Employee of the Month
We call him Hui for short. He’s Single-A Pro BMXHe’s big & he tell’s the jokes… and we all laugh every time. He’s a full time student who works on the weekends. Certainly because the shop isn’t his priority, he doesn’t really care about the type of chain you’re running or your single speed either. Regardless, Hui’s a good kid, does good work on the bikes and like all of us, helps the customers get to what they’re asking for most of the time… Yesterday, after Big Jonny Day was over, and Bussmann Day was over, and Pollard Day was over, we decided to award Hui with the coveted Employee of the Month award for his recently publicized customer service skills. I happen to appreciate Hui’s method because he’s BMX and BMX is different. Since it’s his roots, that means that he can handle the BMX punks that come in. They scare me so I am thankful he is there to deal with that shit. That’s insider info of course, but I still find it unfortunate that criticism, regardless of the actual events, had to be generated and publicized regarding him & the shop that I work for. It is the place that feeds my family & pays my rent and all who are there, work their ass off to ensure customers get what they want or need. It seems a careless application of ability for an atypical situation.
As far as the ever present customer service dilemma of IBD’s, there’s no solution you can engineer into or out of the equation. Personalities & the conflicts or connections that they make, even in a bike shop when all you want is a certain product, will always trump any solution one can apply to paper. Walking into a brick & mortar store will never have the seamless ease that clicking buttons at your favorite internet mail order website has, and your favorite mail order website will never know the minutia, nor provide any hands on service when you may need. It’s just the gray area of human interaction. The same reason that you break up with your girlfriend…
It’s just the way it goes sometimes.
And the customer is generally right nevermind their level of knowledge of certain products. So when the chain you want has “710 or something” in the name, there’s is potential that the effort the sales person puts into resolving what 710 may apply to, will send you off target. Hui’s solutions didn’t match up with the efficiency perhaps desired, but the product was acquired & pricing was resolved
Don’t be the “benign customer”, maybe take a chance and navigate the communication towards the direction of your goL with the patience you would want. If you don’t have the skill set, work on it. Trumping authority with fists of cash and idle threats to walk away, doesn’t solve anything. Responsibility & respect is a two way street even when you hold the cash. Nobody ever gets to be an Ignorant Master without being a total idiot in the same gasp.
In fourteen years of bike shop wrenching experience, the song has never changed. Hui’s a good guy and so is Friedman. I enjoy both of them in certain aspects of life. No two wrongs. No two rights. Conflict happens. Like any relationship, one bad experience does not make it a loss. Shit happens. Your local bike shop needs your supports because it is a place of solutions in a pinch, and information that can’t be garnered via blunt, pixilated data & the cheapest deals. Both sides need to put forth effort. The world is not meant to be a series of One’s and Zero’s. On to the ride…