Employee Engagement Drives Brand Loyalty at Avis Budget Group

Avis Employee EngagementHow much does employee engagement mean to Avis Budget Group? It’s something that company officials are absolutely committed to and, in turn, that employee engagement translates directly to customer engagement and the ultimate goal of brand loyalty.

Just ask Jeannine Haas, Chief Marketing Officer, North America, at Avis Budget Group.

“Our field operations team is the frontline staff that interacts with our customers,” Haas explained to Loyalty360. “We have an incredible number of very tenured, very loyal, and very engaged employees and this is a competitive advantage for our brands.”

During the past three years, Haas said Avis Budget Group has raised the bar higher and higher in terms of continuing to drive employee engagement.

“One of the hallmarks of our culture and what distinguishes us from other companies is we have a very strong commitment to our employees,” she explained. “The key is having raving fans as employees and that translates to creating raving fans as customers. We’ve implemented a new employee reward and recognition program, a wellness initiative to help our people make healthier choices, enhanced employee communication and even taking our senior management out on the road to our major locations just to say thanks for a job well done.”

Hiring the right people is an absolute imperative to drive great employee engagement.

“A high level of engagement and high level of loyalty has translated to our employees who want to do the right thing, and you can’t teach that,” Haas said. “You can provide the right environment, but you need to hire the right people.”

What separates the Avis Budget Group’s focus on its employees is it measures employee engagement.

“We focus on engagement,” Haas said. “We’re also evolving our organization to a Net Promoter organization for customers so we focus not only on our advocates, but also seek to understand our detractors.”

Avis Budget Group comprises Avis Car RentalBudget Car Rental, Budget Truck RentalPayless Car Rental, Apex Car Rentals, and Zipcar.

And when it comes to customer loyalty, Neal Zamore, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Avis Budget Group explained to Loyalty360.

“Having a great loyalty program gets you repeat transactions,” Zamore said. “Having a great customer experience gets you repeat customers.”

What’s more, Haas said customer loyalty is when your company engenders brand insistence and preference.

“You’ve earned loyalty when customers no longer put other brands in their consideration set and you have category exclusivity,” she explained. “To stay ahead of the curve, we also look at what’s happening in industries not directly connected to us, but might be indicative of a changing mindset.”

About the Author: Mark Johnson

Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.

Recent Content

Membership and Pricing

Videos and podcasts

Membership and Pricing