I’m going to describe a service encounter I have frequently when I travel, followed in parentheses by what I experience with the competition:
At the company I’m referencing, the service reps at the counter:
-Smile when I enter (competition – sporadic smiles, with variability to grumpy)
.
-Are great at stage banter – the art of making small talk while they serve you - meaning you get an emotional connection that’s hard to get elsewhere (competition – rare stage banter, most of the reps are just trying to get the transaction done).
-Are conversational while they try to upsell me, meaning it feels like a conversation – I don’t even mind telling them “no” (competition – sells via a pre-packaged script that they’ve memorized, which is quoted as they sound like a robot).
-Seem genuinely interested in what I do for a living, what I’m in town for, where I’m from. I’ve learned it’s because most of the reps at this company have strong career ambitions of their own, and they’ve learned to ask questions and network (competition – rarely am I asked what I’m doing in town). They’re naturally curious…
Which service encounter would you rather have? The answer is obvious. The company referenced is Enterprise-Rent-A-Car.
The secret sauce for Enterprise? As reported by Fay Hansen in Workforce Recruiting, Enterprise will employ 1,800 interns this summer, most of them rising juniors and seniors. By the time the interns head back to school in September, most of the rising seniors will have received a formal job offer from the company, and by the end of the fall semester, most will have accepted.
Here’s what the article doesn’t tell you. While Enterprise fills their talent pipeline almost exclusively with young college grads, the strategy isn’t about age.
The strategy instead is about opportunity and competition. All the college grads take the job with Enterprise for one big reason – career opportunity. Enterprise actively sells the career dream of being promoted and rising through the ranks. They’ve got thousands of stories related to kids starting with them out of college, then becoming branch, district and regional managers. It’s one of the best cultural plays you’ll find in the area of career opportunity.
Of course, with 80% of their positions in retail-based customer service, they’re perfectly positioned for the model but give them props – the strategy leads to a culture where I’ll actively choose Enterprise as a customer, because I know when I go in that I’ll get the responsiveness that I outlined above.
Enterprise rocks. I’m not getting paid for this post. Try them if you never have and experience what I outlined above, then ask yourself, “Did that feel different”?
I’m betting it will….
I agree…I always choose Enterprise even over the big majors. Even with discounts from the big guys, I can get a better price with Enterprise. cb
Yeah, well, Enterprise was the place that left me locked in a garage in Las Vegas. Their customer service person’s response was, “You’ll have to wait until morning.”
I have no warm fuzzies. Plus, their definition of a “full size car” doesn’t allow you to have both a driver and a rear facing car seat.
Bah!
I disagree. I have made the decision not to use Enterprise at any time, based on my experiences with them. I don’t rent a car to make friends, I want to get my car and go to the destination. Enterprise takes longer, is usually not as price competitive, and I strongly dislike the timeshare-esque upsell I get each and every time. They won’t take no for an answer, or even multiple nos. Once, the upsell technique was to try to scare me about the safety of the car I was renting from them. Poor, poor service.
Then, when I started interviewing employees that were leaving Enterprise I understood why. The culture is that of the time share/multi-level marketing.
In 1996, in Ocean County CA ,I wanted to rent a car and a guy at my hotel recommended Enterprise. I went there and got such ‘attitude’ from the person at the counter that I chose to go back to the hotel and rent elsewhere. Condescending and pushy won’t get me to rent a car; maybe it works for others.
As a former Enterprise employee, I can give you many reasons to rent from them, but can’t tell you in good conscience that it’s a great employer. Given the way Enterprise treats its employees, it seems they succeed in spite of themselves. It really is a remarkable company.
KD, I have had a mixed bag of experiences with Enterprise. Some good, some bad, and some extremes – in Denver, CO, I had a great experience, but in Newark, NJ, it couldn’t have been worse (literally).
At the same time, I am a believer in Enterprise’s sales culture. People buy when they feel understood; not when they understand what it is you’re selling.
I do agree that there is truly a more laissez-faire environment in which small talk is encouraged, however ‘younger’ (entry-level) sales reps are sometimes inclined to look past the other 100 people in line to discuss a rave party they and a customer both hit the weekend before. Jeez, I know I used to be the same way!
I have 2 friends that both seized the opportunity to work as a Manager-in-Training right out of college, and to be honest, their accounts are similar in the sense that they both routinely worked 60-hr + weeks, but were only paid for 40. This happens in many places, but what I found interesting was one friend’s account of how he was told in training that the “Taylor Family [Enterprise Rent-a-Car's owning family] believes in hard work, and especially, the hard work of our younger employees.” There was an implicit understanding (a corporate culture situation) where the “fresh meat” was to “pay their dues”, mainly because they were “on the cheap” (i.e. ~$30k annually, trading off income for the lure of being a ‘Boss’ or ‘Manager’ down the road.) Then again, isn’t this any opportunity right out of school?
Yours is a great post that could be a lead-in to a series on marrying talent acquisition with overall strategy.
Clearly, Enterprise is trying to tap into the passion and enthusiasm of these interns and fresh graduates. In any kind of retail setting, with all else being equal, passion and enthusiasm can be a critical differentiator.
I’m wondering if Enterprise is open to “older” workers with experience for their Mag. Trainee program?