Surefire Rent-A-Car Tips to Follow

Need to rent a car on your next trip? Rent-a-car services give you flexibility and freedom when traveling especially when it's the best option to get around. However, it can sometimes be complicated to find the best deal on such services. To help you with this, we have outlined practical car rental tips that will help your save money and avoid problems that may arise from using car rental services.

1. Choosing a rent-a-car vehicle

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You have to think about the kind of vehicle you need. If you are travelling with your family, then an SUV or large sedan is a good option but if you are traveling alone or with only one buddy and you want to save money on gas and rental rates, then it's best to go for the smallest model available.

2. Booking the car

How long will you be using the rent-a-car? If you will use it only for less than one week, then, it's a good idea to get the service of major rental companies but if you will be using the car longer, it's a good idea to get the service of local companies like auto dealers. Before booking the car, make sure to shop around. It's a good idea to check major booking sites like Travelocity because they show the rates of different rent-a-car services, allowing you to compare and see the best deals.

3. Lowering the rates

You can lower your rates by asking discounts for frequent flier programs, credit card programs, and major national organizations that you may belong to. They frequently offer car rental deals. Before booking, make sure to search the Internet for promotion codes or coupons that may be accepted by the booking engine of the car rental company. You just have to type the company name plus coupon code and you will surely find promotion codes that will allow you to save between 5 to 20% off the rental cost.

4. Understanding the rent-a-car service

Before you confirm your reservation, it is important that you read and understand the car rental company's terms and conditions. If you are booking on the phone, ask the car rental company agent about their restrictions. You surely don't want to violate any of the terms and conditions that may actually lead you to spend more rather than save.

5. Saving more

Another way to save more on rent-a-car service is pick up the car from the rental company. By doing this, you don't only save money from the gasoline; you also save yourself from the hefty airport safety charges.

Surefire Rent-A-Car Tips to Follow

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Hertz Rent-a-Car in San Francisco

Rules don't always make sense. If they get in the way when you measure customer service quality, fix them.

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A great example of the need to measure customer service quality against policies comes from one of my trips. I wanted to make a three-day car reservation for a visit to San Francisco.

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I called Hertz Rent-a-Car, where I am a member of the "Hertz Number One Club" for frequent travelers. I planned to use an award coupon for one free-day rental from American Airlines and additional award coupons for two more free days from United Airlines.

The telephone reservations officer provided impeccable service. She greeted me pleasantly, acknowledged me as a member of the Hertz Number One Club, confirmed my dates, flights, pick-up location and choice of automobile.

Then she asked me what time I would be returning the car after the first day of rental. "I want the car for all three days," I replied.

"You can't keep the same car for all three days," she asserted. "After the first day you have to bring the car back and pick up a different car for the next two days. The first day is paid for with your American Airlines coupon, but the next two days are paid for with your United coupons."

"So what's the difference," I responded. "I am the same person, with the same Hertz Number One Club member. I am the rightful owner of both the award coupons, and I want a Hertz automobile for three consecutive days. Surely you will let me keep the same car, so I don't have to come back to the airport in the middle of my Bay Area vacation."

"That's not the way our system works here, Mr. Kaufman," she replied.
"But it should work that way, don't you agree," I asked, appealing to her sense of elementary logic, simple concern and practical customer care.

"I don't make the rules here, Mr. Kaufman. I just follow them. What time will you be returning the car after the first day?"

Somewhere within the heart of Hertz, a group of senior rule-makers live comfortably with their precise policy of "one airline, one coupon, one car, no exceptions." They clearly failed to measure customer service quality against their policy.

But somewhere close to this customer's heart lies frustration, inconvenience and incredible disbelief in the failure to measure customer service quality.

I'm not the type of customer who gives up in these situations, especially when there is a clear need to measure customer service quality. When my first "one-day" reservation began, I had a long chat with the most senior Hertz rental manager I could find. He let me keep the same car for all three days, clearly understanding the need to measure customer service quality.

Someone at Hertz Rent-A-Car was listening and understood the value of taking the time to measure customer service quality against policies.

Key Learning Points

Elementary logic and practical customer care are the best rules to use in many situations. At Nordstroms clothing store, famous for excellent service, they simply tell the staff: "The rule is to use your common sense. There are no other rules." Nordstroms knows how to measure customer service quality and adjust to meet needs.

Action Steps

If your rules and regulations don't make sense to your customers, they need to be rewritten. If you can see logic where your customers cannot, it's not your customers' sight that needs refocusing. Measure customer service quality and see for yourself why people are frustrated.

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Ron Kaufman is the world's leading educator and motivator for upgrading customer service and uplifting service culture. He is author of the bestselling UP Your Service! books and founder of UP Your Service! College. Get tips about how to measure customer service.

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Mobile Car Washing and Doing Business With Hertz Rent-A-Car

If you own a mobile car washing or mobile auto detailing business then may I suggest to you finding new clientele in the car rental agency business? Why do I recommend this? Well personally having been in the fleet car and truck washing business for almost 3 decades it has served me well cleaning for rental car agencies. Many small auto detailers and mobile car wash operators have not tapped into this niche because they do not really understand it.

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To get started I recommend looking thru the phone book and seeing which car rental agencies exist in your area of service or city. You will also need to get a quick education in how car rental agencies work and the history behind the industry. Lets take Hertz Rent-a-Car for instance and talk about doing business with Hertz Rent-A-Car. You see, Hertz is the oldest car rental company in the world and each car rental corporation has a unique history which you should study before going in to make the sales call.

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Believe it or not it was started in 1918 by a guy named Walter Jacobs who had 12 Model Ts'. He was only 22 at the time. He sold his business to John Hertz also President of Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing. In 1967 Hertz became a subsidiary of RCA Corp. Hertz later was sold to UAL and then was sold to Ford Motor Company's newly formed Park Ridge Corp. Volvo joined in with funds later in 1988. Hertz was transferred to Ford Motor Company from its subsidiary Park Ridge in 1993. Hertz has also made friends with AAA Club, is recommended by them and gives cardholders up to 15% off. American Express Car Holders also get the same satisfaction. If you are a small business, your Chamber of Commerce also has incentives. Hertz has come along way since 1918.

Today Hertz is a powerhouse with 377 Hertz Equipment Rental Offices (largest in the world), represented in 140 countries with 7000 worldwide rental car offices, 4600 rental offices in the US and Canada, 300 used car sales locations and 488 truck rental locations. Hertz has been able to put their locations in high-end car repair facilities prototypes such as AAA Car Care Center in Sacramento CA and JoeAuto's prototype facility in West Houston TX. They have put locations in BART train stations in San Francisco and in many large car dealerships that sell Ford Products. They have pick up and delivery service in over 600 locations in answer to Enterprise Rent-A-Car's market share advances.

Hertz has opened what they call 'Superette' car sales offices in many large cities to handle all of their sales in metro areas. Instead of Enterprises or Budget's strategy of smaller 60-100 car facilities spread around the town. I have been to a Superette Facility in Houston. Hertz Car Sales offices boast of being able to offer hassle free car sales, complete online records of maintenance, huge inventories (the Superette we toured had over 350 cars), factory warranties from manufacturers on most cars, limited 12,000 mile/1 year warranty on all others, competitive financing through FMC. They are serious about selling their cars for a high price and delivering high levels of service, so a mobile car wash company makes a great fit on their organization.

Hertz has an excellent fleet program for companies who wish to buy one year old Ford cars or trucks for their business all backed with Ford Motor Credit Loans or Smart leases by Ford. This program also has a claims service to go with it and a small business insurance package with low rates. You as a mobile car wash company might be interested in this as a way to expand your fleet if you like using Ford products. This program may change in the future if Ford divests itself from such non-core business models. Their truck rental business is similar to Penske, Ryder, U-Haul and Budget's truck rental services with packaging materials available or just a truck to use for a day for business purposes or deliveries. We have seen Hertz, Enterprise, Penske and Ryder Trucks at Fed Ex offices during Christmas Holidays to help service demand. And we have even washed them, since Fed Ex refuses to show up in a dirty vehicle to deliver packages. Fed Ex and other small package delivery services are a target for such truck rental companies, since they often rent the trucks for as long as a month at a time.

For locations of Hertz Equipment go to their web site at:

http://www.hertzequip.com

For locations of Hertz Truck Rentals:

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?
targetPage=browseLocationView.jsp&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_3_1

For Hertz Rental Offices and Car Sales Locations to market to go to:

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/index.jsp?
targetPage=reservationOnHomepage.jsp

The wonderful thing about working with Hertz is you can detail their used cars for sale, wash the sales lots, clean their rental cars, wash their heavy equipment, clean the concrete at their shops or wash the trucks they rent to customers. So when expanding your clientele and commercial accounts, I recommend rental agencies and of course Hertz is as good a place to start as any. So perhaps you will consider all this in 2006.

Mobile Car Washing and Doing Business With Hertz Rent-A-Car

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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