With over 50 service points in cities and airports throughout Chile, Hertz offers a range of vehicle rental and leasing services. Staring in 1961 with just 4 vehicles, this licensee of the Hertz Corporation has built its fleet to over 14,000 vehicles, has autoshops across the country and has added emergency roadside assistance, operational leasing, machinery leasing and auto sales to its original offering.
Challenge
Hertz Chile is committed to offering its customers agile, efficient and convenient service when renting vehicles. However, the limited space available in airports and other service points has always been a challenge. “The service counter space at airports is minimal, and to produce car rental agreements in the past, we needed a computer, a main printer, another laser printer, mouse, keyboard and POS equipment,” recalls Mario Urbano, Chief of Systems for Hertz Chile. “All of this needed space that we just didn’t have.” In addition, the use of pre-printed forms required several copies to be signed by the customer, which were then sent to headquarters for storage. Revising an existing contract involved a lengthy manual process to retrieve the original paper contracts and send them to the relevant service point.
Solution
Hertz decided to use a legacy technology replacement project to digitize the contract process, including the customer signature. “Initially, the project involved the replacement of ink and laser printers with thermal printing. We decided to incorporate the digitization of contract signatures too,” says Urbano. While researching signature capture devices, they discovered the advantages of Wacom’s line of signature tablets, featuring wireless, battery-free, and pressure sensitive digital pens to capture handwritten signatures clearly and electronically.
Hertz contacted Nexsys, a local Wacom distributor to support the project. “We explained our interest in incorporating handwritten electronic signatures to Nexsys. They immediately gave us a Wacom signature pad to test”, said Manuel Esquivel, Project Manager at Hertz. Thanks to the quality, performance, straightforward software integration opportunities, and the local support available from Nexsys, Hertz selected Wacom devices for their signature capture needs.
Implementation
Hertz created a simple and modern contract management process that would eliminate the need for paper contracts. An easy-to-read PDF contract shown on the signature pad screen was created, which the customer can sign electronically. After the signature is captured, an invoice is created automatically, and the contract is archived in the Hertz system, where it remains easily accessible online.
An initial pilot project at the Hertz Chile headquarters and the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez international airport replaced the legacy equipment at these locations with Wacom signature pads and thermal printers. Due to the success of the pilot in terms of performance and customer acceptance, Hertz decided to deploy Wacom signature tablets at over 50 service counters located in cities and airports around Chile.
Outcome
With the use of Wacom signature pads, Hertz has been able to modernize its service and declutter the front desk at each rental location. Concerns that customers might not read the contract on the tablet proved unfounded. “When someone receives a printed contract, they tend to not review it thoroughly before signing. With the digital contract, the customer pays closer attention, accepts the conditions and gives their approval,” says Manuel Esquivel. “It’s important that the customer is aware of the conditions of the rental. With Wacom signature tablets, we believe that the customer is more attentive to this.” Moreover, before or after the customer’s signature has been captured, the Wacom signature pad can be used to display colorful corporate images and promotions. This assists in the upselling process, providing an extra layer of value for Hertz Chile.
