Competitive rates= More Work

[AutoGlassEssentials]

How many of yall use competitive rates. we are a fairly new company doing most of our work from service centers at dealerships, but how well does the competitive rates work and do u get a steady flow of work. Does it make it worth it to take the pay cut in turn for more work.. Any advise?

[SGT]

Personally I do not try to compete with anyone. We keep our prices on the high side. Our time and service is valuble and needed. As a part time independant my limiting factor is not competition it is "time" as you only get so much in a week. I am not a fan of low balling but at the end of the day if you have to put a roof over your families head, food on the table then in this economy you have to do what you have to do. In the end you will have to decide where you feel comfortable price wise. Oh we are at 65.00 retail.

[D2D]

OK, I'll bite on this one. You say you're a new company working in auto dealer service centers. It seems you would have a captive audience to sell repairs much like oil change stores. In other words, an add-on sale.

Your question is, will setting prices at rates competitive with other WSR vendors result in more work. I don't believe it will result in any measurable increase in work. For many reasons that I won't try to cover here but from my own experience in price setting for any service business, especially at the mom and pop shop level is you have to carefully determine your cost of operation and your income needs, then determine how many jobs per day you need to meet that income level.

In my case, I have no concern whatsoever what the "other guy" charges for a chip repair. I have my needs and I'm either meeting those needs or I'm not.

This may ruffle some feathers but I've long believed that way too many vendors think they have to offer rock bottom prices to get work when they're too stupid to realize they're losing money. It's long been a complaint on this forum of the $15 repair techs that queer our market pricewise, do horrible repairs, and make the public think this should be the going rate. They are the thorn in the sides of all service business'

I also have a policy of never "bidding my work". My price is what it is and if that's not acceptable or the "other guy" will do it for less then they have my permission to lose all the money they want, while I wonder how long it will be until they're gone.

Example, yesterday a guy called for a price on a W/S for his car and I looked it up and quoted the price, to which he responded, "I found a guy that'll do it for about $100 less than that!. My 3 word response, "go for it!". Thank you, have a nice day.

I have fleet managers tell me after I've told them my rates, "I got so-n-so doin' it for $15!". To which my reply is, "Great!", I can't possibly match that price, does he do good work? Does he show up when you need him? Are you happy with the service? Then take care of that guy and don't forget to buy him lunch once in a while, he's probably starving!. But keep my card in case you need quality repairs and quality service. Then I thank him and WALK OUT.
I always go back and check 60-90 days later and I've gotten many accounts this way.

Brent has commented a number of times about how his prices were the highest in town and he stayed busy and made money. Look up his posts on this subject.

So, to sum up, you need to determine your true cost of operation and set your rates and sales production to where they need to be and don't worry about what your competitors are doing.

Most important! You will NEVER run out of windshields to repair, at least as long as they continue to use laminated glass.

[Frank EU]

Well, what are competitive prices?
Are we talking about $14.95 per initial repair and $5 for an additional? (UT)
I would NOT call that being ''competitive''.

I can almost guarantee you that you will be busy all day, JUST by going out, seeing prospects, underbidding your ''competitor'' and start working for $14.95 per repair and get the work.
We do know folks are working for $19.95 (in Michigan), but they are probably NOT in the right mind.
Does it bring them MORE work? Will they be having a BETTER live? I doubt it.

One can be running around all day, looking for work at worse than rock-bottom prices, but we prefer not to.

Like Brian mentioned above in his post, we are on the high end.
I personally rather be doing absolutely NOTHING, than working for a too low price.
One should NEVER sell on price, it is far from the only component and certainly not always the most important.
Compete on better service, be there when people need you most, perform excellent work. People DO want to pay, do not worry.

[AutoGlassEssentials]

i like the points and i agree and i personally am not willing to drop my cash price. We do have a very captive audience being in a few of the best dealerships in the greater LA area and so far so good but there is always room for improvement. We have had some success in the short period we've been in the business aside from a few bumps in the road, but the way i c it we are picking cars from a small pool of cars. A kiddie pool if i may, i want to drag my sales net through the pacific!! Bigger net = more sales very basic. Long story short what i am curious about is u is it worth it to submit individual competitive rate offers to individual insurance companies. For example we could fax allstate a individual offer for they're customers. Now heres where it gets tricky, you take a pay cut on all those deals per that insurance company walk in or otherwise but the insurance company WILL send work your way when a customer files a claim. They will not do so very rarely without this offer. Thus is it worth it to take a small pay cut on walk ins etc to get those free jobs from the insurance provider?? If anyone has experience with this please let me know. Thanks for the help and GOOD LUCK to all of yall repair guys out there!! Also any thing i can help with let me know, very new to the auto glass community but always willing to help the fellow business man assuming your in direct competition lol.

Thanks!!

Auto Glass Essentials

[Eco Steam]

I have not been in the business for nearly as long as some of the Techs here, and I repect what a majority of them have to say when I read the forums posts.

But I must ask......

If Joe Bob Customer calls and says, "I have a chip in 2 of my vehicles windshields, and I see that you charge $65.00 per chip, but I was curious, since both of my vehicles are in the same location, is it still $65.00 per vehicle?", are you really gonna charge that potential Customer $130.00 to come out and repair his Chips?

I know that sticking to your prices and not allowing yourself to be low balled, is good and all but, there are limits....right?

If you have the ability to build a good business relationship with your Customers, you're going to leave them with a POSITIVE feeling, and if they know anyone that needs a chip, they will more than likely refer you to them.

I Charge $45.00 and $10.00 and I make more $$$ at these prices then I did when I charged $60.00, $15.00, and $10.00....

I do charge more for Cracks, because of time and more resin use.....

Harmon Calls I get $50.00 and $10.00

Lynx Calls I get $45.00 and $10.00

SGC I get $49.95 to $75 for the first, and $0 to $20 for each additional, it all depends on the Insurance company.....


I just believe that sticking with your prices is great, but if you live in an area that the average shop does thier repairs for $40 or $50, I wouldn't Charge $80, you will probably not get a bunch of calls.

Also, if you get a call from someone and they live more than 10 to 15 miles away, tell them that you will need to add $5 to the total for gas, most people are understanding.

Just my 2 cents......

[AutoGlassEssentials]

thanks for the post i like the idea and something i played with a bit more this week as i am still learning.I have a great foot in the door at most of my locations but so far not the numbers i would have liked to have seen. After christmas everyones tight not out spending money so i tried working with a few customers on an individual basis and got a decent response. For instance i had a guy with a nice 68 mustang with a 428 beautiful car but it had several chips. I talked to him he said he had specialty insurance and was no way interested with using it so i started telling him about how it works how it would benefit him and moved on to selling him as a cash customer. Ended up working a deal with him for $30 on the repair of the mustang even tho he had alot of places to fix and it wasn't worth it, he brought his silverado back in return with full coverage and i got a loyal customer that will tell his friends. So basically what we are trying is i will work with u on the repair price and u in turn tell all your friends about us and how its free.. Trying to set up a referral plan where the customer will get paid for the referral by using they're invoice number or name. Just an idea thanks for all the help!

[AutoGlassEssentials]

also as far as the gas charges there is gas calculators that can tell u an exact appropriate price for charges on mobile instead of giving a round about number. I also found this link last night which was very helpful in products for advertisement etc very cheap. I bought almost everything on the page other than umbrella lol which is just stupid..

[AutoGlassEssentials]

and as far as competitive goes we have also gotten into the fine auto market ie ferrari maserati lambos etc as they are very common here and i have some great contacts. We are charging a luxury tax of 200 added onto the 50 thru insurance or cash which the customer is usually happy to pay, not sure how much that helps everyone else but if u have one of these dealerships in your area i would say go talk to them (in a nice suit) couldn't hurt.. Unless your in the greater LA area which i already have contracts in place at most of them sorry.. these dealerships usually have a good repor with they're customers since they are such fine automobiles and they get constant attention. very easy sell if u look the part to touch they're car IE not gonna let u work on their 200,000 car in overalls

[just chippen away]

I Hope you head does not explode with all the high end prices you think you are going to get.
"We are charging a luxury tax of 200 added onto the 50 thru insurance or cash which the customer is usually happy to pay"
You are coming in with bigger than life dreams...