Good service in the rental industry used to be about handshakes and a yellow legal pad where notes about each customer's ever-changing needs were scribbled. The personal approach is still alive and well heading into the new century, but in the beep-beep world of sole-source business, technology seals the deal.
Rental Service Corp., for one, is pushing the technology envelope with several initiatives that it hopes will cement current preferred provider business and forge new opportunities in the outsourcing arena. Other rental companies probably won't be far behind - or they might be left behind.
"You can never satisfy a customer, but you can create a loyal customer," says RSC vice president of sales and marketing Bud Howard. "Our customers believe in electronic commerce, and they will sole-source with the business that can provide it. We want to be the technology leader in the equipment rental industry."
RSC began its quest for that unofficial title at a national sales meeting last month, when it armed its entire sales force with palm-top computers. The devices run proprietary software that allows information to be downloaded and uploaded with RSC's Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters. The hope is that a companywide exchange of information with daily updates will improve the reps' territory management, keeping them on top of jobsite leads, equipment availability and account profiles.
By equipping its 470-plus reps with technology that encourages the sharing of information, RSC is seeking to create a team culture - a culture, Howard says, that is essential in serving all customers, but particularly national and regional accounts who move from market to market.
RSC has also unveiled an extranet site called E-Facts that will allow strategic-account customers real-time access to their accounts, enabling them to monitor all their rental activity including equipment on rent, available credit and a detailed history of what they did on previous projects.
With all that information at their fingertips, customers will be able to analyze the best options for managing their fleets. Would they be better off buying a particular unit? Would a different rental plan allow them to keep a machine for a couple of extra days without any extra cost? By facilitating these kinds of money-saving decisions, RSC believes it will establish, through technology, the same kind of trust that handshakes once symbolized.
"We want customers who are loyal to RSC and committed to RSC, and then, in return, we want to be committed to them in getting all of their equipment rental needs," says Wallace Buchholt, director of strategic accounts. "We want to provide them with the technology they need so they can make better rental decisions."
The genesis for RSC's recent initiatives is rooted in technology developed long ago to serve industrial clients. RSC's Total Control System manages a customer's onsite rental process, from order initiation through fulfillment. By pushing this concept into the commercial contractor segment, RSC is expanding the possibilities of what sole-sourcing can mean. The yellow legal pad may have seen its best days.
