When you walk into a business you can feel the vibe.

Walk into Il Fornaio in Sacramento and you can just tell that the employees are happy to work there, feel empowered to make customers happy and are attuned to their customers’ every need. Walk into Hertz at the Sacramento Airport and you can feel there is a huge morale issue.

At Christmas, one of the Hertz Gold Card counter reps was positively surly. And I hadn’t even opened my mouth yet! This time through, another problem, which requires another visit to the Gold car booth. This, by the way, defeats the whole purpose of renting from Hertz, no interaction with a human is supposed to speed up my trip through the airport. Or was that whole image lost along with OJ Simpson's? They give me an upgrade. When I return, there is no record of the car they have rented me in the system. If it wasn’t the most brilliant blue Mustang with the word Mustang displayed prominently on the side, I might have kept it! So, another trip required to the Gold Card counter. This time, I get a $50 discount coupon. When I tell the rep that I sense there is a huge morale problem at Hertz in Sacramento she agrees in spades. Tells me as bad as it is for me as a customer, it's a million times worse for those who work there!

So, thanks Hertz for the giveaways on both ends of this trip, but you have a serious staffing problem which would be a lot cheaper to fix than throwing make ups at your customers.

How’s your company’s vibe? When a customer complains, after you have made the customer whole, do you go figure out the internal root of the problem and fix it? Have you empowered your employees to make customers happy? Do your employees feel privileged to work for your company?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive