Surge pricing at LBS?

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by RoosterCogset

Isn't the 6-pack thing quite cliche by now, or is this a regional thing? I honestly have never seen anyone ever turn in their bike and hand over a 6-pack while asking for service. Somehow strikes me as really tacky. How does the rest of the line waiting for service look upon this tactic?

agree, especially if your mech doesn't drink.. I gave up drinking a while back..

on topic- I agree that is feels a bit slimy.. if you tell me two weeks, I would expect two weeks.. not longer based on some Silicon Valley tech guy's bank account..

[avalonracing]

My old (amateur) team had a good shop sponsor and when one of our racers brought in a bike whatever was in the stand was taken down and the team bike went up. I always appreciated this. Now that I'm no longer a sponsored racer if I saw this done and it was my bike that was taken off the stand I would understand. Racers need their bikes.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by charliedid

Looked at another way, two weeks out doesn't mean you are overly busy it means you are understaffed. Seasonal surges aside.

or you're just the good shop in a small area.. we always had a bit of wait for our mech as he was known as one of the best in San Diego.. especially if you had an MTB shock issue (and especially if it was a headshock).. the rest of us would build the stock bikes or do the more simple stuff, but Ernesto was the guy for anything major..

[mjf]

Now former mechanic:
This is obviously excluding %/rate share agreements with shops, or self owned.

There's a few shops where mechanics are setting their own schedules and rates, but that's not the norm. In a hypothetical, the mechanic may be able to justify staying later than usual to try and get through their regular workload, in addition to someone whos trying to get something done on short notice at increased pay.

You could moonlight somewhere else, or your home for the work, but most shop owners I've known treat this as if you're stealing their money.

But broadly, this isn't the case in any of the shops that I've worked at. The money goes to the shop first, and I'm only getting paid the same hourly rate from the shop. Whatever the shop may be charging as a premium, I'm not seeing, and I have little to no incentive to put your work before anyone else.

[dustyrider]

I think a smarter approach would be to charge a higher price than other shops while striving to supply same day service as often as possible. Build this level of service as a reputation and people know where to go when they need something now. If you start employing line cutting tactics to the highest bidder, you’ll quickly find out that your truly valuable customers are ones that value an honest timeline over promptness of service.

On the other topic of course people shouldn’t expect something for nothing, you should bring the junk food/drink/tip/gift for after the service has been paid for. Expect nothing in return for giving and you’re always pleasantly surprised when you receive.

[CNY rider]

I think I'm a good customer of my LBS and the owner would work to accommodate me on short notice.
But being a good customer means I try not to put him in that position.
When my bikes need a tear down, and I don't have the time or interest to do it myself, I bring them to him in January or February and I leave them for as much time as he needs.
I don't walk in with them on a beautiful Saturday in May and ask to have them back by the next day.
Respect works both ways.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Was in my LBS today and heard they still are operating a 2 week wait time for service, which spurred a thought: have any LBSs implemented surge pricing for on-demand or "skip the line" service?

People always walk in and want service done now/sooner, so why not let them pay more for immediate service? Something like a flat $25 fee to jump to the head of the service queue and $25 more to stay there? Or a fee ($50?) for them to stop what they're doing to fix your bike right then and there.

Wouldn't work at every LBS, but in shops where customers have more disposable income than patience, I could see people paying that instead of waiting two weeks for service.

Curious if anyone has seen it done in practice? Or even what this group thinks the market would bear as far as people being willing to pay for immediate service vs. waiting.

btw, I know they have "come to you" style bike mechanics but I'm talking about trying to capture more money from people walking in the door of the LBS.

The problem, particularly with small shops that work on appointments is that the day's schedule is already full and if ya stuff somebody's job in there, particularly if it becomes a bag of worms, it bumps somebody who has already waited a couple of weeks to get their bike worked on.

I always followed 'first in, best dressed'..as in, our service was in demand, plan ahead but get in the que.
BUT, yes, I sometimes stayed late or came in early to get a job done..But didn't charge more for that.

For big shops with a legion of wrenches, sure, you could build in some 'slop' in the schedule. Dut if that person DIDN'T come in, then the wrench may be relegated to building new bikes.

Isn't the 6-pack thing quite cliche by now, or is this a regional thing? I honestly have never seen anyone ever turn in their bike and hand over a 6-pack while asking for service. Somehow strikes me as really tacky. How does the rest of the line waiting for service look upon this tactic?

We've had some try this or offer to pay more..and for ME, that kinda automatically meant we wouldn't do that, accept their bribe..Yes, tacky. BUT, I stayed late to get a walk in done(after the doors were closed), I'd gladly accept a tip for the work. But never anything up front.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by avalonracing

My old (amateur) team had a good shop sponsor and when one of our racers brought in a bike whatever was in the stand was taken down and the team bike went up. I always appreciated this. Now that I'm no longer a sponsored racer if I saw this done and it was my bike that was taken off the stand I would understand. Racers need their bikes.

Great way to piss off the non bike racer dudes. I doubt any would understand, if that paying customer, that middle aged guy with the $10,000 bike was bumped by some kid that wasn't paying.

"Racers need their bikes"..'amateur racers'....that kinda sums up why we stopped sponsoring the needy, sometimes ungrateful, and often entitled, 'amateur bike racers'. The women we continued to sponsor were MUCH better.

[Dave]

I've never had anyone work on a bike. Mine are owner built-up and maintained.

[Turkle]

Originally Posted by RoosterCogset

Isn't the 6-pack thing quite cliche by now, or is this a regional thing? I honestly have never seen anyone ever turn in their bike and hand over a 6-pack while asking for service. Somehow strikes me as really tacky. How does the rest of the line waiting for service look upon this tactic?

I have definitely brought beers to bike techs on multiple occasions, particularly when they turned something around I needed done in a hurry. If you're in there saying "please fix my shifting before my big weekend ride," I would think a few cold ones is the least you could do.

I've similarly brought beers to the techs that work on my musical instruments. The phenomenal work they do deserves at least a beer on me.

But I'm not bringing beers in an attempt to bribe my way to the front of the line or anything, just in recognition of service and support that went above and beyond normal expectations.

[NoMoreParagon]

I think these are unchartered territories..
there is a limit after which even the most loyal customer then either changes lbs and/or learn how to do the job her/himself.

I am quite a proficient mechanic but always tried to give some work to my LBS anyway. But when I was told that to press headset cups would need to wait 2 weeks, I simply got the tools myself and got the job done.

I feel service costs at US bike shop (particularly in large coastal cities) are quite high, and I can't think many would add even more, on top.

I would accept LBS favoring their most loyal customers, but just having some random dude ahead of the pack just because they pay 50% more would alienate many loyal customers.

[Alexi]

I've had plenty of folks drop beer off with repairs, most are not expecting a queue jump.


In my old shop if someone need a big repair NOW we'd see if any mechanics wanted to stay late, and they'd be paying the repair fee plus an extra $50-100 direct to the mechanic.

we would also put space holders in during the busy season for a few emergency repairs, not tune up level.

[NHAero]

In my wife's past she started and ran a peer support group for alcoholics and addicts coming back after rehab. That opened my eyes about casually bringing alcohol to shops of any type as a thank you. Cookies, a bag of muffins and scones, or similar is how I think about this now.

Recently, when the Spurcycle key chain/bottle openers were on closeout, I bought a few to give as gifts. Because I know the Brickyard Bikes owner likes beer and I wanted to say thanks for some little things he's done for me, I gave one to him. But I wouldn't have without prior knowledge (he brings beer to the weekly summer time trial he runs in Katama.)

[avalonracing]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Great way to piss off the non bike racer dudes. I doubt any would understand, if that paying customer, that middle aged guy with the $10,000 bike was bumped by some kid that wasn't paying.

"Racers need their bikes"..'amateur racers'....that kinda sums up why we stopped sponsoring the needy, sometimes ungrateful, and often entitled, 'amateur bike racers'. The women we continued to sponsor were MUCH better.

I get that, but since my friend and I were running the team we were incredibly clear with our racers about how lucky they were to have sponsorship and they were to respect our sponsors and Send Them Business, friends, family newer riders who respected them because they were racers. Maybe I was lucky but our team was pretty large and I think our shop sponsor was pretty happy with how it worked out as he has continued to support teams over the last 20 years.

[FriarQuade]

Originally Posted by charliedid

Looked at another way, two weeks out doesn't mean you are overly busy it means you are understaffed. Seasonal surges aside.

I think two weeks is the perfect lead time to be honest. You're not going to find much better with any other kind of service related task. Need a plumber, surprise they're all at least two weeks out. I'm sure most Pace Liners are two weeks out at their job as well, whatever that may be. But apart from a spring bump or a winter lull, two weeks would be ideal. That's enough work to maintain consistent staffing, which hopefully means more stability and better quality work. Anything less than a week and you start to wonder if you could do with less staffing.