I’ve been looking at this rainbow for 45 minutes. He became increasingly bright and in the end completely round.

Welcome to Iceland!

I stood outside waiting for my fellow travelers who were waiting in line to obtain our rented cars.

I enjoyed! My traveling companions did not. Not only did they miss this warm and wonderful welcome. But they were particularly annoyed by the inefficient process to check-in.

You would say that if all data are known in advance, it would be easy to process. But no, two cars, three drivers and a fourth one that pays … apparently, that was too complicated. A giant paper shop was filled in again. When that was finally done, the same girl from that paper shop put on her coat. To pick up our cars by herself. How inefficient!

Here’s room for improvement and these are my suggestions!

• When registering a booking, ask for all the necessary information.

• Check the registered information on arrival and amplify if necessary.

• Make sure someone else picks up the cars and drives them up.

Returning the car was a piece of cake. Arranged in 5 minutes.

By the way, we did have wifi in the car. What a surprise!

The moral of this story: realize that your clients are leaving for a fantastic journey. And as a car rental company, you can make the start of that trip unforgettable. Anyhow, our trip here did not start well and this start took a relatively long time. Very often, your process is just one part of the whole trip. Therefore, you should be aware of your contribution to the total customer journey of your customers. Make sure you understand it and then adjust your process accordingly.

Anyhow, we had a fantastic holiday in Iceland. This experience was not allowed to spoil that fun!

Babs Asselbergs regularly writes blogs about her own customer experiences and those of others. Babs enjoys the small things that make the difference, but also knows that these little acts of kindness actually have an effect. She believes that if we are more aware of our behaviour and its effect on others, we can make the world more beautiful for both customers and ourselves. Babs is an expert in customer experience and customer focus. Together with Nienke Bloem, she’s founder of the Customer Experience Game and owner of BlommaBerg – the Game Company.