working as a mechanic for a World Cup team back in 2010. I’ve competed in races all over North America and been in the heart of some really successful race teams. Any team that’s successful has a dynamic like that. As time has gone by, I’ve been a strong proponent of bringing people in who can help us where we’re weak. We’re always honest about ourselves that way.” “Our typical customers are people who have been riding for years already, someone who fell in love with the sport a long time before.” Worldwide Cyclery’s first satellite shop is a testament to Jeff’s honesty. In the beginning, he explained, customers along the Eastern Seaboard of the US were “too often for my tastes not experiencing the same shipping times as those in Western States.” “Opening the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, location earlier this year,” he explained “was primarily about logistics as it allowed us to improve the customer experience dramatical- ly. We do a lot of shipping and while the California location is great for the Western half of the US, it left our East Coast customers with longer wait times. Pennsylvania is perfectly situated to give those customers a better experience with shipping times and it just so happens to be a great State for mountain biking. The Poconos are there an the riding and racing opportunities are huge. Many of the ski resorts there offer incredible mountain bike parks in the summer.” Jeff said that each shop, California and Pennsylvania, is designed with a kind of party in the front, business in the back approach. “In both locations, the front of the shop is a showroom; it’s all mountain bikes, gear, parts, accesso- ries and demo bikes. The middle of the shop is the work area with work stations where the phones are going off and shipping labels are being printed. The back part of the shop is the warehouse area where on one side products are being shipped and on the other side mechanical work is happening and bikes are being assembled and serviced.” He explained that everything gets shipped directly to either of Worldwide Cyclery’s locations before being rerouted to the customer. “Drop shipping in the bicycle industry isn’t very popular because it’s had a negative impact on local bike shops and often the customer experience. For this reason, many manufacturers won’t supply to strictly online companies. We do it all: online sales, store front sales, assembly and maintenance. We can replace your spokes or build the custom high-end bike of your dreams.” “The high-end bike industry is filled with great engineers and tons of folks who have a serious passion for cycling,” he said. “But the business side of things often lack a few key elements. We filled the gap in many areas, we put
cycling passion with entrepreneur business sense and ambition along with some technology skills. Really the biggest piece of the puzzle is how we utilize technology and data. We’re an industry leader in that regard. From day one we set out to challenge the status quo in the bicycle industry by embracing a far more modern approach to the traditional retail model everyone was used to. We have a full multi-channel approach from our website, store fronts, third-party marketplaces like eBay and Amazon all the way to the Worldwide Cyclery app. We wanted to establish a good sales presence in every sales channel possible and always be where customers were. We have our products available on every conceivable channel, which really allows us to be wherever the customer is and prefers to shop.” Focusing on customer service for a small business that does big business can be challenging, Jeff explained. “We are growing fast, but we’re growing comfortably. Our customer experience has only gotten better and we’re still able to keep all of our amazing reviews across all of our sales channels. The data doesn’t lie: our customers love us. We’re incredibly highly reviewed. We’ve got something that all f us at the shop can be proud of and clearly shows how we’re different than our competitors.” “To build an amazing company culture like the one we have here,” he continued, “you need everyone doing what they do best and doing it with a competitive desire. That means fostering a positive social environment because happy employees make happy customers. Our shop is funny, goofy – we even like to make our customers laugh. We have a lot of humour that’s built into different pages on our website. Even our email exchanges with customers take on a funny spin. If you ever place an order with us, you’re going to laugh and love the experience. It’s a young, fun, happy culture here and that culture bleeds into our customer experience very often.”
The ‘About Us’ page at Worldwidecyclery.com is worth a
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2017
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