Our services blog posts

If you catch me getting too jargon-y in any of these posts, give me a shout – it’s one of the things we’re trying to cut down on at Avis, and I might have to put some cash in the ‘jargon swear box’ I’ve got on my desk here. Any ‘bad words’ are 20p a go, and the boxes in our offices around the UK are raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. I’m glad to see that my wages are going to a good cause! One example of car rental jargon is that we used to call picking up your car Read More >>

As a company we are really keen on innovation (like starting this blog!) and introducing products and services that our customers will find useful. Our colleagues in the US have been doing some exciting stuff recently so I thought I would share some of their latest additions with you. They’re great – especially if you are into car and mobile technology, which I am! Autonet Mobile Service wifi hotspot Coming soon to selected US locations… This unit gives you a wireless internet connection w Read More >>

Last week we were getting ready for the change in London’s Congestion Charge zone – sending out multi-language leaflets to our offices, replacing outdated information on the desks and displays, and requesting new posters. From Monday 19 February, the zone was extended westwards to include Kensington, Notting Hill, Chelsea and Pimlico, although the time for which it’s in force (now 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday) was reduced by half an hour. Click on the thumbnail image to the left to see a m Read More >>

I’ve had many conversations with customers over the past couple of months about things that I take for granted because I work in car rental. Like how much it costs to refuel a car, and how to find a petrol station near where you’re returning your vehicle. It made me think that all this is something that’s easy when you know what to do, but how do you know what you need to know? Here are my top four tips. 1. Fuel options I’d recommend Fuel Up Front if you think you’ll be using most of Read More >>

On Monday I came back into the office after my two weeks in New Zealand. I’ve been going through my holiday photos – here’s one of Queenstown, in the alpine region of South Island where a lot of The Lord of the Rings was filmed. The scenery is amazing, especially if you take a trip up the mountain on the gondola cable-car. We also managed to go whitewater rafting, jetboating and on a helicopter ride all in the same day! We covered a lot of miles on our trip – renting cars from the local Read More >>

We know from some of the research we’ve done that the choice of cars Avis offers is important to you. I like to personally try out as many of the new cars on our fleet as possible, and I have to say I was seriously impressed by the new Peugeot 207 when I took it on the road (I drive a 407 myself, and have also owned a 104 and 205). A lot of you liked it too, according to feedback that we and Peugeot have been collecting for the past six months. Last year we decided to do something we haven’t Read More >>

Well, with Stephen still on holiday and Eibhlin and Xavier stuck at home, I’m the only one who has managed to beat the snow and make it into the office! (Our Finance Director Mike McEnaney took this picture of his garden to show how it is out his way.) I’m sure everyone is talking about the snow today (perhaps to avoid talking about England’s result last night!). Given the current conditions I’ve done a bit of digging around on the web and found some helpful tips on driving in snow… †Read More >>

I’ve been looking forward to the launch of this blog for quite a while, so I’m really pleased that it’s up and running now. We didn’t have to look far to find a good title for it – ‘We try harder’ has been the Avis motto for more than 40 years. But doing the blog has started me thinking more about the importance of our history as a company, and I’ve been doing lots of research into the subject! In 1963 Avis launched an ad campaign that was very bold and gutsy. Its message was: Read More >>

The internet is fabulous for people like me who work in customer service. That really struck me a couple of years ago, while I was looking at some travel sites. By chance I found a comment from a customer who’d had a problem – the first one I’d seen at that time. I decided to contact her, and we were able to resolve the issue. She was over the moon, kindly posting to say how we had put it right. But the point is that she had never phoned or written to us. She’d been unhappy enough to sen Read More >>

This is a quick ‘Hello and goodbye, but see you soon’, as I’m about to go on holiday to New Zealand for a fortnight. While I’m there I’ll be renting from Avis, so I’ll be experiencing what it’s like from the other side of the fence (they don’t roll out the red carpet for employees, and probably won’t know I work for Avis anyway in Wellington!). As part of the Avis Service Excellence team, I pore over our customer surveys each month to see people’s suggestions on how we sh Read More >>