25Seven

Viewing the World from the Customer’s Perspective

This view is really difficult to see; there tends to be a bunch of stuff in the way.  Two occurrences in the past week reminded me of this.  Both of which had me reflect on some ways in which Seven Cycles works to maintain a customer—or user—perspective.  

The first reminder was a positive reinforcement of customer perspective—more accurately, user perspective.  I was working on a non-Seven project for, in simplest terms, customer participation recycling in a retail environment. 

Inventory is not Display

I read a bike-centric forum posting, a week or so ago, stating that Seven’s business model—just-in-time delivery, no inventory requirements, build-to-order strategy—would lead to an empty floor at a bike shop, and therefore no bikes for a customer to see, test, or try out. 

I guess I can understand how one might reach that conclusion.  Fortunately, that fear is unfounded.  I’ll describe the case of a typical Independent Bicycle Retailer so people can understand how the last worry a retailer has is the possibility of an empty showroom.  Some folks may be a bit surprised to learn about what it looks like in the back room, behind the curtain, of a typical bicycle retailer.  Of course, I will be generalizing--every retailer is different.

Business of the Year Nomination by Competitive Cyclist

I noticed that Brendan Quirk, and the rest of his team at Competitive Cyclist, gave Seven Cycles a big compliment by nominating us for "Business of the Year" in their 2008 Year End Awards.  I assume that Seven was the humorous nominee; regardless, we were in awesome company.

I'm particularly flattered by Brendan's acknowledgment of Seven because I am a big fan of his and I have a lot of respect for the business he's built at Competitive Cyclist.  It may be helpful to know that Seven and Competitive Cyclist are not business partners; Seven doesn't sell through mail order or internet sites.  If we did sell online, we would plead to work with Brendan.

I was going to provide a couple quotes from their post about Seven but I couldn't resist to print the entire paragraph.  I hope Brendan doesn't ask me to redact it.

Bikes. Wow.

This evening on my way home from work I saw a young girl riding her bike in the rain.  She wore a red rain coat and red rain boots.  I'm sure she didn't care about those items; it was her bike, and maybe the rain, that was making her smile.  She was having a blast.  It reminded me of how awesome bikes are and how lucky I am to work in the bike industry.

I learned this lesson long after I got into bike manufacturing.  I first got into cycling because of my brother, and then I was quickly drawn to the competitive aspects of cycling:  racing.  I certainly didn't have the connection that the girl in red seemed to have.  Don't get me wrong; it's not like I disliked bikes.  I just loved other facets of cycling more:  designing, engineering, manufacturing processes, racing, and making stuff with my hands. 

Comparing Retail Service Models

Seven Cycles is not a retail business--obviously.  Regardless, the sales team at Seven and I are very interested in retailer businesses and how the retailer environment is evolving.  

My interest is doubly strong because I worked at a bike shop for seven years--throughout high school and college--before getting into frame building.  My experience at the bike shop was an extremely formative time for me; my boss and manager taught me a tremendous amount during those seven years.

So anytime I see articles about retailer business models, I am always interested.  I recently read an article in Fast Company titled "Magic Shop". 

The writer, Alex Frankel, recently wrote the book Punching In about his experiences as a front line employee for some of the largest employers in the US.  In the FC article, Frankel compares the training and retailer service models of five of the largest employers--particularly for retail--in the country:

• Apple
• Starbucks
• Gap
• UPS
• Container Store

New Hire Training

Of course, most new hire orientations fall short:

• Gap:  "Starting on the wrong foot by showing us a video about the perils of employee theft."
• Starbucks:  handed out "Orwellian handbooks telling us to "Be Authentic"."
• Apple:  treats employees like adults; they teach them how to work together.  All through a series of podcasts and by shadowing other employees.

Seven Cycles is not a retail business--obviously.  Regardless, the sales team at Seven and I are very interested in retailer businesses and how the retailer environment is evolving.  

My interest is doubly strong because I worked at a bike shop for seven years--throughout high school and college--before getting into frame building.  My experience at the bike shop was an extremely formative time for me; my boss and manager taught me a tremendous amount during those seven years.

So anytime I see articles about retailer business models, I am always interested.  I recently read an article in Fast Company titled "Magic Shop". 

• Apple
• Starbucks
• Gap
• UPS
• Container Store

New Hire Training

Of course, most new hire orientations fall short:

• Gap:  "Starting on the wrong foot by showing us a video about the perils of employee theft."
• Starbucks:  handed out "Orwellian handbooks telling us to "Be Authentic"."
• Apple:  treats employees like adults; they teach them how to work together.  All through a series of podcasts and by shadowing other employees.