6/12/2021

Improving the experience of car rental customers

Despite their outstanding local reputation, car rental agencies with declining sales and increasing competition cannot delay digitalization of their business any longer.

Despite their outstanding local reputation, car rental agencies with declining sales and increasing competition cannot delay digitalization of their business any longer. Generally speaking, the traditional manual handled system is stressful and confusing nowadays, on top of long and incomprehensible contracts, endless waiting in lines that may drive customers away. The business you keep will be dominated by unexpected charges and hidden fees at the end of each rental. Is that what you plan on doing for the next years?

Since car rental agencies have been embracing the 'everything right away' paradigm, customer experience is at the core of their success.

Taking lessons from the new mobility industry as a service

Real estate has also been resisting the development of digitalization for a long time. However, a few years ago, trends gradually emerged that started to change the industry (largely due to the arrival of new digital services) and radically transformed traditional processes. Airbnb is well known for pioneering new business models and practices.

The company created a new platform where all the steps of the process converging creates a highly efficient procedure that is equally beneficial to both clients and service providers.

As a result, real estate businesses have become radically different by gaining access to new and promising markets that have led Airbnb to be the industry's leading player today.

DESIGNED BY SLIDESGO / FREEPIK

How to simplify the car rental experience for customers ?

An easy-to-use interface

Often, clients face confusing and stressful first steps in the car rental process because of the usual outdated technology of these services.

Innovators have to follow three main principles when it comes to digital design: SIMPLICITY, INTUITIVENESS, and CUSTOMER-CENTRIC.

Always keep in mind that these services should be understandable by the largest possible number of people, even those who aren't well versed in technologies. Increasing its complexity will reduce its effectiveness.

Immediate response to the call for action

Modern technology has given us a sense of immediacy. A client cannot expect anything different from a car rental company.

Renting agencies should provide their customers ways to communicate instantly or pass along customer feedback. To achieve a consistently high level of customer experience, each interaction should result in a direct flow of critical information in real time.

Delivering clear and concise information

People don't like bad news. Pricing transparency is essential for car rental companies to avoid negative feedback. Therefore, there should be no unexpected charges or hidden fees on contracts..

Using simple words is important for car rental companies in order to transform the standard processes into a mobile app so that the information is accessible for the client.

Using a single platform for car rental

Running a rental agency is no easy task as it requires a combination of experience and skills. Then why not give this a boost? Rental companies can gain greater control over fleet management thanks to a fleet management solution that provides them with more information and features.

Using a solution like Kirrk's can be of great benefit to your organization. For example, documentation management, online reservations, online data management, and more are a few of them. Managing car rental agencies better and providing a better customer experience have become the best ways for them to grow today.

The re-channeling strategy

Therefore, the client feedback will be used in a private system that will not be visible to other parties.

Rental agencies can benefit from implementing this strategy by having a more positive interaction with their customers.

Customers are also satisfied when they have an avenue for voicing their dissatisfaction. Thus rental agencies could perceive fewer negative online reviews this way and fix the issue and turn that experience into a positive one.

The goal of every business should be to fulfill client expectations; we are used to having everything done in the simplest way. So, expectations are set towards receiving the same experience no matter what type of service is provided. This new digital experience can transform the customer journey, giving any business a fresh start if done effectively.