Creating a better customer experience was one of my first priorities after arriving at Gateway Harley-Davidson. Coming from the Metric World, it didn’t take long for me to notice that every H-D dealer has a bell. Go to any dealer’s social media (Facebook page) and you will no doubt find a video of a customer ringing the bell upon the purchase of a Harley-Davidson. To me, the bells just seemed to be an after thought. Something that when not being used didn’t cause much conversation or even get noticed. People just kind of tenderly ring it with a look saying, “Am I doing this right?”
I wanted our bell to be something more. Our customers should feel invited to ring the crap out of it! The bell had recently been relocated from a support pillar in the middle of the showroom to a very blank wall. With it sitting there looking lonely, I decided the entire wall needed to be more of a statement piece. I originally looked into doing a vinyl background, but I was underwhelmed after reviewing the renderings. The wall would have looked like a billboard.
“What if we just did a big mural?”, said Big Mike as I was expressing my discontent of the vinyl renderings. That’s when it hit me. A wall 30 feet long could tell a story. I decided to pay homage to St. Louis’ Rich Motorcycle Past while giving the bell its own home. While talking to a local mural artist, we developed the plan. We would halve the wall to give the bell a permanent home and tell a story.
Looking at the wall now brings excitement. You know why the bell is there, you know how to ring it, and it adds massive value to the customer experience. You don’t just ring a random bell in the building. You ring the Freedom Bell.
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