Customer service. Two fundamental words that, dare I say, no longer have much meaning.

Sadly, we Americans have voted for low cost over a relationship with our retailers.  This is painfully apparent when you walk into any large home specialty store (Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc.) and need to ring a hidden bell in order to get the attention of a store representative.  Personally, I find this aggravating; I am not annoyed with the people that work at these establishments, but rather that we (as a society) continue to help this propagate.  Instead, I frequent the locally owned Ace Hardware which is within walking distance of my house.  Certainly I pay more for my goods, but there is value in knowing my name and welcoming my dog into the store.  Our familiar relationship (and actual customer service) is certainly worth the small increase in price.

Likewise, automated phone systems provide the absolute least amount of Customer Service possible.  Really, the term should be changed to Customer Suffice since they are trying to placate the customer rather than give any amount of “service”.  Does my credit card company really think that I want to spend five minutes punching keys on my phone (because the “voice recognition system” certainly doesn’t work) in order to provide them basic information?  Do they think I am fooled by the fake America names of their overseas agents?  Did they forget that they whole purpose of a telephone is to directly communicate with another human being?  Obviously they know all of these annoyances, but they would rather cut costs rather than provide any real customer service.

[whew ... okay, enough with the rant.]

So … we hope that Renaissance Bicycles can uphold our own ideals of customer service.  We want to talk with our customers, we enjoy seeing photos of our customer’s bikes, and we know there is far more value in customer recommendations than any cost-cutting strategy.  Of course, this does sometimes lead to a bottleneck … we can’t always answer the phone immediately, we sometimes need a day or two to respond thoughtfully to emails, and we try our best to remember the details of our customer’s conversations.  Alas, we are just a small family-run business.

There is a second bullet point rant to this monologue.  Some of our customers have recently commented that the Components and Accessories sections are gone from our website.  Yes they are.  For better or worse, we have noticed an steady increase in competition from the discount online retailers.  In other words, some of the online discounters have picked-up on the increasing popularity of “retro” bike parts and accessories. Items like Honjo Fenders, Nitto racks, and Brooks saddles are much more readily available than even a year ago.

Therefore, we made the executive decision to move away from the small parts business and capitalize on our strength — building custom tailored steel bikes.  After all, this is what really makes Renaissance Bicycles unique.  However, you can still inquire about parts from us using the Easy Online Ordering form; just type in the parts you are after and we’ll reply with their price and availability (aka Customer Service).

As you might imagine, we simply cannot (and will not) compete with the Crazy Eddie’s Discount Bike Parts.  Yes, we actually know about our products, have used them on our own bikes, and can provide actual first-hand knowledge of their use / design / installation, etc.  But, we too often get emails saying something to the effect of, “but www.LowMarginBikeParts.com has it for $4 less.”  Yes, they do.  And feel free to save the $4 … but just don’t try to get any service or technical support (or god forbid return the item) after the purchase.  In other words, don’t expect any Customer Service.  That costs a little bit extra.

Once again, sorry for the rant.  But we guess that many of you share our frustration with the degradation of Customer Service.  And in our own little way, we are trying to do something about it.  And if you have a story to share, please do.  We’ll post it in the Comments section below.

As always, if you have comments, questions, or cuss words regarding our opinions on customer service, please let us know via email or phone.