Bike Shop Manager for an Oxford Bike Shop
Client
Bike Shop Manager – Bainton Bikes
Overview
Development of a bespoke CRM system for a bike shop in Oxford. All sales, repairs, stock and technician data is maintained through this portal giving staff and managers a single source of data to keep them up to date with what tasks they have and how well the shop is performing.
Budget
£££
Services
- Bespoke Portal Development
- Website Hosting
Highlights
Bespoke portals always bring something new to work on and this was no exception. Upgrading a previous CRM system that was slow, difficult to use and often found to be broken the main goal here was to ensure the system was user friendly and useable which is what we've achieved. The portal is used daily, across multiple sites and by staff that have varying degrees of technical understanding. To be able to deliver a product that has changed the way the shop operates is the most pleasing aspect of this project.
Challenges
A project of this size always throws up challenges. From the migration of the existing data to finding ways to improve the speed of data being recalled we had to explore and test a few options before finalising on an approach that was going to work.
As each module was developed we would discover nuances about how that tool worked and how different permission levels would need different access. One of the biggest challenges is being able to stick to the brief and not venture off the bike track into new paths. As the power of a system like this becomes apparent the desire for more functionality grows. Working alongside Kevin, the Bike Shop Manager, we were able to clearly work out what would be beneficial to add to a phase 2 list and how best to deliver the tool for all to use.
This obviously included extensive testing across all the key stakeholders, followed by an iterative fixing process. When you build a portal alone and off site you don't always know how others will use it which leads to problems that you may not have foreseen.
Kevin Moreland
Result
The only downside to a bespoke portal is that we can't give you access to view it. Screenshots are the best we can offer but it does at least give the sense of how user friendly the system is. The navigation is clear, the pages are laid out with just the relevant information required and a step by step approach is taken for data inputting and updating.
Managers have access to additional tools and an ability to update the settings. So KPIs for technicians can be set, daily and weekly targets along with reporting tools to be able to see how the shop is performing, which stock is selling and to highlight any areas of staff development.
The system has been extended to also capture waiver information for those on a bike holiday. Rather than using pen and paper the information is stored digitally and a link can be sent out in advance to be completed.
