Is Marketing in Every Molecule of Your Business?

I remember many years ago, when I was just starting out my marketing studies, how strongly I felt about the Customer Relationships module of my curriculum. And I must admit that's one thing England's got that you will struggle to find in many other places - and I will miss that here in Spain.

Anyway, the module preached that for a company to be truly successful, it needs to eat, breathe, sleep and so on - marketing. To this day (8 or 9 years down the line) I still strongly believe that should be the case, because if you miss one little person even, it can lose you good, loyal customers.

Never has this been more true than when it came to my interaction with the branch manager of a Car Rentals company in St. Javier airport…

The short background story:
We're renting a car until we receive the new car we purchased. We're renting from the car rental company, and have been doing so for the past 4 weeks (and once on a trip in April). We're happy with their prices, and the cars they offer so we've stuck with them. We're obviously repeat customers, that are happy with their deal. I.e. in terms of customers we're the ideal that they should be striving for.

When we first rented the car a few weeks ago, we noticed a small stone mark in the front windscreen, which we presumed that was marked on the known faults of the car release docs - it's not like you could have missed seeing it… (lesson one - don't presume things that matter to you).

Anyway, this initial mark turned into a crack over the 4 weeks of driving the car, at which stage we rang the office to ask if we can exchange the vehicle as it is now dangerous to drive. We were told by the polite person in the office that there's no problem and we must just go up in the morning and pickup another car. Ah, we thought, what wonderful people - we're so glad we chose them…

Next morning we pitch up at their main offices stating what I just told you above, only to be met by a judgmental smirk on the face of their employee. At which stage he proceeded to explain that he will have to charge us for the screen, the excess of the insurance and the time the car will be off the road for repairs.

Now, I will not go into heated details of the interaction that happened for the next half hour. FYI - I didn't get abusive and did not spurt blood and fire at the guy on the other end… I went on to try and clarify why we will incur the charges since the damage was initially there, whoever handed us the vehicle the first time around obviously didn't clean it or inspect for faults, as the vehicle was dirty and the little picture where existing damaged spots were to be marked were empty…

When we called him up on that he proceeded to try and excuse himself by saying it was our responsibility to mark the faults on the car before renting it - which is total b**l. He couldn't show us where in their T & Cs it stated that the insurance doesn't cover glass damage, neither could he show us where in the T & Cs it says we have to pay excess for the insurance.

I could see that by that time the guy was just trying to stick to his original statement and even though he had no legal leg to stand on would not back down with his unreasonable demands. At this stage I'd had enough, and asked to speak to the manager… (thinking that I will change car rental companies) "I am the manager of this office." he said…

Whohaaa! Incredible!

Picture this:

Here we are with a feasible case, which would realistically cost you less than 50 Euro to fix. We are a customer that has returned to use our services 5 times in the last 6 months, paying good money for the 'pleasure'. We are obviously wanting to continue this relationship, and have already driven half our to get to you (as our local branch couldn't help us). AND there are 4 other car rental companies' offices right next to ours…

For 50 Euro cost - will you be willing to tell us to bugger off?

That's a "no brainer" right?

Well, for someone like that manager it's obviously more about pride. WRONG!

What he should have done, and what his colleague, who happened to walk in the office during our debate, did.

Good customer service = loyal customers = common sense

The colleague found out what the case was and at the first opportunity he had to speak to us, apologised, swapped our vehicle for a higher spec vehicle, and as a courtesy gave it to us with a full tank of diesel. Then he took us to the new vehicle, checked it over with us present and handed us the keys with a big smile on his face.

Now that's who the car hire company should have had as its manager. Someone who intuitively or through training could see the value of repeat customers, in the presence of so much competition.

So ask yourself this - is your marketing strategy in every molecule of your business? Does everyone understand the values you hold and the customers you're aiming to attract and keep?

Rich Shrefren says that each business should have THE NUMBER imprinted into every employee's brain. It will help individuals make decisions on the fly. Every decision that's made needs to impact THE NUMBER in a positive way.