Often books written about particular companies can be a bit boring to readers outsider that company, but this one was excellent, both for its information about Enterprise Car Rentals and for the customer service philosophy that can be so easily translated to real estate, mortgages, staging, etc.
Did you know that Enterprise
- is now the nation's #1 car rental company?
- is a privately owner $9 billion global powerhouse?
- buys more cars every year than any other company in the world?
- is the largest seller of used cars in the US?
- has recorded gains each year for the past 50 years?
- is one of the most successful family owned businesses in history?
Their success is grounded in providing excellent customer service - providing it, measuring it, and promoting based on it. The company takes good care of their customers and their employees. They hire smart, talented people and teach them to run their own businesses. There is good content on competition, expansion, opportunities, challenges, service and creativity. I read with a highlighter, and there's lots of yellow in this book.
I first "learned" about Enterprise from an article in FAST COMPANY magazine. Though a Hertz #1 club member, I tried Enterprise for my next car rental (last summer) and was I impressed! Smiling, caring, knowledgeable employees; lack of lines and frustrations; escorted to our car; luggage loaded into the car for us; chilled bottles of water; and far lower prices than the competition! A fluke? I've used them again, and again, and now I too am a loyal Enterprise customer, whose expectations were and constantly are exceeded.
I love books like this one. One of my favorite books is Behind the Golden Arches about McDonalds. I will pick up a bopy of this book and let you know. Looks like a great book!
Thanks!
Rick
Sharon - I worked for Enterprise when I moved to San Diego. Got all the way up to Assistant Mgr of the San Diego Airport location, was in charge of 30 people and 1000 cars. Needless to say I was about to be promoted when my husband had to relocate to Pensacola (navy). When I got to Pcola, I had to start all over in the chain ladder so I decided to cut my losses and go into real estate. I have to say my Enterprise experience prepared me very well for providing excellent customer service, overcoming objections, multi-tasking, running my own business, etc.
What most don't realize is that Enterprise for the most part only hires college graduates. There are a few who don't have one, but I never met anyone in management that didn't have a BA. The only hard part about them is the hours. I worked 6 days a week, got up at 6 am and didn't get home till 7 pm. Sometimes my shifts went as late as midnight for those late arriving flights. It is a very hard company to work for if you have a young family. One reason I chose real estate was the ability to make my own hours. Now I could never go back to the corporate world.