Customer Service: Phone Calls Top Social Media, Email

Most car rental customers still prefer to speak with an actual employee on the telephone — compared to social media or email — to address their inquiries, according to Enterprise Holdings.

Last year, Enterprise’s contact centers helped more than 6 million Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car airport customers in the U.S. – with more than 90% of them picking up the phone first, according to the company. The remaining 10% used email, online chat or social media accounts.

“In the last year alone, we have more than doubled our social media customer service team,” said Ken Kreh, vice president at Enterprise Holdings. “However, while social media is growing in volume month-over-month, phone inquiries are still by far the most popular form of communication for our customers. People overall just seem to prefer meaningful interactions with real employees.”

Most customer calls focus on reservation modifications, cancellations and confirmations, contract extensions and copies of receipts.

“Although the majority of requests are simple, sometimes they can be complicated,” said Kreh. “That's why our contact center team members listen closely to each request — no matter what channel is used — and make things right as soon as possible.”

Enterprise Holdings trains every contact center employee with the tools, training and authority needed to work with each customer and address an array of questions and issues.

“We hire customer service representatives who not only can follow guidelines, but who can think on their feet to meet all types of customer needs without additional assistance,” said Kreh. “To provide a consistent customer service experience, we consider each customer interaction a personal and individual situation.”