Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

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DavidS

Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by DavidS »

If you live in houston, you may have to compete with someone offering $15 ws repairs
and $30 for long cracks. Looks like he has a half ass website, but anyway...unless
you are already well known for your quality work; I am sure it is quite tough when
you do repairs for $50, and others offer their repairs for $15 or less. It almost seems like
people are willing to work for free or low cost, just so others do not get the repair job....
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by bill lambeth »

Heck no I will not do repair for 15 but i do not live in Texas.Each to their own!
DavidS

Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by DavidS »

bill lambeth wrote:Heck no I will not do repair for 15 but i do not live in Texas.Each to their own!
having not made any repairs yet myself or practice, I do not think I would start at $15 either...like those
other posts say, once you start low, then you are stuck low because people keep expecting it...from the
picture I seen, looks like he has pitched a tint...even if I had a tint, I would not do for $15...
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by Brent Deines »

There have always been and always will be people who don't place the same value their time that you do. It's not just in Texas, we have them here in Oregon as well and hear about them in just about every other part of the country. I've mentioned this before but I think it's worth bringing up again. The windshield repair industry is no different than any other. You can find a body shop to paint your car for $250 or you can go a few blocks down the street and pay $2500 or a whole lot more for a show quality paint job. Just as in the body and paint business, you have to choose your niche and and cater to the customers in your target market and accept the fact that you will lose a few jobs to competitors for a number of reasons, price being only one of them. The guys charging $2500 for a paint job will always complain about the guy who only charges $250, but with a few notable exceptions is nearly always more successful.

Some people will see a sign for $15 windshield repairs and think "now there's a good deal", but just as many will think "there must be a reason for the low price". I fall into the latter category. I love to save money but if I see someone selling a service for less than half the industry average I immediately think there will be a sacrifice in quality if I give that person my business.

Most windshield repair technicians feel very fortunate if they can complete 10 repairs a day. At $65/repair that's around $169,000 a year. Now take out 20% for business insurance, medical insurance, fuel, a computer, supplies, vehicle maintenance, advertising, time off for vacation, etc. and you have maybe $135,000 left. Now take out 30% for taxes and you still have a very respectable $95,000 a year that actually goes into your pocket. If you charge $15 per repair your expenses go way up so you so you will need to do about 50 repairs a day to put the same amount of money in your pocket.

The figures above are for illustration purposes only. There are technicians who do 10 or more repairs a day and there are also many who do fewer. Plug in "your" actual numbers and see how things play out. If you do 5 repairs a day at $50/repair the $15 guy still has to do about 18 repairs to make the same as you (remember, his expenses are higher). Unfortunately far too many people get into business without a business plan and don't understand the difference between gross sales and net profit. They focus on the number of repairs they do rather than how much money goes into their pocket and how many repeat customers they will have because of the quality of their work.

I know this doesn't take away the sting of finding someone in your area who cuts into your profits by low balling prices, but whenever I find myself in this situation I put the pencil to paper and always end up feeling a little better. Unless the $15 guy is only working part time to supplement another income or is willing to live on mac and cheese it is unlikely he will be around for long.

When you are just starting out the $15 guy can really hurt your business but as your reputation grows they become less and less relevant to your business model.
Brent Deines
Delta Kits, Inc.
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rlb

Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by rlb »

When I was in business, I had to deal with people selling their service for a little of nothing at Walmart locations (Louisiana). I had a website and I utilized Merchant Circle free advertisement, and got about 7-10 calls a day (except Sunday). Half of the calls would be for replacement. Some potential customers would tell me that they previously had repairs completed at Walmart for $10-15. My selling point was the type of professional equipment being used, resin being used and the quality of work that would be completed.

When they agreed to let me service their vehicle, they would be surprised about the difference in a $10-15 repair and what I charged them.

A good website will bring you business! When you get them on the phone its time to sell your service.
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by screenman »

Now this is where selling comes into the equations, you need to sell to the people who buy on quality rather than price. We have a £5 guy around here and he has been at it for 15 years, I charge £45 and stay busy, he still has no dry out system or UV protections and he drills bullseye breaks.

Nobody ever regrets buying quality!
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by Frank EU »

Screenman is 100% right.
Any idiot, wannabe-businessperson, can enter our wonderfull trade, truth (problem) is that only a few are able to do the sales-part.
Which is, in all honesty, the most important part (in any business really).
We have never -and will never- been discounting our prices.
To be doing this kind of work @ just $10 or $15 is silly. It tells me a lot about the sales-skills of that business person.
Problem is that so many people are just doing this in a part-time manner, to them it doesn't really matter if they are poluting our marketplace by high discounts.
But at least.......in the US you can (still) file your claims being an independent repair-business. Over here things are changing real quick and in a very bad fashion.

Be good, whatever you do.
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by Chips_Away_Windshield_Repair »

Sure just add $50.00 to the $15.00 and we have a deal.
Again, just my experiance, take with a grain of salt, Like taking stock tips from a friend. Don't buy without doing research.
I loose very few jobs at my price. Two jobs yesterday with $5.00 tip added.
Both referrals from their neighbors.
Why? Don't really know. Might be I may appear to be honest, visit with customer while doing repair, explaining what and why I'm doing, letting them talk about them selves and family, some might like smile, some might just feel sorry for the old guy still out working,
Oh ya. I do some market research on every job coming in from my web sites. How they found me, any comments on site etc. Those are the ones who don't ask price because it is listed and they already know. Also, one customer told me his reason for calling me was he didn't trust the ones advertising lower prices!
Just got another one came in from web and again no mention of price. Gotta go. $65.00 go go go! :D
DavidS

Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by DavidS »

Thanks guys...

All honesty, we really do not know why he is offering $15/repair....
maybe he is on disability, maybe he is retired, maybe 2nd income....
maybe even 2nd household income, dont really know...then again, he
may not want the hastle to sell anything so he bottoms out his price,
and just lets people come to him if they want to pay $15 (this way
he does not have to do anything hard to get the repair)
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Re: Anyone do $15 WS Repairs?

Post by t4k »

DavidS wrote: he may not want the hastle to sell anything so he bottoms out his price,
and just lets people come to him if they want to pay $15 (this way
he does not have to do anything hard to get the repair)
Now I am confused. :shock:
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