Those who replace & repair, Is there a conflict?

[a1repair]

Greetings fellow WSR technicians,

With the advent of Glass Networking. How do you/we feel about the national replacement shops advertising they do repair? What has been your experience? Many of the one we've run into, have no clue how to do quality windshield repair. It's so easy for them to say "Oh that can't be repaired, you'll need to replace it" What say you?

[Delta Kits]

My feeling is that the conflict only comes from unscrupulous replacement shops, not from the majority.

It's so easy to sit back and talk about our competition and say they don't do a good job. For a mobile technician, it's the glass shops that say it can't be repaired, and the oil change & carwash places that say it's "free."

It may not be popular here, but there is no conflict in replacement shops doing repairs also. You would not believe how many large glass chains are going more and more towards repair. They start doing it because they feel pressure from the insurance company to do it. The more they do, the more they realize it's profitable, easy, and creates goodwill from their customers.

Glass shops very well may compete with most here, but glass shops aren't the enemy of the industry. There are plenty of repairs to go around. The enemies of this industry are not glass shops, they're not mobile technicians, oil change techs, car wash techs, tent guys, or RV techs. The people that will bring this industry down are the ones who see a quick buck in windshield repair, and that's not good enough. They want an even quicker buck, so they start cutting corners, doing lousy repairs, and bringing down the image of this industry. Those type of guys are in every section of the windshield repair industry, and they are the ones that could ultimately hurt our industry.

So, do great repairs, charge a fair price, don't cheat the insurance company, and help educate the public. Worry about those things, and if everyone does, the public will put the unscrupulous guys out of business.

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I can usually always outsell a replacement guy when I am trying to get the repair work. I just let them knwo that the company in question does a great replacement and that we only specialize in repairs, we do NO replacements. The big difference between ABC company and us is that they do maybe 10 repairs a month per tech and we do like 10 repairs a day per tech. We do a top quality repair because our attention is not divided between replacement and repair.

Not only that but the replacement companies frequently commission their repair only techs when they turn a repair to a replace and that is bad for you as a fleet manager because some companies will turn a simple repair to a $200 bill.


I frankly love to hear a replacement company is doing repairs at a prospective account of mine because they are already open to getting repairs done and that makes it easier for me.

[repare-brise]

We also do only repair, and our " competitors" in the replacement shop can't stop talking about us(most of it not favorable or true). The customers are very intelegent and informed these days, they smell a bad apple in the bushel. When you speak badly of your competition, it ultimatly reflects your lack of professionilasm. I started in May of 2003 in a town of 80000 people and 6 glass shops, I do very well for myself dispite there attempts to squash me(and now my franchisees). 5 of the 6 glass shops offer free repairs to dealers, strangly they prefer to pay me $40.00 than have there repairs done for free(aparently my competitors can't (wont) repair anything larger than a dime, and when they do there warrenty is 30/30(30 feet or 30 seconds). I use Glass Mechanix resins and equipment and breaks the size of the Canadian dollar coin are not a problem for us, with a lifetime warrenty.

Yvan Lacroix
President
http://www.repare-brise.net

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I am very careful never to directly disparage another company ... in fact you will see in my verbiage that I compliment the company on doing a fine replacement. But I do state the difference in the skill level of repair techs and that we do a far greater number than most other replacement shops. That's not talking bad about someone that is just talking good about us.

[a1repair]

Greetings again fellow WSR Techs,

As Jeff mentioned in his response to this thread, I agree with his comment:
"You would not believe how many large glass chains are going more and more towards repair. They start doing it because they feel pressure from the insurance company to do it."

And that's my point exactly. We as repair techs feel whoever has their w/shield repaired, benefit in more ways than one. Yet we do not do repairs under complusion. We do it because we are good at it, and know what we are doing. Not because of outside pressure from glass networks/insurance cos.

It has been my experience up here, that the major glass shops who offer windshield repair, do it "because they/we have to". (Most have not even been trained properly and this is right from their own mouth) Yes, they have felt the pressure from Insurance Companies, because of, (in my opinion) the efforts we have made to continually push this WSR industry. If we all went out of business tommorrow, chances are it probably wouldn't take long for the WSR process to become passe or obsolete. Don't you agree?

My point in all of this, is, I'd like to see the day when those who do WSR get more opportunity from the networks/insurance cos. to get 1st dibs, as it were on repair, and not have to fight for each one. Only a fraction of what can and should be repaired is probably getting done. I'd also like to see WSR certification for those who do it.

[Delta Kits]

As Jeff mentioned in his response to this thread, I agree with his comment:
"You would not believe how many large glass chains are going more and more towards repair. They start doing it because they feel pressure from the insurance company to do it."

a1repair,

You forgot the next line:

The more they do, the more they realize it's profitable, easy, and creates goodwill from their customers.

They may have started doing it because of pressure from the insurance companies, but they continue to do it for the same reason you do. No, not because you're good at it, but because it makes you money.

Again, I know i've said it before, but glass shops themselves are not hurting this industry. Just like mobile guys are not hurting this industry. People who do bad quality repairs hurt this business. It's as simple as that.

You may not agree, but I would much rather have someone replace a windshield that could have been repaired, rather than having some guy who squirts in a little internet resin, doesn't make it flush, and doesn't fill the break. Why? Because the first customer may still get their windshield repaired again at a later date. The second? When what little resin he did have turned yellow and fell out, he's going to think the whole industry is crooked, and windshield repair is a scam.

Which is worse?

You can go back and forth saying glass shops do bad repairs or whatever, but that's one of two things. It's either simple competitor bashing, or not looking at the broader picture. The more hacks out there that do very bad repairs, the harder it will be for this industry to survive. There are hacks in every aspect of windshield repair, and if you really want to help this industry, join the NWRA. Do great repairs. Educate people about what repair is, what it looks like, and what to expect. Even people who aren't your customers right now. That's what will help this industry.

[mafsu]

If you have an incompetent auto mechanic in your town his business will suffer and usually eventually fail because of his incompetence. Meanwhile the mechanic down the street who does a good job will flourish even if he charges more to do the same repairs. The will apply to windshield repair if the customer is informed of what a good quality repair is. The problem with that is a majority of the general public does not have a clue to the difference between a quality repair and a poor one. So education is key. Anyone have any success stories or ideas how folks can educate their customer base?

Instead of expecting fairness from the networks/insurance companies go out and seize those first dibs. It's not the network/insurance company that makes the decision as to who does a repair it is the customer's decision. An uninformed customer will take the advice of the network/insurance company because he assumes they know better than he, since he knows virtually nothing about it. Again it's back to education. You can seize these "1st dibs" by simply talking to everyone you meet about windshield repair (probably one of the oldest rules of owning your own business). Go out and drum up business via the Coister method, that way you are taking the initiative as to who gets the business. Also by whatever form of advertising your budget will allow (every little bit helps).