How to stay in your customers minds and to get them to use your services again?

I heard this story about two extraordinary men in Turku. I guess they are the owners of this small bike store. They not only sell the bikes but also fix them for the customers.

These both men are closer to their sixties, really overweight and they have no hair at all at the top of their head. They have hair though: the long, grey and messy "backwhip" straight out of their neck. They´re both dressed in too short, grey suit trousers, which are like from the time of their confirmation party. Their bellies are as round as big wooden barrell, so they have to use suspenders. Other of the guys has his eyes looking in different direction and other one has just glasses with the thickness of a bottom of the bottle.

The picture is not related to the story.

To cut long story short, my friend was picking up his repaired bike from their store and when he came in, he saw young teenaged girl talking with these two guys. These two funny men kept telling to her about the weather. What the weather was three, two and one year ago. They remembered the weather precisely what it was like the 22nd of December 2008. There´s nothing special about that, but it becomes something when they speak like 15 minutes about it with a very, very strong finnish language dialect from Turku city and you´re in a hurry. My friend looked at this girl and she looked back at him with the expression of the "is this really happening"?

When the girl was leaving, they opened door for her and wished a safe ride with her fixed bike, because it was pretty cold and slippery outside. Now it was my friends turn. My friend was shocked and tried to hold his laughter when they started to tell him the same story about the weather all over again. The guy with the eyes looking in different directions had fingers like sausages. How it is even possible he could work with the small screws? Anyway, they fixed bike perfectly and my friend can drive with it again.

I mean what a perfect consept. Very personal looking guys, with the personal style of telling some odd stories about the weather and really caring for their customers safety and wellbeing. Fixing bike was just something that stood beside of all that. Even though fixed bike wasn´t the main subject, they really fixed my friends bike well. My friend made me want to visit these guys in Turku and told me that he´s definitely using their services again when needed. These types of shops stay in your mind and make you spread the word about them.


/Davis