Background
Rent Smart opened its doors in 2007 in Grant, Michigan. It’s owned and run by longtime residents Pat and Lori Gardner and their four children, who have strong ties to their community. Both Pat and Lori have been in the rental industry since 1995, and bring their experience and passion to Rent Smart.
Problem
The Gardners were taking care of business – they were involved in all aspects of running their rentals from setting up tents to cleaning equipment. As their volume picked up, though, their system of spreadsheets and notes was taking too much time to manage. Previous software had been bad enough that they’d gone back to spreadsheets in the first place.
Solution
In 2015, the Gardners found Point of Rental and haven’t looked back.
Result
Since then, Point of Rental has helped them track their rentals and sales and they’ve continued to grow. In 2018, Rent Smart added a new store in Sparta. In both locations, they are focused on providing customer satisfaction, safety, and reliable equipment to their customers.
“There’s no way that we would’ve been able to track the equipment as efficiently as we can now,” said Pat. “We can go back and forth [between locations], we know where everything is at, what store it ends up at. I can look at the other store and schedule through [it].”
The software also helps them deal with those…less-than-perfect customers. Notifications show them when a customer has an outstanding balance on their account and identifies the people they don’t want to do business with at all.
Whether it’s helping them handle the future (planning logistics) or the past (seeing customer and equipment histories), the Gardners believe it’s always a good time to have Point of Rental.
“We’re at the trade show this year and there are 42 software vendors available to take a look at and there’s really no reason to go to the other 41. Just stop in at Point of Rental.” Pat said.
