Customer Satisfaction

We monitor customer satisfaction principally through customer surveys and the level of complaints and each country Managing Director takes personal responsibility for monitoring and improving customer satisfaction scores.

 

Each month we distribute over 30,000 surveys and we receive over 5,000 replies. In line with our environmental objectives we have continued to increase the number of surveys sent out electronically wherever possible and this doubled in the year to reach 80%. Of those returned, some 80% are received back in less than three days, enabling us to pass comments on to the relevant business area for appropriate action with minimal delay.

 

In 2007, overall satisfaction levels, which reflect customer satisfaction "overall with the rental experience" rose by a further 2%, continuing the steady improvement we have seen over the past seven years. The net

promoter score, which measures the willingness to recommend Avis to a friend, improved again, by 4%. The number of adjustments made to customer invoices reduced by 2% in 2007. The station performance score,

which records the overall efficiency of the running of a station, improved by over 1% against last year.

 

During 2007 we continued to focus strongly on introducing further customer service initiatives, to differentiate the brand and continue to make the rental process faster, simpler and clearer for customers.

 

2007 saw further increases in the number of people signing up to the Avis Preferred service, underlining the improving trend in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Avis Preferred sign-ups increased by 69%, while

the number of active Avis Preferred customers increased by 17%.

 

For Avis Preferred customers we began our "Three Minute Promise" programme. Under this programme we guarantee customers their keys and rental agreement within three minutes of entering the service station.

 

If we fail, the customer receives a retail voucher for €30. We piloted the programme in France in 2007. The service is now available in 390 stations across six countries. This has provided real differentiation in the market place. In addition, our new significantly enhanced website, which improves ease of use and is designed to increase the number of customers booking directly, was rolled out across the Group in 2007.

 

We remain the only car rental company to have achieved the ISO 10002 CMSAS 86:2000 standard for Quality Management Customer Satisfaction Complaint Handling and were re-accredited in January 2008. The standard covers all our European offices and demonstrates that we follow best practice in all aspects of complaint management and continual improvement of performance.

 

Awards remain a strong indication of how we are seen by our customers. In September 2007, we won the SOCAP in Europe Award for Innovation at the National Customer Service Awards in London. The award was for the development and launch of the 'We try harder.' blog in Avis UK. The blog enables our customers to have an on-line dialogue with our marketing and customer service departments in the UK with the aim of continually reviewing and improving the services we provide.

 

Overall, we won a significant number of further awards internationally during 2007, including four prestigious British Travel Awards 2007: Best Business Car Hire Company, Consumers Favourite Business Car Hire Company, Best Leisure Car Hire Company and Consumers Favourite Leisure Car Hire Company.