Only a little thing but stock mech hangers for the bikes you sell

+1 if you are a spesh dealer its pretty handy to stock spesh spares, doesn’t seem to work like that though

My lbs is great, although can take a whole to get stuff in sometimes.

The only thing I think they need is a sofa and a coffee machine. I like to go and talk to them sometimes and have nowhere to sit.

But they are forever helping me out and do bits straight away for me even above other repairs in the shop!

You guys are sooooo funny, but then you obviously know all about running a bike shop too. How many of you have seriously considered doing it for a living?

ok, so alot of the comments are tongue in cheek, a lot of them are common sense to boost turnover but good customer service doesnt cost a shop anything, so if you cant compete on prices, stock range etc, dont have the money for big marketing campaigns etc why do so many shops do it so badly?

Most of us have worked in retail at some point in our lives, its quite simple to be polite. although the shop i worked in wasnt a particularly niche store (outdoor clothing etc) but we got a lot of return customers because customer service was drilled into us given the stuff was quite pricey. i think we were pretty good, to be honest, during the week we were bored silly so would talk to everyone in the store about anything, bored housewives with pre school children were graetful for an adult conversation to be honest!

as for the bike shop thing, yeah i’ll bet we have all thought about it and know how we could do it better than the shops in business in our areas at the moment but we are not so naive to know that in reality its a hard way to make a living and the industry isnt ever going to start favouring the one-man-band shops.

As others have said, for me it’s all about service.

An LBS can’t compete with on-line for prices and they’re going to get people coming in to try stuff and then buy online. You have to be the best on service and that means getting the right staff and doing the small things really well.

The best service I’ve ever had is from our local Honda dealer. YUears ago I bought a second hand Accord and went in to talk to them about service costs and to buy a headlamp bulb. This was about 6pm just before they were closing as I was on my way home. Service chappie asks if I’d like a mechnaic to fit the bulb, and I agreed as it was dark and raining.

Took him 10 mins and I expected to be charged £20 for the pleasure, but service chappie said don’t worry about it and the bulb was on him.
They also have a really nice area with excellent free coffee and I often wait for small jobs and look around the new cars.

I’ve been a Honda owner since (and am likely to stay so) and if an LBS had the same approach near me I’d be a dedicated customer as well.

That chap could have made Honda £25 that night but he didn’t he made them a heck of a lot more.

I reckon bricks & mortar shops are going to simply evolve until they fit into one of three categories:

1. Big chain shop with everything under one roof, frequented mostly by new riders
2. Bike workshops – with the growth in utility cycling, this is the most straightforward and profitable area to go into, but you need to be town/city centre to pursue this.
3. Specialist retailers that people will travel for, or that serve the local/regional racing community – Epic cycles, Condor, etc. etc. with extensive knowledge, brands that aren’t everyday items in the big chains and exemplary customer service.

More and more LBS’s that I see here around Bristol are slowly but surely developing into the first and second categories

I think its safe to assume that most LBS’ will be small, so stocking large quantities of bikes etc is unlikely. However it would be useful to have a range of helmets, shoes, clothing from multiple manufacturers. These are the kinds of things Im less likely to buy mail order unless I have too. Its nice to try on shoes and helmets, make sure its comfy, perhaps try the size up or down if you arent sure rather than having to go through the hassle of online returns. Unless I know I can make a massive saving online Ill happily pay an extra tenner to walk out with my nice shiny helmet safe in the knowledge its not been drop kicked around a distribution warehouse on its way to me. Most of the Evans stores Ive been past have a good plan of chaining a track pump up outside so that people can simply top up their own tyres. No doubt that once you have used this, you would likely go back if you needed a replacement tube or simply top up pressures for the rest of the ride.
Do the basics well is the key. Yes a coffee machine would be good but in reality its the thoughtful things and good, honest service that keep people coming back.

My biggest requirement is don’t be a dick. I’ve spent probably 500e in LBS in recent months on “urgent” spares and parts and the guys here are friendly and do some stuff for free (crown race removal, fixing some cack handed spannering). In the UK my LBS acted like complete arses 50% of the time because they viewed me as a captive audience after Freeborn closed in Esher (now THAT was a place you got good service). As such, they were my FINAL option not the first option.

Spares/parts/bike availability is important, as is having stuff to browse but generally, I choose to shop where I feel valued not where I feel like an inconvenience to their tea breaks and watching TV.

More and more LBS’s that I see here around Bristol are slowly but surely developing into the first and second categories

All of the biggest ones are chains; cyclesurgery, evans, zeroG. With the There’s not a lot of choice. Try getting any of these to remove a crown race without 3 weeks notice.

Friendly knowledgeable staff, with the expertise and attitude to do the awkward shitty spannering that no-one likes doing.
Like sorting Avid disc brakes.

I have a few lbs near me but rarely used them as I tend to go back to the lbs that I bought my bikes from as they give good service, that is Giant Store Rutland who have always been very good although they only sell Giant Bikes obviously, but do stock Endura etc kit. Generally offered Coffee while waiting and they have fixed some huge issues with bike (cracked frame) with zero fuss. tHis to me is what you want. Good service, zero fuss and no waiting.

Having been in Germany last week I dropped into 3 different LBS.

1 was a small local shop in Winterberg with some decent bikes on display, we were in there for about 10-15mins and never saw a member of staff, and I do mean literally, we were the only people there most of the time, obviously they have CCTV somewhere but they seemed very trusting. (The one guy I thought was staff initially was another customer)

2nd was H&S Discount (or bike-discount.de). Aladins cave of stuff and seems to go on and on with very confusing layout with rooms for huge stock of bikes and parts. All prices I saw and spent matched their website.

3rd was Bike Town (Rose bikes). What a place. Very large and ‘modern’, big range, most parts are behind a service counter but generally there is one on display (mechs etc) but the catalogue is at hand. Coffee, Wi-Fi etc all available, but most of the clothing on display was high end (was after some shorts for daughter and cheapest they had on display were 100€). Also have hiking and Triathlon stuff. Could have easily spent a few grand there on another bike but the missus was there to help curb the spending!

Bit of a brain dump this, so apologies if it is a little long winded:

1. Remember that a typical STWer won’t pay your bills, the guys who by £200/£300 bike and need to use the mechanic for everything will.
2. Service is everything, talk to everyone, ask questions, listen. Also, when you’re busy, acknowledge the customer, say you’ll be with them shortly. Don’t look down on those who know less than you and/or don’t visit the shop very often, equally, when someone does know there stuff engage them.
3. Have a good mechanic. I don’t care if he can’t talk to customers and that you have to lock him in a darkened room at the back of the shop, so long as he can fix my bike I will be happy.
4. Be honest about your turnaround times on repairs. I would love everything done straight away be realise it can’t be, so tell me when it will be ready and if that changes call me.
5. Equally, be honest about order times for parts, you can’t stock everything but at least have an ideas as to how long it will take you to get it.
6. Have a “bargain bin”. Bit personal this one, there are a few shops round me with a small bin full of old, dusty parts, I like these as I live in hope that I may find the elusive original red Flite saddle with Kevlar corners that I want.
7. Stock clothes and shoes. Being a bit of a freak in shoe and clothing sizes I need to buy these in person, please cater for me or I will just spend my money on more stuff from Decathlon
8. I know that holding a lot of components is a costly thing to do, so don’t have everything but do have a few of things that people need at short notice. Thinks like mech hangers for the brands you sell, a few tyres (perhaps ones that you know work well on local trails/roads?), brake pads for popular sizes, chains, tubes, that kind of thing.
9. You don’t need every component from every Shimano range so perhaps only stock Alivio and SLX. This covers most cost bases and the guy who comes in and demands XT/XTR can be given a delivery date on his fresh new stuff.
10. Don’t have a coffee machine and don’t have a sofa. These only encourage the kind of person who sits around all day and buys very little. It can also be a touch intimidating for the casual buyer who strolls in to see the owner talking to his mates and not the customer.
11. Put a mix of prices in your window display. I nearly walked past a shop once as all the bikes in the window were £1k+ and I didn’t want to spend that much (as it happens, I did end up going in and spending a little more than £1k but that was more to do with the salesman and the customer service). I’m a self confessed bike geek so if that put me off it will gave put a lot of other people off as well.
12. Opening longer hours. This is my pet hate, I get a touch evangelical about this. I (and I imagine the majority of the bike buying public) work in the week, I may have 15 mins at lunch to pop in but this is rare. I go past my LBS most nights at about 6.30pm and also most Sundays, it is never open, Halfords is as is CRC/Wiggle etc. If I need something NOW I have to go to Decathlon or Halfords, if I need it for the weekend and it is early in the week I go online. I would much rather go to my LBS but, frankly, Saturdays are busy and this is the only day I am not at work and you are open. How about 1 night being open until 7pm ish and open up on Sunday mornings?
13. Don’t try and compete with CRC et al. on price. RRP is fine, expected even, taking the proverbial isn’t. An example, I wanted a new stem, I walking into an LBS (one I had never used before), chose what I wanted and ask the price, the owner replied with a figure that I know was about 15% above RRP, I walked out. I was expecting to pay RRP, I would have paid a touch more than RRP if needed but 15% more? It struck me the owner was trying it on. This shop have done similar to friends as well so we now suggest people avoid them.
14. Again, this may be unrealistic and a bit personal but trial saddles are a great idea and meant I bought the right saddle at RRP from an LBS rather than the wrong one from CRC for 20% less.
15. Shop rides are good. Have a set night each week and go out irrelevant of the weather and the number of people that show up. Build a loyal following that associate good riding with the shop.

But i’ll be honest, I struggle to balance my ideal bike shop use ethics, (buying stuff from them), with my financial reality time and time again.

Buy from the LBS at the price you can afford, you don’t have to run XX or XTR you know, LX works as well.