Price Comparisons and Service Levels

Harley Greetings

It may be that the current dismal economic climate in our country and the Covid pandemic has forced some of our existing customers and most new customers to compare our prices to other workshops in order to ultimately save some cash. This is ok, but we are sure that we don’t need to say or to remind you to absolutely compare “apples” to “apples” when it comes to an invoice or an estimate. If you have never spent a day or some time in our workshop you would never be able to compare our workshop with others. Please take the time to read the following.

I originally started SAC back in 1983 and I now assist the team at SAC Raging Bull. We are still driven with the exact same service standards that the SAC group was built on.

In my 40 odd years in the automotive service industry the word “service” has been used to describe all sorts of work. For some people a service is a basic oil change while for others it’s just checking stuff and fixing a few things but very seldom do people – customers or technicians apply preventative maintenance and manufacturer specified maintenance. Most only repair what is broken and do the odd oil change here and there. Very little attention is given to maintaining comprehensive – detailed written service history i.e., invoices for work completed to go back to when necessary.

Your choice for the service provider to look after your Harley really matters. It makes a huge difference when your bike gets older or when you want to sell it. Remember a Harley is no different to any other form of transport, it’s also a depreciating asset so look after yours. We service Harley’s “properly” and are obsessed with customer service – attention to detail – Harley TLC.

I can only speak for SAC Raging Bull; we are truly passionate about the bikes and the Harley brand as a whole. We will definitely not get rich doing what we do but that is not why we do it, we do it simply for the love of Harleys.

When you live the Harley brand like us you see everything differently, essentially through Harley glasses and what we see is all you guys out there that love the brand too. It goes without saying that we are not simply parts fitters or bike traders. We approach the service, maintenance, tuning, customising and repair industry with only one thing in mind. It’s all about pride and reliability. You need to remember you get what you pay for and we have seen some really weird and wonderful definitions and or pricing of services and maintenance. We do things that most in the industry do not do especially when it comes to a service. A basic or a comprehensive service in our shop can take anything between 6 and 8 hours to complete while we only charge for around 3 to 4 hours, excluding our quality control check and wash – test ride. This can easily take another 2 to 3 hours. Essentially, we aren’t able to compete with the industry in the time war where you can be in and out of other workshops in as little as 2 to 3 hours. When we service or repair a bike, we need it for at least 2 days or more. The last thing to understand when doing price comparisons is the very weird Harley Motor Company retail trading policy, we as trade customer buy lots of parts daily from HD and mostly pay the same price for them as their retail customers would pay, whether they see them for the first time or once every two or three years. We have given up trying to understand this.

In summary, just like times are changing in a big way our business is too. We constantly improve our systems, skill and structure which ultimately leads to a better customer experience. One thing that we are sure of is that we will always sell up to service and not down to discount.

Stephen Fischer
https://www.sacragingbull.co.za/
WhatsApp – 066 261 5432
Call – 016 981 7199 / 8500