How Equipment Rental Businesses Can Benefit from a Collection Agency

Many types of companies benefit from collection agencies, but perhaps none more so than equipment rental businesses. Every business involves a transaction between the customer and the company. However, with equipment rental businesses, there are concerns others don’t face.

Equipment Can Get Damaged

If you’re an equipment rental company, you must ensure the gear you rent out is in excellent shape. Otherwise, something can go wrong that you’re liable for, and your next customers may complain.

In other words, you need a mechanism to ensure the equipment comes back in as good condition as it was in the first place. It’s impossible to guarantee that the equipment you lend out is returned in the same state.

Some general wear and tear are inevitable, but customers don’t always take every precaution to prevent damage. Perhaps they’ve paid for the initial rental but not for the damage sustained to the borrowed equipment. When they slip up, your business shouldn’t suffer financially for their mistakes.

It’s not fair when customers guilty of the above get to drop the equipment off and pretend like they didn’t know its condition. That’s why account receivable management professionals need levers they can pull to recoup the money they deserve from equipment rentals they didn’t damage.

Ideally, equipment rental companies lay out the terms at the outset, setting up expectations and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Rental Customers Are Transient

The rental equipment business operates in a way that involves people coming in and out from potentially different regions. Consider it this way. If you’re running a bar, you may have a crew of local regulars who you know and trust. Assuming you have an established relationship with them and they’re trustworthy, you can decide to let them open a tab.

The equipment rental business often involves total strangers handling expensive machines. With such a dynamic, you don’t always know who you’re dealing with and can’t necessarily count on seeing them again. From collecting overdue payments to ensuring compensation for damaged gear doesn’t slip through the cracks, debt collection agencies do it all.

Equipment rental companies should focus on satisfying existing customers rather than wasting effort by fighting to get the money that should have been theirs weeks, months, or years ago. The top collection agencies let equipment rental companies focus their efforts where they’re most needed.

Outsourcing debt collection gets you better results in less time and frees up invaluable HR resources. Ultimately, improved debt collection services mean better cash flow, and it’s impossible to think of something a business wants more than that.

You won’t have to worry about out-of-town customers skipping out on bills after returning the equipment they rented in bad condition. Let Summit A•R handle skip tracing so you don’t have to.

Millions of people can be difficult for businesses to find if they relocate, change their names, or their employment status. We’ve seen the runaround game before, and we know how to stop it in its tracks. Ultimately, if you avoid lost revenue, it’s the same as making money.

Private Investigator

Summit A•R is one of the only agencies nationwide to have a licensed private investigator on staff. When you have a private investigator who can access the best databases, you’ll get much better results than you would with free tools anybody could use.

Find your debtors and turn bad assets into good ones by relying on a licensed private investigator. Our private investigator is offered to clients at no extra cost to them, so there’s really no reason not to use these services. When you’re trying to track down money, why not be armed with all the tools possible?

You might decide to take legal action for unpaid debt, but it won’t help if you can’t locate the person who owes you.

Proactive Caution

You may find that customers show your rented equipment a higher level of respect and care when they know they’ll be on the hook for any damages they may cause. Perhaps they have no malicious intent in the first place, but still, people tend to treat things differently when they know they’ll have to pay for the damages.

The best result you could hope for is that the equipment comes back in the same condition you leant it out in. That way, the business runs with maximum efficiency, and there are no delays over money, worries about deficiencies, or maintenance costs.

It’s hard to measure or quantify exactly how much more responsible accountability makes customers, but it can only help!

Full Services

Finally, rental equipment companies aren’t merely trying to recoup money from damaged gear. Some try to upcycle goods and gear to extend their lifecycle. They may also rely on Summit A•R for a few steps in between, which can prevent the situation that needs fixing from occurring.

Sometimes a debtor just needs to understand why they have a balance, and a positive chat will help all parties move forward quicker than aggressive tactics demanding payments. We’re proud to embody a “PHD” approach, which stands for “preserving human dignity.”

We’ll do whatever it takes to get you the money your business is legally owed, from follow-up calls with insurance companies or clients or whatever else. No matter what the situation may be, we always show respect for the debtor and treat them with kindness and patience.

After all, the person renting the equipment from the company is a client and positive relations moving forward benefit everybody. Perhaps the client will rent from your business again one day later or be more inclined to write a favourable review of your company online when they’re treated with genuine respect.

If you’re a company that rents out equipment commercially or to people for private use, it’s essential to have some way to hold customers accountable for its condition. This is especially true the more expensive and complex the equipment is or how important a role it plays. Trust Summit A•R  with your commercial debt collection efforts, so you can prioritize running your business instead.