Pandemic Lessons: Serving Others Serves Company Mission

Late one night after working a shift, Roadside Service Technician Douglas Chew spotted a car broken down on the highway. Doug stopped and approached the vehicle to find a young family with a newborn baby. The family was waiting for roadside assistance from their insurance carrier, who told them their wait would be up to two hours. Doug changed the family's flat tire and helped them get to safety. The next day, the couple called to express their gratitude and say that they had become AAA Members. Ever-humble, Chew told his manager: "It's in my blood, it's in my training. It's just what we do."

This story spoke to me and made me reflect on AAA’s founding mission—helping people—whether it be planning a trip or assisting a Member at the side of the road. As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt last year, we leaned into what we do best, staying true to our mission of helping others and our communities. 

As a Membership organization, we wanted to find new ways to serve. We quickly reassigned 1,000 valued employees to make more than 200,000 goodwill calls to vulnerable Members. These calls helped us identify ways to better serve our Members during such an uncertain time in their lives. In some cases, we provided a sympathetic ear and, in others, we helped connect Members to critical resources.

Bryan Cherry, a Team Member of 20 years at our Hayward District Office in California, went above and beyond after making one of these calls last Spring. Bryan spoke with a Member who confided that she had just served her grandchildren the last of her food supply—beans, rice, and a bit of meat. Cherry went to an area community food pantry, picked up bags of food and toys for the grandkids, and personally delivered the items to the Member, who called his act a "literal Godsend."

In addition to new initiatives, we were fortunate to continue serving Members through existing services and resources. Our roadside assistance and vehicle maintenance and repair teams remained on the job with enhanced safety processes in place. This allowed us to continue helping Members and offering free roadside assistance to healthcare workers and first responders who helped keep our communities safe.

Speaking of safety, we've long advocated for child passenger safety through our free car-seat inspections and car seat donations, educating more than 450,000 families per year. We shifted this resource online as stay-at-home orders were enacted, continuing to deliver on our commitment to helping families protect their precious cargo. 

We wanted to make sure that we found a way to support the organizations working to make our communities a better place. We were able to do that through GIG Car Share and Gig4Good. Through Gig4Good, we provided driving credits to organizations creating positive change in Northern California and Seattle, Washington communities, such as food banks struggling with growing demand. We recently announced we would reimburse new and existing Gig members for up to one hour for trips to COVID-19 vaccine appointments from April 15, 2021, through June 15, 2021.

All things considered, we stayed the course of tending to our Members and communities throughout a very trying year, which added value to the brand as a whole. Members told us they felt a greater peace of mind having AAA by their side. We are grateful for that level of trust in our brand, which allowed us to end 2020 with the highest Membership retention levels in our Club's history.

Like Doug, Bryan, and so many others, valued employees came together to demonstrate how adversity breeds innovation and can bring out the best in humanity—kindness, empathy, and resilience. Personally and professionally, their authentic passion for living our mission helps make AAA a great place to work and the Membership our Members keep for life.

Laura Zeigler is the EVP, Chief Marketing Officer for AAA Northern California, Nevada, and Utah (AAA NCNU). AAA NCNU is one of the largest Clubs in the AAA federation representing more than 6 million AAA Members across Arizona, Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.