When there was not a mini van on the initial lot I asked the customer to patiently wait while I looked in the return lanes for one, I could tell he was pestered but he let me check. When I got to the return lanes there was nothing, I had to tell this customer that we did not have a mini-van at the moment and that he could wait for one to arrive or that we could give him two smaller cars for the price of one. When I said this he exploded, he was screaming into my face, basically just tearing me apart for not having the car he reserved, which in all honesty he had the right to be angry.
In his eyes he should have been able to get in and out of the car rental process very quickly, as he made a reservation before hand, but instead he was going to have to wait around for the car he needed. Also, what we offered him for compensation would have cost him twice as much in parking, twice as much in gas, and it would have split is family into two separate groups. This all is the reason he reached his boiling point and exploded. In my eyes I was just trying to find a way to get him in the car he reserved as quickly as possible, when I realized this was going to take a significant amount of time I offered a second option and told him the truth. When he did explode I felt that it was time for me to get my manager, he is the reason for the problem anyways, he tried to kill the situation with kindness he had a constant smile and open ears. My manager sent me to drive to our affiliate (National) to borrow one of there mini vans and let him take it on his trip, he also gave the man the entire trip for free, just as a token for his troubles. I want to point something out really quick on giving away freebies. What I noticed is that it gets you out of the immediate problem, but in the long run it doesn't bring the customer back. Giving something away for free doesn't change the customers negative experience into a good one, either way you are likely to lose that customer forever to a competitor. At the end of the day the situation ended with the guy shrugging his shoulders and accepting the free trip, he was "happy" in the moment, but not long term. In my opinion, there is no way that customer comes back to Enterprise, and if he were asked about his experience he would certainly talk negatively about it.
When the conflict became apparent to everyone it was the talk of the office for a few hours. It was almost like people were gossiping about it. It was right before my lunch break when it happened, so when I handed the situation of to my manager I went on my break, when I got to the break room everyone was talking about it and was asking me about it. When something like that happens in a corporate setting, people notice and the word spreads quickly. The situation could have been avoided with more careful planning and car management, our managers need to be more precise.
The funny thing about this story, though the customer got really irate there was no conflict. Your company made a mistake. Everyone, it seems, agreed with that. The issue how to make the customer whole after. Given your job classification, you weren't in a position to do that. So the customer expressed some of his anger on you. But eventually, it seems, he was made whole, at some cost to the company.
ReplyDeleteI don't rent cars too much these days, but during spring break the family went to Arizona and I had rented a small SUV for the trip. There was none available so we got a large SUV and at the same rate as I had originally reserved. I'm guessing this is a fairly common practice. I rented the vehicle through the Expedia Web site.
The other thing to note here is that loyalty programs, perhaps through the employer, exist to give more efficiency and better treatment to customers. When I was an administrator the U of I had National as their preferred provider. It tended to reduce this sort of thing. But if that's true, the customers who don't have that are more likely to experience the sort of thing that you reported in this story.
It was a mistake made by the company that certainly led to some sort of conflict,I suppose it wasn't the best example you were looking for. Maybe a better example could be a situation where an employee was using one of the company cars for personal reasons. He would take one of the cars every day to get lunch on his break, and he did this asking the branch manager but the branch manager did not confirm this to be ok with the area manager.
DeleteEventually, the area manager saw the employee drive one of his cars off the lot for lunch and was livid. When the employee got back he scolded him, and the employee then told him that he asked the area manager and got the ok. The area manager then scolded the branch area for letting the employee do this.
At the end of the day, it is not fair for one employee to do have that perk and not the rest. it was a conflict that had multiple parties involved in it, two managers and an employee.
I would have to agree with Professor Arvan that this scenario doesn't really describe the type of conflict the prompt was asking for or that was discussed in the chapter. However, I still do think that it was an eye opening experience for you, especially when dealing with such stress as an intern. I know instances like these definitely shape the way a person acts in the future even if the conflict wasn't a result of their own actions, which it clearly wasn't in your case.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think you bring up great points about customer reactions that you could only learn from experience. I think that it's evident that you have a great understanding on what a customer wants and expectations and how they will react if those aren't met. You've mentioned that you plan on going into sales in the future and I think that the knowledge of these concepts will help you go really far with a sales career.