I'm preparing to open up what will be the greatest bike shop in the world – and as part of my business plan i'm trying to collect rider's opinions of what would make such a shop.

Would be grateful if you could spend a couple of minutes filling a very quick survey in.

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Grassy Ass

Majorupset, go for it, you can never have too many bike shops, cyclings on the up & up. Sign up for the Bikebiz forum if you can; you'll get lots of information on the day to day politics of the industry from there. A lot of the contributors are bike shop staff and owners. Good luck to you

One that has everything you need and crucially is cheaper than everywhere else!!

Do a search, we get one of these threads every two weeks or so.

I prepared this for another thread, it is a bit long but I hope it helps anyway!

Be friendly to all. There are too many bikes shops that are very “cliquey”, they are great when you know them but can be quite intimidating to the casual biker. You can’t always get to the customer straight away but a friendly “hiya, I’ll be with you shortly” is always nice and stops me walking out of the door because I feel like I’ve been ignored.

Stock magazines (STW, MBUK, MBR, etc.). It gives me an excuse to pop into your shop every month and I might buy something else whilst I’m there.

Stock clothing and shoes. I’m a strange size so can’t buy online, I need to try these things on before I buy.

We know you can’t hold a stock of everything but having the essentials that I need at 9am Saturday morning is useful. I’m thinking things like chain, brake pads, tyres, tubes, etc. are all good.

Have a few mechs and shifters at Deore and XT level. This will cover most angles when someone pops in and needs it NOW.

Open early so I can drop stuff off and late so I can pop in after work. I walk past my favourite LBS most nights at about 7pm, if it was open at least 1 night I would spend my money rather than going to Halfords. Open Sunday’s as well, even if it is just for a couple of hours in the morning. I know this is a much debated point but I think most people are more likely to be around at 7pm than at 2pm during the week.

Be knowledgeable about both the bikes and the accessories you have.

If you don’t have something but can get it be realistic on timescales. Again, In understand you can’t stock everything but if you can get it in within a couple of days I’ll be happy enough.

Get a great mechanic. The kind of guy who can and will happily fix pretty much anything from hub gears to wheels. I don’t care if he can’t talk to people or if he lives in a cupboard under the stairs, so long as he can fix the random problems that come through the door.

I don’t want a coffee, a beer or a piece of cake, there are coffee shops for this and I understand that is not what you are, but a few ancient mags to flick through while I wait to be served are nice.

Shop rides are a good idea, they build an “attachment” to the shop. And having a post-club ride beer is also nice!

Post on STW/Bike Radar/Bike Magic. Seriously, a few “subtle” posts mentioning your shop is no bad thing surely.

Remember that people like those on STW won’t pay your bills, the commuters and the guy who thinks £400 is a huge amount of money for a bike will though. Make sure they are well catered for and don’t feel intimidated when they walk in. Running Cyclescheme will help this and will get you some extra business.

Remember you are a business and have to make profit. Doing free repairs and giving discounts to all and sundry will not pay the bills, but doing the odd one very occasionally can help bring repeat business

Offer something different to the other LBS down the road, give people a reason to come to yours not there’s. That can be anything from the quality of the service to the variety of brands that you hold. It may just be that you are more honest in your advice.

Local knowledge is really nice. I like it when my LBS say “have you ridden the trail at …?”. I also like it when I go in looking for tyres that they know the local conditions and know roughly what works and what doesn’t.

Don’t just put the “bling” in the windows, people will feel that you are not the shop to go to for more “normal” kit. Sure, have some £3k loveliness in the window, but also have some nice £400 and £700 jobs.

* Price match any and all on-line suppliers
* Have everything in stock, all of the time. For clothing, have all sizes and all colours of each garment. Make sure there are a few of each in case someone else comes into the shop before me.
* let me try on all garments, shoes and helmets and then go to order them somewhere else.
* Provide free demo bikes – for a weekend. Don't charge for cleaning them. The demo fleet should include every size of every model.
* Let me in to use the workshop and/or borrow all the expensive tools I can't afford to buy myself.
* When I do need something fixed by a mechanic, it should only cost me a packet of biscuits and I should get it done while I wait.
* Opening hours should be 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week.
* The staff should all be keen riders and should be skilled and knowledgeable about all of the types of bike in the shop.
* Free coffee while I mooch around the shop talking to the staff.
* Have a comfy seating/play area for he partner and kiddies so I don't get distracted by them.
* When you have a sale, make sure you have my size and preference.

lunge has it pretty much covered, but that point about stw won't pay the bills is a pretty astute one. I guess the problem is that it can be hard to be a bike shop both for the self-building, XT-buying, keenos (that's us) and the 'my tyre's borked, can you fix it for' crowd. If you get it right, you are the best bike shop in the world ever (TM)

Filled in your survey majorupset. If your shop is in Bristol, and your staff is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and non patronising, then you have your first customer…

i thought you were serious at first, druid 😆

Filled in the survey – I left some feedback in the bottom box and hope it's not too patronising.

Lunge has covered pretty much all of it off though. If you want to stay in business, remember that CRC and Wiggle can't offer a friendly face and advice and that your bread and butter will be from people who don't know much about bikes.

non-elitist staff would be my request. there is nothing worse than a stuck up staff member who thinks its their job to belittle those who are paying their wages!
I like to be able to walk around a shop without feeling like I'm being watched (unless I am dressed like a chav then thats exactly how I should feel).

Decent, memorable logo and jerseys & tees with it on. I can't actually think of any UK bike shops that have one. 18 Bikes is pretty good i guess.

Done. Good luck with your venture mate. If you can price match the online retailers you will get my custom, simple as. Coffee, cake and gratification from pretty looking floozies are for other estabishments 😀

Location and parking are key IMO- these are the two most important things.

If you have to pay to park or park elsewhere and walk you are already losing the passive/browsers who tend to come in as they 'fancy' buying something.

If you want to succeed don't target STW forum types as your customer. They want everything for nothing and know much more than you do about bikes. This is not a slur on the people around these parts but a sensible piece of advice. CRC do what they do very well, you need to offer something different. The family looking for bikes for the summer don't know companies like CRC exist. They want knowledgable and friendly advice backed up by great aftersales service.

Be nice to women, as in don't assume we know nowt (and if we don't then don't speak to us like we're morons) And don't assume we want to buy a pink hybrid 🙂

We're probably over sensitive about it in a lot of cases but rubbish, patronising experiences in shops is what makes me travel 50 mins to buy stuff from a bike shop I rate.

Plus we tell other women about our good / bad experience and could generate you some extra custom

nb this obviously applys to every male customer you serve as well but us girls do tend to be overlooked a little

Why don't you offer a rentable workshop where people can rent it by the 1/2 hr or hour to do their own repairs may pull some trade in as well as those who want to book work in to be done by a mechanic – even if you just offer it once a week when you're quiet. Tell you I'd use it

ash, i imagine insurance and public liability would be a pretty sizeable barrier to that.

even if you just offer it once a week when you're quiet

heh. thats a good un 😀

Customer service.

Sorted-it is not rocket science is it?

To be serious though:

The basic stuff makes you a margin, the shiny stuff ties up cash.

You need to be genuinely nice to people all day all the time. You need this to be your attitude and personality not put on. It doesnt work if you are not sincere.

Be fair, get good staff, price sensibly, make sure you make people enjoy the experience. People have a choice to spend there disposable income on anything they want. We are always super aware they choose us. That's a privilege.

lapdancers (male ones for the ladies so they are not overlooked).

If you copy Big Als business model, but go a bit lighter on the eccentricity and crap chat, that's your perfect bike shop right there……….

lapdancers

thats part of everyone's role. you can't afford to pay pros.

Be flexible in pricing. I understand it is very difficult to get even close to some online prices but show willingness to do a deal, even of it means making barely any profit. The repeat business and word of mouth praise will be very valuable in the long term. I hate bike shops that try and charge ridiculous prices and will point blank refuse to do deals or price match.

Customer service is important but at the end of the day, so is price. Many people will be willing to pay a little more than the cheapest online price if it saves them hassle and postage but will feel ripped off if they have to pay an inflated rrp.

Another thing, surprise people. If a deal is done and the customer is about to pay, perhaps every now and again give them a discount or throw something in for free without being prompted. They'll definitely shout about that to their friends.

Best bike shop in the world

Female staff.

Accept the fact that you'll probably end up doing less biking than many of your customers, and don't let it affect the way you are with them. I'm into well biking, but starting a bike shop would be the last thing I'd do for a living. Best of luck though, seriously.

I'm into well biking

that's a hell of a niche, i"m imagining circle of death stuff going on

ooops, well spotted, well into….