Originally Posted by
mechBgon
Ideally, your service writer should be doing that inspection at intake, and giving the customer their fully-informed options
before they leave. A side benefit is that you reduce the number of
de facto abandoned bikes clogging your storage. The main thing is to come up with a viable "Plan A" and execute it without having to shelve the bike, call, leave voicemail, take a return call, explain everything, get a decision, get the bike out again... US$60/hour shop time getting eaten up for zero profit... not good. Investing some time at check-in pays dividends.You also get to enumerate exactly what DOES constitute a tune-up, so the customer neither feels like you're raking them over the coals for a mere derailleur adjustment, nor expects a full overhaul. I'm going to make a laminated full-page illustrated What's A Tune-Up? sheet for our check-in guys to use... hmmm, or a video? Hmmm
An excellent Idea, I think a sheet for the mechanics and the customers.
Just a drawing of a generic bike with with an arrow showing different things to be done on paper. It would be easy to ad or subtract things to be done on this sheet, if you made cheap copies. You might even want to use one as a slip the customer brings back to get the bike. So everything will be marked for the shop and the customer.
Post a really nice one where the customers can see it. It's possible no one else is doing this.