Pricing transparency on a global scale - Hertz

This tells the story, in quite some detail, about how I came to be given the responsibility to assess, oversee and manage a major undertaking across a large number of internally and externally developed website for the global car rental organisation, Hertz.

Before I continue, I want to say that would lose respect for disclosing any sensitive information about Hertz, and therefore you’ll find no revelations about the company here.

Respect earned, Respect given...

This case study had been written based on many years of personal experience within an organisation which I still have much respect for since the day I joined them on Monday 4th September 2000, and which has provided me with skills, knowledge, experiences and opportunities which I remain grateful for to this day.

This is Part 1 of a two part series. Part 2 can be found here.

Case Study Part 2

My own career in car rental e-commerce began in September 2000, when I was invited to join Hertz after a 4 year period of producing websites freelance for small businesses.

I went on to spend more than 20 years with Hertz Europe and Hertz International covering all aspects of global car rental eCommerce, including:

• development and management of the Hertz reservation platform.
• onboarding many franchisees in their native languages.
• managing a number of corporate partner websites for several airline partners, which included Air France, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, BMI Baby, and many others)
• overseeing the implementation of payment validation process (3D Secure for Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode)
• handling the development and launch of a portal with Hertz's partnership with loyalty scheme providers including Nectar, where loyalty points could be earned and used towards the cost of a car rental.
• managing and implementing methods of handling international compliance to satisfy the requirements of the CMA, EU Commission, and governing bodies in the US, Canada, Australia, etc.

The last point focused heavily on providing clear and relevant information to customers who came to Hertz with an almost infinite range of requirements and criteria to be met.

Prior to 2014, my focus had been mainly on the reservation platform development, franchisee and partnership support, and generally implementing ways to add more options and increase revenue through the reservation process.

Customer satisfaction has always been important, but it was largely assumed… certainly by me… that everyone out there loved us and thought we were great!

The reality was that not everyone was entirely happy, and they let the company know about their dissatisfaction by phone, emails, online reviews, etc.

Dealing with complaints was not part of my role, and customer satisfaction was handled by a dedicated team. It was only after I was tasked with overseeing information and pricing transparency that I really got to understand many of their concerns and frustrations.

Looking through lists of reviews and complaints was not always easy reading, but at least we knew what some people were saying, and why. There were, of course, edge cases due to situations that we, as a company, we unable to foresee, but there were also patterns to some of the complaints.

We certainly did a lot right... most things... but clearly not everything, and there was room for improvement.

I go into some detail about many of the common areas of concern below. As you’ll see, many of the complaints about car rental relate to hidden fees and charges and a lack of transparency.

Transparency means clarity, and a lack of clarity in pricing, fees, cancellation terms, insurance terms and excess amounts, fuelling costs and options, etc., can result in dissatisfied customers.

Even worse, it can lead to publicised complaints, law suits, fines and sanctions.

If that sounds too exaggerated, read on...

The type of customer and the scope and possibilities within the global car rental market is incredibly varied, but not all companies who provide such a range of options handle those variations well.

Here are some of the reasons that make the international car rental market more challenging than most people would think:

Age Restrictions

There may be age restrictions which vary from country to country, which can not only affect the price, but the customers eligibility to drive certain vehicles.

Insurances, child seats and other add-ons

Ancillaries, insurances, child seats and other add-ons can vary between countries. Some ancillary items will only apply to certain vehicles, and might only be relevant at specific locations in certain countries, and certain times of the year. Winter or snow tyres are a good example.

Payment: prepaid or pay later

There may be different methods of paying for the rental, which can include pre-payment (often at a discounted rate) or pay on collection. Each payment option could require different conditions around cancellations.

Currency / Approximate total

Currency conversions will need to be factored in, and fluctuations in exchange rates can affect the final price. Currency fluctuations could also mean that some rental costs need to be stated as Approximate and not as the final price.

Snow/Winter Tyres

Some rentals may be impacted by seasonal conditions such as snow. In some countries snow tyres and snow chains may be advisory or even mandatory depending on the country, dates and conditions.

Delivery and Collection

The company might offer a delivery and collection service where the car is taken to the customer and picked up at the end of the reservation. All of these variations of customer and reservation type can have variations in the terms of amending or cancelling a reservation.

Opt-in rules

Different countries have different rules about how companies ask or even assume to opt people in to mailing lists for newsletters, promotions, etc.

Loyalty Schemes

Many companies (Hertz included) offer loyalty scheme membership. This might be free, at a cost, or require membership to be earned based on the number or values of bookings or rentals made.

Loyalty scheme members may have the option to select preferred classes of vehicle within their profile, along with insurance preferences and other options. Their preferred method of payment is also typically included within their profile, and all of these options and other personal information can determine what they will see by default when they make a reservation.

Offers and Promotions

Loyalty schemes, promotional offers, corporate discounts, partner affiliations, and many other variations can impact how a reservation system handles different customer types and their needs.

Many promotions have terms and conditions attached, and may only apply for a limited period of time, within a certain area, to a specific type of customer, or maybe just at weekends.

Surcharges

There may be surcharges based on age, one-way reservations, where the rental location is situated (for example in an airport), or… as in the case when renting in Australia… credit cards surcharges may apply.

Fuel Purchase

Many car rental companies offer a Fuel Purchase Option (FPO) which would allow you to receive the car with a full tank of fuel, and not have to refill it when you return the car.

The cost of re-fuelling options will vary from country to county.

If you choose to re-fuel the car yourself, some car rental companies will be relaxed enough to simply ask you to return the vehicle with about the same amount of fuel in it (based on the approximate reading on the fuel gauge)

However, some car rental companies, Hertz included, promise to supply their customers with a fill tank of fuel, and therefore they require the car to be returned with a full tank of fuel. If it's not returned full, a charge be made for any refuelling which they need to do on your behalf.

Changes in legislation

We also found out, through necessity, how flexible and adaptable our reservation system was when we were required to apply changes at short notice in response to changes in legislation.

One significant example was the impact that Brexit had when the UK left the EU. Literally overnight the rules and requirements changed for people living in the UK and renting in European countries which were still in the EU, and resident in those EU countries who wanted to rent in the UK.

The changes were mostly content, but needed to be dynamically displayed at specific touchpoints during the reservation process, and also on the reservation confirmation email.

Duplicated content

It can be far from ideal to store duplicated content in two or more places, but there may be times when it made sense for this to happens (I said made sense in a past tense!)

When legacy systems are adapted to cater for a changing market, with rapidly evolving technologies and customer demands forcing companies to respond quickly, short term solutions where localised development or repurposing parts of a system can often result in a quick win.

It was likely to have been cheaper too.

But the longer term effect could be (and was) that such localised system changes can be (and were) difficult and very resource intensive to manage and keep everything consistent and up to date.

Centrally held content

For the sake of efficiency, consistency and avoiding the chance of misinformation and discrepancies, we decided that the main Hertz website, telephone sales teams, customer service teams, and also 3rd party booking channels should share much of the same content.

It therefore made sense that a lot of the advisory and mandatory content, policy content and terms and conditions should be pulled from a single managed repository instead of several.

By storing and sourcing information centrally in this way, it also provides the means to use the same logic to dynamically display content on all platforms based on customer type, country or residence and rental, selections made and other criteria.

Sorry... computer says No!

It also reduces the chance of customers saying to a telesales advisory The website say this, but you’re telling me that. So which is correct?

Before we explore some of these points in more detail, and cover some of the methods and challenges we faced at Hertz, it’s worth clarifying what I mean when referring to dynamic content and relevant information in this context.

What is Dynamic Content?

For many of you who run small and medium size businesses, your websites are likely to be static which means that everyone who visits your website will be shown the exact same information on each page they visit.

This is perfectly adequate for most small businesses, but what if it would be beneficial to both the business and its customers if the if you could display different pieces of content and different options to specific types of customer? Or maybe customers select an option which requires you to display content which is relevant to the selection they have just made.

Websites which are capable of determining which content and features get displayed in this way are said to be dynamic

In other words, dynamic websites can be designed and configured to suit the combined needs of the business and its customers, and can therefore vary for each and every visit.

What is Relevant Information?

The content, options and features that a dynamic website displays should ideally be relevant to the customer, their selections and preferences, and where they are on the website. That could of course mean where they are in a multi-stage buying process, which was the main but not only type of interaction customers made with the Hertz websites.

Mandatory v’s Helpful content

Some information could be considered to be helpful and both guide and inform visitors.

Some information could be considered to be mandatory, where it’s essential that customers are advised or warned about something.

If the information refers to something mandatory (in other words something you’re obliged to inform the customer about) is it easy for customers to notice? Ideally this should be relevant to the stage where the customer is at in the buying or decision making process, prominent enough to be made aware of, but not so obtrusive that it makes the user experience cluttered, difficult or confusing.

If the information is something that is likely to be used to answer customers questions or concerns, is it easy for them to locate, ideally without them having to leave the buying process and start over?

As you’ll have already started to see, the customer type, their country of residence, the pickup and drop-off location, age, type of vehicle, ancillaries, methods of payment, and many other factors determined what we were able to offer them for selection, and at what price. And because their selections and preferences determined what other options and information we displayed, we needed to find the most logical way to control that information.

That control started at country level, and so database tables were created with each row (or record) being given a country code. There were actually 3 database tables for this control process

• Source country controls
• Destination country controls.
• Combined source and destination country controls.

Because Hertz have over 800 rental locations around the globe, and customers from just about anywhere on the planet, each of the three DB tables had entries which catered for each country. And within each row there was flags (mostly Y or N, but in some cases numerical values or reference codes) which allowed us to determine what features, options, methods of payment, content, etc.

For example, source country controls would determine, amongst many other things, the default language for that specific country, and which 2nd or even 3rd language options to provide. It would also determine whether prices would display inclusive or exclusive of tax, which methods of payment to include in the credit card list, and whether things such as checkboxes for opting-in to mailing lists, etc., can be pre-selected where the customer would need to take action to opt out, or require manual consent to opt in.

Amongst other things, destination country controls would determine the currency to display prices in, and which age groups to display for selection.

Combined source and destination country controls would be used to determine things like which driver’s licence or driving permit is acceptable in specific countries, and whether holders of certain types of licence would also require other forms of ID, such as passports.

Let’s start with the price

Obviously when renting a car online, it’s impossible to expect people to make a booking when they don’t know how much they’ll need to pay.

But what might be less obvious is their understanding of precisely what is included, what was not included in the price. In terms of car rental, this could refer to things such as taxes, location surcharges, surcharges for younger drivers or one-way rentals if applicable, mileage limitations, etc.

What also needed to be communicated is whether the reservation could be cancelled with or without a charge, and whether any time periods applied (such as “Free cancellation up to 7 days before pickup date” etc)

In fact, when comparing ourselves to competitors, if price alone was the deciding factor for customers, they would find that for the money they’re spending they could potentially be getting:

• very different levels of service
• different things included in the package
• different charges and flexibility when cancelling or modifying a reservation, and
• additional mandatory charges to pay at the location when they collect the car.

Part of my role was to prepare a checklist of touchpoints throughout the customer journey, and determine:

• What information about the customer we would need at that stage before being able to start tailoring the customer journey for them.
• What a customer is likely to need at that stage.
• What we would be obliged to inform them of.
• What will they need next as they move to the next stage.

This needed to be done for all types of customers:

• Guests
• Loyalty scheme members
• Travel agents booking on behalf of their customers
• Airline customers hiring a car from us whilst on the airline’s website
• Corporate partners
• And so on…

Listing the touchpoints

The checklist started quite long and felt very comprehensive from the beginning, but it quickly grew as more scenarios came to mind. For each scenario I needed to determine what we were already doing in terms of information obtained and information provide.

• Was is clear enough?
• Could it easily be found or displayed without being so obtrusive that it cluttered up the customer journey and negatively impacted user experience.
• Did the information even exist for that specific scenario?

Initial Prioritisation

Obviously there were quick-wins that could be achieved, and also things which required a significant amount of work and could take a while to implement.

There were also things which would apply to a large proportion of rentals, and also edge cases which might only occur very occasional, but would still need to be considered for inclusion.

There were also things which would apply to a large proportion of rentals, and also edge cases which might only occur very occasional, but would still need to be considered for inclusion.

So prioritisation was critical, and this was achieved by using the checklist, which in reality was nothing more than a spreadsheet. A RAG (Red, Amber, Green) system was used to allow quick identification of those projects which were either done, on track to be done, or still to do.

I used this as the basis for weekly reports back to our legal team, who subsequently handled the communications with the EU Commission, the CMA, etc.

All changes, regardless of size, were impact assessed and project managed.

Additions or updates to code bases, database tables and content management systems for such a huge global reservation tool often impacted more than one scenario. When this happened, the changes might not have been relevant to all impacted scenarios, and so we often needed to assess, plan, configure and test each update under a number of conditions.

• Changes which needed to be handled internally through our own development teams were tracked and managed through Jira.
• Changes which needed to be handled externally through 3rd part development companies were tracked and managed through Trello.

There are certainly better, quicker and more user friendly methods of tracking these days, but remember that this suite of transparency updates began back in 2014, and continued... for me certainly... until I left Hertz post-Covid in 2021 to start TargaWeb.

Further Prioritisation

Let’s not forget that throughout this period, the business couldn't stand still. We needed to continue to evolve, innovate and compete on a global scale.

There were many other projects which needed to be implemented to satisfy revenue generating business requirements which had nothing at all to do with pricing clarity, transparency or compliance.

Therefore the transparency projects also needed to be assessed and prioritised alongside revenue generating projects, and very often there were conflicts of interest which needed to carefully managed.

In the next section I’ll go through some of the details and challenges of making sections of the customer journey more transparent.

In part 2 of this case study, I explain how we applied these points to Hertz. Not only where price is concerned, but how we managed dynamic content and options to provide a user experience tailored to each and every customers, whoever they are, wherever they’re from, and whatever they need.