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You never know when someone will join the BF fold - in Alaska, don't judge a person by what they ride, they could have a plane in need of a Bike Friday! Fairbanks Library, 2002. Photo by Tim Link.
SO HOW DID A SMALL company like Bike Friday manage to get the reputation as the world's leading performance travel bicycle, despite only scant retail presence and little or no advertising?
How does it continue to do so, 12 years and 12,000+ customers later?
Referrals, plain and simple. Good old word of mouth: friends telling friends, families telling families, and strangers telling (not for long) strangers in exotic corners of the globe where Bike Fridays are known to venture.
As one owner said, "When I don't want anyone to talk to me I ride my regular [insert regular bike brand here]. When I ride my Friday, everyone talks to me."
Then there's the high profile owners like famous English Voice of the Tour de France Phil Liggett, RAAM Champ Lon Haldeman, Bicycling Magazine alumni like Fred Matheny and Ed Pavelka of RoadBikeRider.com, who are delighted to sing the praises of their Fridays.
Bicycling authority Jim Langley says "the Bike Friday has changed my life. Of the 12,000 products I reviewed, it was the best. I knew the moment I opened the case, I would never be without a bicycle again." This is from a man who has not broken his 10 year record of riding every single day!
Speedy owners zipping past regular bikes in centuries, bike club rides, events and routes like the PBP, Tour De France and Cycle Oregon win over die-hard big wheel riders who often choose a Friday after being passed on a hill!
Referrals account for more than half of Bike Friday sales. A critical part of the puzzle is to make sure owners are happy. Bike Friday Customer service is one of the last bastions of one-to-one personal treatment to be found anywhere. As co-founder Alan Scholz said, "We try hard to do the right thing by our customers. Not always easy with our modest resources, but we keep trying until they are satisfied."
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Many folks stopped to quiz BF owners like Rosetta Lane (ID) and Nancy Ota (NY) during the week-long Pactour/Bike Friday Desert Camp. The Galfromdownunder shows how a Pocket Rocket Pro Petite (with fit stem) goes into the TravelCase.
How easy is it to refer? Opportunities will often approach you, starting with "hey, cool bike!" or "does that bike fold?" As Bike Friday is getting more and more recognized, a common thing you hear is "Do you like those Fridays? We've been considering getting one."
I work for Bike Friday, but talking about my mode of transport and travel when not on the job comes naturally to me. It's more interesting than religion, politics and lo-carb diets, and you can get into a lively conversation over big wheels vs. small (brush up here).
Last week, I was sitting a local cafe one evening called Sweet Life, in Eugene. Sweet Life is the local shrine to sugar and politically correct cakes (vegan tofu cheesecake et al). A man walked by and stopped to ask directions to the Red Lion Hotel.
Being geographically challenged despite 7 years' solo traveling ona BF, I shrugged. He was clearly not from Eugene - tanned, business shirt, an entrepreneurial swagger, big diamond ring ...
And being a traveler, I tend to ask knee-jerk style:
"Where are you from?"
"Arizona."
Arizona! I'd just spend a week with 40 Bike Friday owners doing the Pactour/BF Desert Camp.
I mentioned this and pointed to my locked up Bike Friday, telling him how I rode it nearly 50 of our customers. And that the manufacturer was here in Eugene.
"Here in Eugene? Well I'm here to pick up my Lancair plane which I'm getting painted with some nice custom stripes ..."
A private plane! There are many pilots who have Bike Fridays, both private and commerical, especially in places like Alaska and Hawaii where small planes are used to island hop - or escape to Hawaii. People like multiple BF owner Bruce Horn.
" ... and I've been wanting to buy a folding bike."
He'd been looking! But he'd never heard of Bike Friday.
I always ask people what brands of folding bike they know, and whether they're after a simple folding bike to ride a couple of miles, or a real performance bike to take you over the Tour de France route or cross continent fully supported.
"I've ridden some, but they're too ... " he put his hands out as if clutching handlebars in an avalanche.
Bingo! A Bike Friday would be perfect for him! What about one for his wife? After all, people who play together, stay together ...
"Yes, my wife and I do a LOT together," he said.
Ha! A tandem! What about the Q, the tandem that becomes a single bike? Or the Twin Air ... something to match the sartorial style of his Lancair?
I usually carry some referral cards, trifolds or a catalog, but in this case I said he should come by and at least visit the factory before he flew out.
"I'm sold. I'll come by tomorrow and buy one," he said.
People often say things like that and its variants, and it might take years to "come by", much less "buy one."
But at 08:30 a.m. Daniel was there, looking at models.
By 09:30 a.m., sales consultant Kurt Christiansen had sold him two bikes. One for Daniel and one for his wife.
"He was sold before he got to me," said Kurt. "Lynette had listened to his needs and given him enough of the right information and buzz so that all we had to do was spec components and pic the color. A perfect referral in my book!"
Naturally, I told Daniel about my book The Handsomest Man in Cuba. He bought a copy. I wondered what to put on the inside cover. Something like: Dear Daniel, Last night you entered the Sweet Life of Bike Friday. Little wheels make you fly. As the ink was drying I panicked thinking it might sound to his wife like we'd had some kind of pre-sale tryst. 4 years in the politically-correct northwest as instilled a bit of a paranoia in me despite generally opening my mouth to change feet. But it was fine ... I think.
Daniel chuckled, "I was going to say write something risque and give my wife a bit of a scare." In several years of knowing Bike Friday customers, they're a happy, healthy and adventurous bunch, and when both ride a BF, especially secure in their relationships. Is it all about the bike?
Daniel's parting quote, as he left to fly his plane back to Phoenix, AZ:
"That's the most expensive cup of tea I ever bought!"
But he had a big, tanned smile on his face...
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To order your referral cards call 1-800-777-0258 or email us at info@bikefriday.com.
Read about Margaret Day and other champion referrers ...
For more information, follow this link http://www.bikefriday.com/referralAwards.cfm.