Experience Matters

How renting a car turns ugly

The rental car experience from hell…

I travel a lot in my work. A couple of weeks back I had to be at a client meeting and flew in, only to realize I had neglected to reserve a rental car. Avis - sold out. Hertz - sold out. Budget - sold out. Enterprise - sold out. I ended up with a reservation with Thrifty Rental Car by calling our travel group. It was the last rental car available.

Being in a new city with a new rental company, I wasn’t sure of the procedure. The counters only had a phone. I picked up the phone for a bus, and that should have been the first sign. It rang. And rang. And rang.

With no answer, I decided to head out to the curb in hopes of finding the bus. An Avis bus drove by. A Hertz bus drove by. An Enterprise bus drove by. A Budget bus drove by. An Advantage bus drove by. Another Avis bus drove by. Another Hertz bus drove by. In thirty minutes a Thrifty bus shows up. I board only to find it’s packed and I end up…at the back of the bus. Not the place you want to be when you don’t have preferred status, and a meeting in an hour.

Arriving at the rental car lot, I find a long line of people, and agents filling out contracts by hand. Now this is a Monday mid-day, probably the highest travel day of the week. I wait. And wait. And wait. Finally I arrive at the counter after a 40 minute wait. I ask the agent why the manual contract process? I learn they are upgrading their computer system. On a Monday. A busy Monday. At this point, I’m reminded of Hertz’s ads suggesting “not exactly.” I’m reminded of Avis’ ads about “we try harder.” I can’t recall a Thrifty ad. Amazing how those ads come back when the experience connects to the insight in the advertising.

I proceed to sign the paperwork and notice the rate - nearly $80 per day. It was the last car available. They knew it and priced it accordingly. Higher than our Avis or Hertz rates. Higher than I’ve paid for a Chrysler 300M. But I was reserved in a PT Cruiser. A purple one. With a front tire that had a slow leak.

Paperwork signed, I’m ready for my car. But there are no clean cars. So I wait. And wait. And wait. Another 30 minutes and they pull up in a freshly washed car, across a dusty gravel parking lot. But they insisted I get a clean car. Go figure.

I rented the car for a couple of days, completed the business trip, and turned it in on a Wednesday mid-day. Upon returning the car, I go to check-in and they have no record of me in the computer system. They never entered my contract. Computer upgrade, remember? More waiting in line. More frustration. No apologies. No explanation by the manager.

I finally get my handwritten contract and rush for the bus. The only bus that Thrifty had. The one that goes around every 35 minutes. I finally make it to the airport and fly home. Unfortunately, the experience does not end here.

On Friday I notice a voice message on my cell phone - security from Thrifty looking for their car. I called them back and explained that I had turned in the car. Turns out the car check-out got entered. But not the check-in! On Saturday, I get another call. Same message. I call them back again and explain again that I had turned in the car the previous Wednesday. On Sunday, I get another call. On Monday, I get the fourth call and ask to speak to the supervisor. I explain the nightmare to the supervisor. Finally, I get an apology for their error.

So what’s the lesson here besides not renting from Thrifty?

1. Great experiences require planning. Don’t upgrade computer systems on your busiest days.
2. Great experiences require communications and setting expectations. The bus driver and all the team members knew they were upgrading systems. A simple announcement when boarding the bus to expect a delay would have helped to set expectations.
3. Great experiences require contingency planning. Clipboards that allowed renters to pre-fill their info would have kept us busy, made us feel like we were making progress, and sped up the check-out.
4. Even bad experiences can be made better if there is empathy in the process. How about a free soda? Or bottle of water? Or discount on a future rental? A little personality from the service staff would have helped.
5. And when an experience isn’t great, a little humanity goes a long way. Travel is stressful enough.
6. Bad experiences have a way of snow-balling. Not entering the contract at the location triggered downstream problems with their security procedures. But you know they didn’t anticipate those downstream hassles.
7. Put a contingency budget in place for “make goods”. There were many opportunities in the process to make-good on the mistakes. The early ones were less costly. The later ones, more costly. At this point, you can bet I’ll look at every alternative, including a taxi before renting from Thrifty again.

Simple ideas, but unfortunately we don’t see them well executed everyday. Put the customer first, and let the experience flow from there.