April 22, 2024

Improving life skills not only enhances your effectiveness at work but also enriches your daily life interactions, leading to deeper personal and professional fulfillment. From effective communication to mastering processes, striving to learn new skills equips you with the tools to navigate challenges and build meaningful connections in all aspects of life.

Ask any bike shop employee about their challenges and you're sure to hear things like, "I can't believe I have to work on another department store bike." Or my favorite, "These people just don't care about their bikes." I get it. It is frustrating and can be hard to deal with and it's just one of many things bike shop workers have to deal with on a daily basis. Let's take a deeper dive into bike shop life and see what it really takes to succeed.

Product knowledge: It's no surprise that bike shop employees (BSE) are expected to know the history of bicycle components from bone shakers to tomorrow's Tour de France machines and everything in between. Sometimes we're supposed to know about screws for fixing Crocs. More on this true story later. We do know a lot about bikes since we're in the game everyday taking bikes apart and putting them back together however there are times when we're stuck and the best advice is to steer the customer to Ebay for some obscure part or to cobble together a half bodged repair that will keep their pride and joy rolling down the road.

Effective Communication: When a customer walks into the shop they may be intimidated or apprehensive about asking for help because they don't know the proper terms or names of components. Staying professional while still being personable is a huge challenge for some BSEs. They simply can't help themselves and utter something that throws up a barrier to solving the problem. This is where listening and being aware of non-verbal cues can steer you towards a solution. In other words, don't be a clown when a new customer asks for help.

Engagement: If you want to create return customers ask what type of bike they ride, where they like to ride. It goes a long way when you build rapport with a customer. They come to trust you for your ability to solve their problems. Invite them on a shop ride and go out of your way to ensure they enjoy the ride if they show up. This is a critical topic that will be expanded on in the future.

Self-Reflection: At the end of the work day I like to take a few moments and run through the highlights about things that were successes and to note where things went wrong and what could be done to prevent human errors. It's very common to get a string of the same type of repairs and upgrades within a short period that will hone your skills and make you a master very quickly. Example, last week the weather improved dramatically so the road riders started pouring into the shop for new handlebar tape. I can't remember how many bars I wrapped but it was more than I have ever done in a one week period. Every bike mechanic I know knows a bike mechanic that is afraid of bar tape jobs. There is some voodoo involved and "you're doing it wrong" comments that will overload your social media if you post a photo of your handiwork. To those people I say, "Thank you for your feedback." and then carry on. You can't satisfy every critic of your work but you can satisfy the customer that has to hold the bars and that's what it's all about.

Continuous Learning: Bike companies come out with more new products every week. Staying up to date is a constant task. I like to review the singularly focused websites to see what the racers are riding since that is what will be coming in the door soon as it trickles down to the weekend warriors that like to spend paychecks on carbon parts. The industry sites are loaded with their marketing departments latest products so it's fairly easy to learn about the latest shifter technology that is 15% faster than last years version. This brings up a point of contention you may or may not have noticed. Every iteration of wheels and drivetrain components are 18.7% lighter than last year or whatever percentage they can come up with. Since the advent of brake and shifter integrations and the constantly lighter versions shouldn't they be weightless by now?

Wrapping this up I have to go back to the Croc Lady. She came in with a broken strap on her beloved Crocs. She walked in and confidently (love this!) stated, "I need a Chicago Screw for my Crocs." There was a long moment of silence and eyes darting back and forth between all of us in the shop. Do we blurt out that we don't sell shoe parts, or do we get into the problem? Since we're professionals there wasn't any negativity. My colleague dug a little deeper and the customer said she saw "a Tik Tok that said a Chicago screw could fix a Croc strap." Ah Ha! Social media!!! Turns about what she needed was indeed a Chicago screw. We don't sell these and never will since there is no application for them on bikes that I know of. She had a friend direct her to us to solve the problem. Her best solution would be a replacement Croc rivet of course but I have to give her a mental high five for taking a chance and asking us for help.

Have a great week and don't worry about Chicago screws.

Peace,
Paul

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