CX Research and Customer Journey Case Study — Hertz

Mapping the moments that make or break loyalty

How it started

Hertz had the data. What they didn't have was the story inside it.

They knew some customers were frustrated. They knew certain moments in the rental journey were driving churn. They had NPS scores, complaint patterns, operational metrics. What they couldn't see was which moments actually mattered — and why — across a portfolio of three brands, seven global markets, and a customer base that ranges from road warriors to once-a-year vacationers who just need to get from the airport to the hotel without a disaster.

The mandate was clear: figure out what's driving loyalty and what's destroying it. Then figure out how to close the gap.

What we did

Program 11 designed and fielded a full-scale, multi-method CX and pricing research program across three brands and seven global markets — more than 5,500 respondents in the U.S., France, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Australia.

We layered quantitative survey research with pricing sensitivity analysis, interviews with employees, intercept fieldwork at multiple U.S. airports, and 50 real-time video diaries that captured the rental experience as customers moved through it.

The output: a CX mindset framework, full journey map, competitive landscape analysis, and a global CX and pricing roadmap with defined investment priorities.

Our a-ha moment: The data kept pointing to the same thing: it's rarely one bad moment that loses a customer. It's the sequence. A small friction early in the journey changes how everything after it gets experienced. The work was figuring out which moments set the dominos in motion.

How it’s going

The roadmap now gives Hertz a shared language for CX investment decisions — a way to evaluate operational changes, loyalty program updates, and service design choices against a clear picture of what customers actually need at each stage of the journey.

The mindset framework and journey map give cross-functional teams — operations, marketing, product — a common foundation to build from instead of negotiating whose version of the customer is right.