Tom, what is the current focus of the company?
Four years ago we introduced a new vision for Safelite, putting all of our emphasis on our people and our customers. We introduced two strategic imperatives around putting our people first and delighting our customers. We have been absolutely surprised, impressed and pleased by how our associates have responded. Over the last four years we have seen tremendous success in both our engagement scores with our associates by putting them first and with our net promoter scores by delighting customers.
We introduced a new vocabulary. We said it is not good enough to just satisfy customers any longer; you have to delight them. We truly empowered all of our associates to put the customer at the center of everything they do and making the experience of interacting with them one that is based on emotional connections and relationships. We have seen our net promoter score improve from 73 percent, which wasn’t bad, to 87 percent, which experts say is a phenomenal improvement over a short period of time.
What were some of the steps you took to effect this transformation?
The first was just introducing a new vision for the company and suggesting that the future for Safelite was very bright. In order to reach our full potential we had to recognize how we felt about the company. We did that through our people by providing better leadership development for them so that they understood the characteristics of great leadership and they wouldn’t be threatened by the term “leadership” and that there is a clear difference between managing people and leading people.
On the customer side we simply empowered our ten thousand employees throughout the United States to deliver unmatched service. About 75 percent of them are what we call the heroes of our business — the customer advocates who answer the phones each and every day. They are the voice of the company because they are the first impression that a customer may have of Safelite by how we represent ourselves on the phone.
Then the technicians, the individuals who show up at the homes of our customers or in their offices or are representing us when a customer goes to one of our store fronts; they are the face of the company. We encourage our associates to understand that they are part of the brand image we were creating and part of the story of Safelite. And what they do either on the phone or in person is clearly going to demonstrate what we stand for in delighting customers. We provide each of our associates with information on how they perform on net promoter score in real time so that they can recognize how they treated a customer the day before and see it in writing through the verbatim comments the next day. This allows for immediate recollection to how they did both good and bad. We built communication boards in all of our major markets so that everyone could see how everyone is doing. That friendly competition has been a phenomenal way to encourage associates to do the right thing.
What is your assessment of today’s fleet industry?
I think it is an exciting time for the fleet industry. 2008 wasn’t too long ago and many of us serving the fleet industry and in the fleet industry were struck by how impactful the financial crisis was to all of our businesses. In fact, many thought we could never return to the good ol’ days. Now here we are in 2013 and the forecast for new car sales is 15.5 million. I think there is enough pent up demand that we could see breaking 16 million and even getting back to the records of 17 million.
But what is interesting is “how” it is being done today with greater technology, greater innovation, greater understanding of the customers’ needs. That it is just so exciting. Here at NAFA, just looking at the floor of the exhibition area — it is a whole different set of suppliers that are introducing solutions to the fleet industry. It suggests a complete transformation is happening right now. You are seeing the fleet management companies and all of the key suppliers supporting them adapting because the customer is changing; their needs are different. It is a very, very exciting time and it is a time where you will see people winning and people losing. The losers will be those who resist the change. The winners will be those who embrace it, develop innovative solutions predicated largely on technology but still relying on some of the strong relationship skills that have been used over the years. And they will win in the marketplace.
Every company is trying to take cost out of their fleet. What are some of the solutions that Safelite is offering?
We offer all of the assets of our company to the fleet industry. Safelite participates in a few automotive segments … vehicle glass repair and replacement business; certainly, the insurance segment and then the commercial and fleet segment and then of course the consumer segment.
We have been successful by focusing our attention on serving our clients and by making our company assets available to them in the ways they want. Some would say the auto glass industry has become commoditized. We don’t believe that. We think the part is a commodity but what we provide is a value. We spend an awful lot of time trying to differentiate ourselves through the services and the value we provide. In the case of what we provide to the fleet industry, we have the largest supply chain in the industry today. We have spent millions in investing in the supply chain so that we could have the part available when the driver needs it.
Likewise, we have facilities and technicians available throughout the United States; about 96 percent of wherever the population is we can service them the same day. We are focused on speed. We want to be able to serve when and where the customer wants. For a driver, they want it fast because if they are down then they are not providing the service they are paid to do. We want to get there fast. So, supply chain, facilities operations in all 50 states and then an overarching philosophy on delighting customers are benefits we bring to the fleet industry.
We are introducing a new initiative around the Safelite Advantage. Through consumer research we know the five most important things that a customer wants and we happen to be able to deliver it.
What do you love best about this business?
I love the business of business. In many respects the fleet industry is a microcosm of Safelite itself so the fleet maintenance companies are serving clients while we serve clients who serve clients. It is a thrilling piece of business because you get to tap into all of your business skills whether it is relationship building, valuated selling or cost efficiencies. For example, the use of repair versus replacement; we brought that to the fleet industry in a way to be able to save the drivers and their companies money. We always said that it will be predicated on the driver’s satisfaction. If they like the repair, so be it, if they don’t like the repair, so be it, or replace the windshield. But it is an important value added service that we could provide that allowed fleet maintenance companies and their clients to decide whether they wanted to save money in that arena or not. Our job is to educate, to make sure that our clients and their customers understand what is available to them and it is their choice to take advantage of it.
What are the attributes of a successful leader?
I think there are attributes and I think there are characteristics. On the attributes front, I think you have to have a sense of humbleness, not to believe you are the smartest person in the room. You have to have the sense of authenticity. I believe you have to be a “values” based individual and walk the talk and represent the people who are following you really well.
On the characteristics front I really think there are four distinguishing characteristics. First, you have to be a dreamer or a visionary. You have to have a tolerance for risk and failure and encourage that along the way. You have to not have a finish line in mind. As you accomplish one thing you are really setting the path for the next thing. And then the fourth and probably most important is to continue to deliver the unexpected.
At Safelite we are in a negative service industry, nobody really wants to do business with us. So, when they need us, we want to make the experience so pleasant, so powerful that it is memorable and that they want to tell others about it. That is our mantra, if you will.
What do you think is hot in the industry right now?
Technology is… and it is hot everywhere. It is not just the technology; it is how you use it to meet the needs of a customer and needs that they may not even know are needed. In the area of companies, it is using the social media properly. We have a whole team today who is just watching what is being said about Safelite in social media – good and bad.
On the good, we encourage them to be brand ambassadors for us and say more. On the negative, we never ask anybody to remove a negative comment and we do not remove negative comments. What we do is try to address their issue whether it was a customer issue or a mishap that occurred.
A funny story: not too long ago Facebook lit up with some negative comments about Safelite. We reached out to the individual. We said we can’t even find you in our customer data base, what happened? The long and the short of it is she was putting her child on a school bus and our van apparently didn’t heed the stop and went around the school bus and she was upset. I asked her, “What can we do?” She said, “Take your technician to the police station and turn him in.” I thought that is a creative solution but I doubt the police will ticket him because they didn’t see it. How about I have him come out and apologize? She thought that was terrific. We brought out a gift and apologized and found out that the child was severely disabled. She didn’t want a toy; she wanted McDonald’s French fries which we brought her. That afternoon this same person went on Facebook telling the great story and showed a picture of our General Manager, the technician and their daughter.
So, you have to be listening and respond how people want to speak to you and be attentive to what has just happened and then be responsive. But we never ask them to take down negative comments, we trust that if they start negative and it turns positive they will tell people about it.
What is so wonderful with today’s social media is that you don’t have to wait for a survey to come out to find out what customers think about you. They will tell you how to do your business.
Because we completed our first transformation of our business at the end of 2012, we’d achieved the objectives we had established for our company, both revenue and profit and the transformational milestones. We recently introduced a second transformation of our business and are elevating our people first philosophies to being people powered. The measurements are all going to be around social engagement. We also use a tool by Hay Group on styles and climate to measure our culture. There have been years of research to say you develop the right climate, the right environment for people to work in and you will get upwards from 30 percent discretionary effort. Those are highly inspired individuals who want to do the right thing…they don’t just do the right thing, they want to do it.
On the customer side we are transforming our philosophies around delighting customers because if you think of it individuals delight customers, while companies are customer driven. We are transforming our company from being an operationally oriented company to being a customer driven company. Customer-centric is the term you hear most used and the four elements of our customer driven approach are: listen, focus, create, and delight. To your very point, listening is all about listening to your customers the way they want to speak to you and looking at your business through the eyes of a customer as opposed to your own eyes and then create solutions that meet the needs of the customer based on what they are telling you. And so the whole objective of being customer driven is, of course, looking at your business through the eyes of the customer and providing experiences that are memorable and powerful.
What is next for Safelite?
The fleet industry is going to be hearing more and more of the Safelite Advantage; where we are now using proprietary branded tools that elevate the type of service we provide to them. They should expect faster service, higher quality and delighted drivers. Delighted drivers will then in turn feed-good information to their customers who will then want to do more and more business with the fleet industry.
Over the next five years in our next transformation, we hope to have double-digit growth each and every year and in fact double this business in another five years. You only do that by focusing on your people who in turn will deliver service creating happy, loyal customers and when we listen better to our customers we can develop solutions that they need. Then along the way you have to be innovative because customers don’t always know exactly what they want. That is where experience and expertise comes in to develop a solution that they may not know they need and then provide it to them and then they come.
BIO
Since joining Safelite® Group in 1988, Tom Feeney has held several positions within the organization including senior vice president retail operations and group senior vice president. In October 1991, Feeney was promoted to senior vice president, client sales and support and again in 2003 as executive vice president and chief client officer with responsibility for Safelite® Solutions. Feeney became president and CEO of Safelite® Group on July 1, 2008 and immediately introduced a new vision for Safelite® supported by two core principles, People First and Customer Delight. He is a director for the Safelite® Group Board of Directors.
Before joining Safelite®, he was the vice president of franchise operations for Tenneco Automotive Retail. He also served in key staff, sales and operations positions with Hertz Corporation and American International Rent-a-Car.