Auto Glass Safety Council™ (AGSC) members recently held their annual member meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla., just before Auto Glass Week™ 2017 got underway. Members began the day with a networking breakfast before AGSC marketing committee chair Peter Brown of Tiny & Sons Auto Glass in Pembroke, Mass., welcomed attendees.
Maximizing Your Membership
Mike Schenian of City Auto Glass in St Paul, Minn., and Jennifer Cannon of Century Glass in Columbia, S.C., followed with a session titled “Maximizing Your AGSC Membership.”
“By becoming a Registered Member of the Auto Glass Safety Council, your company has made a commitment to the safe practices of auto glass installation,” said Cannon. “Your company has invested time and money in the training of your auto glass technicians, as well as the rest of your team, within your company.”
She added, “Your investment is important and your customers need to know just how much you care about their safety. By simply marketing the AGSC logo and educating your customers about the AGRSS™ Standard, you’re not only helping to brand this organization, you’re also promoting the ‘right way to install auto glass.’”
Cannon suggested that members utilize the number of tools available from the AGSC to promote it, including AGSC window stickers, lapel pins, counter signs, Registered Member patches, Certified Technician patches, marketing literature, sample press releases and the membership directory. These are all available on www.agsc.org.
When it comes to dealing with insurance agents, she said, “Insurance agents just want you to take care of their policyholders. They don’t want to hear their policyholders complaining about your glass shop doing a bad job.”
Schenian’s company promotes its AGSC membership on its website, social media, its vehicles, advertising material and more.
“We believe in the standards of the AGSC and want to promote our membership to customers and insurance agencies, as well as make sure our employees know what being a member means for our standard of safety,” said Schenian. “We are proud of our membership and dedication to safety, so we actively promote it in any way we can. We call this a 360 promotion, making sure that in every channel we are trying to reach the customer, we are assuring them of our safety standards. From when they first learn about us online or through advertising, to when they schedule an appointment, and finally when they come to our office or we go to them.”
Standard Updates
Bob Beranek of Auto Glass Consultants, Mitch Becker of ABRA Auto Body & Glass, and AGSC legal counsel Bill Ives provided a seminar titled “Standards Updates Including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).”
They discussed the AGRSS™ Standards Committee’s proposed update to the Standard with ADAS language. They explained that the goal is to provide consumer safety and also guard against liability for service providers and that they want to add language to the Standard that covers all or most business models.
The group is working with other industries as well to achieve their goals, including I-CAR, the International Institute for Highway Safety and auto manufacturers.
The panel also detailed the ADAS language that is proposed to be added to the Standard.
The Latest Audits
AGSC chief auditor Penny Ouellette of Orion Registrar Inc. followed with an update on shop compliance, common areas of non-compliances needing corrective action, and more during a session titled “2017 AGSC Validations.” She explained the process for AGSC validations, including when shops are notified that they’ll be audited and how to resolve non-compliances.
Ouellette told attendees that 80 percent of non-compliances are for the same type of issue—traceability records.
She pointed out that section 6.7 of the Standard notes that “all adhesive system component lot numbers must be traceable to each job [and] 6.8 All glass parts must be traceable to the installation by a DOT number and part number.”
She said the auditors frequently encounter missing DOT numbers, missing lot numbers and missing part numbers; and records that don’t go back as far as they should (three years or to the date of the company’s AGSC registration if less than three years).
Other common non-compliances are technicians that don’t follow their adhesive system manufacturer’s instructions (such as the proper primer dry time or “double-dipping” in a can of primer); no vehicle available for windshield installations; and companies that don’t have all of their technicians available on the audit date. Ouellette explained that in 2018 the audits will focus on companies that are AGSC Registered Members but haven’t yet been validated.
Education Update
Education Committee chair Jeff Olive of Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Glasspro followed with an update on the Education Committee’s work and also talked about the importance of record-keeping by shops.
He reminded attendees to use a pre-inspection form to document any pre-existing damage on the vehicle and make sure to include: the invoice number; VIN number; part number; DOT number; adhesive lot number sticker; temperature and humidity; set time and safe drive-away time (including am or pm and the date); and a customer signature if possible either on the pre-inspection form or the invoice.
Olive also recommended that shops utilize smart phone apps for invoicing, so that line items and documentation using photos are added to the invoice automatically. Additionally, for AGSC purposes, he noted that you can mark a job when it’s in progress in the app; include the pre-inspection form in the app; take photos of any damage noted on the pre-inspection; take photos of the cowl, dash and headliner; and take a photo of the part sticker on the glass, moulding and clips.
Additionally, Olive suggested that technicians take a photo of their temperature and humidity gauges and save it to the app, to show the conditions under which the adhesive system was used. Likewise, if the vehicle has rust, the technician can simply take a photo, then treat the damage, then take another photo. If a paper pre-inspection form is used, technicians can even take a picture of the form and load it into the app, Olive said.
Glass.com® Information
Daniel Snow of Glass.com® led a session about the website and how it can help AGSC shops increase their web presence and gain more potential customers. He talked about how the site educates consumers about safe windshield replacement and promotes the use of AGSC Registered Member Companies. He explained that being affiliated with the site can lead to more business as it provides leads, clicks, calls and even directions to their shops.
AGSC Registered Member Companies are eligible to receive a free silver package with Glass.com. The site also donates 50 cents from every transaction to the AGSC.
Takeaways from AGSC
AGSC president Debra Levy provided an update on the AGSC’s latest projects and programs during a session titled “Ten New Takeaways from AGSC.” She talked about the harmonization of the AGSC’s registration and certification programs; updates on the certification program and training opportunities; the AGSC’s outreach to insurers, including its quarterly insurer newsletter; the press releases that AGSC now sends out on behalf of its members when they join and when they pass an audit; customized tools available to AGSC members; pilot programs planned for next year including more outreach to insurers; assistance and information for members with the latest ADAS changes; updated information being sent to members about pending legislation and the development of model legislation; and promoting to consumers that they should choose an AGSC Registered Member Company.
Lunch Time
The AGSC member meeting concluded with a shared luncheon with those who attended the afternoon AGSC Insurers’ CEU Forum.
A number of AGSC committees also held meetings at Auto Glass Week. Stay tuned to www.agsc.org for more from the meetings.
Click on the links below for videos from Auto Glass Week™.
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