Eric Dadian, president of the Association Française de la Relation Client – French Association for Customer Relations (AFRC) presented Christophe Carrère, customer engagement director at Europcar Mobility Group, with the "Palme de la Transformation par l'Expérience Client" award. 

Every year, the AFRC rewards the most successful players and the most innovative initiatives in terms of customer strategy during the Palmes de la Relation Client event.

Among the 2020 winners: FNAC Darty, EDF, Etablissement Français du Sang, and Europcar Mobility Group.

In a sector that has historically been "car centric" rather than "customer centric," Europcar Mobility Group has chosen to place customer focus at the heart of its transformation. The management board fostered this initiative by placing customer orientation among the Group's set of four values and by setting an objective of increasing the net promoter score (NPS) year after year, for all the Group's brands.

The approach then focused on identifying areas for improving the customer experience, from the reservation to the return of the vehicle, including contacts with Europcar's Customer Relations Centres, during or after the trip. This approach was co-constructive, involving a large number of the Group's customers and employees.

The Group has taken advantage of this listening phase and thus implemented new processes such as:

• Creation of a Customer Engagement Department;

• Overhaul of Customer Relations services;

• Appointment of "Customer Satisfaction Champions" in the various countries of the Group; 

• Implementation of variables indexed on customer satisfaction for employees, launch of new mobile applications and overhaul of the digital journey in stations.

This new set up enabled Europcar to guarantee the continuity of its customer support activity throughout the health crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, under optimum safety and quality conditions. Finally, all these initiatives led to a significant increase in the NPS of the Europcar brand, from 49.6 at the beginning of 2017 to 58 at the end of 2019, one of the highest in the travel and leisure industry.