Growing Even in a Recession

Posted by Texada Software

“Leveraging the detailed reporting available in Texada SRM gave them the knowledge they needed to make critical business decisions.”

 


Alberta Liff logo

 

Specialty: Aerial Lift Rental
Area Served: Alberta, Canada

Company Size: Acquired by Cooper Equipment Rentals July 2017

Meet Alberta Lift and Equipment Rentals

Alberta Lift and Equipment Rentals served the Calgary and Lethbridge markets by renting, selling, and servicing
a range of aerial equipment. Bringing their passion for customer service together with their ambitions to provide
a complete equipment solution drove them to success even in hard economic times.

The Situation

Despite the recession in Alberta caused by the oil price slump, Alberta Lift grew their business steadily over five years. Starting out with a single location and four employees in 2012, to now operating two locations, and a staff of twenty-eight.

Paying attention to emerging customer needs, Alberta Lift added an equipment refurbishment division which allowed customers to unlock more value from their equipment by increasing the lifespan of their initial investment. They had been pleasantly surprised by the demand for this new offering, and the positive feedback from their customers.

The Challenge

When Alberta Lift launched their business, they researched and decided on a rental management software that they believed best met their needs.

But, after only ten months with their previous software, frustration levels were too high. Systems Manager Jessie Minvielle recalls, “I was spending 80% of my time fixing their software,” at which point they promptly switched over to Systematic Rental Management (Texada SRM).

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“Having accurate sub-sets of data enabled them to find small problems before they could grow into big problems, and assist with future planning.”


The Solution

With Texada SRM implemented during their expansion process, Alberta Lift was able to put divisions into the system to track location performance separately. Which enabled Jessie to report on each location individually to give the owner and CFO more accurate information on the performance of each division.

Leveraging the detailed reporting available in SRM gave them the knowledge they needed to make critical business decisions. Managing hundreds of owned and re-rented assets at any given time, it was essential to be able to easily track asset location, status, and availability to maintain their unmatched level of customer service.

Having accurate sub-sets of data enabled them to find small problems before they could grow into big problems, and assist with future planning. 

The sales team was key to Alberta Lift’s core business, and SRM helps keep their salesmen informed with dynamic reports. The ability to set up automated e-mails that are sent every morning to their salesmen that tells them which contracts were opened the day before, helping to identify potential errors before they could affect the customer
experience.

Alberta Lift also sends weekly reports to customers with open contracts, reminding them what they have on site to give customers more control in their rentals, and allow Alberta Lift to rent these assets to other customers if they are not in use. This option goes hand in hand with Alberta Lift’s commitment to providing exceptional customer service.

Because Alberta Lift leveraged the capabilities of SRM, they didn’t just survive an economic downturn. They were able to successfully grow and expand their business.