Thank you to all our customers - we wouldn't be where we are today without you.

To show our gratitude, we are running a month long special offer. Throughout November we’re giving **20% off** to all our existing customers. No hidden catches, 20% off your bill – both parts and labour - and of course collection and delivery is still always free. Just quote the offer when you book – either by phone or online.

And – following the success of our last competition – **Win a years free servicing for your bike**. That’s right, collection, delivery, parts and labour completely free of charge for a whole year. You, our customers, are our greatest resource and we want you to tell us how best we can improve what we do. Read on or scroll down to the bottom of the page for details on how to enter.

We’ve come a long way from fixing bikes in a back garden. With a dedicated team operating from our fully equipped workshop, this year we will service nearly two thousand bikes. But we’ve stayed true to our ethos of doing one thing and doing it to the very best of our ability.

By putting quality and innovative service at our core, we’ve built the business into the place to have your bike repaired in the Brighton and Hove area.

Free collection and delivery at a time to suit you has always been our unique selling point. We have proved that this is an excellent business model for bike servicing and repairs and are now expanding as we go from strength to strength.

Winning the Best Customer Service award at last years Brighton and Hove Business awards was an incredible experience and it was very satisfying to receive recognition for the success of the business model and ethos that we initiated. It’s reinforced our belief, spurring us on to move the business forward and develop it further.

Not a bike shop, or a retail business, South Coast Bikes remains a groundbreaking member of the service industry, the customer service industry.

The basic premise of what we do remains the same as it was five years ago.

• High quality bike servicing with friendly, professional service
• Free collection and delivery, seven days a week from 8am to 8pm
• No charge for quotations
• Next day turn around
• Printed, well-written, detailed invoices
• All bikes undertaken

Although sometimes brutally honest, we remain ‘not bike snobs.’ We fix everything. By keeping out of the retail sector, our unique position gives us no conflict of interest when advising a customer whether to buy a new bike or fix their current one. In addition every bike we receive goes through our ‘system’ - there are no ‘half jobs’ or ‘part done jobs’ here in the workshop. Every bike is returned to its owner fully operational and 100% ready to go. And – we clean every bike.

Everyone who works at SCB is a skilled bicycle mechanic. Day in, day out, that is what we do. It’s more than just a job – passion, skill, experience and pride all go into our work. The secret to a happy life, I believe, is enjoying what you do. The secret to a happy customer is a business where the staff have this pride, where they take ownership of, and responsibility for, your needs.

We don’t stand still either, far from it. The SCB of today is much changed from that of five years ago. We’re always looking to improve and refine our skills, processes and overall service. The range of skills and experience we offer today is extensive. Unfazed by wheel building, fork servicing, hydraulic brakes, internal hub overhauls – between us there is very little we can’t do.

It might seem from some of the preceding text that that’s it, that we’ve done it all, got it all sorted, with the best business around. All we need to do is just sit back, fix bikes and live the dream… far from it. We’re not perfect and we know it. Mistakes get made and improvements are always possible. Resting on our laurels is not the way we do things, nor the way to a fulfilling yet challenging working environment. Identifying and implementing ways of improving our service both for our customers and for us is always at the core of what we do.

A recent example: An occasional yet ongoing problem we have experienced is customers forgetting their bookings. Busy people have a lot going on and it happens.

To try and help with this, we have recently integrated an SMS-text reminder system into our booking system. This sends a reminder text with all the relevant details either the evening before for morning bookings, or the morning before for afternoon/evening bookings.

Next in line is linking the workshop booking system with the public website to show in real time how busy we are and when we next have availability.

The examples above give an idea of some of the improvements we are currently making and we have more identified and awaiting action. However, it's you, our customers that we really want to hear from. How could we improve our service? What could we do differently? Or do you have an idea for a completely new or complementary service that we could offer?

All you have to do to win this fantastic prize of a year’s free servicing including collection, delivery, parts and labour, is tell us. It can be a one sentence suggestion or a detailed plan complete with cost/benefit analysis, flow charts and thousands of words.

Send your entry to IWantToWin@southcoastbikes.co.uk

Closing date for entries is the 30th of November 2008.

Terms and Conditions: This competition is open to all. There is no restriction on the type or number of entries for each person. The winner as chosen by the judging panel will be able to nominate one bike which we will keep in first class condition for a whole year. There will be no charge for labour. All parts will be provided free of charge up to a maximum value of £250 for the year. Free collection and deliveries may be restricted to six for the year if we choose to.