Full Annual Report - Inchcape

Business review
Strategy
Group Chief Executive’s
strategic review continued
Unique approach:
Inchcape Advantage is our
competitive advantage
To extract the greatest value from this unique
global infrastructure, we have a clear and
simple vision, to be ‘the world’s most
customer-centric automotive retail group’.
Our industry is generally not known for the
quality of its customer service and our
approach is based on a simple insight: if we
look after people and their cars better than
the competition,customers are more likely to
choose us; and if we perform demonstrably
better for our brand partners than our
competitors, manufacturers are more likely
to expand their global business with us.
By successfully continuing to implement
our strategy for improved customer service,
based on our unique Inchcape Advantage
programme, we increased market share in
many of our markets in 2009, despite tough
decision-making that led to the closure of
underperforming sites and a reduction
in headcount.
Through Inchcape Advantage, customer
service is truly at the heart of the business,
from the top of the company to the sales
floor and service workshop. It is intrinsic to
the way that every Inchcape person works,
ensuring that providing superior service is
present and evident at every stage of the
customer journey.
As a result, we believe we are the most
advanced company in our industry in
implementing cutting edge retail techniques
and technologies.Among other initiatives
we manage a continuous mystery shopper
programme to maintain the highest
standards of in-centre service; we interview
around 12,000 customers every month to
identify precisely what we do well and what
we should do better; and we constantly
track a wide range of customer metrics –
from footfall and test drives to leads and
conversion rates.
Our global online portal (winner of a
Microsoft Innovation Award) is used to
interrogate this data, enabling local
performance management and the
sharing of information across the Group to
learn on a daily basis from the experience
of our businesses across the world.These
leading indicators and a real time view
of our customers provide us with valuable
insights into changing consumer
preferences and behaviours, effectively
accelerating our response and enabling us
to grasp new opportunities as they emerge.
These proprietary retail processes are
truly unique in the automotive sector.They
are a vital point of differentiation across
our business and the foundation stone of
the operational excellence that gives us
a key advantage as we expand into
emerging markets.
2
Unique
approach
Through our superior
customer processes,
we deliver the
ultimate customer
experience and
create maximum
value for our brand
partners across the
world.
14
Inchcape plc ¦ Annual Report and Accounts 2009