Enterprise Rent-A-Car - Assignment Example

ENTERPRISE RENT A CAR Introduction Enterprise Rent-A-Car is among the largest car rental businesses in the United States of America. Since its foundation in 1916, it has grown significantly and has become highly dependable in service provision. They have been providing quality services at cheaper prices to the home-city market. Despite having started as a small company after World War II, it has grown and expanded opening branches all over the country. Their focus has been excellent service to their customers and this is the driving force behind the big success they have at hand now Every customer requires quality service for him or her to be loyal to their service provider. Enterprise car rentals have upheld a culture of keeping the needs of their customers first. The management has built up resources, personell and activities that work to the satisfaction of their customer requirements. They provide different types of vehicles to unsure that the needs of the customer are met. Their offer range from luxurious vehicles to busses and minibuses for those who would want to travel in groups or as families. The management has made the Enterprise Service Quality Index(ESQI) service to cater for the needs of the customers(Kellogg school of management, 12).In the mid 1990’s they established this services which enquired the satisfaction of customers and it went to the extent of offering the managers number to the customers who were not satisfied. This act showed a lot of concern for their customers and have worn their loyalty. Introduction of the service of being picked from homes has served the customer’s needs more effectively since it is efficient fast and reliable. Their services were offered in the estates where people lived and thus was convenient to many. They invested largely on purchase of vehicles and became the largest car buyer by purchasing 7 percent of all the vehicles produced in the United States in 2002. (Kellogg school of management, 12). This has ensured that no customer would lack a vehicle to hire. They have also employed many highly qualified and competent staff to work in their company. In the 2010,they had aplan to recruit 8500 graduates all over the country from 1000 campuses. During their first years of operation, they did not involve themselvesin the airport business but instead dedicated their services to the local rental market. They located their offices in neighborhoods as opposed to their competitors who had their offices based in airports. This trade-off helped them reach a greater number of customers. They also build referral relationships with insurance companies which increased their customers to a level whereby they would receive a call on each minute . The company has embarked on hard work and competition among the employees. They have been using a promotion strategy based on how smart you work. They did not employ managers in the new branches but rather promoted the hardworking workers to the managerial positions. This acted as an advantage to the company since workers felt motivated to work hard for promotion . However not all employees were comfortable with this style of work and some left their jobs in the process. They developed a payment program that was based on the branches’ profits (Kellogg school of management, 12). Higher profits at branch level meant that also the employees earned more a factor tha boosted the morale of teamwork in the various branches.. Trainees were treated as a family by the rest of the employees and thus harmony existed creating a good working environment for all the workers. A culture of equality existed in the organization and hence new employees fitted in easily. Avis and Hertz have been the major competitors of Enterprise in the car hire industry in the United States. However,they have majored on airport business. In 2002 hertz was the number one airport car rental brand in the United States followed by Avis (Kellogg school of Management, 9). At this time, enterprise was involved largely in local rental market and was rated top in this sector. Due to customer demand enterprise started airport business in 2002 and up to 2012 there have been ranked top seven years consecutively and thus expressing the command of the company in the industry. I would recommend the other companies to replicate them to match their success. However, they would need to implement the strategies used by Enterprise. Zipcar was the first car sharing service provider and it dominated the market making super-normal profits before other companies such as Hertz and Enterprise joined .The reliability of this system has brought high competition in the industry . This has led to a drift of customers from car hiring and leasing to car sharing and thus reducing profits of Enterprise. They need to work go an extra mile and market themselves in car sharing or even introduce a better service than this. The growth and popularity of Zipcar is likely to reduce the profits of Enterprise since most universities and corporations have adopted this style of transport to ease traffic congestion and to reduce on costs of leasing and car maintenance. Recommendations and Conclusion Competition levels in the market have increased and the organization need to device strategies to beat their competitors or match them.. With inventions coming up each day, the company needs to be on the look to make sure that they are the up to date with each new technology. Improving the quality of service technologically increases its chances of acceptability in the market. They should purchase the new models of vehicles to entice their customers. Motivating employees is paramount towards the success of a company. Improving the working conditions of employees would affect the quality of service they offer to customers. reward schemes in the organization would help motivate the workers. Performance appraisals that favor the employees should also be designed to make them compete with each other. Marketing and advertising should have first priority among the companies expenditure. It is through gaining more customers and their loyalty that the business thrives. The company should also invest more in the IT sector to ensure that they take advantage of the digital market. Works cited Kellogg School of Management. “Enterprise rent a car.”17thFebruary 2014.Print. March 2012 Read More