Spreading the Love

In each of our brick-and-mortar stores (six Trek Bicycle Stores), we have a customer database that tracks purchases and stores contact info. In that, we’re exactly like every other retailer who has a computerized point-of-sale operation. Why do they ask you for your phone number when you buy batteries at Radio Shack? Because they’re building a customer history profile.

We do the same thing (you can opt out at any time and not get a guilt trip, of course), ostensibly to accumulate a better base for our local marketing efforts. I use it in a perhaps-futile effort to learn our customers’ names. Over the course of days, weeks and months, a few thousand people come into the store. I recognize many of them. I get to know some of them fairly well. And yes, I even manage to remember a fair share of names.

For those who want to go fast, I invite them to the bloodbath that is Wednesday Night Worlds, if only to get a feel for what it’s like to really go fast. Last night, I accompanied two new WNW riders on their maiden voyages. Both had grins spread wide as the bunch rolled out of town.

Want to read the rest? Head to the Velo Jones Blog … .