Meet Bridget England: the Auto Glass Now District Manager built for the hardest jobs
Nearly 27 years in the auto glass industry, Bridget England is still the person who runs toward the toughest challenge and brings everyone with her.
Bridget England was in the middle of a hailstorm when her phone rang on April 30.
The Auto Glass Now District Manager was in Springdale, Arkansas holding together a store whose manager had just walked out and took half the staff with him. She had already dispatched three of her Tennessee technicians to help with storm damage in Missouri.
With the store short-handed, she rolled up her sleeves and started doing rock chip repairs herself.
“It’s not always going to be fun and games. It’s not always going to be that great,” she said. “But we’re great and we can push through that.”
This is the perfect example of who Bridget is and how she approaches her work: always in motion and outworking every problem in her path.
From answering phones to running 16 stores
Bridget didn’t plan on a nearly three-decade career in auto glass. She was working at a doctor’s office when she spotted an ad in the paper for a customer service representative (CSR) role at Jack Morris Auto Glass in Memphis.
She applied, got the job, and found an unexpected place where she could grow.
“It was something different,” she said. “But then it came to the point where I thought, what can I do to help my team?”
That question has defined her career ever since. She began learning skills beyond what was expected as a CSR, learning how to do rock chip repairs to take work off her technicians’ plates while they handled bigger jobs. She became assistant manager and then manager, while building her store one customer and one team member at a time.
When Driven Brands acquired Jack Morris and folded it into Auto Glass Now four years ago, Bridget was made manager of Store 157 on Union Avenue. Last year, she was asked to take on her first district manager role: four stores in West Tennessee. Since then, she’s added Paducah, Kentucky; Columbia, Tennessee, and 10 stores across Arkansas.
Today, she oversees 16 locations across two states.
“Every time they ask me to do something, I’m more than happy to go,” she said. “I’m not in it for me. It’s about the team. How can I help? Where do I need to be to make a difference?”
The turnaround no one saw coming
If you ask Bridget about her proudest professional moment, it's a roundup of all the incredible changes she’s made in such a short amount of time. Being asked to run two districts simultaneously is definitely at the top.
When she took over the store in Columbia, it was barely functioning. Revenue was below where it should've been, staff were walking out, and glass was piling up everywhere. Buried inside the numbers was a quality problem.
“Leadership has to find where the problem is,” she said. “So, I set out to do that.”
For example, one technician’s urethane beads were running too thin and uneven, and every bad install came back as a warranty callback. Instead of ignoring it or blaming people, Bridget got to the bottom of it. They were able to figure out that the technician just needed a different piece of equipment to place the glass in correctly.
Bridget also brought in a store manager and stabilized a key commercial account with the Tennessee Farm Bureau. She kept at it until the store found its footing.
Now, this location is one of the busiest in her district.
“That’s one of my greatest accomplishments,” she said. “Making a really big impact for our company and for those people.”
The orange pig and what comes next
Arkansas is the latest challenge. In less than a month, Bridget has hired CSRs and technicians across multiple stores, boosted morale, and built a group chat to unite her growing team across state lines. She named it The Orange Pig, a nod to the Tennessee Vols orange and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
“This market in Arkansas is untapped,” Bridget said. “If you’re barely going through the motions and still doing okay, imagine what’s possible with some excitement and energy.”
Everything Bridget’s built comes down to three things: on-the-job training, a belief that failure is not an option, and her two sons she’s determined to make proud.
“If I fail, it’s not going to be because I didn’t give everything I had,” she said.
When she thinks about her legacy, it’s not about metrics or milestones.
“I want people to remember me for the passion I have for my job, the encouragement, the caring, the motivation,” she said. “I want everybody to know that I was their biggest cheerleader, no matter where they worked, no matter what region. I want them to know I saw their spark, You just never know when someone needs a little encouragement to make a big difference. So, you show up for them.”
And at the end of the day, that’s what she does best. In Springdale, in Columbia, in Memphis, in whatever store needs her next, Bridget England shows up.