Grand True Value Rental of Appleton, Wisconsin opened in 2003 on West Wisconsin Avenue and has been serving its community ever since.
At Grand True Value Rental, customers can rent everything from tools such as ladders and hand-held gas leaf blowers to mini skid steers and auto scrubbers.
They can also rent such items as tents for outdoor weddings, bouncy houses for outdoor parties, as well as tables and chairs and concession items such as cotton candy and popcorn machines.
The manager of Grand True Value Rental sought out New Media Retailer in the True Value room at the American Rental Association (ARA) show. They had never had a website, and because New Media Retailer is True Value Rental’s preferred vendor for digital marketing (indeed, New Media Retailer won the 2013 and 2018 True Value Rental Vendor of the Year award), they felt comfortable going with the company.
Website Requirements
Grand True Value Rental wanted to “reach more customers, and potential customers than traditional print avenues allowed us to do. Our main goal was to…raise awareness about our business and all we have to offer.”
Their management did not have time to deal with the extra work that running a website would entail, so the fact that New Media Retailer offered a full solution including a representative who would work with them each month “was a key selling point.”
The Challenge
Because Grand True Value Rental has a wide variety of items available for rental, their service personnel were swamped with phone calls from potential customers wanting to know if they possessed a specific tool or other item for rental. Additional questions included: how much the item would cost, if it was available for rental or if it had been rented by someone else already.
The Solution
New Media Retailer’s website designers built a Request Availability functionality into the site. This enabled site visitors to search for an item in the site’s online catalog, and if they found what they were looking for, they could press a button to “request availability” – as well as find out more information about the product and if and when it would be available for rental.
“We still receive a lot of inquiries via the phone,” stated store manager Sarah Cunningham. “[But] now that people have the option to utilize our website to request their wanted items, it allows us to receive the inquiry, handle it efficiently and not hold up the phones as well.” Thus, saving time and freeing up employees for other tasks; while at the same time maintaining customer satisfaction that requests were handled promptly.
Client’s Revision Needs Quickly Handled
With any brand-new website, there will be growing pains no matter how closely the client and web designer work together to ensure that the site capabilities are exactly what the client wants and needs. Client satisfaction depends on how quickly and efficiently the website designer acts on requests or issues raised by the client.
Delivery option turns out to be unworkable
“When we first started using Request Availability, there was an option for people to request delivery that we ended up having to remove as people would pick a very small item and ask for free delivery. New Media Retailer was quick to hear our concern and remove that option as it was not the right fit for our business.”
Request Availability bug
Because New Media Retailer assigns a full-time representative to each of their clients, they can find bugs in specific functionalities that do not appear until the site is fully operational. They then work quickly to communicate with the client and debug the program.
“We…had an issue where a lot of the requests that were getting submitted through the website were getting kicked back and not getting to us. New Media Retailer alerted us to this issue happening, which I would never have known was occurring without them, and worked to create a solution. Since then we have had no issues with that.”
Google Listings issue
Another unexpected bug was that more than one Google Listing appeared for their store – and some of these had images from other local businesses rather than images of Grand True Value Rental.
“We worked with our Marketing Specialist to fix this issue, and without much work at all on our end, we were able to get the listings removed or combined into our proper Google listing. Having New Media help manage Google even for simple things like changing our Holiday hours is such a large help and saves us one less thing to forget, and time as well!”
Offering a Backend Solution
New Media Retailer creates sites that enable their customers – even those without a technology background, to do work in the backend because it is made error-proof and straightforward.
“Having the option for me to access the backend of my store and be able to make changes in my catalog – like price changes as needed – has been extremely helpful and helps us keep up-to-date information available to our customers.”
New Media Retailer delivers an excellent customer experience
“Working with New Media Retailer has been easy, quick and efficient. Having a specialist to work with has been very easy for us – especially someone like me who is not very good with technology. I can call with a question or a request, and it is handled very quickly and efficiently without me having to do much at all. Even something as simple as getting help finding a proper catalog item image – they are there for that.”
New Media Retailer prides itself in delivering excellent website solutions to its customers and being available at a moment’s notice to help with any issue that might arise. Customer satisfaction is New Media Retailer’s most crucial function.