Judges comments:  Europcar sets the bar extremely high when it comes to offering a short term rental service. With the most comprehensive offering and customer support in the short term rental sector, Europcar are serial winners when it comes to awards in this sector. They understand what customers need and have built a proposition that goes beyond any competitive offering. Europcar are the worthy winners of the best short term rental company award.

EUROPCAR does all the basics, and much more, smoothing every aspect of the SME journey through the practical application of technology.

The success of this approach means the company achieved a significant 17.7% increase in business accounts in 2023. It knows that SMEs do not want, nor have the time, for lengthy account set up processes.

Because, more often than not, fleet and business travel management is looked after by someone who does not have ‘fleet’ or ‘business travel’ in their job title, vehicle booking and management needs to be simple and straightforward with a good level of operational and cost insight.

The Europcar Business Self-Service tool delivers on each of these requirements. Easy online registration means accounts can be set up within minutes and savings are offered immediately on UK and international hires.

In addition, going beyond the basics, in 2023 Europcar launched what the company believes is a unique approach to the ‘in rental’ customer experience: the Europcar Assistance web tool.

From what to do in the event of an incident to how to extend their rental period, Europcar Assistance uses technology matched with insight into the most frequent driver queries, to deliver 24/7 ‘in-rental’ support that can be accessed when it’s needed. Forensic analysis of customer calls over a 3-month period by an external company, Automated Analytics, identified that a large proportion of queries could be resolved by easy access to online information.

Inbound calls across six stations were monitored to identify the most common ‘in-rental’ contact trends. With this insight, Europcar Assistance was developed enabling the customer to better self-serve with access to key information to answer the most common queries and important telephone numbers with a click to call function.

A driver can reach the right point of information first time, every time rather than have to wait for a telephone response. Users can report vehicle damage, tyre issues, glass damage, accidents, breakdowns and lost property. They can also extend the rental period, find out about features on their specific vehicle – including importantly electric vehicles – and arrange vehicle collection.

To find out more about Europcar Mobility Group click here