If you’re using rental software that relies on manual tasks, it’s probably costing you customers. But integrating that same software with your back-end business systems can build your profit margins and help grow your business — without the costs of hiring more staff.
The question is, will you get more return on your investment with a rental eCommerce integration or by maintaining the status quo of your manual processes? Let’s take a look at the trade-offs.
You Could Be Losing More Business Than You Realize
Today’s rental customers expect to see all of your available equipment on your website. They want to be able to click on an item, place an order, and pay for it — all within a few minutes.
If your storefront isn’t connected to your back-end business systems, customers are forced to submit a request for a quote. It’s a manual process that takes their time, then forces them to wait for you to reply. Customers today expect shopping carts and automated checkouts, so customers lack patience with rental operators that can’t meet the new normal.
We’ve seen cases where the entire process takes three hours or longer. By then, most customers have already found another rental company online that completed the entire transaction in two minutes.
Every minute you let the customer wait is another minute you risk losing the order…and every minute you force your staff to do manual tasks is one less minute they can devote to creating real value for the customer.
Integrating Your Systems Can Provide Great ROI
Integration lets you automate the menial tasks no one wants to do — data entry, inventory checks, scheduling, and credit card processing. It also connects your website to your back-end systems to give your customers a truly rewarding rental experience with your company.
It’s a vital part of attracting and retaining customers long term.
But integrating your systems is an investment — and like any investment, you need to be able to realistically estimate the return on investment (ROI) during the decision process. That’s why Rēlentless helps our clients forecast the ROI they can expect to see for their own business — and how much money they’re missing out on each month.
Here’s a quick guide to calculating the ROI on a rental systems integration.
Calculating ROI on Rental Software Integrations
To calculate your ROI on a rental eCommerce integration, factor in three numbers: investment, new revenue, and saved costs. Let’s walk through those calculations.
Investment costs
Calculating your investment for an integration project is simple. That’s determined by the cost of the project.
Now we need to determine what your return on that investment will be. Let’s start with revenue.
Revenue calculations
To calculate your revenue increase, only include the new revenue you will gain from the eCommerce integration. Ask these questions:
- How many new customers will you gain? In other words, how many lost orders are you preventing? The easiest way to estimate this number is to look at the ratio of quote requests to close transactions. Also, look at the number of website visitors who leave your Request a Quote page without completing the form. This total is the number of potential new customers.
- What is the lifetime value of a new customer?
Revenue = potential new customers x average lifetime value
Cost savings calculations
Revenue is only one part of the “return” side of an ROI calculation. You could also reduce costs. Fewer costs don’t increase revenue, but they do increase profitability.
To determine cost savings, ask these questions:
- What’s the hourly wage of your sales operation staff?
- How much time could be saved for each order by eliminating manual tasks?
- How many transactions will you expect per month after the integration?
Multiply each of your answers, and you’ll have your cost savings calculation.
But that’s not all. You could see even greater cost reductions, if you consider the potential to reduce staff turnover. Automation reduces frustrating and repetitive tasks, and it increases employee engagement — meaning that you have happier employees who stay at your company longer.
Studies show that for every employee you retain, you save the equivalent of 6 to 9 months of that employee’s wages.
You can also include an estimation of new employees’ accelerated ramp-up time.
The final number
To arrive at the total return on investment that your company could see, add the new revenue and the cost savings, then subtract the investment. That’s your ROI on integrating your storefront to your rental software.
When we work the numbers with our customers, they often discover that they could break even on the investment in a few months and see an ROI of more than 1000% over a few years.
Relational ROI
There’s also an ROI you can’t measure in strict dollars. That ROI is the quality of your personalized customer service.
Integrated systems provide faster service for your customers. They also give your customers a more enjoyable experience with your company. Automation frees up your staff to provide high-value expertise and consultation to customers who need a bit more of a personal touch. Because you aren’t manually handling every detail of every inquiry, you have more freedom to invest into the customers that need personalized attention.
Automated integration also eliminates human errors — so you spend less time putting out fires or making things right with unhappy customers.
Business Transformation ROI
The difference between a practice and a business is that a business can survive the death of its key people. A business has systems, processes, and policies in place so that others can easily take over if there’s a transition.
This integration is an important component of systematizing and automating your business so that you can easily retire or sell your company when you’re ready.
Integration Is Easier Than You Think
Integrating rental management software into your business sounds like a long and painful process. No one wants to deal with months and months of disruption with an outside vendor getting in the way of your daily operations.
There are many reasons not to integrate your rental systems:
- It’s just too hard.
- It’s not practical.
- We tried it before.
- We don’t have the technological skill.
- Our software vendor told us it’s not possible.
The truth is that integrating your rental software is achievable with expert assistance. Rēlentless has the capabilities to make your systems play well together. It doesn’t matter what you’re using — WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix, or anything else. We can connect any storefront to rental asset management software so that the information flows seamlessly.
And we can do it with minimal time and fuss on your end. We realize that disrupting your business negates the benefits of integration, so we’re diligent about giving you a low-friction experience.
Want specific numbers? Find out how much ROI your own business could see with a rental eCommerce integration. Contact us today!
