The "F" Word

You are about to finish up a sale of a new bike with a first time customer. You've spent about an hour and a half chatting with them, earning their trust, establishing credibility and making a good impression for the business. As evidence of the strength of the relationship you've created, on the cash wrap is also a helmet, some lube (that they'll likely never use), some lights, and flat change kit. You also managed to get them signed onto your email list where they'll get notified about group rides and events. For all intents and purposes, you've got all of the hallmarks of a long standing customer relationship, the type that keeps you in business. After you ring up the sale and are walking the customer out of the door to see them off, you have one more pointer to give them in order to separate you from all other shops. "Oh I almost forgot, we offer lifetime free adjustments and bring it back after 30 days and we'll give it a little break-in tune up free of charge..."

You wave them on, then head back into the shop to keep working on your service jobs. Upon remembering where you left off on the repair, you also remember what you were thinking about, so you resume both.

'I don't understand why my customers don't seem to place a whole lot of value in the work we do for them...'

There are very few bike shops that don't offer such incentives. I'd be willing to bet that 9/10 retailer's reading this offer "free" services somewhere in their selling process. "if you buy the rack from us, we'll install it for free."

I'd also be willing to bet that the average number of customers who actually come in to utilize these free check ups or 30-day tunes is concerningly low. When something costs nothing, there’s no reason to act on it.

The problem isn't that your customers don't value your work, its that you just told them not to.

Every justification for "free" sounds reasonable until you follow it to it's conclusion. Let's say you sell 300 bikes in a year, each one you offer free 30 day check and lifetime adjustments. So what you are offering is that you'll do 300 30 day checks in the span of that year. If each one takes 20 minutes, you are committing 100 hours of your time over the course of that year to doing 30 day checks. At the average hourly rate of $100/hour, "free 30 day checks" just cost you $10,000 in lost labor.

So what can be done?

Should you start charging for these services? Well, I'd argue that may be the wrong question. Whether you charge or not, the point is that these services have a cost, and when your customers understand that, the value begins to take hold. What I am suggesting is that we change the value proposition to our customers.

By the time you reach the register, the customer has already made three decisions: they trust you, they’re willing to spend more than they planned, and they believe your guidance adds to their experience.

You have established significant value to this customer only end the interaction on a soft note by telling them that one of your services has no value at all to you or to them. What happens when we tweak the phrasing a bit? "Thank you for your business; as a first time buyer, I'd like to extend another thank you for supporting our shop. If you can bring your bike back to our service department in 30 days, we'll pay for your the bike's first tune up.

This is a very important shift in framing, instead of the customer hearing that some of your services are free, which gives them very little incentive to utilize them, they hear that these services cost you money whether they pay for them or not.

This turns a customer into a patron.

This is a nice stepping stone, but what would be even better is to express the importance of service for their new bike, and convey something like:

"Tell you what, you bring the bike back in 30 days for a check up, and as a thank you for your patronage, I'll pay for half of what would normally be a $60 tune up." Now you've created a subtle and playful sense of urgency, all while establishing the value that you so eagerly want to instill upon your customers. As of 2026, we are holding on to a small fraction of the 40 million new and returning riders that got on bikes during the covid pandemic. Many of them may still be riding, maybe - but one thing is for sure: they haven't returned to bike shops in such numbers. As we try to reset the industry into a form that learns from the past and sets up a better future, it is worth it to put every interaction with our customers under a microscope to assess the value expressed and the value received. The future of our business depends on bike riders valuing the contribution their bike shop has on their lives. If you want to succeed in getting your customers to value your work, then the first step is to stop telling them its free.

Stop using the "F" word.