Glass repair and replacement firm Auto Windscreens will spend 2009 favouring good customer service levels over sales growth, it has said following its sale by insurance giant Aviva to German private equity company Arques in February.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessCar, Auto Windscreens sales and marketing director Nigel Davies said: “We’re evolving it back to how it was before Aviva and RAC [itself part of Aviva] – a well-run company with excellent customer service.
“When we were part of Aviva, insurers were wary of us and with RAC branding people thought you had to be a member to use us.”
Davies, who joined at the start of 2009, said the bad weather this winter had seen Auto Windscreens’ business rise 20% above expectations, but that the level of replacements and repair was now returning to seasonal norms.
“Key for 2009 is getting the structure right and seeing contracts are delivered right. We don’t want to grow exponentially this year because we don’t want to compromise on service levels,” he said. “The new owners carried out a complete review of everything we do and why we do it. The early impact is that customer satisfaction has jumped.
“We’re assuming the recession will have a slight impact on the market as a whole through lower mileage, so there will be fewer damaged windscreens. But while we see that as an overall picture, Auto Windscreens has lots of opportunities for growth.”