Branch Manager Stephen W. is an exemplary member of the Enterprise family. Stephen embodies all the values an employee should have and more, including his extreme dedication to customer service.

Stephen’s dedication was especially noticed one rainy evening at closing time, when he was called to help a stranded motorist. Unbeknownst to Stephen, the customer needing help  was Systems Engineer Lesley I. — an Enterprise Holdings employee from St. Louis in the middle of a four-hour drive to Branson, Missouri, when her truck started making unfavorable noises. With three kids in tow, she exited the highway only to find no gas stations, restaurants or stores anywhere in sight.

As luck would have it, the tow truck driver Lesley called only had enough seats for her and two of her three children. On a whim, she called the Enterprise branch in Rolla for help, and Stephen answered the call.

Stephen W. made sure that Lesley and her family would be picked up and taken care of. He sent a driver to her location and made sure she was set up with a replacement car.

Lesley was so impressed with the service she received; she wrote an email expressing her appreciation and gratitude to Stephen W and the Rolla location.

Q: How long have you worked for Enterprise?

A: I started in January 2012 in Wichita, Kansas. I moved to Rolla in December 2013 to become the Branch Manager there. After a promotion, I’m now managing a branch in Columbia, Missouri.

Q: Tell me a little bit about this particular customer.

A: That Friday, we’d had a busy day at our Rolla branch and were winding down for the day when I received a call from a woman whose truck had broken down in a rural area while on her way to Branson for the weekend. Our driver Gil B. overheard me talking on the phone, and volunteered right away to pick them up. She thought her transmission had gone out, and was upset that she’d have to wait several hours in the middle of nowhere for a tow truck large enough to fit her family.

Q: With 15 minutes to closing time, what made you go out of your way to help?

A: It wasn’t even a question of whether or not we would help; we knew that we would. I always try to put myself in the customer’s shoes. I definitely wouldn’t want my loved ones in that situation, so we did everything we could to help.

Q: What do you do to exceed customers’ expectations?

A: I follow our Founding Value: Customer service is our way of life. Our hope is people will then tell their family and friends about it, and they might call us next time they need a rental. Sometimes you just have to go the extra mile.

Lesley says the team did just that.

“Stephen assured me they wouldn’t go home until we were safe and back on our way,” Lesley recalls. “His team was great, too. Gil helped me get the kids, car seats, luggage, and everything else out of my truck and into the rental in the pouring rain. Once we got back to the branch, Management Trainee Yvonne H. sat in the car with my kids while I completed the paperwork. And it all happened without them knowing I worked for Enterprise.”

Q: What three words describe your approach to customer service?

A: Proactive. Teamwork. Sacrifice. It took everyone’s help to provide the service we did that night. Gil, Yvonne and everyone else at the Rolla branch genuinely care about our customers.