Nationwide Autocentres has set a target of boosting its customer retention by 50% by the end of 2008.

The independent repair group, which has a chain of 220 service and MoT workshops in the UK, has embarked on a rolling series of customer interviews, which will be repeated regularly and analysed for performance improvement.

It has appointed Castrol Business Services to carry out the work. Nationwide’s chief executive Duncan Wilkes said the company is now in a position to measure customer satisfaction at centre level and put in appropriate actions according to customer perception.

“Castrol will continue to work with us to maximise the information gleaned from the interviews and migrate the process with us from telephone to email interviews. There will be four waves of interviews in the first year, and we envisage that this will be an ongoing programme in the future,” added Wilkes. “The key for us is to be able to measure improvement on a quarterly basis.”

David Watson, head of Castrol Business Services, said its consultancy has a track record of improving sales and profitability for clients, as well as helping them build and retain their customer base.

“We help clients identify what their customers need and to then put it in place. You can have the best product in the world but if the service does not match up you’re in trouble.”