WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.-
Enterprise ranked highest in customer satisfaction among rental car companies for a third consecutive year, according to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates.
The car-rental firm scored 789 out of 1,000 points in the survey of 4,133 business and leisure travelers who rented a vehicle at an airport location between January and October 2006.
Enterprise’s score was a 21-point improvement from 2005, J.D. Power said. The company scored particularly well on costs and fees, pick-up process, return process, reservation process and shuttle bus/van.
Enterprise was followed in the rankings by Hertz and National, J.D. Power said.
Overall, travelers renting cars at airports were more satisfied this year than last, with J.D. Power reporting an overall 3 percent increase in the survey scores.
The study found that only 29 percent of customers waited to pick up their rental car; those who did wait spent an average of 21.5 minutes.
“This is an area the industry needs to address since overall satisfaction drops below the industry average with any wait time that exceeds five minutes,” J.D. Power said.
J.D. Power also warned that despite the high satisfaction levels this year, the car-rental industry faces future challenges, including potential higher rental car rates and an aging fleet of cars.
Despite the past year’s high gas prices, the study found that customers are increasingly renting full-size and sport utility vehicles. While most rentals are mid-size (42 percent) or compact cars (14 percent), the rental share of full-size cars has increased 5 percentage points to 12 percent, while rentals of sport utility vehicles have increased 3 percentage points to 11 percent.
Most customers reserve their cars online — 69 percent. Of those, 42 percent go through the rental car company Web site, 21 percent use an independent travel Web site, and 6 percent use corporate self-booking sites.
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