At the lower levels of Management, and I suspect at the higher levels of management, there is a constant, constant, constant pressure to SELL, SELL, SELL! supplemental insurance, pre-purchase gas, and the Loss Damage Waiver. In fact, (on the Eastern Coast, at least), if you don't sell at least 8 Dollars per transaction retail and at least 3 dollars replacement, your job is threatened. Very rarely, do you hear the phrase "good job", but you are constantly bombarded with phrases like "this concerns me" or "grow or go home". Emphasis is placed on numbers, and not on consistency.
I get it.. On average, if you ask for the sale EVERY TIME, you'll get, on average, 10 percent who will say "Yes". More likely than not, the sale is not being asked for EVERY TIME, and thus, the problem. What I hated was the fact that the inconsistency wasn't addressed; which in my opinion, was the origin of the problem. Instead, upper management turned a blind eye to "creative solutions", such as revenue dilution and other practices that blatantly go against company policy. Their philosophy seems to be "ignorance is bliss".
Their other philosophy seems to be that Sales Cures ALL! You get a lot of praises when your numbers look good, despite how you got those numbers. That's because at the Area Manager level or above, numbers mean everything! You get free meals, tickets to the Braves Games, lots of "Thank you's" and appreciation, also, you get left alone! Which is awesome in this business! You get to do whatever you want to do. Nobody questions you, or asks why you did what you did. When you are on top, and the numbers look good, everybody's happy.
So, Branch Managers look for ways to "cook the books". There were several different ways to "cheat" the system, to their favor. Things such as fake upgrades (inputting a cheaper price, then making it look like the customer was upgraded, when in fact, he/she wasn't), telling the customer that a price was contingent on buying LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) or FPO (Fuel Purchase Option). My favorite technique that EVERYBODY (Above 4 Dollars Replacement) used, but nobody talked about, involved the HLES system, which was used for Insurance replacement. A lot of people put in a very cheap price, usually around $10.00 a day, and added on LDW or PLDW, to make the final price around 25-30/day. That way, the employee gets credit for the upgraded sale.
The overall philosophy of the employees at my level was "there are hundreds of transactions every day, they can't catch them all". Everybody had a "scheme", that the Branch Managers and Area Managers knew about, and taught. In short, if you wanted to keep your job as a Branch Manager, you had best find a "creative" way to sell, and teach your Associates to do the same. And before anyone catches on to what you were doing, you had best look for a job moving up or around in the company, because if you don't, you will eventually get caught.
BTW.. the ONLY reason Enterprise isn't listed on the glassdoor "10 worst companies to work for" 2012 - 2013, is because it's privately held. I drank a few beers with some Enterprise associates, and they commiserated the same stories to me.
