chrislee

After many years in the baby equipment rental business, we can take a look at our inventory and say “it is not all just for babies”.

We have had many rentals to people who do not have any children.

The easiest to mention is the good old beach\park tent. While this item is great when you have kids and need a home base at the beach for your stuff or to provide shade for your baby, beach tents typically are not UV protected and will not protect your baby from the harsh sun in tropical climates or at the height of summer where ever you are.  For many people who are renting items just for themselves as adults, this product will fit their needs and provide a great base on a public beach.

Another great item is the beach wagon, we have had many requests for this item and it rents well and not just to people with children. We have rented it out to wedding planners, wedding photographers, and people just wanting a great way to transport their stuff to the beach from the hotel (fits a cooler of beer perfectly {make sure you rent the cooler too}). It is easy to load up toy rentals with baby and toddler toys, but the reality of 2017 is that people will have one child and 6 or 7 years later decided to have another, there is a lot of wow to be had from clients when you can supply toys for older children as an up-sell or just split the toys into 2 sections.

Beach chairs, pool loungers with beverage pockets are also a great rental but not for kids.

So before you decide to say no to a custom request that does not really fit you business profile ask your self “can I rent this again”, “can I increase my demographic to include all travelers” and “how do I expose these items to this segment”, after all it say’s “baby equipment rental” or “hire baby gear” etc. in my  business title.

Trip Adviser is a fantastic tool, also the many review sites we are all on is also great, get friends to post reviews of items and specifically talk about how they did not rent this for babies or children but for themselves and get the message out there.

Increase business by…

1. Increase your market share
2. Increase your average order size
3. Expand your service profile to widen your target demographic.

Have you ever forgotten to deliver an order? sent the wrong item, delivered a crib without the mattress or a high chair without a tray?. While as you realize that you have done or not done something with an order, or as you receive a phone call at 8pm from a frantic client who can not locate their items and your first thought is “what items, who are you?”, you start to sweat and think that a negative review is inevitable. This is actually a huge opportunity to “WOW” the client and obtain the best review ever.

Like anything in life mistakes are going to happen, it is how you fix the mistake that will set you apart from the competition. Have you ever had a bad experience in a restaurant, one restaurant will apologize and give you a free desert coupon, the other will buy you your meal, maybe the table and get you some free drinks, which one will you go back to and tell your friends about as a positive experience.

While there is no need to give away the farm, you do have an opportunity to impress and wow, ensuring you get a great review. Think of this as some marketing dollars you may now use instead of revenue lost.

This does not have to cost you money, if you need to go back for a mattress or other piece of equipment you have forgotten, look around! are there toys for the baby available, do they have a monitor, books or is there an item you think they would need but do not have. Bring that item back with you along with the forgotten item, the client will automatically think about the free needed item, not the item that was forgotten. You become the hero and make their vacation that much easier.

Don’t make lame excuses, honesty is the best policy. Put your self in the shoes of the client what would you prefer to hear “my mistake, we are going to make it right, right away and get you what you need” or “our computer crashed and we lost your information” which company would you rather deal with, the one that owns their mistakes or the one that is either making excuses or just has cheap equipment that is not reliable.

Make it right, right away, put the client’s needs first and the worst mistake you can imagine can be your biggest opportunity for a fantastic review all year.

When an idea grows into a ‘thing’

Collaboration is a beautiful thing. Especially when the goals are mighty. As an independent business owner, chipping away at your own business can be isolating, and stressful. GABERCO was created when 3 independent baby gear rental company owners began to collaborate on various professional endeavors together.

The old adage “A problem shared is a problem halved’ really began to ring true. Even when we business owners aren’t talking to other entrepreneurs in our niche – we all have the same headaches: customer care, multi-tasking, administration catch-up, marketing woes… the list goes on.

With a dynamic business like baby equipment rentals – as an owner – you have got to be a hybrid. Timeliness, responsiveness, professionalism, mad organizational skills – you need to have it all in order to run a tight ship.

That’s where the idea began for GABERCO.

• How can we help each other?
• How can we raise and maintain the bar within our industry?
• How can we create a community where we can network and share?
• Are there things we are doing in our businesses that could help other people?
• How can we solidify the baby equipment rental industry in the travel industry?

There are some of the many questions that the founding members have posed over the past year. And so, it is our intention to move forward and iterate these ideas.

GABERCO is at the very least a place where you can rub shoulders with fellow business owners who totally ‘get’ what you’re going through on a day to day basis. And at most, we want to be the representation for the baby equipment companies in the world who value high standards, efficiency and safety.