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WE TRY HARDER. "It's not a slogan," says Avis CMO Scott Deaver. "It's the DNA of the place." Avis, ever "number two" in the car rental business has in fact reinvented its famous, 40-year-old ad slogan as a better customer experience, reports Clint Willis in Business 2.0 (7/02). It's paying off, too. Sure, Avis continues to claim just 25 percent of the airport car rental market relative to Hertz' 30 percent. But the company ranks number one in customer satisfaction according to the J.D. Power rental car customer satisfaction study. And, for four years now, it has topped rival Hertz in customer loyalty, according to the Brand Keys customer loyalty index.
Hertz sure as heck remains number one in ad spending -- lavishing some $53 million on ads last year, compared to just $9 million spent by Avis, which has instead refocused its marketing energies directly on the "set of factors that car renters care about most. This year, for instance, price, convenience, safety and customer service topped the list." Avis has trimmed 5 to 10 minutes off the average pickup time.
Its counter agents remind parents with small children about car seats and offer weather reports and maps to local golf courses to those toting irons. It has opened "communications centers" in airports, where customers can plug in while they wait for their flights. Minimizing customer stress is indeed a key part of the Avis equation -- flight info is displayed in rental offices and managers wear headsets to convey a sense that everything is under control. When Avis did invest in some billboards and TV ads it was to tout "the company's new latch system for child car seats." Message: Avis cares about you. And, yes, Avis turned a profit last year on $2 billion in revenues (rivals Alamo and National Car Rental meanwhile filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection).
Tim Manners, editor
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