TOUGH GLASS MAKES THEIR CUSTOMERS ‘APPY’

TOUGH GLASS MAKES THEIR CUSTOMERS ‘APPY’

‘Once upon a time …’ begins the Sales Manager of Tough Glass, Liear Willis ‘... we only offered seven glass products, including 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm, 10 mm and 12 mm clear float, and 6 mm and 12 mm acid etch. Enticing new customers to trust a new glass processor, with only a limited range of products and machines, was an early challenge for us’.

Founder and Director of Tough Glass JagVarsani started his career in another glassinstallation business. The cost of glass,combined with long lead times, sparkedthe interest in processing his own glass andproviding better lead times for customers.So, in 2010, Tough Glass opened the doorsto a modest 900 m 2 facility to process its ownglass. ‘When an opportunity arose to supplyother glazing businesses who had similarprocessing limitations, we saw the potential inthis niche, and swiftly changed our businessmodel to cease fabrication and installationand focus solely on glass processing for anew customer base,’ says Jag.

‘We entered the market against many wellestablishedglass processors who offeredpages of glass products, impressive facilities,years of glass knowledge and expertise,and more machines than we could dreamof. We look back at the days we used tapemeasures to mark holes and drill manuallyby hand, while passing physical paperworkto go with the job around the factory. Ifa small chip was made in the process …. start again … that’s a few more hours on tonight’s shift!’ recalls Jag.

Today, Tough Glass still works closely with the first few customers who gave them a go, and together they have grown and learned from one another. ‘Customer feedback has provided us an opportunity for growth and improvement, and this has been a large part of our continuous improvement cycle,’ begins Liear. ‘Gather feedback, review the feedback, implement a solution, and follow up for review, has it been fixed? Could we make it better? If not, how do we do it differently or what did we miss? Rinse and repeat.’

In 2021, Tough Glass developed its own App in a bid for further efficiencies in dealing with returns and warranties. Liear explains, ‘before the App, a customer would need to send an email to our sales team with the exact panel, size, defect and required replacement date. This proved inconvenient for our customers, so we implemented QR Codes that customers could simply scan with their smartphone. This sends us all the critical information we need to identify the glass panel and trace it back to the root cause … all without the customer needing to write an email or call our sales office’.

‘Continuous improvement is part of our ethos, and our App is one of the ways we can help deliver cost and time savings to our customers. We were fortunate enough to work with Toyota (TSSC Australia) in 2016 to implement an integrated production system, to ensure we can achieve high quality glass at low cost and shorter lead times. We reviewed how we were processing warranties and made this an absolute priority. Each warranty piece that goes through our factory has a specific indicator on the glass panel, so anyone on our floor can quickly identify the importance of getting that panel right, and out on time,’ says Liear.

‘We admit that perfect customer service doesn’t always go to plan, but our team is motivated by being better, finding efficiencies, and providing as much transparency to our customers as we can,’ ends Tough Glass BDM Liear Willis.