View From The Trenches

One of this writer’s sources of amusement is reading or listening to consumers trying to review an auto glass installation, whether online or on the radio. What is horribly apparent is that the American public knows far more about the social habits of hotel heiresses than they ever want to discern about a common auto glass repair. In short, most people don’t know and really don’t care a great deal about their choices of auto glass vendors. To me it makes far more sense to upgrade that ignorance as we try to bootstrap this industry’s reputation forward.

Like some of you who travel and have found a mysterious attraction to reading glass ads from the yellow pages in new cities and towns, I have gone high tech and have been reading online reviews written of actual installations. It truly is an eye-opener as to what makes a “good” installation in the eyes of the ignorant:

“I drove in, had my windshield installed and drove away in under an hour’s time.”
“The blue tape that they used was quite attractive.”
“Two or three shops quoted me $350 but this one did it for $149.”
“They actually vacuumed up most of the glass.”
From my very unscientific research, these observations do nothing to encourage my confidence in the American consumer. One has to show up on time, fix it cheap and make sure you clean up the broken glass and you may very well get rave reviews. Ask anyone about SDAT, roof crush (I’ll spare you the DOT regulation number) and corrosion prevention, and I guarantee you would get stares of such a vacuous nature, you should offer them drops to prevent damage to their eyes. In short, they are clueless to what really makes a good installation and I believe that many retailers thrive on that ignorance.

Branding has become a “buzzword” lately within our industry. Retailers and glass manufacturers are considering building up their name recognition to increase the chance of them becoming the choice of consumers. I visualize an ad campaign spearheaded by Chinese glass manufacturers with the catchphrase of “Know Your Alphabet.” I bet they could get the endorsement of America’s early childhood teachers when they roll that one out.

To me, AGRSS could be the perfect vehicle to really expand consumer awareness by first taking on the task of educating the public about what constitutes a proper install and then tying that in to its membership. I wouldn’t care one whit if insurers helped to underwrite a safety campaign in conjunction with AGRSS, IGA, NGA, even domestic glass manufacturers and make public service ads like the National Safety Council used to for wearing seat belts. I just want an informed public that won’t write reviews that state: “Glass is glass and I just want to get in and out ASAP and spend as little as I can.”

Still, many of these posted reviews are enlightening. Our nation’s largest retailer received many reviews nationally. In fairness, more than half had praise for their work. Still, one phrase often used was: “our insurance company had recommended …” (Can we say “deceptive referral??”) One consistent national complaint about them was punctuality. The most common one I saw was that they were oftentimes hours late (or never showed up on the appointed day), with or without the correct glass needed. Tsk tsk, it’s not nice to overbook.

As for me, I value feedback and really try to be aware of how the public perceives my auto glass installations. After reading at least 300 online reviews this past week, I think I may have hit upon the secret of success. Show up on time, make sure you vacuum up every shard of glass and, of course, use attractive blue painter’s tape to highlight your client’s new windshield.

I recently was reminded that the folks at Mitchell/NAGS are fond of sermonizing to us auto glass retailers that NAGS pricing is the “language of the industry.” I would like to argue that if that is true, then how come it seems I’m on the third floor of the Tower of Babel? Flag me down an interpreter, please!

I don’t buy what the Mitchell people are trying to sell us. What I do believe unequivocally is that NAGS sold us out for more than 30 pieces of silver to the insurance industry and it is to the detriment of the medium to small retail glass shop.

This is what I feel I can comfortably state. I believe the only time a shop uses NAGS retail prices consistently is when they deal with insurance billing. I would bet that when a client calls for pricing of a windshield, most shops that primarily install auto glass do not consider NAGS pricing as a primary basis for a quote. NAGS may have started as the source of a quote, but a reducing factor was applied as in insurance claims.

Distributors and wholesalers of auto glass have created their own price lists due to dissatisfaction of profit margins and I would guess NAGS’ inability and (perhaps you could even call it failure) to address the “net price” disparities that exist within the industry.

In short, the beauty of having a single price list both for wholesale purchase and retail use has been rendered obsolete forever. The genie is out of the bottle and I would think that, due to legal reasons, he’s not going back inside.

Putting some of the final nails in the NAGS coffin are the blurred lines that exist today among manufacturers, distributors, retailers and administrators. The dynamic duo of Belron and PPG who wear all four hats have no real internal use for NAGS, except to keep it around to keep their insurance clients happy (in my view) and their competition restricted since they demand adherence to it for discount application. When NAGS officials shared the news that they often consulted with members of our industry to ascertain glass acquisition costs, I wondered, which two entities are in the best position to provide data for that “research?” Can someone please give me an answer to this question?

If you as an owner can’t buy glass using the NAGS list, don’t use NAGS pricing on a day-to-day private or fleet customer and are being forced by a competitor-administrator to use a NAGS pricing basis for insurance purposes only, why do you tolerate it?

I’m not trying to rain on Mitchell’s parade. The company sells data. It sells proprietary software that can be of benefit to any glass shop. I just have a problem with the fact that the NAGS list prices have has evolved into just another cost containment device and having a single national list to discount from serves its purpose. I don’t buy for one minute the excuse that the demise of a NAGS price list would cause “chaos” throughout the industry. The only chaos would occur in Mitchell’s sales meetings if sales declined precipitously.

Many of us whine that we are powerless about much of what goes on in our industry. It’s true that Belron, PPG and even State Farm will do what they will do and we can only react to those actions. However, when it comes to the issue of pricing, I truly believe options exist out there that would free the auto glass industry from an unrealistic burden that we have historically accepted as fact.

We have erected our own Tower Of Babel over time, through mistrust and suspicion mixed in with our own focus for personal success. Despite the fact that English is our common language, we have great difficulty communicating.As for me, I feel much better being on terra firma than atop any mythical building. As for NAGS, you might say I feel much better being balanced on solid ground than “re-balanced” anywhere else.

It’s springtime and the baseball season is off and running. The auto glass season had its Opening Day of sorts with its conventions and meetings in Las Vegas last week and things sure got off to a fast and furious start. Many swings were made and we had some real doozies of misses as well. The notables one are as follows.

I bet that Tom Feeney may be benched or at least put on the disabled list for a time after his performance in Las Vegas for the Solutions team, an affiliate of the mighty BelSafe division of the Columbus corporates. His pitching performance was dreadful as he tried to face down the Independent batters. It appeared that his style fooled no one and most of his pitches were so outrageously out of the zone. Much of the stuff he was throwing was telegraphed and the hitters were onto him at will. It appears that he needs seasoning and one expects that the team will try to protect him from himself. At the least he is probably somewhere in Columbus working on his game being reminded never to actually say anything while speaking.

Jenny Cain should also be remanded to the batting cage. She made what appeared to be a mess hitting clean-up for the BelSafe team. It took six days trying to concoct plausible damage control only to strike out weakly. And, she never made contact with any real issue. It’s hard to hit a pitch when one is trying to spin at the same time.

The NAGS boys showed up and will be forever thankful for BelSafe’s dreadful performance since it helped them get back out of town under the radar. They opened up the festivities with almost every pitch wildly thrown daring any and all batters to try to hit their efforts. The independent team initially was baffled due to their assumption that there was a valid strike zone to use. The NAGS team brought their personal umpires that ruled in their own favor stating that there was enough of a strike zone built in already and since the independent team had been surveyed previously there was no reason for complaint. NAGS appeared to continue to baffle all of their opponents throughout the week with its nebulous numbers.

The umpiring situation for the league appears in disarray. Some have signed up to have them. Others reject any sort of rules, much less having umpires of any sort. Some like Corporate Columbus say their own players have made up and play by their own rules and they are currently rejecting any outside umpiring for at least this season.

Lastly, a rookie appeared on the scene in Vegas; the heroic although noticeably two-dimensional IGA Man. He looks like the real deal. Rumor had him playing in the Justice League with stints in both Metropolis and Gotham City. The caped crusader against deceptive referrals may fit very well in the Independents’ lineup when playing against the Columbus Corporates and the Libelous LYNXes since his reputation preceded him for his ability to consistently hit the curve ball, a pitch both teams usually throw.

The season seems it will be an interesting one. The once powerful Diamond Dogs have faltered significantly this year and may be disbanded. It looks like their policy of ticket price reductions to gain fan popularity have cost them big time. Bickering over bonuses may accelerate free agent movements, as its future remains unclear.

The Pirates of Pittsburgh have put out the “For Sale” sign on their franchise citing market weakness. This grand old team has aged significantly over the past decades with noticeable failures in planning, production and marketing. Their attempts to forge overseas ties have not brought them any major improvement to its bottom line. Ownership has pronounced that they are looking for more promising revenue streams making the team’s future prospects appear very dim staying together, its assets may become divided among various league members.

Speaking of divided, the independent team, the league’s largest team, is still crippled by internal strife. Focus seems to be always on sustainable profits along with an almost overwhelming gap of players’ abilities along with economic goals between team members. Clubhouse fights erupt almost on an hourly basis making unity unlikely if not impossible. However, that feature makes this team so dangerous. It possesses a wide range of diverse talents that go unfettered without corporate restraints. Yet hope springs eternal. If this team could ever get its act together, a pennant would certainly be in reach for these fractious folks.