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“It’s really pivotal we continuously have those conversations, and we are really tight with our customers,” she said. “For us, it’s about transparency and having that open and honest conversation with our customers. It’s making sure there are no surprises.”
While ratings for upgrades and service for VIP travelers remained in the middle of the pack overall, they nevertheless declined. One possible reason could be that pre-pandemic, car rental companies had the luxury of upgrading bookings—if someone booked a full-size vehicle, they might get higher-class luxury car, or if they booked a mid-size car, they would get a full-size one, Hammond said. “Pricing pressures maybe had car companies realign so those booking a medium car get a medium car. I would not be surprised to see that happen.”
Herman noted that while fleets have been replenished, “most vendors are still operating with older vehicles, and holding onto the fleet longer, so the brand-new shine upgrade may not be as readily available,” she said.
Hertz’ Scores Leap
Though it barely missed out on third place, last year’s fifth-place brand made significant strides forward this past year, improving to an overall score of 4.069 versus 3.85 in 2022. The company also went through and emerged from bankruptcy and a restructuring during Covid-19.
It tied for second in clean, well-serviced cars and was second for upgrades and service for VIP travelers.
“They’ve really made improvements in leaps and bounds in so far as improving IT, customer service and the availability of the car is the other piece,” Zaffino said, adding that Hertz has better inventory management now, and is keeping fleet size on the demand curve.
“You would expect them to be stressed as they were going through restructuring and emerging, but you would hope they would recover after that, as they have done,” Hammond said, adding that when taking in margin of error, “they’re within 5 percent of the leaders of the moment, so they are back close to the top. They are fairly close as one would expect.”
Driving Trends
Mobile apps continue to experience avid use among car rental customers—and suppliers continue to look for ways to enhance the app experience. National scored highest for mobile app functionality, but Avis was just two hundredths of a point behind.
Moore noted that customers of both National and Enterprise could easily bypass the counter and self-serve through the mobile apps, but that the company also has enhanced its greeter system in parking lots for customers who may need help. “Anytime you can make the process faster especially for road warriors, those are some of the things we did to speed up the customer and the employee,” he said.
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