Windshield Repair Forum

I thought it would be worth while to post a quick guide which details my thoughts on how to secure new business with commercial fleet operators in the UK. I have many large fleet customers and are adding to that list every week as new business is coming in by way of recomendations, here are my guidelines:

1. Identify potential customers by searching on YELL.com, search for "Transport/Logistics", "Waste Management", "Bus & Coach Operators" - Create your list in an excel spreadsheet
2. Contact each customer and ask "Can you tell me who is responsible for the maintenance of your fleet", get their name and e-mail address - add this data to your list in excel
3. Set up a basic document in Word detailing your services and costs, make it brief and straight to the point otherwise nobody will bother to read through to find the facts.
4. Post or e-mail everyone on your list and attach your service document, request a read reciept so you know who had read your e-mail, if you dont get a response straight away dont worry, make a note in your diary fo follow it up with a phone call in a weeks time.
5. Offer to carry out a monthly fleet inspection where you will attend site and inspect every vehicle on the fleet, record the details of each vehicle i.e registration number, fleet number etc, this inspection should be done free of charge as it will pay for itself when you find vehicles with damage. I then record my findings on an excel spreadsheet and e-mail the report back to the customer and highlight any vehicles with damage, I then request their authorisation to repair the damage, they usually give you the go ahead to do the work. In addition I often photograph the damage on the vehicle and e-mail the pictures to the customer, this allows them to see the damage and shows a professional approach.
6. After an initial period I often find customers say "repair what you find", when I do the monthly fleet inspection if I find damage I repair it there and then, e-mail the details, they issue a purchase order and I raise the invoice - easy peasy!

I find this procedure to be very effective, you have to build a relationship with your customer and the most important element is "TRUST", they will have had bad experiances in the past with WSR companies but if you prove yourself to be professional & trustworthy you will gain their trust and they will recommend you to other comapnies within the industry.

Hey, that looks very familar, it is the GW aproach. And guess what boys and girls, it works. Just do it and go after the jobs. It is easy.

Frank EU wrote:Hey, that looks very familar, it is the GW aproach. And guess what boys and girls, it works. Just do it and go after the jobs. It is easy.

The key is photograph the damage and include it in your report which is e-mailed to the customer so they have a copy on their computer, the GW process is to give the customer a tatty hand written report which is left on site and nine times out of ten will never get in front of the decision maker. A picture speaks a thousand words and many operators dont perform regular inspection, they rely on the drivers telling them the screen is damaged.
Many fleet operators I have approached are ex GW, they received a poor service and experianced poor repairs which were expensive so they are often reluctant to give you a break, the added element of electronic document and image submission proves you are professional and gives them peace of mind.

I tried the GW way and it got me no where so I tailored the procedures and it works!

Very nice! Also very nice of you to be willing to share this. We have used a similar thing to communicate with the insurance industry to show that there actually was a real damage (some mavericks are just doing a pit fill as you probably know).

Frank I totally agree with you, time after time I have heard stories of phantom repairs, customers have even been invoiced for repairs that never happened - not even pit filled!

On the other hand the number of poor repairs I witness on a daily basis is a nightmare, I cannot believe there are people out there with utter incompetance, partially filled, cracks drilled and not stopped, not filled, I have even seen it where the screen was drilled but the drill holes were left open - they couldnt even bother filling them!

The problem is these cowboys give the industry a bad name, often where a customer has recieved or seen a poor repair they think that is the norm and as a result dont have faith in glass repair. It's time this stopped, although in a way it's good for the rest of us who prove when it is done right it works so we win new business!

i thought i was alone in thinking that i am the only good windshield repairman in my area. i rarely see a good repair that was one i didnt do. when i see an exception i perk up and take notice.

jasonsresin wrote:i thought i was alone in thinking that i am the only good windshield repairman in my area. i rarely see a good repair that was one i didnt do.

I always thought the good repairs were the ones you couldn't see! LOL