A bike you have serviced before, and nobody remembers
A road bike comes in for a service. The mechanic notices the chain is fairly new and the cassette is worn. Was the chain replaced here, and if so, did the customer decline the cassette at the time? The customer thinks they had 'everything done' last year. The counter searches the till by the customer's name and finds three sales, one of which was a chain, but it is not clear which bike it went on, because the customer owns two.
The mechanic makes a sensible guess and moves on. But the guess shapes what they recommend, what they charge and what the customer thinks of the advice.
Your records follow the customer, not the bike
Most EPOS systems record sales against a customer, if they record a customer at all. A bike is not a thing in the system. So a chain sold as part of a service is a line on a receipt, with no link to which of the customer's bikes it went on. Workshop tags are thrown away when the bike leaves.
- Customers with several bikes, or families sharing an account, have one mixed history.
- Work done under a service price is not itemised, so fitted parts are invisible later.
- Declined work is never recorded.
- Frame numbers are not taken at check-in, so a bike cannot be identified reliably.
- Bikes sold second-hand to a new owner lose their history completely.
Advice that starts from scratch every time
Without history, mechanics recommend work based only on what they see, and customers are more likely to question it. 'You replaced that last year' is hard to answer if you cannot check. Warranty questions on parts you fitted are harder to handle too, because you cannot show when a part went on.
It also costs time. Mechanics spend a few minutes on every bike working out what has been done, time that a record would give them for free.
A history held against every bike
We build a bike history that sits alongside your workshop and EPOS.
- At check-in, each bike is identified by its frame number, with the make, model and a photo, and linked to its owner. Returning bikes are found by scanning the job tag or searching the frame number.
- Each workshop job adds to that bike's history: service level, parts fitted, labour and mechanic.
- Recommended work that the customer declined is recorded with the date.
- Wear items such as chains, cassettes, brake pads and tyres show when they were last replaced, so the mechanic sees it at the stand.
- A customer's bikes are listed separately, so a family's four bikes each have their own record.
- If a bike is sold on and comes back with a new owner, the history can move with it, with the new owner's consent.
| Bike | Last service | Chain | Declined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road bike, frame number recorded | Last spring | Replaced last spring | Cassette |
| Commuter hybrid | Last autumn | Original | None |
| Child's bike | Never | Original | None |
Mechanics who know the bike before they touch it
Your mechanics see the history on a tablet at the stand. Recommendations are backed by facts: the chain was fitted a year and several thousand kilometres ago, the cassette was declined last time and now needs doing. Customers find that easier to trust. The counter can answer 'when was it last serviced' without a search. And history for each bike makes reminders and warranty questions straightforward.
The history also builds up value for the shop. Customers are less likely to take a bike elsewhere when the shop that looks after it knows its whole story.
Would a bike history help your workshop?
- Mechanics cannot tell what was done to a bike on its last visit.
- Customers with several bikes have one mixed record.
- Declined work is not recorded anywhere.
- Frame numbers are not taken when bikes are booked in.
- You cannot prove when a part you fitted went on.