Introduction
In 1957, Jack Taylor founded Enterprise Rent-A-Car in St Louis, Missouri. Ever since, the company has established itself as a leading global car-hire company. Currently, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has a workforce of over 75,000 employees and over one million cars as part of its global fleet (The Times 100, 2013). Jack Taylor always believe that employees and customers should be prioritized as profits would undoubtedly follow (The Times 100, 2013). The following are the company’s business objectives include: to be the premier rental car company, to provide red carpet customer service, and to provide the best place to work to its employees. However, in order to achieve these business objectives, the company is likely to suffer certain consequences.
Main Body
One way through which Enterprise Rent-A-Car can become the premier rental car company is by meeting customer expectations. Andraski defines customer expectations as “the needs, wants, and preconceived ideas of a customer about a product or service” (2010). The company can expedite service delivery by developing individual customer profiles. However, updating such profiles is time consuming.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car wishes to remain the preferred premier rental car company and to do so, the company must ensure that its rental cars are thoroughly cleaned before clients hire them. However, the company will likely incur an additional cost of purchasing cleaning products. In order to preempt potential competitive threats, the Enterprise must fulfill the needs and wants of its customers (Sheth & Kellstadt, n.d.). Enterprise Rent-A-Car can achieve this by expanding its vehicle rental options to include the most sought-after vehicles. The company shall however incur the cost of acquiring such vehicles.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car also hopes to provide red carpet customer service. Thus, the company must consistently deliver high quality services as red carpet customer service is about giving your customers star treatment (Cutting, 2008). The company can also use the secret shopper strategy as a way of ascertaining that its employees value customer feedback. However, it is costly to maintain such a program. The company could also decide to offer personalized services to its customers so that they feel involved in the evaluation of their needs. However, there is the risk that customer could get frustrated if the company fails to utilize all the information provided.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is also committed to providing a conducive working environment. Workplace environment affects employees’ feelings and work habits (Hadfield, Holmes & Fabr 2006). Therefore, the company should consider conducting an employee opinion survey and use this information to institute changes in the workplace. This way, employees feel valued. Also, the company’s management could organize quarterly leadership meetings to discuss how best to improve the workplace environment. However, this is a costly undertaking financially and in terms of time. The company can also improve the morale of its employees through purposeful recognition and rewarding. This is an effective and low cost way of uplifting employees’ morale (University of Washington, 2013). For example, the company could develop an employee of the year award, but there is the risk of having the most popular employees voted repeatedly, thus lowering overall employee morale. Another strategy is to offer the company’s employees competitive benefits packages, but the company risks providing less-valuable benefits to its employees.
Reference List
Andraski, J.C. (2010). Managing customer expectations. Web.
Cutting, D. (2008). The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service. London: Wiley.
Hadfield, D., Holmes, S., & Fabr, T. (2006). Lean Healthcare: 5 keys for improving the workplace environment. Chelsea, MI.: MCS Media Inc.
Sheth, J.N., & Kellstadt, C. H. (n.d.). Beyond customer satisfaction: How to retain satisfied customers. Web.
The Times 100. (2013). Using a range of management styles to lead a business. Web.
University of Washington 2013. Employee Recognition. Web.