Bicycle Mechanics - Question about this service

Hi guys.
I have a question for you.
I have a friend of mine who owns a bike shop and one of the complaints he has about his business are customers constantly calling to find out when their bikes will be ready to go. He doesn't mind the calls but it seems to take away alot of his time that could be spent on more important things.
I own a small software company and the 2 of us decided to come up with a solution for him that should help.
What happens now is he gets a customer's bike and enters a date that he expects for it to be completed, onto a website. This can either be entered through a computer or cell phone.
If he needs to adjust the completion date, he simply goes to the site and enters in the new date.
Then when the customer calls, they go to an automated service that tells the customer that if they have a question pertaining to their completion date for their bike, to check out his site either by computer or cell phone and they can find out the status of their bike. If they have another question, they stay on the line and can speak with someone live.
His service is almost set to go and then we came up with the idea of possibly marketing this solution to other shops.
So my question is, in your opinions, if I were to bring this service out to the public, does it sound like something that other bike shops would purchase? If not, what obstacles do you think I would need to overcome in order for it to become marketable?
Thanks so much for any help you can provide.
-Goalie35

THough I am really into getting info on the web, I would be VERY irritated if I took the time to call and they did not appear to want to give me the info. The "Problem" he has is called taking care of the customer.

Not trying to sound brash, I use email, web, cell for many things, but when I call to verify my bike is complete (or my car, etc.) I want to talk to a live person. Now maybe if the phone allowed them to enter their repair order or something without referring to another service that would be great.

Hate to say it, I am sure this is a great piece of technology, but does not sound like it is in the customers best interest.

I agree. While I do all my own wrenching, if I were to have a shop do some for me, I would be expecting profession and PERSONAL service. If I wanted to be treated to a automated, computerized answering system, I might as well do my business with one of the big mail/internet houses.

Maybe I'm old fashioned (or just old), but I think most folks will want a more personal touch at their LBS. Including getting a real, live human being on the phone. Especially if my repair were to get delayed for some reason, I'd want to know why in addition to when.

i tend to agree with pc sanity, a better approach might be to tell the customer about the service when they drop off there bike, and make sure they understand how it works. play it up like a cool thing the shop is providing for the customer, but just take calls as normal. i think if presented properly the customer would go to the site rather than call. i think i can speak for a lot of people when i say, if i'm calling a place where i'm spending money i find it very annoying when a live person doesnt answer the phone.
but if i was told about the service before hand i would use it, i know people are busy and if theres a way to get the info i need without calling i'd use it.

also if you can show that it works it seems like it would be helpful for bike shops to have. you'd probably need a way to show how the new software would save money over a person answering the phone because bike shops are usually a small buisness and probably dont have a lot of money to spend on things like that.
sems like a cool idea, hope your able to work it out, could be effective in other buisness's as well.

This pretains not only to bike shops........any service oriented business encounters similar problems. I owned and operated a printing business for a number of years and the majority of incoming calls were inquires regarding pending jobs and that took time out of production. Customers want everything done 'yesterday'. Bottom line is most clients would rather talk to a live person......that's just good customer service. It's tough, but if your friend is overwhelmed by these calls, she should hire someone to take the load off.

Originally posted by shaharidan
i tend to agree with pc sanity, a better approach might be to tell the customer about the service when they drop off there bike, and make sure they understand how it works. play it up like a cool thing the shop is providing for the customer, but just take calls as normal. i think if presented properly the customer would go to the site rather than call. i think i can speak for a lot of people when i say, if i'm calling a place where i'm spending money i find it very annoying when a live person doesnt answer the phone.
but if i was told about the service before hand i would use it, i know people are busy and if theres a way to get the info i need without calling i'd use it.

also if you can show that it works it seems like it would be helpful for bike shops to have. you'd probably need a way to show how the new software would save money over a person answering the phone because bike shops are usually a small buisness and probably dont have a lot of money to spend on things like that.
sems like a cool idea, hope your able to work it out, could be effective in other buisness's as well.

Ditto.

My buddy and I were discussing some similar problems. We were trying to accurately Provide a date when service would be completed so we didn't get "in the weeds".

The schedule for our shop lends itself to this, so the idiosyncracies would have to be adjusted for other users. We are generally busier later in the afternoon selling, and have less time for repairs (as he does, "double duty").

The idea was to post repairs as they come in on a "white marker board" and fill in 5 slots a day, on a first come, first serve basis. As the first day filled, you went to the 2nd day, so on and so on. We figured that he could repair 5 bikes easily in the morning, and that left the afternoon for selling, getting ahead, or those quick easy in, easy out repairs (like flats) or for your "Special" customers.

If he got caught up, then a call was made that the repair was done early. The customer saw that there were other bikes in front of theirs and the day when the repair would be completed.

There was room for adjustment and "Special" cases, so everyone was dealt with in a fair fashion.

L8R

Most of the shops I deal with give me pretty pessimistic completion dates (not awful, but usually 3 or 4 days for standard stuff), and ask me if that's okay... it usually is. I know about what to expect. I don't bug 'em, and more often than not, they call me and tell me it's ready before the expected date.

When a customer drops off a repair I tell them "It will be ready on (day) and I will call you when I am finished. Then I schedule the repair for the day before, giving me a chance to solve any extra problems before the due time(and the customers are happy because their bikes are almost always done before the due date.
I also ask when they need it, if they don't need it til the end of the week then I can move it later giving me more chance to do on the spot work. This also helps to not front load on Saturday.

He doesn't mind the calls but it seems to take away alot of his time that could be spent on more important things.

What is more important than the customer?

I know the Saturn Car Co. can let you track your car, and UPS can track the delivery. If you can make the product cheap, and here is the key...user friendly (on both ends) so it is quicker than picking up the phone you may have something.

But I look at my LBS guy as my neighbor and member of my community. If he is too busy to pick up the phone, he is too busy to work on my bike. Young folks don't know this, which is why you hear a loy of "I ran my own business once" stories.

Originally posted by Rev.Chuck
When a customer drops off a repair I tell them "It will be ready on (day) and I will call you when I am finished. Then I schedule the repair for the day before, giving me a chance to solve any extra problems before the due time(and the customers are happy because their bikes are almost always done before the due date.
I also ask when they need it, if they don't need it til the end of the week then I can move it later giving me more chance to do on the spot work. This also helps to not front load on Saturday.

This is true at my shop as well. Works great and when the customers get their bike before it was "scheduled" to be done they leave with a very positive feeling toward the shop. Mix this with some professionalism and no electronics will be needed. I think that maybe you are overcomplicating a simple process. People just want their bikes repaired so they can ride them again.

-Ryan