National Car Rental Receives 2014 CX Innovation Award

ST. LOUIS--May 19, 2014: National Car Rental has received the prestigious 2014 CX Innovation Award for its ongoing collaboration with consumers to deliver an exceptional customer experience. The award, given by the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), an international non-profit organization created to guide and enhance the field of customer experience management, was presented last week in Atlanta at the CXPA's fourth annual Insight Exchange event.

For three years, the CX Innovation Awards have recognized new practices that improve customer experience, result in strong business impact, and advance the field of customer experience for other organizations. A panel of industry experts reviewed a large group of entries and selected five winners.

National was recognized for their commitment to collaborating with consumers via their Emerald Exchange Community, a private group of frequent travelers who are members of their loyalty club program. By partnering with leading collaboration agency Communispace to engage with the members of the Emerald Exchange Community, National has built meaningful relationships with their valued customers and put them in the driver's seat to innovate new products and services.

The community has influenced nearly every aspect of National's customer experience, including: refining National's Emerald Aisle program, a unique offering where Emerald Club members can skip the rental counter and go straight to selecting their own vehicles on the lot; the launch of EmeraldAlerts(SM), email communications that include flight arrival and car return alerts; and Drop & Go(SM), an expedited rental return service that issues an e-receipt and lets customers quickly be on their way. In addition, the Emerald Exchange community was instrumental in launching the National mobile app in August 2013, which gives customers a complete end-to-end "rental tracker" experience that follows the life of their car rental, including directions, inventory selection, rewards, roadside assistance, and more.

"We see the members of our Emerald Exchange Community as the eyes and ears of our team," said Carol Jones, Director of Insights & Intelligence for National Car Rental. "As frequent travelers, our community members continuously visit these locations – these airports – and they come back to us with photos, videos and narratives about what they've seen and experienced. They really are an extension of our team and their insights are truly invaluable."

"For any brand, tapping into consumers' unique needs, frustrations, perceptions, opinions, and ideas, not only builds strong relationships, but often raises important questions that the brand may not have thought to ask," says Mollie Garberg, Director, Communispace. "For National, these insights have paid off – Emerald Club membership is up 27% and revenue is up incrementally. We are very proud of the team – and the community – who have dedicated their time to creating a better car rental experience."

For more information on how and why National embraced consumer collaboration, please watch this video: Consumer Collaboration.