Rental Cars – services keep going down and prices keep going up

After traveling internationally more than just a bit recently, I had a two day trip in and out of Cincinnati this past week. I have been renting cars from Budget and occasionally Hertz for the most part over the past twenty years. The current economic downturn has impacted the car rental companies in many ways. Fewer renters, older cars as car manufacturers seem to have discontinued the practice of leasing new cars to the car rental companies in order to get people to try them out.

So people are not buying cars and consequently GM, Ford, Toyota and all the others are no longer offering those low mileage cars to renters. The best rate we could come up with on a one day 3 hour rental was $ 270.00 for a full size (that being a Ford Taurus which does not seem very full size to me). For twenty seven hours. Digging a little deeper the day before my trip we found that we could rent a minivan for $ 205.00 for the same period. So we went for it as like many companies we are looking to hold down expenses wherever possible.

If you are not aware Budget and Avis are now ‘one’. Budget has a ‘Fast Break’ program for frequent renters. I am in the program and for the most part it is pretty good – the rental bus drops (or sometimes you just walk over if within the airport like in Tampa) customers off at the kiosk which has a display listing your name and which row you can choose any car. Not in Cincinnati (whose airport is actually in Northern Kentucky). All the Avis and Budget customers had to exit at the Avis lot (apparently the Budget lot had closed unbeknownst to me) and wait since the computers were down.

Standing in the rain waiting my ten to fifteen minutes I considered how much car rentals have changed. The paradigm appears to be cars with high mileage, low choice opportunity, more expensive prices than ever before (stick it to the business traveler as a one week renter does not pay much more than 50% than the one day plus I rented!), and declining customer service.

From what I can see all the car rental companies are following this same model. The real question is why car rental companies thought lowering customer expectations is a good idea in the first place. It just isn’t. I feel there is a big time opportunity to cull out a different model in the car rental marketplace. It will take Virgin-Atlantic or maybe even a Jet Blue new approach but I think people would respond to something away from the lousy and seemingly identically boring alternatives available now. What do you think?

Thoughts on Tokyo – Part VI – Tokyo – it’s all about the hair and the mask

9:30PM on Sunday night in Tokyo and the Hair Salon is bustling. There are actually people waiting their turn to spend more than $ 100US to color, tease, and style the head s of 36,000,000 people. Maybe it’s just sheer numbers but I have never seen so many hair salons in my life. The Japanese are so very into their hair. Guys too. I had great difficulty in processing that fact. The guys had colored their hair – that Henna color being the preferred shade. Then the teased odd hairdo’s that were I assume to suggest a highly self-expressive individual. I felt it made men look like a bunch of wusses. Maybe the women like that but I can’t really say for sure.

But servicing the customer is what the hair salons are all about and staying open late on a Sunday night speaks to that more than anything else could. I am also aware that so many young unmarried Japanese women live at home with their parents (cultural and economical) and have ‘disposable’ income. That income seems to direct line to their hair and clothes. But the guys too? I fail to understand how looking like someone should beat you up would attract the ladies. Yet another reason why hard as I try I just don’t really understand the Japanese.

Almost all the Japanese dress stylishly even to go to the market. On Saturday or Sunday as well. Many of the outfits are chic and tasteful and then there are those that border on the provocative. They guys look more like they stepped out of a bad George Michael Video. Then there is the mask thing. I was there during allergy season but even though I had seen photos of Asian people wearing hygiene masks I was not prepared for the amount of people wearing them as they walked around and rode the subway. Apparently after WWII a host of cedar trees were planted in Tokyo and the residents suffer miserably in the spring during allergy season. But at times it was 50% of the people. Alarming. And something you would never see in the United States.

The other mask I noticed in Japan was the one worn by people when they were alone just walking around going about their business. Implacid faces, vacant looks, I am trying not to think it was just me but their overall demeanor was radically different when there were two or more people. Americans may not be the most friendly people on the planet but they will at least look at you when you walk by. The mask must protect people but I admit I had no success in getting used to it.
There are many things that make Tokyo so very different from the western world – I keep thinking of new ones all the time.

Thoughts on Tokyo – Part III – Tokyo is no place for direct mail

I remember the first time I went to Tokyo in 2000. The area in which my friends were living was very chic and filled with westerners. Where my friends live now (they have moved around several times) is also a very nice area but more typically Japanese with few westerners (that’s means you!). But the thing all these areas seem to share is that there are (except for major thoroughfares) no street signs and no street addresses posted. How does the mailman know where to go? They do it by neighborhood and somehow it works. But it does not work if you want to send any kind of offer to the household aside from a generic message on behalf of a neighborhood business.

Japan does not have lists of people to buy and sell as is the case in the U.S. and many other places. Since the population is so homogenous there is no need for demographic and psychographic profiling. People are not all that different – at least city people are city people and country people are country people. In Japan mail is delivered 7 days a week and you pretty much have to check your mailbox every time you return home. I did not get to see any offers from companies that may have provided services to my friend but I imagine that there may be some mailing to customer files but then again maybe not. I was told how efficient the Japanese postal service is, and that would be consistent with just about everything in Japan. The Japanese postal service is being privatized over the next 9+ years. This is something that is often discussed about the USPS but never really seems to gain any real traction.

The cultural reasons would seem to be many for why there is no customer list industry in Japan but I am sure that there are many Americans that would prefer if there were little advertising mail in the United States. There are however no shortages of direct response television ads and some of the same characters that hawk products on American television can be seen doing the same complete with dubbing, subtitles etc. for selling those products in Japan. I wonder if the Japanese will use the mail any differently as the amount of advertising messages continue to increase there as much as in the U.S... I for one think it is a channel that could be leveraged but it would not be easy (what is easy these days?).

And don’t ever just throw your unwanted mail in the garbage. In Tokyo your neighbors make up what I call the ‘garbage police’. The recycling standards are quite high in Tokyo and as gai-jin (foreign people) are not fully familiar with garbage protocols you can spend fifteen minutes being admonished by your neighbor due to your errors in separating your garbage. These people take this stuff seriously! Good thing though – 36 million people have big time garbage potential. And even with the strict standards there are mutant super crows that prowl the streets of Tokyo. These birds are scary big and appear to have hit the steroid stash. They make noise 24 hours a day and frequently made me feel as if I were in an Edgar Allen Poe story or Alfred Hitchcock movie. I have heard that the crows have actually gone after people and they take small animals regularly. One final observation about garbage in Tokyo (and Europe for that matter) – re: public garbage cans. There aren’t many. Having been to Europe twice in the past 9 months as well as Tokyo I have never carried my trash around more in my life. However the streets of Europe and Tokyo were infinitely cleaner than in New York (not saying much) or most other places in the U.S. Yes there is a correlation. But it would take an American quite some time to get used to that!

Thoughts on Tokyo – Part II – how technology made it more fun

I am going on 24 hours with little sleep trying to stay up to hopefully get back on track. So this might not be the most lucid post I have ever made. Forgive me if that’s the case. I just finished uploading all the photos and I will share a few along the way.

I got the Blackberry Storm the Friday before I left for Tokyo (don’t hate me iPhone zealots – I love the iPhone too it was all about the carrier) and it worked like a dream. I used it all the time (and the data plan was really reasonable for the week except for phone calls which I did not make). I almost felt like a Japanese person since they are CONSTANTLY using their phone. In fact the Japanese don’t use computers at home nearly to the degree that we do here in the States. The 3G network is outstanding and really fast. Surfing the web was easy and it appeared simple to switch from phone mode to web.

One morning I realized I misplaced my subway map and was on my own as my buddy had to go to work. I went to Google and downloaded a Tokyo subway map and could increase the size so I could see where I wanted to go and also could move around within the map. It was comforting to always be able to be in touch. I also could easily monitor what was going on at the office (without responding as being 13 hours ahead is not all that convenient for real time work e-mailing or conversations. I posted a few tweets, a few Facebook updates all from the handheld. And it also has a 3.2 mega-pixel camera which takes pretty good photos – and videos.

So even though I am totally fried right now I am in a pretty good way coming back to work tomorrow without the deluge of stuff to sift through since I already have seen much of it and responded to whatever was important.

The Storm is a little bulky and the younger Japanese set that is continually on the phone have to have great eyes as their phones are really small and reading Kanji looks like a chore even if you know what it means!

But the main thing here is that Smart phones like the Storm, iPhone and the yet to be released Palm-Pre (I actually really wanted one of those but could not wait) have changed the game and I am wondering when and how the tiny net books I saw in Japan will meld with the Smart Phones? I guess you could say it’s happening as we speak. Or text. Or email…

Thoughts on Tokyo – Part I

I have been in Japan for nearly a week now and I am leaving tomorrow morning. This is my third trip to Japan (and Asia) in the last nine years. Several friends of mine travel to Tokyo on business and for the most part seem to enjoy it. But since I have never stayed in a hotel in Japan I believe as a tourist I have a very different sense of the overall culture than someone who flies in for a couple of days, has a few meetings and hangs out where the westerners are (Rappongi). I can say with all assurance that I love this place and could easily see myself living in Tokyo for a while. While that is highly unlikely (my family, friends and employees have nothing about which to be concerned), living within a completely different culture is energizing and perspective changing. And I don’t speak the language and barely understand enough to get around.

Since I often blog about customer experiences I’ll try not to rhapsodize too much about why I like it here in Tokyo – a city of more than 36 million people within the greater Tokyo area. 1 out of 3 Japanese people live in Tokyo. Japan is a country whose area would fit comfortably within the state of California. Yes it’s crowded. Really crowded, but it works.

I have had the great pleasure of spending a week with my great friend Tom who has lived in Tokyo for ten years. He began studying Japanese in college when were freshmen at USC. He is still taking Japanese lessons. The Japanese language is very difficult. But I do want to learn it. I had a DVD from our great client Rosetta Stone but somehow it has disappeared and I did not study up before I arrived. I will be sure to go out and get a replacement. But since my friend has been studying for more than 30 years and lives here I realize at best I will be able to hopefully get by. Some Japanese people speak English, but not many.

Tom mentions that Tokyo is easy and he is right. Convenient to live and work and I don’t believe I have ever felt (or will ever feel) safer in a city anywhere.
For those that are interested I will have a series of posts on different subjects regarding my observations about Tokyo and Japan. Travel, Food, Dress, Personal Grooming, Politeness (and Rudeness) will be some of the areas that I cover.

What I will leave you with now is that I have come to realize Japanese culture rules people’s behavior more than any other single thing. It’s not possible to try to platform some of things that occur here from a traditional customer behavior standpoint. There are those that say don’t try to understand certain things about the Japanese. And a western person there is only so much (and it probably is not much) I could ever really understand.

But you should come here and see it for yourself. In the words of the Governator – ‘I’ll be back’.

Going back to the Land of the Rising Sun

I really like to travel. It gives me great new perspectives on things. In less than a week leave for Tokyo where I will spend a week with a great friend. Getting there is not necessarily half the fun. 7:30AM to Chicago, then to Tokyo arriving 1:50PM THE NEXT DAY! I look so forward to watching the little plane icon inch its way across the screen for 16 hours. But in all it sure beats getting there any other way.

This will be my third trip to Asia and if the first two are any example I will see things in Japan that will be new and different and sure to be exported for the United States. It’s hard to not sit here and wonder what some of those things might be.

In 2000 I remember watching Olympic gymnastics on a big high-definition television. It did not take long for HDTV to come to the United States. I also went to Singapore on that trip and never watched so much ping-pong as I have in my entire life combined. A Singaporean woman made it to the medal round in ping-pong. They did not televise much swimming or basketball (ok Singaporeans are not all that tall anyway).

In 2005 while riding the subway (and the Japanese subway system is remarkable and I never saw any ‘pushers’ packing more people into a train – maybe that’s a myth) I noticed the younger Japanese people were typing on their phones non-stop the whole ride (yes above and below ground – I thought having service underground was kind of cool). What I did not know is that they were texting their friends. Shortly after I returned I began to notice the rising possibility of text messaging here in the States. The popularity of Manga (Graphic Novels) was on the fringes here at home but with the release of the movie ‘Watchmen’ Manga is sure to gain much more notoriety and popularity.

Fashion in Tokyo is cutting edge – at least to me. People dress better in general particularly the women. Sometimes I see American women wearing fashions I saw in Tokyo more than 3 years ago!

I am planning on playing a round of golf (sure to be an interesting experience) and maybe stay at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn – quite Spartan I am told). But what new things will I find there that might be big in America in the near future? I remember having Chu-hi the last time I was there a fermented soda in several citrus flavors. It was unusual, memorable, and is about as alcoholic as a beer. Cheap too. I have looked for sources that import it into the United States but have not been able to find one. And you cannot bring anything but an empty can back home on the plane. Maybe this is the next big thing – but I suspect and hope not. More soon from the other side of the planet – at least it is to me.

Can I bring you back anything?

America is longer the world’s melting pot

Having just spent a week in London with a quick day trip to Paris (via the Eurostar train which was a great experience) I was struck by the truly international flavor both cities exhibit. And it all seems to work so well. In fact there were several times when I thought ‘where are all the Brits?’. Everywhere we went there were people of varied descent who were working, helping and living amongst London’s 8 million citizens. I don’t know why I was so surprised at this and probably that should have not been the case.

America’s larger cities are places where diversity and people from all over the world are more likely to live and work. Once you get outside of the major cities things tend to be a little less international to be sure. The same is no doubt true in England and France as well as other countries in the EU and around the world. Both London and Paris have a large proportions of Muslims many of whom speak multiple languages and which is something not seen in the States. Made me feel very one dimensional.

But what struck me most was speaking accents that made me realize that people from all corners were coming to London (I did not spend enough time in Paris to get a really good feel) to live and work. They come from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Yes there were more than a few North Americans as well. What draws them all to London is the prospect of finding work and living in one of the world’s great cities.

Great expensive cities I should add. Being from the New York Metropolitan area I am not unaccustomed to the inherent escalated costs of a major city but even by those standards London is crazy expensive. Simple pub meals (complete with a pint or maybe even 2) are $ 25.00 per head – and I could never get the service charge thing straight whether I was over tipping or under tipping feeling like a stupid Yank often. I wondered how people could afford to work in hotels; restaurants etc. and live in even the greater London area.

We Americans have taken pride in being called the ‘melting pot’ of the world but my feeling now is we no longer own that appellation. It’s probably been that way for longer than I realize and that’s not a bad thing in any way - in fact I think it is entirely positive. I head back to Tokyo for the first time in a few years for a week in early March. The Japanese are famous for their homogeneity and I will be watching for changes there that might indicate Japan is becoming more welcoming and attracting to foreigners.