Building Community and Connection in Business with Matt Dyer
Matt Dyer, CEO and President of Merchants Fleet, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore community and connection in business, showing how trust, clear KPIs, and horizontal teamwork turn 165,000 vehicles and one client promise into 99 percent retention.
Community and connection in business is not intangible when 165,000 vehicles are on the road and one client promise has to hold across every one of them. In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, hosts Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa are joined by Matt Dyer, CEO and President of Merchants Fleet, previously CEO of LeasePlan USA and LeasePlan UK.
In this episode we explore:
• Why community is a measurable driver of profitability
• How trust translates into long-term growth
• What it takes to scale while delivering on your brand promise
• The leadership shifts required in today's evolving workforce
• Practical ways organizations can strengthen connection with clients
Clients Experience You Horizontally, Not by Org Chart
"We all find our way into these divisional silos," Matt says, "but clients never see us like that. They always see us across the horizontal." Merchants spans buying, funding, servicing, maintaining, and fueling a vehicle, and the client experiences all of it as one relationship.
Trust Is Measurable
Matt ties community directly to numbers: client retention tracking at 99 percent, NPS up 28 points last year, driver satisfaction in the high 70s, and order-to-delivery times down 24 percent. "Any day that we're not improving, we're going backwards," he says of the discipline behind those results.
The Direct Manager Is the Real Trust Lever
Asked for the one thing leaders should remember, Matt didn't point to a strategy deck: "the most important relationship in a business is between an employee and their direct line manager." Employees hear from a CEO monthly; they live with their manager every week, and that's where culture is actually built.
That instinct, building the internal relationship strong enough to carry the external promise, is exactly what Zero Company helps brands design into their own marketing and client experience.
Matt's favorite proof that love has a place in a "transactional" industry: an earlier vision statement built around "inspiring our customers to love leasing with us," and a title-and-registration team whose brand promise is simply "reg or die."
Key Takeaways
• Clients experience an organization horizontally, not by its internal structure: “clients never see us like that. They always see us across the horizontal.”
• Community and trust are measurable at Merchants Fleet: 99% client retention, NPS up 28 points year over year, driver NPS at +79, and order-to-delivery times down 24%
• Trust compounds in the repair, not the pitch: Matt’s team responded to a March advisory-board callout on title/registration with a delivered capability by September
• Merchants deliberately renamed a core value from “innovation” to “evolution” so continuous improvement felt like daily-owned work, not a big buzzword handed down from leadership
• The highest-leverage relationship for engagement and culture is the one between an employee and their direct line manager, not company-wide messaging from the CEO
• Love shows up operationally: safety-first vehicle specs, active-listening responsiveness, and a title/registration team whose brand promise is literally “reg or die.”
FAQ
How does Matt Dyer measure “community” as a business outcome at Merchants Fleet?
Through concrete metrics: 99% client retention, a 28-point year-over-year NPS increase, a +79 driver NPS score, and a 24% reduction in order-to-delivery lead times, all tied back to how well internal teams collaborate across silos.
What leadership change did Matt Dyer make to Merchants Fleet’s values, and why?
He changed a core value from “innovation” to “evolution,” because innovation had become a heavy buzzword that didn’t resonate broadly, while evolution let smaller, daily improvements feel just as valuable and more broadly owned across the team.
What does Matt Dyer say is the most important relationship in a business?
The relationship between an employee and their direct line manager, not the CEO. Employees hear from executive leadership occasionally, but they live with their manager every week, which is where engagement and culture are actually built.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
Learn more about Matt Dyer at merchantsfleet.com. Watch the video: Building Community and Connection in Business with Matt Dyer. Read more: Connection as a Measurable Growth Engine.
CEO, Merchants Fleet
Matt Dyer is Chief Executive Officer of Merchants Fleet, bringing decades of leadership experience across the global fleet management industry. Prior to joining Merchants, he served as CEO and President of LeasePlan USA, where he drove significant growth by improving customer satisfaction, implementing scalable operations, launching new products, and investing in technology and innovation. Following the successful sale of LeasePlan USA, he played a key role in integrating the business with Wheels.
Earlier in his career, Dyer served as CEO of LeasePlan UK, overseeing corporate, public sector, and SME markets, and held additional senior leadership roles including Chief Commercial Officer in the UK and Managing Director of LeasePlan International. He has also served as Chairman of the UK trade association for the vehicle rental and leasing sector.
