Glenn Bowker, Screen Rescue Birmingham franchisee smashes his Month 1 target!

We chat with franchisee, Glenn Bowker of Screen Rescue Birmingham as he pulls up and takes a 10-minute breather before charging off again to look after his growing client base.

Q1. Glenn, you’ve completed your first month in business, what have been your highs so far?

GB There have been a number of highs, from signing my first client on only my second day in business, to getting an agreement to service all six Birmingham sites in a major dealership franchise chain.

I’m consistently seeing the relief and savings my repair services can provide to my fleet customers, and the pace of me winning new, repeat business has led to me more than doubling my revenue target for my first full month trading. I’m snowed under pardon the pun!

Q2. Were there any lows and if so, how did you cope with them?

GB The biggest challenges, especially now we're in December, have probably been weather related as it can take longer to repair windscreens and can be technically more challenging in wet and ice-cold conditions. Being a little more strategic and planning jobs at clients with under cover areas can certainly help in combatting this kind of issue.

Q3. How does the Screen Rescue business model live up to your expectations?

GB The equipment and operating systems of Screen Rescue really do exactly what they say on the tin. This, as a franchisee gives you a very high degree of confidence in that you can deliver a consistently high quality and repeatable service to your clients no matter what the circumstance or industry sector, repair after repair. This is a real win: win for both the clients and myself.

Q4. You’ve operated a full month, and the results are in, so tell me where are you against your business plan target?

GB Well I'm happy to report that I was able to deliver record breaking first months results, which were 225% above business plan target and month two is already looking to give me a similar result in achievement above target. This of course means that the business opportunity has far surpassed any expectations I may have had initially.

Q5. Share the top three reasons why your clients use your company?

GB My services can genuinely save clients in all commercial automotive sectors a significant amount of time and money.

I’ve found I’m able to save every car dealership time and money from having to replace a windscreen prior to their customer sale – this has a positive impact on their profitability with each sale.

And with the extensive range of our windscreen and glass repair services, I’m not only enabling fleet operators to save thousands of pounds annually in their replacement costs, but I’m also keeping their fleets on the roads, reducing their vehicle downtime, which improves their uptime, and I’m also able to prevent vehicles being in workshops for any more time than is absolutely necessary.

These services pay massive dividends to the profits and productivity of all our client sectors and are just a few of the many reasons they choose Screen Rescue as their first port-of-call.

Secondly, the quality standard of our repairs, from windscreen stone chips to glass scratch removal and polish with Screen Rescue's technologically advanced, leading repair systems are so high it gives my clients total confidence to use me time after time as they know they get consistent results every time.

And last but not least, the proactive fleet checking service I provide is very popular in all our commercial vehicle sectors and means that my clients no longer have to worry about their sales executives or drivers reporting damage defaults; they no longer have to contact a supplier and arrange an appointment to get the repairs done. I’m there like clockwork.

Q6. When a client needs a job doing the same day, what happens next?

GB This is one of the big advantages of the business being both based within the Birmingham ‘B’ postcode area and only servicing clients within this area. This means that if a client callout is received in the morning, then it is usually possible to arrange an appointment to complete the repair on the same day.

This is particularly useful in a fast vehicle turnaround situation within a car dealership for example, when a vehicle arrives and a damage is found, but their customer is collecting said vehicle within hours – I’m able to provide a Rapid Response callout to save the day.

I have found on a number of occasions that many of my new Birmingham clients were being serviced by competitors from as far afield as Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, which means a same day response is highly unlikely.

Q7. Talk me through why Saturdays are important to your clients too?

GB Saturdays are actually very important particularly to the transport and distribution sectors and HGV fleet operators. Because vehicles are often on the road from Monday to Friday, Saturdays are sometimes the only window in which the vehicles are in the yard ‘resting-up’ and available for reapir works.

My clients are able to take advantage of their vehicles being repaired on Saturday’s so that this minimises their weekday downtime, with little or no vehicle off road.

Q8. Christmas is around the corner; will you be working during the holidays?

GB My plan is still to operate a callout service for urgent client requirements, but to close for my usual planned fleet checking services from December 24th through to January 2nd 2023 when I’ll be raring to get back to business as usual by then!

Q9. What milestones are you most looking forward to achieving in 2023?

GB Starting from day one in 2023, the first milestone needed is to continue my sales efforts to grow the numbers of clients ergo giving a consistent and reliable revenue stream for the business. My eventual milestone would be to look at the possibility of taking on a second van and new technician before the end of the year.