J&P Cycles

Regular readers of this blog might notice a new name in the sidebar list of “Purveyors of Fine Motorcycle Accessories”.
I’d never heard of J&P Cycles until about ten years ago when one of the technicians at  the company I was working for asked for help in solving a “relationship” issue with J&P arising from a problematic software installation we had done for them.  As a Brit bike owner, my sources for after market parts and accessories typically had addresses like Burntwood, Staffs, WS7 1JP, England and not Anamosa, IA, 52205, USA. But as a motorcyclist I was intrigued by their business and put the name into the “I might be able to use this one day” file.
Then I went over to the dark side and bought my first and only (so far) H-D. Since no Harley ever remains stock for more than a few days (and some never even get out of the showroom in stock trim) one of my first actions was to get a copy of the J&P catalogue, which quickly became my bible. What could be easier than placing an order on-line and having the stuff arrive at your door a couple of weeks later?
I bought quite a  few items from them and was generally pretty happy with the company. Then I had a problem. A minor problem to be sure, involving an LED tail light bulb (all of $30 worth) that didn’t work as well as I expected it should. Of course I didn’t actually try to do anything about it at the time and had effectively written off the $30 until several months later, in the context of another discussion with one of the J&P reps, the bulb came up and he said send it back. Which I did.
Unfortunately, between telephone calls, on-line chat, and e-mails the inevitable confusions arose, the details of which I won’t go into here. But suffice it to say that throughout the folks at J&P were friendly, patient, and accommodating.  And at the end of the day exceeded my expectations for service. (And as someone who ran support organizations for much of his working life, my expectations are high.)
A well known study back in the ‘80s (which I have buried in one of the many boxes of professional debris we all accumulate over the years and are loath to toss in the dumpster for fear of… what?) demonstrated that customer satisfaction was usually higher after a company successfully addressed a customer concern than if the product simply operated in a no-fault manner. And so, knowing they’ll be there when a problem arises, my satisfaction level has consequently gone up from “pretty happy” to “very happy” based on the way I was treated by these good folks. I have therefore added J&P Cycles to my sidebar list of vendors I recommend doing business with.
Note: The author has received no consideration, monetary or otherwise, from J&P Cycles for this post.