Originally Posted by
Machka
Why is it so important to you personally support the LBS?
It's not important to me.
We can get what we want less expensively, more conveniently, and quicker when we order online.
But you're right that LBSs need to step up their game ... a lot.
And where their focus needs to be is on the areas where online shopping can't compete ... service. In person, hands on, practical service.
I'm talking about things like the bicycle mechanics area. Someone buys the whatever online ... the shop offers the service of putting it together, or repairing it or whatever. Your bicycle needs repair, the shop has an excellent reputation for doing a really good job.
I'm also talking about things like teaching and training ... hold courses on mechanics. One of the shops in a city where I used to live held a 12 week course on bicycle mechanics. I really wanted to take it but just couldn't get there because of time conflicts ... but the very fact that they did that meant that I cycled 50 km to the other side of the city to shop in that shop from time to time.
I'm also talking about general customer service online and in the shop.
Most shops have an online presence, and most people are online now. So when someone emails asking about a product or any other question, answer it within 24 hours.
And when a customer is in the shop ... well, let's just say that most bicycles shops I've been in desperately need to take an intensive and extensive customer service course. I've worked in retail and I have taken many customer service courses, and most shops fall over badly when it comes to their customer service. If I did the stuff they did in the places I've worked, my boss would have had the "pull up your socks or you're out of here" talk with me.
But unfortunately, bicycle shop owners won't read a post like this ... and so they'll continue with the old traditional bad service + "we can order that for you and get it within 6 weeks" combo they're currently using.
I still think that a lot of the old traditional bicycle shops need to improve their service. A lot.
I've been in a lot of shops in various parts of the world, and the bad service isn't localised to one area ... it's everywhere. And yet I think that shops have potential because they can do things that online shops can't do. I'd really like to see them making an effort to do those things.
Originally Posted by
rollwithme
There are a lot of good reasons to support LBS/LRS listed above, but I am a minority Athena and I have always been treated like a joke in Every. Single. Shop. I've ever been to. I hate it, and it makes me not even want to go in to "look around". I would rather pay more at a chain or online, and as impatient as I am, I'd also prefer waiting on shipping than to be humiliated and treated like that. I thought moving from a ridiculously racist area/state to a more "diverse" area would change things but nope, same ****, different city. No matter how much research I do, how much or how little I say, it doesn't matter.
For those of you who fit the demographic, get good service/sponsorship/conversation, then great-keep supporting. But for me? No thanks.
I have experienced exactly this in most shops I've been in. You just have to be female to be treated badly in a bicycle shop. I don't know what it is ...
So one of the first areas of service would be to recognise that people of all genders, shapes, sizes, ages, etc. etc. ride bicycles and deserve to be treated with respect. It comes down to that customer service training I keep talking about.