To answer your question Mr. Brown. I do have a few regular customers who say I am their mechanic and they won't go to anyone else, but how often does a bike need service? once, maybe twice a year. I'm not worried, I figure all good things come with time. As long as I keep any promise I make and go the extra mile to ensure my customers' safety people will come back and bring others with them. I don't want to get too big too fast, and I don't want to take on any jobs that could turn into headaches (old bikes have rusted bolts that break easy and some bikes are hard to get parts for) I am pretty picky about what I'll work on at home.
Last week I ran the Service Department at work. Took in all phone calls, made repair orders, billed out work, called customers to tell them their bikes were done, set up appointments and learned the computer system. The thing that scared me the most about running the department I've only been at for two and a half years was something that happened while running the service department. I discovered how easy it was. I already know how to bill out parts and sell them to R.O.s (repair orders) and when I ran service I learned how to bill out service, close out R.O.s and got to practice what I had learned before about customer service. I had one guy who was really mad about his bill and didn't want to pay it and swore he would never come back. I let him vent his frustrations until he was calm enough to listen a little and I explained his bill, he felt a little better about it, I explained that it was an old scooter and that it was near completely worn out. But I put in more like "It's an eleven year old scooter and you've put over 22,000 miles on it" Pretty much all bikers, even the one's on scooters, are proud of the mileage their bikes have. It's a symbol that you're not just an owner. He admitted that he had put a lot of miles on it. He was an older gentleman and so I asked if he liked to watch movies and he was still agitated a little andhe said "No, I don't watch no movies" to which I said, "oh, I just found out Paul Newman died, he was one of my favorite actors" From then on he had a calm tone and acted as if I were another human being instead of some prick who was trying to rip him off.
On the Note of Paul Newman's death, I would like to say this. Paul Newman was not just a great actor/race car driver/race team owner/food stuff guru/child with terminal illness camp owner/humanitarian whom all rich people should aspire to be like. He was an honest to God, Good Man. This is not a term I throw around lightly. I believe in old fashioned ways and old fashioned actions. When someone is a Good Man they are, hmmm, they are themselves, on purpose. They are not fake, and they have character, understand just moral code and adhere to it. They have their faults and they are the first to admit them. But when the choice is theirs, the right thing will be done, whether they like it or not. I try to be this way, sometimes it just generates a lot of extra work, but if you're going to do something, you should do it right the first time, or you should stay away from it.
something to think about, A guy at work once told me "an old chinese proverb, perfection is a waste of time" and if you look at the crap they produce, I believe they believe it.