Are your customers selling for you?

Now there’s an idea made for tough economic times!

If your customers aren’t your best salespeople, this just might be the time to evaluate how you move from good to great in their eyes.

OK, I can hear you saying you’ve seen this movie before; but before you get back to the grind, I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the meaning of this simple, yet profound question: Are your customers selling for you?

Many auto glass professionals were challenged with the same question during last week’s National Auto Glass Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Keynote speaker Randy Pennington, an acclaimed author and business performance expert, inspired participants from the auto glass retail industry to examine their own successes and failures in this area. But he delved deeper than your typical consultant …

He didn’t focus on customer service, as important as that is.

He wasn’t talking about price, either; though we all know how crucial pricing is to our customers’ perceptions of value.

He wasn’t even harping on the quality of the products and services you deliver.

Pennington went well beyond basic business principles to examine the entire customer experience, the core factors that distinguish your business from the competition and drive repeat business.

The marketplace never lies. It’s not about the company. It’s what the customer wants. And the experience you give customers. The intangibles are what they seek.

Now, if you're looking for details ... well, I’m afraid you should’ve joined us in Orlando. And you can’t say I didn’t warn you! I simply can’t do justice to Pennington’s presentation in this or any other forum.

You could always try nudging one of the nearly 130 execs who attended the conference, many of whom are undoubtedly still reflecting on what they learned. I learned something about getting our customers to sell for us, too.

After all, few things are more valuable than peer networking, another key benefit of gathering in Orlando. See for yourself: we’ve posted a few photos and presentations from the event.

If you missed out this time, opportunities abound at future NGA events, most notably our popular Glazing Executives Forum and GlassBuild America: The Glass, Window & Door Expo this fall in Atlanta. I can assure you there will be plenty of breakthrough ideas presented during those events as well.

—David Walker, Vice President of Association Services, National Glass Association

All’s quiet on the Vegas Strip

Las Vegas’ normally bustling McCarran International Airport is line free and calm. The dealers at the Palms Casino wait behind empty Blackjack tables. And the cranes at dozens of half-built Strip hotels, condos and casinos aren’t moving. The recession has hit Vegas—and this time, the odds seem to be against the house.

This city has been a developers’ playground since about 2005 when Steve Wynn started a Vegas building boom with the construction of his high-profile Wynn Hotel and Casino. In 2007, Bill Lerner, a Deutsche Bank gaming analyst, said the city wouldn’t be able to staff the 51,000 hotel rooms expected to come online by 2012, according to a Jan. 25 article in the Las Vegas Review Journal. Since then, projects have tabled or canceled, and only 19 percent of those rooms will be built.

Among the project victims listed in the article: Harrah’s Entertainment postponed work on the $500 million tower expansion at Ceasars Palace. Boyd Gaming stopped construction on the $4.8 billion Echelon project in August, and will reduce the scope and size of the project when construction recommences. And Las Vegas Sands Corp. halted construction on the $600 million Strip condo high-rise, according to the article.

Now with most cranes stilled, criticisms are rolling in about the work quality on some projects, built up in such a rush during the boom. According to a Feb. 11 Las Vegas Sun article, the building boom resulted in 12 construction deaths, numerous injuries and notable construction problems, including recently released news of the midconstruction downsizing of CityCenter’s Harmon tower due to improper installation of rebar.

And to top it off, gambling is down … way down (hence my trouble-free McCarran experience, and the lonely card dealers). The casino operators are suffering and Moody’s Investor Services announced earlier this month that 17 operators are at a high risk of default. Rumor is that even Trump Entertainment may be filing for bankruptcy.

The Vegas downturn is far from over, according to Keith Schwer, a southern Nevada economist, and the city should brace for a long lull before its next winning streak.

—Katy Devlin, commercial glass & metals editor, retail glass co-editor, Glass Magazine

Survival business strategies: the legal and not so legal

Business is tough as the United States—and the world—trudge through this recession. As profits slip, many company owners and execs are revamping their business strategies to make it through.

One Redlands, Calif., glass shop repairman chose a less-than-legal strategy to attract new customers. The Sun reported last week that Redlands police arrested Timothy Klenke for “launching spark plugs with a slingshot at [car] windows and then planning to solicit his victims for the repairs,” according to the article.

Klenke’s money-making strategy is a bit more rudimentary than Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion scheme, certainly, but is still every bit as illegal.

So, what are some companies doing legally to survive?

Home Depot made a sharp change in business plans, ending its trajectory of dramatic growth by laying off 7,000 employees and closing its 34-store subsidiary Expo Design Centers. Home Depot officials say they are retrenching, returning to business basics by focusing on in-store sales improvements.

IBM plans to get through the recession by targeting new customers in less-developed industries, officials announced Feb. 9. The manufacturing and utilities sector, for example, are less electronically savvy than other industries, such as banking, officials say.

GM’s strategy seems to be getting even more bailout money from the government. (Anyone know how I can get in on some of these bailout funds? I wouldn’t need anywhere near GM’s $13.4 billion—maybe just half that.)

Business Lexington, Kentucky, ran a column Feb. 5 offering some alternatives to closures and downsizing, including reduced work schedules and salary cuts. Dell and FedEx have both employed such techniques, according to the column.

What are you doing to help your company survive? Is your strategy working? Post a comment and let us know.

—Katy Devlin, commercial glass & metals editor, retail glass co-editor, Glass Magazine