Improving Customer Experience - 2018 Review - Green Motion
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Improving Customer Experience - 2018 Review
A watershed year
The past 12 months have been a turbulent time for the car rental industry globally. With more players in the
market than ever before creating major downward pressures on pricing coupled with customer expectations
rising, we have all had to adapt and continue evolving our propositions.
We were established in 2007 as a global franchise network to offer customers great value car rental, while
also helping them reduce the impact of CO emissions associated with their road travel.
2
Fast forward 12 years, and we now offer our award-winning, low cost and environmentally responsible
service in over 40 countries, servicing close to 850,000 reservations across our 400+ locations.
With progress comes responsibility, so our sector has come under increasing scrutiny from the media and
consumer groups in the past couple of years on issues like pricing transparency and customer service levels.
Our position as a franchise business gives us a unique perspective on challenges facing the sector as
competition intensifies.
Green Motion has faced challenges over the past year in satisfying all of our customers and demonstrating
to media that we are committed to constant improvement. I have therefore asked my team to compile this
report to capture some of these challenges, draw together the extensive improvement work we have
undertaken and give some insight into what we are planning in 2019 to further enhance the Green Motion
customer experience.
Richard Lowden, Founder and CEO of Green Motion International
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January 2019
Market challenges
Across the Green Motion network, levels of customer service and satisfaction are on the up, with an average
TrustPilot score of 6.49 out of 10 globally and an average Green Motion Customer Satisfaction score of
3.88 out of 5. We have also seen customer complaints fall significantly in the second half of 2018 thanks to
changes in our processes and improvement plans taking effect.
In most of the countries in which we operate, customer feedback continues to show good levels of
satisfaction. However, the business has seen particular challenges at some of our locations in the UK, Poland
and Lithuania.
In these markets, there has been an increase in the number of customer complaints for the following
reasons.
1. Customer service falling below the mark
In a limited number of rental locations, a small number of
staff have not been demonstrating sufficient levels of
customer service. In a period where customer service has
never been more important and companies are more open to
public criticism, these failings have resulted in disappointed
customers who have gone on to share their negative
experience and damaged our brand.
2. Crowded marketplace
As competition grows, the trading environment for all car rental companies becomes increasingly
difficult. Not only are car rental companies competing with each other, but there are now new
players in the market, such as car sharing and ride hailing services, which are cutting into the car
rental space.
Customers have also been educated to expect and seek out car hire rates as low as £2 a day (with
rates in the first month of this year going as low as £0.50p per day in the United Kingdom). When
combined with the introduction of free, online vehicle navigation tools and the dominance of price
comparison sites, this has led to great commercial pressure on car rental companies to compete
by cutting their margins, with the daily cost of hiring vehicles now often being lower than a cup of
coffee or soft drink, with car rental now being considered the most competitive mode of transport
versus taxis, resort or hotel transfers, train travel and even bike rental.
Those customers who are looking to save as much money as possible when hiring a car are often
persuaded to purchase third party excess reimbursement policies, in the belief that they will not be
required to provide a deposit for the excess when they arrive at the rental counter, leading to
unexpected costs. Our experience is that this misunderstanding – alongside other commonly held
misconceptions – has led to widespread issues for customers and car rental companies alike.
3. Changing customer expectations
As the number of car rental customers continues to rise, naturally so do their expectations of value
and service.
Understandably, customers are time-poor, so often in a rush when collecting their vehicle.
Sometimes, this unfortunately means that they do not often take the time to read the terms and
conditions of their rental agreement or take enough time to inspect the vehicle on collection.
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January 2019
Over the past year, we have seen a rise in the cases of customers damaging their rental vehicles
and disputing responsibility for the damage. Although there will always be some customers that are
hesitant to report these incidents, their subsequent negative reactions in order to recover the cost
of repair contributed to an increase in our complaints over the past two years.
4. Industry costs
Cars are advancing at a phenomenal rate, becoming more environmentally friendly, comfortable and
convenient than ever before. While the benefit for customers is clear, this leads to increased costs
for the car rental industry, particularly when it comes to repairing damaged vehicles.
Due to the inclusion of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology, repair costs have
increased significantly in recent years. Most rental cars are nearly new and Green Motion
franchisees are expected to return them to manufacturers in pristine condition or face substantial
penalties. This means they must spend more than many outside the industry might expect for
repairs – something that is particularly problematic for Green Motion franchisees who are often
small businesses.
In the face of these challenges, Green Motion is pleased to say that – after significant work and investment
across the business, the number of issues and complaints has fallen dramatically in the second half of 2018.
We fully expect this trend to continue further in 2019.
Improving the Green Motion customer experience
The key areas we identified as needing improvement following a
review of our challenges earlier in 2018 included: charging for
vehicle damage, vehicle inspection, vehicle collection and
customer service.
In the second half of 2018, a considerable investment has been
made by the senior management team at Green Motion to
review complaints, engage with customers and listen to their
feedback in order to resolve issues, offer compensation, learn from mistakes and ultimately strengthen our
offering.
We have also proactively met with stakeholders including industry partners, consumer groups and journalists
to gather feedback and discuss – and subsequently implement – improvements.
Key improvements
1. To ensure a standard and transparent approach across each of our UK locations, Green Motion has
created a new standardised damage pricing matrix to ensure that customers are charged fairly and
consistently. This has been developed taking into consideration the prices levied by our competitors,
as well as actual defleet costs and defleet matrixes from suppliers.
2. So that customers can feel confident that they have inspected vehicles at collection comprehensively
and fairly, we have produced a whole new range of vehicle inspection advice collateral (e.g. videos,
animation, leaflets) and actively promoted the importance of the vehicle inspection process for
customers at each franchise location.
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January 2019
3. We have introduced an extended inspection grace period until 10:00am on the day after collection
– if customers report damage that they had not noted on the Vehicle Condition Report before this
time, they will not be charged. This also addresses concerns surrounding vehicles being inspected in
poor visibility due to insufficient lighting or bad weather.
4. A new Vehicle Handover Agreement has been introduced to ensure customers are comfortable,
and able to confirm, that they were able to fully inspect the vehicle at collection and encouraged to
take any photographs or videos that they might wish as a record of the car condition.
5. To help customers that may be running late, an Extended Vehicle Collection Policy has also been
introduced across the UK network, which extends their collection window from two to four hours
(believed to now be the widest collection window in the industry). If a customer informs Green Motion
of their delay beforehand and provides a new time for collection, then the extended collection window
will begin from the new time.
6. A new customer service call centre has been established in the UK to handle all customer queries
and complaints in person. Increased resources have been provided to support Green Motion social
media channels so customers with issues receive a more prompt response. Improved processes for
central monitoring of customer feedback and complaint resolution are also now in place.
7. A new Franchise Service Agreement has been developed that sets higher standards for customer
service and brings all franchisees closer together in the way they operate to improve our overall
brand experience across all rental locations.
8. Direct action has been undertaken by Green Motion senior management to address issues
identified at a limited number of individual locations. Such action led to the termination of an existing
franchisee’s agreement at Birmingham Airport as a result of failing to meet expected standards
along with high level management changes of the UK Master Country Franchise.
9. The company has worked closely with industry partners – such as HolidayAutos and Rentalcars – to
further improve customer service and offering and ensuring there is better communication with our
mutual customers.
10. The 2018 Green Motion Global Conference in London saw workshop sessions for franchisees on
changing consumer expectations and improving customer service to help them strengthen their
operations.
Looking ahead
We are committed to continuous improvement in our
customer experience and further enhancements are
planned in 2019.
For example, we have a series of customer focus groups
planned in the spring to capture and further embed
learnings into our customer service strategy. This strategy is
being bolstered by an increase in compliance monitoring to Green Motion customer service standards,
achieved through site visits, detailed customer feedback monitoring. We’ve also engaged former
disenfranchised customers to undertake direct mystery shopping of the our network to help ensure all our
new initiatives are in play and working well.
Very soon, we will be announcing new products and technology solutions that will significantly enhance how
we operate. These will change the nature of how, when and where customers can collect rental cars, making
the experience easier, more transparent and better value.
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January 2019In the meantime, developing customer proposition, reducing complaints and improving customer satisfaction
tops our list of strategic priorities in 2019. We will continue to engage with industry partners, consumer
groups and journalists to gather feedback and guide our improvements. Whilst we recognise there is plenty
of work still to do, our ambition is to use the experience we have gained to build a leading customer
experience in the car rental sector.
To this end at the end of January, we will be launching our commitment to redefining the rental car sector by
introducing a new open, honest and transparent product, positioning with clear pricing. Green Motion will be
the first car rental company in the world to adopt the same approach used across the global travel industry
including airlines and hotels. Our goal is to ensure that each and every customer fully understands what they
are purchasing and is satisfied with their purchase.
Green Motion is dedicated to providing an open, honest and transparent service for its customers across the
globe. We plan to publish a follow-up report in the summer of 2019 on greenmotion.com to update
customers and stakeholders on the progress we are making.
Thanks for taking the time to read about our work and if you have any comments or suggestions you think
would be helpful to us, please contact
Media Enquires: elowcock@goodrelations.co.uk
Reservations and other general enquiries: info@greenmotion.com
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