, or rentals, keeping them in your ecosystem instead of sending them to Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. When supply chain issues hit, Tara started buying used gear from customers. “When we couldn’t get gear in, we started buying gear from people,” she says.
- Use your online presence to drive foot traffic: Build a website or set up a Reverb shop, but think of it as a way to get shoppers in the door, not replace your storefront. “I like using the internet as the venue for people to see, ‘Oh, they have that kit,’ and then it gets them to call and then maybe they get to come in,” Tara explains.
- Stay true to your core identity: Make changes that serve your mission, not ones that fundamentally change who you are. If you’re known for guitar expertise, don’t suddenly start selling DJ equipment just because margins are better.
Adaptation doesn’t mean abandoning your principles. The best stores evolve their tactics while staying true to their core mission.
6. Create a Culture Worth Coming Back To
What customers feel when they walk through your door matters more than your product selection or your prices.
Big-box stores run on scripts and corporate-approved responses. Employees follow protocols because that’s what keeps them employed. There’s no room for actual personality when every interaction has to fit a template.
You have the freedom to build something different. Here’s how:
- Divide responsibilities based on strengths: Match tasks to the people who are naturally good at them. If you have someone who loves talking gear specs and someone else who’s better at operations, let them own those areas. The division only works when there’s mutual respect and trust.
- Treat your team well: Pay fairly, offer flexibility when you can, and show appreciation. “When you treat your employees well, you pay your employees well, you take care of them, they will reciprocate so much,” Tara says. That loyalty shows up in every customer interaction.
- Let personality shine through: Don’t make your staff follow scripts. Let them be themselves with customers. Keep things light. You’re in the entertainment industry, not performing heart transplants.
When your team feels valued and empowered, that energy extends to every customer interaction. Customers can sense when a team genuinely enjoys working together and believes in what they’re doing.
Build Long-Term Customer Relationships With Music Shop 360
Maintaining personal, long-term relationships across hundreds of customers sounds impossible. How do you remember that a customer mentioned hunting for a vintage Zildjian cymbal three weeks ago? Or that another customer’s child just started lessons?
Music Shop 360 is an all-in-one, cloud-based point of sale (POS) system built specifically for music retailers. It helps you track customer purchase histories, preferences, and interactions so that the personal touch scales as your business grows. Pull up what someone bought last time, see notes from previous conversations, or identify your most loyal customers in seconds. Technology can enhance relationships when it’s designed for how you actually work.
The platform connects your in-store and online sales. A customer checks your website for a guitar, then comes in the next day to try it — and you already know what they’re looking for.
With the right tools supporting you, maintaining those connections becomes part of your daily workflow instead of something you have to strain to remember.
Ready to see how Music Shop 360 can help you build long-term customer relationships? Schedule a demo today to discover how our platform can help you personalize your service and build lasting bonds with everyone who walks through your door.
