Enterprise’s Customer Service Strategy

The 'Lightning Bolt' That Built Enterprise's Billion-Dollar Loyalty Machine

Following on from my last post about Enterprise's retention strategy, let me share the story behind their customer satisfaction engineering system, and the 'lightning bolt' moment that changed their entire approach to loyalty.

The ESQi Revolution 

In 1989, Enterprise first surveyed their customers, and the results were brutal - missed pickups, dirty cars, poor service. Everything that contradicted founder Jack Taylor's philosophy of "take care of your customers first."

So they did something remarkable. They created the ESQi (Enterprise Service Quality Index) - not just another customer survey, but a complete reimagining of how to engineer customer satisfaction.

This is what made it different and quite revolutionary:

Monthly telephone surveys of hundreds of thousands of customers. 

• Not quarterly corporate surveys that disappear into spreadsheets. Real conversations with real customers every single month.

• Branch-by-branch rankings based on one critical metric: the percentage of customers who say they were "completely satisfied." Not "satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" - completely satisfied.

The ‘Lightning Bolt’ Discovery

• Then came the insight that knocked them sideways. 

Their research revealed that "completely satisfied" customers were more than three times more likely to become repeat customers compared to those who were only "somewhat satisfied."

• Think about that for a moment. The difference between "satisfied" and "completely satisfied" wasn't marginal - it was exponential in terms of retention value.

This became their North Star. Every decision, every process, every interaction focused on moving customers from merely satisfied to completely satisfied.

Making It Personal

Now here's where Enterprise got truly clever. They didn't just measure satisfaction - they made it career-defining.

ESQi scores became directly tied to performance evaluations and career advancement. Since 99.9% of Enterprise executives started as management trainees behind the counter, everyone understood the connection between customer satisfaction and their own success.

Transparency as a weapon

ESQi results were published company-wide. Every branch could see exactly where they ranked against everyone else. No hiding behind corporate averages.

Accountability at every level

Branch managers knew their careers depended on those scores. This wasn't about hoping for good service - it was about engineering it through systematic measurement and career incentives.

Their Results Speak

The numbers don't lie:

• Enterprise dominated J.D. Power rankings for three consecutive years (2021-2023)

• They Scored 866 points in 2023 vs industry average of 843

• Even their 2024 second-place ranking of 729 significantly outperformed the industry average of 688

• Internal satisfaction rate of 97%

What This Means for Your Business

Enterprise's approach teaches us three critical lessons about retention engineering:

1. Measure what matters most: They focused on "completely satisfied" because that's where the retention magic happens

2. Make it personal: When individual career success depends on customer satisfaction, behaviour changes dramatically

3. Create transparency: When everyone can see the results, competitive dynamics drive continuous improvement

The beauty of Enterprise's system isn't just that it works, it's that it's replicable. Any business can implement satisfaction-based performance metrics. Any company can tie career advancement to customer outcomes.

Retention Architecture

What fascinates me most is how Enterprise built a self-reinforcing system. Happy customers led to career advancement, which attracted talent focused on customer service, which created even happier customers.

They didn't just hope for customer loyalty - they architected it through measurement, accountability, and career incentives.

Their recent slip to second place doesn't diminish what they built. It just shows that even the best systems need constant attention and evolution.

Your Turn

Here's the question every business leader should ask: What would happen if career advancement in your organisation depended entirely on customer satisfaction scores?

That's the Enterprise difference. That's retention engineering in action.