The requirements of a modern rental system

If you are engaged in rental, it becomes increasingly important to ask the question: What expectations do customers have for a good online experience? Today we are well accustomed to do our shopping online, both as consumers and as business. It has become increasingly important for businesses to deliver a good online experience, both to attract new customers, but also to make existing customers return. Rental companies must, like other industries, deliver on the customers increasing demands for a good e-commerce and online experience.

Creating good customer experiences and using an efficient management system are key factors when running a rental business. We have gathered some insights from our most successful customers in the rental industry to help you create a modern online store and customer journey for your rental business.

We can divide a well-functioning rental system into two parts: 

• Online booking system: What the customer can actually see and experience physically on the website.
• Efficient management system: The part of the software that you use for handling orders and have an efficient admin operation.

Easy-to-use and fast booking solution

Customers have expectations that you'll be available when it suits them best. With the possibility of online booking, you can deliver the best service, be available to the customer 24/7 – 365, without actually having to spend hours answering phones and emails. 

The online store must be easy to use, have a clear design and representation of the products. Responsive design is an important element, and means that your home page works well across devices from pc to mobile. Around 50% of all e-commerce in the Nordic region takes place on mobile. It is therefore very important to make sure that the online store is mobile friendly. If your website is loading slowly or not presenting the rental products efficient, you may risk the customer leave before they get started. 

For many rental companies, applying a calendar with availability on each product can be useful. Also providing the option to choose different variants and accessories allows the customer to complete the entire booking even in your online store. With a payment solution, the customers pay before they pick up the rental products and at the same time accept the rental terms and conditions digitally.

Product information 

Good product descriptions are important. This helps to provide the customer with enough information about the item and gives them the opportunity to make an informative choice. In addition, investing in good descriptions and instructions for your products can save you a lot of unnecessary time on the phone and by email to guide your customers.

Although the customer has decided to use your rental products, that does not necessarily mean that they have enough knowledge about how the product is used. Good product information and blog posts on how to use the product can help to give the customer added value. It can also save you unnecessary follow-up requests, and reduce repair due to improper use. There is also a lot of value in investing time on writing good texts and blog posts, as it will increase your SEO visibility on Google. This will increase visitors to your website and by this, increase your revenue potential. 

Shipping and pickup locations

Information on delivery or pickup locations for the product must be clear. This is an important part of the customer's purchase decision and is part of the assessment they make before making an order. During this phase, they consider, among other things, whether it is easy enough to rent the product, and if it requires the customer to spend a lot of time picking it up. 

We also see that there are more people offering digital self service pickup and return. By this your customers don't have to struggle to with opening hours. Leid.no is an example of that. They drive trailer and scaffolding rentals, offering a digital self-service solution to customers where you can pick up and deliver at any time of the day. This provides a great opportunity to create a full self service solution.

Payment solution and securing earnings

With a payment solution, customers make both registration, booking and payment. This is important to secure revenue and avoid customers from suddenly making cancellations and thus a loss of revenue. It's a good idea to examine which payment solutions your customers prefer. Within the nordic consumer market, the most common methods are Visa, Mastercard and invoice. In recent years, for example Vipps (in Norway) has also become an attractive solution for many. The different payment methods has clearly changed customers expectations on seamless payment methods.

Although there are many people who prefer to pay by invoice, it is a great security for you to get your customers to use a payment solution with BankId. BankID can also be used for expensive rental products. BankID ensures that you are confident of the identity of the person ordering and protects you against loss and default. Certain rental systems also offer automatic credit checks for business customers when renting expensive rental machines for the business market.

For corporate customers, invoice with a detailed order description is often the preferred option. In order to offer rental products to the corporate market, the rental system should support invoice and have integration with your company's accounting system. Some payment solutions also provides a deposit feature. Deposit is a useful additional feature in case of damage and late return of the rented products.

Handling customer inquiries

We've seen many rental companies drowning in phone calls, excel sheets and post-it notes. To compete in this market you need a top of the line system to handle customer inquiries. Investing in a good booking and management system will help improve customer care and free up a lot of time for you. 

Get a digital inventory management system where you'll have an overview of your orders, your customers, what's rented out when and where. Digitize all payments, refunds, receipts and contracts. This gives you a system where you have better control and can handle a higher amount of demand. With a calendar view, you'll have an up-to-date overview of which products are rented out and which products are available. This is an important planning tool for running your rental operation.

Real-time inventory management and inventory availability

Warehouse management is key to get a more efficient operation of the rental company. Make sure you create a good utilization rate and get a good overview of the warehouse. Make an overview of your inventory. It also creates a better structure to have the ability to see which inventory is available for real-time rentals. It pays to create unique IDs on the inventory, categorize the products by different categories and use images of the product to keep track.

Reporting and optimizing

A good rental solution should have a clear reporting system that gives you ongoing overview and updates. You should see the number of new orders and products rented out, earnings per product, capacity utilization for the period and more.  Keep track of earnings from day to day, month to month and year to year. Find out which products are most popular and which are rented out in different periods. Analyze earnings of the rental business and compare different periods. A good reporting system enables a more efficient rental company and allows you to work more strategically to achieve your goals.

Do you need assistance in developing or improving your rental solution? Let Sharefox do the job for you! 

About Sharefox – Innovative Rental Software

With background from the rental industry and in collaboration with our customers, we have developed a software tailored for rental companies. ShareFox provides you with an all-in-one solution for rental operations, including a modern online booking system and an efficient management system. Request a demo here >> Get in touch here.