From small businesses in hyper-growth mode to an established business with temporary project-based requirements, renting office equipment can be a cost-effective solution for many types of organizations. Office equipment is a major capital investment and many businesses that do the cost-benefit analysis find that renting is a better option for them.
Renting office equipment also offers an effective solution to unpredictable post-pandemic workplace trends. While a lot of workers are returning to the office in person, many companies are moving from a traditional to hybrid remote work model. This means more home offices and co-location facilities which need to be equipped with the required office equipment.
Office Equipment can include anything from IT equipment to furniture and the rental duration can also vary from a few days to long-term rentals. For example, a company may rent extra printers, scanners, and copiers weekly for an upcoming conference. Conversely, a growing business may require a lot of equipment but does not want to break the bank by buying. The solution: long-term rentals.
Servicing a fast paced business that is in growth mode or working on a special project means providing top-notch equipment and premium customer service. Here’s how an office equipment rental software can help you streamline your office equipment rental business:
1. Quick, efficient, and accurate tracking with asset labels
Manually categorizing and tracking a large and diverse inventory can cause inefficiencies and errors. Asset labelling means you add a unique digital identifier to your equipment by fixing a label onto it. This makes it easy to identify and track your equipment – from procurement to retirement – especially if the information is stored in an office equipment rental software.
A quick scan enables access to all item-related data from a centralized database. Save hundreds of hours by scanning items for quick, easy, and accurate check ins and outs and more such actions. You can also use third-party scanners or a mobile app to easily scan invoices and items and access complete order details for seamless field operations.
2. Flexible rental pricing and duration
Office equipment rental software enables you to easily set up flexible rental billing and duration. Set rental durations and rates based on the business model that works best for you. This can help your business cater to different rental needs easily. You can also set personalized pricing in order to attract new customers or build loyalty among existing customers. How? If a regular customer rents out a printer on a recurring basis, you can offer a reduced rental rate to ensure the long-term retention of this customer.
Learn more about creating loyal customers with personalized pricing here.
3. Charge for damaged items
As a rental business, you are always dealing with the expense of damages. Depending on the value of the item and the extent of the damage, this can be a significant cost burden for your business.
Office equipment rental software enables you to charge for any damages to your items. Specify the reason for damages and the amount that will be charged against the order. For example, a rented-in, ergonomic chair has a broken armrest and damaged pneumatic levels for raising and lowering the chair. You can choose to charge for this chair in order or charge it to the total invoice. The customer can be notified with a printed invoice stating the damage fee and reason for charges.
For more details, Read Charge Line Item Damages in EZRentOut
4. Run reports to gain business insights
A rental software maintains a real-time centralized record of your rental inventory. You can use this information to run reports, assess your business’s health, and make informed strategic decisions. Run monthly, semi-annual or annual reports and extract information on inventory sold, items rented out, or revenue streams from different locations.
You may also create custom reports according to your needs, such as filtering data to see which products are rented out the most. This allows you to maximize the use of your rental inventory and make informed purchasing decisions.
For example, if some equipment is sitting in a warehouse for months and not bringing in any rental income, you can choose to retire that equipment. Conversely, if certain items are always in high demand, you can make sure you always have enough inventory to meet rental demand and do not have to turn away customers.
All this complex data can also be transformed into insightful, easy-to-understand graphs. Reports aid in turning statistics into business strategies.
5. Optimize procurement with office equipment rental software
Have you ever declined an office equipment rental order due to the unavailability of items? Or did you deliver office equipment late because your vendor did not supply it on time? All of these issues can be avoided by managing purchase orders in your rental software. You can set low stock level alerts and automatically link them to purchase orders for timely delivery of office equipment stocks.
The rental software also allows you to add vendors and set the quantities and pricing of inventories to be supplied by these vendors. Once the items are supplied, you can also print invoices for record-keeping.
Read more on Purchase Orders, here.
6. Seamless office equipment maintenance
It is crucial to monitor your equipment and ensure it is always in top-notch condition and ready to be rented out to customers. Faulty machines or damaged furniture can adversely impact the timely delivery of an order and lead to dissatisfied customers.
Office equipment rental software comes equipped with powerful preventative maintenance capabilities.
Create a service and maintenance schedule for your items, assign tasks to team members, and set alerts for upcoming services due. It is essential to rent out office equipment that is in great working condition to avoid customer complaints and prevent revenue losses. Any office equipment that requires monthly or weekly upkeep can be managed with the help of recurring services. You can also set up service triage, which means a piece of equipment goes straight into servicing as soon as it is checked in.
Want to make sure an item in service and maintenance does not get rented out? Just mark it as unavailable for that entire duration.
Learn more about service and maintenance here.
7. Availability calendar for conflict-free scheduling
Rental orders need to be processed timely to keep your customers happy. A delay or conflict between orders means unhappy customers and lost businesses. Rental software enables you to streamline bookings and reservations so there are no conflicts, confusion, or delays.
Use the availability calendar to get an immediate snapshot of your items’ current and future status.
The availability calendar shows you at a glance whether an item is rented out, under maintenance, reserved or available. If an item is available, you can also directly add it to the order cart.
This functionality can also be enabled on the Webstore so consumers can see available dates for renting out office equipment.
About EZRentOut
EZRentOut, a cloud-based equipment rental software can help. EZRentOut offers companies in numerous industries seamless rental management along with a host of other features. You can integrate your website with our EZR plug to keep track of all your rental Assets and operations.
