In the previous post we looked at the service experience of a car rental company. We can identify four interactions between the customer and the rental company:
- Registration
- Reservation
- Collecting the car
- Returning the car
Keeping in mind that the customer’s main objective is to be on their way, let’s now examine the experience through its various stages, and whether each of those adds any value to the customer:
| Stage | Interaction Details | Platform | Value? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration | Personal Details Driving License Credit Card Insurance Needs Car Type Other Details | Web | Yes |
| Reservation | Pick-up Time and Place Duration Deviation and changes from saved information | Web | Yes |
| Counter | Review personal details and credit card information Upselling (GPS, child seats, refueling) | Personal | No |
| Parking Garage | Review insurance options Inspect car for damage and gas level Sign paperwork | Personal | No |
We can see that the two face to face encounters add little value to the customer.
Many car rental companies have eliminated those steps, at least for regular customers who can walk directly to their cars and drive away immediately. Looking at the content of those two interactions we can see several patterns we all recognize:
- Repetitive requests for information
- Confusion of onstage and backstage activities as well as with supporting processes causing delays and extra expenditures
In the next and final post – learnings from this experience we can implement in the enterprise technology business
Pingback: What Can Enterprise Support Learn From Auto Rental? (Part 1 of 3) | Enterprise Software Customer Support