What is customer service?

Customer service is the overall activity of identifying and satisfying customer needs. Giving customers service may mean giving them excellent service once, e.g. providing refreshment and a place to sleep for a busy traveller on a journey.

More often it refers to the whole process of meeting customer needs time and time again and giving them a better service than they expected.

Enterprise is committed to delivering exceptionally high standards every time.

The goal of the company is to exceed customer expectations. The management team at Enterprise Rent-A-Car developed a simple but highly effective way of finding out what keeps customers happy. They created a questionnaire for customers based on two questions:

1. How would you rate your last Enterprise experience?

This is ranked on a scale from 'completely satisfied' to 'completely dissatisfied'.

2. Would you rent from Enterprise again?

This is a novel type of customer survey. A major problem with customer surveys is that the response rate is very low because the surveys are long and complicated. The opposite is true in this case.

The results of the survey form part of the Enterprise Service Quality index (ESQi). This is the basis for measuring performance of the various rental branches of Enterprise.

The ESQi survey

The survey was developed through an intensive process over a number of years. The process was focused on refining the survey with the result that it appears simple. The survey finds out what makes loyal customers and who the loyal customers are. It delivers results which allow Enterprise to concentrate on the key driver for the company - making loyal customers. This leads to profitable growth.

If someone is loyal to a company they will recommend it to their friends. The survey tells Enterprise which customers will return again and again and recommend Enterprise to their friends. The questionnaire helps Enterprise to find out quickly what customers think of each and every one of its businesses.