Investing in an expensive car that is not frequently used is a dubious decision. It is much more rational to rent it when needed. Modern market conditions allow for the rental of almost everything, from tourist equipment to transportation. For this reason, the number of clients for rental companies is constantly growing, providing business owners with a stable source of income.
However, with the increasing popularity of the service comes heightened competition in the market. Each year sees the emergence of more similar companies, prompting business owners to optimise their operations by offering clients better conditions and services. To streamline and automate business operations, car sharing companies can turn to car sharing software.
Transforming Car Sharing Operations
Car rental businesses often face challenges related to operational processes. Some prominent examples include:
- Maintaining a customer database in Excel or on paper is time-consuming, requiring constant control, analysis, and data transfer.
- Difficulties in equipment inventory processes.
- Processing inquiries from Instagram, the website, or other channels often involves delays and technical issues, leading to downtime for rental cars and loss of leads.
- Tracking rental periods can be challenging.
- Constantly monitoring financial processes, such as recording deposits, tracking prepayments and payments, and handling necessary contracts.
- Lack of customer orientation and an individual approach.
While manual control of processes is feasible for businesses in their early stages with fewer than ten cars, during periods of growth, more modern solutions should be sought. To alleviate headaches and systematise workflows, the implementation of corporate software for car sharing is advisable.
Software can optimise various tasks:
- Automation of communication: Customer inquiries from messengers and social media will automatically appear on the CRM system’s dashboard. The software also allows for creating a customer notification system, reminding them of rental deadlines, the need for a deposit, and more.
- Speeding up inquiry processing: Inquiries from different sales channels will be processed more efficiently.
- Order management in the car rental system: Orders can be given specific statuse, allowing them to be tracked through different stages, such as reserved, overdue, issued, undergoing maintenance, etc.
- Maintaining a customer database: All essential customer data, requirements, and orders can be recorded. Necessary contracts and scanned documents can be added to customer profiles.
- Equipment tracking for rental: Business profitability can be achieved when each item is well-maintained, repaired, and prepared for rental on time.
- Document management: Car sharing system enables the creation of rental deals, contracts, handover acts, taking into account customer profile data.
Implementing car rental software can simplify daily tasks, save many working hours, and enable quick work analysis.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Often, decisions made by managers are based on personal desires, competitor experience, or market trends. However, it is crucial to understand if there is any basis for these decisions. Common reasons for making incorrect decisions include:
- Many consider analytics to be complex. In the past, the process was cumbersome, mainly relying on tables.
- Businesses often have one measure of analytics—profit size. During crises, they resort to layoffs or reduced payouts instead of optimization.
- Handling all numerical work is handed over to accountants, leaving managers unaware of areas that need improvement.
Corporate software for car sharing addresses data analysis issues, allowing decisions to be based on obtained results. The software combines three important functions:
- Data collection and accumulation: CRM operates in such a way that all information is linked to the customer, and it can be obtained in a standardised form quickly.
- Data interpretation: The system interprets data and distributes it to relevant modules, allowing each employee to have sufficient data for planning their work.
- Building operational analytical reports: Based on collected data, reports can be generated, enabling each department to analyse its work and identify weak areas.
Improving the Efficiency of Car Sharing
Car sharing software integrates with popular tools
- Social Networks: Facebook and Instagram enable a better understanding of the target audience’s behaviour and attract leads.
- Email Marketing: It can integrate with platforms like SendPulse, automating distribution and checking interaction.
- Analytical Systems: Google Analytics helps determine how clients interact with the website.
Integrating software with other platforms and tools allows better utilisation of CRM capabilities and enhances business process efficiency. Sales managers, marketers, and executives can provide customers with better service.
Building Strong Partnership Relations
The functionality of various services working with CRM car sharing systems helps maintain leads, obtain quality analytics, automate most standard tasks, and individualise customer interactions. Using third-party services expands software capabilities, consolidating work processes into one interface, enabling managers to focus on other tasks.
Integration creates conditions for automating routine tasks, reducing manager workload, and is suitable for businesses of any scale.
The CRM system will operate more comprehensively with the addition of:
- Online chats on the website.
- Messengers, social networks, and email.
- IP telephony.
- Callback widgets.
- Chatbots.
- Website payment options.
- SMS and email marketing.
Integrating CRM with these tools allows guiding customers through the sales funnel, retaining leads, processing them quickly, and obtaining accurate analytics. Implementing messengers, IP telephony, and chatbots creates conditions for attracting more inquiries, leading to transactions, significantly increasing company profitability.
The Future of Car Sharing
Car sharing is actively evolving amid technological advancements. Renting a car is now just a few clicks away. The concept of mobility is evolving, with more users preferring flexible systems that provide transport when and where needed through geolocation systems. Furthermore, the use of environmentally friendly electric cars is becoming popular, contributing to reduced CO2 emissions and environmental care. Developing a car sharing business should consider these trends for effective growth.
It can be affirmed that effective development in the car rental industry is not possible without implementing a CRM system. It is through this system that work processes can be optimised, analytics obtained, and a working scheme established to attract and close the maximum number of leads.
