just suppose that you got the top job at Halfords

[Norm]

Good question, shame you got 4 pages of replies with a few partially addressing the question, but most ignoring it and going off on a tangent.

I gave it a shot and hoped to continue the debate, but to no avail.

IMO, this is the first off-topic response.

Never mind, eh, there's always room for some condescension.

 

[400bhp]

is dellzeqq really David Wild?

 

[wiggydiggy]

Think, just for a second, before typing. And look at the potential....

Halfords is a big bike retailer. They're on more high streets and in more shopping centres than any other bike retailer. They do repairs. They sell cycle clothing. They carry a range of branded and accessories. They sell some pretty decent bikes - and some that are not so decent.

Now - it's easy to say that you'd never go in to one, but look at it this way - if Halfords was a good shop, a great shop even, then they could do more for cycling in the UK than anybody else.

So - measured responses, please, rather than put-downs. And bear in mind that they got that big for one reason and one reason only - lots of people shop there.

1) Invest in some decent customer service skills for all the staff
2) Keep the bike mechanic dedicated to repairs etc only and ensure he/she is knowledgeable

 

[dellzeqq]

is dellzeqq really David Wild?

you mean the man who once threw a scaffold clip at me http://www.e-architect.co.uk/architects/david_wild.htm

or this chap? http://www.halfordscompany.com/hal/ah/board/group/wild

Neither - but I was asked by some marketing/branding person what I would suggest to change the perception of Halfords. And my answer was the completely obvious one - invest in staff.

The really crashing thing about Halfords is that they pay wodges to run a race team, and sell really decent road bikes, but then don't have the spares and the staff to back this expenditure up. They've effectively turned their back on the very constituency that has made so much money for Wiggle (who are, in my view, even less worthwhile than Halfords), not for lack of trying or spending, but for lack of thought.

 

[Midnight]

...I was asked by some marketing/branding person what I would suggest to change the perception of Halfords. And my answer was the completely obvious one - invest in staff.

The really crashing thing about Halfords is that they pay wodges to run a race team, and sell really decent road bikes, but then don't have the spares and the staff to back this expenditure up. They've effectively turned their back on the very constituency that has made so much money for Wiggle (who are, in my view, even less worthwhile than Halfords), not for lack of trying or spending, but for lack of though profit.

They employ younger, inexperienced staff members because they're cheaper to employ. More experienced staff are probably looking for better renumeration than what is offered, and good, extensive training is expensive. You can't knock a company for wanting to maximise it's profit margins, but you have to strike the right balance between cost and service standards. It doesn't take a genius to trawl the internet, find out what people are saying about 'em then devise a counteraction to any issues. And from the repeated threads on this and other forums, time and time again, they can't be trying that hard.

 

[Zoiders]

They have put thought and investment in to it before and it turned into a dead end for them.

They flogged the idea to death, they failed at it because the market at the time was over provided for and still is now, it's not something they are good at or ever will be good at until they run a stand alone chain. Even when they do that they are still going to be limited as to what they can do sales wise because being part of a big PLC the share holders are not going to stand for the oiks on the shop floor being paid a real living wage, so you will continue to get spotty youths doing it instead of a paper round, they certainly won't spend money training them. They just might try and hire a few mechanics as a supervisors and pay them a wage reaching the dizzy heights of 14 grand a year - until they get fed up and move on.

It's all a redundant argument, they consider it to cost them too much to compete with specialist shops when it comes to the wages bill so they will never return to the Bikehut format they tried out back in the noughties. They can make just as much money without well trained staff because of their market position and they know they can get away with doing so - they will just continue to pile it high and sell it cheap.

 

[jack the lad]

I suspect that the top job at Halfords is unlikely ever to go to a cycling enthusiast for all the reasons that are obvious from many of the contributions to this thread. If you ran it as a business designed around the keen club cyclist market, it would go bust within days as all the other customers that make it the largest cycling and motoring retailer in the country desert it in droves.

 

[corshamjim]

Forgive my ignorance, but in general are any high-street bicycle mechanics (outside of Halfords) paid much?