Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / #536: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How SIXT Has Used AI to Put Personalization at the Core of its Loyalty Program

Transcript

#536: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How SIXT Has Used AI to Put Personalization at the Core of its Loyalty Program · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Good afternoon, good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty360.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Thursday, so welcome back to the Leaders in Customer Loyalty Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: In the Leaders in Customer Loyalty Podcast, we speak with leaders, redefining customer loyalty and customer experience within their industry.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm joined by Tom Kennedy.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tom is the president of Texas North America.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to explore how it has rapidly expanded across North America, why its premium experience is winning customers, and how AI and strategic partnerships are accelerating growth.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And also what sets the new Sixth One customer loyalty program a part in an increasingly competitive travel market.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go ahead and dive in.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time to uh join us today.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know we have some questions.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh very much looking forward to kind of discussing with you.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: How long has Six been a an entity?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: A while, right?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, Six actually was founded in 1911.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: In Munich, Germany.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think people know know that too well.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's now the fourth generation of the Six family that actually um uh owns the company and the co the sons of the grandfather who's um really kind of built the company out of Europe are now the co-CEOs.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a multi-generational family business that started in 2011 or 1911.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, um Eric Six, the co-CEO's father, he would tell the story.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: He entered US not not until 2000, was it 2011?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't enter US until 2011.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's relatively recent to the US.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But he tells this story of why he wanted to enter the US, and it's really kind of an interesting story.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said that when he was uh a young boy, the war had just ended in Germany with US, and the US military was so kind to him, and they were all very hungry, there was no food or anything or supplies, and the US military personnel would hand out candy bars and food to him.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he always remembers that finally that that military the military people were so kind to him in a really kind of terrible situation as a young boy, he always admired the U.S.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so his father was got the contract to drive around military personnel from the U.S.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: during Reconstruction as well.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that he basically um credits the U.S.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: military with saving the company and uh helping it rebuild after World War II.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why he wanted into the US and really has had a big push in the US.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know we haven't officially started, but we'll use that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's that's that's a cool story.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So um uh you gave a little bit of the background on sixth.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, been in the US since uh 2011.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great story there.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um how and family owned too, which uh kind of like enterprise, right?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Enterprise is a member and the other ones, Hertz and the other big boy there, uh corporate owned, correct?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're public companies, Hertz and Avis, and Enterprise is like 98% family owned.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth is 58% family owned.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there is a public float in the Frankfurt stock market, but it's really controlled by the family.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have 2,000 locations worldwide in over 100 countries in the US and Canada.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're in 58 airports and 130 total locations.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And since I joined at the end of 2020, we've tripled the size of the business in the US alone.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we've grown really rapidly in the last uh five years since I joined.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's all so when you look at that tripling in you know 2020 since 2020, six years, right?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And kind of going through COVID, you know, what's led to that rapid success?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is there maybe uh kind of dissatisfaction with the big boys, or you know, what are you doing different that that's led to that great success?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I think when I came on and I've worked for um two of the three.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I worked for Alamo National.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: We sold that to Enterprise, so I kind of spent six months at Enterprise helping them integrate the businesses.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I've had a little bit of insight into a couple other car owner companies, and I've been in travel for over 30 years.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I worked in the airline industry, I was CFO, controller of Northwest Airlines, which was bought by Delta, uh, was the CFO of uh Hilton Worldwide for five years, um CFO of Alamo National, CFO of Hertz, uh, and now I'm CEO of North America for six, but I came in as CFO for North America back in late 2020.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: What I think is to get your point question, what's different about six and what led to the growth is you know, we we pride ourselves on being uh more premium vehicles and premium service and not at an affordable price.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think if you look at the vehicle lineups of us versus our competition, you'll see we have a larger percentage of the fleet that's premium vehicles, but not charging a premium, premium price.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the fleet uh is a differentiator, I think the service is a differentiator.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everything can be done on our app.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a really, I think, tech forward business.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you look at our app, you can you can subscribe to a car, you can rent a car.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in Europe, you can do rideshare, you can do um uh you know a number of different functions just from one app.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's what's differentiated from a product standpoint and from a from a process.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: What I came on board is was asked for the six family, kind of came out of semi-retirement, was asked to you know, really build out the U.S.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: market.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: They had trouble building out the market.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think candidly, the company kind of made the same mistake a lot of companies made.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: They they enter a different market with a different culture and different business model, and they think what was working in one market is just translated to another market, and leadership would come from home market to come in the US.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you had uh German nationals running the U.S.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: market without experience running US, you know, car rental and don't really understand US cultures, norms, and travel expectations, right?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: In the travel industry.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I think that kind of help hurt them to really grow.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so when I came on board, you know, they asked me to, you know, tell me what you need to do to really grow up, build out the US.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I said the first thing you know, expand your presence.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're only in 22 locations and we're not relevant.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: People know who we are.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to grow this brand significantly and grow brand awareness.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And one way to do that is to get into more airports, and now we're in the 50 top 50 plus airports in the US, but we touch 75% of the rental customers.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very concentrated in the US.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're touching, now we have enough presence.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first piece.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: The product and process and experience were already differentiated.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so like we've been growing not just for growth of opening new locations, but also through market share growth.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gaining market share in each of the airports that we're in because of the product and experience is differentiated.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, I think from those two factors, you know, we were then large enough to start entering into partnerships because we weren't big enough to kind of go to Delta Airlines and say, hey, we want to be a partner.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: We were only 22 locations, we're like too small.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But now we're big enough where we can actually engage with partnerships, which we're doing.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We can um grow the B2B business, which we were primarily leisure up until when I started here.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was like 95% leisure, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a Thursday through Sunday rental because we didn't have enough presence in the US market to go to a corporation and say, hey, we want to have a corporate agreement with you.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Well, do you have a location in you know um Minneapolis?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, oh no.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a location in that such and such city?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, sorry, we can't really engage with you.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now we have enough presence.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: We can not only go after those partnerships, but we can go after that corporate business now, which is another aspect of the growth of the business in the US.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So uh circling back here, you talked about your role at the company, came in to help uh organize it from a structure perspective, which is you know very impactful.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, many uh brands, uh, ethnocentricity, right?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh American brands going into Germany or China, they may do things differently.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So you definitely were very uh successful in changing that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Different roles, right?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: CEO of Hilton, uh, successful, been in the travel industry.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: What do you take from those different roles uh that that you can bring to fix?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because obviously they're all gonna be a little different, right?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's car rental or hotel, um, but they're all hospitality, they're they're service industries, and you've done great things in all those.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do you take from that coming into this new role?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think what the car industry in the US has been is just never modernized, right?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there's never been a facilitation for change other than maybe Uber and Lyft coming in, which stole some of the business, but it was all short-term rental urban market, which wasn't very profitable anyway.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then turtles come in and I'll provided kind of a differentiation of, you know, you put your car in a car sharing program and skip the counter and pick your own car.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think what what I bring to six specifically, and what I brought to try to bring the other car rental companies I was in, is the customer that's renting the car is the same customer that booked the ticket online, didn't have to interact with anybody, had a lot of control over who they want to interact, how they interact, were able to tailor their travel on like an airline with what seat they wanted, what class of service they wanted, you know, really kind of had, you know, the airline industry, I think, was first to kind of innovate and modernize the the at least the the experience, experience with booking.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, they're they're starting to get better at the airports too, with allowing a lot more self-service.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what customers want is they want to have a choice of how they engage with you.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some people want full service, counter, help, and some people want to not talk to anybody and want speed, speed, speed, and control, right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it you need to give the the customer journey experience in the power of the customer of how they want to interact with you.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And car rental traditionally kind of forced everybody to a counter and sit in a line after getting off a two and a half hour flight, right?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And drive you absolutely crazy and then try to sell you all this stuff that you don't really need.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and what we what what I've really we've done at six is we've we're really digitizing and modernizing that entire customer journey and giving the customer more control of how they want to interact with us.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So our app is an example, I encourage you to take a look at it.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's really powerful and can be really tailored to your individual needs from what kind of mobility you want to purchase and consume, but also how you want to engage with us.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think that that in and of itself is um something that you know I saw at other travel businesses I was in, and we were just this industry was always so far behind, and I had been in different carbonyl companies at different points in my career and had done other hospital like Hilton was between you know Hertz and Alamo National.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so even the hospitality industry was a little slow to modernize.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I when I was at Hilton, I'm like, why don't we allow customers to book specific rooms and charge a fee?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was a little and do a digital key, and that was a little too forward thinking at the time, but ultimately that's what you're seeing now.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're seeing more ability to tailor what what room you want, have a digital key, not have a digital key.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's really empowering the customer to how they want to consume your product offering and making sure you make it feel like they're tailoring, you have individual relationship with them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a commoditization of the relationship and it's not just a transaction relationship.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what we're trying to evolve at six um in the carnal business.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we've, you know, we've done a lot of good new things that are kind of cool to the industry that aren't here today.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, we're catching up because we had an old business model at six and in in the US, and we're trying to modernize that to leapfrog our the big three competition, if you will, because you know, the big three and us, you know, the industry historically basically all they had was skip the counter, but there's still a lot of people going to the counter, a lot of people getting forced to stand a line, and it's really kind of a customer journey friction process.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you just we got to eliminate that friction and make it much easier to consume mobility with our company.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think you made a very interesting point there.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when you look at that customer, they're used to you know flying first class potentially.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Some may be back in steerage, right?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Depending on who that is.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And being able to personalize that is very important.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And personalization, you know, in our community, we have you know hundreds of brands that are members uh is very important, but it can be challenging too, right?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because that person sitting way back in steerage may want that first class experience when he rents from you, but they may have only rented from you once.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So balancing that, um everything's changing uh rapidly.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess the key question is how how are things changing within the the car rental industry and how are you looking at the change, addressing the change, and you know, how does personalization fit into all that?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's a great question.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, from an industry standpoint, I'm not sure what my competitors are doing, but at six, we are very AI focused, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we do is the first question is you know, are we using AI to help facilitate a solution for the customer?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are we looking at putting everything through AI and how do we individualize, tailor something for the customer?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do a promotion.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's throw through AI who the customers should go after, what markets would we think would have be most effective with for that promotion.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did a$49 flat rate um fuel basically fee for the month of May and extended June, basically with high fuel prices.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy fuel for your Chevy Tahoe, right, for$49.99, have a full tank.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's gonna be much more, it's$120 to fill it up yourself.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like a big good deal.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: But we said, hey, this is only available to 6-1 members who direct book book direct uh book directly with us.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um so book directly and get your$49.99 flat fuel rate.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is kind of tailored to a subset of customers who are new loyalty members to six or new members of six one.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's that's the kind of relationship we're trying to build.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: First, get the the six one members and making sure that we're they know they're differentiated, treated differently, have have basically opportunities to different aspects of the business that are benefits to them only if they come direct, book directly with us, like best price guarantee, member rates, things like that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can only get as a 6-1 member by booking directly with us.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then ultimately want to use AI to tailor and understand that customer's rental history.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when they book booking with us, we can pop up a thing and say, hey, we noticed you booked a, I'm making it up, a Toyota Corolla last time.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Try a BMW X3 for an extra 15 bucks a day, right?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so the next phase of that individual individualization is to data mine their historical rental history with us to the degree we they have, and it's probably predominantly going to be initially with 6-1 members, and then offer, make an offer to surprise and delight or to recognize the loyalty or provide them something free this time to really kind of give them an individual rewards and/or upsell things that we think will be better.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like somebody traveling in the summer, maybe as a business traveling, only travels Tuesday, Wednesday, but we see he or she booked a seven-day trip in the summer, probably have a family vacation.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, hey, why don't you upgrade to a brand new Cadillac Escalade for only a 50 bucks a day more for your family on your vacation?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, being able to have those individualized offers that feel like that are really tailored to that individual customer's travel behavior using AI to kind of identify what it is is where we're headed towards to individualize it more and customize it more.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, AI obviously is uh interesting topic.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, we are a small company, 10 people.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I push uh everyone to use it, right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I use it for everything.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thinking, it's not doing the thinking for you, right?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have some ideas that you can clear.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you go back and forth, you use it iteratively, but there's some people that have reticence to it, right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think when I look at uh like we were traditionally more the the the artisans, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: The the writers, potentially, the graphic designers are like, oh, that's not good.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then there are also people too, maybe on the front lines who may not use it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: How do you push that internally?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because that, you know, you tend to read articles or many companies, uh, and my wife has a big job if the third bank runs operations basically for the whole company, uh, and they're using it, right?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Pushing it.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's gonna be start measure, but some people are like, I don't want to use it.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: How do you how do you get people that may be a little bit reticent to truly you know believe it and dive in?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think first you've got to lead by example.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So leadership has to has to illustrate and demonstrate that you're using it and show the other team members how they're using it and how it helps them do their job better.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we also have essentially showcase we have a we have a monthly meeting with leadership team globally, and every country is asked to showcase their latest AI development in that meeting.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a challenge, it becomes kind of a fun competition as to who thought of what next, of what you know, legacy.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe there's like, for example, we we created an AI for our sales team where they can monitor real time their commission they're earned every day throughout the course of a month based on what they're doing from a salesperson's perspective, as opposed to waiting to the end of the month, having everything calculated and score.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a leadership board with an ongoing tracker of in a competition within that sales team, too.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone gets to see each other's how they're doing and how they're performing.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we we've really kind of showcased those examples and the leadership team, which uh, and we have best practices we transborder, we we share across the company.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then our co-CEOs, Alex and Constantine Six, have really pushed it, like made it a AI first company.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we want to do, that's the future of the business, is think how AI can help you do this better, whether it be customer recovery, whether it be customer service, through you know, automating more of the work that goes to customer service and emails and chats and things like that.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we're doing has basically an AI angle or challenge to it.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that that is kind of becoming embedded in our culture.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the young, you know, we're a younger company if you think about it in the US.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We only entered in 2011 and we don't have 30 year, we don't have 30-year employees and old people like me running around.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of younger, younger employees who just you know embrace this technology uh you know very enthusiastically.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there'sn't there isn't as much cultural resistance within our company because I think because we have such a young workforce, uh, and then they see the excitement of what they can do and how powerful it is.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know what I do is I also in the US, I showcase some of this stuff in our monthly town halls.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, look, let's showcase who so-and-so made up did something to AI, and they get kind of a platform to present it to the whole US market, which is kind of like if you're a young, like, you know, just out of college kid and you're gonna present something to an entire company, you know, of what you develop through AI, it's a pretty honorable place to be, and it's really kind of quite great recognition for folks and motivation.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the challenges you've talked about, um, the industry's challenging, uh changing a lot.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, what are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is it getting people to accept I or making personalization or you know, growing the company and kind of a K-shaped recovery?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what's the biggest challenge that you face?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the biggest challenges I face in my role is talent development, acquisition development, right?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Given this the pace that our growth has been, um, having the talent to support that growth and get that ahead of time has been a big challenge.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not, you know, the market was pretty tight since 2020 coming out of COVID from just a labor market.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little tougher to find.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're not in a market in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, where it's hotbed of lots of corporations, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there's not like not Dallas or Atlanta where there's lots of corporations from which you know you can data, you know, you can kind of you know go get talent from other companies.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and as a result, it's been a little bit more challenging, I think, from us to keep up our talent development, acquisition development with it, with the growth.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's number one.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, number two, um, you know, the challenge I always have is as we grow, how do we keep that entrepreneurial culture?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are very small and entrepreneurial on the US market, and now we're, you know, over 2,000 employees, and it's still pretty small relative to the big three, of course.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you always want to, six has got a really kind of entrepreneurial digital uh bent to the company.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to make sure as as we grow, we keep that culture of entrepreneurism there and make sure we're always trying to fight out potential bureaucracy.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um six is a very anti-bureaucratic, flat organization, and we want to keep that in the US despite the growth.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's the other kind of challenge is how do you keep that great entrepreneur culture going and running with the growth that we've experienced when adding a lot more people?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about partnerships earlier, getting to scale where you can have the right partners, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's an interweaving of uh, you know, travel, obviously, but with hotel and with uh, you know, airline, but also partnerships, it's a big area of focus with our community, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's uh, you know, PG would like to engage with you in some way.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Partnerships are very important and growing so in customer loyalty, especially within the program piece.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how are you looking at partnerships and what kind of partners can benefit six?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think initially the the partnerships we look at are those that actually probably um are in the travel ecosystem right to start.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's the logical place to start.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: We also um look at partnerships and programs for which um you know it kind of more is consistent with six premium positioning.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think where we are differentiating the big three is our brand is the people that know our brand have tried our brand, have the feedback is consistently we are different, we are more premium.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that really resonates with some of the more premium brands, like in the credit card industry, um, of who they want to align their brands with and provide you know offers to their customers when they travel.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that has helped us open doors now that we're big enough to be relevant.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we've looked at other, you know, hospitality, the hospitality brands as well.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're always looking for at partnership is you know, it's gotta be a win win.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do we bring to the table that can differentiate and enhance the partner's portfolio of loyalist members, right?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think where we really kind of resonate with some of these other brands in the travel ecosystem.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And particularly in the credit card system, is our premium brand fits their premium loyalty membership levels.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so they know that if their top-tier loyalty member, airline traveler, um wants to rent a car, if they go to six, they're more than likely, you know, they can book a BMW or Mercedes, but they're more likely if they don't have to get upgraded to one.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the experience is gonna be more consistent that uh that you get in renting a car than when you travel, when you travel on Delta One, you're gonna feel like, geez, this is kind of like Delta One on uh it's not coincidence, it is coincidence, it's called six one to be clear, but it's uh it's like you're traveling.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I traveled Delta One overseas and now I'm gonna rent with six and I'm a six-one loyalty member and I'm gonna drive in a BMW.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh uh that you're talking about personalization, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just kind of understanding what people use, uh have interest in, what maybe has an emotional connection.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's very important.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: You guys seem to be doing a great job of that, which is is is is is great.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at customer loyalty, uh, you know, what does customer loyalty mean to you and to six?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, first customer loyalty to me and six means we had to earn the customer's trust by consistently exceeding their expectations.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when in the off chance we don't meet those expectations or exceed and meet those expectations, we provide the level of recovery that the customer is uh basically knows that we're gonna take care of it and make sure it's take it's corrected, right?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a something that's earned, not just offered.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um a loyalty program itself is just the offshoot of how we give more recognition to these customers who are renting with us, who we've earned their loyalty, and how do we give them better benefits like member only rates and best price guaranteed and special offers if you book directly with us?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's really what it means.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is it's how do we've created a experience that the customer wants to have and knows that will be consistently delivered, whether they go to get a car in LAX or Boston or a downtown location in Dallas.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: They know they're gonna get a premium car at an affordable price with a great experience.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if they want to talk to somebody, we have really professional team members that are you know very clean branches.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Everything about us can be premium.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: If they don't want to talk to somebody, they can skip the counter and they can do mobile check-in and go right to the car.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And many locations we've been expanding this, our keys in cars and our key boxes to allow you to skip the counter and go right to the car and get in the car.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So personalization, we talked about a little bit, uh, but customer experience, very important too.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about some things you're doing, the key boxes that uh they can they can get the key, and uh, but then also uh anyone familiar with uh cars, right?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: You go to LAX uh or even last time I got a car that was in Orlando last month, man, it's it's it's secure, right?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's locked down like Fort Knox, uh, but you still have people like potentially stealing cars too, which is going to impact the customer experience, right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to make sure that people aren't driving off of cars.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and conversations I've had with the people in in LA when we're in a car, kind of even the checkout, like like they can tell you stories, right?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I love hearing stories like they have a big uh truck comes in and knocks down the whatever and they take three or four cars and they're gone, right?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So how how do you balance the customer experience?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because you're doing some things that are really cool, but you know, there's security and there's privacy and everything that it can kind of be tricky, correct?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it can, but the technology in the vehicle is evolving rapidly as well.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, 70 over 70% of our cars we have uh basically telematics back to the uh manufacturer, they're provided by the manufacturer.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um we can we can if a car is stolen or um overdue, uh and likely stolen when it's overdue over an extended period of time, we can track, turn that on, and understand where that car is and recover that car.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that that the recovery of our stolen is is pretty efficient.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you really, you know, it's it's a cost of doing business.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's more valuable to improve the customer journey and take the risks uh that stolen could pop up a little bit.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, you know, there is a lot of technology in that vehicle to allow us to have a higher recovery rate now than we had when I was at Alamo National 20 years ago.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um it is a it is not as a large problem as it historically had been in the industry.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Things are a lot more secure.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we we do have cars that disappear over the border to Mexico.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh unfortunately, they're um unsavory people rent cars in Southern California and take them over the border and use them for other purposes.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we do, we try and recover those cars because we can track those cars where they are and we know they're we have like you know, basically a geofence.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as that car crosses the border, we know it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: We get alerted, and then we can immediately contact authorities and try to recover it.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the technology is helping mitigate.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think to your point, if there's higher risk by automating more of the process and putting less restrictions in the customer journey, uh, really, I think uh is something, you know, it's it's better to invest in that and have the back end if we do have a little more stolen.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care, I can get car recovered.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want the customer experience to be enhanced first.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, absolutely.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you talked a little bit about uh the sixth one loyalty program.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you talked about being different than those and other, you know, travel of transportation.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: How can you expand a little bit on how it is different?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then going back to the question we asked earlier.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you have such a profound and diverse background in travel and hospitality.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Did you bring some of that to make the the kind of the app and the loyalty program different?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's very interesting.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I joined the company, you know, they asked me to, you know, I didn't know I was really uh applying for a job here.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of recruited me, but I thought I was gonna do some consulting for them.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then next thing I know, I'm getting offered a job.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: But they asked me to do like a white paper in the US.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I mentioned to the family was you have to have a real kind of loyalty program because in the US market, it's table stakes, right?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's we all are junkies of getting our miles and getting our points and getting the recognition and getting the next tier, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's just in our culture of travelers in the US.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: In Europe, it's foreign to them, right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it literally took me four years to convince the family that you know a loyalty program is table stakes, particularly for the frequent traveler and the B2B customer, right?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because the road warriors want to earn their points and miles when they're traveling for business, and they want to redeem those points and miles when they're on their vacation with their family.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the reward for the sacrifice of being on the road.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what we did is we then went out to try to, you know, obviously we knew all the competitors' programs and things like that, but what do we want to?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: We don't, we didn't necessarily compare it apples to, I mean, buy every line item, and we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna say, Well, what do we think is important to customers?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: We talked to customers about it.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to understand what was important to them, and I think a few things having more tiers.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have four tiers, the competitors have three, so you have different levels of um you can you can earn up to and then rewards improve after every tier.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there's four tiers versus three.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have up to 20% discount for member rates if you book directly um with us if you're a six-one member.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have a best price guarantee as a six member if you book directly with us, if you find the price anywhere else, which I highly unlike you would, but if you would, uh we would you know obviously match it and guarantee it.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um we obviously promote the fact that our fleet's premium.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're gonna get an upgrade or you're gonna qualify for an upgrade because you're the higher tier member, you're gonna upgrade into a very nice car, right?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get an upgrade into an you know Mercedes, a BMW, an escalate, something like that.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily gonna happen every time at a competitors program.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, over over 50% of our fleet is premium luxury cars.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you're you're gonna you're gonna book, you know, you're gonna book a really nice Toyota or a really nice GM product, but you're likely on a one on our loyalty program, uh, you're likely gonna get then upgraded into a nice BMW if you'd like the cars.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: You it I think the the fleet is a differentiator.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I think you know, with that, we you know, we obviously have partnership where you can earn miles if you want to like it with American or Delta as opposed to earning points, same with the competitors.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there's certain kind of other factors in the program that I think customers like that we did adopt.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and more we're gonna continue to evaluate because we just launched this in March in the US, uh, and then Canada, I think it was in May.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna continue to monitor the attributes of our program.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as I told the family, we'll need to iterate as we find customers prefer something X over something Y, or they or they're saying, Well, I can get this at this company, but you guys don't have that feature, you know, then we can add those as the customers.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what the what our company is really known for is putting the customer first.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as Mr.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Six always said, the customer is the boss.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're gonna take direction from our boss, the customers, as to how our loyalty program is resonating.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've already signed up over 800,000 members in the US.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really it's really rapidly um, you know, getting adopted.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but as we kind of, you know, we're just young in it, so we're gonna learn and we'll iterate if we need to.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh Canada, you know, we talked about the strategy behind in the Canada market.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what did you see in Canada?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, gonna be a little bit different than the US.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have a number of Canadian members, and I was actually talking with one of the uh the airlines who's a member on our advisory board, and we're kind of talking about travel to the US, and he's like down 20% first day uh of this year, right?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh or last year's day when the election went, but there's still obviously people renting cars and and doing things.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: How is can't Canada maybe different and uh than the US or is it similar when you look at the launching the program and doing so well?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean Canada is obviously a very different market, it's uh a lot more local market.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a lot more inbound Europe to uh other international into the US, South America into the US as opposed to Canada.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Canada is more local market.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it is every province is very different.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, as you know, like entering Montreal or in Quebec, you've got to have two languages on everything you do.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, a French French language line has to be offered, everything has to be in dual language.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a you know, and that's different than Toronto and Ontario and different Vancouver.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're in three market, three airports now in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a smaller market than the US, but it is, I think, a very uh loyal market.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's less geared to high-end premium cars.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's as flashy.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it's more practical in how they they rent cars, or they don't they don't necessarily aspire.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: The customer doesn't necessarily aspire, I want to I want a BMW every time or Mercedes every time.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more customers in the US that want that.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you have to tailor your fleet a little bit differently for that market.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it is a great market in that it helps us expand the brand presence and awareness.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of Canadians, even though it's down 20%, and we saw that too, there's still a lot of snowbirds that come to Florida where I live and come to Arizona and like have second places, they want to have a uh long-term rental.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: They we have six plus subscription, we have long-term rentals, we have products that I think actually meet their seasonal needs.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we've expanded in Canada, I think that brand awareness and presence is helped resonate in the Canadian market and allows then they then they know, oh, I rented with six in Toronto and I'm gonna go down to Fort Myers for my winter um house, and they can rent a long-term rental in Fort Myers.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a real lot of I think synergies between the two market that we can capitalize on, and US people also entering Canada for the summer for vacation or going to uh bant or going to you know skiing in the winter and going through Vancouver.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's there's a lot of I think you know, synergies that we have can create by the market, but we've only entered there since 2022, so we're still very young in Canada.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: But again, Canada's growing very rapidly as well.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: But Canada, unlike the US, Canada's like the US is seasonal, cyclical and seasonal, but Canada is even super seasonal.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, our all car rental companies really have three months where they can make hay, and the rest of the year you're gonna lose money.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's how the Canadian market operates.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's important to really be effective and really execute during that June through August time period uh where you really kind of make your year's worth of earnings uh in really three months, and then how you manage that business and then off months with your fleet management and your people management that are really critical to managing through that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a much more challenging market in that you've got differences in each province like Quebec, and you've got a higher much much pronounced seasonality.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, what what are the three months that are that are bad?
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: November through February, January?
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: That are bad?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like the three September's a shoulder month, and like October through April is really weak.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: You might have some you might have some pickup in the around the around the holiday season, right?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Around Christmas, New Year's.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's just very, very seasonal.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Much more, it's always been that way.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: In like three stints and car rental, it's always been that way.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at your program, you know, what what are a couple things that uh, or maybe when you're tenure at six, what are you most proud of?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: You step back and look over the last five and a half, six years, whatever it's been, six and a half.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: What are you most proud of uh when you look at the program?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think when I when you say look at the program, you have a loyalty program or loyalty program or everything you've done from a customer experience perspective, the transformation of the brand.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think what we're most proud of is we've actually built out the network where we now can have our experience and product touch over 75% of the rental customers in the US market, which wasn't even close when I started, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So now we have, you know, we can bring our product and service, which differentiates ourselves from the big three that gives the customer a different choice.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I go to airport authority and talk to them how we want to enter the airport, I say competition is good for the customer and differentiation is good for the customer.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it really resonates not just with the customer, but with the people that make decisions about allowing us to operate in the in their locations, right?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's what I'm most proud of.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And getting that getting that product and sphere of service and experience to the customers that they have now an alternative to the big three, having worked in a couple of the big three, um, you know, I think it's it gives the customer more choice.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really pro-consumer and pro-travel, and that's great.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's number one.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, um, building out a team.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I'm probably getting closer to retirement than than not.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: So my job is not just to build out their presence in our business and bring the bring this great product and service and organization to the US and Canadian consumer, but it's also to build out a long-standing team that that survives me and goes beyond.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's been you know something I've been pretty proud of building out that team and you know, leaving a legacy of that.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then building out some of these partnerships.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we're the official carnal sponsor of the LA Lakers, and it's like been really, you know, brand, I think, endorsing to associate our brand.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Lakers would not associate their brand with this brand unless it was premium luxury and confidence.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Delta brought us into fold last August.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Delta is the arguably the premium airline right now in the US.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Delta would not allow us to be a partner if they didn't have confidence in our brand and our product, our service, how we treat their customers who ultimately become our customers, right?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because whoever's flying is their customer and they get off that plane.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: They want to have, you know, then Delta is allowing them to book on their website our brand.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: They want Delta wants to make sure that we're taking care of, they still consider their customer, even though it's our customer now.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that endorsement that we've achieved, I think is just, you know, really, really something to be proud of.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, JD Power.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've been third on JVD Power for the last two years.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't even in the JD Power survey prior to last two years, two years ago, because we weren't large enough.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept begging them to do the certain let us in the survey because I knew we would, I thought we would score well on the JD Power Carol Satisfaction Index.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: And two years ago was the first year they allowed us to be one of the one of the caral companies that are in the survey, and we ranked third only behind two of the enterprise brands, and but but we're ahead of Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Avis budget, you know, the two of the big three and one of the brands of enterprise.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that is the most important endorsement is what the customer tells us, tells somebody independently about us, which is great.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: So why you look at all the success that you've had, right?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Doing great things, taking share, building out a brand, uh, you know, building out a very successful program, unique program, focused on customer experience.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in an age of disruption, why are the legacy brands, the legacy providers, the big three as you mentioned, just maybe staying the same?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily complacent, but they're not innovating like you, especially in this age of AI and constant disruption.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: How are you the only one able to do that?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think I think it goes to our culture.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're very nimble, um, we're very quick for decisions, we're very entrepreneurial in our position.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think we got the benefit of kind of being a uh legacy startup, if you will, in the US, where uh we have um, you know, can we have a long, I think there's there's another, I won't name names, but there's another car rental company that has similar characteristics to us that has been very profitable and very successful over a long period of time.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so is six.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um both have investment grade balance sheets and both have the liquidity and capital structure to be able to and have a long-term perspective on the business, right?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're not we're not beholden to quarterly earnings uh like the two public comps in the US.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're not we don't public shareholders, although we do at six, but the family really controls it, nor does the other company in St.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you know there's there's two companies of the four that I think there's some similarities where you have family ownership, multi-generational, um, very strong balance sheets, um, and people take a long-term view.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we're probably we need to be more innovative and entrepreneurial and kind of disruptive because we're new and people don't know our brand.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're very successful over many decades and you've done certain something a certain way, you're you're gonna be slow to change because there's gonna be slow, they don't want to take on that risk.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why would I change my business approach and model if I'm making so much money?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: For us, it's you know, basically we're we're we gotta be scrappy, creative, innovative to differentiate ourselves so we can get the customers' attention and actually show them we are different than the big three.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you, you know, you're gonna we want you we want to earn your loyalty through our product, your experience, and how we treat you as a customer and how you consume mobility.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's why we basically were able to move quickly and and do things very, very innovative.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a great support group back in Munich.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've got lots of years of experience in Munich that we can tap into, um, lots of resources in Munich we can tap into.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we can share best practice what's working in Europe, what's working in the US, back and forth.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think our European scale also gives us a little bit of advantage um, you know, and stability of uh being able to take risks and try to move quickly and do the new things here.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, last question.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's next for six customer experience, customer loyalty-wise?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, what do you what are you guys gonna do next to keep uh keep ahead of everyone?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think without getting too competitively sensitive, I mean, I think you know, continuing to leverage technology to improve the customer journey and experience through leveraging telematics, you know, and and automation, uh, you know, allowing customers to consume mobility at their choice, meaning what what products they want.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want a long-term rental?
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want us a subscription?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want just the daily rental traditional?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want a ride and being able to consume that all our app, but continuously provide the premium product and premium experience and allowing them to interact with us as how the consumer wants.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we continue to evolve that, you know, making sure we're trying to identify any points of friction in the journey that's eliminated, that empowers the customer to control that and how they want to interact and consume mobility with us.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's what you'll see kind of us continue to push on.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's a big push this year, the digitization of the whole operation side of the business.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I think leveraging AI, as I said earlier, to how we tailor the experience so the customer feels its individual relationship and it's not a transaction, it's not a commodity.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's really critical.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Tom, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of the more powerful interviews I've had in a long time.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh kind of your passion, uh, your experience, very unique, uh, very compelling in this what you're doing uh or uh holistically, but what you've done over the last you know five, six years is is just you know, borderline's amazing.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Building out the brand, building out the culture, uh, even in you know, in an environment where the competition for talent may be uh pretty extreme.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: You've done just a great job.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: And again, your passion, I think, for everything you do resounds, which was great to hear.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm only as good as my team and uh my ownership, so I credit the six family and the team that I have around me that really kind of helped do everything we've done so far in the US and what we're gonna do next.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: I also want to thank everyone who took the time to tune in today.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you join us back every Thursday for a new episode of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty Podcast, the Brand Stories Edition.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and across social media channels listed below in the comment section.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, have a wonderful day.