Checking the competitor

[just chippen away]

Has anyone ended up with a chip it their own windshield or a friend (willing) and had the competitor repair it just to see their work first hand?
My wife just received a Bullseye with just one hair line crack. I am going to have her take it down and have them fix it to see what the work looks like. I have pics of the before, so I will compare them.

[Frank EU]

Yes, we do mystery shopping as well. You will be surprized to find out with what she will hear while she's doing her round.

[screenman]

I have done that and I also dummy shop the training centre's.

[just chippen away]

for one as Frank was saying, "You will be surprized to find out with what she will hear while she's doing her round." You never know what they say about their so-called competitor, That would be us. and to compare the work. Hack or good work.

And as Screenman said: " I have done that and I also dummy shop the training centre's."


Most people do not walk around with blinders on, They are looking around to see what else is out there. We all know we do the best we can in repairs, but it helps to know what the others are doing also. We can read others work to know that they did to get the results they have.

That is what I or we can gain by knowing what others are doing.
This is just like in every other field of work.

[GlassStarz]

My time is way to Valuable to spend it worrying about how the competition does things as long as I am making enough for me why bother
Everyone has the right to earn a living and there are so many chipped windshields out there that 10 times as many guys could still earn a good living I guess if you were trying to find out how they are more succesful than you it might help
Back in my time as a Car Salesperson a local dealership would train there new people by sending them out to pretend to be buying a Car now in the car buisness you only get so many chances a day to sell someone once you pick up one the next guy gets the next UP that way each guy gets a similar number of chances to sell something and opften the % of sales to UPs is kept and the guy with the lowest % gets the axe. When a fake customer takes you out of the rotation and eats up your time he is basicly stealing from you.
Once I figured out what the guy was up to I would show them a car on the Back Lot no witnesses that way show up at your new job with a black eye see if you keep your empoyment LOL

[screenman]

I keep check on my competitors so that I keep my business and skills stay if front of them. As you said in another post you only work a few hours a day so you do not to be as competive as others.

[just chippen away]

Well, the wife had her chip repaired. I had her audio record the whole thing pretending she was texting the whole time...
Now, my wife knows how to do repairs also and she knows what Q's to ask. She was right on the ball...
The guy was flaky at his work and as he was doing some things that is not by the right of us, she would ask why he was doing this and that. He commented with WAY out answers...
The brand he is using would not even suggest the things has was doing... I will not even mention band names here.. Over 50% here have this brand.

To let you know, When someone has a bad repair done, it makes the rest of us look bad when a person you are TRYing to sell a repair to, and all they remember is that bad repair they had before. they will say "No, I had a chip repair a while back and it looked bad or worst then before., You are all the same"
That is when I have to try to sell them that I am better because, WE all are not the same..

That is why " I " want to know who is in town and what they do on repairs. To me that is not wasting my time.

In Cal. You have a bigger population of people to work with. You may never see a lot of them again.

I could go on with more reasons why I keep track of anyone in this town but I do not want to drag this out, Unless you want us to...

This is a thread on "Checking the competitor"

[screenman]

Thinking about this post more, I doubt there is one major company in the world that does not keep a very close eye on what its competitors are doing.

[just chippen away]

I just think with one that has a hands on trade that has a heart in their work likes to see what the others are doing or doing different. We all know we are doing the best that we know of or that we have been trained to do. We would like to know if we are up to snuff with the rest in our field or if we need to bump it up more.
It could be someone doing Details, painting, pulling dents, or any other restoration. It is our nature to see what is out there.
This works in every field of trade work.

I had one of my trucks repainted a while back and a close friend of mine that has already retired out of the paint business knew I was getting the truck repainted and could not resist looking at the work done. He inspected the whole truck and picked it apart then could tell us all what the painter did wrong to get it to look the way it was.

Again, it is in most of our nature to compare each other... Well most of us I guess. I do not walk around with blinders on thinking I am the only one out there. I know there are other shops, But I can see I am no were near at the bottom of the stone chip pot.

[Brent Deines]

I'm with GlassStarz on this one. I see plenty of the competitor's work without being deceptive. I don't like it one bit when competitors waste my time pretending to be someone they are not so I don't play that game with them. That seems dishonest to me and I think you should treat others like you would like to be treated.