Enterprise Rent-a-Car Experience Pays Big Dividends

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Dale Wolf

 

Enterprise is an example of a customer experience leader doing financially better than its competition – by paying more attention to its staff.

Enterprise hires more college graduates than any other company in America. Why would a college graduate want to work in a car rental outlet? This runs against Harvard Business School logic. But, you see, Enterprise pays 50% more than the competition for a starting position, and if you’re good, within 10 years you could be taking in $200,000.

So you ask another question: How can Enterprise offer such low prices in the industry and still pay more to its staff? The results speak for themselves … the founders are now worth $10 billion. This pattern makes you think differently about what drives success and growth.

Enterprise figured out that when you hire smart people into a culture that is square focused on the customer, you get better results. Enterprise realized customers living in neighborhoods needed to rent cars, so they opened up in neighborhoods instead of at airports. They picked their customers up. They did everything possible to make the experience positive. Finally when they entered the tougher competition at airports, their reputation was established. Now they have a 60% market share.