Canyon's UK customer service centre and helpline is now up and running

On November the 1st (yesterday), Canyon opened their UK Customer Service Centre and Helpline, specifically to support UK customers. More and more UK cyclists have been taking an interest in Canyon bikes over the last year including myself, so this is a logical move.

I’ve covered the brand briefly before with some launch information on their 2011 flagship road bikes including the new Aeroad (http://girodilento.com/canyon-2011-roadbikes-aeroad-and-ultimate-clx). I’ve also written about the Ultimate CF SLX as being one of my top five bikes (http://girodilento.com/my-current-favourite-5-best-bike-and-5-traini) – it’s first equal actually and I’m far from the only UK based cyclist to be drawn to Canyon’s aggressive pricing. Do a search on Bikeradar’s forums and you’ll see more and more threads and mentions of Canyon. The sponsorship of the Omega Pharma-Lotto Pro Cycling team has also put the brand in front of many more of us on our televisions in the last year or two.

Canyon achieve their pricing advantage principally by being a direct seller like Dell (http://www.dell.co.uk/), so they cut out the middle man and that saving is passed onto the customer – so there is no dealer network taking their margin on the sale. When it comes to cycling, this has made it a greater leap of faith for customers to take the plunge and order online as they can’t see a bike before they buy it, test ride it or until now call and speak to someone here in the UK about the products. Calling and speaking to Germany is off putting for some potential customers I imagine, so the new UK contact number and help centre will most likely be warmly received by customers here.

The UK centre will be focussed around providing support and information about the products for UK customers as well as servicing and after sales support. This extends to warranty with the aim of handling all aspects of warranty support here in the UK.

I’m a big fan of the direct model. Brands like Canyon not to mention companies like Wiggle (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/) have been selling direct (think about Focus, Verenti, dhb and even Lightweight) to help offer more value and higher quality to customers at lower price points than previously possible. If the product and pricing is attractive, then with good support and service companies operating direct can really flourish – this new UK operation can only help Canyon put a stronger foot in the market here.