Running a bike shop with the phone ringing all spring

How long is your service queue in April?

How long is your service queue in the second week of April? If the answer is "two weeks and growing", you know what the phone sounds like. Everyone who pulled a bike out of the garage on the first warm Saturday has found the same flat, the same sticky shifting and the same squealing brakes, and they're all calling to ask how soon.

The short version: a bike shop phone can be answered by an AI line that knows your tune-up prices and your current turnaround, takes drop-off requests by your rules, takes messages about parts and test rides, and calls customers when their bike is done. It can't look inside your service software. It can't diagnose a creak over the phone either. To be fair, nor can you.

Turnaround is the question

Callers want one thing, which is when they get the bike back. You know the answer. It's on the whiteboard by the stand. The line only knows what's in its instructions, so in season you update one sentence a week: "Current turnaround for a standard tune-up is about ten days. Flats and quick fixes while you wait if a mechanic is free."

Thirty seconds on a Monday morning. But be honest with yourself here. A stale turnaround is worse than none, so if you won't keep it current, have the line say it varies and take a number.

Tune-up prices without the diagnosis

Give it the service menu. Basic tune, full tune, overhaul, flat fix, brake bleed, wheel true, and whatever you add for e-bikes. The line quotes those and says what each includes. It says labor is from the menu and parts are extra, quoted after a mechanic has looked.

What it won't do is tell a caller which service they need. "It clicks when I pedal hard" could be a pedal, a bottom bracket, a chainring bolt or the saddle rails. The line writes the symptom down in the caller's words along with the bike: make, type, roughly how old, e-bike or not. Assessment happens at the counter.

Drop-offs by the day

Most shops don't book service by the hour. They cap how many bikes come in each day, and they know Monday fills first.

The line can't count your bookings. CosVoice isn't linked to bike shop service or scheduling software, so it takes a drop-off request: the customer's name and number, the bike, the work, and the day they'd like to bring it in. It tells them the shop will confirm. One of you checks the day against the schedule you already keep and confirms. If your own AI assistant has access to the shop calendar, it can do that step.

Tell it your drop-off rules as well. Before noon only, bikes come in reasonably clean, no drop-offs on Saturdays in May. Callers don't mind rules. They mind finding out at the door.

Parts on order

These calls go in two directions. The customer rings to ask whether the derailleur hanger has come in. The line doesn't know what's on your bench, so it takes the name and the part and promises a call back, which is still better than a phone ringing out while you're truing a wheel.

The other direction is you chasing the distributor. That's a call the line can make for you. It rings, waits on hold, asks about the order, and writes down the ship date and anything that's back-ordered. You read the answer when you come up for air.

Test rides

"Do you have the gravel bike in a 54 I can ride?" is a stock question, and the rule from retail phone answering applies: the line confirms only what's on the list you gave it. For a shop that's usually the floor models and demo bikes by size, which is a short list.

It can explain the test ride policy too. Photo ID left at the counter, bring your own pedals and shoes if you ride clipless, helmets provided. And it takes a request for a time, so the bike is built, pumped up and roughly sized before the customer arrives. A Saturday test ride with no warning ties up a mechanic for half an hour.

The call that says your bike is ready

In April the finished bikes are taking up the space you need for the next ones. Every "your bike's ready" call is a couple of minutes you don't have, and half of them go to voicemail and come back as a call you then miss.

So hand those over. You ask for the call from your dashboard (or your own assistant does, if you've connected one) with the name, the number, what was done, what's owed and your pickup hours. The line rings, says it's the shop's assistant, passes that on, and notes the reply: "collecting Thursday after work". If nobody picks up, the note says so. It won't take payment by phone. And since texts from the line are limited for now, this is a call or an email.

Set it up in February

Don't do this in April. Do it when the shop is quiet, the mechanics are building floor bikes and the phone rings twice a day.

Write the price list and the policies into the line's instructions. The retail page has a starting brief, and plans are on the pricing page. Then call it yourself, as your most confusing customer. Ask for a price on something that isn't on the menu. Ask if it can fix a bike it's never seen by Friday. Correct whatever it gets wrong. By the first warm Saturday it's been answering for six weeks, and the only new thing is the volume.

Common questions

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