Avis Relies on Retarus’ Mail-to-Fax Service to Handle Worldwide Rentals

A car rental company’s reputation is not only based on the size and age of its fleet or branch network. The quality of its customer service is also of utmost importance. Avis has to prove its outstanding customer service on a daily basis, often challenged by prompt responses to unexpected circumstances. The best example is the ‘Avis Assistance’ department. When a person is involved in an accident, this department assists in providing a rental car, arranging auto repairs, and informing insurance companies and service stations, to help the customer in what is already a stressful situation. The written correspondence involved in such processes, which amounts to 70,000 documents a year, is proof of just how complex these processes are.

Due to the nature of Avis Assistance, there are many moving parts, such as clarifying the handover and return of vehicles, and determining who covers costs for rental, repairs, etc. In addition, there are a number of different parties involved such as body shops, insurance companies, and service stations. This generates high volumes of documents that need to be delivered promptly and accurately. Avis therefore needs a form of communication that allows them to easily and quickly reach anyone involved.

Avis Assistance utilizes Retarus Email-to-Fax to handle high transactional document volumes. Retarus Email-to-Fax seamlessly integrates into Avis’ IBM Lotus Domino/Notes environment (today: HCL Notes Domino), providing Avis with a user friendly, secure and reliable communications platform to send faxes from email clients to each party involved in the process. After minor modifications to their Lotus Domino/Notes infrastructure (today: HCL Notes Domino), and following a brief trial, Avis is now able to handle all their communications processes swiftly and smoothly. Around 40 different templates are utilized – automatically adding address details – to generate reply letters to insurance companies, Avis rental branches, auto repair shops and service stations.

Retarus Email-to-Fax requires no additional investment in hardware, software, phone lines or maintenance. Retarus’ data centers have almost unlimited delivery capacity while ensuring cost transparency at all times – you only pay for the pages you actually send. No training is required to use the mail-to-fax service, as users send faxes directly from their email client, utilizing a simple syntax-fax number rather than an email address. The message is sent to Retarus’ data centers, and the person who sent the message receives an email containing a delivery confirmation. Retarus Email-to-Fax supports all of the usual text processing, spreadsheet, presentation and graphics formats, and also allows users to send both emails and faxes.

• Send faxes directly from email clients and applications
• User training not required
• No investment required, transparent costs modules
• No need for additional hardware/software, updates and maintenance

Retarus Email-to-Fax was introduced at Avis to offer employees the possibility to easily send both emails and faxes from their desktop. A key benefit of Retarus Email-to-Fax is its ease of use and the fact that it is highly integrated within the existing user environment. Avis is not saddled with any unnecessary investments as they only pay for the services they use.