Enterprise Rent-A-Car, we’ll pick your baby up!
One of the top strategies I talk about in my Reputation Roadkill keynote is the importance of empowering your employees. They need to know the type of reputation you are trying to build and how they play a pivotal role in constructing a great brand. Nine times out of ten, it is your employees that are the face of your company…not the CEO or PR contact.
Case in point, John Goodlett of Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
It started last week when Goodlett, 25, went to pick up Coty Vincent from her Tulsa, Oklahoma, home and brought her back to the Enterprise office. She had brought car seats for each of her 11-month-old boys, but didn’t have a stroller that could hold both of them, so she asked Goodlett for help.
“He grabbed one of the boys out of his car seat and I grabbed the other and we went inside,” she told TODAY.
Vincent, 25, expected Goodlett to hand off her son “and let me fend for myself” with the boys. Instead, Goodlett headed straight for the counter and began processing her order.
This photo went viral:
Don’t think your employees need to hit a social media home run either. They can make a difference one customer at a time.
I had to renew my USTA membership, but because I was adding my wife to a family plan, I had to call them to renew. As like any of us, I was not looking forward to the ordeal that often faces us when we have to call and speak to someone. Fortunately, I ended up speaking to one of the most efficient, friendly, and transparent operators I have ever chatted to. She explained everything in plain English, kept talking me through what she was doing (no dead air, wondering if the call dropped), and handled the switch over without any pain (I even got a partial refund that I had not expected),
Admittedly the bar is low for call center staff, but knowing that her supervisor only ever hears from a customer when things go wrong, I asked to speak to her. She was thrilled to hear the praise for her coworker and thanked me for taking the time to give praise. The call operator in question told me I had made her day.
When your employees go out of their way to do something out of the ordinary for customers, it’s a win-win for both sides. The customer is often thrilled–and will tell many others–and the employee is often rewarded–even if only a sense of pride in their work.
BTW, John Goodlett? Less than a week on the job. Showing that if you hire right, they do right. 😉
