The world of hire businesses is a fast-paced and bustling industry. Now, with many individuals and businesses finding it more convenient to hire out equipment, the hire industry has become very prosperous—but this prosperity comes with a price.
Because of the growing demand for hire businesses, these businesses now face a host of challenges, ranging from facing stiff competition to ensuring customers get their hire equipment on time.
Fortunately, rental business software—also called hire business software—is now available and accessible to hire businesses of all sizes. This innovative software has made it easier for hire businesses to keep up with the demand and ensure customers are happy.
This blog post will highlight some of the challenges hire businesses face and how hire business software can solve them.
Booking conflicts
One of the biggest challenges hire businesses face is providing reliable booking.
For many hire businesses that still rely on manual booking methods, problems like bookings clashing with the availability of hire equipment or customers receiving the wrong equipment are common. These kinds of conflicts not only affect the business’ hire process but will also leave customers dissatisfied.
Rental business software can help prevent issues like this from occurring. This software comes with availability calendars that show hire businesses which of their hire assets are available, reserved, or in need of maintenance.
Once the availability of the hire assets is confirmed, the software can be used to add them to the hire order. If the business accidentally adds an unavailable hire asset to an order, the software will alert them to prevent a booking conflict.
Equipment loss
It’s not rare for hire businesses to lose hire assets, either due to misplacement, damages, or theft. Without proper software in place, hire businesses will have little to no way of knowing where their assets are after being sent to customers or whether they’ve been stolen.
Hire business software allows businesses to carry out barcode scanning and keep track of their equipment. The software offers real-time information on which hire assets are currently present in inventory, making it easy for businesses to know if any of their assets are missing.
Additionally, hire business software helps improve inventory management. For example, the software allows company staff to set low stock thresholds so that the system will notify them when their stock is running low.
Inflexible pricing and charging
No two customers are the same, so their hire needs will be different, and this may affect pricing and charging. For example, if a customer wants to hire out a crane for only five hours, the customer will only want to pay for the five hours they used the crane and not pay a fixed daily price.
Since different customers have different needs, hire businesses may find it difficult to charge them fairly. However, with hire business software, businesses can set flexible rates based on distance, hours, and other parameters.
This allows hire businesses to measure a customer’s exact usage of a hire asset so that they can be billed accurately once the hire period ends.
Late returns
There are times when customers delay the return of their hire assets. This may happen when the customer forgets the return date, but some customers may even keep the asset with them longer intentionally.
Hire business software keeps track of the hire period for hire assets and will give hire businesses alerts when customers don’t return the assets on time. This way, customers can be notified when they need to be returned, avoiding any hire asset availability issues.
Also, the software allows hire businesses to create hire cycles to help prevent situations like this from happening.
Implement rental business software today
Hire business software has helped many businesses in the hire industry improve their capabilities and increase their profitability. But finding the perfect hire management software solution can be a challenge all on its own.
MCS Rental Software can help you find the perfect hire management solution for your organisation. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our innovative cloud-based rental software solutions.