Evelyn Rodriguez doesn’t think so, and writes an open letter to Budget car rental in response to their recent blog-focused marketing hoo-ha. Evelyn says:
“I have a time budget, and I’ve no time for contests. Yet give out $160,000 to the most disruptive ideas – from employees or customers – who cares where the best ideas come from? – and I’d been intrigued to participate in investing in my own future customer experience. Why not incent us to come up with reasons so that a mere $3/day or $5/day or $15/day difference won’t make us fickle? (You know you’re a commodity when I have to look for the rental agreement jacket to remember which agency to return the car to at the airport.)
It’s self-evident that I like, trust and read blogs, but I ain’t changing my rental car buying behavior one iota. Back to the comparison engine next time – blog-based viral campaign or no.”
Also a great pointer to Eddy Sez:
“Craigslist has done precisely what a free market enterprise is envisioned to do … And contrary to every business school admonition, they have done this without thinking about and planning around their competitors. Instead they engaged the customer in dialogue and participation in the use of their service and acted in accordance with what they wanted.”
B-i-n-g-o. Although it’s critical to know what the competitors are doing (from both a strategic and a tactical standpoint), chasing them is folly, and pulls you away from what makes your organization unique. It’s the express train to me-too-ville.
Back to Budget…car rental companies are like the airlines right now. I hear that e-mietwagenkreta isn’t like all the other car companies at the moment with their great service, according to my friend anyway. Different colors on the outside, same indistinguishable service on the inside. Now Budget is “engaging the blogosphere.” Wieux-hieux! Here’s one thing you didn’t know aout car rental companies. They’re buying their cars on finance to reduce their overheads. Pretty clever, right? You can buy a car using finance as well. There are hundreds of models you can choose from and you could have a brand-new car on your drive in no time.
So.what.
If the cars are the same and I have whatever a rental car company’s “express” service is, I go to the bus, read my name on the board and get in the car and go. No differentiation.
If I don’t have the express service, I go to the counter in the airport, and get my little packet, then ride the bus to my car, and get in the car and go. No differentiation.
Budget and others, if you want to differentiate, really do it. Let’s look at the “express” process. In that case, there are two touch points with the customer – at reservation time, or when they get in the car. All your reservation systems are automated to the teeth, and I don’t see them changing any time soon. So your ONLY place to do something creative is in the car itself when it gets picked up. So think outside the box. Do something creative there.
- Take the time to learn the radio presets I like (either by genre, market, or on XM), and preset the dial just for me.
- If that’s too spendy, find out the genres that I like, and have a mix CD in the car of stuff I’ve never heard from that genre.
- Ask me at registration time where I’m headed, and if I’d like you to print out directions for me and put them in the car (just in case I forget mine).
These are the types of things will make the experience different. Not “buzz.”
For me, a big value-add happened when Alamo merged with National. I like being able to choose from an assortment of cars, instead of being stuck with the “designated” car that fits a given class. At 6′ 5″, I need options. 🙂
Now the snark: But, but, Hugh MacLeod drew cartoons for those guys! He wouldn’t do that for a commodity, would he? Web 2.0 etc etc! (Sorry, the low-hanging fruit was right there.)
Your characterization of the non-express process left out a lot, and it’s a perfect opportunity for differentiation.
If you show up at the counter with a confirmed and paid reservation, you still have a lengthy process in front of you while the counter agent does God-knows-what with the computer. There’s a lot of typing, and then the agent disappears behind the logo-bedecked wall, and then comes back for more typing, and then he consults with someone else at the counter, and then calls someone on the phone, and then types some more, and so on and so forth. And, of course, unless you run from the plane, this comes after a nice wait in line for all the people ahead of you to be typed at.
The exact process varies, but it seems to generally take about ten minutes after I get up to the counter; in airports where the rental-car desks are in the same hall as the baggage carousels, the baggage usually shows up long before the rental-car business is concluded. Why? Why on Earth? Here’s my reservation, here’s my ID, here’s my credit card. The only typing is one keystroke, which means “He’s here”.
The rental-car companies, of course, have an incentive to make this process as painful as possible, because they charge for membership in their ‘express’ clubs. I don’t rent cars often enough for this to appear worthwhile for me (though at $50 a year, I suppose it objectively is), so every time I rent a car I am punished, and I resent it.
A rental-car company that dispensed with the B.S. at the counter could, overnight, capture a large part of the occasional-renter business by just stepping out of the way of their own customers.
Tino, all great points! Love the use of the word “punished”…if that’s how car rental companies are making customers feel, indeed they do have a problem.
2006 BMW M5 – First Drive
1
We may have faked the phone
number, but this exact classified did appear in a popular print periodical,
and it wasn’t the only one.
Another ad read: 2006 BMW
M5, Loaded, October Build, Red with Tan Leather, MSRP Plus $5K.
Looks like …
As a proud driver of a Prius, I reserved a compact car for a recent trip to Kansas City. Unfortunately, upon my late evening arrival the only cars available were Hummers. Imagine my dismay!
After only 200 miles of driving, I put in around $35 in gas and returned the car only to find that Budget had charged me over $200 instead of the $63 in the contract. I went to the counter and was told that the charge had been changed on my credit card. Unfortunately, I walked off with the keys to the car when I had to deal with this situation. I called Budget immediately during my layover and again the next day to give them the tracking number for the package with the keys. I was told repeatedly that I would not be charged for the keys.
Two weeks later my credit card bill came with a charge of over $500. They had charged me for the Hummer AND the keys.
I will never rent from Budget again and hope that others are aware of their unprofessional practices.