It all boils down to people, management and a good product. Here's a "tale of two" trek stores and Trek itself. Last year, about this time,I decided I wanted a Domane. I saw store "A" had one on sale, a left over, went in, hung around the bike for awhile, checkbook in hand, lots of sales people doing nothing except ignoring me. So I picked up a few things went to the counter, the owner starting ringing me up and I said, "I see you have a Domane for sale." He said "If you say so..." and that was that. Yes I, at the time, was a little overweight and yes I was 65 years old (a prime canidate for an easy high end sale!). Took my Fuji for a fitting at store "A" which is a very large and awarded store. Great fitter, mentioned I now wanted to build a Domane, both him, and he got the owner, jumped all over me. "I will never work right". "you'll spend way more money" "we will order you one "etc. SALES RULE # 1 Don't assume you are smarter than your client in anything. You probably are in things but that shot their credability with me big time as, in my younger day I built wheels, bikes and already had priced out a build on a Domane and I KNEW (which I since) PROVED that was BS as I could save thousands. An email asking for frame and component pricing was ignored by Store A.
Contrast that with Store "B". Wanted to get two bikes for my grandkids, walk in. Mom and Pop shop, greeted immediately and found very friendly helpful people. Bought two kids bikes. Checking out they gave me a discount that I didn't ask for and said, now that I bought a bike from them I'll get 10% off of anything (the sales was about $300.00). I mentioned I was in the process of building a Domane and still needed to purchase the frame and a few other things. Said they would price things out and email me, which they did. Ordered the frame an ENV wheels at a very nice discount I might add. Frame came in wrong color as Trek did not change their webpage and could no longer offer the stock frameset in that color. Store "B" had Trek contact me directly to discuss. Enter "corporate" Trek.
John Cannon of Trek called me and immediately acknowledge it was their mistake and offer a nice deep discount on the frame. We'll being the old fart I am I wanted it the way I wanted it. John completely understood and stepped up and threw me into "project one". He worked with me, exchanging emails with color mock-ups, custom sayings etc. When we had a custom design just the way I wanted, he put a rush on it and I got it in less than half the normal time. All at no charge. Now John, of course , also could have said, it's out of stock and here's your refund, which was, of course, was an option and would have been far less trouble for Trek. So by being one of the most professional peoiple I've delth with (and I have 37 year of business experience) John went the extra mile as did store "B" and got a lifetime fully satisfied customer. I've taken my Domane build to store "B" for tire sealant, tune ups eliminating brake squeal etc. and although a lot of this bike they did not sell me I get excellent service at virtually no charge. They only thing they have charged me for was tire sealant. Fortunately I'm a big tipper.(grin). TIPS (To Insure Proper Service)
So I guess the lesson in this rant is it always boils down to people to people interaction and their ability and expertise to get the job done. You can be the greatest mechanic in the world but you won't stay in business long if you are a d***. You can be the greatest salesman in the world but you won't last long if you sell junk. You can sell a great product, but if the manufacturer does not support you, your toast. If you manufacture a great product and have Store "A"s selling them, ..........well reread this thread.
Imagine some guy decades ago wasting payroll on folks simply greeting you as you enter the big retail store. What a crazy concept huh??