Look Differently At Your Stuff

One things that really bothers me is when people cannot step outside of a process or system and examine the overall flow to look for ways to make improvements. Maybe this is something that goes back to my basketball roots, I don’t know, but I have always looked for ways to be efficient in whatever I would do. A lot of great athletes get great because they anticipate where things will go next, almost like a chess match (but usually with more excitement than watching two people sit at a table for days on end).

This really hit home to me just last week when I was returning my rental car after my trip out to Confio World Headquarters in Boulder, CO. I don’t want to bash anyone I particular and at the same time I don’t want to give free publicity for any particular business so let’s just say this agency rhymes with “Shmollar”. I was dropping off my car at 5AM. The first thing I noticed is that compared to other agencies that used to have OJ Simpson do ads for them, Shmollar doesn’t have someone check in your car outside for you. So you are expected to note your mileage *before* you walk to the counter. (Yeah, I guess I am spoiled by that other agency, oh well).

Since I rented my car with the agreement that I had unlimited miles and that they would fill the tank for me I did not think I needed to write anything down. I walked up to the return counter and handed the person my rental agreement, thinking they would want to see the papers.

“Oh, no sir, we don’t need those papers, but thanks anyway!” the lady behind the counter greeted me quite warmly. I must admit at that moment I felt like I was getting great service. Unfortunately the moment lasted about 10ms because her next question started us on a downhill slope.

“Did you need us ti fill the tank, or did you do that yourself?”

W. T. F?

“I chose to let you fill it for me, doesn’t your screen show that?”

“No sir, that information is noted in your agreement only.”

“You mean the agreement I tried to hand to you and you said you didn’t need? That agreement?” (Hey, it’s 5AM, I’m doing my best to be nice, but I am confused at this point in the day, I wasn’t being nasty just trying to understand what had just happened.)

“Yes, that’s the one. Did you note the mileage on the car by any chance?”

“Um, no, why would I since I had unlimited miles? Doesn’t your screen show that I had unlimited miles?”

“No sir, it doesn’t.”

Quickly thinking ahead I decided to ask a follow-up question.

“Do you need my credit card number again as well?” (See! I am trying to be nice here!)

“No sir, we have that information already.”

At this point the letters WTF don’t even begin to describe what just happened. I am now laughing on the inside and smiling on the outside. The wonderful woman behind the counter had me checked out and pointed me to the shuttle pick up location and we parted ways. And I spent the next ten minutes on the way to the airport thinking about all the ways that Shmollar could improve upon their service.My favorite would have been “for those of you checked in already and only need to go to security, you can get out here instead of having me take you all the way around to the other side of DIA to your airline counter because that would be a waste of ten minutes for those with a tight schedule”. That would have been awesome.

My guess is that either people that work for Shmollar have never tried to rent a car from themselves, or that a majority of other rental agencies have the same horrible systems (thus any research they do would come back saying “we’re as good as everyone else”), or that they are so used to the systems in place they don’t know that a better way could exist.

Much the same as with the systems we care for and maintain. Take a step back today and think about things from someone else’s point of view. How do your customers contact you when problems arise? How are changes deployed in your shop? There are lots of little things that could be improved upon if you just take a fresh look.