NATIONAL Car Rental has launched an initiative to enable customers to select the car of their choice when picked up.
Called Choice, the scheme has just been rolled out at the company’s flagship branch at Heathrow Airport, and follows its successful introduction in the US. The scheme allows customers to inspect vehicles within the category they have chosen, and choose the model, colour and style they want.
Speaking at the launch of Choice, president of National Car Rental Europe Geoff Corbett said: “The car rental industry has been described as being a commodity industry and finding differences in this industry is pretty difficult, but we believe we have found a point of differentiation. Choice is different: its simple and unique.”
He added that the option was not just for frequent customers or business travellers, but for anyone who rented one of National’s cars.
Analysis of data gathered in the US has found that there are different markets for each car. For example, women like the colour red more than any other and also choose sportier cars, whereas men like darker, more conservative colours and choose bigger cars.
National plans to make a note of its UK customers’ preferences, and will then tailor the fleet to accommodate its client base. The company also intends to feed the information back to car suppliers.
Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport branch of National is likely to be the next to offer Choice.