Registering with AGRSS has been on my mind lately. It‘s one of those things like scheduling a doctor’s appointment or meeting one’s religious representative. You know you should do it, but tend to put it off for more pleasant experiences.
“Why should I join something that doesn’t benefit me directly?” I ask myself. I already am voluntarily compliant with the AGRSS Standard. I am not just personally motivated to do it right. Due to my small size, I can’t afford to be returning to repair my own work or, heaven forbid, be sued by someone. In my view, I’m being paid by someone to do a craft service correctly and safely for a profit and it is far more profitable to me if I only do it once and to the satisfaction of my client.
Now I understand technology changes things, but so does losing liability lawsuits. I suppose both have something to do with our current methods of auto glass installation. I am quite aware that within my career span I have gone from curtain rope, a hook tool and size 11 boots to an Equalizer Express, a power caulking gun and a one-hour safe drive-away time urethane. Continuing education is a must in our business as is refining our installation practices. AGRSS has had a hand in both of those areas.
One major bone that many of us in the field or small offices in the country have to pick with AGRSS or any other industry association is that non-compliance is rampant or merely given lip service by many of us in the trade. A company that employs thousands of installers or merely one or two can subscribe to being a member of these trade organizations yet ignore those standards on a daily basis without any real fear of reprisal or repercussion.
I call it my “Window Dressing” Theory of doing business. These membership plaques may look reassuring to the ignorant and uncaring public while hanging in your waiting room, but for the most part the lack of such or even the addition of them does little for the economic side of our business. What it does do for some insurers or large installation companies that receive “deceptive referrals” (CLICK HERE for story) is to promote their “legitimacy” or provide each of them with a fig leaf-sized legal shield that really means very little. As for AGRSS, they have had no problem or lack of conscience collecting their dues but it certainly historically has had little stomach for enforcing requirements by those members who would violate AGRSS standards routinely.
With all of that negativity now vented, let me step over to the other side.
This industry has to clean itself up. It’s too easy to buy auto glass and to install it incorrectly and unsafely. Too many of us are motivated solely on profit and lack the conscience that what we do for a living actually can affect the lives of others, or at least have a physical or economic effect upon someone else’s property.
Much of the public is ignorant or just plain ostrich-like. More people care about who is leading in “American Idol” than they do almost any other current event (other than perhaps rising gas prices). Most people assume that if an auto glass company is in business that just maybe that shop can actually install auto glass. Many in this trade know factually that assumption is just not true. I firmly believe that more than half of those in the trade should be doing something else for a living, because they are hacks, in the worst sense of the word. To add insult to injury, there is more concern toward revenue per unit in corporate boardrooms than anything else other than perhaps the rising cost of doing business. It is all about numbers rather than people.
Last week, I had lunch with my Sika rep, Rick Stadtlander, who strongly urged me to register with AGRSS. He reminded me that in many of my essays, I have come strongly down on the side of professionalism and that AGRSS created the installation standard that I strive to attain. Begrudgingly I had to agree with him and will register this month.
My registering with AGRSS will not alter a darn thing in my world. I still have to compete with immigrant mobiles that violate every concept of proper install practices along with award-winning regional chains whose installers regularly install windshields while cars are on dealership lifts awaiting parts. Priming pinchweld scratches also is an ignored practice. Ask me if I can incrementally raise my prices to include the registration fee. Don’t make me laugh.
Sometime and somewhere the line has to be drawn in the sand that this industry has to acknowledge its shortcomings. Is AGRSS just another I-CAR whose initials are only known within its industry? I hope that fact will change, but I’m now willing to step over the line of apathy and hope that my actions will not just be symbolic to myself. Will AGRSS promote itself to consumers so that those potential clients needing auto glass have a basis for becoming informed? Can AGRSS become pro-active and its penalties or even acclimations become notable and respected? Will it? Becomes another matter as well.
It is my personal opinion that just perhaps if more join AGRSS and truly adhere to accepted installation practices, our industry would be the far better for it. Sometimes it has to do with putting your money where your mouth is. I guess it is my time. The more of us that register and truly install as per AGRSS standards would certainly not hurt the reputation of the industry. Perhaps an influx of shops could shake up the staid association as it is.
If not, look to see a new organization arise. I need to feather my retirement nest since the economy is presently tanking. I may very well start up Duffy’s Operating Practices of Excellence (aka DOPE). Most shops may feel foolish joining all of these trade organizations and in this way one could actually become a DOPE in doing so. Obviously since this is my idea, I’ll install myself as Chief Dope but as time goes by I would hope I could create an industry-wide DOPE Hall of Fame. It won’t certainly lack for nominations.
