The start of a new year brings with it much excitement and anticipation for many businesses and that is certainly the case at Auto Windscreens. As the company embraces 2017, Managing Director Rupert Armitage outlines what lies ahead

The start of a new year brings with it much excitement and anticipation for many businesses and that is certainly the case at Auto Windscreens. As the company embraces 2017, Managing Director Rupert Armitage outlines what lies ahead…

“This year is all about controlled growth for Auto Windscreens across every area of the business, especially with regards to fleets and larger insurance groups. 2016 proved a hugely successful year – we had our busiest ever day when it comes to the number of jobs completed – and we now need to build on this, delivering on the objectives and goals we have set ourselves. We have already declared our ambitions to become the biggest player in the UK industry within our sector and there are a number of core developmental steps we need to take to achieve this. This includes entering some exciting new markets which we will be talking about soon.

Customers first

Building on the customer service award wins last year, we plan to continue demonstrating our commitment to our customers, both partners and motorists. Customer service has always been the key to prosperity in our industry and this will form the core foundation of all our activities. We put customers first and build our operations around them. The introduction of BETASEAL 1580 is a great example of this, halving customer drive away times after a windscreen replacement.

We know technology is vital. We will utilise the expertise of other to deliver the best service, alongside investing in a series of additional customer engagement, workflow and service based advancements that will bring dramatic changes both internally and externally this year. Many of these are being trialled and will be implemented throughout the company in the coming months.

Our extensive Fitting Hub and Area Deployment Centre (ADC) network rollout will run alongside other business advancements, adding to the locations opened since April 2016. We have just announced plans to open 60 sites by September. This will change the way we operate and enable us to better serve our customers. There is no doubt that this will pose some challenges but the end result will be fantastic. We are currently on target to have several new sites operational by the end of March.”

Challenges

“While there is much excitement on the cards for us, one of the most stimulating yet challenging areas to tackle head on is the recalibration of ADAS cameras and sensors following a windscreen replacement. This will of course be a big part of Auto Windscreens’ story this year, as it will be for the rest of the automotive glass industry. We announced our plans to work with manufacturer dealerships in 2015 and the solution is now fully-operational. Our priority now is to continue to forge strong partnerships with manufacturers and their approved dealerships in order to protect and ensure the safety of our customers, and to educate them about the importance of recalibration.

We will be talking more about ADAS in our upcoming ‘Let’s Talk About’ industry forums – a new initiative for 2017 that aims to encourage conversations and promote positive change across the automotive glass repair and replacement industry. The first of these kicks off in February and we will use the outputs from these to continually improve our services, not only for ADAS but other business areas.

So, to conclude, we have lots planned for the next 12 months and already many of these initiatives are well underway. There is no time to stand still and I for one cannot wait to see what this year brings.”