Enterprise's 12-Steps to Building Customer Relations

J.D. Power and Associates ranked the Enterprise Rent-A-Car chain as "the highest in Rental Car Customer Satisfaction, Three years in a Row". Here are some insights on how they achieved that. A big thanks to Brand Autopsy for posting Enterprise Rent-A-Car's list below on what drives Enterprise's employees and efforts in raising customer satisfaction to such lofty heights. For franchise owners or even franchiser operations managers, this list is a good foundation in training staff to better connect with customers.

ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
12-Steps to Building Relationships with Customers

1. Acknowledge the customer’s presence with a smile or handshake
2. Be enthusiastic
3. Always make eye contact
4. Speak in a friendly manner
5. If you know the customer’s name, use it in your greeting
6. Listen actively and carefully without interrupting or allowing yourself to be distracted
7. Offer solutions
8. Provide unsolicited help (directions, maps, etc.)
9. Be positive in your comments [to customers]
10. Remember: It’s the customer’s perception that matters
11. Try to anticipate the needs of customers. Always hurry to help.
12. Never use industry slang or terminology [with customers]
    [source | EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, pgs. 98-99]

Simple but great guidelines. Of course, a whole series of courses could be developed around actively listening, a friendly presentation, or seeing from the customer's point of view. There's a lot of substance to this list of 12 items.