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What began in the basement of a Missouri Cadillac dealership some fifty years ago has evolved into one of the greatest modern-day examples of how to deliver excellent customer service while building an incredibly successful business.
As many of its competitors struggled with declining business, lost market share, and various other financial woes, Enterprise Rent-A-Car quietly grew into the largest and most successful car rental company in America and, by most measures, the world. From an initial investment of $100,000 and just seven cars, Enterprise has become a $9 billion global powerhouse with some 62,000 employees, nearly 7,000 locations, and a combined rental and leasing fleet of more than 800,000 vehicles. It is one of the biggest customers of General Motors, Ford, and several other car manufacturers. Indeed, Enterprise buys more new cars each year than any other company in the world. It's also the largest seller of used vehicles in the country, boasts the highest credit rating in its industry, and consistently ranks among the top twenty on Forbes magazine's annual survey of the largest private companies in America.
Even more impressive, Enterprise operates in an industry littered with countless failures and a reputation for low employee morale, high turnover, bankruptcies, profit declines, and general customer dissatisfaction. Despite this, the company has recorded impressive gains each year for the past five decades. Enterprise has never laid off employees, opens at least one new office every business day, and has become the company to watch and emulate when it comes to learning how to really wow your customers.
How has Enterprise done it? Above all, it adheres to an amazingly simply, yet ingeniously effective, philosophy set forth by company founder Jack Taylor back on day one: “Take care of your customers and employees, and the profits will follow.”
Keep in mind that at Enterprise, having “satisfied” customers isn't enough. The reason is straightforward and backed by research: When you exceed someone's expectations and bring them to the “completely satisfied” category, they are at least 70 percent more likely to do business with you again. And repeat business is the lifeblood of every company.
The strategy is clearly effective. Standard & Poor's calls Enterprise the most financially sound rental car company. In the last decade, workplace surveys conducted in four nations have included Enterprise among the best companies to work for, and its employees are often highly sought by recruiters at other firms—from a variety of industries. What's more, because of the company's unique focus on the fast-growing home-city, or off-airport, market segment, its business is nearly recession-proof.
Throughout this book, you'll go inside this amazing company and learn about “The Enterprise Way” of doing business. You'll discover how Enterprise has grown at such an impressive rate by outsmarting the competition, treating customers like royalty, and recruiting an army of top talent. More important, you'll learn tangible strategies you can use to stand out from the rest of the crowd, boost customer service, and attract key employees to your own business—regardless of what industry you're in.
We'll begin by looking at how Enterprise started and explore how this tireless pursuit to take care of customers and employees took hold. We'll also suggest strategies for ingraining such thinking into your own corporate culture. We'll then examine how Enterprise gained a competitive edge by following a different path than the rest of the rental car pack and by identifying markets that even the biggest players seemed to ignore.
Next, we'll reveal the company's strategies for hiring, training, and rewarding employees. Every Enterprise field employee starts as an entry-level management trainee, but the opportunities for career advancement are nearly unlimited. As you'll learn, Enterprise treats employees as entrepreneurs and compensates them as such. It's an unprecedented structure, more akin to having headquarters oversee a collection of nearly 7,000 independent locations.
The only way to move ahead at Enterprise is by delivering excellent customer service. To that end, we'll introduce you to the company's groundbreaking program for carefully measuring and monitoring how well each location is executing on this promise, and detail the importance these numbers hold for every aspect of the operation.
We'll then discuss how Enterprise has prospered by forming strategic partnerships with businesses of all types, while exploring how the company effectively uses technology to increase efficiencies and advance its business relationships.
We'll also talk about how Enterprise has been able to excel, even during a period of unprecedented growth, without jeopardizing customer service or employee morale. Much of it relates to the company's commitment to remain in “balance,” as chairman and CEO Andy Taylor puts it, by staying equally focused on the following four areas: growth, profitability, customer service, and employee development.
Finally, we'll look at the eight core values every Enterprise employee lives by. Because they tie directly back to founder Jack Taylor's vision, Enterprise calls them “Founding Values.” They arguably can—and should—be adopted by companies of all types. These values include protecting your brand, creating a fun and friendly environment where teamwork rules, rewarding hard work, listening to your customers, strengthening the community, and always keeping your doors open to every person and every idea. Says Andy Taylor, “Founding values are the magnet that make all the shavings in your company point in the same direction.” When you live by them, he insists, you become a special place and have an opportunity to distance yourself from the competition.
Does The Enterprise Way work for companies outside of the rental car industry? For an answer, you need look no further than Enterprise itself. The Taylor family also owns and operates a number of other diversified and completely unrelated businesses—from a distributor of in-room coffee packets to a manufacturer of Mylar balloons—all of which have enjoyed similar success by following these exact same techniques and management principles.
At its heart, Exceeding Customer Expectations is your personal guide to running an employee-centered company catering to those who matter most—your customers.
You're about to learn how the Midwestern values and ingenuity Enterprise has so adeptly mastered can be applied to virtually any business to produce unbelievably satisfied customers, an entrepreneurial workforce committed to building the company, and record revenues.
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