What e-bike kit sellers need to do to attract more customers

Most electric bike kit sellers start out with great customer service. After a few years and several customers later, their service will start to decrease as customer demands increase. I know this from experience and it seems that others experienced this too.

Perhaps, sellers need to anticipate if they can really handle the needs of their customers before promising anything, for example: can they really attend to customer after-sale issues until these are resolved? Sellers are of course required by law to support their product with a warranty so to promise this is simply just saying what they are required to do anyway.

The following are some of the issues I encountered from experience that prospective kit buyers might find useful to consider. I write this for the purpose of sharing information. As a customer, I could use the experience of others about a product before I invest my hard earned money in buying an e-bike kit.

#1 Be accurate, but make amends when mistakes are committed

I have already mentioned some of the following in my previous posts.

I bought an electric bike conversion kit from Clean Republic (CR) back in 2010. CR started out as a small company so I enjoyed dealing with them back then. The CEO himself attends to customer communications back then and he replies immediately. However, the one in charge of shipping tends to make mistakes. I paid for such shipping mistakes three times. I hope it was just me. 

Shipping cost mistake #1: The first time CR made a mistake was in sending my very first order (May 2010) using a cheaper shipping mode than what I actually paid for (I paid 265 USD for USPS Global Express Guaranteed but my order was shipped through USPS Express Mail International costing only 153.25 USD, so I actually paid 111.75 USD more than what I got). I notified the CEO about this and CR refunded the overcharge of 111.75 USD. But this was after I alerted them about the mistake. The CEO apologised for the mistake but I already paid more for the 25 % VAT plus duties (almost 50% of the total cost including shipping) of the overcharged cost (not the net after the mistake refund). The almost 50% taxes and duties (about 50 USD) that I overpaid due to the mistake cannot be refunded because it was already taken by customs. 

Shipping cost mistake #2: The second mistake happened in January 2013 when I paid online for a more expensive USPS shipping but my order was sent via the cheaper UPS shipping. Again CR apologized for this mistake and refunded accordingly. 

Shipping cost mistake #3: The third mistake was when I paid 91.30 USD in February 2013 for shipping of my Sprinter upgrade to Norway but when I got the invoice that came with the package it showed that only 59.95 USD was actually paid for the USPS shipping. This shipping mistake costed me 31.35 USD extra. I emailed the CEO about this in March 5, 20103 but never got a reply until now (October 2013, 7 months later). I also followed up on this with their new guy which I hope will reply this time.  

Given these 3 successive mistakes, there seems to be a pattern here. I wonder if other customers check their invoices as I do. CR needs to fix their shipping or online charging system to avoid overcharging customers.

#2 Respond to customer questions, if not, you will lose your customers

Another emerging pattern is declining communication. If you check the CR Forum you will see how their Forum for customers no longer gets attended by CR staff as it used to be. In fact, one of my postings there never got a reply: see here. I think CR should just advice customers that the Forum is no longer active (see CR Forum).  They should just direct all forum visitors to their more active Facebook page. But even if they do, they should respond to questions and comments that customers post and not only the ones that they like. Customers also can't help but wonder why they only post positive reviews on their website even though they say there that they will also post negative ones:

"Negative posts are allowed, but please do not use offensive or abusive language."

I tried to post a review there with no abusive language, just facts, but that review never got posted. Given this, their review portal seems to be not very reliable because only positive reviews are selected for posting. You can check this out for yourself here: See? Not a single negative review! Negative comments can only be seen on their Forum and their FB page. 

Where will customers go?

There are many cheaper kits from China that are accessible to new re-sellers. If sellers want to keep their customers for more years, then it is more sustainable for them to keep their customers happy. Happy customers will bring more customers. Disappointed customers will keep new customers away and you will lose potential sources of future income. Your customers happiness will only lead to your own happiness in the long run. It will cost you so little not to ignore their complaints. 

New Sellers 

There is a new company selling electric bike conversion kits similar to CR's. The name of the company is LEED and they seem to sell cheaper and better kits, especially batteries. I was told by the LEED president that their batteries are compatible with CR's kits. If this is true then CR customers have to option to replace their used-up CR batteries with LEED batteries which could save them some money while getting ones with more recharge cycles. If the advertised LEED specs are accurate their lithium ion batteries are rated 1500 recharge cycles while the advertised CR batteries are rated only 500 recharge cycles.

It is just natural if those not satisfied with CR's service and product turn to LEED for upgrades and replacements. I wonder if the market for e-bike kits has been saturated already. Customer migration from CR to LEED could put a strain on CR's operation. Well, CR has other products and LEED sells e-bike kits and accessories only. Besides, CR can still revive their customer service back to the level when they started.

What remains to be seen is if LEED's customer service can keep up to the demand especially when they get more customers because of their more attractive price and product specs. Will customers get help when they encounter problems with LEED kits? We will see but I hope they will do a better job and keep their customers happy. Such is the best and most effective advertising ever. They will earn more money and customers will get the product they will enjoy. 

NOTE: More posts on e-bike conversion projects are available here.