Bicycle Service to your Door

Those of you who have been with us since the beginning... no the VERY beginning. Remember when we operated out of a small room dubbed "the ugly room" and the entire inventory was stored in a couple of Tupperware containers? Yeah then.

Well those of you who remember that will remember that at that time the logo we had on the business cards was "If you are going out, it should be to ride" At the time the concept was simple. The customers needed parts, I wanted to go for a bike ride, so I would get on my bike and ride the parts to the customers. It was win win.

The problem with all this is that I forgot to take into account one simple truth about cyclists. People who can install their own parts are generally people who like to hang out in bike shops. While they will grumble about wearing out a tire or breaking a spoke, they enjoy going to the shop to look at the new toys and put their hands on parts. What we realized was that we were not saving our customers the chore of going to the bike shop, we were impersonalizing what should have been a fun time out to see the gang at the shop.

So now, a little over a year since, canning the delivery service, we think we have fixed the glitch, and we are bringing back the "to your door" service from Goose Creek. To do this we have had to recognize that not everyone is the die hard, eat, sleep & breath bike stuff fanatics that we are. There is a portion of the population for whom going to the bike shop IS a chore. These are the people trying to shove a bike into their backseat, or borrowing a friends pickup so they can get both of the kids bike in to go get a flat tire changed. For these people we are now offering to your door repair service.

As of this week we are launching our pilot program for Buckner, La Grange, Crestwood, Prospect, Goshen, Skylite and certain Lousville Zip Codes. Basically the east side of Louisville and all the little towns between there and our shop. Customers will be able to contact us either by filling out a form on our website or by just calling the shop. We will set up a time and then come out for their bikes. Simple repairs will be performed on spot, for more complicated or time consuming repairs, we will actually pick up the bike, bring it to the shop, do the repairs, and return the bike when it is done.

There is a small premium, between $5-$15 depending on location, but considering that our normal labor costs are lower than many of our competitors anyway it all comes out in the wash. For instance if you live in St. Matthews, a tune up would be $25 + $15 for the pick up, so your total tune up cost would be $40 which is about what you would pay if you took it into your local shop anyway.

Official advertising for this service will start in the next couple of weeks, and we will have to get the vehicle painted up and some official uniforms for the guys so people won't think we are going to steal their bikes, but a temporary service request page is now up and functional and you can view it here: http://www.goosecreekcycle.com/ServiceForm.htm

I realize that if you are reading this blog you are probably the sort that likes to come into the shop yourself, but spread the word to your friends and neighbors. Thanks and see you out on the road.