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find out how satisfied its customers were with their service.-
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is in the car rental business and operates a fleet of more
than 850,000 vehicles. In Enterprise’s view, the business it
is involved in is customer satisfaction. This is a characteristic that it shares in
common with every successful service company, large or small. Enterprise Rent-A-
Car believes that customer satisfaction is an investment. It is the equivalent to
research and development in a manufacturing company. Customer service is an
important part of the culture of Enterprise.
They have followed a simple method or process to find how satisfied its
customers were with their service. The management team came up with an
uncomplicated but very effective questionnaire to gauge the level of satisfaction.
The questionnaire was based on 2 questions such as : 1. How would you rate your last
Enterprise experience? This is ranked on a scale from ‘completely satisfied’ to
‘completely dissatisfied’. 2. Would you rent from Enterprise again? This is a novel
type of customer survey.
Throughout its history, Enterprise has followed founder Jack Taylor’s advice
who believed that if the company took care of its customers and employees first,
profits would follow. Therefore, Enterprise conducted Service Quality Surveys to
track customer satisfaction. The survey included questions that could provide
information which it was trying to gather like;
- How satisfied was the customer on his recent car rental from Enterprise?
- What, if anything, could Enterprise have done better?
- Did the customer experience any problems during the rental process?
- How was the telephone reservation process?
- How would you rate the car
- How is the Handling of paper work
- What is the Mechanical condition of the car
- How is the Cleanliness of the car interior/exterior?
- If next time you needed to pick up a rental car, how likely are you to call Enterprise?
Enterprise had used the survey results to calculate an overall average Enterprise
Service Quality Index (ESQi) score for the company and a score for each individual
branch. The new way of measuring customer satisfaction was called ESQi. ESQi
is a quantitative term that focuses basically on SERVICE and QUALITY. It is a score
that measures the percentage of the customers that are completely satisfied. The ESQi
survey concentrates on those aspects of customer satisfaction which are very positive.
It measures on complete satisfaction rather than mere satisfaction.
ESQi hinges on two simple words: completely satisfied. Every month, they
measure customer satisfaction with each local branch through telephone surveys of
hundreds of thousands of our customers. Each branch earns a ranking based on the
percentage of its customers who say they were completely satisfied with their last
Enterprise experience. They call that ranking "top box," and that's the standard of
excellence they set for themselves when they work with their customers.
The survey was developed through an intensive process over a number of years.
The process was focused on refining the survey with the result that it appears simple.
The survey finds out what makes loyal customers and who the loyal customers are. It
delivers results which allow Enterprise to concentrate on the key driver for the
company - making loyal customers. This leads to profitable growth.
Enterprise then targeted customers who were highly satisfied and would rent
from the company again.These were customers who filled in the top boxes on the
survey. Customers who had filled in the survey were called by external telephone
researchers. They were asked how many cars they had rented since taking part in the
survey and what Enterprise’s share of those rentals had been. This consisted of more
than two million customer contacts each year and therefore has significant cost.
Studying the data showed that ‘completely satisfied’ customers were more than three
times as likely to become repeat customers as those who said they were only
‘somewhat satisfied’.
The best part of this unique survey is that it was short and concise unlike
other surveys. Filling up surveys is generally considered as a boring job which not
many people like being a part of. By acquiring the results of this survey, the company
would easily find out how satisfied its customers were with their service and would
again avail of their service.
ESQi provided the company with meaningful data in the following ways:
• ESQi helped the company to categorize customers who have been impressed by the
services offered by the company. So as to identify how many customers would
come again to avail of those services.
• This directly reflected that if a customer is satisfied he will definitely have a recall
value and would also refer to others. It is a general tendency that we humans tend to
share good experience and also recommend a service provider to our friends and
family.
• It also highlighted what policies and measures were working out positively and
receiving a positive response from customers.
• As this activity was carried out area and region wise, it was easy for Enterprise to
understand the diverse needs of customers based on region, location, etc.
• Customer satisfaction matters not only to the customer, but even more so to the
business because it directly impacts a company’s bottom line profits. Furthermore, it
is one of the most important components of a company’s positive brand image.
• It provided the data about how many cars they had rented since taking part in the
survey and what Enterprise’s share of those rentals had been.
• It provided the information about some sectors of the business that were
underperforming in terms of customer service.
• The ESQi results have helped to teach Enterprise what drives customer satisfaction.
• The data showed that 'completely satisfied' customers were more likely to
become repeat customers as those who say they were only 'somewhat satisfied'.
Since this method of taking customer feedback via a simple survey was easy
and trouble free, it gave detailed analyses of what the customer wants and what
should be done to fulfill it.
Q3 How did Enterprise use the information it collected? How did this enable the
company to make improvements?
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is in the car rental business and operates a fleet of more
than 850,000 vehicles. In Enterprise’s view, the business it
is involved in is customer satisfaction. This is a characteristic that it shares in
common with every successful service company, large or small. Enterprise Rent-A-
Car believes that customer satisfaction is an investment. It is the equivalent to
research and development in a manufacturing company. Customer service is an
important part of the culture of Enterprise.
Enterprise collected information through questionnaires and Enterprise Service
Quality Index (ESQi). Enterprise has played it safe and smart. Through a long
process, it narrowed down on questions those were easy to comprehend. The two
questions in the questionnaire for consumers were –
By asking the first question the company came to know how satisfied or
dissatisfied its customers were. This helped them to understand their stand in the
minds of customers majorly. As mentioned in the case study, they selected a special
team which would call the ones who selected completely satisfied and take details
about their experience with the service provided by the company. Through this
process, they knew what percentage of existing customers would come and be their
customer for a long time over and over again.
This helped the company largely to make improvements as the ESQi (Enterprise
Service Quality index) facilitated to guide Enterprise as to what drives customer
satisfaction. The data was like a mirror for people working with Enterprise as the
strategies used by them were working out or no. it guided them as to what their
customers exactly wanted and expected out of the company. As enterprise works
towards exceeding customer satisfaction, it is like detailed analyses of what enterprise
can do to improve services.
Customer Loyalty
Customer satisfaction
Effective Communication
Spotting Trends
Great public relations
High reputation
Word-of-mouth praise
Concentration of quality
Feedback gained from surveys can be used in training activities to help employees to
address customer-related grievances more competently and resolve queries and
complaints more quickly by Enterprise. Analysis of detailed customer feedback
surveys provides customer intelligence that can be used to spur innovation efforts,
research and development and new product development initiatives.
• Customer Loyalty: Understand the magic – what they like about you and
what they dislike. Knowing what keeps them coming back over and over again
is the secret to your success. Loyalty is the magic when they start talking
about you and referring you to others.