I have not got one referral from LYNX since the latest BS of them opening up the flood gates to the lowest bidders .

Does a custom offer mean that they send all of the non choice work to the lowest guy on the sheet?

Does it mean that they still pick from anyone?

Do They still try to find a customer a shop close to them and diregard cheap prices for customer convieninece ? They really dont answer these questions do they ?

I remember when Metryx was formed they were trying to guage your shop by # of employees so that they would not overwhelm a shop with too many referrals per day ( like this was possible) but if I was to go 50% off thelist would they break theyre own rules to save that ki$$zy or do the right thing ?

How does anyone do a state farm job off the networks ? I know they made it impossible for us before we got on this crap and now look whats happened.

Job goes to lowest price no matter if it is in customer's area or not.

All good questions. I would try to contact Steve Shaw or better yet, Chris Umble at LYNX for a detailed explanation.

As far as I understand it the Customized offer allows you to set your price for work with specific LYNX insurance companies(those that allow cust. offers), however the discount you offer is FOR ALL jobs, not just customers that have no preference. So be very careful when determining your customerized offer. It applies to all jobs for that insurance company. Based on the PRICE (the lowest customized offer, forget qualifications, quality of products,location to customer, ect.) in your area, you will have more or less rotation of those customers that have no glass shop of choice.

Or better yet, don't make a customized offer and everyone in your area will hopefully make more. In my opinion it is simply a tool used to help glass shops in your area drive prices down so the insurance companies can pocket even more money. I think it would be wiser to take the money you would have given the insurance with a customized offer and spend it by promoting your own business and teaching customers that they NEED to ask for your shop, and DEMAND and FIGHT to come there.

But that is just my opinion.

CCC You are correct, if everyone will give me 5 mins without bachman bashing i will explain it.

There are 2 Sides to Customized Offers.

The Bad Side to you as a shop, will occur if you have tons of direct reffered work. If you generate your own leads then customized offers for insurance companies you deal with on a daily basis is most likely not a good idea for your company. Also if you go too deep you could potentially really hose yourself on windshields such as a dw1610 and a dw1529 unless you know some macig place to purchase these cheap..

The great side,

Lets say in the past year for example you had 2 allstate jobs (this being used as an example). You need more work for your shop, and you can afford to offer a better rate, I would suggest going 2 points at a time up till you get a referall. Give it a day or 2 in between raising your rate. Lynx does not populate new offers untill 12:01am EST. So if you do an offer at 1 am it does not even hit the system till the next nite at 12:01 am. Customized offers on insurance companies you are not getting work from is in my own opinion a great way to gain work. When thinking about what C/O is right for you i suggest you take your top 10 sellers, and calculate it out at the rate you would intend to offer. And let that lead you down the path to referrals. some companies cap labor at $100 i much rather prefer the 35 PNH of allstate.. all things you need to factor in when making a proper adjustment to your rates. Remember we are all in this to make money, but sometimes it takes money to make money.

I have no yellow pages, no nothing and i have been in business 6 years, i do not even have a sales person except in saint louis.. If you look at what you spend on yellow pages alone, then divide that by the number of months in the year, if you ditched the yellow pages by 1/2 you should be able to calculate what rate you could charge and 1. Not be considered a low price idiot . 2. what is it worth to you per referall. How much does your advertising cost / the number of jobs you get in a year that is how much each lead costs you. Would you rather make the yellow pages rich or make yourself rich?

some might consider me over the top or to agressive, but in business there is no such thing as too agressive thats like saying be to rich is a bad thing..

Larry

Oh since we are on a nice string i would also like to add if you only have 1 zip code checked as your service area in METRYX it dont matter if your 100% off if no one wants work done in your zip code.

We--AGRR Magazine and glassBYTES--are doing an interview with Bob Bischoff at SF in which he discusses his company's new Customized Offer and it will be posted within the next week. It will provide answers to a lot of your questions.

Charles,

Would you consider taking an outsiders take on customized offers and publishing it in your magazine?

Thanks,

Larry

Charles

I'm sure the posters here would be happy to submit 5 questions each for Mr. Bischoff, would you care to compile them? This will make for very interesting copy.

Yeah like when somebody goes too deep and realizes that they cant make a dime off some 2006 net priced parts and back peddles the customer for a week saying they cant find the glass etc , trying to do anything other than admit that the rates are not worth billing the parts at . Meanwhile back at the farm(Lynx) spends time and resources trying to find a shop that will ( going down the list of cheapest participants) who wont bite either , till after exhausting every means of cheaping out finally gets a shop thats not giving it away to do it .

I feel real sorry for the insureds caught in this maze of greed.

since I have signed up to metryx I have not received ONE job! prior to that I would get at least 3 calls a week. I even went in on one companies site and bid a price way below what I would have to pay for the glass, and still NOT ONE JOB! So what is up with that? I have checked all zip codes in a 50 mile radius and nothing. So, ...... whats up with that?

They sent me 60 miles once to do a repair .

Small email me

Yes, post your questions here. It should be very interesting.

small shop-

I know why you aren't getting any business

From the SF announcement:

Customized Offers presented in the initial enrollment period will become effective with dispatches made on or after December 1, 2006.

Mr. Bischoff,

1. Do you think that the net effect of lower average claim amounts due to deeper discounts, a trend towards higher deductibles, and the elimination of the repair incentive program is to remove State Farm from the AGR business?

2. Since the manufacturers have been courting SF for many years in an attempt to establish a direct connection with the lucrative insurance repair market, do you see the recent PPG-GM distribution arrangement as an enhancement to the PPG/LYNX offering? It is obvious that Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda would be willing partners as well.

3. In the ten years since LYNX assumed the glass program for SF, there has been a tremendous leap forward in claims and call center technical offerings. Will SF ever bring the operation back in house?

4. In the same time period, the role of the SF agency has shifted more towards marketing and sales with less emphasis on claims service. Why does SF still require the agent to be part of the FNOL for glass?

5. Is it true that Metrix was designed to handle more complicated collision losses and is being tested on the AGR industry prior to rolling out to the collision industry?

Thanks

m,.... I'm not sure about what you told "small shop" I'm sure you are correct about your info regarding effective dates. But, I like "m" know for a fact that we receive less work from State Farm since Metryx than we did before. I won't attempt to guess what the reason for that is, I am unaware of steering at LYNX unlike the other big TPA S@$. So can anyone explain to me why our number of jobs has gone down? Not to boast, but most every install we do the insured becomes a customer for life. So most of the work we are getting now is from repeat customers, forget private pays we refuse to attempt to compete with the town lowballer. Nothing else has changed, we're still in six different telephone directorie's YP's, (in our area some of the publications are cheap, exp; Bellsouth for 1 town population appx 7500-10,000 circulation alot more, cost 97.50 per mo)we're still here, but where are the jobs going. Now after O&A goes into effect I fully expect the aforementioned lowballer to go in and offer something ridiculous like -25%, and $50.00 Labor. You can do that when your overhead consist of 1 truck payment, and the minimum insurance required to participate in TPA's program, phone & internet charges for billing and receiving work, and you lack the foresight to understand what you are doing to the industry...., Yes I'd like some answers too!

M - I think all are outstanding questions with far deeper meanings than first apear.

As far as the creation or idea behind METRYX, I think it all starts with Chris Umble. I have heard the idea was sparked from a simple call between Chris and a small glass shop owner frustrated because despite all his credentials the insurance companies still paid him the same as the hacks installing glass in a snow storm. They had no regard for the fact that in the grand scheme of things he actually saved the ins. co. money with higher policyholder satisfaction due to less warranty work, better customer service, and considerably higher safety. Not to mention the ins. co./agent looked really smart for recommending his services as well.

But that is just rumor. Can Chris clarify or verify this?

Go Louise.. you can not bid down labor... so you know.

I am confused by all this Metryx stuff. I looked at LYNX just for kicks one night, but didn't really come away with a clearer picture then the one I went in with. Is it like the MATRIX? There is NO SPOON type of crap???