Webinar – Rent More: Sell More – 5 ways to maximize your rentals this season

Rent More: Sell More – 5 ways to maximize your rentals this season

Webinar given on 14th September 2017 with our partners Silver Edge

you can download the slides SilverEdge RSM Webinar Present 9-14-17.

you can watch the webinar recording here.

Here is a summary of the main content:

1. understanding rental.  A lot of people jump to the conclusion that Rental is like Retail – you have bikes, you have customers, they pay you.  But that is where the similarity ends; and understanding rental properly helps you choose the right tool for the right job.  You would’t use a road bike for a mountain trail descent would you? Sounds obvious but many people use completely in-appropriate tools and practices for rental.  There are actually about 10 elements for each rental you do, and about 7 touch points in the workflow.  This is the starting point for providing a great rental service.  A great rental service is one that drives repeat business and is not a nightmare to operate!
2. put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  Why not take 10 minutes and imagine you’re a customer of your own bike shop?  How easy is it rent a bike – the whole end-to-end process from phone call to bike pickup, return and beyond. It’s quite illuminating and you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t do this simple step.  Start by asking around your friends and family “have you ever rented stuff? how did it go”  There are way too many horror stories – make sure you’re not one of them.
3. do online booking properly or don’t do it at all.  Many people have a simple web form on their site.  Others have a complex widget they spent thousands developing. Others try to use a ‘shopping cart’ to get something running.  ALL ARE BAD!  unless your system fully integrates with your day to day operational procedures you are setting yourself up for failure.  You will be receiving bookings you are unable to fulfil easily – if you take bookings you are setting up an expectation with your renters – fulfil well or pay the consequences!
4. Leverage your rentals to drive more business.  As I’ve been discussing doing rental properly is really quite hard.  But if / when you get it right the rewards are huge.  Get this right and people will talk about their great experience, they will recommend, and they will come back and they will try you out for other services, like retail and repairs.
5. consider going paperless.  Let’s face it – most people start out with manual rentals.  Paper forms, spreadsheets, calendars, post it notes / clipboards!  It kind of works – but the real mistake is sticking with it just coz it kind of works.  It will be a lead weight around your legs as you try to grow your rental business.  One element is all the paperwork.  BRM makes things easy by generating all your rental contracts.  This immediately saves you time and money.  But why not go one step further and eliminate paper altogether – just take signatures on a tablet instead.

if you have any questions about the above, or want further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch.