Customer Service: This is How it’s Done
Sharon Faulkner is a Dollar and Thrifty licensee operating out of Albany, N.Y. A longtime board member of the American Car Rental Association and its predecessor, Faulkner has been instrumental in representing auto rental industry concerns legislatively, including vicarious liability reform and resolving New York’s CDW issue.
Here Faulkner provides some of her customer service wisdom collected throughout her many years in the industry. “I know, all this sounds like a lot,” she writes. “But to keep your customer coming back, a lot is always better than just good enough.”
• We always review all the reservations for the day to see if any of the customers have rented from us previously. If they have, we greet them with: “So we last saw you on such-and-such a date, and you rented a midsize. I see you booked a compact today—will that be comfortable for you or would you prefer the midsize?” It gives us a chance to let them know we remember them (even when we may not actually recognize them) and it also gives us the opportunity to upsell. We always run tight utilization, so knowing how many re-rents we have also helps us know who is more likely to show up and not be part of our 25 percent no-show factor.
• We always have their car warmed up if it’s cold, and we always have their vehicle cooled down if it’s hot. We have it pulled up with the trunk lid up and have the shuttle driver put their luggage in the trunk for them. We always leave the trunk lid open so they can check to see that all of their luggage is there.
• We offer prepaid fuel 20 cents cheaper than the pump price, knowing that it is difficult to return with a completely empty tank.
• We greet each customer by name (the shuttle driver lets us know who he is bringing over from the airport).
• We meet each customer outside when they are returning and give them a receipt without requiring that they come back inside the office before going back to the airport.
• For customers who have been renting from us month after month, we make sure their contracts are always done and their car is clean and ready to go. They always come back because they never wait in a line for any reason.
• We order free tourist maps from all the connecting states to New York and give them to any customer who asks for directions to those states. We have detailed maps of the local area with complete instructions of where to return the car that includes the exact address for their GPS with our local phone number. We also print MapQuest or Google directions for anyone who needs them because there are still people who don’t want to try a GPS.
• We have the customer service representative’s first name on the rental agreement for the opening and closing of the contract for the customer’s convenience if they have a question.
• We print the weather report each morning and post it on our rental counters so people can plan their trip and sometimes upgrade into an SUV or larger car during inclement weather. • We contacted the local hotels close to our office and arranged a discounted rate for any customer who books a room using our name as a referral. We don’t get any “kickback”; we just want our customers to benefit from the association. We have their brochures available in the lobby.
• We also contacted locally owned restaurants that supplied us with copies of menus and/or discount coupons so we can refer our customers to unique places rather than the same restaurants they see wherever they travel. It’s a small touch that is really appreciated.
• We also have a vending machine that has soft drinks and snacks for their trip at a lower price. We don’t take a percentage; we just want the customer serviced.