Trust Is at the Core of Safelite AutoGlass’ Business Success
The vehicle glass repair and replacement provider discovered that the path to delighting customers starts with instilling employee trust.
Tom Feeney has witnessed many changes in his 24-year tenure at Safelite AutoGlass, but none as effectual as the cultural transformation toward customer centricity that he initiated in 2008 when he was promoted to CEO.
Feeney says that until the 2008 timeframe the 65-year-old vehicle glass repair and replacement provider was product focused and short-term oriented, and thus was paying lip service to customer experience. "[Customer service] was not part of our DNA," he says. "We were a good company, but not a great company."
He saw the business climate change dramatically in recent years and knew that Safelite needed to transform with it. In setting out to grow the business, Feeney saw an opportunity to differentiate the company within the vehicle glass repair industry by providing an extraordinary customer experience through a cultural transformation focused on engaging Safelite's associates. "The path to greatness had to be defined by putting people first and delighting customers," he says. "We knew that to make our customers happy, we also had to make our people happy."