Safelite moving into dealerships?

[screenman]

We have just lost a customer to Belron. This particular customer was one we looked after very carefully, our phone was open for them from 5am until 11pm we always gave them same day service and of course excellent quality repairs at a competetive rate. 2 years ago this company took on a new stores manager who had very little knowledge of maintainence of trucks and buses, however when the company was purchased by Stagecoach they decided he should be put in charge of buying in services. So he changed to Belron now they do the first repair on a bus for £25 and any any other buses on the same day for only £14 this is way less than half the normal rate.
They do not repair withing 50ml of the side of the screen so edge cracks are out, although they will drill the end and nothing else, they will not repair bigger than a £2 coin and nor will they repair in the A zone. But of course in this managers eyes they are still cheaper than me,did I mention their replacement costs have gone up.

For this company to take me back on would take a loss of face for all the managers concerned. I must also add we serviced this account for 19 years without any problems or failures.

The point I am trying to make is no customer is for life, keep on selling and building your business for increased security.

[Brent Deines]

Excellent point. I've shared this story before, but I remember when State Farm decided to send all their business to two nationwide chains, and overnight I lost 40% of my repair and replacement business. I had very loyal agents that did what they were told to do, knowing full well that their customers were not going to receive the same level of service or quality of work that they had received from my company. I also had loyal customers that swore they would never let their insurance companies tell them where they would have their work don, but they did. Before that time I would have never believed it could happen, not to me, especially considering that the prices offered by the two national chains were not any lower than the price I charged.

Sometimes when decisions are made at a high level small companies never have the opportunity to compete. Often times there are agreements made that cannot be broken even if the customer is unhappy with the arrangement, but as screenman said, sometimes it's a matter of sticking with a poor decision to save face. It is very difficult to admit you're wrong, and the higher up you are in a company the more difficult that becomes as you could be publicly humiliated, or worse yet, lose your job.

[GlassTech]

I absolutely agree, corporate accounts and politics go hand in hand and nothing is forever. This notion goes for both parties as I have acquired numerous accounts from bigger repair companies in the past due to really bad service and workmanship. For the most part they've been my best marketer and thank them for all the business thus far. As mentioned “Frank EU” they’re not a real threat at ALL. Screenman hang in there, I'm almost certain you're have your account back in no time, I've seen it before.

[screenman]

Luckily for me I normaly replace a lost customer with a better one.

[sunshine wr]

Srceenman, That's your best defence, OFFENCE!