Small Retailer gets Popular and Builds Customer Base with Customer Reviews

"Just about everyone that comes in has seen my reviews!"
Steve Taylor from Riding Way started his business 3 years ago with the vision to create a community and resource for all kinds of cyclists. From day one, his philosophy was always centred on the customer experience and as he says; "I don't sell bikes, I create relationships. Whether someone comes in for a $5 part, I see it as the start of our relationship – hopefully they'll become a loyal customer and even a friend. So that's how we treat people – as a friend. We are actually in the customer service business – we just happen to specialise in bikes!"

Steve joined WOMO's Happy Customers Program 2 years ago and hasn't looked back since. He was previously paying around $1000 per month for a Yellow Pages service and after getting no enquiries from that, he was fairly disenchanted with online advertising. He decided to give WOMO a shot though and says its been "one of the best decisions he's made for the business. Now I get customers coming to us from all around town – just because they've seen our reviews and feel confident that we'll treat them well."

When Steve started Riding Way, he was met with more than a few challenges; "Everyone said I couldn't do it. I applied for a bank loan and was rejected. The bank managed gave me a $3000 credit card and basically laughed and said 'good luck'.  It's been lots of hard work getting the business off the ground, but I'm so stoked at everything we've created here. The feedback we get from customers is amazing and we're now financially viable. I decided to do everything I could to make sure every customer is happy, and with WOMO, we get a lot of leverage out of that. It's not just that individual customer that's affected, it builds us this amazing reputation that keeps bringing in more and more customers!"

In this short video, Steve explains how his small businesses uses customer reviews to build a reputation that's attracting more customers and helping his business grow. He describes exactly how he goes about encouraging customers to review his business, why he's not worried about negative reviews, and how great customer reviews make him and his team feel. He also shares his apprach to customer service and how WOMO's Happy Customers Program has helped his business grow.

See the WOMO listing for Riding Way here.

Edward

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