First Response helps customers with previous credit problems buy their next car, van, or motorbike, at the same time enabling its vehicle dealer partners to thrive. Clients have voted it the country's leading vehicle finance company on the Review Centre consumer website.

The Nottingham-based company looks after its 288 staff, too, and the focus is on team effort rather than individual results. The company removed targets, as a way of acknowledging that each member of the team added value in a variety of ways and not necessarily by reaching an arbitrary figure. The shift away from results to service ensures that customers get the best treatment possible.

Last year, the company also moved a portion of the bonus into salaries, in response to economic changes and to attract new talent. The move means staff have increased pension contributions and a larger monthly disposable income to support them with rising living costs. Staff are also given an extra day's holiday for each year they stay with the company. After five years, holiday entitlement increases to 30 days.

People, Service, Profit is First Response's motto. The underlying principle on which the company was built is that it “starts with people”. By obtaining, training and retaining good people with the right attitudes, values and ethics, and who have skills and competency, it believes it will be able to attract, service and retain customers more readily.