Bespoke quote calculators - The story behind TargaCalc

I can’t honestly say that in 2014 felt like it would be a significant year, or the year when I would start laying the foundations for what would turn out to be one of the most interesting parts of my life 10 years later, but that’s what happened.

This included legal as well as advisory content, which might not sound particularly interesting, but it brought into focus the need to understand the many different types of car rental customers from all over the world, and dynamically provide them with the options and information which are relevant to them and their specific requirements.

If that wasn’t exciting enough (and to be honest, it wasn’t!) the responsibility I was given led me to be flown over from the UK to Florida and Texas to speak, educate and instruct audiences on how to be ultra transparent for a global market.

But this wasn’t just some We need to do this campaign to get people on board...

... there were complexities beneath the surface which many people inside and outside of the organisation were unaware of, but to get them right meant that we would benefit as an organisation, and we'd gain more trust from our clients around the world, and ultimately earn more business.

The challenge meant factoring in rules, restrictions and requirements based on the customer type, their age, where they lived and the country they were renting in, in compliance with the EU Commission, the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) and other governing bodies in the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere around the world.

Not all of these governing bodies had the same requirements, and so a huge matrix of source and destination country based rules needed to be developed and applied in conjunction with selections that the customer makes.

We also needed to completely transparent in stating whether each rental cost was final or approximate, based on the likelihood that currency exchange rates could change between the time of booking and the time of rental, potentially impacting any part of the overall cost which would be paid at the rental location when the customer picks the vehicle up.

We were actually being closely monitored and frequently assessed, but it was all in the best interests of the customers, and therefore ultimately in our best interests too.

Langauges, platforms and mobile

Let's not forget either that besides dealing in 29 different languages, and also on platforms in addition to the core Hertz booking channel, customers can make car rental reservations on mobiles too, and that can present challenges of its own.

A big part of this work for Hertz was to ensure that people knew what they were going to be getting for their money, and also what they were not getting.

We needed to be clear about what would cost extra, and the value and benefits of additional options, and the reasons for having to mandatory charges for certain things.

In simple terms, the customer should have no nasty surprises

Perception was so important, and it was our job to help, because without this level of transparency, people could not make an informed decision about what (or even whether) to rent a car from Hertz, or one of our competitors.

Many of our competitors, including broker comparison websites, often appeared to be cheaper on the surface, but in many cases didn’t provide the same level of value, options and support that we were offering.

• Some did not include some of the taxes and mandatory charges until the end of the booking process, which made them appear to be cheaper at first glance.
• Some made no provision for quoting based on the customer’s age, which could incur a surcharge which differed based on the country of rental, and could restrict their ability to legally drive certain vehicles.
• Some would not allow upgrades, cancellation, modifications or extensions to the rental.

So how could a potential customer possibly make an informed decision based on price alone?

Part of my role was to make sure that the numbers added up...

Each rental was different, based on things including:

• customer criteria (language, country of residence, age, etc)
• customer type (guest or loyalty scheme member)age, where they lived, whether they were renting in)
• booking channel (direct, affiliate, corporate, travel agent, etc)
• rental criteria (dates, times, duration, vehicle, pickup and drop-off locations, etc)
• optional add-ons (insurances, fuel options, child seats, etc)
• discounts, offers, preferential rates,
• payment (pre-pay, pay at time of pickup, credit or debit card, etc)
• and many more variations.

Expectations

Customers in some countries would expect an itemised breakdown of the costs to be displayed before they committed to the rental (including taxes and other mandatory charges), whilst others would expect a final price without the cost breakdown.

But in all cases the numbers had to be correct, and during my analysis I found that in some cases the prices which were being displayed and the calculations which were going on in the background were either wrong, or they were correct but some of the charges had not been communicated correctly.

Without clear and accurate information, it simply wouldn’t be possible to convey trust and demonstrate value, and therefore cost was often the single factor which drove the decision to buy.

For customers who have no justifiable reason to pay more what the cheapest company has to offer, they'll believe that they're getting a good deal if it's cheap.

Sometimes that's true, but often it's not, and here's why...

When buying on price alone, something has to give, which could include:

• The quality and level of service.
• Features and services which some will be included by one company, but another will charge for later in the process, or not even offer at all.
• Flexibility, trust and peace of mind.
• The ability to charge enough for the business to stay in business.

These are points which apply to many types of business, not just car rental.

It was for all of the above reasons why I chose to be transparent about pricing when it came to the cost of creating a website.

Although I knew that the prices I was quoting for each individual job were really good and probably more in favour of the customer than myself, I found that competitors were constantly undercutting on price, and I was also getting responses to quotes like I can get a local web designer to do it for half of your price.

But I was also getting contacted by people who already had websites asking me to take a look at their website for various reasons, including:

• Getting no visitors, and therefore generating no income.
• It doesn’t work on mobile.
• It’s very slow.
• It has suddenly stopped working.
• They want to expand on the website or add functionality, but their web designer has told them that the things they need aren’t possible on their current website.
• Their original web designer has gone out of business.

None of the above were things I wanted my clients to face, and I knew a way that I could communicate what I had to offer... transparent pricing based on selections the customer makes.

Building a calculator therefore made pretty good sense!

As founder of TargaWeb, and with web development being the main focus of the business, I built a cost calculator to allow potential clients to self-select the number of pages, features and options so they could get a pretty accurate cost of a new website built to their requirements.

Just like with Hertz, I wanted to make sure that potential customers were as informed as they wanted to be. I provided access to clear information explaning of each feature and service and the benefits they can offer, but without it being in their face and cluttering up the user experience.

Besides the cost, I also created a section of the quote page which would break down the final cost into split payments, providing the client with the option of paying a deposit, and the 2 or 3 staged payments depending on the cost (the larger the cost, the more split payments were offered)

As a consequence, it’s true to say that the first TargaCalc cost calculator was built for my own needs, and of course to the benefit of potential TargaWeb clients.

But when as existing website client asked if a calculator could be added to his business’s website, I realised that the technical ability to produce a bespoke pricing tool for various types of business, backed up by my years of experience in business analysis and compliance work I did at Hertz provided the perfect background to be able to offer cost calculator development as a service.

And so TargaCalc was born, and it was evident from the many conversations I had with people at the recent “London Business Show” that there is a lot of interest, even from people who hadn’t considered that such a feature could be added to their website, benefiting not just their potential clients, but also their sales team’s or workforce’s ability to provide instant personalised quotes.