Case study · Ski & Bike Shop with Rentals
Ridge Runner Rentals
An eleven-person rental line at the counter and a phone nobody can stand up to grab. Here's the exact stack we'd build — and the sample artifact it produces.
Revelstoke · Ski season · Illustrative composite — the numbers are typical-pattern estimates, not measured results.
Illustrative scenario. Ridge Runner Rentals is a fictional composite of typical ski and bike rental-shop operations in the Revelstoke area — not a client account. The numbers are estimates from typical patterns; your audit produces real ones. Founding-client case studies will replace these as they complete.
The day this happens
An eleven-person line and a phone that won't quit
It's the Friday of the Family Day long weekend and Ridge Runner Rentals has an eleven-person line at the rental counter. Boots to fit, bindings to set, waivers to sign — the counter is a good problem, the kind that pays the rent. The phone is a bad one. It rings, and rings, and the one staffer who could grab it is the same person kneeling in front of a customer with a ski boot in each hand.
The callers all want the same three things: "Do you have my size?" "Are you open Sunday?" "What's the snow like up top?" None of it is hard to answer. All of it is impossible to answer while fitting a boot — so it goes to voicemail or rings out, and a caller who can't get through just tries the next shop, which on a long weekend has the same sizes and the same hours.
And the website is leaking the same way, quietly. Someone's planning their trip from Calgary at 11pm, wondering if there's a demo ski in a 178 or a kids' package for Sunday. They find a contact form. They close the tab. The gear's in the back, the answer is yes, and nobody was awake to say so.
What we built
The second brain for this business.
A shop second brain that covers both channels the rush leaks out of — the website and the phone — and hands the counter a cheat-sheet every morning.
- Website AI Chat & Lead Capture — answers gear, hours and conditions questions on the site 24/7, checks rental availability, and captures the keen ones with dates and sizes.
- AI Receptionist — picks up the counter-rush phone overflow, so nobody has to choose between the person in front of them and the one on the line.
- Workflow Automation — sends rental confirmations and repair-ticket status texts, and drops a daily fleet digest so the counter opens knowing exactly what's left.
The artifact
The artifact: a booking that happened while the shop slept
The star of the study — the same standard as the AI Receptionist sample call, written out line by line.
Ridge Runner — fleet at open · Fri (Family Day wknd)
• Demo skis: 170s — 2 left · 178s — 1 left (2 on hold) · 186s — sold out
• Junior packages: 9 of 14 out on holds
• Snowboards: boot sizes 8–10 tight, 3 pairs left
• Repair bench: 4 tunes promised for noon — "ready" texts fire automatically
• Holds to pull now: Wills (178 demo + junior), Okafor (2× 170), Tremblay (board 42)
Walk in knowing what's thin: don't promise a 186 demo or a size-9 board boot today.
The outcome
What changes — in typical-pattern estimates.
Illustrative outcomes — typical-pattern estimates, not guarantees or a promise about your shop.
| Before | After (typical-pattern estimate) |
|---|---|
| Counter-rush calls answered | voicemail → picked up or instantly texted back |
| Late-night website questions | a closed tab → a held rental waiting by morning |
| Staff forced to choose phone vs. the customer in front of them | every rush → rarely |
| Counter staff walking in blind to the fleet | every morning → a digest at 7:40am |
Now the long-weekend rush is just the counter — the website quietly books the 11pm planners, the phone gets answered without anyone standing up, and the crew starts the day knowing which sizes not to promise.
Transparent pricing
What it costs to start.
The Ridge Runner stack starts at $1,500 for Website AI Chat & Lead Capture, $3,500 for the AI Receptionist, and $2,500 for Workflow Automation — starting floors, fixed-quoted as one build after a free call. Many shops start with the web chat alone as a fast, visible win. Every build requires a Care Plan, from $299/mo.
Is it worth it for your business? Let's find out — free.
We'll tell you honestly which channel to fix first.
Prefer to talk now? Call (236) 837-3550 — a real BC-based human picks up. We reply within one business day, usually faster.