Meet Your Customers with Aggressive Agreeability

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Brett Flemming

Tue, 8/18 10:43AM • 1:05:54

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bike, client, Fred, ride, brett, buy, mechanic, bicycle, shifting, middle-aged guy, hanger, store, service, shop, BMX bike, mountain bike, seminars, fun, experience, brand

SPEAKERS

Fred Clements, Rod Judd, Brett Fleming, Chad Pickard

Rod Judd  00:10

You are listening to bicycle retail radio brought to you by the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

Fred Clements  00:17

Welcome to the NBDA Bicycle Retail Radio Podcast. I’m Fred Clements I’ll be hosting today and I’m with Brett Fleming the famous Brett Fleming. He is a master mechanic and trainer who has at least 35 years in the bicycle industry and 15 as a service manager of a multi-store group up in Portland, Oregon. But his roots are farm roots I believe Iowa Brett and he’s not really efficient.

Brett Fleming  00:48

I was a Navy brat, dad wanted to give the Midwest experience too. So I was hanging around with kids from the Philippines and Guam and then next thing I know I’m in correction Ville, Iowa. More That story later. It’s not afraid. Yeah. So but I ended up there. So I went to high school honored. Yes. wonderful experience in the Midwest.

Fred Clements  01:09

Okay? You’re the owner of efficient Vela tools, which is pretty well known in the bike industry inventor of a number of products available through efficient below tools. The easy lift, the safe zone mirror, the right arm of work stand. Clamp,

Brett Fleming  01:25

right on the lap. Yeah. And

Fred Clements  01:27

I’ve known Brett for a number of years from seminars he’s presented and really it’s a pretty powerful message, a unique message, I think in terms of service writing, to how to turn your service department as a bicycle retailer into something special, or where customers feel welcome and nurtured. And which brings up the concept that I’ve gathered. Brett from your past. Aggressive agreeability is something I’ve championed. And I wondered if you might sort of giving us a primer on aggressive agreeability

Brett Fleming  02:00

Thanks, Fred. Here’s the perspective. I’m speaking if you’re a bicycle service professional, and even a motorcycle service professional because two-wheeled vehicles have such dynamic that requires high interaction, so we’ll take it from that perspective. Right. So as a professional mechanic, I was always trying to get hired by everybody that came in the door. And to them, I tried to submit a resume and treat them as if they’re the most important person in the world and make a show about it. And let them know instantly that they had the entirety of the resources of the company right to butt off, correct. Who would do anything for them? And when I saw that heart go to every single soul, the person digging cans in the dumpster that needed a flat patch, because they couldn’t afford the tube. He was right there for him with the same level of dignity and Soozee Azzam and fairness and I just copied him and I get emotional about it because it was fun and important, and people can die. And people have extreme joy and kids run around on pushbike. Isn’t that cool? two-year-old carving turns. That’s when I finally left retail. And that was pretty cool, wasn’t it, Fred, the joy can spread so many different ways now to try to everything, you know, the mountain bike crowd, you never want to ride on the road, fine, I support them, whatever you want to do, if your interest snooty, you know, $10,000 bike, fine, I support that. If you have no money, I’ll support that too, with a smile, because it’s always working. It’s easier if you greet the mechanism with kindness, enthusiasm, and support and let the client know that you really want to help them. And thanks, David, jack for that word. When a mentor gives me something great. I copy it. That’s all. The thing that was really terrible for me in school is I did ever copied I never teach. It’s really, really hard. And I barely ground through high school. You know, and I did it though. But in real life, you didn’t cheat. You get to say to the customer, how do I get an A on your test? Give me the answers now and I’ll just give them to you if I can because that’s what we’re trying to do here. With love. And enthusiasts and in fairness and why not because you’re trading a massive part of your life for money jobs are crappy. Wouldn’t I’d rather be on my farm anytime now because I got myself a little Lakeridge. Right. That’s more fun than a job and, but why not make the job as fun as you possibly can and that’s what I copied from bud Albrecht age 95. I checked in with him recently and here’s his answer, about aggressive agreeability. I said, bud, I worked with you for 15 years I’ve worked with grace for 15 years, but I’ll break the first 15 Jay gave last year 15 and amazingly Jean Osborn for a couple of years and by cracking between and he’s the guy that taught me retail professionalism and using technology. He was a retailer first bicycle guy second but holy moly. He built a beautiful store but anyhow I called but I said I gotta get it from your mouth. How come when I was there, in all the world where we say You know, sometimes you have to fire a customer and you know the customer You know, they’re just riding along and there they don’t know nothing. I never saw you disrespecting anybody button and I never saw you say, get the heck out of my store and never want to see you again. He was all Yeah, you just never argue with people if you argue with somebody, they get mad and you get madder. We’re trying to get hired. Don’t argue with people. Even scientific argument feels like an argument thread. Well, something bent the hanger. The law of physics indicates otherwise, force acting upon another person’s life. You know, I don’t all that stuff. But some Newton would have something to say about it. People don’t care about what Isaac Newton knows and what the whole, you know, the reasonable scientific world knows. As far as they were concerned, they’re just riding along. So I’m going to agree with them and say, yeah, that’s how it is, man. You’re just riding along and you’re just going into low gear or something where you’re doing that because it’s horrible. This is a catastrophic deal, man. Sorry, it happened. But you know what, sorry, it happened a bunch of BS. Fred, you know how my stand is on the hanger, don’t you? the hanger. Great everything. If a customer bends the hanger catastrophic Lee and destroys the derailleur, it’s your fault is the dealer. And if they did in the right dealership, they would say, you know what, Fred, you were right. The bike only fell over in front of the coffee shop. I didn’t check for the scratches as you taught me. Doggone it. And it was shifting funny. Like he told me and Doug did it, Fred. When I went into low gear, it went into this book, just like you told me and destroyed it. This sucks, Fred. I’m sorry, it happened. And Doggone it, you told me and he also told me it wasn’t gonna be a warranty, Fred. So here’s the deal, Fred. I’m kind of screwed. You have this brand new bike. So I have to pay full retail for everything. Is there anything you can do? Can you talk to these people and help me get a better buy on the frame? Or can you help me find a repair source or something like that? right because I know it’s no warranty. I’m not asking you to eat it, but could you help me right now? Just to answer that question as a human being, could you would you do that for me? Would you advocate for me? You know, as usual?

Fred Clements  07:10

Yes, we will help you. We will help you. We’re here to help.

Brett Fleming  07:14

Yes, exactly, exactly. It’s like hey, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, we make fun of them because they were just riding along when a hanger bends and allows the director to go catastrophic Lee and we’re the spokes and then the rotational force destroys you know, hanger sometimes the frames wheel that is an avoidable situation that has cause and effect it doesn’t just happen riding along you know, okay, it feels like that. So the client you have to honor that so it’s always like honored the feeling spread. The aggressive agreeability is if the customer is mad at the bike or if they’re mad at the company, get mad with them. That first set the alignment that they know that you care that Jeepers, yeah, I want to this sucks. I want to get back on my bike. I agree. We have loaners we can get you going. And let me deal with the baloney of the dealership. You know, it’s usually not covered under warranty. But let me go to bat for you, right. The words that you choose I could never illustrate this well enough in my seminars I patched together while having a busy crazy life.

Fred Clements  08:17

professional service writers professional mechanics, serve the client, not the brand. The mission is the customer. Everything else follows from a well-served customer don’t chase the money first serve the customer and the money will follow. Does that make them good and

Brett Fleming  08:35

correct but don’t serve the customer in the standard fashion. That is the rule. each client has to be viewed as if you want to survive in today’s retail establishment. each client has to be completely hands curated. Friday went in to buy a few but my local dealership in took to my new farm in Chicago, Washington. I call it the no sigh ranch. I got a little half-mile mountain bike loop I do each morning and then walk the dog in my stream and it’s wonderful. And the retail there is actually pretty darn good because they know it’s a small area and they can’t screw up because small towns so I’ve had some pretty exceptional experiences I went in to get to my mountain bike because I have thorns on my property and fixing flats all the time. And as a professional you should know even as millions and millions of flats that I’ve ticked they all suck in their massive massive barrier to get on a bike and riding for anybody for me or for anybody my crippled hands I think about the pain the change in tubes and I haven’t done it millions and millions of times but in the I go to the local bike shop and I want to buy it too It’s not one of them slime filled tubes and what the fattest one I can’t cuz I don’t like them suckers stretching out and I kind of gave him some specific information. And I said I would advise them SPD mountain to size 41 standard pleat, not SPD but that brand that type of you know, like a mountain fleet to different brands. I don’t mention that. He did it and I said I’d like the cleats roughed in and I think I really appreciate the threads grease, but I really want those counters to think bolts. I want the countersunk areas to grease because that’s the part that’s all creaky when you try to break it loose five years now in Oregon dust. So it was fun because they said that’s how we do it. And they were really agreeable, right. And then the best thing was Fred, you won’t believe the bike. They had a chrome connector with GM grips and pure GM tires. Right? You get the pictures that were there doing that where the GM rubbers remember like the brake hoods of diet calm. And Camplin, yo. It’s like that kind of GM rubber on the tires and the grip and had a free coaster. And I said to the young man, that’s three coasters on the 509 99. like yours. Yep. So they’ve never ridden one Can I have to get down? Can I try it? She said, Yep. He got into town. You can kind of tell like I can kind of say like, he can kind of tell that I knew a little bit about bike. And so then I said, What about this one bike here and I said, I want one of those modern numbers because I said I just have a lot of reasons why I want one of these. Do you have one of these in a small because you know I’m an odd guy. And so he said no but I get when I said I’d like to get one of them I just bought a bike for $1,300 tax included all in for everything and all kinds of cool stuff at full retail because he deserved it. And that shop turned it and it was warm and inviting and welcoming and clean and the restroom was perfect and there’s clean fresh water to drink. And he was nice and he didn’t dampen my enthusiasm one bit but only allowed it to happen. And that’s what you can get from a tube to a multi-thousand dollar sale and I’d never done it Eddie Grayson attitude. You know, but it was beautiful and couldn’t believe it Fred and I got the super bind you bite with a dog gun, dropper seat book. I love those things. They’re the best things in the world both to get yourself a BMX Park riding a bike in one second and like a massive turbocharger climbing unit and the next because I get some gravity money Place. Holy smokes I’m 600 feet in 2.4 miles, it can be a 1500 plus. And it’s just so steep. Anyhow, I’ll talk about that later. But see, that’s the new experience that’s available to me. So because of my bicycle addiction, which this is where we can grow our business with clients, specifically, you want to really do some compounding and top of line business, get people hooked on different types of cycling and running around on two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, I don’t care. And you know what I cried out loud. Fred, when I was climbing with the first time on my property, he’s got some clear cut and different prairies and stuff. So in the book I call Sun Prairie, which is 250 steps to the steepest part of my property. So it’s just like eight floors of climbing, and I was going up there on my mountain bike in the lowest years harnesses possibly could and when I tipped over as a 58 year old duffer, the steepest part of the hill, I cried out to words lithium-ion Because we need to embrace everything that’s available to help people have a Stokes time. Because if you were at my level, in my property in my area, you would think of riding a bike because it’s as hard as it can possibly be, for me to go up for pitches on my road straight up without switchback in it in the lowest gear, anybody I got the lowest triple the new 12 on the back kind of a deal. And that experience is available to me and you know, then when I played with that free coaster, do you think in the back of this old bmxers mind, I’m going to wonder what it would be like when I’m bored in my shop or trying to think of a problem of tooling. When I rally around my shop with a BMX bike, wouldn’t it be kind of fun at 58 years old to learn how to go backwards on the bike because a free coaster bike lets you do it. And I could watch some YouTubes and tinker around and then have you know minor blood trauma injury like usually happens on BMX bikes, but I don’t want that anymore. Anyhow. Yeah. So here’s the other thing with aggressive agreeability and like it’s mainly like trying to get hired. Don’t forget that you’re trying to sell your services you’re trying to sell you, because the Internet has all this other stuff available. But what I got at this shop, you wouldn’t believe it. The first time I bought my bed in the break. I said, Oh, we got this huge disc on the back. I don’t know why they put some 200 and some millimeter diff on the back of this monster mountain bike. So it had a sickness anomaly. So it just grabbed and I thought maybe get pine SAP, maybe embedded it in. I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt the company is like two hours on it. So I went to the shop and I said, Hey, I need to have you guys Marty just because they know who I am now and I never told you that. They figured it out a certain point. There’s three guys in the shot. It felt so good. Fred’s in the old days. You know, you’d go into a shop and get disrespected to some bald middle-aged guy and then got your bike that I know something about, like this whole situation. But they were really cool. And he after a while he goes, he said I figured it out. And then the guys in the back came out it right our plants in their shop. That was really cool. But I didn’t come in and say hey, I’m this guy in that Guy and I’m looking for a bro deal. And I said I only have two rules. When I shop with the local people I pay full retail for everything. And I don’t ever expect free labor or anything like that I pay full price on everything. Because as a community member, that’s great because we live in a state where we have a no-tech state right across the river. So in Washington, you better darn well be on your game because you got to punish the client or not. The client has beautiful roads and whatever we have in Washington because there’s some sales tax. So it’s beautifully collected over here, but you can go across the river and not have it well. If I choose to shop on this site, I better get something more for it right then Fred? Oh, man, I’m happy to pay the taxes. I don’t have to go into the city and back across the state line, the ridge that clogs up a little bit and I can have an experience and you know what, you know what he said as I last year, I said I love you guys. I said I got a local bike shop now and he said to consider it your third space or something like that. But then modern youngsters would say you know, so I go in there now and feel their way Water. And now I know I need an extra-large helmet, you know, setting a stocking cap under it. And they hooked up this brake pad problem, the brake disc thing and they did exactly what I wanted. I said that’s too big of a rotor for two-wheeled vehicles Give me something smaller. And there’s a cool spacer under the caliper and they said decent. I said can’t this cannot do that. And they said, yes, it can take care if it’s a different rant. Heck, no, I just want to go. And they said, Yeah, here’s this 180 boom. And I’m really happy with the rear brake on the pipe. Because when you’re going down the steep pits and your brake is grabbing, you lose all your security because you don’t want to get the tire and all of a sudden now, every time it rotating around, and you know, the thing about middle-aged guys, that is important to middle-aged gals or people that as we age, it isn’t about Guys, please. But it’s like the older we get the higher the consequence. So to support people, we have to enhance their skills and understanding of the vehicle as an obligation. That’s part of the safety package. In other words, yeah, you do the work, but then the human has to operate it and it’s not you. Those are some fun The mentals right? Have your work checked by someone the best test writer in the world is the client. You know, if you have a critical situation, I always invite the client in scheduled basis to come on and say, Hey, come on in here and your stuff and let’s go for a ride by your coffee. Because Doug on this trip would drive me crazy to Lady. Let’s get to the bottom of it. Right? And it’s just a little lubrication under McClure’s. You know, it’s just a little lubrication between she’s willing to do it, and it’s done. Because we did it together with her shoe on her bike, see, and that’s what it is. And when you have a victory like that with a client, say just you own them, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s like you own their safety and their experience. And you get to like say, How do you feel what is the maximum experience for you? I never wanted to over 30 miles an hour down the hill. Well, we’re going to make sure your breaks are top of the line because you’re going to right now remember that you don’t have Do it once because if your hands both get cold and you can’t do nothing, you might not be able to stop. So figure out a way to, you know, use one for a while and then the other to kind of give one hand a break and a shake, you know, but never be caught with him too cold to just grab a break and stop if you need to. But you keep using those breaks down the hill, because if you don’t like going over 30 you don’t like going over 30 now you know me, Fred. That’s just a little blip. When I’m on a hill, it’s fun and exhilarating to go fast down the hill, but it’s not my duty to try to transfer that enthusiasm to other people, right. That’s not how professional My duty is to say if you’re scared going down hills it almost makes me emotional, because you could get hurt.

Chad Pickard  18:42

Have you signed up for a ride a daily extended service yet? What are you waiting for? It’s the extended service plan for your customers that pays you your shop rate for extended service and warranty claims. rides are only available to NBDA members and it’s only available at NBDA calm

Fred Clements  19:06

A good question for you, Brett would be, you know, as a service writer, as a bike retailer, you have all sorts of people all sorts of experience level all sorts of attitudes good and bad. You have said in the past stop thinking that customers are doing something wrong, even when they are, it’s your job to manage feelings, and to deliver possible action. It’s not your job to be right.

Brett Fleming  19:30

Yeah, here’s a good example like words matter. And one of the little word tracks I’ve never perfected, but here’s as good as I’ve got. So let me let you in on a clue about shifting because I’ve really struggled with shifting myself until I found out the one thing that’s an absolute fact, if it makes noise, it’s something I’m doing, that I might be able to and probably can do differently to not have noise. And I can be highly interactive with what’s going on precisely when that poor chain being asked to ram from one raw sprocket to another. It’s tricky, and it takes technique and understanding. But Doggone it, every time I make noise, I’m a kind of a gearhead, I can trace it back. I promise scientifically, there’s some little tiny thing that I could have timed differently or pushed a little this way or that way a little better. And it kind of sucks. But this is part of the game. And nowadays, it’s a lot less of a problem because let me tell you that we can make it a lot less about finance than we could before because we have some really terrific shifting vehicles nowadays. So it’s easy to deliver a precisely shifting vehicle provided you know hangers or Street and things like that.

Fred Clements  20:39

You’ve suggested never argue. So that raises the question to me. What do you consider arguing

Brett Fleming  20:45

what is arguing? arguing let’s start in the kind of in the way arguing should exist in a scientific argument, right? You know, a hanger titanium hanger takes 70 kilograms and force them. That force comes from somewhere. Isaac Newton says so You wrecked it. You were not covering it. Right? It can be that simple, right? That’s the truth. The company’s not going to warranty it. You know in the way I know it took 70 kilograms force when I knew that how fun it was to do the garage-style inventor and meet the engineering team met some guys with Shimano when I said I invented the derailleur hanger that they patented it ultimately and I said this titanium hanger take a lot of force to the to Leslie’s tongue. And the engineer from Shimano said yes 70 kilograms. I laugh I don’t know how you know that but it’s mass and respected. Don’t be you know, buggering up the argument even scientifically like, well, something dentist lady, you know, and it’s not covered. We’re still not going to cover it. Whatever, you know, none of that stuff matters to someone. So, but arguing would be well, you anything that makes him feel bad to hear. Let’s put it this way. It’s all about feelings for me because I’m trying get hired. And nobody wants to give money to someone that’s mean to them or not nice and inviting and helpful. So instead of like defining what arguing is, just say, I think I can kind of sum up how by Trump interaction. If someone walked in and you’re, you know, like, I was playing with some ladies that I was with two ladies that one of them is 50 and her sister similar age, and I said, Okay, usually ladies walking the bike shop, what’s going to happen? You know, someone might say, Oh, you need a cruiser hybrid. You know, and yet I say how did they not know that you were like, near bronze level, you know, swimmer or you know, downhill mountain type champion. They just can’t guess the people by that’s the first thing you never ever, ever do. Ever, is just people, you know, around because I went into a name the names of bad ones. I went into an Italian motorcycle dealership that very famous I was really curious about the WBC or some other brand of the airbag, you know suit, full airbag suit for motorcycle and you know how am I motorcycles? I got a few. Me and Fabio, he’s done the gorge. That’s my big joke. He owns property about 30 miles from me. Hey, you have a lot of motorcycles too, but, but I was under the suit in the dealership that cost $5,000 that I probably could afford. I wanted and I heard a compelling argument. And it meant the EBT could go on and case by off on one of my machines and airbags maybe save me and some guy sells me that argument. I would have bought it that day. But instead, I saw the CarsGuide Burton with the espresso lady. And then I stood under every gleaming Italian jewel with halogen lights. beautifully you know illustrating middle-aged guy. Yeah, six-figure income finally fit Nobody ever talked to me. Not even once. Everything was like I went now then it became an experiment of ignoring like, you know, I wonder if they would know. And then I had already driven upon an exotic Italian motorcycle brand new. I’m interested in this stuff. You know what, yeah, zero points for them. You know, and, you know, I had a heating and air conditioning person where they first started doing what I call like chopping the tree down one branch at a time. I walked up and is randomly showing me the ohms output on the Start capacitor for the compressor on a brand of heat pump to cheapest on the market. I just took it the garbage and buy a new one. So he’s doing that. Are you doing that? And he was checking the fuses on a 220 line? Well, if it was running, and it’s too funny, even one fuse out it wouldn’t have been run. And so why are you checking the continuity on the fuses and he was training some young guy and they were 15 minutes early. That made me mad. They said that 843 or 743 they said it’ll typically come early. And I said, Well, how early Are you saying, quarter till so that means you’re in my driveway, and I’m in my robe. You know, that’s how they started it all. Be on time. Keep your word. be simple. And then ask people what’s important to them. Ask people where they are in scale. Say, Hey, thanks for coming in. female clients, middle-aged, not racer body style. I don’t know nothing about you. I don’t care about your gender or nothing. Because guess what? Your hominid that’s gonna be dinking around on two wheels or three wheels or something. And I don’t know nothing about you. But I know a lot about bike and this kind of stuff and XYZ. And if you need some help with it, by golly, I’m the person right here to do it. So yeah, instead of arguing it’s like aggressively just say Hey, take care for coming in. Retail test these days, we have to make an impression on people. How can I just get right down to it and listen to you in a way that’s meaningful and efficient, and help you accomplish your goal? Now, I know that too cheesy and too tan, but that’s what they should feel right? That’s what I’m trying to push is the feeling that and I think

Fred Clements  26:17

you’ve given some talks on words to use. Do you have any words to use words not to use sometimes, you know, you don’t want to just someone has a need and you don’t know much about them. Are there some good words or ways to get into a conversation to know more about their needs? Fred, Fred.

Brett Fleming  26:38

You bring a bike in. This is like, hey, let me get to. First of all, I tell the sales people in the store to be scanned in the parking lot. They even remotely see someone coming in with a service bike. They dang well better get off of that internet. And run out there and say I’m looking for an excuse on this beautiful sunny day to get outside. Tonight. Hold your hands up. If you’re taking it to service, I can guide you to that awesome team and they’re ready to help. See, this has got a sticker on it. smartstore is that did you buy it from us? Yes, I did. Awesome. Well, thank you and can I help you with that getting into the okay with that? Sure. Sure. Hey, next time you load this in your trunk if you don’t mind I’ll give you a piece of foam that we use in that bites compact list and and we could put that on the lip of the trunk right here. And then that would keep it from scratching the bike you know for the occasional haul another bike if you do it a lot, you know, you probably would invest in the car rack eventually or immediately whatever you know, but we’re not talking about that just second let’s get this bike in. Just talk to the service soul you know and say Hey, tell me a little bit about it. You know what’s going on the bus is in trouble getting their truck gun it would you rather be out riding it? Well, yeah. Well, I was riding long and had this business right. Well done. done it. Let’s get that right if and if it’s anything made, let me just tell you how this works. We can do most of this stuff since you got it. My Thunder this You know, generous little situation, we really are committed to getting everybody back on the road as fast as possible. We don’t care about the rules. 30 days, this 90 days, that two years, you want to ride We are the barrier removal, folks. It has to leave here. I want you to know, we even have loaner bikes available. You have a routine. Some people have a routine, we’ll make sure it doesn’t get interrupted. You can live without it. You got others makes it easier for us. So we’ll figure this out. Now tell us what’s going on. And let’s see what we can figure out right? Yes, about words. You know him, right, Fred letson. We were not I in them. And the other thing that I really would like, whenever I talk about some little lesson that I’ve learned, I will respect the brands, if that’s okay, right? Because in the 60s Schwinn had a neat program in one of their books, you know, we could hear better if we got, you know, fresh in the horse’s mouth. But to summarize, they said when you build your service department, make sure that the service area is elevated so that the client like is presented into a workspace It is at an elevated level so it’s respected and important. So words matter and little teeny details matter. Like, don’t you ever hang a bike on a saddle nose in my store if you’re a professional because that’s not professional work, you could damage the bike that could fall off that you expose everybody to a lot of risks because you’re doing a lazy procedure because you’re not planting the vehicle securely mentioned in the BMW dealership as you know, we consider these cars on one forklift, Fred, check it out. I just shove a pallet under here. And I can get that BMW lifted with this forklift. Is that going to inspire confidence with the client? No, you know, it’s important to show them some respect. And if the bikes not we’re fixing you know, members. Let’s get doing my seminars where we just lay the magnet or the Pacific down on the floor in front of the service counter with both of us shaking our head like it’s roadkill. Would that ever feel good to anybody regarding Just have their station in life or the bike. No showing some respect and say, Would it be okay, okay, there’s a Pete Slotnick, when I give him, I can give you some great things A to Z, there’s the Z. Pete was a massive fan, would it be okay? If we put your bike in the stand. And when we do, because of these type of clamps that we have, we have to change your seat height to not hurt the frame, or the beautiful paint here is we want to carefully approach how we touch your product. So the other thing about word they have to be based in extreme respect for two types of property, friends, physical property of the bike, it’s theirs. You don’t have permission to touch my bikes ever, ever. You know that mountain bike did a drag do this trade show spread the only mountain bike I made for me with this decal of Brett blending on seat and back in the old days I actually had a million times on the seat tube who ruined the seat tube decal Pretty good, right? But there’s still some Stubbins of Brett Fleming on there when I built that baby in 1983 and I still ride it today. Well, if I sent that to a shop and they grabbed my already ruined decals and ruined a maroon deter that’s gonna really hurt my soul. Because they don’t have a right to. It’s my property, you know. So that’s how you have to have extreme respect for property, even the Pacific in the magnet. Oh, there’s another line, right thread. This bike ain’t worth fixing. Here’s the interpretation. I bet this bike got a lot of stories to tell enthusiastically presented right. And then Would it be okay if we put it in the stand and have a look and see if she’s totally a goner, or not? Sorry for the sheep. Have you seen a fan? Let’s look at this together. You and I both know this bike is dead. Can we bring it back to life in a way that works for both of us and is reasonable, right? Because I’m here to sell your service. I’ll take your money all day long to take this family heirloom. Hey Fred, members what you know, it’s a question I asked at every seminar. These are fun words. every bite mechanics horror, what we wake up at night, you know, the rusty magnet from the beach house that grandpa used to ride the dogs around the cul de sac. See, we didn’t know that right? So we know the rusty magnet from the beats comes in. And that’s bike mechanics are looking at that bike. And we all say, I don’t want to work on that one. I don’t want to work on this a Junker right, like a dead terrible bike is not worth fixing. Allegedly, right? So they come in and they have all three other shops in town said that’s not worth fixing. You know? So they finally bring it into my shop. And they say, Hey, we got to get this thing tuned out. And I say, yeah, alright, let’s take a look at it and see it’s pretty rugged shape. As you obviously know, hey, here’s the deal. We can fix this up to any level, you know, because my job is to sell your service. What’s the story on the bike? You know, tell me why you’re requesting the service search because I want to make sure that I recommend Something if you want my recommendation that’s appropriate to what you’ve got going on. Instead, I get to say it’s not worth fixing. And they say, Well, my dad died. And he had this bike at the beach house. And we always told him, he was gonna get killed on it, because we told him to get a dang tune up on it. And we know it’s not worth anything. But it’s dogs still alive. And it likes to go on the same ride and each house, you know, condominium complex deal and we thought hell would die if we ride the bike the way dad did. Can we at least pay these guys to make it so it can stop in the tires hold air. So we can take old breaths around the neighborhood one more time. So I get emotional and I tell that story because don’t mess with people’s property. That’s emotional. That’s mental, that’s physical. And there are so many blessings available to us. If we say you know what, we can never make these breaks safe. But if we put new ones on it will be safe. Okay, we don’t care. Dad buy it for hundred dollars and then Magna. We don’t care. Don’t you tell me I can’t have my dad’s bike, ride my damn dog around my neighborhood to see how it needs to be handled sensitive, but you can just so destroy somebody by disrespecting them and their property. So find out what the story is. And if it’s beat to death, to say a bit that by got a lot of stories to tell, how did you ride that far without crashing into something, man? That’s what I say to the BMX riders or something like that, right? You got to get enthusiastic about, like Pete Slotnick was another, he mastered another thing, get rid of the known time wasters. You know, the guy that has the 34 nine derailleur, and he wants to trade it for your 31 eight, but you already managed your inventory and you have what you need, right? You have the derailleur he needs it’s 40 bucks. Oh, but I only paid 30 for this one. And Can Can I just trade it and Pete would say well know, our inquiries, man is different than that. But here’s what we can do. I’ve got this one here, it’s 30 bucks. I’ll put it on the shelf back here. And if you need it, you just holler. In the meantime, I’m going to get back on this, because this customer is going to be back towards, he turned his back, smiling and walked away from the guy, the guy’s a deer in the headlights, and I’m watching my company resource payroll being used appropriately, because I want his payroll to go to the person that’s paying us. And I want him to process clients as efficiently as possible. And if there’s never going to be a deal, that’s how it’s going to be. There are really nice ways to handle it with this hyper enthusiastic smile well, and then he would finish it off by and that’s what we can offer. Well, I have it on the shelf, it’s 40 bucks. In the meantime, I gotta get back to this repair and that’s what I can offer. Turn around, walk away, and then the guy just has to make a decision. Am I gonna buy the drill you’re that’s just 10 feet. And pay the extra 10 bucks or am I just going to continue to irritate people in the world for that? $10? And if he’s that kind of a client that will irritate the heck out of someone for $10 then maybe we don’t want him but we can do it differently, can’t we? Now, Fred? Didn’t that seem like the way Pete did? It was like, you’d just be like, He’s so nice. And that guy’s gone. And he usually hangs out for half a day, pumping information, distracting McCann. So we have that obligation. We have that obligation to make sure that the time we’re building our bosses score is give them a good return on investment. How did I have a fun career? Not by being a bicycle lifestyle. I had a fun career by being the person that at 3am for three millionaires would be the guy that would could stapled the plywood to the window of the broken out store. The guy could write the check to the painting company because some guy clamped the stand on the guys beat to break $200 cycle art super restoration job. Whatever, right? That’s what I always was. So when it came to words, they always matter because unlike text and my emails when you know when you have a lot of people interacting with a lot of people. Now if I say that we fell short that, you know, some of these operations work out, but because of all that by gallery for instance, I facilitate the assembly of 10,000 bikes per year and 10,000 repairs per year. So, yeah, it’s hard to sleep at night sometimes. Are those breaks just tight? You know, is this tight? Is that tight? Always think about at night, that’s just like the stress of the surface manager. Is this tight? Is that tight? That’s all I think about at night. You know, one of our mechanic forgot to tighten the guys crank bolt properly that was left on the bench or something, he tightened it and then pulled it out for some other reason. It races up to the races. I got to tighten this bolt on your bike. I got to put the bolt back on your bike the arm was on and he somehow had the bolt on his bench. We got to go so race to crank fixing bolt. But similar type the crank was tightening. He pulled it off for some reason. So when he gets up the race site, second put that both in he goes Oh, cool I got plenty of time just finished Murray fitness training stuck on there with variable Oh, and I wanted to say the words matter Yes they do. And the other thing is we have to be hyper able to use our words to just invite people into a great experience. Me and john Friedrich you know, with this little you know SD scope crafter trying to figure out how to, like hey, we’re in charge of helping people have an experience, you know, like, I have a million dollars that one of these days on a nice sunny day. I’m going to take that free coaster bike down off the display at my local bike shop. And the owner Jess is gonna say she was there for a day Brett to like dig it Regent Street Gate Park is a skate park in my neighborhood is like world class and I would pump around or like the middle aged guy, no one would know that would they? Would you know that a middle aged guy workout best Evers get a super duper Park style BMX bike, and just go rockin in it. have escaped parked for a while just pump up and down the walls past an hour. It’s better than any stupid, you know, Stairmaster machine and then glass lined exercise places smells like people’s armpits. I’ll take out door on a bike. And there’s so many experiences to yet have read. I haven’t read a fat bike on Sam. haven’t read that bike on snow. I haven’t ridden a track bike on a track. Right. And so that was what I was gonna say. If we can facilitate go at all these different levels like hey, road bikes are cool, too. You know, I live in a motocross super town, Michigan, Washington, where my little farm is has the wushu go motocross nationals. I’m really into motorcycle too. And I have the motorcycle guys trained on bikes so it’s highly respected. And you just have to, you know, to push on the pegs and do what you need on a motorcycle. Where are you going to get that beautiful exercise, you know, so I’m having fun riding bikes and motorcycles in this wonderful area. And as soon as I moved to my farm, I wanted a new mountain bike with a dropper post. Because technologies are weird Fred and I told these youngsters at the store, I said, Do you see these pebbles on the site? I couldn’t afford the petals. And I got some current st pebbles, which are kind of the same really low profile mountain petals with all the pins in there and everything. And I also have these shoes called 510. But here’s the thing. They’re usually for, like, mountain bikers are serious with flat pedals with pins, right? And they’re phenomenal. But here’s what the kid said. That was right. He said, issues feels like clipless. And the young man was right. So then a middle aged guy, of course, you would want to buy the top of the line, you know, flat pedal type mountain shoe, because they afford all the same thing they do for the person looking for the high performance, but also protection. And, you know, the wonderful adhesion of the shoe to a pin thread. It’s so confidence inspiring. So the thing is, if you’re a middle aged guy like me that has a super fear of blunt trauma, injury and concussions and stuff, I just I want to know if there’s something that I can get That can help me from having that again. So those are some fun things. And then why shouldn’t you share that with every middle aged person? If you have a bike, I don’t care if it’s your grant, if your mother Fred, that’s riding a bike to the store, I might not put the pins up all the way. But she says, It’s raining here in Portland, my feet are always flipping off these pedals. And I’m a serious cyclist. I never want it to happen again. Well, Doug on it, maybe we could invite that opportunity, right? Like a guy like me, you’d never think that if I walked in your store. The bike that did it most for me was a Chrome, BMX bike was a free coaster, and gum tires, gum grip, I would buy instantly just for the look. But you’d never know that about a middle aged guy. So that experience, it’s the range of stuff that we want to share with our clients like, Hey, no matter what you choose to do, we’re going to honor it and support it even if it’s what we don’t do. So for instance, at bike gallery, we were in a big sophisticated bike town with our clients, all people and it’s just weird. There’s so much knowledge and so much opportunity to Dink around with bite, Chuck. Well, we weren’t Particularly committed to doing a great job with recumbents. Because we knew we couldn’t we sometimes would bring some in. But it’s hard when the staff, you know, universally aren’t perfectly knowledgeable. So we very often did referral to a place called Coventry. So we really, you know, did something like that, or if someone needs to, here’s another wonderful thing. Like, here’s how you interact with another bike shop, a client needed to camp peg parts. I said, Hey, I’d call up river city. Hey, Brandon, do you have a certain, you know, spring for this particular thing? He says, Yes, I do. Can you please hold it to this client? And they come in? Yes, I can. Right. That’s the kind of professional interaction I enjoyed for years. But when you do that for clients, but you also have it already set up at the other store with a friendly agreeable person, you know, to make and maybe spend less time there I keep coming back to you. But you know, it’s so funny when I bumped into Brandon because we our career spanned like a long, long time together as big competitors in the same town right. Top service managers of the top two shops. every interaction I had with him was like that and way Dave Ramsey’s operation is like, so fun to see how different shops achieve success. And that’s what’s fun about life business spreads. However, you’re doing it out there is fine, but just here’s the run world. Don’t be dirty. You know, can I talk about life in previous threads? Tell me when it’s appropriate. Let me make a crazy statement. I buy the tea drips off john Burke’s toilet in his basement. And I’ve seen Mike senior bear but a lot. Now, how did that happen? Well, because, you know, I worked for a big truck dealer and you know, I was able to enjoy some time in John’s backyard. And he has a wonderful home on the lake. And just like any other place when I went to the wonderful bathroom in the basement, I did my business and wiped off everybody else. He dropped just like I would because that’s how I live in the world. You know, and I don’t care. And then Mike dinner Do you know when I did some consulting for specialized, he was in that room ride bikes like every single day. Man in that locker room, you notice them getting the shorts on and going for a ride experience in the product. You know, it’s like, hey, let’s not all fight, we can all fight. You know, one the other. Everybody’s on the mission. And guess what the client don’t know nothing about these fights you silly people’s. You shouldn’t stand front. We can’t identify with brands, we are not brand aligners, we say here’s the brands we have chosen for these reasons. But once you get them, that’s where we can really shine. Once you get this stuff. See my job has always been once they have this stuff, right? It sucked. How did my skills grow? And how did I become a tool designer? Because I saw a lot of stuff getting ruined. I worked at a big operation I saw way too many frames the implant way too many saddles being altered and hopefully put back if you alter a saddle for the purpose of clamping ask permission from the client first. Then when you do ask them if the sight height they have is what is perfect. And should we record it and you know, make sure it’s put back in place, or do you need some help with that? Mm hmm. Opportunity. So You know, the BS of having to altra seatpost for the purpose of planting the perfect frame and the integrity of the finish surfaces is kind of a problem, but it should be handled first with permission then is it right and then when you do raise it turn it 90 degrees to indicate that it’s been grossly maladjusted for the purpose of servicing, which is like a jacking point. You know, make sure that we put it back to where we got it and everything we’ve touched we should improve a tune up in the tune up unless the plane bearing derail your police are swimming in oil and a little dust cap navy seal the industry required all that it required a very high level of standard and all the work that was done under my care. You know, here’s the thing when it comes to like bragging like who knows who and I, oh, I know this race or I don’t know any races and last night all the business people. I’ve been to the giant factories and into giant Phoenix and giant China factories in China, then the factories in Taiwan have been the you know, so many Shimano factory subcontractors in Japan. I don’t know the celebrities like the racist but I know the celebrity business people like I know how this stuff was made and what the barriers Here’s our here’s the barrier. We never received vehicles that are vehicle, they’re just specks in boxes. And we’re the ones that sign earnings the vehicle. So respect to john and Mike, two big guys, right? It was me that signed my name for them 10s of thousands of times, right? It’s like, I delivered the vehicles and signed the name that these vehicles were safe and sound. So that my bosses, my wonderful boss that really earned the success that they had, were protected and insulated from needs of mechanical and dangerous stuff. It’s hard. It’s hard to get 35 mechanics, you know, through seven stores and you know, like I say 10,000 transactions a year. We did really darn good. We did really darn good. But when we failed, it was so avoidable. Right. Whenever we failed, it was avoidable. You know, and by failing I mean, I had to practice for the third time and for the same problem the client has to see Brett, so I was the general service and training manager for the bike gallery stores in Port In Oregon, I started there, in 99. It’s a company that no longer exists, I can talk all I want about it and finance, I didn’t sign a nondisclosure that I can’t I’m not gonna say anything to proprietary, but when I started in 99, the service departments just limping along at the quarter million. And by the time I left in 14, it was 1.1 million with about a million dollars, you know, service payroll. So I felt really proud that we were able to cover the payroll in a service operation where the sales department, you know, gets what they get for free, basically, you know, assembly of the new product, and you know, support thereafter, right, and the use of the service department in getting the new product out the door in other ways, you know, pre delivery and post delivery stuff like that. So we just tried to make it legitimate up there. And you know, Jay did that was really cool when you’re hired yet tonight, the 99 he hired me to turn that place around and it was fun, because my first rule is say yes to everyone. When I turn a service department on I only did it twice for gene and the bike rack in Omaha. And for like Galleria in Portland, to say yes, everybody enthusiastically so and have a nice, clean, well stocked restroom that isn’t great. And try to have air conditioning that makes the climate more comfortable for the client. Those are the things I did in my life. You know, I gave a cool mechanic named Jay Z to the kid rather than being done BMX or drinking, but Dr. peppers and stuff made him look like a daggone mess that it’s hard to get hired, even though he’s the most amazing person in the world. For the client, like the most superstar like you’re the client jgs Anya, holy Look, you’re gonna have an experience, legit, because the guy just lives and breathes by. But I said, Dude, I want to get you hired. And I want to get you on down here and get to Dempsey, because you’re cheated out of so much opportunity because of that bias. You know, your smile, even though it’s kind of you know, not too great. After 15 seconds we don’t care because of your life energy bubbles. Ah, but get that handled. So that’s what I’m proud of threads that I helped mechanic get a set of teeth or, you know, hearing my proudest moment in the world was this. And it was at some seminar, I was somewhere for a company and this young mechanic comes up to me who you know, Those faces of the kids that never even lived on the street or whatever they might be 32 but they look like they’re more like 48 You know, he had a rough life. You could just tell, you know, drugs and street stuff at one point, homelessness. This is the later story, but you can just read a kid’s face, right? So he comes up to me all beaming and he says, Brett, you changed my life. That’s what he mean. He said, I’m 32 years old. I support a deaf wife. And deaf people are discriminated against. It’s hard for them to find employment. I’m proud that I can do that in the town I live. And we have a baby on the way and have a successful bike mechanic for four years or so at this shop. And it’s because of you. That’s what he’s talking about it. He said, my bosses went to one of your seminars once never young, starting the business and I remember him hadn’t even opened it yet, but they’re ready to and they were bright eyed and excited. And they said what can we do to really be successful, the best thing We can find a mechanic, you knew from an unlikely source like maybe a high school dropout or that usually you want to have some follow through, or maybe a kid that’s had a rough life or maybe it’d be a nice kid especially because if you find a BMX head type headset that’s, you know, just even from an unlikely source, find them and develop them because it’s going to take about five years. And then when you lay down your head at night, you know, then brake levers are tight. And, you know, the brake band was tightened on the coaster brake. And that if you really needed to, someone would go staple a piece of plywood over the Windows Store if you were in France, right in your dream, right? Because if you invest in them, they’ll have your back in a really great way. You know, they’ll give you loyalty. And so they took that advice and hired this chair and developed him and buys him every tool he needs and gives him a good salary and benefits and I’m proud of that. I don’t know any fancy celebrities. I don’t even remember the name, Fred. But there’s the moment that I’d love to brag about that I convinced the shop to say Holy crap, these little dirt bags, they got our back, treat them with respect because they don’t have any tools or engineering or nothing. They don’t have vehicles within the engineering protocol. We can’t plug these into a computer. No one tested, the drive trains, the brake, like crazy fluids worked out everywhere, or doesn’t. You know, it’s hard. We get no labor for what we do. We’re scratching out there on our own. So give them every resource, don’t cheat them out of tools and equipment, availability of you know, find an information they need to not screw up your customers work. It’s all about that, like you know, what I’m most proud of is 10s and 10s of thousands of invoices where I took people’s money under official banner when the business hours were open, as representative of the top examples of the brands, you know, you mentioned, you know, I was the factory factory mechanic, I had dialogue, you know, with our biggest vendor for years and years with Jeff G. And it’s like he knew who I was. He knew that if I presented something, I was competent. They didn’t treat me terribly, they really, I knew that the company that I was dealing with back here in Wisconsin, and ultimately had the clients back, you know, they really hooked me up most the time, like most of the times I’ve done it, and then that was really awesome, because then I didn’t have to worry the client didn’t need to know whether I’d get hooked up on the backside. I just said, Listen, we got to get you back out there riding again. You know, when I used to open up the training seminar bike gallery, this would be like 100 people at the no annual dealer, not that many, maybe 80. Whatever, and I get to say some, I’d say who’s the newest person here. Some poor little 19 year old dog from read or something. Raise Your Hand me the you know that right now you could if a client needed a 62 centimeter high end, you know dirt equipped road bike because there’s there’s something even lesser was being warrantied you could loan them Jay graves his bike, go to his office and to take give it to them, you know that one that signed by the you know, most world famous guy. You could give them that bike and loan it to him so he could keep riding to train for that ride that’s important to him. Did you know that you’re empowered to do that on day number one? No. I said, Jay, is that true? And he’s shaking his head. Yes. Because we have no funner time in the whole world and finding some crazy ridiculous solution to keep that plant going uninterrupted in an enthusiastic supported way where we didn’t make it hard for them. You know, that? Yeah. Don’t argue with people like they Hey, it’s hard out there. Yeah, shifting tricky. thing is really tricky. If you’re open to it, I can give you some of the stuff that I learned to make it better for me anyhow. And if that works for you, and you’re open to it, I’d share that. Otherwise, you know, here’s some things you know, that I found on the bike, because it isn’t all about you. I found some stuff. Check this out. I figured out this table tension here. Here’s the thing, clients, everybody listening to this professional. If a customer comes back to your store to turn in adjusting barrel fix shifting, you are delivering a high low, low, low, low, low level of competence in your service department. Because that my friends, notice the shape of it. It’s made for the client. The adjusting bear was made for us when I bought my bike. First thing I did is Dink around with my reach adjusters on my $4,500 retail mountain bike. Because I can’t and I know that it needs to be you know, so this stuff has to be you know, carefully managed.

Chad Pickard  54:54

Your NBDA membership helps support bicycle retail radio. Go to NBDA.com to join or renew your membership today.

Fred Clements  55:08

Sort of a final question. I think we’re sort of getting towards the end. But you’ve worked in a multi-store chain at the bike gallery, you’ve worked in other large stores. How do you get buy-in? You mentioned you have training for your staff, you know, you have what bicolor had five or six locations, I think and what do you do as a manager to assure that each of the locations each of your people is kind of into what you’re thinking and sort of up to speed.

Brett Fleming  55:36

You fired the people that have ever had feedback that read like I felt disrespected and not listened to. Because there’s always going to be, you know, one or two of those that have been allowed to stay along too long because of competency. So at any given time, there were people sorry for when you got fired. It wasn’t a random event. It was with deep heartfelt discussion and sadness, sadness that people I couldn’t figure out how to engage with clients respectfully but so I just tell stories of how important this is to people. You know, like, Oh, I’d love the whole thing where I could just tell the story. But you just don’t know what a bike is doing for someone so enthusiastically approach every single one. As if they’re the most important person in the world that even the boss himself would come out and do this for you and make sure that it really was okay and wouldn’t send a survey later would be right at the table. You know, it kept a couple years ago we went to this nice family Italian restaurant. Oh my gosh, neat. because it’d be exact right point. The chef comes out and checked in with everybody in an earnest way. It’s very interesting with tomato sauce for a friend and you know, it was just so beautiful and the way the waiter interacted with the disabled girl, but Oh, would you like your? She said, you know, what would you like today, and she wasn’t able to Respond the disabled girl. So without a heartbeat, the server said, well, we’ll give you your regular. And that was one perfectly How can you be that good in so few seconds, you know. And you know, and when Oh, here’s the other thing, when a customer called us the same restaurant to the over busy server, and said, what you put in the bag wasn’t what I wanted. I want to say it’s not a soup and a salad. And she had the order down and everybody knew they ordered a salad. But when he got home, somebody was mad, and they both wanted to. So in a microsecond, all she said was no problem. I’ll get the order in right away. You know, no problem. I get the new order and right away, like instantly, we’re going to get you the food you want. We’re not going to talk about what you ordered, whether you’re right or wrong. And I asked her about it. And she says, Oh, it’s too easy. You get into the people’s. You see this person wants to talk this person doesn’t want To talk, I said no lady is not easy. It’s highly sophisticated, isn’t it? And she said, Yes, it is. It is. Some people want to be chatty. And some people want to get the heck out of there. Right? And you have a respect to show, find out where people are. Hey, you know, I see, you know, one another word track visit. Do you have any time constraints? You know, what are your turnaround expectations? Before we get started? We’re a little busy, we’ll have an option for you. We will have an option for you. But maybe not the fullest option to get you back on the road. Does that make sense? Never say we can’t get that tune-up. Sorry. Go away. Are you kidding, Fred? This train wreck of that entire life of that human being that went through all of those things. And though Sam’s formula, remember the time plus money equals j plus m like, Hey, we’re selling time and money, but we’re selling joy, and accomplishment and success. That’s delivered by the Macan. So that was like a philosophy a guy named Sam, somewhere in Minneapolis he could get he said Brett after seminar, you’re missing one important points is all about opportunity cost. If someone comes into your retail establishment is given up what this economist can measure as literally millions of other things. That’s what I want to end this interview with Cincinnatus. Remember, if someone came into your store, they got daycare, they got parking they got scratching their trunk from having to bring that damn thing back for a stupid adjusting barrel that you should have done. Are you kidding me and empower them to do it. So hey, you can’t go wrong with these suckers. Just grab one of these adjusting barrels and turn that sucker till it doesn’t shift and then go back clockwise again and you’ll be good to go. You know or something like that some nice way of explaining how it works. You know, you’ll be empowered when I show people that learn cycle Oregon do these clinics. And when you show people that they themselves can adjust their shifting with a cable adjustment as simple as the barrel adjuster. I’ve never had a client That their bike mechanic told them that isn’t that sad. They’re out there riding, not shifting on a vacation because it’s something they could just stop and turn something to half a turn and try it again and turn it another turn and try it again, and probably be happy. And that’s all we would have told them. So that’s where the words matters to, Hey, where are you on the scale? Do you want any words or not? Because some of them don’t want work? I want it to buy 99 you need a press developer or trade USA you need presto trader, you can say do you need pressors trader? You know, the one like on the car, or the funny one, right? You give them an out? You never put that’s another way you argue with people that you put them through all these tests. Is it Presta Schrader now? It’s hard. There’s a lot of different sizes. Oh my god, I would never shop there again. I would run out of that store. Like Why are you scolding me? I gave up everything in my life to come into a bicycle shop. Which I love bicycles, don’t you? Why are you so mean to me? I’m sensitive. You know? It’s easier No wonder the answers do Amazon equipment shift retails a bunch of mean people.

Fred Clements  1:01:06

effect breathe. One of them on my notes here from one of your seminars was a quote it is unacceptable to be a curmudgeon. And absolutely, that was pretty good. But I guess we’re pretty much done here. At least I’ve asked all that I have you know, Brett Fleming Efficient Velo Tools, email address, Brett, with two T’s at efficient vello.com Brett’s done, as obviously speaking and consulting with retailers in his tool business is what pays the bills. So thank you, Brett, for being here. Anything you wanted to add, as we wrap up here?

Brett Fleming  1:01:40

Hey, we’re trying to get hired to help people have an experience that sometimes it’s a practical experience. Sometimes it’s a joyful experience. And don’t we owe it to them to just do a little bit of an interview? Like, Think of it as an interview? It’s like, hey, you’ve given up a lot to get here. What can we know about you to make sure we do Deliver you a success because we’ve got a lot of stuff available. Even the boss’s bike. I’m serious, man. If you need to keep riding, I’m going to take the boss’s bike, dude. I mean, you’re just chained to the situation. Right? I say, Jay, I’m gonna take one of your BMX bikes. This kid’s, like, just really addicted to writing. It’s his medicine, he has ADHD and, you know, otherwise he’d be in jail. You know, who knows? Because you don’t know that story. Do your friend. That’s the main thing. You don’t know the story. Gently find out and respect people’s property, both mental and physical, and say, hey, how can we succeed for you because I’d like to get hired and help you have a great bicycle journey, or motorcycle journey or whatever it is, you know, trike journey. I don’t care if I’m a service professional. I’m trying to get hired. And you know, maybe I’m trying to get hired in my own brain to facilitate a joyful experience of gliding through the atmosphere carbon running down a trail like an animal, feeling Fast Company The goal getting to work, it’s all good. You know, and I was so happy to have procured that type of experience for so long. And here’s the greatest thing. Bosses don’t cheap out ever, and I never had to I was fully empowered. The last story is a poor woman who comes in with a custom bike custom geometry and she’s like knee short. I understand short, women’s stuff a lot because I ride their bike. When I get to test them, they’re the only ones that fit in Yeah, she had this liking we had talked about total overlap in the bike cost about 30 $500 is not an expensive custom that is mostly the frame, but that’s pretty expensive. So the chocolate overlap was tested. She tried writing at once, and it scared her. And she became fearful of the bike and never touched it for two years. And she came into the store one day with the bike and she’s crying. I get these salts, which is I’m glad I get the socks because that’s serious business and I said, Hey, what’s going on? Well, I bought this bike and I’m spooked about it. I’m just never going to Right. Even though I understood it had to clip overlap, I didn’t know what that meant. And that scares me and I’m afraid to get hurt. I said, Well, I give you all your money back. What? Yes, they do. I don’t want that out in the world. And if we blow you away like this, and just give your money back and take this terrible, terrible feeling away, all I would ask is that you tell people how it actually went down. And then we can sell the bike and recover from it so I can make that decision. And I was honored to have been empowered to be at that level in my career. Like, do you want to brag about stuff? I’m glad I could. And the one lady just changing her shifter angle 12 degrees completely, remarkably changed her shifting after we’d struggled for five different visits, to give her success when I went for a ride with her, and with the same shift and she goes, Oh my God, if you shift gears It was like, heck, yeah, baby. Let’s go for it. And we went on a fun ride. And with that, I am smiling about what it was I did for a living Fred, thanks for allowing me this interview. Thanks, listeners, whatever, if yet you do listen to this and thrive in a city joyful place to try another wonderful new employee. She has a neat little dog, whose ear is that down just to match our worthless dog here. So I’m happy and it’s funny. That’s the other thing spreads. It’s tiny and Mount Hood is out and just gorgeous. So is there anything else I need to? I’ll shut up? There you go.

Fred Clements  1:05:21

Now, I think we’re done. Thank you for it. So thank you, Brett. Thank you, NBDA. And I think we’re out for today.

Brett Fleming  1:05:28

All right, thank you so much.

Rod Judd  1:05:29

This has been bicycle retail radio by the National Bicycle Dealers Association. For more information on membership, and member benefits, join us @NBDA.com

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After spending 12 years as a writer and editor, Fred Clements worked as executive director and vice president for the National Bicycle Dealers Association for 28 years. He then moved to Interbike in a retail relations role, later transitioning into consulting. He enjoys helping the NBDA with podcasts from time to time and rides about 3,500 miles each year on his road bike.

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The NBDA has been here since 1946, representing and empowering specialty bicycle dealers in the United States through education, communications, research, advocacy, member discount programs, and promotional opportunities. As shops are facing never-before-seen circumstances, these resources offer a lifeline. Together, we will weather this. We at the NBDA will not waver in our commitment to serving our members even during this challenging time—but we need your support.

Now is the time to become a member as we join together to make one another stronger. Whether you’re a retailer or an industry partner, your membership in the NBDA is one of the best investments you’ll make this year. 

Learn more about the benefits of being a member and join now.

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