BUSI 3313: Marketing Principles
Section: 201
Homework 1- Weighting: 10%
Done By:
Afnan Al-Saleh
200600467
Fatima Al-Sahwan
200900395
Haifa Al-Qahtani
201000203
Haifa Fakhro
200900855
Noorah Al-Mesned
200800242
Reem Al-Maymouni
201000844
Lecturer: Kumarashvari SUBRAMANIAM
Fall 2012
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Table of Contents:
1- Executive Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (II)
2- Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (1)
3- Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (2)
4- Question # 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (3)
5- Question # 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (4)
6- Question # 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (5)
7- Question # 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (6)
8- Question # 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (7)
9- Question # 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (8)
10- Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (9)
11- References -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page (10)
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Executive Summary
The Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s survey in this case study requires an analysis of the
Enterprise quality service. It begins with a general question about the overall service then it
focuses more on the quality to be able to collect more data about customers’ evaluations,
their comments and the problems they might experienced. Also, the enterprise rental has
made four major decisions in relation to primary data collection. First, they had to choose
between the basic two main approaches in research; the quantitative approach, in this case
surveys, or the qualitative approach. Second, they had to choose how to distribute the surveys
effectively. Third, deciding on the sample size, sampling unit and the procedure. Finally,
choosing the research instruments used to facilitate the collection and analysis of data and to
justify more important decisions in the company. Survey is an effective way to improve the
performance of the company. There are different w3ays the company could use in
distributing the survey among the customers. They might use the online survey or do the
survey as an interview and ask the customers. Surveys could be also put inside the car. In
addition to that, there is the 24 hours toll-free number that encourages them to call and give
their feedback and suggestion anytime. Finally, since customer values differ, the company
has to devise different techniques for different customers. Feedback cards, phone calls and
Internet should be exploited effectively and professionally by taking into consideration the
customer’s values, mood and free time.
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Introduction
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company was founded in 1957, in the United States by Jack
Taylor. At the beginning, it was just a leasing company but after that and with time they
started to offer new and additional services like, enterprise rent-a-car, enterprise fleet
management, commercial truck rental, WeCar car-sharing program, enterprise vanpool
program and so on to be able to meet the consumers’ satisfactions and needs. Enterprise
Rent-A-Car is a customer service. (Enterprise.com, 2012) Thus, the company’s mission is to
deliver value to the customers by putting their customers’ need first before anything else.
“Take care of your customers and your employees first and growth and profits will follow,”
said by Jack Taylor. So, the great understanding of consumers’ needs helped them to increase
their market in many areas. It became an international brand because it has more than 6
thousand locations around the world. For example, it has many airport locations in the United
Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, U.S.A Canada and so on.
Also, this company achieved success because of its great leadership and the
employees’ entrepreneurial spirit. The company’s employees believed in Jack Taylor’s
mission as their own. They do their works with passion and focus; they are willing to do
everything to get the whole job done right even if they had to go beyond their jobs.
According to that, they have opened the largest car rental brand in North America, which is
famous for its low prices that fits with different income levels, and for its qualified and
superior customer service department. In addition, J.D Power and Associates ranked
Enterprise Rent-A-Car more than seven times as the Highest in Rental Car Customer
Satisfaction. (Enterprise.com, 2012)
Moreover, Enterprise Rent-A-Car created a unique way to ensure their ability to
provide and offer greater customer services to meet customers’ satisfactions. They used the
Enterprise Service Quality Index (ESQi) to measure the enterprise consumer service
satisfaction. ESQi is a customer service survey. Also, it is a quantitative system that tests
consumers’ satisfaction and provide valuable statistics that is helpful for the employees and
the customers. Also, the term ESQi concentrate basically on service and quality. (Gogz,
2012) The Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s ESQi focuses on two simple words; completely satisfied.
However, ESQi shows how many customers are completely satisfied by measuring the
percentage of it. It focuses on customers who are completely satisfied rather than just
satisfied.
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Enterprise Rent-A-Car uses the ESQi survey through telephone every month, in each
local branch with thousands of customers. Where these branches have a ranking called “The
Top Box”, that shows the percentage of consumers who were really and completely satisfied
with their last experience in Enterprise and its services. In addition, the company uses this top
box as a standard that shows how excellence they were while working with the customers and
providing them with services. (Gogz, 2012)
ESQi is very important to the company because they want to build strong, valuable
and lifelong relationships with their customers. Also, it helps to link and connect the
consistent superior service to all customers with the careers and financial ambitions of the
company’s employees. Additionally, this survey consider as a remainder to the company and
its employees to put the customers’ needs and satisfaction first. At the end, the survey has
been very helpful by increasing the number of satisfied Enterprise car rental customers,
improving many employees’ careers in leading them to success and helping the company to
grow. (Enterprise.com, 2012)
However, in this report several questions about Enterprise Rent-A-Car and its quality
service measurement will be discussed. First, it will analyze the Enterprise’s service quality
survey, the information and the data it’s trying to collect and what its research objectives.
Also, it will discuss the decisions that were made by Enterprise in regard with the primary
data collection, research approach, contact method, sampling plan and research instruments.
Moreover, it will discuss the other means that Enterprise could use to collect the information
and data about customer satisfaction instead of the mail survey or in addition to it. Finally, it
will discuss specific recommendations that could help Enterprise to improve its response rate
and its timelines of feedback from the process.
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1.
Analyze Enterprise’s Service Quality Survey. What information is it trying to
gather? What are its research objectives?
Enterprise’s service quality survey starts with a question that asks about an overall
satisfaction of the costumer in regards to his/her latest trial of the service. Then it asks about
suggestion inputs from the customer in ways to improve the service in overall. The survey
then goes into questions, which evaluate the enterprise rental process step by step. These
questions evaluate each rental process by itself alone, and try to find any deficiencies or
problems that might occur in that single process by measuring the quality either by rating
from excellent to poor like in questions 4 and 8 or checking by yes or no question like in
question 3.
The survey checks and evaluate from the time the customer started the rental process
either by calling or going to the rental place until the end of the rental experience by returning
the car or going back to the rental office. By doing that, enterprise tries to check how to target
the customer and to check what is the most convenient way to reach the customer. It also
evaluate the process time, in question 7, that takes the customer to get the paperwork of the
car ready or returning the car, which can help track the efficiency of the system and the
enterprise employee. In question 8, it goes through the evaluation in regards to time
efficiency of the process but also touches the evaluation of the car itself. This is the only
place in the survey, in question 8 and 9, where it asks about the car itself in two points only,
where the whole survey cares about the service experience and the customer satisfaction.
The survey also tries to help enterprise-marketing managers to know more about
which market to focus on. With all the importance of all the previous question in the survey
and the information they provide, question 11 is one of the most important questions among
them. Question 11 gives the company an idea if the customer is willing to rent again from
enterprise or not. This question can define future opportunity with the same customer. The
end of survey questions, question 12 and 13, tries to find out the market share of the company
for that specific customer in comparison to another company he/she rented from in the past.
This can be used as inputs for the company market strategy and compare with competitors.
The
enterprise
survey
objective
is
an
effort
to
seek
out
for
people
opinion/complains/suggestions and problems. If no such survey was conducted the Enterprise
service quality could face serious problems without knowing about them.
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2.
What decisions have Enterprise made in regard with primary data collection –
research approach, contact methods, sampling plan, and research instruments?
There are basically two main approaches that any company takes into consideration
when research approach is determined. One is an approach that includes interviews where the
interviewer draws conclusions from the answers and opens a chance for discussion. The other
research approach, the quantitative approach, consists of surveys and questionnaires where
the same questions are asked with the availability of a number of fixed answers, since
accuracy is the key to this type of approach, (Dobney.com, 2010). In this case, Enterprise
rentals chose the quantitative research approach by sending out questionnaires for the clients
to answer and send back to be analyzed as primary data collected to base decision-making on.
Contact methods are several when it comes to using the quantitative research
approach, and surveys in particular. Surveys may be distributed and completed in a number
of ways, in person, through the phone, the mail or on the internet with each and every way
having its advantages and disadvantages. In relation to the case study, Enterprise rental
decided on using the mail to deliver the surveys to its clients, whereas a percentage of the
surveys would only be sent back through the same method. The mailing method is relatively
inexpensive, a large number of responses can be considered and at any convenient timing,
and responders may be left anonymous. On the other hand, this method isn’t personalized,
responses are usually slow or wouldn’t even get back due to the fact that some people count
the surveys as junk mail when received, (research, 2009). But aside from the previous
mentioned disadvantages, the mailing contact method was a suitable choice.
Involving the sampling plan, there are two choices any company can choose from
when distributing surveys out to their customers. The first plan is the stratified sampling plan,
or when certain characteristics are defined and preferred in the clients on the receiving end of
the surveys, (Interventions.org, 2012). The second and more common plan is the simple
random plan, which was chosen in this case. Enterprise sent out the surveys randomly and
would take into consideration any of the ones filled out and sent back. The sampling size is
usually the number of customers a company has, with the random selection of one in every
twenty customers. The customers are defined as the sampling units, and since those sampling
units are chosen randomly, there isn’t a precise sampling procedure, (research, 2009).
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There are a number of research instruments, surveys or questionnaires, psychological
tools, mechanical devices and qualitative measurements, (Devault, 2003). Since the case
involved primary data collection, Enterprise decided to use surveys as a research instrument,
and that was the most appropriate instrument to utilize since it is the most commonly used in
such situations. The survey Enterprise sent out contained thirteen questions, which mostly
had a specific range of closed-end and predefined answers, with only one question holding
the chance to elaborate and explain.
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3.
In addition to or instead of the mail survey, what other means could Enterprise
use to gather customer satisfaction information?
Survey is an important way to improve the company and help it to find the
weaknesses in their work. So Enterprise must focus on surveys and have more than mail
survey. So there are many ways to do surveys other than sending a mail survey. In fact, the
company could put the survey in the car so the customer could fill it and give it back to the
company when he/she returns the car. Moreover, the big companies put a survey form in their
website to help customers write their comment, so Enterprise should have a section in their
website to put a survey form that will help the customer complete the survey in a faster and
easier way. Also, they could put employee to ask the customers survey questions when they
return the car or give them the survey immediately when they return it to be sure that they
will remember the comment and complete the survey.
In addition they must have a 24 hours toll-free number that will encourage customers
to call and give comments and suggestions anytime. Since each company has a development
department, Enterprise should have one to analyze the data and locate the weaknesses and the
strengths in their company. Moreover, they can have the customers email and then send them
the survey paper to fill it up in their free time and send it back by email. It’s much faster and
easier way to do surveys. All these methods may help the company to reach the customer and
get feedbacks. Thus, they can improve the strengths and avoid the weaknesses in their work.
Once the customer feels that the company is interested in his comments and take them
seriously, his loyalty to them may be built strongly.
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4. What specific recommendations would you make to Enterprise to improve the
response rate and the timeliness of feedback from the process?
In order to promote customer satisfaction, the enterprise Rent-A-Car should take into
consideration customers’ feedback seriously. In fact, it is advisable to provide different ways
for customers to speak out their feedback as far as the company’s service is concerned. To do
so, the organization is required to take into consideration customer values. Some customers
give more importance the interactions and relationships. Others are more concerned with cost
and time saving. A third group pays more attention to comfort. For these reasons enterprise
should develop different ways to improve the response rate and the timeliness so as to be
close to what the customer think. As some businessman think that time is money, the
company is obliged to figure out ways to collect as much information from customer in short
time space. The objective is to proceed to correction sooner before losing customer’s
satisfaction and faces the negative effects of competition.
Accordingly, the company had better provide a suggestion box in the office with a
feedback card containing open-ended questions. This method gives the customer the
opportunity to write only the things he sees would be favorable for him if the company
adopts them. Suggestions must be presented to the manager and discussed in a committee so
as to discuss the feedbacks and make corrective decisions if necessary to improve customer’s
satisfaction.
Another proposition to improve the response rate is through surveys to remove
frustration. The surveys should be in shorter forms. Either it focuses on open-ended questions
or forms that deals with specific questions, it shouldn’t take much time and effort from the
customer to fill it. If the form is too long with boring questions the customer may throw it
away and he will not care about it. Moreover, the font and design of the page should be well
presented and enough space is provided for each question. This may encourage the customer
to fill it even in the office. Thus, the process may be speeded up and response rate might be
increased.
A telephone can be a rapid means to get quick feedback. However, so constraints may
stand on the way such as phoning in an inconvenient moment when the customer is busy
doing his own personal affairs. So, time for calling should be chosen with utmost accuracy
and avoid time when almost everybody is supposed to work on asleep. More importantly, the
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interviewer must be skilled and have great experience in customer service and knows how to
communicate in an elegant manner. The conversation should be registered and discussed later
on within the committee.
Online surveys are also another way of increasing response rate and timeliness.
However, it is uncertain whether the customer is ready to take time to open his email and
send feedback. This process may not work for a short-term, but it can work for long term
processes. All depends on the customer’s mood and if he is ready to take the initiative and
goes online to fill the survey. Hence, online surveys doesn’t guarantee speeding up the
process, but this doesn’t mean not using it as another means that can speed up getting
feedbacks and increase response rate.
All in all, the best way for customers to deliver their feedback is when it is immediate
and the customer has just experienced the service. So, improving the response rate and the
timeliness requires a close study of customer values and deep study of best opportunities, and
possibilities to get feedbacks from the process.
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Conclusion:
Like any other company, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is also working hard to improve
customer services and try to find ways to develop a system to get more feedbacks from
customers in order to work on customer satisfaction. People needs have grown up and
winning their satisfaction also becomes harder. So, Rent-A-Car Company is one of the
organizations that provide services of car renting. In order to be competitive the company has
to improve customer service and reach customer satisfaction.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company is trying to be more competitive. That is why
managers are thinking of increasing customer satisfaction. Its success is depending on the
personal honesty and integrity as the basis of the establishment to build a strong relationship
between the company and the customer. The company believes that their customers could
accept the responsibility to participate in improving the services and reach with it a highest
point. The company deals with its costumers on the long run by doing its best to meet the
needs of the customers and gaining their trust and faithfulness. The Enterprise Rent-A-Car
also maintains a chance to improve services it offers to its customers. Because people in
general look for the newest and most modernized services that any company can offer, the
company must fulfill every customer's expectation taking into consideration constant
improvement and development. In addition, Enjoyment and entertainment is the another goal
to achieve the customer's satisfaction, Enterprise Rent-A-Car works hard on all services to
provide an atmosphere of fun. The offices where the customers go look full of energy and
delightful endorsed with a competitive spirit.
Moreover, all updated data from the market have led to success. Enterprise's pride is
reflected on its intention to build commitment with the customer on the professional and
financial level. Listening is also essential factor of success, and it is one of the main goals of
the company. Through listening, we can understand and recognize the needs of customers.
The objective is to create new opportunities and provide better services. It is profitable way
for company and clients. As far as the company is concerned, it can help to solve any
problem to make the customer feel satisfaction. Also, to make them feel that he/she is
important and part of the company. In short, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company is required to
continually create ways to improve the conditions of its employees and ultimately achieve
customer satisfaction.
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References:
Devault, G. (2003). Market research 101 - research instruments. Retrieved 29-9-2012 from:
<http://marketresearch.about.com/od/market.research.techniques/a/Market-Research101-Research-Instruments.htm>
Dobney.com. (2010). Basics of market research. Retrieved 29-9-2012 from:
<http://www.dobney.com/Research/MR_basics.htm>
Enterprise.com. Culture of customer service. (2012, October 4). Retrieved 4-10-2012 from:
<http://aboutus.enterprise.com/customer_service.htm>
Enterprise.com. What we do . (2012, October 4). Retrieved 4-10-2012 from:
<http://aboutus.enterprise.com/what_we_do.html>
Gogz (2012, October 2). ESQi (enterprise service quality index). Retrieved 2-10-2012 from:
<http://www.citehr.com/31072-esqi-enterprise-service-quality-index.html>
Interventions.org. (2012, Sept 12). Sampling plan: how big should a sample be?. Retrieved
29-9-2012 from: <http://www.interventions.org/sample.html>
Research. (2009, July 16). [Web log message]. Retrieved 29-9-2012 from:
<http://makeresearch.blogspot.com/2009/07/contact-methods.htm>
Taylor, J. (2012, October 1). Innovative and successful from the word go. Retrieved 1-102012 from: <http://www.erac.com/our-company/our-history.aspx>
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