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There's an interesting television series on the History Channel titled "Axe Men." It features teams of men competing to make a living in a very difficult occupation. This series deals with men who log trees for a living, are operating under severely harsh conditions and are really hustling to try to be profitable.
While watching the program, I was struck with the many similarities between the equipment rental business and the logging business. To use an analogy, not taking the time to sharpen your business operation practices is like a woodcutter not taking the time to sharpen his saw. So, be sure to make the time to sharpen your saw.
Spoken or not, customers want convenience. Are your company practices and your employees forcing customers to jump through unnecessary hoops? Do some of your customers find doing business with you a bit of a hassle? Have you lost business needlessly because of this? In short, is it ultra-convenient to do business with your company?
One of the logging companies' biggest expenses, like yours, is wages and benefits. It's really a struggle to be profitable and grow your business unless employees are exceptionally focused and efficient — and the only way to achieve this level of focus and efficiency is purposeful and well-executed training.
One of the big opportunities in equipment rental businesses is in the area of "convenience training." Employees (and supervisors) need to be trained in the methods to make renting from your company more convenient. Convenience training will take more effort than you may think.
Typically it's not easy for a rental business operator to identify how to make doing business with your company more convenient. It's tough to see the big picture (the most effective systems to harvest the forest) because of all the day-to-day hands-on hustle dealing with cutting and hauling small bunches of individual trees.
Yes, it's important to cut the trees so they fall in the right direction, but you can't do all the cutting yourself. Effective training, and learning new delegation and time management skills are all extremely important to growing your business.
Here is a small sample of the types of convenience opportunities I look at when I work with a client:
- Are there any times that customers have to wait for you or your staff? What can be done to reduce that wait?
- Check out your parking lot layout. Is it difficult for customers to get in and around in your parking lot? If it's too difficult to get in and out, customers might avoid your rental business. Equipment pick-up areas might need to be changed.
- Are your procedures at the counter convenient for customers?
- Does your computer system make reserving and renting equipment convenient?
It's important to provide incentives and other rewards for employees to find and practice convenience for your customers. For employees, this can be as easy as parking in the least convenient parking spot instead of the most convenient one.
During these very uncertain times, it's natural to desire more cost containment. However, the wisest business operators will invest in sharpening their saws to become more efficient.
Dick Detmer is an expert in the equipment rental industry, as well as an authority in the area of customer service and selling techniques for rental and retail businesses. As the president of Detmer Consulting Inc., he has written monthly and bi-monthly columns for Rental Product News for the last 20 years, and is also the author of a monthly employee newsletter devoted to the subject of customer service and selling excellence. For more information, visit www.detmerconsulting.com.
author: Dick Detmer