MidEast marketing | We’ll call you…

An interesting way to evaluate advertisers, Campaign ME, a Dubai based Marketing magazine is evaluating companies in UAE through telephone calls. Hertz Rent A Car has been promoting itself aggressively in the UAE in recent months, but is it customer’s service as driven?

Hertz: Good afternoon, Hertz rent a car.
Campaign: Is this customer service?
Hertz: Yes sir, good afternoon.
Campaign: I am looking at driving to Oman for the weekend, can you recommend a car for me to take?
Hertz: Sir, I would suggest a bigger car like Honda Accord or a Camry, something like that.
Campaign: Is assurance included in the price?
Hertz: No sir, in the UAE only. If you wish to go to Oman 100 Dirhams per day, not per 24 hours.
Campaign: Do you have cars that are modified for disabled use?
Hertz: We don’t have sir.
Campaign: What driving licence do I need if I am on a visit visa?
Hertz: Do you have an international licence with you?
Campaign: No I don’t, but I have a UK licence.
Hertz: Get a temporary UAW licence at the traffic department. They are just giving you six months temporary licence UAE. It will cost, I believe, 100 Dirhams, two photographs and then present your visit visa and the UK licence and then you can rent a car.
Campaign: What is the most expensive car I can hire?
Hertz: The most expensive car is luxury, which is 1000 plus, 1000 something.
Campaign: What is that?
Hertz: A Lexus 430.
Campaign: And what is the cheapest car?
Hertz: The cheapest car is a manual car, which is a Corolla manual – 120 per day, dirhams.
Campaign: How old do you have to be to hire a car?
Hertz: It depends, sir. From a small car from A category to D group, which is a saloon car, you should be above 21. If it is a luxury more than 30 years old.

Verdit:
The call handler answered all the questions knowledgeably, but lacked detailed information on some of the car prices. No explanation was offered as to what the difference between a day a 24 hours was for the insurance to Oman, and campaign was surprised to hear that an international company such as hertz does not offer cars that are modified for the disabled.
Score: 7/10

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 2:00 am and is filed under Arabia, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.