Service Is Key to Pleasing the Luxury-Minded
Marc Fogel’s clients are different from the rest of us. Mostly, they’re just wealthier.
Fogel’s clients are rock superstars, corporate moguls and a Saudi prince. So how does a business go about keeping a high-powered clientele happy? With something most anyone can appreciate: service. But Fogel’s customers sometimes require service to the extreme.
Fogel owns the Budget Rent a Car “Luxury Line” agency in Los Angeles, which rents out cars that most people only fantasize about: Rolls-Royces, Mercedes-Benzes, Ferraris, Jaguars, Porsches and BMWs.
“The only thing different we have to offer is service,” Fogel said. “As long as I’m here, we’ll do anything. I get a kick out of doing things for people. It’s fun.”
The 34-year-old starts with some pretty simple customer service techniques. He keeps a 3-by-5-inch index card on every client who has rented a car more than once from his agency.
Knows His Clients
“I know all the repeat customers,” he said. “I know what kind and color of cars they like and don’t like. I know what hotels they stay at and their home phone numbers.”
But Fogel will also do some unusual things. If loyal customers are especially eager to drive a certain car and will keep it for at least a month, Fogel will buy it for them to use. Fogel recently bought a $160,000 red Ferrari Testarossa and a $200,000 black Rolls-Royce Corniche for a Saudi prince visiting Los Angeles.
For good customers, he’ll also buy cars at his fleet rate.
“I just placed a $720,000 order for 12 Mercedes-Benzes being given as Christmas presents by a local billionaire,” Fogel said. He also gift-wraps cars and tints windows so the famous can drive them without being recognized.
The Luxury Line staff delivers cars to homes, airports or offices anywhere in the United States. For a $2,000 fee, they recently delivered a customized Jeep Cherokee to a rock star in New Orleans.
The office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. to serve the early morning and late evening flights frequently taken by many in business and entertainment. Many customers are lawyers and executives who feel most comfortable driving cars exactly like the ones they have at home, Fogel said. Most customers traveling on expense accounts think nothing of spending $150 a day and 50 cents a mile for new Mercedes 560SL or $500 a day for a Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible.
Mixed in with the regular renters are those who want to rent a special car for a birthday celebration, anniversary or wedding day.
Fogel spends most of his time with customers in the office at 3rd Street and La Cienega Boulevard. “When people deal with the owner, it makes them feel special.”
The company, with 50 employees and 600 cars, generates about $7 million in sales a year. Fogel pays 8% of gross sales to Budget, just like any other franchise holder.
Several customers and car dealers have asked Fogel to help them open Luxury Line offices in New York and Miami. So far, he has refused. “My trick to making this work is being here, and I couldn’t be here and there at the same time.”
Fogel’s mother, Rhoda, said customers do not have to be rich and famous to get personal service. They just have to be loyal.
Mrs. Fogel takes credit for coming up with the idea of renting out luxury cars. About 18 years ago, she was working at a rental agency at the corner of Wilshire and Robertson boulevards in Beverly Hills. When things were slow, she said, she would watch the people driving their luxury cars along Wilshire.
“I didn’t have to be a genius,” she said. “I looked out the window and said, ‘Ah, those people need me.’ ”
She suggested to the owner that he buy a few Mercedeses to attract business. “He thought I was a Looney Tune,” she recalled.
She said he balked at the idea because he had already tried renting out one luxury car--a yellow Rolls-Royce that was truly a lemon because customers thought it was too large and difficult to park. But Fogel persisted, and the partner finally purchased three Mercedeses--one red, the others white and blue. Two days after the cars arrived, they were rented and “The Luxury Line,” now trademarked, was born.
Although she doesn’t have to work anymore, Rhoda Fogel spends most of her days in the office. For nearly 20 years, since her husband left the family, she has worked to support her sons, Marc and Barry.
Because she was unable to afford a car, she frequently rented Budget cars in Beverly Hills. She was such a good customer that the owner suggested she work for him as a rental agent. That way, he reasoned, at least she could rent cars at a discount. In 1970, she accepted his offer and soon worked her way up to be manager of the franchise. Seven years later, Fogel became a partner in the franchise and a year later bought out the owner’s share. Rhoda and Marc moved to their current location across from the Beverly Center shopping mall in 1979.
Fogel and his brother Barry, 30, now a successful restaurateur, started working for their mother washing and parking cars. The Fogels admit to being star-struck and are not shy about mentioning favorite customers such as Robin Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John.
“My mother once called me and said, ‘Who is this Bob Dieland? Should I rent him a car?’ ” Marc laughs when he recalls his mother’s first encounter with Bob Dylan.
But the luxury car rental business is not all glamour. Every year, the Fogels, who are self-insured, lose several cars to thieves who usually strip them for parts. One Mercedes missing for 18 months was confiscated by federal drug agents in Texas during a drug bust.
“It had about 10 kilograms of cocaine in it,” Fogel said.
All-Day Seminar
“Minding Your Own Business” is the subject of a daylong seminar sponsored by the Alliance of Latino Business Associates and San Bernardino County. Workshops focusing on taxes, worker compensation and doing business with the state are scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the sessions, accountants, attorneys, insurance specialists and others will help small-business people deal with common problems, according to Philip Herrera, one of the organizers.
The sessions will take place at Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg West Center for Continuing Education, 3801 W. Temple St., Pomona. The $25 fee includes lunch and parking. For information contact Herrera at (714) 599-2315.
Incorporation Guide
A practical, no-nonsense guide to the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating has been revised to include recent changes in the tax laws.
“Inc. Yourself: How to Profit by Setting Up Your Own Corporation,” by Judith McQuown, moves step by step through the process of incorporation and includes many charts, forms and guides.
McQuown, a former Wall Street securities analyst, said she wrote the book when she was unable to find a do-it-yourself incorporation guide in the public library.
The book covers how incorporation can limit one’s legal liability, legitimately reduce taxes, qualify a business person, and often their family, for medical insurance and entitle one to corporate discounts. “Inc. Yourself” sells for $19.95 and is available in bookstores or by writing to Macmillan, 866 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.
