A dealer's perspective - life at Oxford H-D

[Cloudy but dry]

Been giving Oxford HD a wide berth after several bad experiences there over the years, but popped in to get some bits an bobs for the mrs sportster as it was due MOT. New geez behind the spares counter was
knowlegeable helpful an friendly ( despite some bellend punter in front of me not having a clue what he was after) Had what I needed in stock. ( not the usual " we'll have to order that sir") Reasonably priced too.
So a big improvement.

Now, a gripe. Having a gander at the stock on the forecourt,
notced no price tag on the bikes, means you have to engage the
salesman with all the hard sell that comes with it , you know the drill,
"Come and sit down sir, lets see what we can do, coffee?"
My mrs is in sales , she knows all the spiel.

[Principal]

Originally Posted by Bridlad

its nice that a dealer takes the time to introduce himself & his staff, sounds like a good place for a ride out , 1st dibbs on louise tho

Oh no. Not ANOTHER one gazing admiringly in Lou's direction!

[Principal]

Originally Posted by paperplane

Been giving Oxford HD a wide berth after several bad experiences there over the years, but popped in to get some bits an bobs for the mrs sportster as it was due MOT. New geez behind the spares counter was
knowlegeable helpful an friendly ( despite some bellend punter in front of me not having a clue what he was after) Had what I needed in stock. ( not the usual " we'll have to order that sir") Reasonably priced too.
So a big improvement.

Now, a gripe. Having a gander at the stock on the forecourt,
notced no price tag on the bikes, means you have to engage the
salesman with all the hard sell that comes with it , you know the drill,
"Come and sit down sir, lets see what we can do, coffee?"
My mrs is in sales , she knows all the spiel.

Glad we had what you wanted. We've got a mountain to climb in our Parts Dept., which is exactly why we've added Neil to the team. At the moment, our stock mix is not good, and it'll only improve as we sell out of the older stuff, but we'll get there.

OK, we've tried a period not pricing our used stock, and we've pretty much decided to go back to pricing the bikes. Small practical issue is we have to devise a weatherproof pricing system, because until our re-build, we have to keep most of our used bikes outside.

Hard sell. Hmm. Don't think my team are "hard sellers". Yes, we have to get into formal stuff as we're regulated by the Financial Services Authority which means we have to adhere to some strict procedures, but I don't believe you'll ever get the hard sell from any member of my team.

Now, if you encounter me playing salesman, it might be different.........

[Oxtaff]

Originally Posted by Principal;508565
[B

Richard Mathews, Valeter.[/b]

Simply the best valeter in the business. I've not met anyone who takes as much pride in their work as Richard does. Road King owner.

We've also got 4 part-timers who do jobs like van driving, a bit of valeting, running our coffee bar at weekends and helping out Kirsty with clothing on Saturdays.

So, that's the team. A good bunch of people that I'm generally very proud to have on board.

John

I can vouch for that statement, Johns' usual comment is that Richard is in charge of the Pigs Ear - Silk Purse Dept. I reckon he could put a shine on top of HOGManiacs shiney Sportster!

yeah but im actually quite handsome, unlike these toothless old gits on ere

Originally Posted by Principal

Oh no. Not ANOTHER one gazing admiringly in Lou's direction!

[Moley]

Popped in today - but you were closed

Forgot to check opening times, I think I must have been there about 3:15 or so. For some reason i thought Sunday closing was 4:00.

Had a peek through the windows, some nice stuff in stock from what i could see.

"Interesting" speaking security device - if that's what it was. Had my nose up at the window and a loudspeaker rattled something at me, impossible to understand what it was saying. Poor chap on a learner bike was getting instructions from his teacher & nearly fell off in shock

[Principal]

Originally Posted by Moley

Popped in today - but you were closed

Forgot to check opening times, I think I must have been there about 3:15 or so. For some reason i thought Sunday closing was 4:00.

Had a peek through the windows, some nice stuff in stock from what i could see.

"Interesting" speaking security device - if that's what it was. Had my nose up at the window and a loudspeaker rattled something at me, impossible to understand what it was saying. Poor chap on a learner bike was getting instructions from his teacher & nearly fell off in shock

Moley,

All very well for me to introduce the team to you all, but letting you know when we're open would have been a good idea too! Sorry.

We open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm.

We don't open on Sundays or Bank Holidays, except for special events. (In the old days, Sundays were 10 'til 3.)

Security device is just a monitored cctv system. We asked the operators to keep a special eye open for a few days as we were flooded out on Friday and we were just worried that we might be a little more vulnerable than usual.

This is some of the crew and a few volunteers coming to the end of mopping up 4" of flood water from our showroom on Saturday morning. The old geezer on the left is yours truly.

John

[Moley]

Originally Posted by Principal

Moley,

All very well for me to introduce the team to you all, but letting you know when we're open would have been a good idea too! Sorry.

We open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm.

We don't open on Sundays or Bank Holidays, except for special events. (In the old days, Sundays were 10 'til 3.)

Security device is just a monitored cctv system. We asked the operators to keep a special eye open for a few days as we were flooded out on Friday and we were just worried that we might be a little more vulnerable than usual.

This is some of the crew and a few volunteers coming to the end of mopping up 4" of flood water from our showroom on Saturday morning. The old geezer on the left is yours truly.

John

Thanks John,

I'd have thought Sundays were a prime opening day? Lots of bikes about in the area on a Sunday, Fox's diner always has a few Harleys kicking around.

I've seen some retail intelligence stuff in the past that said Sundays were the big "browsing" days for high ticket items with actual purchases being made during the week.

Sorry - not trying to tell you how to run your business, just an observation!

Nice Springer in the window with the "guvnor's bike" swinger on it

Actually quite looked the look of that K1200S too, have had my eyes on one of those for a while

[Principal]

Hi Moley,

Sunday opening was a difficult one. The other 4 bike stores in the Blade Group stay closed on a Sunday, but for us, the deciding factor was the disruption that it caused mid-week when giving staff time off to compensate for them giving up their Sundays. We've sold 106 new Harleys in the first 6 months of 2007, against our best-ever first half-year performance of 74 back in '05, so it doesn't appear to be detrimental to us.

However, this is what we're doing now, and there's nothing to say it'll always be the same. I'll always try to make the right decisions for the business, without forgetting that I need to keep the staff on-side too. After all, without them, we're stuffed!

If the guv'nor doesn't take his Springer away soon, and it's an '07 CVO by the way, I'll sell it out from under him!

John

[Moley]

You should sell the Springer - make some space for the '08 CVO bikes, lol.

I must admit I quite fancied the '07 CVO Dyna more than the Springer but it does look nice in the flesh.

I hear what you are saying about Sunday opening. Good to hear you are looking after the staff, without them on your side you fall over.

Are the other Blade companies HD dealers as well. I noticed quite a few "other" makes in the second showroom window.