Ford-certified auto glass repair and replacement shops are receiving notification that the original equipment manufacturers’ collision website is “live and running,” along with search tools for consumers. Peter Brown, president of Tiny & Sons Auto Glass Co. in Pembroke, Mass., recently received his notification and says he’s looking forward to interacting with Ford-network customers.
According to the message received by Brown, consumers can now jump on the Ford Certified Collision Network website to find Ford-certified shops, including Tiny & Sons. They can search by distance or by plugging a specific shop’s name into the search bar. If a shop is Ford-certified, results will come back noting as such. Shop reviews are also available via the platform.
“We’re part of the Ford Certified Glass Network, having gone through the process of being audited and accredited to do Ford warranty and Ford windshield installations,” Brown says. “We finally got our approval and we’re online now with Ford Direct, so that consumers can search for us and request that we do their windshield replacements, repairs and warranty work.”
According to Brown, Tiny & Sons is the only shop within 100 miles that is certified through Ford. The only other Ford-certified shop he could locate in the surrounding region was Payless Autoglass in Connecticut.
“We’re in the process of starting a campaign for the dealerships we do business with to inform them that we are Ford-certified,” Brown says. “We’re going to start the process of a social media campaign not only to inform customers that we’re certified and accredited with Ford but also with the Auto Glass Safety Council (AGSC).”
Brown notes that certification through Ford requires AGSC certification. He says that requirement makes for a “win-win” situation for a small, independent shop such as his.
“When consumers have a windshield break, they’ve been pre-conditioned to call that third-party administrator for installation,” Brown says. “This gives us leverage the third-party administrator does not have, because he is not certified through the AGSC and he is not certified through Ford. That gives us a little bit of an advantage.”
Tiny & Sons has yet to see much customer interaction with respect to its Ford certification, seeing as how the website was just recently updated.
“We were just notified within probably two weeks,” Brown says. “They just updated their website, so we’re looking forward to our interactions with customers we deal with specifically through the Ford network.”
