Cycle charge aahhhh

[Cyclezee]

I got 50 flyers almost ready to go. They're single sided and I thought I would make use of the other side for a personal message from "kitchenman" with this photo as a background:
View attachment 3259

although I should use the latest logo!

Hi Alan,

Have you thought of doing what I did last year, no not riding round Prestigne like a loony, but riding round London naked

It might be more effective if you had the Cycle Charge logo tattooed on your naked body rather than spending soooooo much time creating ever weirder and weirder adornments for your bike

Oh and there is a fiver from me if you have Cyclezee tattooed in vivid green on a certain apendage

 

[Cyclezee]

One more thing Alan, for Cyclezee, please use Virgo01 for the font.

While you are having the tattoos done, you ask the nice people in the parlour to sign up, multitasking eh, Lynda would be well impressed

 

[muckymits]

I gave been doing a bit today, but I am targeting the best places like farm shops with cafes. Got one interested so its a start and its just off NCR1. Ive got a couple of the leaflets printed from the site.

 

[funkylyn]

This afternoon was sunny and bright so we thought a walk along the beach would be a nice. I took a load of leaflets and targeted some business premises at West Bay, mainly tearooms, cafes and pubs that looked like they could accomodate ebikers.
I have to say, this time the reaction was very different. I was met by enthusiam rather than blank looks and shaking of the head. I adopted a 'salesmen' rather than 'engineer' approach and by the time i'd reached the last one i reckon' i could sell double glazed windows(well...maybe not).
I think i handed out ten leaflets all together and had a chat with most owners. I am hoping on discovering Morphix very professional looking website, most will register, they certainly liked the free advertising offered.
Fingers crossed.......................anyone else been 'out and about' delivering leaflets?

Well done Mel.......thats the response I have had too......signed the LBS in Ilminster up today....or rather he has the sticker and is going online to register.
Will try to get a few more over the weekend.
Then once I am off on my travels up north I will make sure I get more........this is our first month of hard effort so Im hoping we get quite a lot ready to put on Pauls souper douper map hes got ready to put on the site soon.....should look and work great.
Exciting isnt it !

Lynda

 

[funkylyn]

Oh and there is a fiver from me if you have Cyclezee tattooed in vivid green on a certain apendage

The mind boggles........but one good thing, for any mad men wanting to take up your extremely generous offer at least they could have the choice of tattooing maybe 'ezee'.... 'cycle'.... or 'cyclezee'.........depending ......and maybe 'cyclecharge' might be 3 letters too much........

Perhaps it might be better if we all concentrate on more normal methods of publicity......like just downloading leaflets and talking to nearby suitable businesses.........you know......just like the normal people we all are...... ROFLOL

Lynda

 

[funkylyn]

I gave been doing a bit today, .

So I read

Places near cycleways will be great.......also all those B&B's you are involved with.....keep it up Dave....

Lynda

 

[kitchenman]

Just a word of warning members. The registration process is still .. umm.. difficult. Probably too difficult to be done without help. I popped into my LBS and the owner Mike was very keen to have a go and join in the scheme. I went into town to do some shopping and left Mike to have a go at registering. I popped back later and Mike had tried but was uncertain as to whether he had succeeded or not and was a little perplexed. He knows that the system is new and there are improvements that are needed. I now need to check with Paul on the status of his profile and sort it out ...

 

[funkylyn]

Just a word of warning members. The registration process is still .. umm.. difficult. Probably too difficult to be done without help. I popped into my LBS and the owner Mike was very keen to have a go and join in the scheme. I went into town to do some shopping and left Mike to have a go at registering. I popped back later and Mike had tried but was uncertain as to whether he had succeeded or not and was a little perplexed. He knows that the system is new and there are improvements that are needed. I now need to check with Paul on the status of his profile and sort it out ...

Umm...well my sign ups managed on their own.....perhaps it might be better if you just contact Paul direct Alan if any problems crop up, but it seems easy enough to me......we certainly dont want to put people off before they have even tried

Lynda

 

[funkylyn]

If he is 1st Gear Cycles ?......he has registered fine but seems to have left the profile page early after changing his biz to a cafe ?????

Lynda

 

[Cyclezee]

Well, I don't know what the weather is like elsewhere, but today in good old MK, it is raining heavily with a bit of sleet thrown in. Just the weather for distributing Cycle Charge flyers by bicycle

I managed to stay fairly dry, but one problem I encountered was when getting on and off the bike to go into shops, my hands got wet when I removed my lovely waterproof Sealskinz

Eventually, my wet numb hands made the inside of the gloves wet and I couldn't get them back on again. My solution was to use the hand dryer in a Costa Coffee toilet to get my hands thoroughly dry and blow hot air inside the gloves

Enough of that, I managed to get positive responses from the following businesses:

Halfords
Trek Bicycle
Sainsburys
Evans Cycles
Waitrose
Starbucks

Weatherspoons and Burger King were not interested.

We will wait to see if they register, I would have done a lot more, but it is not really the day for it.

 

[flecc]

Surprised you did it at all, it's a horrible day across most of the south to south eastern half of the country.

 

[Cyclezee]

Where I was brought up, this is a mild Spring day

 

[neptune]

Just a thought . Perhaps it would be better if national retail chains like Evans and Halfords were approached at their respective head offices , so they could join on a nation wide basis ?

 

[Cyclezee]

I completely agree Neptune.

I did consider an email shot to lots of nationwide businesses, but that would be better handled by the CycleCharge team.

Waitrose did say they would pass on the info to John Lewis.

I was planning to go to IKEA, Asda, Tesco, MK Dons FC, Bletchley Park etc., but damp and cold weather got the better of my intentions and the flyers which were starting to get rather soggy.

 

[flecc]

Head offices are probably best with chain outlets. Local managers may well chicken out on health and safety aspects if not HO approved. In fairness, it's probably outside their authority to authorise use of the company's electricity and outlets for outsiders

 

[funkylyn]

Well, I don't know what the weather is like elsewhere, but today in good old MK, it is raining heavily with a bit of sleet thrown in. Just the weather for distributing Cycle Charge flyers by bicycle

I managed to stay fairly dry, but one problem I encountered was when getting on and off the bike to go into shops, my hands got wet when I removed my lovely waterproof Sealskinz

Eventually, my wet numb hands made the inside of the gloves wet and I couldn't get them back on again. My solution was to use the hand dryer in a Costa Coffee toilet to get my hands thoroughly dry and blow hot air inside the gloves

Enough of that, I managed to get positive responses from the following businesses:

Halfords
Trek Bicycle
Sainsburys
Evans Cycles
Waitrose
Starbucks

Weatherspoons and Burger King were not interested.

We will wait to see if they register, I would have done a lot more, but it is not really the day for it.

Well done....hopefully some will register.......I am well impressed.....however the smaller enterprises might be better to try as they dont have to ask head office....and you know what happens then....not a lot !

Good initiative with the wet hands/gloves problem.....perhaps try some nice blue surgical gloves underneath next time ......

Meanwhile, back in sunny Somerset I've just been having a nice relaxing lunch out with a client...... its good to know some are still working hard for the cause , in the sleet, whilst 'some' arent LOL .......(you deserve a medal to go out in that weather ! )

But I will be out tomorrow targeting potential outlets, planning a cider mill and a pub amongst others, ......come rain sleet or snow......(but in the car )

I would go on my bike but its too far without Chargepoints

Lynda

 

[Cyclezee]

My original plan was to target cafe's and pubs adjacent to Sustrans Routes 51 and 6 in the MK area, but the weather put me off that plan.
Lynda, I am surprised to read you will be using a car, not very green tut tut

Oh, and another thing, what sort of plonker rides a bike wearing blue surgical gloves

 

[neptune]

Here is a way to get more people involved in establishing charge points .I am quite good at meeting people and selling them the idea . At present my printer is kaput . My computer skills are equivalent to those of a baboon . What would really help me , and perhaps others would be an idiots guide to selling charge points , telling us exactly what to do , in what order , and how to do it , including what we must say and what we must not say to the prospect. Personally , I would like it to be in the form of numbered steps . What tends to scare me a bit is if the prospect has limited computer skills and asks me to help !

 

[wurly]

If it's a good idea then you don't really need any selling skills. Believe me, i have managed to get people involved. The leaflets and pauls website are what was needed.
The first thing people ask is 'how much is the electricity going to cost me, it's expensive enough'.
There is a an example calculation on the website, but you can tell them between 10-20 pence. What i am saying is don't expect a queue of ebikers looking for free electricity. You can point out, that only registered members can use the service. There is free advertising for their business on the website. Registering is not that difficult, but i can see that there maybe problems. Lynda has made a help page which should assist.
Familiarity of using the website is all that is needed. You managed to register for pedelecs, can you remember how you did that? have you registered yourself on cyclecharge ok?

 

[flecc]

The first thing people ask is 'how much is the electricity going to cost me, it's expensive enough'.
There is a an example calculation on the website, but you can tell them between 10-20 pence.

Only for a full charge of a very large battery surely. I can't see anyone sitting around for four hours while that happens. I'd think an hour at 3 pence would be the maximum for most.