3 minute read
Everybody’s Business
TIME FOR REVIEW
This month’s issue of Rental includes our annual Renter’s Review feature, where someone on staff “secretly” visits a rental store nearby to rent out a piece of equipment.
This year, Group Publisher Sean Dunphy had the honor— he rented out a pressure washer for a project he had cooking at his house. Overall, he said the experience was so simple and relatively inexpensive that he wondered why anyone in a similar situation would opt to buy the piece of equipment. You can find the full story on p. 12.
In prepping to put together the story, I took a deep dive into previous Renter’s Review stories. Reading about past editors’ experiences renting out equipment got me thinking about what our readers can glean from what those rental stores did well and what they didn’t do so well, so I put together a list of “lessons learned” from some of our most popular ones.
Are there any lessons you have learned throughout your experience in the rental equipment industry? Is there anything you would recommend other rental stores start doing to enhance their customer experience? What have you found to be successful?
While we’re on the topic of the customer experience, this issue includes several articles to help you serve your customers in the best way possible.
Our business management department focuses on equipment rental software that’s making it easier for customers to book equipment (p. 16), our general tool department lays out three questions that’ll help prompt your contractor customers choose the right trencher for the job (p. 21), our Rental Snapshot profile highlights Tom Brown Jr., vice president of operations and sales of Rental Solutions and Events in Sykesville, Md., who shares his successes and challenges within the industry (p. 28), and finally, in our Eye on Rental column, Dick Detmer explains how the continuous education of employees leads to happier and safer customers (p. 34).
Keep an eye out for our next issue of Rental, which will include our new and improved Editor’s Choice Award, and in the meantime, feel free to reach out with questions, story ideas and press releases via email at swebb@ acbusinessmedia.com or via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwebb-1ba8b2109/.
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Rental (ISSN 2375-9925, Print | ISSN 2471-7657, online | USPS 686-370) is published eight times per year: January/February, March, April, May, June/July, August/September, October/November and December by AC Business Media, 201 N. Main Street, 5th Fl., Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI and additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to Rental, PO Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605. Printed in the USA. Vol. 43, Issue 5, June/July 2022