Starting an equipment repair business can have many potential benefits but also poses a variety of business-impacting challenges. These can include an inability to identify the reasons behind machine failure, delays in service completion, and the effects of managing workflows manually, which can further hinder your work-delivery times. The results: higher costs and lower revenues.
Understanding your workflow challenges in detail is the first step toward improving how you process service requests. Leveraging equipment repair business software is a great next step toward helping your team overcome these challenges. It can help you streamline service requests by maintaining work logs, tracking progress, and receiving real-time information regarding all important service details.
A dedicated software solution helps save time and money, as well as increase profits by improving on-time services to customers and satisfying their maintenance needs completely. Here’s how equipment repair business software can benefit your rental business:
1. Track service progress in real-time
When a customer requests equipment service, the technician’s first job is to observe and diagnose the reasons for the failures. Once the root cause is identified, a step-by-step service process can be devised to repair the item.
It is always a good practice for technicians to track their hours and allocate costs according to each step. The use of equipment repair business software allows technicians to easily create a checklist of all necessary tasks in each repair and track them in real-time as the service progresses.
For example, let’s consider what a checklist might look like for servicing forklifts. It would include service items like filter replacement, chain lubrication, oil changes, and other adjustments. The list makes it easier to track services in steps and ensure each task is completed before closing the job and delivering the repaired item back to the customer.
Work orders can be managed in your system to streamline service procedures further. Work orders offer a convenient method for allocating tasks to technicians by keeping track of their work logs, and adding a checklist to track and guarantee services are finished on time.
2. Charging for maintenance services
Whether your rental business performs services in-house, sends them to an outside service provider, or uses a combination of both, all maintenance services can be offered to your customers for a charge.
The service charges vary based on the types of services offered by your business. For example, general equipment repair services may be priced lower than condition-based maintenance. The difference in service levels can be used to benefit your business by segmenting your service pricing into premium packages for high-demand services and more economical packages for basic services, to boost sales based on customer demand.
Modern equipment repair business software allows you to set prices for each service level, create orders, and easily process payments.
3. Bundle items for rentals and services
A rental business entering into services and repair offerings as an additional line of business can potentially expand its customer base. Also, as your rental customers may be supplementing their own equipment inventory with rentals, their own equipment will require repairs from time to time, giving you more opportunities to provide value. So, offering both rentals and equipment repair can help increase the average revenue from each purchase, as well as increase repeat business from each customer.
Another scenario is repair services for the rentals themselves. For example, let’s say your customer rents your bulldozers for a year. Given the bulldozer’s heavy use on the site, they would require maintenance and repairs to keep them running on the job and maximize uptime.
In this situation, you can offer this customer a package – bundling bulldozers as a rental item and bulldozer repair and maintenance services as a charged service. Equipment repair software is an important facilitator for setting up and promoting such bundles.
Bundles can be offered as introductory packages, which can help promote the value of your service offering. Your rental customers can try out a service along with a rental item. Once services are favorably received, your customer may continue to purchase services more frequently for other items, thereby boosting sales.
4. Showcase service items on the Webstore
About 70% of Americans shop online, and the demand for convenient, user-friendly, and engaging online stores is constantly rising. This makes a rental Webstore an attractive online platform to present your service offerings.
How does it help? Your Webstore allows you to post a variety of services that can be customized with eye-catching images, appealing product ribbons, and detailed product descriptions, including quantity and availability.
Customers may have trouble locating service items on your company website even if you have created visually appealing layouts. With the help of a Webstore, you can group repair and maintenance services in a specific area and tag them as “NEW.” for example. This makes it easier for customers to locate services as soon as they open your Webstore, or simply help visitors to notice the offerings if they were not previously aware of them.
5. Custom reports for better analysis
Expanding into a new line of business requires you to be updated on all critical business metrics. The right reports and statistics can help you make informed decisions and ensure the success and profitability of your service business.
Custom reports in equipment repair software can help you create, run and save reports and graphs that can be used to estimate future revenue forecasts, aid in budget planning, and drive sales and marketing initiatives. This can aid in devising winning strategies for attracting customers, boosting sales, and ultimately increasing profits.
Leverage Equipment Repair Business Software for Growth
Equipment repair business software can help businesses simplify their service processes and efficiently manage workflows. Automating routine service tasks helps optimize productivity, streamline operations, add new sources of revenue and, over time, increase profits for your business.
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.
