Linda Rollinson, owner of Superior Auto Glass of Tampa Bay Inc. in New Port Richey, Fla., recently was named chairperson of the National Windshield Repair Division of the Auto Glass Safety Council™. She will take office in January.
Rollinson got her start in the auto glass industry back in 2007, having previously served as a social worker/case manager for the elderly.
“I opened the business for a man I met, who said if I invested I could make a nice additional income,” says Rollinson. “Needless to say I was taken for one heck of a financial ride and the debt was tremendous in no time. He played the O&A game with LYNX and there was a lot of work coming in with the deep discount he offered. However, he was selling glass to the insurers for a lot less than what I was paying for it. The debt ran up fast.”
Rollinson almost filed for bankruptcy but chose not to because she would have lost many of her assets—including a car she had purchased with cash for her daughters.
So she decided to turn the business around. “My youngest child, Danielle, began learning the business, as did I,” she says. “I continued working full-time as a case manager until I had a better knowledge base to be able to make the business turn a profit. I had worked in the automotive parts industry in my teens and early twenties so I was not totally green to the automotive realm.”
Rollinson eventually hired an installer to work for the business and “spent every day on the road with the installer and sleepless nights on the computer.”
“Our installer taught me to do repairs,” she says. “I found GlasWeld and purchased the company’s kit and took its courses. I spent much time going to distributors, looking and listening as well as researching the industry, rubbing elbows with district managers to learn more, everything I could.”
“Then came Auto Glass Week (AGW) in Fort Myers, Fla.,” she recalls. “That’s where I met Rich Campfield, sitting in on his seminar and being determined to learn more and be as good at repairs as him. Troy Mason’s seminar was also an inspiration to me. It was at that AGW where I took my very first test to become an NWRA Certified Tech. I knew I had no choice but to learn this business and be the best I could be. It became survival of the fittest for me.”
Rollinson is especially dedicated to educating her customers. “I have done numerous repairs that maybe I should not have just to educate the customer on a repair,” she says. “Sometimes with some people seeing is believing. I get an internal thrill when a customer pulls up to my shop with a piece of tape or a windshield saver sticker on their windshield; that’s when I know I am successful.”
As chair of the NWRD, Rollinson hopes to see the group grow.
“Together I hope we can reach the state levels to educate on the importance of the repair and or replacement of a windshield,” she says. “People do not realize their lives ride on that windshield! People do not realize the windshield can be repaired and not end up in a landfill. Insurers and third-party administrators (TPAs) do not know how to determine if something is repairable or not.”
She continues, “Together we and our members can help to better educate them. They just focus on ‘is it longer than a dollar bill?’ Education is the key to success. I believe the NWRD, together with the AGSC, can become very successful in reaching out to the general public, insurers, and the remaining TPAs to educate them.”
