With Safelite holding more than 40 percent of the online auto glass market and Glass.net holding almost another 30 percent – we all have a problem.
Look, I’m all for competition – but when I see one or two companies obliterating a market I get a little miffed. I’m not saying they’re doing anything wrong online, but with new acquisitions and a deeper reach into many towns and cities, the rest of you better build a solid strategy to defend your local positions ... or prepare to give up.
Start by looking at your local strengths. Why do people choose to come to you? Do you help charitable organizations? Do you take part in local radio giveaways? Do you have representation in a local parade? These kinds of things build a strong local brand – and keep people coming back. Capitalize on this and make sure local consumers know what you do for the community.
If you know you have a weak brand in your area – look at your competitors. What are they doing? Learn from other’s strengths if you don’t have them yourself.
The big national chains rarely grab the local bond that you can achieve in your area. They may have their vans parked around the corner, and they may try to under price each job. But if you do enough in your area to build trust with your community, underhanded tactics will fail and you will succeed!
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10 comments:
Scott,
Thanks for bringing focus to the Internet-based auto glass world. I wanted to provide clarification about your statement that "we all have a problem" because Glass.net has "almost another 30 percent" of the online auto glass market. Glass.net's business is all about connecting local customers with local auto glass pros. We use our national online presence to generate jobs for local shops. So, yes, we have a big chunk of the online pie but we're all about providing a platform upon which local shops can compete and gain access to a huge Internet audience of customers.
Thanks,
Chad Kreutz
President
Glass.net
chad.kreutz@glass.net
Scott,
Fixmywindshield.com has a small market share, however we are a viable in expensive alternative to glass.n*t we charge no weekly rates, and we only bill you if you get a job sent thru. And what could make this better? We allow retailer to charge a fuel surcharge something that NO OTHER glass quoting web site is doing (currently). We allow retailers to give fleet quotes that are secure and veriified if they want to provide lower prices to repeate or fleet customers. We provide any shop theirname.fixmywindshield.com so only there pricing is displayed to the consumers, we are quickly climbing the search engines, have little to no over head. We allow customers to host their web site at no charge at all like allianceautoglass.com and others.. Its virtually impossible for a small retialer to be in the top 10 of a national search unless they can provide national service. here is the press release that never hit the "news"
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200807/1216601367.html
Chad, you failed to mention the huge cost to be on glas*.n*t ? Its 44.95 a week, and 50 cents per quote and 24.95 per phone call even if it does not yield a job. I think that its about time that one of these magazines, like Auto Glass magazine could put out a comparison. There is also PROSTARSAutocare.com and Fixmywindshield.com how does G*ass.n*t stand up to them for cost, etc? I know with PROSTARS deal you have to be a truck load buyer or a PPG PROSTARS Location.
Would be interesting to see how many people have used the service chad, and what they think of it, every time i see a thread start if it gets negative it gets removed, because you run ads i am sure.
Chad - thanks for the comment and clarification.
Thanks also to fixmywindshield and Auto Glass Girl. Not that I want a post to go negative - but hey, sometimes that's what we need to get everything out in the air.
I don't actively sponsor much outside of GTS, so I'll keep my next comment "general"...
Any one of the solutions mentioned in this post or your comments will likely be beneficial and profitable to some businesses.
As an example, you all know by now that I usually trample on Yellow Pages, Super Book, or whatever other printed phone directory is out there. For most, these are a waste of money - and yet I have had one-on-one conversations with some shop owners that swear by the phone book and (say they) can prove the value in them.
Further research has shown me that in some areas they are more preferred by consumers than other mediums.
The real point here is that you need to look at your options, try some things out, and track, track, track! In the end, you should be able to figure out which option(s) prove the most profitable.
Very diplomatic Scott, I think that what you said is true. Perhaps your alot like me and people either love you or absolutely hate you ;) we use fixmywindshield.com and were one of the formers of the orginzation, i do use PROSTARSautocare.com also but will not comment on eithers yield of jobs. Anything is what YOU make of it.. If you spend nothing you might get nothing, people do not get that.. they think they sign up invest no money and jobs pour in. Thats insaine that like work from home and work millions, if thats true why does anyone take a job as a trash guy if they can make millions, I would almost think that the gl*ss.net guy would agree that you can give somone tools, but if they do not know how to use them, they are worthless (the tools) thanks for being a man and not cencoring this blog, this could be the best thing gl*ssbytes.com has done in years. And not to mention you allow comments where other bloggers on that site hide behind a blank name and will not allow comments. Your a nice guy see you at NACE if your there i'll take you out to dinner and we can talk HTML :)
Scott,
I am currently working with a local Auto Glass provider, and the market share figures you've mentioned are new to us. Would you kindly share the source of this data? Would love to learn more about the validity and method.
Thank you!
nexozeon - thanks for the comment. Yeah, I try to make people like me, but you can't always win! ;-)
I will be at NACE. In fact, I'm speaking on the 5th. Come check it out, test me, heckle me, whatever – but be careful – if I get heckled too much I might just call out any flaws I can find about you. Ah the power of the Internet…and the stage! (Hopefully everyone sees the joke in this. I realize some are wound a little too tight and may not see the humor. For you, I am sorry).
Anyway, look me up at NACE.
Udi – You may need to give me a call on this one. We track from many tools, but due to conflict issues, and some customer /vendor contracts I cannot publicly divulge all that I’d like. I will say though, a great starting point is a tool called Hitwise – though entry cost to get competitive information starts around $35k (I think), so it’s not very suitable for small to medium businesses.
Thanks Scott!
That is helpful, so based on how Hitwise collects its data, it's fair to assume that the market share #'s are based on aggregate traffic to these sites versus actual job/appointments online? Meaning, hypothetically the 40 / 30 split in terms of actual jobs could be different.
Udi - you are correct. At least a portion of our data is aggregate/averaged for each industry we’re working in (auto glass, flat glass, collision). We use a number of tools to "pool" data - as well as press releases from companies and their marketing agencies to calculate traffic, conversions, and offline close-rates. Even monthly online revenue ranges, based on individual company knowledge… and other sources.
So for instance, we have average sales data on certain industry leaders. I can't say its exact - but taking industry information tied to all the available data - we know we're in the right ball park for each company.
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