The first dry Saturday in March, every bike that spent the winter in a shed in Dublin gets wheeled out, and half of them have a soft tyre and gears that will not shift. The owners search “bike repair near me” or “bike service Dublin” and, before they load the bike into the car, they want to know how much a service costs, how long you are booked up, whether you touch e-bikes, whether they need to book at all, and whether anyone has said you are sound. Websites for bike shops in Dublin that answer those five questions get the bike. The ones that show a brand logo and a phone number do not.
The workshop diary fills itself
A mechanic with a chain in one hand and a cassette tool in the other cannot answer the phone, and the person ringing is usually asking the same thing: “can I drop it in Thursday?” Online booking fixes that. The customer picks the job (basic service, full service, e-bike service, puncture while you wait, a brake bleed), picks a drop-off slot, and tells you the make, the model and what is wrong in a note. They get a reminder text the day before, which means fewer bikes that never turn up and fewer slots held for nothing. If you want a deposit on a wheel build or a special order part, that is a setting.
We have written a plain guide to how online bookings work for a small business, and the workshop version is the same thing with longer slots.
Put the service menu on the page
A service list with prices beside it, and a labour rate for everything else, settles most of the phone calls before they happen. Common jobs deserve their own line: puncture, brake pads, gear cable, bottom bracket, headset, wheel true, e-bike diagnostics. If there are e-bikes you will not work on, say which and why, politely, because the person with a cheap online purchase is going to ask and it is kinder to tell them before they carry it in.
Put a line about the current wait as well: “the workshop is booked about a week ahead”. You change that yourself on the edit page as the spring rush builds and eases.
Bike to Work
Many of the people buying a new bike will ask about the Cycle to Work scheme, and few of them know how it works. A short section on the page saying that you do it, what the steps are on their side (check with the employer, pick the bike, get the quote), and a quote request form with bike, size, accessories and employer, turns a confused visitor into an order you can process at your own pace. Leave the figures off the page; the limits have changed before and the employer’s provider sets the process.
What to photograph and what to list
The workshop with a bike in the stand. The mechanic. The brand wall. The kids’ bikes built up and ready at Christmas. The e-bikes on charge. The front of the shop with the rack outside so people know where to lock up while they come in.
Then the lists: the brands you sell, the brands you service, and whether you do kids’ bikes, cargo bikes, road, gravel, commuters, e-bikes or all of it. A brand name on your page is a search you can turn up for.
The year, roughly
March to June is the rush. September brings the commuters and students back, and the lights season starts in October. December is children’s bikes, built, checked and collected on Christmas Eve, which is worth a paragraph and a cut-off date on the page. January is quiet, and a quiet January is when service offers and turbo trainers go on the “this month” strip.
Reviews for a trade people worry about
Leaving a bike that cost more than a laptop with a stranger makes people nervous, and the thing that settles the nerves is a run of recent reviews from people who got their bike back fixed. On Complete, each customer gets a text after collection with a direct link to your Google review box. It works because it is easy, and we explain the whole approach in getting more Google reviews. Motorbike repair shops have the same problem and the same answer.
Handing it over
Your service menu with prices, a labour rate, the brands you sell and service, your hours, how far ahead the workshop is booked, how you handle Bike to Work, a dozen photos, and whether you want bookings from day one or just the phone and the price list to begin with.
Which plan
Complete at €1,499 to set up and €100 a month brings the workshop bookings, the reminders, the chat box and the review texts. Essentials at €499 and €50 a month is right for a shop that is mostly sales with a small repair side. Everything is compared on the pricing page, and you can move between them without rebuilding.