Page 406 - Operations Strategy

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case study 3 • carglass : Building and sustaining a customer-centric organisation 381
Carglass® Belux is one of the show horses of the Belron® Group. In 2009, the com-
pany employed 754 employees and had a turnover of €168 million. Despite the difficult
economic climate the company has grown fast in recent years. This is exceptional as
Carglass® Belux operates in very competitive market: more than 3,000 car dealers and
more than 200 specialists offer glass repair and replacement services in the Belgian and
Luxembourg market.
Carglass® Belux has two main business units: Carglass® Fitting and Carglass® Distri-
bution. Carglass Distribution serves as the European distribution center of the vehicle
glasses for all the fitting units of the Belron® Group. Carglass® Fitting – in the remainder
of the text we will refer to this unit as Carglass® – offers the repair or replacement ser-
vices of damaged glass in all types of vehicles. This unit has 43 service branches, called
Customer Delight Centers, and has more than 100 mobile service vans. The company
also operates one call center, called the Customer Contact Center, that converts calls
into service appointments.
Carglass®’s customers are both the motorists and the corporate customers. These
corporate customers are the insurance, lease and fleet campanies, whom Carglass® sees
as partners. In most instances, the motorists do not pay for having the damaged wind-
screens repaired since their insurance policies cover the costs. Nevertheless, as with all
Belron® companies, Carglass® also has developed explicit strategies to deal with the end
customer – the motorist.
At the heart of Carglass®’s exceptional service proposition is the idea that conveni-
ence and world class service is fundamental success. Carglass® offers its services 24/7
and 365 days a year. The customer can choose to go to any location or have a mechanic
come to them. Carglass® can repair a chip or crack but also has all necessary spare parts
on stock for replacement. It offers a fast and good quality service with lifetime war-
ranty. Furthermore, it liaises directly with the insurance and leasing firms so that the
customer does not have to reclaim costs afterwards. In this way, Carglass® takes care
of the customer’s administrative burden and is able to turn a hassle-some event into
a great experience.

Carglass core operations
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The vision of Carglass® is as follows: ‘To be the natural choice and the reference in service,
we will exceed expectations, by delivering a caring, unforgettable, automotive glass service
experience; anytime, anywhere.’

the Customer Journey
To become the natural choice and reference in the industry, Carglass® sought to under-
stand how their customers interacted with them, before mapping the organisation’s
processes accordingly. Like all the other Belron® companies, they mapped out ‘The
Customer Journey,’ the process that a motorist was likely to go through when faced
with the task of repairing or replacing a damaged windscreen. The Customer Journey
consists of the following ten steps:
● Step 1: Glass on customer’s car is damaged.
● Step 2: Customer looks for information about possible suppliers that can fix this.

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