About 15 years ago my wife and I decided to buy a couple of mountain bikes to ride around Lake Hefner so we went to Al’s Bicycles. We bought the bikes and the store employee mentioned to us they would service them free for life. I remember thinking wow that would cost them a lot of money over the years. Boy was I wrong we have taken our bikes in a grand total of two times to be serviced before this year. At the time I didn’t realize it but they had just made them my bike shop.
When it came time for Santa to bring our daughter a new bike we took her to Al’s Bicycles to take a picture of one to send to Santa. Wouldn’t you know it Santa came through by purchasing a new pink bike at Al’s.
Now our daughter wants us to ride bikes with her so we took our bikes in again to be serviced for the third time in 15 years. Here is where Al’s business model really shines. What do you think happened when I took our bikes in to Al’s? Wait a minute look over there that shiny new black and blue bike sure would be more fun to ride around than my 15 year old bike. Look at that toddler trailer over there, I bet our son would like to be pulled in that when we ride our bikes. Of course you can’t make your daughter wear a helmet when she rides her bike and not wear one ourselves so let’s pick-up a couple of helmets. What costs Al’s probably less than $30 over 15 years lead to several thousand dollars in additional sales. By offering to service our bikes it allowed Al’s to keep marketing to us by giving us a reason to come back into their store. You know what they say it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. This kept us a customer for 15 years it costs them a whole $2 per year so we would come back to their store to buy another bike. I can remember as young boy going to Al’s to get a bike in the 80’s it is no wonder they are still around and have added stores.
If you would like to talk about ways to increase your sales and improve your bottom line give us a call at our office at 405-759-2796.
