5 Keys to Successful Event “E-Hire”

Technology and Innovation — sponsored by Point of Rental

E-commerce is here. It’s officially an expectation in the B2C world, with large multinationals leading the way in providing easy, enjoyable digital checkout experiences.

There are plenty of tools that allow hire companies to deliver a world-class e-commerce experience. According to Point of Rental’s APAC MD, Dave Cameron, “now’s a great time to either add e-commerce to your hire business or to review your existing website to make sure everything’s set up properly.”

Hire software integrates with your website to display availability information so you can put down a deposit before leaving the site. This gives customers access to the information they need so they’re not having to call your front counter.

Here are five keys to a successful event e-hire experience:

1. Link your e-commerce site to your inventory software.

It’s useful to take a reservation for dozens of tables, hundreds of chairs, and more. But without a basic integration, one of your employees can too easily book the same items for another event on the same day. Good integration allows you to adjust prices in your hire software and have it automatically flow to your website.

2. It should be easy to use.

With thousands of items to track, pickup and return dates, collecting customer information, there’s a lot of data to handle. Your e-commerce site needs to be able to handle all that information in a way that makes sense to a customer.

3. Use easy-to-understand names.

The point of e-commerce is to improve your customer experience. In your online store, keep your item titles simple and descriptive. For example, if you have several different types of black chair, a good description will stay between the too-vague “black chair” and hyper-specific “Keekea black dining chair CFD730001” — perhaps “Folding black chair, metal.” Give them the information they need (style, colour, materials) to decide quickly. Good pictures make your site visually appealing and give people a better sense of what they’d be reserving.

4. Get paid.

Once you’ve paid for something, you feel a sense of ownership over it. You’ve created an obligation, so let customers pay online with integrated credit card payments. This prevents you having to chase payments and provides confidence that the hire will go off without a hitch. If integration is seamless, you’ll get paid instantly, data will flow to your accounting software, and credit card data will be tokenised so you’re not illegally storing credit card details for future charges.

5. Don’t forget post-checkout care.

A great feature within Amazon and other e-commerce sites is the ability to see your order history, manage payment options, etc., all online. In hire, customers want the ability to see their current contracts, invoices, and statements.

You shouldn’t have to be an expert in everything you hire, in running a business, and in website design, database management, and software development. Hire software takes care of a lot of e-commerce functionality, allowing you to focus on the parts of the business you’re passionate about. Point of Rental software provides website solutions, from hosting to integration, with an entire team in Australia dedicated to support you managing your hire business.

Everything is in one place

Ultimate Celebrations in Port Lincoln recently implemented Point of Rental’s cloud-native Essentials solution with a web store. 21 years ago, when Justine Carey started producing wedding stationery, within a few years, she purchased 50 items to expand her offerings, acquired another business, and the wedding and events clientele quickly grew. In 2020, the addition of a balloon business required further expansion, including a retail store. Ultimate Celebrations now offers a range of balloons, decorations, signage, furniture, and much more.

Problem

As their inventory continued to expand, hire software became a requirement to track it all. Justine needed easy-to-use software that could coordinate their two locations, with an online storefront, considering the acquisition of the balloon business took place during lockdowns in Southern Australia.

Solution

With plenty of lockdown time to research new software, Justine pored through several software providers and found Point of Rental and Essentials. Not only did it solve her software problems, but local, on-the-ground support provided by Point of Rental proved an added bonus.

Result

Despite the lockdowns, Ultimate Celebrations has seen amazing growth.

Thanks to the successful implementation of Essentials, Justine has peace-of-mind when she’s away from her shop, knowing her staff can easily process bookings and handle the workload.

After such an increase in inventory, Justine loves the simplicity the software brings her. “My favourite thing is that everything is in one place, inventory photos, stock numbers, it has everything,” she said.

The online store functionality has played a big role in helping us continue to grow, as customers are able to find the items they want from the comfort of a laptop or mobile device. Because Essentials is cloud-native, Justine, as the owner and head stylist, is also able to access the software from wherever a job takes her and see what’s happening back at the store.

The future’s looking bright

“The support team are great, they always get back to me and they’re always there to answer my questions,” Justine said. “If the software doesn’t have certain features, you can suggest ideas to make it an even better product. There are always upgrades happening and I love the way you can customise it to suit your business.”

E-commerce is about making transactions easier. If customers can find answers to simple questions online, you’re free to answer those questions that really require your expertise.

Point of Rental offers e-commerce solutions along with their full-featured hire software. See solutions that can work for your business by setting up a meeting at pointofrental.com/ au.

HAMPTON TENTS

provide your customers with a unique and glamorous experience they won’t forget.

It’s the finishing touches that make them so special ... classic detailing in the Serge Ferrari Champagne PVC provides a stunning visual impact; ‘Timbertec’ coated poles create a realistic timber finish; and the 2m flags are the ‘icing on the cake’.

Contact us now for pricing on the Hampton or any of our quality products below:

CLIPFRAME GEOFLEX STRETCH TENT FETE ALISPAN SQ STRUCTURE

CLEAR PVC ELECTRON EARTH ANCHORS ALIMAX LINERS