Paranoid Customers

From my experience, the paranoid customer is the hardest to cope with. They ask several questions at once before I answer the first one. They demand every detail of their reservation to be confirmed and explained. Next, they demand to know if their rental car is ready days or weeks before they pick it up. And they are paranoid their car rental is not in the system. Then they get paranoid that we won't take their credit card. Do some people have more problems with car rentals than others?

I do have to ask if one has a reservation number, then why are you calling the car rental company to confirm if it is there. And if one did it on the computer and have the reservation on a printout, then why are you calling to confirm it is in my computer. Do these people think I'm going to tell them something different?

It might help to ask the right questions.
1. What do I have reserved on (day)? This is an open end question that can get more details about the reservation if the customer is listening and not interrupting.
2. What cars are available for (car class) and may I reserve the one I want? This opens the door to advice on how to get the car you want.
3. What credit cards do you accept? Another open end question to get more details and if one's credit card does not fit that description, then one can ask more specifically about their credit card.

And an important note: If the reservation person, or web site, asks for a credit card number, it is very likely you need to ask if there any fees attached for this reservation. Example: Cancellation fee.

Another important note: we can guarentee people with reservations nothing. So confirming a reservation actually doesn't gain you an upper hand. Yesterday I had to turn away a customer because his driver's license had expired the day before. Another customer I had to turn away because their credit card did not go through. And yes they both had reservations. Genie out.