View From The Trenches

May I ask just a few rhetorical questions? What is it going to take for auto glass shops to realize that we can’t “go it alone” anymore? How much proof do you need that there is no “free market” when it comes to the insurance segment? Under what circumstances will it take to motivate independent shops to actually unite and try to change or at least attempt to reverse the slide of any sort of waning influence that we may have?

To use a current colloquialism: put down and step away from the crack pipe if you think that auto glass retailers are in good health and have the political strength to influence issues that matter to us. The short answer seems to be: We the independents are weak, divided and can’t see much past our noses. That disunity is being fostered and encouraged by forces both inside and outside our own industry. Clicking your heels together and making a wish to go home may help one leave Oz, but it’s not going to change our declining fortunes unless some credible action takes place on our own part.

First things first, we need to think small. The battle in the trenches starts here in the States. Because individual states have the right to regulate policy language and terms, this is where the toughest battles are fought. Any glass association will face a very well financed and legislatively adept adversary in our beloved insurance industry. Insurers have long realized that savvy political contributions have protected their interests. Their lobbying efforts are second to none when it involves issues that impact their revenues, claims and consumer protection. Whose interests they are trying to protect is one that is rarely open to debate.

Take California’s efforts to pass an anti-steering law. First off, the bill that was first introduced was amended prior to passage enough to weaken the strong anti-steering language. Now there is an effort put forth by insurance-friendly legislators to nullify even those gains. What is a disgrace is the simple lack in the nation’s largest state with the highest percentage of motor vehicles and I’m sure a commensurate number of auto glass providers of the lack of a viable and powerful lobbying association.We are simply too busy undercutting prices and stuffing glass under cowls to think about coming together and improving our industry.

The political reality is that if you do not show up to combat a very well financially oiled and connected lobbying group, you will be steamrolled into submission. It is not just a question of attending a gunfight unarmed. In many states the auto glass independents just stay home or come to hearings and are simply drowned out or muted by pro-insurance groups or legislators.

One of the most galling sights is to see certain executives from our largest retailer/TPA piously defending their corporate structure and operations in legislative hearings. You would get the impression from these folks that democracy and fairness are rooted deeply in the scripts tendered by their restricted in-house CSRs. After reading their testimony, you would not be surprised to learn if those same folks recently validated election results in Iran.

If you want to change things, you have to get involved. That is a simple fact of life. I am tired of reading posters on the glassBYTEs.com/AGRR Message Forum complain about steering, while they will not get spend one nanosecond getting off their butts and organizing something locally or statewide. Changes have to start at the grass-roots level with an eye at times focused on national issues, which makes groups like the IGA important to support. It is at the state level where most of the battles are waged and being lost through being outspent and under represented. That is our fault and no one else’s.

I am aware that many of us can’t attend capitol hearings to take the time to twist the arms of state representatives or senators. I’m in that in situation myself. However, if California had a strong, competent, independent minded glass association that I could support, (or even knew about), I would have options I don’t have now. We have to look locally first to invigorate and support our state glass associations and stop our internal bickering and in-fighting. It has been well stated by Abraham Lincoln that, “A house divided cannot stand” and that condition pretty much defines auto glass retailers. Building or at least restoring a strong state political foundation is one of the surest ways of maintaining a counterbalance to the narrow, greedy interests of others.

Last weekend I stopped and bought some fruit at a roadside stand, which fronted an orchard. When I bit into a newly purchased apple, I was taken aback at the sweetness and crispness of the fruit. It was a taste that is certainly lacking from anything I could find at a corporate grocery store. No doubt that it had to do with the fact that it was locally grown and was extremely fresh. It also was a reminder of how the public accepts mediocrity when there is little choice in shopping for food and almost anything else. It should be lesson for us in the auto glass industry in how to market ourselves.

In short, society in general is being sold a bill of goods that has lowered expectations in almost every aspect of life. If a product can be mass-produced or commercially grown, there is almost always a trade-off with quality. What is perhaps even more disturbing is the public’s perception and acceptance of second-class products and service as the norm in today’s marketplace. What has caused such a depressed standard is a matter for social scientists to debate but the reality of its existence certainly is a sad sign for many.

Our auto glass industry has never been a shining example of American craftsmanship. In the beginning it was sort of an art form since it required a glazier’s skill of cutting glass, thereby limiting entry to those who had mastered that basic ability. As auto glass designs changed with curves and tempering, manufacturing processes improved as well, making it a commodity to be marketed to a wider base. The nature of the business changed as it was pushed off of Commercial Way in Anytown, USA, and became a more corporate venture as a franchisee or company store. Today the most successful business model is one that has married itself to the insurance industry, a hybrid of claims administration and glass installation along with in-house manufacturing which feeds itself policyholders in need of auto glass and steeped in setting and maintaining production goals for its employees

The historical reality of an auto glass retailer is that almost everyone is chasing and fighting for the same profitable customer—an insurance claimant, and the source of that mother’s milk, the casualty insurance industry, is doing much fighting back as well. The irony of the situation is that they are using many of the largest corporate installation companies in the industry as willing collaborators and proxies doing battle against its own with little energy spent by insurers.

It’s my opinion that the local ownership and the non-corporate product options that we can provide is our greatest asset in battling any international or national chain. Just like that corner fruit stand, we can offer a personal face-to-face contact and a flexible choice in product. We also can promote the fact that we are not limited to generic or in-house brands of glass and mouldings or pressured by corporate time units. Also, we should be reminding our clients every day and at almost every juncture that we are working for them and not their insurer and act like it as well.

Due to the human factor, our craft can hardly ever be standardized like the production of a hamburger. Yet there is a lesson to be learned. No doubt McDonald’s tries to market its value and convenience, which are its apparent selling points, as does our own industry leaders. The taste and price of a Big Mac is fairly the same coast-to-coast. Yet when it comes to taste and quality, an argument can be made that there are thousands of burger joints nationwide that deliver a much better product. The same applies to independent auto glass shops.

We have to stress our ties to the local community. Exploit the natural distrust many people have against corporations like insurers and their co-opted providers. In many cases, there is a very good reason to have that feeling. It’s also up to us to prove that we are worth people’s trust by going the extra mile and delivering the best possible installation. The public appreciates good service, because the simple fact is, they are getting less and less of it every day. For that reason alone, people will remember and pass on your name. History has proven that method is much more effective and it is far cheaper than some inane media campaign. Also people can talk to the owner. They would need an international area code to do that for one company I know.

One has to be thankful as the summer solstice arrives in a few days. Even my brothers in the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountain areas do not have to thaw out mouldings or keep adhesives from freezing on a daily basis. Yet most of us now have to dodge the T-storms and the explosive downpours of rain that can bloom up and impact our daily lives and work schedules.

This, of course, is a typical example of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Now I realize that practically all of us are not physics majors or even minors in the arcane subject for that matter but I dare say that this basic scientific tenet is manifested daily throughout out our lives than we can ever relate. In others words, when things are going too good, the piper demands payment.

How many techs go a few days or weeks and nothing goes wrong?

That means having the right glass and the correct fit. When finding the customer does not require the use of a predator drone or a photo on a milk carton and once that client is located, they have the personality and character of Mother Teresa.

Please take note that I have limited the question to only a few weeks span. In my experience, at no point does this Time of Tranquility ever extend beyond that sort of interval. In other words, when the going gets good, watch out! No good deed ever goes unpunished.

Murphy’s Law is a universal tenet and one hardly needs to be Irish to concede that it exists and must be reckoned with. We in the auto glass replacement business must have helped Mr. Murphy by providing field experience as he pondered and developed his theory that “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

I’ve been blessed lately. I have had young attractive females in summer attire stand and converse with me while I install their windshields. Being self-employed certainly has its benefits. If I were on some mandated production bonus plan, perhaps I would not have been motivated or enabled to linger. While I profess to support all AGRSS installation polices 24/7, there is nothing that says: “pull all cowls” and “time out all primer applications” as a surfer girl in a tank top and shorts watches you work.

Of course, we all know where this will lead. I am resolved in the next few weeks that I will have multiple stand-ins for the wicked Witch of the West besmirching my work and my pooch, Mr. Peabody, cackling the phrase, “I’ll get you and your little dog too.”

Who doesn’t like summer? I know climates get hot and humid, but doesn’t the warm weather make our jobs a bit easier? Mooldings release with little effort, urethane cuts faster and with less resistance. I’d rather be pulling on gloves to protect my hands from burning than I would be saving them from frostbite. Those on those infamous production bonus plans have a few more hours of light to help make up for foul-ups or to pad the numbers. A hot summer evening sure makes a cold beer taste better.

Over time, I have learned to appreciate the smaller things in life. Here I should remind the reader that aging helps put things in perspective. Never ever forget what my Uncle Seamus once said, “No matter how bad things can get, they can get worse.” He was noted as the optimist of the family … and by the way an auto glass installer as well.