All Posts By

Jon Gatrell

Sometimes customer loyalty and service Hertz

The Things About Brands

Brand management and development is a serious investment for folks and a good deal of the effort is put forth in making sure the whole product or service a brand represents puts forth the right message to the market.  For me a brand’s promise on service is a critical buying criteria for most things, especially when it comes to leisure.

Travel as an Experience of Brands

Travel is about the most brand aware segment for me – I am just plain brand centric with my travel decisions.  Amex, Marriott and Hertz typically means everything is going to work out.  That being said I’ve seen some changes in my user experience in the last 12 months with key brands I choose to work with in the travel industry, which may be a response to the economy or inconsistent execution on common processes.  Doesn’t matter what the drivers – brand promises are more like concepts than promises it seems of late on my travels.   Recently I’ve decided I’m over a certain hotel chain micro-brand and now it appears that the economic downturn or just an over zealous regional manager looking to make his/her bonus/free Applebee’s $25 Gift Card in Reno just may make me switch my preferred car renting company from Hertz.

A Car Rental Reality

I’ve been renting with Hertz for nearly a decade and conservatively I’ve spent over $20K, which may not be a lot in the scheme of things, but kinda feels like a big number with a single vendor to me.  My most recent transaction probably won’t make me move from the brand since I think the key brand attributes are still intact:

  • A reasonable price – not great price, but worth the value
  • A well organized and coordinated frequent traveler program
  • Generally OK cars regardless of the situation – vacation, business or group travel.

The way I see it, if you can find a single company who can provide a service consistently regardless of location or the use case that’s a pretty important thing as a traveler, even if it costs a little more.  All you need is one username and password, one process to learn…..  My most recent trip started no different for the most part, but an interesting use case in customer engagement emerged from my most recent vacation rental with Hertz from even before I got my keys.

My experience online was great, got a van, needed a van.  With Burning Man in the region I expected to get above average rates, but not with Hertz an unadulterated price book was made available and I had a reservation in minutes.  I was definitely pleased to see that Hertz wouldn’t jack rates insanely because of Burning Man, as other vendors did with like product in services during the period.

My Hertz experience varied from the start, I had to pick up my keys instead of strolling straight to the car, but this happens at small airports and the service was good at the counter, albeit a little odd.   During the transaction there was this weird forced random Burning Man reference.  I go to lots of place and most interactions are absent a “why I was in town” when it comes to the car rental place.  Paraphrase below:

ME: Man, can you give me my keys

HIM: ID

ME: <hands id> Appreciate this <gets keys> thanks man

HIM: You going to burning man?

ME: Absolutely – be good, cheers!

Off to the car thinking these folks are certainly friendly and appear to be excited bout the influx of diverse folks for burning man – kinda cool…. I quickly find the van which I rented, drop in the bags and start getting in the car and I am greeted with the following “valued” Customer Message:

Well perhaps with this welcome as a customer I should have seen Burning Man remotely or minimally selected another vendor such as Enterprise car rental.  At this point, my car rental is becoming an increasingly emotional commercial transaction on both sides.  But with a week of vacation ahead and a little rational thought applied for a second or two, I understand that folks need to be aware that should they return a car with something that could be considered beyond normal wear and tear there might be a fee.

Good business – communicate with your customer your needs and the responsibility of the consumer.

Then I started thinking about the $175 charge, as a business guy, threatening essentially a 2X market rate should work and could represent a new little opportunistic profit center – good job Hertz!  I’m now well educated and aware there is some hyper sensitivity about Burning Man.

So just to let you know – cars get dirty on the playa.  After a week in the desert the car was a little over the top dirty and I clearly accepted the warning as somewhat valid, even if not customer centric, since it could be a bunch of work to clean.  I actually should know, I did it TWICE before turning it in.

Decision Cycle – Hertz clean for Crazy Price or Something else?

With warning in hand and a brief discussion on how to approach the situation, Em and I are off doing ROI and time benefit analysis as we head out on 80 W away Black Rock City.  From a brand perspective, you might not what your customers doing risk analysis and ROI right after a completed a commercial transaction  – just an idea…

As a math fan, I quickly figure out that is clearly more financially beneficial to detail the car myself after about 10 miles of discussion.   Well not really myself, someone else, was the plan but I figured I could ultimately contain my spend to say a $100 worst case.   So on our way out of the desert we had it detailed in Reno and the actual spend was only $90 with tip.

With that task done in full compliance of the warning it was on to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days.  Just as a point of information – did you know it’s dusty their too?  It not like the desert but dusty.  Yup, so the car did get a little more dusty on the ride to the lake and our gear added some dust and dirt into the van trunk area we notice when we left for the airport so we stopped for a second car cleaning.

After all, we already $80 already invested down this decision path. So a quick stop at self-service car wash just outside Carson City , only 20/25 miles from the airport,  made it on to the agenda.  We joked that it was an acceptable investment protection to purchase the following items/services:

  • Cleaning stuff – $7
  • Using Car Wash Vacuum – $3.50
  • Quick Rinse and Wax in the self-service wash – $4-ish
  • Paper towels – $2

In just under 15 minutes a clean car again!   Fast forward 25 minutes: An extra charge for having to detail the interior of the car was the verdict from Hertz, good news only $75.00.   At least, I didn’t get charged the whole $175 because I did a “good job” on the exterior, not my words but the cheerful manager who assessed the fine.  I actually think I did good job on the interior too, but you be the judge, sorry iPhone picture quality – the whole set is here..

photo.jpg by you.

Brand Integrity and Consistency

Fairly clean stuff is how I saw it and still do. Every car I rent in Chicago in the winter is dirtier – inside and out.  So just how did the consistency of the brands processes in Reno vary from standard, since no one actually looked at the interior of the car prior to my assessment of a fee?  Revenue? Gift Card?

I know that travel can sometimes be exciting and confusing, but I’m pretty sure no one opened a doors on any part of the vehicle prior to my being informed I was being charged for an interior detail.

The actual flow of the car return process deviated from the standard Hertz experience as soon as I was scanned – no inspection, no “would you like to leave it on the amex”, but a an immediate waive over of the shift manager or someone who was allowed to wear a white shirt instead of the outside uniform, regardless definitely a person of authority.  Actually a nice person I think, who instead of saying “Hello, how was your car?”, informs me that whilst I did a nice job on the outside I was still being charged for an interior clean.  Weird – as no one has STILL looked at the car interior yet….. After my being assessed the fee, a real inspection occurred which again complimented me on my thoroughness, this time on the engine, yet still resulted in a fee.

That’s my story no real point, except it make mes wonder if Hertz should have:

  • Raised my prices for the week to make it not such a damaging brand experience for me
  • Should have followed their traditional processes, like inspect the car first to provide some consistency
  • Not had a same store sales contest for the best shift manager who “up charges” the most details
  • Should just overall raise the rates of everyone to maintain quality of service and consistency
  • Not messaged me with the warning and made me more aware of the situation throughout the rental period, thus reducing the likelihood of my paying attention to the whole thing and just accepting that a fee was due.

I obviously don’t know all the drivers for the deviation from my typical brand experience, but the process and experience inconsistency is the most memorable for me, not the $75.  In the end, I think I’m like $5 ahead (less opportunity costs) and perhaps just a little more willing to choose another vendor.

Funny thing about loyalty is consistentcy can be more important than dollars for some….maybe not to Hertz.

September 11, 2008 by
(5)

Black Rock City: A Network, Teamwork and Preparation

I spent the last week moving from one climate to another, sometimes multiples in a single day thanks to my first trip out west to survive 5.5 days in the desert. Before I left, I would have never thought I would have come back from Burning Man 2008 with a lesson for work, but in fact I did. Don’t get me wrong – I came back with a bunch of other lessons too, like Tuesday is the new Thursday and Lake Tahoe is a good place to wash away the whole BRC scene and get to see some very cool sights, like a random Kiss concert.

So where to start? Well at the beginning…

Reno – US80 Exit 22 – Saturday @ 1:30-ish

So the trip to Reno is a long one, at least from Atlanta on Delta. We spent the whole day making our list so Em and I land in Reno and we are off! Well sorta, we wanted to synch up with Genghis, oh yeah everyone gets a playa name. I’m Echo, you don’t need to know why – it’s another post, say next week-ish. So we catch up with Genghis and the Barbi Death Camp folks to get the low down on what to get, just to make sure our list is remotely correct. The group rattled off the expected list:

  • Water
  • Sunscreen
  • Granola/Oatmeal bars/breakfast bars
  • Beef Jerky
  • Blah
  • Blah
  • Blah

Should have listened a little better, but I was excited. So off to the nearest Target, the liquor store and Long’s we went – we spent the next hour or so speed shopping and off to the playa – fast forward 6 hours…. The ad hoc/text based rendezvous at the gas station the group was just the first lesson in teamwork – these folks stopped in route to help a couple of kids from Atlanta who are obviously out of their element.

The Playa – A Big Dusty City

So we show up to the playa – it’s a little warm and the place is still under construction but from like 3 miles out you can tell this is no ordinary camping thing. We pull into our camp at 3:30 and Dart and somehow we beat Genghis, our camp sponsor for lack of a better phrase, who left at least 40 minutes ahead of us on our way to Weeeee!ville.

Even without our sponsor in hand, I go about to introduce myself and the first person I introduce myself to, was a cat I’ve know for like a decade – Marty/Frater. So this has got to be a good sign, right up to the point he offers us a juice. Oops – forgotten item 1. This began the first real discussion of what we forgot? It also started one of many discussions on what had happened previously on the playa and how you just won’t know what you need until live through your first burn.

One thing that became apparent very quickly in camp is everyone we had already met from Fickleodeon was willing to make make sure the folks around were having a good time and that they were safe. To that end, fun can’t start until you’re setup and Marty pitched in to help us setup and we pitched in to help him move his camp to a new location.

Ready, Set, Wander!

With our little piece of playa in place, we coasted through the rest of the afternoon on sunscreen and liquids into the evening. As sundown approaches so does the nightly neighborhood wander and prep.

During our evening prep we find our next set of forgotten stuff – no lights, not even a glow stick which I would have thought my wife had hidden away in some backpack, since she brought with her a party kid heritage, not to be confused with a raver heritage, but nope. So there we are – a couple of darktards on the playa waiting to get run over by midnight bikers who can’t see us as we make our way around the streets of the city. Marty to the rescue – lights and glowsticks. No barter necessary – gifted, thanks Frater.

Since we were there on early passes, most everything was in a state of setup and in fact until we left on Thursday, things were still being setup. After chatting with folks around camp the first night the common theme is you ALWAYS forget something and your list always getting bigger EVERY year. I immediately was struck on how presumptuous everyone was on next year’s list during our first night chat, but I moved on.

After setting up the bar, stage and other gear we decided to go to town for a camp ice run and restock for us. So we rode into Empire for a restock – beer, fruits, vegetables, silver, plates, ect.. basically whatever we could buy that they had there at the local general store in say a 200 person town in the desert. Reasonable product assortment, but not complete enough to address our gaps in total.

Yup – we still forgot stuff on the second stocking as well, nevermind the selection issue….I think the heat does something to your short term memory.

All Fickled Up

Upon our return from the store the finishing touches were being applied to the camp, after everyone pitched in the morning and setup the 20×30 revival tent, the shower and a most ingenious evaporator for returning the gray water to the environment I found on the playa, thanks to the mad welder Mongo. What’s gray water? It’s waste water from coolers, doing dishes, brushing your teeth… The goal of this event is to make sure while we have a good time we need to respect the natural environment, which mean no waste water into the environment, so Mongo built a cool contraption to introduce it safely back into the environment – an evaporator. Burning man is a leave no trace event – the playa effectively becomes the fifth largest city in Nevada temporarily and within weeks of the event ending there is no trace that 10 story towers, ginormous crane requiring art, make shift diners, bars and clubs sustained almost 50,000 people throughout the labor day weekend and the prior week.

Just so you know – a revival tent is really easy to put up with 11 people, not sure it is possible with under 4.

Many hands make for light work

Monday – The Dust Storm

Apparently the desert is one of the harshest climates EVER – no really, you can’t imagine it without experiencing it — I tried, I was wrong. We burned through most of our sunscreen in 3 days and didn’t have painters masks or bandannas – which is a problem when the dust kicks up. Especially with an asthmatic on the team. It wasn’t a problem for long – folks in the camp had extras so we could go out and explore the playa during the storm!

The first place we went was to catch up with Antron. At his camp Sally and host of others were hanging, but the dust storm was a little much so our list of places to go became a list of 1 – there. So we spent the next like seven hours in camp injustUS, where they had an incredibly chill shade and dust structure to waste away time with tunes and chatter. We also went out that night to watch a little house music with Ted and Bunny on the playa. This Fire Rave thing/camp was complete with like 20 foot fireballs which accentuated the drum beat and twin screens for projecting highly orchestrated visuals for the way loud house music.

So Monday night closed with about 400 folks on a corner of the playa (2:00 and Esplanade) watching DJ Dutch mix it up with fire and bass until the morning. At least I think it was Monday – time is a completely relative thing at burning man.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

With time not a real variable the day on the playa is pretty simple: –

  • sleep as long as you can until the sun turns your sleeping structure into a sauna
  • make coffee
  • Chat
  • wander around
  • look at art
  • eat a bunch of whatever
  • find some music

Thursday only made it to wander around 1 last time and take camp down, but even the breakdown showed team work were we redistributed our beer, water and foodstuffs.

Preparation Isn’t Enough

So where is the lesson in this rambling play by play? I think it starts with what I went with – stuff stuff and a network. Quickly I learned that the folks I was able to catch up with more valuable than what I brought.

In BRC it’s not what a person has or can do, it more about what a group of people can do. To me it seems pretty straightforward – every person has a list and everyone’s list is different – lesson’s learned, interest and an understanding of what others are bringing to camp, like say a blender or a disco ball. Like with any task one might encounter, having the right network of folks or camps, having the right skills and working together is key for success – perhaps even more than being prepared.

No matter how much you plan there are always things that come up that require something you don’t have at that particular time. Being reliant on others is not traditionally a position of strength, but in the right environment which encourages team effort you can find success and fun by utilizing the strengths of folks.

Not every scenario is a survival gig, like Black Rock City, but most require you have a near approximation of the right stuff and the right attitude to get things done – dust storm or not. As folks in the workplace what can we do to better understand what folks bring to the camp? How can sharing our lists other folks in camp strengthen a deliverable?

Everyone we met forgot something and each of those items no matter how well prepared a camp was, could have made life just a little bit better for the group. While I originally thought it was presumptuous to think we were going again next year on the first day, in retrospect, I think we were making our list when we cracked our first beer and drove the first stake into the playa.

September 1, 2008 by
(1)

Blogging? Well Maybe I Will

This is a guest-post from Kim Howard who blogs at Alz You Need to Know. I’ve known Kim for almost a year now and have had the opportunity to answer questions and aid along the way.   While out to dinner in Austin a couple of weeks ago, she spoke about how much she is enjoying blogging and how it is a great outlet and when I asked Why she was blogging – she was just passionate about what she is doing.  Kim was kind enough to put a pithy piece together on why she blogs.  Since I have been watching her efforts and the ongoing progress she is making in the area, I thought more folks should know about her and her blog.   So here it is:

How did I start blogging? Well it was a process for sure and an excellent question considering that I was using dial-up just a year ago. No really! I figured who needed wi-fi when using my 1999 Dell computer with Windows 99, I certainly didn’t. Wow things have changed drastically over the past year. With wireless online, I think about what I can share with others nearly daily on my blog.

Since I am now caught up with this decade and have joined the rest of the world on the internet. I started blogging because after years of working in the world of healthcare I wanted to share my thoughts with friends and family members dealing with loved ones with Alzheimer’s. This is an area of passion for me since I have dedicated my career in recreational therapy to help improve the quality of life of patients and their families a blog seemed like a natural extension of my efforts.

Blogging may not have been my first choice, but as I investigated options, it seemed the right way to go. I wanted to build a community in which people could find solace from their stressful day as a care giver. I envisioned my blog becoming an outlet for others and a way to record stories of loved ones with AD. I want my blog to turn into a community for those in need of finding assistance with their loved one with AD. This is the focus of my efforts – a place to share my ideas and hopefully get others involved in the conversation.

I have enjoyed sharing my experiences with others and hopefully I can aid just one person – that is why I blog.

August 29, 2008 by
(3)

Enable persona based sales

So I’ve been thinking a little more on those topics I shared and since I keep reading interesting stuff over at Adele’s site, buyerpersona.com and am always looking for ways to improve sales enablement. I thought I might should eat a little of my own dog food and address one of the questions myself — How can positioning and targeting of buyer personas improve sales execution?

Having launched products into the market a couple of times, sales enablement and readiness is one of the biggest obstacle to success in the marketplace. Messaging and tools are often the critical success items when you sends sales out into the field to represent your product. Adele’s approach is fairly straight forward – know who you are selling to and what interests your targeted buyer. A recent post that really made me think about it was Messaging to No One In particular. The gobblygook syndrome is a problem in marketing, particularly technology marketing where we all are looking for a way to differentiate.

Broad messaging is just about the same as having no messaging. Messaging for the masses is typically not the best way to go out into the marketplace and often driven by lack of product definition and understanding why your product wins in the marketplace and who it is for. To help figure this out, I ask myself three questions which help me understand the typical buyer persona or at least to prioritize them:

  • Who buys my product at a company?
  • Who influences decision cycles for my product?
  • What do these people they really care about?

Seems a little too simple, but more complex and broad based questions can skew how you go to market – at least for me – I over analyze everything. Sure you can refine with follow on questions, but typically each of these questions return less than 3 or 4 things which is a great baseline to build from.

The core messaging opportunity for marketers and product managers is know the right people to focus on and identify a simple way to speak to them. When you build a product you often leverage use cases/user personas, so why not apply a succinct set of value drivers, key differentiators and messages for the product the buyer.

Crispy Messaging For Me Please

So if big fluffy messaging platforms are the way – what should you do? Crisp it up a little, look at your core messages today, talked to sales and a few customers and see if common themes develop that would allow you to reduce the options for sales to speak to and customers to embrace. The differentiation challenge will continue to be one of those key deliverables marketers and product managers deliver to the field and the marketplace. The challenge to provide sales with a crisp understanding of who benefits from a given product or service is sorta like a twistaplot story, but once you find the ending you like you can crisp it up and make it repeatable. With a focused messaging and buyer centric packaging of the product you can help sales know when is the right time to walk from a sales engagement?

To take a little bit from the Customer Centric Selling folks – The second best salesperson isn’t the one who’s product is runner up in a bake off, but the person who exits the sales cycle first when he/she understands that it isn’t the right target. The DNA of salespeople typically doesn’t allow them to just give up, but if you can provide them with a clear set of buyer personas and product definitions, as a Product Manager, you just might make it more likely sales will focus on the right folks.

Short Attention Span Theatre

Buyers are busy and sales folks are just trying to eek out an existance and neither of these afford the marketer the opportunity to spend a good deal of time explaining why thier product is the right product. From my perspective, albeit limited, effective product management isn’t delivering the coolest product, the most feature rich product or the most enterprise scaleable solution to the marketplace – it centers on delivering the right product, with the right features for the appropriately buyer.

The goal for me at this point is to right size a solution or product for the buyer. How about you?

August 17, 2008 by
(3)