Checking the competitor

[just chippen away]

We were not pretending to be a customer. He was paid his $20.00 for the repair. I do not mind competitors, I do not like hackers making the rest of us that make a living at doing great work look bad.

The guy was done in 9 min., He used the bic lighter inside the car when it was 70 deg. at noon, recovered his resin with a syringe, Drilled though the lam, used sun only to cure the resin in one min from the time the injector weas removed, then scraped down...

Now do you teach you guys to repair this way? I do not think so.

I do not feel I wasted my time to see what this guy does...

[t4k]

I use the sun to cure 90% of the time....I let it cure for more than one minute though. The sun is your best supply of UV light.

[GLASSTIME]

As I can see the reasons one would want to Mystery Shop a competitor I could not see anyone in my company going out and doing so. Therefore I am wit GlasStarz & rBrent on this one. It is quite funny as we are priced shop all the time from locals either getting into the business or are just worried maybe thier prices or items they are offering arent matched to ours!

It has become so popular that I now know who is pricing me or shopping me and if they are my competitor.


I had a competitior call me once saying they got my card from store in the area and would like to have thier vecile Full Detailed.
I asked a few questions and then I asked what kind of vehicle it was, He stumbled a bit and said a Chevrolet Torino!
Afterwards I waited a day and returned a follow up when his voicemail came on he was another detaler in the area. I later seen a sign of his at a independent car lot and chose I would stop in. I walked up and introduced myself and asked him if he still wanted his "Chevy Torino" detailed.

To make light of the situation it was a good laugh, I left and have never spoken to him since, as I believe he shut his operation down.

My opinon my wife has better things to do and so do I to worry about the Jones'

I have my price, my packages. I do what I do to the best of my ability and know how. Thats all that matters to me. I deliver a Professional, Quality job and I take care of our clients like they were family. I evolve myself around and with positive people and try and steer away from those that are negative....

We are Time2Shine....Thats what counts!

[Brent Deines]

We were not pretending to be a customer. He was paid his $20.00 for the repair. I do not mind competitors, I do not like hackers making the rest of us that make a living at doing great work look bad.

The guy was done in 9 min., He used the bic lighter inside the car when it was 70 deg. at noon, recovered his resin with a syringe, Drilled though the lam, used sun only to cure the resin in one min from the time the injector weas removed, then scraped down...

Now do you teach you guys to repair this way? I do not think so.

I do not feel I wasted my time to see what this guy does...

So now you know your competitor does lousy repairs, which I think you already knew, but now you are also out $20 and have a poor quality repair in your own vehicle. Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how this was a good utilization of your time or how it will help your business. Are you going to lower your quality, lower your price, or bad mouth your competitor with the knowledge you now have of them? If not, what good did it do you? I would prefer to do a good repair on my own vehicle, save $20, and avoid a great deal of aggravation in the process.

Don't get me wrong. I think secret shopping has its place, but in my opinion it should be to help improve the quality of work being performed by the person or company that is being targeted. I think it would be a far more efficient use of time and money to pay someone to make an appointment with my own company for a windshield repair or headlight restoration and ask them to take notes or record the conversations to see what we can improve on. JMHO

[screenman]

One of the reasons I dummy shop is to see the prices my opposition are charging, as it is not something any of them advertise. With the training side I like to know that the opposition are still not teaching dry out and do not tell the story of UV cover. So when a customer comes to me to buy Delta system and says he could go somewhere else and buy another kit, that they say will only take them 10 minutes to train him on I can honestly tell him what might be missing from his training.

[just chippen away]

So now you know your competitor does lousy repairs, which I think you already knew, but now you are also out $20 and have a poor quality repair in your own vehicle. Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how this was a good utilization of your time or how it will help your business. Are you going to lower your quality, lower your price, or bad mouth your competitor with the knowledge you now have of them? If not, what good did it do you? I would prefer to do a good repair on my own vehicle, save $20, and avoid a great deal of aggravation in the process.

Don't get me wrong. I think secret shopping has its place, but in my opinion it should be to help improve the quality of work being performed by the person or company that is being targeted. I think it would be a far more efficient use of time and money to pay someone to make an appointment with my own company for a windshield repair or headlight restoration and ask them to take notes or record the conversations to see what we can improve on. JMHO

To answer your questions with out getting into a big uproar.
1. Are you going to lower your quality? No, that is not the reason for checking the competitor.

2. lower your price? Kind of hard getting what we are getting when a HACKER is low balling repairs, and the customer is phone pricing then says the guy down the street is at 20. I can talk till I am blue in the face to sell my self, but when the customer is set at only paying 20. for a top job... He took money off my table... I can lower my price a little, but I did not even START that low years ago. I will not go backwards in time to please 1, 2, 3 or more people that have already said you are good but can you charge what the other guys price is? I think not.

3. bad mouth your competitor with the knowledge you now have of them? I will let their work speak for its self. But at that time it is to late for me.. John Dow has already been to him, do to the fact he sites in a busy lot all day, than says the repair looks bad... That person may now have a bad taste for having repairs done, as mention at an earlier post.

4. I would prefer to do a good repair on my own vehicle, save $20, and avoid a great deal of aggravation in the process. The only aggravation is feed back of the ones that do not care who is low ball hacking right working out your back door. I could walk around blind to the world, then when all my work goes south sit there asking my self, "what just happened?", by that time it is to late.

5. I think it would be a far more efficient use of time and money to pay someone to make an appointment with my own company for a windshield repair or headlight restoration and ask them to take notes or record the conversations to see what we can improve on. Pay someone to make an appointment with my shop... I still spent money.. Spend the money to check someones work or to have my self checked out... ? Give me a quarter, I will flip it next time to see what I will do...

I do keep up to my competitors, and they do the same to me... It is the game we will have to play now days when everyone is trying to put food on the table and see this as an easy job for a quick buck... I will protect my plate on that call.

[Brent Deines]

No you don't have to play that game. You choose to play that game. I choose not to. It's a difference of opinion, simple as that.

[GlassStarz]

My feeling is simple If you are not making enough you need to spend time figuring out how to do so
Wasting your time playing games with a competitor isnt productive my time off is valuable I am an Artist and Surf my time at the Beach or in the Studio is stress relief
I have learned to work aprox 25 hrs a week and earn a great living those who want to do the same can ask how .Those that dont get it wont ever get it
This is a job where they give out free money any trained Monkey can do repairs and once you learn to sell the product it really is pretty simple

[sunshine wr]

All due respect Glasstarz "any trained Monkey can do repairs" I don't believe this. I think it takes skills and training to do repairs correctly. That said, this business is what YOU put into it. I tried concerning myself with my competition when I first started, but found it much more produtive to mind my own business.

[screenman]

I find some trained monkeys can do a simple repair, but often not consistently to a good standard. I also find that trained monkeys let standards slip after a short while.