5 strategic features to improve your rental profitability

1. All-in-one Rental Software: Manage rental & Sales operations by optimizing efficiency

When you operate a rental operation, you essentially operating a complex logistic business with a process with constant changes other industries don’t experience. The key to improve your return on investment is to be able to control the back-and-forth process and turn-around with speed and effectiveness. When considering a rental software, you should not only need to focus on making a contract but on the flow of information available to your employees. They need to be able to react quickly on any situation and more important, they need to get warnings in advance before a problem occurs. For this, keep in mind 4 main features:

1. The logistics system needs to be tightly integrated. You can’t afford to a have delays between the various screen and mobile app. The information needs to be in real-time with notifications when required.
2. You need to get full details transferred from the salesperson to the delivery staff. You cannot afford to send a driver on site to find out later, it was not the right address or the right person to contact on site. It needs to be a smooth process.
3. The Mobile apps need to have complete and accurate information with the full features like taking picture, getting signature and completing inspection forms. By using mobile apps, you not only eliminate paper, but you update the dispatcher about the status of the equipment which in turns help speed to react.
4. A Whiteboard to visualize the availability and to dispatch, return and maintain equipment quickly. If you manage a large fleet with multiple branches, it becomes difficult even impossible to have visibility on your assets with this constant movements.

By optimizing your operation efficiency, you increase Utilization and therefore improve profitability.

2. Enhance customer satisfaction

Digitalize your customer interactions

In today’s world, your customers are expecting you to offer a way to transact electronically. From an electronic signature sent by email for the contract signature to the trucks on its way to your location in real-time on a map, your customers are getting use to be in control. They want to get a complete Rental portal to:

1. Order on-line rental equipment
2. View their equipment location on a map
3. Have access to their contract, reservations and invoices
4. Get an option to request for return and maintenance
5. Reports on assets on their project sites

You need your customer to be empowered. You won’t regret it. They will be more loyal as realized the benefits of being always on the top of everything. The simplification of doing business is a very strong competitive advantage. That’s probably the best way to improve customer satisfaction for the future. And your customers will be pleased to do it themselves, saving time to your staff and feeling empowered. The transition to a Rental portal is often a difficult transition for rental companies as they feel, customers could rent the wrong equipment for the job. That’s always the arguments that we hear. That’s why you need to get a Rental portal that has some artificial intelligence to make sure they select the right equipment for the job. You need to ask questions through the shopping process that ensure to filter out equipment that is not a good fit for the job.

Our simple graphical tools streamline the creation of highly professional proposals and contracts, ensuring you can quickly and accurately communicate the value of your services to your clients. With intuitive interfaces and easy-to-use features, you'll spend less time on paperwork and more time building relationships with your customers.

But we don't stop there. With our powerful analytical tools like the Sirius BI solution, we digitalize the interaction with clients, providing insights that drive informed decisions and personalized experiences. Gain a deeper understanding of your customers' needs, preferences, and behavior, allowing you to tailor your offerings and exceed their expectations every time.

3. Grow your business

At Orion Software, we strongly believe that an integrated e-commerce transactional web site combined with a rental CRM is a key foundation for growing your business.

Growing your business requires more than just managing day-to-day operations—it requires building strong relationships with your customers and optimizing sales processes. It starts with a transactional web site that is fully integrated. The complete integration is key for 4 reasons:

• Equipment availability in real-time. Why would a client take the time to go your web site if they don’t save time and they need to discuss over the phone what they can reserve themselves? Today’s customers, particularly the younger generation want to be in control and avoid interaction wherever it’s possible.
• Specific pricing by customer. The prices on your web site need to be in synchronized with the prices that you agreed with customers. It needs to reflect not only the price but the discount as well. So, when they complete the transaction, it’s done! They can follow-up their delivery status and plan in advance.
• Options to get suggestions based on the job that they are doing. To keep your added-value in the selection process, you need to use some artificial intelligence to capture the type of jobs that they are looking to do. As they are shopping, the web site needs to provide insights and the right questions to avoid renting the wrong equipment.
• Follow-up on the deliveries. Once the equipment is scheduled for delivery, assign to a specific driver and then on its way, customers want to be kept up to date à each step. Notifications with updates on a map in real-time is extremely powerful.

The reason for a rental CRM compared to other solutions is simple. Doing a rental reservation requires more than a quantity and a price. You need to consider the duration, the season and sometimes the hours per day it will be used. If the CRM is fully integrated with your rental software, it’s only few clicks to prepare a quote and get it filed into the CRM. The rental business is a repeat business in nature. So, often the goal is to send a quote for the new prospect to try your service. It’s very different than selling equipment.

4. Improve Reliability

Enhance Reliability and Proactivity

Reliability is the bedrock of customer trust and satisfaction. That's why, an advanced logistics and a maintenance solution is key. In rental, the equipment is constantly going back and forth with maintenance or inspection in between. The optimization of this process flow will have a big impact on the utilization of your fleet. The logistic solution needs to include:

1. A tight integration. As soon as an event occurs, the dispatching system needs to be updated in real-time.
2. Be proactive. If a delivery is due but a maintenance is required before, you need to be informed in advance. Getting the information at the right time is essential to be in control, inform customer in advance and ensure equipment shipped is in good conditions.
3. A complete map of your fleet and deliveries. When you only use a calendar to schedule, you miss the distance dimension, and you cannot use the traffic patterns to make sure the route plans are effective and reliable. The map combined with mobile app will transformed your business. It will offer new opportunities to change your habits. For instance, when you’re in control, you don’t need to rush the return of your equipment. If you know where it is and in what condition, you will better time your returns to use the route plan efficiently or get the right equipment back to maximize utilization.

Solving complex transport issues is essential for smoothing your operations and ensuring reliability for your customers.

With a complete maintenance solution, your team can proactively schedule equipment maintenance before they cause delays or breakdown, minimizing downtime. Our AI-driven insights provide predictive maintenance recommendations, empowering your team to stay ahead of potential problems and keep your equipment in optimal condition.

5. Do-it-all Rental Software

Complete Integrated ERP Solution

A complete ERP system is so beneficial in term of eliminating redundant tasks and preparing financial statements that the business case for the implementation is counted in few months not years. Having every part of your business connected to a central ERP is allowing you to invest your resources elsewhere than in clerical tasks. The reception and the supplier invoices can be easily match. You can use OCR technology and electronic transactions with customers and suppliers to reduce your costs even more. The benefit of a complete paperless environment provides a quick return on investment.

With Sirius E as your one-stop solution, you can say goodbye to the headaches of managing multiple systems and fragmented data. Instead, you can focus on what you do best – running and growing your business.