According to a study done by ILM Corporation, searching through paper can take up as much as 30% of an employee’s work time. How many extra rentals would you be able to handle with that time or give better customer service with paperless rental software?
There are many benefits for going paperless. Many of today’s renters are Internet savvy. They spend most of their lives on computers, tablets, and smartphones. They crave efficiency and opt to spend their money on experiences that are streamlined and customized. Stay ahead of the trend and turn them into paying customers.
Here, we give you 5 reasons why it makes sense to go paperless and use dedicated bike and ski rental software to run both aspects of your business. Go paperless and take your rentals to the next level.
1. Boost efficiency and save time
Instead of trying to find a rental ticket, you can pull up reservation details, at any time, from anywhere, in seconds. Yes, in seconds!. Your reservations can be stored, retrieved, and searched much faster than paper ones. Reservations are immediately accessible directly from any device. This in return, saves time so that your staff can better attend to customer needs. Therefore, going digital can improve quality of your rentals and customer satisfaction.
- Self registration on tablets. Have customers register and sign while they wait in the queue.
- Digital waivers. Have customers sign contracts electronically, they are automatically stored in their reservation.
- No more lost information or bikes. Have all additional details in their reservation, like height, DIN settings, pedals etc. You can track the bikes with a click of a button. Who has got what and when is it coming back.
- Retrieve any reservation details in seconds. Information is accessible anywhere at any time from any device 24/7. Several people can look at same reservation or any data at same time in multiple locations. No need to spend your precious time looking for information.
- Email confirmations and invoices rather than print them.
- Scan in documents such as passports and driver’s licenses as additional security.
A all-in-one bike rental solution, like Bike Rental Manager (BRM), is designed to make your rentals efficient and to save you time.
2. Grow your email list easily
Simply ask the customer for their email address to send invoice/receipt digitally. Now imagine that email address being automatically added to a marketing automation system like MailChimp. BRM will store both bike and ski customer details.
That email address is worth a lot of money. Why? You can build customer loyalty by managing post-purchase engagement. It gives you the power to identify and engage with your customers, driving rentals and profit. Because the probability of selling a service to an existing customer is around 60-70 percent, while it is only 5-20% to a new customer writes Marketeer. Read more about customer loyalty in this article from www.business.com.
Now that you have their email address you can start building customer loyalty digitally, for example by:
- Emailing offers and discounts. Email all last seasons ski customers with special offers for the coming summer’s bike season, and vice versa.
- Asking for reviews
- Sending them tips
- Informing them about: bike trails, training tips for mountain biking or skiing, product news etc.
- Asking them to stay in touch on social media
BRM offers a Marketing Bundle to make it super easy for you. Marketing bundle includes: Integrated Customer Management System to manage your customers easily and integration with Mailchimp to effortlessly communicate with your customers, send post rental emails and market your services.
Make sure your communication adheres to European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
3. Disaster proof security
No more damaged documents. How much does it take for water, fire, etc. to destroy documents? Or a cup of coffee for that matter? Not much. In BRM your work is securely stored and backed-up electronically in the Cloud, so it can be restored easily.
4. Enables Workflow Automation to make your rentals hassle free
By going paperless and using dedicated rental software will enable you to have all your rental tasks in one place with inbuilt workflows.
- The software can trigger events so you know when action is needed. For example prompt you to take payment, organise delivery, give out helmets and other booked extras, return deposit and much more.
- With a click of a button proceed and make changes to bookings, check bikes and skis out/in, mark items to be repaired etc.
- Workflow automation will be especially useful if you handle high volume rentals, to speed up customer service and to minimise mistakes.
- With Bike Rental Manager you can even have inbuilt Maintenance workflow for your mechanics.
BRM has an inbuilt workflow to make your rentals effortless and ensures all your information and documents are in one place, easily available anytime from anywhere.
5. Paperless rental software opens the door to using Integrated Solutions to make you super efficient
By going digital, you can start to take advantage of a wide range of integrations that will save you tons of time. For example:
- Online bookings to increase your rentals and make customers do your work for you. You can have all your items in one tool: bikes, skis, poles, boots, canoes etc.
- Maintenance. Control and track your maintenance schedule efficiently according to bike usage to maximise your rentals. You can make sure the bikes are ready and safe to use for the next customer. Critically, this audit trail can be used to demonstrate the equipment was regularly serviced if a customer has an accident. This data will be invaluable in any legal disputes.
- Payments. Get paid when booking is made or take a deposit.
- Barcoding to speed up checking items out and in. Or make your inventory management instant without a need to count your fleet.
- MailChimp Marketing automation to make your marketing a breeze. Easily send an email to all your customers or segment them for targeted marketing.
Going paperless and using a dedicated bike and ski rental software will unlock the full potential of your rentals. BRM is an all-in-one solution for all your rental needs, all easily accessible 24/7 from anywhere. Say goodbye to spreadsheets and paper!
Find out how using Bike Rental Manager all-in-one system for your Bike and Ski rentals will save time on your admin so you can start growing your rentals!
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