Fox Rent A Car, Inc. plans to improve its customer experience through major capital investments as part of the company’s new strategy to focus on improving the customer experience through technology.
These new business investments will impact all key areas of Fox operations, technology, marketing, and customer programs. What’s more, the company will launch a new responsive design website to support growth and customer experience demands. The new website will also include the addition of multiple languages to support the growth of traffic from Latin America and Asia Pacific Territories.
In conjunction with these new initiatives, Fox will be raising its rates by 15% in all of its corporate stores starting July 1. Founded in 1989, Fox Rent A Car was offered as a discount brand catering to airport travelers. Today, the company has locations at 19 major airports.
Loyalty360 caught up with Roger Ritchie, VP of Marketing, Fox Rent A Car to talk more about the new technology enhancements with an eye toward greater customer experience.
What factors prompted Fox Rent A Car to make these capital investments as part of a new company strategy to focus on improving the customer experience?
Changes in the car rental industry as a whole, and planned updates to improve cloud and digital platforms across our business to support Fox growth plans and general customer experience enhancements.
Was customer feedback a factor at all and, if so, in what way?
Yes, we survey our customers on a regular basis and understand that changes in the general travel space also impact the car rental experience, so we had planned to make changes within the scope of our annual business plans, but customer feedback also helped define the priorities.
How will the investments impact operations, technology, marketing, and customer programs?
Through providing more efficient customer processes, better data and reporting for our teams, and these new digital programs will support better location and customer communication. Everything we can do to improve efficiency for our customers and staff is a win-win for our company.
What are some of the main technology enhancements that will impact customer experience?
A new website with an improved mobile/tablet experience, new SMS programs to support customer service, marketing, and operations. Plus, digital signage and systems at Fox locations and in shuttles will improve communication with customers throughout their rental experience at Fox.
Customer Experience is seen as a huge differentiating aspect for brands seeking customer loyalty these days. How does Fox Rent A Car view Customer Experience?
Fox views the customer experience as our top priority. We have a service platform within our business that’s called ‘Unlimited Smileage’ and we are also ramping up cross-company training to focus on customer service and experience as our top business priority. We will also be revamping our loyalty program ‘Fox Rewards’ in the coming year with new benefits and partners and expedited CX options.
With this new CX strategy, has there been a change in the internal culture at the company?
Yes, there’s been a renewed focus from the top of the business down to every employee to focus on the customer and to improve our rental and customer experience. We have seen improvement since the new changes were implemented earlier this fiscal year and our customer feedback and NPS scores have also improved.