Background 

Kerr’s Hire has made its home in Victoria’s largest regional city, Geelong, since it was founded in 1982. The locally-owned family business has expanded its operations within the Australian state over the years, with three branches covering over 5,000 square km. They also rent nearly anything, from construction and plumbing equipment, gardening gear, and access equipment to forklifts and excavators. Kerr’s even has a sales and service side and is the local dealer for Wacker Neuson.

Problem 

Kerr’s Hire had a few issues back in early 2016 – One, even though the company was growing, it was doing so despite a rental software that wasn’t particularly stable.

Secondly, the day-to-day handling of their software was difficult – particularly the accounting side of things. The general ledger was primitive, and it was impossible to do cash transactions without creating an entire accounts payable transaction in the software. Their current system also had no integrated reservation system.

Finally, their previous software support was run through several different agencies, all of whom seemed more focused on capturing new customers than caring about the ones they had. When their software company announced they would be cutting off support for the product Kerr’s was using, it became enough for General Manager Jarrod Kerr and the team to search for a new solution.

Solution

Jarrod asked around – Matt Eastburn at the Tool Store and Mark Scarce at Camden Hire had recently installed Point of Rental, which had opened its Australian office in January 2016. He visited their stores and saw how they were using the software, how easy it was, and how it worked with Xero. He met the Point of Rental team and was impressed with the company’s sense of family and focus on relationship-building. By September 2016, Kerr’s Hire was using Rental Expert to manage their operations across their three locations. They have now since updated to Rental Elite.

The Result

Since moving to Rental Elite, Jarrod’s work life has become dramatically easier. Kerr’s Hire is now able to take online orders, get equipment into maintenance when needed without running into double bookings, and get a better handle on their inventory.

Sometimes, the things they love most are the small things, like the ability to clone a contract – “Sometimes you just have someone who comes in and wants the same thing they got the last time, and it’s so easy just to update the dates and times on a cloned contract,” Jarrod said.

Or the ability to manage their work orders. When customers call, Kerr’s can inform them who’s working on their equipment and where they are in the process without having to put the customer on hold and ask around the warehouse or call other offices.

Because Kerr’s provide excellent local service, regardless of location, multi-location inventory tracking has also been valuable. Regardless of which store is called, Elite allows each store’s staff to see what’s available nearest the customer, so they’re able to provide accurate availability and write contracts appropriately. This allows Kerr’s to deliver on its promise that when a customer rings up, they’ll be greeted by a person who will be able to help with their problem.

Kerr’s use all areas of Point of Rental Elite, including Purchase Orders, Dispatch with GPS integration, Inspection App, and full website integration.

Kerr’s appreciate that their software provider takes customer service as seriously as they do.

“One thing I really like is that [Pointers] are very welcoming people,” said Jarrod. “I’m a relationships person, not a price-based person, and I feel like Point of Rental is focused on maintaining excellent relationships.”