Communauto, which announced an increase in its prices while its customers deplore a deterioration in customer service, must find a way to satisfy its users if it does not want to open the market to competitors, according to a professor.
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The car-sharing company announced an increase from 3.6% to 6.9% which applies to the kilometer part of the rates according to subscriptions, which will come into force on Wednesday, but which however only represents a “component of the total cost of using the service,” the company claimed. This is the second increase this year.
For Jean-Luc Geha, professor at HEC Montréal, the increase in prices comes hand in hand with the increase in costs. However, customer service complaints are a more worrying phenomenon.
“If today we are in a dominant position, we have no competitors so we have a little room for maneuver, tomorrow a competitor may arrive and if customers are dissatisfied, [pourvu que] the competitor has an interesting offer, [ils] will move very quickly to the new competitor,” he explained.
According to him, since the departure of Car2go, the company has been alone in its market.
“I’m from the school that recommends a lot of competition. Competition allows us to be more dynamic, more active, more attentive to customers, and in this area, there was a competitor which was Car2go, which no longer exists today, therefore the company [Communauto] is alone in its market […] so it becomes very difficult and the company is in a dominant position,” he continued.
However, in a statement sent by email to the QMI Agency, Communauto refuted the idea that Car2go could have been a competitor.
“In reality, this service completed Communauto’s offering. Car2go was limited to self-service without reservation, with small vehicles and a more restricted offer than that of Communauto, while displaying higher prices.
The Communauto fleet totals more than 4,500 vehicles in Montreal.
For the professor, the solution is to respond to the dissatisfaction of his customers.
“If it listens to its customers, it is to hire more employees, find a way to perhaps offer remote work to employees, today with technology, we can have a customer service team who works from home but could respond quickly. You need the right number of employees to respond to customers. It’s all well and good to sell, to attract customers, but you have to serve them, and otherwise it opens the market to competitors,” explained Mr. Geha.
For its part, Communauto affirmed that it was fully committed to improving its service, including the waiting time to access customer service.
“It sometimes happens that this deadline exceeds the standards that we set for ourselves, for various reasons, including the difficulty in recruiting and training qualified staff, a problem that many customer services have faced in recent years. However, despite the need to improve certain aspects, the overall satisfaction rate, particularly with regard to customer service, remains very high,” reacted Marco Viviani, Vice-President, Strategic Development at Communauto.