First of all I don’t think renting a car is a pain. It may be if you’re renting it offline — renting via web is as seamless as it can be. However, that doesn’t mean car renting companies should stop there and it’s even a great news seeing them further enhancing the user experience.
That being said, Avis has partnered with Cellpoint Mobile to allow its customers to add additional services like mobile internet access and GPS navigation via SMS. In addition, they are using text messaging to get feedback from the customers. Not sure whether the feedback idea is that great, though. I wouldn’t want my phone to ring while I’m on the road only to find out it’s Avis asking me do I enjoy my ride. 😉
Finally, if everything goes smoothly — i.e. people love the new SMS service — they’ll be rolling out additional services via SMS, allowing customers to arrange even complicated rental reservations using mobile technology. Nice!
[Via: textually.org, carrentals.co.uk]