Staying ahead of the curve is vital in the hire market, and this means improving operational efficiency in every aspect of your business—from managing your assets to improving customer service.
To hit all these goals, it’s essential that your business leaves legacy systems and outdated processes behind and switches to a more modern solution.
So what’s the ideal time to invest in a hire software solution? If your equipment records are all over the place, if your orders are taking way too long to complete, or if you have a negative eco-impact and find it difficult to click with your target audience, it means it’s time to turn a new page.
Here are a few signs that your hire business can benefit from a customised software solution.
1. You can't keep track of your assets
Your equipment is the backbone of your business, but if you have trouble accessing accurate data about your assets, several other operations—from asset tracking and asset servicing to asset delivery—are put on hold.
To remedy this challenge, you can invest in a customised software solution and centralise the inventory management, enabling easy management of your hire fleet from anywhere—even through your mobile.
GPS asset tracking also enables you to locate hired assets and have complete visibility of them—including equipment utilisation, rental history, and maintenance. You'll be able to identify their exact location and how they’re used as well as observe if they’re used beyond the agreed-on sites or hours.
By doing so, you can get better visibility into hired assets, control prices better, and ensure asset safety at all times.
2. You take ages to process a hire order
Customers prefer smoother transactions when they deal with a business. If you don't meet these needs, it means you’re holding your customers back from timely operations.
If your order processing is slow or you don’t have enough staff to accelerate the process, let automation take over the business. By providing your customers with easily navigable portals, for example, you can let them access your business with ease, book equipment, and avail of other services too.
Automated order taking also empowers your customers to make the order unassisted by accessing your business at the most convenient time for them, checking the availability of equipment before booking, and referring to additional information about the items or services they need.
By enabling your customers to complete the initial stages of the booking process independently, you also make work easier for your team by saving time, money, and energy across your organisation.
A simplified booking process also makes your customers happier and increases your credibility as a hiring partner.
3. You need to reduce your carbon footprint
Sustainability is not just a marketing trick or a buzzword anymore. In the age of eco-conscious consumers, limiting your carbon footprint is a vital factor that affects consumer decisions.
- Automated electronic invoices sent to customers’ email through an online payment portal when payments are received can make the payment process smarter.
- Digital records—customer data, invoices, and other necessary information relevant to the business—can eliminate the paper trail and create a clean brand image.
- Electronic signature capturing can also help you save on paper, as digital signatures not only streamline your authorisation process but also take away the need to add more to your paper trail.
- Mobile apps can let your drivers discover the optimal route for deliveries and reduce the number of times they need to drive back and forth from the site to the office, eliminating the unnecessary burning of fuel.
4. You’re not tapping into the right audience
Are you not getting the sales you expected? Are you spending too much on your marketing efforts but still not getting the targeted ROI?
Your integrated CRM is the one-stop solution for this. With a 360-degree view of your customers and their hiring habits, you can figure out what exactly your audience prefers, the equipment that’s in demand the most during each season, and the latest hiring trends.
As a result, you can build proactive marketing campaigns to generate new sales leads, offer discounts with ease, and build long-term relationships with customers.
Business intelligence features of bespoke software solutions also provide meaningful insight into rental data to help analyse your strengths and weaknesses and understand changing business trends, ensuring you make the right strategic decisions.
You need a bespoke software solution if you need to adapt to the modern working environment
If you need to make sure your hire brand is identified as a sharp, sophisticated, and clean brand, then it’s time to switch to a customised software solution that can fit seamlessly into your existing workflows.
As experienced rental solutions partners, MCS can help you achieve this goal, bringing you bespoke software solutions that meet each of your rental needs.