This letter from a car rental operator provides an on-the-ground view of how one customer can tax system resources to the point of blowing profit right out of the water. The customer's name has been changed.

Hey Chris,
 
Here's a story from yesterday's business. The point of this story is that is it not just about controlling overbooking and getting full use out of our fleet investment. There is also a huge productivity loss with the way the car rental industry does business today - at least for any company that has a priority on trying to treat every customer with respect and courtesy, as well as being truly helpful.

I got involved with this story at about step five, with the five steps spread over a week. I started hearing grumbling from my staff about Customer T by about step three. In the end, here is how much of our time Customer T sucked up - RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR BUSIEST SEASON:

Mike (contact center agent): seven calls, 80 minutes
Andi (reservation specialist): six international calls to Honduras and many emails, 90 minutes
Jason (contact center manager): four lengthy phone calls, 50 minutes
Craig: conference call with customer, 20 minutes
 
That is a total of four hours of work for a rental we didn't even get, from a customer who felt perfectly comfortable jacking us around, because she had no skin in the game. OK, shame on us for not blowing her off after 10 minutes, but we really do preach customer service. We refuse to let the [bad customers] change our philosophy. 

So, here's the story. Customer T said she started shopping last week on our Web site for a rental in Honduras for this week. She saw a $19 rate for an ECAR. She did not book it because "she had some questions." She could have called our contact center to get the questions answered immediately and secure that booking. Instead, she figured she could beat the system by calling the Honduras office directly. She says she tried about five times to speak with them (I didn't include that in my time estimate above.) There could certainly be a language problem, especially when dealing with a customer like Customer T.

By Saturday, she had given up trying to work a deal directly with the Honduras office.  She was evidently trying to get something even cheaper than $19 per day. So, she called our contact center and reached Mike, one of our travel consultants. Mike heard the whole story and tried to work with Customer T. 

By that time, all cars were sold out. The only thing available was a big SUV at $70 per day. Customer T agreed to take that reservation (no deposit - big mistake), with the understanding we would put it on our waitlist for price review to try to get a discount for her, considering how we had inconvenienced her by not keeping a $19 car set aside just in case she might want it.

So we followed our normal price review process. The office was unwilling to discount the SUV because it was already a great price. Customer T kept calling Jason. At one point, he got the president of the Honduras operation on the line - I didn't include that time above either.

By Tuesday, she was headed to the airport. Now, she complained about the exact vehicle that would be supplied. A friend of hers had called the Honduras office and didn't like the vehicle they had reserved for her. So we made another round of phone calls and e-mails to try to lock in the exact vehicle she wanted. But she was still arguing that we should give it to her for the $19 rate SHE HAD NEVER CONFIRMED. 

It was at that point that I got involved and called Customer T. She was driving to the airport at that time. I was quite blunt that she never confirmed a $19 reservation and we would not be honoring that rate, but we had gotten a 10 percent discount for her. She said that was fine, but when she got to the airport she was going to call around to see if she could get a better rate from some other company. But she expected us to hold the vehicle in case she didn't find anything better. (We still had no deposit, and I should mention this vehicle would be a meet-and-greet - an agent would have to take an hour to meet Customer T at the airport.)

We told her we were canceling the reservation if we did not hear back from her in 45 minutes confirming she was actually going to take our rental. From there, she argued that she probably wouldn't be able to find anything this late, so if she didn't call we should just go ahead and send the agent with her personally selected, discounted vehicle for her.

She never called. We canceled the reservation and left a voice mail to that effect - should have done it after step one. I have no doubt she will be calling us today [complaining] about the fact there was no vehicle for her.

None of this would have happened if we simply had a deposit.

Originally posted on Business Fleet

About the author
Chris Brown

Chris Brown

Associate Publisher

As associate publisher of Automotive Fleet, Auto Rental News, and Fleet Forward, Chris Brown covers all aspects of fleets, transportation, and mobility.

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