A day ago one of my friends asked me to go with him window shopping for a road bicycle. Not knowing if he would buy one. After all, they can be very expensive. So we set forth to this small trip to a specialized bike shop in Sonoma, best known for its attractions of wine and bicycling. On the way there all he could talk about was his excitement to get into the sport, and how it would change his life.
We manage to get to the store 17 minutes before closing time. We approached a clerk and explained that we were window shopping and were on a budget. Let me say this is a small store, with bicycles arranged by price from entry level to high end. She started to tell us about bicycles as she searched her database on her computer, perhaps closing time was in her mind, but she did not want to leave from behind her counter, and let me say she lacked enthusiasm.
After a few minutes I dragged my friend to the actual bikes and started to tell him what I could about them. At this point another clerk came and managed to just answer some questions with the least amount of words and enthusiasm. His explanation for almost every question we had was… “The more pricey the bike, the better it is”.
We left the shop feeling a little disappointed and empty, with not much information. The excitement was crushed for the time being. As we approached our home town, I decided we should visit one more shop.
Well, we get to this other bike shop (Norcal Bike Sport) 15 minutes before closing time. Immediately I dragged my friend to look at the bikes, as I thought help from a clerk was doubtful this late. A young woman came to us and took interest in our shopping. She listened, she explained and answered all of my friend’s questions. She suddenly asks my friend to test drive a bicycle he had shown interest in. I am shocked, as we were 5 minutes away from closing time. I immediately thought “we’ve come to the right place”. She got a technician to setup the bike, and I stayed as collateral while my friend took it for a ride.
I chatted with the clerk who was helping us, we both shared a passion for riding. You could see it in her eyes, her tone of voice and her body language, she was passionate about the sport. But most importantly I noticed she was excited, excited at the prospect that my friend was being introduced to this new sport and she knew he would be having the best summer ever riding the back roads of Sonoma County.
My friend comes back from his test ride and there was this enthusiastic dialog between him and the clerk. My friend became very excited to get this bicycle today. Not because of a pushed sell on us, but because this clerked had really done for us what we needed, and that was getting genuine involved in our day “window shopping” for a bike.
So, my friend ends up buying the bicycle, spending more than double of what his budget was. He got a great purchase in my opinion, but he got one thing that he was not expecting… that was excellent customer service. This clerk’s excitement, her passion and her enthusiasm was clear. She wanted to help us, even during the store’s closing time. She stayed a few minutes late, as well as other shop employees, no one seemed to mind. We left the store happy, someone had actually taken genuine interest and shown excitement to help us.
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