AVIS has restructured its UK operation to give staff in the regions more power to improve local service levels.
Under the changes, introduced by new managing director Luke Medley, the number of regions has been reduced from nine to five and each is to be responsible for its own training, yield management and sales servicing.
These were previously looked after at head office. In addition, Grahame Gallagher has been appointed to the new position of sales and marketing director. He was previously sales director for publisher Reed Elsevier’s Australia division.
“We are putting training co-ordinators in each of the regions so they can hone in on their specific needs,” said Medley, who replaced Georges Sampeur as UK managing director in August.
Medley was previously managing director of Avis in Australia.
“We are in the process of offering our head-office trainers positions in the field, but if they do not want to take them there will be redundancies,” he admitted.
He added that plans to localise yield management and sales servicing would mean new appointments, but added: “We do not know how many yet.”
Medley said his priorities are to get the regional structure in place and introduce a new culture where staff understand they do make a difference to the company. Only when these have been achieved will he look at the product.
“Car-rental companies are essentially offering the same thing,” he said. “It is excellent service that makes the difference and to provide that we must have the right people and trust them to make the right decisions.”