Those who have been around a while will have little trouble understanding this… but the vast majority of people I’ve discussed this with, veterans & newbies alike, hadn’t looked at it this way. When they did, you could almost hear the rust bonding their rigid perspectives slowly crumble.
Pictured here is a bit of a historical landmark in my career within the Bicycle Industry. Bowling Bicycle, Bay Area Schwinn (during my time there), and now operating as Bay Area Cycles is located east of Houston, TX in the middle of what is basically, the most concentrated gathering of refineries in the US. Bowling Bicycles started back in the 40s or 50s and is still owned by the same family. A long-time Schwinn dealer, they had 4 locations during my time there, each serving a different type of community. I cut my shot rat teeth pestering the guys at the Baytown location and was soon offered a position at their Webster/Clear Lake location just down the street from NASA. This was (but wasn’t) their busiest location and sold several high-end Paramounts & mountain bikes. . I’ll go into more detail in a more deserving article, but while this location had a more bicycle-active community than the others, it was probably a drop in the bucket in comparison to their bread & butter. Industrial Bicycle Sales. On top of supplying refineries countless Schwinn Crusiers, Heavy Dutys, and Worksman trikes, we had a dedicated mobile repair van complete with WWII veteran & storyteller, Chris. I never thought twice about it then as it made sense and I had practically zero experience outside of that. Over the years, I really started to consider how varying ‘value’ can be to both a business & the customer.
Obvious yet misunderstood human nature
One of the core aspects of human nature is curiosity and the desire to learn. The needle indicating how much we learn sways based on both necessity and passion… sometimes both! Learning to read, write, walk, & talk are some examples of necessities. Hobbies like crochet, drawing, and sports ball, lean towards passion. Cycling and the bicycles that make it possible can be categorized as both, depending on the use & situation. Along with our customers, most of us ride for fun as well as consider it an activity that is good for our bodies & minds. You also have those who commute by bike that may do so solely for the need to get from point A to point B.
But what the hell am I getting at when I ask if consumers still value bike shops followed by the ridiculous claim saying they never did?
Having a Crochet Itch
We’ve all had an itch here & there but let’s talk about one that people have passed to others for generations. The art of crochet makes wheel-building look like something a 7-year-old could do. Learning how to crochet isn’t easy at first but once you see a shape forming, you might just get… hooked. Growing up I was fascinated by the colorful anodized aluminum hooks (yes, including purple ano) my grandmother always had lying around and one day she offered to teach me how to crochet. I got about 6 inches into some barely recognizable weave when I gave up so I know it’s something you have to be passionate about to see anything through. But let’s consider this. Due to the historical practice of crochet being essentially a necessity, there have been countless resources in the forms of books, crochet clubs, and the shared experience from previous generations for decades. Most of the information needed to learn how to crochet has always been easily accessible. One way to look at it… they had a sort of analog internet on the subject matter.
Now let’s talk about how the values offered by bike shops have (or haven’t) changed and why we might be underselling it. That’s right, I think most shops undersell their value. Of course, I hear what shops think their value is, but far too often, it’s a value they expect their customer to agree with. Screw it, I’ll just say it…
In the past, CONSUMERS ONLY VALUED BIKE SHOPS BECAUSE THEY HAD TO.
Sounds a bit harsh to say it like that but up until the dawn of the internet, there were few if any resources, other than bike shops, for anyone who was into bicycles. If anyone needed a bike, parts, repairs, or knowledge beyond airing up tires, they had little choice other than to use a bike shop as their primary resource. They valued bike shops because they had to… but it wasn’t organic. If they liked & appreciated the treatment & service they received, THEN the value became more organic, and that’s where I’m headed with this.
Customers now know everything
When the internet came along, people suddenly had an endless stream of resources that were previously only accessible through local bike shops. Just like people who taught themselves how to crochet by having resources readily available, today’s bicycle consumer has them as well and *shudder* WANTS to use them! That doesn’t mean they stopped liking you… it just means that the default driver bringing people to shops, has changed. That driver had nothing to do with value and we need to get past it. A question we need to ask ourselves is:
Are we setting expectations for our customers that compliment or insult them?
Hate me for saying this, but generally speaking, there has been enough perceived resistance to this change to bruise the bicycle retail’s reputation when it comes to serving what our customers value. I still consider myself a customer and since I haven’t worked on the retail side of our industry for over 10 years, people I’m around don’t hold back about what they think. While I think the mass majority of this stereotype is misunderstood, it doesn’t matter in the end.
What happened
Before you stick a frame pump in my front wheel, understand that we’re the same as our evil, knowledge-hungry customer. Growing up, my father knew how to fix anything… or figure it out before having to pay someone. He taught me a number of things, but most importantly, instilled a forever trait of curiosity. To this day I still can’t wait to learn something, especially if it justifies buying new tools! When it came to bicycles, my first attempt to learn how to work on bicycles in the early 80s involved countless hours in a library looking for anything having to do with bicycle repair. Despite not being able to afford one, I wanted to know everything there was about how they worked. Over several visits, I found two books, and only one of those explained how the parts of a bicycle worked… but nothing remotely about repairing them. During my senior year in high school, when I thought I had enough money to purchase my first shop-level bike (I thought saving enough to buy 4 department store bikes would get me my dream bike), I visited that local shop at least 5 days a week and begged them to teach me how to work on bikes. That was in late 1989.
What could have happened
Exactly 6 months before my father passed, a resource I often refer to as my father’s stand-in, was born. YouTube practically picked up where he left off and became one of my most valuable resources. For (not so) fun, let’s imagine me as that same high school senior, but in 2007 with access to all of the resources the internet shoves in my face. Bike Forums, MTBR, PinkBike… A virtual encyclopedia of every bicycle ‘fact’ to ever exist was right at my 17-year-old fingertips! Even if I stopped by the shop every day to browse & talk bikes, I’d probably show off what I already (thought I) knew while hoping to get some hands-on experience to add to my high level of *cough* self-proclaimed accreditation. I’d surely have some opinions on what brands they should carry while comparing their prices to those online. (sorry, just trying to make a point). Even if I didn’t know much, I wouldn’t have valued them for the same things I had 15+ years before that because… I simply didn’t (think I) need to.
The current situation
As soon as the gates of online information opened, a trend began where retailers would hold the consumer’s passion to learn & purchase, against them. I would even go as far as to say, that our response was a natural defense mechanism based on most of us knowing & being right about what was best for our customers. While that may have been true and sounds logical, we weren’t giving their perspective enough consideration, and worse, expecting them to adhere to ours.
When you blindly gamble on your opponent having the same perspective as you (because you feel your professional perspective outweighs theirs), you’re almost always guaranteed to lose. Too often, we let our 5 million years of experience justify our response & why we feel the consumer should see things the way we want them to, and instantly value every morsel of our being. Part of the problem is our entire culture does this so misguided perspectives & the neverending arguments they spawn, are as common if not more common than being open-minded & willing to compromise. When someone accidentally lets their arrogance keep them from considering another person’s perspective, they’re changing that person’s perspective to a perception, which they treat as fact. (I have a whole article I’ll post soon that dives into perspective vs perception & why we should be more conscious about how we approach each).
…all they really wanted, was the respect of possibly knowing what they were doing.
I got no respect… till I did
Rodney Dangerfield was one of the first comedians I recall getting a kick out of. As a parent with two teens who apparently know as much as I do about everything, I often feel his spirit wanting to jump out of me. I finally learned that no matter what I say, sometimes I just need to let them figure it out for themselves and be there to put the fire out. However, if I instead constantly ridiculed them when they were wrong without giving them a chance, they’d view me as an obstacle to learning rather than a valuable resource. Egotistical ‘I Told You So’s don’t teach anybody anything except that you’re probably a twat waffle. Ironically, sometimes when I do start to counter their decision, I’ll pause just before saying, “let me know how it turns out”. Well, more than half the time they’ll pause and ask me what I think because all they really wanted, was the respect of possibly knowing what they were doing. This is essentially keeping each of our perspectives on equal ground so neither of our perceptions gets thrown in the wrong direction. CONSUMERS WANT THE SAME RESPECT and will be grateful for it!
Up-sale your value
Earlier I said that I feel many bike shops undersell the value they offer. Right after that, I mentioned that once the consumer liked & appreciated the treatment & service they received, THEN the value became more organic. Most of the traditional items we thought customers valued 20 years ago, which prompted them to visit the shop in the first place, have either become obsolete *(to them) or misunderstood. Most all of us know that local bike shops are and have always been the best path to serve our consumers, but for the last 20 years, our approach to expressing our values has been met with an increasing amount of… a sort of teenage angst-like resistance. Keeping our perspectives open is the first step, but no one is going to know this and randomly decide to walk in your door. In today’s marketplace, you have to first walk into their door! (so to speak). When you show up with the intention to increase their knowledge (I’m not just talking about clinics on how to change a flat), they’re much more likely to become engaged. Think about little things that can affect someone every day or every ride. Step outside the box and make it less about selling your inventory (pssst… consumers see through that).
Reaction is action and not the other way around
I thought this was something worth mentioning as it has a lot to do with how we make it easier to form the relationships we need to have with our consumers. As the internet & eCommerce has grown, billions of dollars have been spent every year trying to find ways to better serve consumers both virtually and in-person… and it’s constantly evolving & shaping how people shop. Many of the decisions are based on what consumers desire whether they know it or not. In addition to being up against the endless resources & product availabilities swarming the internet, many companies in our position have become hyper-aware of two key factors when it comes to what consumers value. Learning resources and minimal friction. I’m not talking about chaffing your crochet kind of friction… I’m talking about both buying and learning friction. We all know how online companies try to reduce buying friction with tactics involving less clicks and even easy returns. But what about the friction associated with the consumer learning about the products we sell, our businesses… OURSELVES??? Rather than judge consumers for trying to know everything, what would happen if we instead embraced it? This aligns with everything I mentioned above. Consumers want and love to learn so they’ll more likely gravitate towards it when you put it on a silver platter for them!
Let’s Discuss!
What are your thoughts on what your consumers currently value? What are some things we can do to increase our values’ exposure to our communities? If you’ve tried but feel like you’re spinning your wheels, let’s discuss those so others can share their feedback & solutions! Have you embraced using your online & social media presence as a consumer resource outlet? What are some things you do both inside your shop and out in the community that others value enough to do business with you?