Analysis of Enterprise Rent-A-Car - Case Study Example

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Name: ID: Subject: Lecturer: Tutor: Enterprise Rent-A-Car Case Study 1. Introduction Businesses exist with the sole purpose of profit maximization. Profits emerge from the sale of organization’s products to consumers. Therefore, organizations aim at increasing their turnovers through attracting a large clientele base. A challenge however exists in maintaining the existing customer and attracting a new market. Customer services play a crucial role in ensuring customer satisfaction and responding to enquiries (Nijssen & Frambach 2001, p.121). The organizational service triad involves an interaction between the organization, service providers, and customers. The quality of service provision depends on the employee empowerment and the culture of the organization. Services vary with the variation in customer preferences. Personalized services hence improve the level of customer satisfaction. 2. History of Enterprise Various organizations have improved the level of their service delivery to satisfy their clients (Batt, Rosemary 2003, p.590). Those organizations include Enterprise rent-a-car, which is among the fastest growing businesses. It started small with limited resources; few vehicles and a small number of employees. The family owned business gradually transitioned from a small-scale business to the largest rental-car business in North America. Despite its large number of operations, enterprise runs its business like a small company. This involves one-on-one interactions with the customers to ensure their satisfaction with the services. Enterprise boasts of nominations for various awards recognizing the exceptionally service delivery. Certain qualities of the organization have enabled its success namely communication, management styles, hiring and placement, marketing strategies, and location of office premises. 3. Description of enterprise operations Effective communication best describes the forces behind the success of enterprise Rent-A-Car. It begins from proper internal communication channels to enhance timely flow of information between the management and employees. Largely used channels include basic oral communication during meetings and electronic channels such as video conferencing. The mode of introducing new employees to the company through induction, meetings, and congratulatory notes plays a great role in the motivation to work towards achieving the company’s goals. External communication utilizes electronic media such as the website to convey information to the customers and other stakeholders. For instance, the use of forums such as the hub ensures central communication point of authorized announcements to the recipients. Utilization of both informal and formal methods of communication enhances flow of information with minimal distortions. Personalization of messages increases the utility level of the customers due to the personal attention awarded to them (Nijssen & Frambach 2001, p.121). Hiring and placement techniques of any organization determine the professionalism in service provision. Enterprise understands this and stresses on its employment strategies. The human resource management utilizes available talent in its work force and highly invests in promoting their skills. Its training program includes an annual graduate recruitment of approximately 1000 recruits. Internal selections ensure promotion of employees with abundant experience and knowledge on the operations of the organization. A pool of qualified employees results from the reinforcement of skills and knowledge made to the employees. This motivates the employees to work harder to develop their skills and get opportunities to develop their careers. Satisfied service providers result into satisfied customers (Wilson et al 2012, p10). This also ensures the integrity of workers in the provision of their services due to their personal drive in ensuring each customer acquires personalized services without compromise. Outsourcing on the other hand attracts new and highly qualified professionals. The hiring of a work force with relevant skills, knowledge, and qualification ensures high quality provision of services. The customer satisfaction therefore increases which translates into higher profits for the organization. The enterprise’s workforce widely represents the cultural, educational level and ethnic diversities within the society. This promotes the corporate image of the organization and attracts customers indiscriminately. Diversity of employees also addresses the issue of language barrier in communication to various customers and promotes their confidence on the reliability of the organization in delivery of quality services. Enterprise utilizes the marketing strategy of product and market development, and diversification. Market development involves establishment of new markets through introduction of services. This ensures a wide range of recipients of the quality services offered by enterprise. Location of services close to customers promotes convenience an accessing the services. Introduction of new products into existing and new markets increases the variety of services available for customers (Casey 2004, p38). Customers therefore make choices on the services that best suit their needs. Enterprise introduced car-sharing services where customers using a similar route can share a car and split the cost among them. This addressed the issue of transportation cost and traffic congestion on the roads. Specialized services offered for various cities enhance customer satisfaction through identifying special needs of the customers. The marketing strategy of enterprise varies with the changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers hence remains relevant in addressing their needs. Analysis and review of the outcomes of newly introduced services improve the decision making process. Enterprise employs flexibility in its management styles through an ‘open door’ policy where employees interact freely with senior managers. This enhances the speed in addressing issues by eliminating the bureaucracy in reporting issues to management. Flexibility also manifests in the adjustment of management styles to fit various circumstances that occur. Senior managers set standards of service delivery and the employees use various means to attain them depending on situations. Hence, leadership skills form part of the crucial personality traits of the employees since they all lead in their various capacities. Decentralized decision making offers local offices the power to make decisions best suitable to their clients. Local managers understand best the needs of the people in the locality hence design personalized solutions for them. Motivation reinforces the self-esteem of the employees resulting in improved performance (Hugh 2009, p1115). The employees take part in corporate social responsibility, which improves the corporate image. Strategic location of enterprise branch offices enhances high quality service provision. Key determinants on the choice of location include proper infrastructure and ample parking space. Easy access to the offices enhance personal visitation from clients for enquiries or clarifications. Accessibility enhances the relationship between the customers and service providers. The exceptional customer services offered give enterprise a competitive advantage. The branch managers have the mandate to manage operations of the branches according to the needs of the locals. Hence, each branch of enterprise offers specialized services to the society, which improves the level of customer satisfaction. Environmental conservation of enterprise’s locations improves the customer experience and enhances the organizational image. 4. Service Encounter Triad Communication enhances the service encounter triad of the organization. It promotes the flow of information between various stakeholders, which improves the level of service provision and boosts their confidence on the organization. Proper feedback channels ensure this through communication of the customer experience on the service delivery. Positive feedback motivates continued provision of quality services while negative feedback indicates areas requiring improvement (Zeithaml et al 2006, p100). Customer services ensure prompt service provision in renting of cars and actual provision of services. Enquiries ensure comprehension of the services provided by the organization and therefore, an active website exists to respond to customers’ queries. Diversity characterizes the society within which the organization exists and this pushed it into deriving effective approaches to this phenomenon. Enterprise curbed the language barrier encountered in communication with customers through acquisition of branches in other countries that include France. This demonstrates the diverse service provision by the organization by overcoming cultural and language barriers. 5. Personal Encounter Efficiency best describes the experience at enterprise. The employees responded to my request for hiring one of their vehicles for a weekend. Fast response to calls puts the customer at ease and promotes confidence on enterprise’s services. Courteous language demonstrates the high level of respect and professionalism observed by the employees. Integrity in the payment rate charges further demonstrates the reliability of enterprise and its services. The family encountered no for the services offered during the weekend. High quality service delivery includes the highly trained drivers. My family hired a vehicle to visit our grandparents hence Wecar service became the optimal choice. It enabled the sharing of the vehicle by the family members, which led to memorable family moments. The vehicles used by enterprises ensure high level of luxury and comfort for their clients. Their request for feedback after service delivery enhances loyalty among customers and offers information necessary for improvement of services. However, the speed of their service provision remains the most remarkable quality of their services. 6. Recommendations Opportunities continuously present themselves for the growth of the organization (Brink & Berndt 2009, p200). The society today emphasizes on environmental conservation through reduction of pollution through noise, harmful gas emissions among others. Renting out of fuel saving vehicles would highly promote environmental conservation and improve the corporate image. The introduction of Wecar to other countries would also largely improve the image of enterprise. Hertz car-renting services pose the greatest threat to enterprise especially in the airport market. To remain competitive, enterprise should upgrade its vehicles to keep up with changing times and maintain its competitive advantage. 7. Conclusion Customer satisfaction highly determines the profitability of an organization. Embracing of emerging trends in customer relations offers businesses a competitive advantage. Recent times have made customer relations a requirement rather than an option. The survival of a business solely depends on the client base and an organization therefore needs to maintain their loyalty. Extensive surveys indicate the causes of a disconnection with the customers and offers possible solutions for the problem (Nijssen & Frambach 2001, p50). Internal operations of the organization also affect the services offered to customers. Satisfied employees produce satisfied customers. Word Count: 1563 References Batt, Rosemary 2003, "Managing Customer Services: Human Resource Practices, Quit Rates, And Sales Growth," Academy of management Journal 45.3 pp. 587-597. Brink Annekie & Berndt Adele 2009, Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management. SAGE Publications, New Delhi. Casey Terrance 2004, ‘current issues: Automation, Self-Service, and Analytics Improve the Customer Relationship’, Journal (American Water Works Association) Vol. 96, No. 8, pp. 34-36, 38 Daanen, Johannes Maria Victo, et al 2006, "Contact center system, and method for specifying different service specific behavior and offering range of corresponding customer services." 6,988,126. Hugh McLaughlin 2009, What's in a Name: ‘Client’, ‘Patient’, ‘Customer’, ‘Consumer’, ‘Expert by Experience’, ‘Service User’—What's Next? 39: 1101 - 1117. Nijssen J. Edwin & Frambach T. Rudd 2001,Creating Customer Value Through Strategic Marketing ... Wilson, Alan, et al 2012, Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm. No. 2nd Eu. McGraw Hill. Zeithaml, Valarie A., Mary Jo Bitner, and Dwayne D. Gremler 2006, "Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm." Read More