WeYield proposes a serie of five articles dedicated to the yield transformation in the car rental. Nothing complex, nothing too technical. It is an approach to conduct the business, a new mindset to plug. Let's see how.
Have you ever had this dream? After a relaxing weekend, you start your week with a good coffee. You start up your computer. A full report is already available. As you enjoy a restful night, all your indicators have been collected and aggregated automatically. You can spend your morning making informed decisions to optimise your business...
Like many car rental companies, your daily routine may be more of a nightmare. After your operational tasks of the day, you spend your evenings on your tariff monitoring. You have a thousand pieces of data to collect and enter to update your pivot table. You are on the verge of asphyxiation with the time it takes, for results that are far from satisfactory! Because, as you know, this data is not reliable and exhaustive enough to analyse your situation in detail and anticipate the future.
However, your dream can become reality. But how? Not with the help of a miracle tool, or at least not only. No. Your future success depends above all on the transformation of your organisation. In a changing world, where regulations are evolving, lack of visibility is the new normal, mobility consumption patterns are changing and digitalisation is accelerating, it is more important than ever to jump on the bandwagon of change.
The first step in your transformation, as we at WeYield see it, is the collection and automatic aggregation of data. Indeed, most car rental operators we talk to deplore a gap between the level of information they have and the level of information they deem necessary to increase their performance.
Certainly, they use various reports and tables on a daily basis to manage their car rental operations and optimise their sales. After years of practice, the process seems rather simple and quick. But they know that it can be improved. But, in practice, It remains manual, consumes a lot of time and energy, and the result is inevitably incomplete and error-prone. It often relies on one person, and other team members depend on that person to access the data.
Another approach is possible. It aims to put aside habits and manual tasks and rely on data and analysis. To do this, it is essential to continuously collect all relevant data, aggregate it in one place and ensure its reliability.
When it comes to data collection, procrastination is your enemy. Reliable analysis is only possible with comprehensive data. This can only be achieved through a systematic approach.
What data should be collected? On the one hand, internal data from your car rental operating system. This concerns your commercial activity (reservations, rental contracts, invoices, customer segments, etc.) and the situation of your fleet (entry and exit dates for each vehicle, etc.). On the other hand, external data: price watch, calendar, weather forecasts, passenger arrivals, etc. Thanks to the powerful technologies we use, we automatically collect your data every night, for all your vehicles, for all your sites and for all destinations.
We look at both present and future data. From past data, we are able to make projections to increase your visibility into the future.
All data is aggregated into a single database. Rigorous procedures secure the process, including precise indications of the formats delivered. Are there countless descriptions of the same model on the market? No problem. Thanks to the intelligence of machine learning, the system can interpret heterogeneous descriptions.
We produce daily reports to check the quality of the data, identify potential errors and correct them. An alert system identifies anomalies (missing or outdated data, faulty information sources, etc.). We explain any transaction rejection and work closely with you to ensure the accuracy of your data.
Our motto: automate everything that can be automated.
This frees you from tedious and time-consuming tasks. You save time and energy for more value-added tasks such as analysis and decision making. Collaboration between your teams is smoother: thanks to a central management tool, there is no more debate between the different departments about the relevance of their respective data. Everyone can examine common data from their own angle. No more need for manual intervention: indicators and analysis are accessible to everyone, everywhere, first thing in the morning. Pragmatically selected, this data is useful for analysis: it allows you to understand your situation and your market, to grasp trends, to anticipate demand and the expected fleet and thus to make the right decisions for your business.
So, are you ready for a change to combine greater comfort with better results?
To find out more and to discuss with fellow renters like you who have already taken the digitalization step, come to the WeYield Forum and Conference to learn more and get fueled from the experience of your peers.
Expert in Revenue Management and Pricing in the Car Rental industry for 20 years, I aim to share my optimization experience with our customers throughout the world. I am specialized in revenue maximization, pricing strategy, yield management, reporting based on AI.
