If you’ve called NAMM in the past 12 years, there’s a good chance you’ve spoken to Melanie Ripley. As associate director of NAMM’s Member Services, and a founder of the organization’s Contact Center, Ripley has built relationships with people in all parts of the industry and put down roots that today would be impossible to unearth.
“I’m fascinated by this industry,” she said. “It goes really beyond the professional part of dealing with the programs. You really become invested in the people who make up the industry themselves. That would be tough to leave.
“I’m a lifer now,” Ripley continued with a laugh, “I never would’ve thought it.”
When Ripley first came to NAMM, she interviewed with Janet Godin of Godin Guitars, and Judy Dodds. “The really nice part was that they were both value-based professional females. That was kind of nice.” Ripley herself had come from the world of entertainment public relations, where she worked with the NBA Players Association and BMG Music, and even handled the fan mail for Star Trek. And while she enjoyed it, she was hoping for a more altruistic purpose.
“I wanted to feel like I was making some sort of difference, and that led me to an open position here at NAMM in the membership department,” she recalled. “NAMM was really small back then. We were in our small, small building down the street. We had about 20 employees and 5,600 members. Gosh, we’ve tripled that today.”
Ripley certainly achieved that higher purpose with the Contact Center, which she helped to form four years ago. “We wanted to make sure [members] had one point of contact and one call resolution, and that we had consistent messaging,” Ripley said about the origins of the Center, which later begat the NAMM Idea Center. “We tried to take the Contact Center principles we were using in the office and extend them out to the show. That allowed us to have people look at the association as everything we do and not just the trade show and the show floor. Hopefully, we’re able to raise their value of the services we offer.”
A Fresh Perspective
Targeting communications isn’t easy to do at an organization like NAMM. With approximately 9,000 members, each day is sure to bring something different. Having grown up in places like Africa and India, Ripley has a lot of experience to draw on when it comes to understanding different walks of life.
“My dad always had businesspeople over for dinner and they were from all over the world,” said Ripley, who enjoys bringing that international perspective to her job today. “To be able to come into work every day and talk to 10 different countries in one day and be able to communicate with them is just wonderful. I probably love that part of my job the most,” she continued. “You get to hear all their different experiences and how music is touching each of their lives.”
Learning to listen is a perk that’s come with the job, according to Ripley. In fact, one of the biggest lessons she’s learned over the years is that sometimes it’s best to not say anything at all.
“A lot of times I find with our members that they don’t want action from us. They really just want to be heard. So what I really try to do is just listen to them, analyze each contact with them…It’s amazing how much you can diffuse a frustrated caller by just staying quiet until they get everything off their chest,” said Ripley
“I’ve learned to not always feel like I have to offer solutions,” she continued. “Early on in my career I probably would’ve had my sheet in front of me and said, ‘Oh you’re having a hard time bringing customers in the door. Let me send you a sheet of paper. You go ahead and figure out what you need.’ After all the years I think I’ve learned to…not just blankly send them a sheet of paper with every program we have but work with them a little bit more and tailor the program.”
It also helps that Ripley is connected to the music industry in her personal life. “My parents, they just made everyone in my family—my sisters and brothers—pick an instrument to play,” said Ripley, who began playing the piano at age 6 and today plays music with her two sons. “I think I spent the first years crying and complaining about it, as my kids do with me now. [Laughs] It’s funny because now I really rely on it a lot, especially on the weekends or at nighttime when I just need to relax. I’ll go to my piano, play for an hour or so, and be back in that great frame of mind.”
That shared passion is something that helps Ripley relate to her members, and also helps add a real-world perspective to her job.
“I feel really proud when I’m out there, outside of work, and I see music messaging and I know we had a play in that as an industry. That’s pretty satisfying,” she said. “Or when I go to my son’s band recitals and they’re handing out NAMM brochures, just by chance, and it talks about the value of playing musical instruments. That’s really rewarding.”
Looking toward the future, Ripley hopes to affect the lives of NAMM members around the world just as profoundly as they have hers. “I’ve been here so long and talked to thousands of members. I hope I’ve made an impact on some of them. The good stories, the bad stories, the challenging members… They all make an impact on me, honestly.”
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