Much like many businesses in the travel sector, the rental car industry faces steep competition, and developing the right customer-centric approaches can determine who is the winner. One of the core areas of differentiation is the ability to provide the most ideal customer experience, which includes the use of sound odor management strategies.
However, the rental car industry is facing one unexpected competitive hurdle: most travelers don’t know how to operate the cars due to the feature-rich nature of today’s cars. Simply opening up the glove compartment or adjusting the seats can be difficult for travelers who are not familiar with the vehicles.
USA Today recently ran a story about how rental car providers are dealing with challenges that create undo friction for travelers.
Paula Rivera, Manager of Public Affairs for The Hertz Corporation, was quoted in the piece about how the company ensures that owners’ manuals are present in each vehicle, and that all customer service employees have the necessary tools to address operational questions for any vehicle.
Hertz particularly excels is in the odor management arena, as the company is a longtime user of Fresh Wave IAQ. Hertz vehicle service attendants use Fresh Wave IAQ in every car at 72 major U.S. and Canadian airport rental locations. Hertz also utilizes Fresh Wave IAQ at 1,000 off-airport locations and 170 licensee locations across the U.S., as well as locations at London’s Heathrow and Stansted airports.
Be sure to check out our Five Minutes with Fresh Wave IAQ interview with Ms. Rivera here.
Ensuring that travelers have a completely frictionless experience is paramount for any car rental provider. With cars becoming more feature-rich, it is a challenge to educate travelers on how to effectively operate the vehicles. Fortunately, Hertz is leading the way with programs to help ensure that travelers have a smooth car rental experience … that is also completely odor free.
