View From The Trenches

One of the best ways to start a testy discussion is to mention the word “regulation” to a group of businessmen. In fact, I think it is one of the best ways to foment an argument other than asking most liberals if Fox News is “fair and balanced.” I wouldn’t think to use the word socialism in the same group just because I don’t need to be responsible for any sort of cardiac seizure that could take place.

As the examination and accusations arise from our current economic woes, there will be calls for reform and regulation to be applied to many of the residents of Wall Street. How effective any sort of revision of operating standards will be is directly proportional to the regulatory pressure that will be placed upon them. One fact that is always overlooked is the amount of raw intellectual talent that resides inside the Wall Street firms along with the vast amount of creative legal aptitude that can be hired to outman, outmaneuver and outgun any sort of process to regulate the financial service industry. In short, if a loophole is found or was engineered to exist, this group will exploit it for its own benefit. In fact the same can be said for almost any business interest group over most regulators.

This brings me to the auto glass industry and what the elections of 2008 may bring to us. The hot buttons for independents are third-party administrators, deceptive referrals and the easy entry within our tradecraft. While a case could be made concerning interstate commerce on the first two subjects, all three topics currently are regulated under individual state laws; therefore it would be very unlikely that any sort of wholesale changes have any sort of chance to take place. The question becomes what you, the participants in this industry, want to take place.

Here are a few observations about regulations and their future in our industry.

I haven’t fallen off the turnip truck hard enough to believe that a person or a group gets what they want simply due to wishing for it. It simply takes money, influence, the ability to shape one’s message, money and organization. (Did I mention money?) What I see is an abysmal lack of unity caused mainly due to self –interest and animosity between members of our industry. Simply put, that has to change or the exploitation and division fostered by some will continue to keep us divided and unable to withstand the pressure being currently brought to bear on us by efforts of corporate hybrid glass/cost containment companies.

Regulations are only as good as the effort made to enforce them. If you’re going to pass a law, mandate enough funds to implement it.

I still believe that the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standard (AGRSS) Council would be better served to reach out to the public and sell themselves directly as a symbol of quality and safety. Audit its members to verify adherence to its standards and publicize why the consumer should be concerned about having a windshield safely installed.

Here’s an ironic observation: most states do not require auto glass installers to be licensed; however, cosmetologists must be, as well as dogs. The conclusion is rather obvious; hell hath no fury like a scalped woman. If a flying windshield does it, it’s not so much an issue, it seems.

Earning a license and maintaining some semblance of proficiency in keeping it in order to buy auto glass from a distributor is a workable concept. Why it lacks political will to do so is a question I can’t answer. Licensing will not stop some of the scurrilous installers that exist today, but to do nothing serves no one but the hacks that drag down the entire trade.

California is a wonderful example of licensing without the teeth of enforcement. Technically it is mandatory for any company that works on a car to have an auto repair license issued by the state. No professional ability or testing is required to apply or to receive a license making it meaningless to own unless one gets caught without one. The only way a company seems to get cited (and I have never seen an auto glass only shop get cited) is to commit insurance fraud in which a case is brought to legal authorities by a joint task force of insurance investigators. As the nation’s most populous state with the most roads and resident miles driven, it is a haven for some of the worst installers in this country. On any given day, I see people picking up glass at a distributor’s warehouse who hardly seem qualified to flip burgers much less able to drive a van or mini pick-up that I am ashamed to say profess a connection to the same thing I do. No political will exists for that condition to change. To see any car mutilated by some incompetent tech is just so frustrating. The sorry part is that the damage could have come from any sector of our industry.

We are being promised “change” in this election year. Whatever the outcome may take place; change is indeed going to come. We in auto glass already know about change. Our industry is amid major alterations brought on by corporate influences, globalization and local market conditions. To survive and prosper the best method is to think long-term and make quality your highest priority.

To me the alphabet brands of auto glass are a pox on our landscape. It makes almost no difference what country it is produced in because its quality is suspect no matter its origin. From a patriotic standpoint, those that are produced here in American plants should be even more ashamed at the lack of fit and finish I see being handed to me at a warehouse.

Ten years ago, finding a distorted windshield from a major brand was a rare occurrence. Sadly, today it is not. Recalls on tempered parts are increasing and with so much globalization, there is a need now to post DOT numbers in order to track manufacturers. Creating more suspicion, we are seeing imported glass come into our markets devoid of brands even DOT numbers in rare cases along with the overseas counterfeiters that try to mimic our premium brands.

Among commonplace annoyances, one has to contend with salt-water film on imported glass, excess laminate that is left on perimeters of windshields along with wavy distortions contained in windshields, not to mention mirror brackets that can’t support its function. I have been informed that some aftermarket manufacturers may not properly solar coat its glass or its acoustic interlayer may not perform to the original glass’s ability or even at all. If one’s tempered part is not subject to recall, you have to hope that the bonded hardware is not missing, likely to fall off upon install or bonded in the wrong place. That’s assuming it is of the proper bend and thickness to fit a door channel. One can even buy glass that is devoid of its designated encapsulation or bonded hardware, making it far cheaper to purchase.

Why do we accept this sub-standard production of our main retail product? Has junk glass become so pervasive that it is impossible to avoid? Or should the question be: Does the industry want to avoid the issue and make price and only price become the sole driving force in our purchases?

I would really like to point fingers at the worst offenders, the worst brands and be able to nominate them to a Hall of Shame. I can’t, since libel laws can be invoked to shield the guilty and many of us may already know them. What upsets me is that as end users we complain but do little else. This complacency toward mediocrity or worse is what is most maddening.

I am tiring of hearing that the free market determines everything. When does ethics ever enter into the equation, I ask? If the supply chain is choked with marginal or inferior products because producers are trying to squeeze out the maximum profit (large or small) to please Wall Street, attract a buyer or to just dump it on a willing foreign market thanks to favorable VAT rulings and artificial currency values, it becomes very difficult for the installer to have any sort of freedom of choice.

I believe that there are good brands out there. I’m personally glad that there are some American firms that still show pride in manufacturing quality and have recently modernized their facilities to compete with the strong offshore competition. Without sounding xenophobic, American glass companies deserve a strong first consideration in our brand selection. However, if little effort is made by a manufacturer to create a well- made artifact, a pox on those companies who flood their warehouses with circumspect product whose country of origin may come from anywhere as well as here.

Seems to me if a manufacturer, foreign or domestic, is proud enough to have a single brand name its quality appears to be higher. Dealing with the foreign produced alphabet brands is somewhat akin to dancing through a minefield while blindfolded. None inspire confidence and many seem to produce stomach acid if purchased. Pick one up and compare the weight of the new windshield to the OE brand that is most likely being removed, in almost every case, it is lighter. That’s a large hint of what is to be expected and I will tell you fuel efficiency consideration is not in the equation.

Can someone tell me in what industry does such an affront to quality occur? When we drive a brand new car off the lot, is it dented, scratched or rusting? Is the milk we purchase already sour? From this vantage point, it seems that the overwhelming concept in the auto glass industry is “buyer beware” and it starts directly from the manufacturing source and never ceases until installation.

We become what we sell. Whether one chooses it or not, the product that we install represents what we want our company’s reputation to become. We as an industry have been slipping down the slippery slope of discount pricing for quite some time now thanks mainly to the ever declining wholesale costs we’ve demanded, which, in turn, has fueled this frustrating lack of manufacturing quality.

We are the professionals that the American consumer trusts to identify, choose and properly install an integral component of their automobile. We have allowed in many cases pure greed to control our buying choices at the expense of the customer since we are looking for any sort of edge to make sales or stay ahead of the poorhouse. Since our distributor’s inventory reflects the demands we have put upon them, my best suggestion is to start there and vote with our checkbooks.

I’m no virgin. I know many shops exist that eagerly snap up any sort of blemished, distorted, scratched or damaged glass sold to them by distributors trying to cut their losses. Those outlets pander and target to a market that buy on price alone, not integrity of product or quality of install. No matter what changes in the future, that sector will never cease to exist.

We are in a unique market situation in which few of the major players are involved vertically in the industry and it can be argued that their production standards or anything else may not reflect mine or many of you out there as well. Time will tell if the American public will catch on. In a free market, there is a price to be paid somewhere for poor quality. It’s about time that our shops or our clients stop paying that price; however, we first have to want to.

Stressed lately?? Seen one’s 401K evaporate these past weeks faster than an Arizona shower? These are getting to be scary times. I admit I’m turning to CNBC fairly regularly and I don’t own stock in anything. Heck, I barely follow NASCAR.

But as Thomas Paine wrote over 200 years ago, “These are times that try men’s souls.” He’s still right and he even forgot to mention the women folk. A lot of them are fuming mad and I have the intent of staying clear. Hell hath no fury than a delayed pensioner.

I would love to write that this is just a bump in the road for many of us. In good faith, I feel more like Wiley Coyote defying momentarily Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity while over the Grand Canyon. The question is more what is ahead and how we all can avoid meeting Mother Earth at 9.8 meters per sec.

I’m no Suze Orman nor Bill Gates. I’ll admit I’ve wished a few times that I could be cited as a love child of Mr. Warren Buffet. Still, I have weathered a few of these downturns and I’d be glad to remind some of you folks that crying and the gnashing of teeth only benefits your dentist and no one else.

Sure I’m mad. I’ve seen greed and the acquisition of wealth by a few cause the loss of trillions of retirement dollars. Homes have and will continue to be lost to foreclosures. Unemployment will rise just due to the falloff of spending throughout the economy. We in the auto glass business in some areas have been the proverbial canaries in the coalmine falling faint as people slow to a halt their discretionary spending. Still it is not the time to run and hide.

One really has to keep the faith and stay true to basic Business 101. Watch your expenses and get value for them. Advertising and promotion will never be more important to you than it is right now and for the foreseeable future. You have to determine what market you want and how you can reach that target audience the most effectively. I firmly believe that niche selling and servicing is more profitable and efficient than trying to capture small slices of the entire spectrum of customers out there. There is a place known as the Internet out there that still hasn’t reached its full potential.

One has to sell value, not price. It is your job as a business owner to convince a caller that you are better than your competition and give him reasons why you are. Many consumers are completely ignorant about what we do and how we do it, making their expense for a windshield or a door glass one of the few components they can place a value on. I have found that telling the customer what he is getting for his hard earned money and what he may be missing if he looks elsewhere for cheaper sources has benefited my sales.

There is no magical solution at the moment. There is as much exasperation echoing inside the walls of a glass shop in Augusta, Maine, as there is in Anaheim, Calif. The most imperative question I wonder is: Is my industry going to continue to self-destruct with its penchant for aberrant, never-ending discounting?

To paraphrase a noted 19th-century philosopher, the seeds of destruction of the auto glass industry are contained from within. We are wounding and maiming ourselves every day with the omnipresent desire to cut prices as well as quality in order to win business. As you chop your prices, you are whittling away your own chances to survive simply due to a larger decline in profit. Add in the burden of buying and installing the cheapest glass, molding and adhesive materials you can find, you are almost guaranteeing yourself failure with comebacks and returns. Most likely you will take others with you as they try to match lower pricing.

What we sell and how we install it is somewhat a national disgrace. Ask most any conscientious installer if he feels the quality of aftermarket glass has improved these past five years and I’ll bet a month’s pay he won’t answer in the affirmative. Ask those same installers what brands they would use on their own cars or their children’s and I’ll bet another month’s income that that list shrinks even smaller. It seems in every aspect of our industry, some company, some person is cutting corners somewhere, whether it is to please Wall Street by its stock dividends or to just enhance their PPP- style bonus program.

While I won’t suggest erecting a statue to Jeff Olive or Bob Beranek, I do believe at least half of our nation’s auto glass installers know less than both of those men have forgotten about our craft. The saddest part is that few notice and even care. In all seriousness, what we are doing in the auto glass industry in many cases rivals the mortgage mess. There is fault to be assessed in every link that forms the chain of our industry, from glass manufacturer, distributor, insurer, and installer, while the consumer ends up being the biggest loser.

To sum up the past few paragraphs; There is a misconception that a business needs to use shortcuts in order to survive. Let’s try thinking long-term; earn a positive reputation and work hard to maintain it. The auto glass business graveyard is full of those who drank the short-term Kool-Aid.

Whether you want to admit it, I have come to believe that we are all inter-related in many ways. That means manufacturers, distributors, chains and independents alike. No one is going to come out unscathed if this country goes into a deep recession. However, since independents usually are smaller and leaner, they have the flexibility to act and respond to changing markets sooner and more precisely. Stick to basics and provide value for your service and your chances for survival should rival the elusive Roadrunner. Just ask Mr. Coyote. Beep beep!!