If you’ve grown frustrated with tent rental software that seems to cause more problems than it solves, or feels like a time-suck or money down the drain, then keep reading; this blog post is for you.

At its core, technology should make your life easier, not harder. What should you look for in tent rental software to know it’s worth the investment? 3 things:

1. It saves you time
2. It helps you keep track of your team and their actions
3. It reduces the number of mistakes that are made

We sat down with two event industry veterans from Sperry Tents: Eric Larkin (Co-Owner of Sperry Tents New Jersey) and Steve Clarke (Owner of Sperry Tents Hamptons) to dive more into how they use software to achieve these goals.

Save Time

If your tent rental software isn’t saving you and your team hours of time each week, something is horribly wrong. When you pay for software, you don’t just pay for the product: you’re paying to get extra time in your day and to eliminate the costs of tedious tasks. If this isn’t your experience, you’re getting robbed. Think about it: how long does it take you and your team to not only build quotes, but then follow up with your clients to get them to sign and pay? The answer is probably “TOO long”, and all this time could be cut down and better spent somewhere else.

Eric Larkin, Co-Owner of Sperry Tents NJ, explains how powerful tent rental software has saved his team tons of time. He says, “Software is so helpful in taking tasks off your plate. Goodshuffle Pro automatically sends signature and payment reminders to our customers. It does the work for me! It’s hard when you get so busy and things slip through the cracks— with Goodshuffle Pro, nothing does.”

Streamline Team Management

A good company culture is top priority for tent rental companies who know the value in keeping good employees. After all, it costs much more to hire and train new staff than to keep current staff happy. Steve explains, “We can all purchase tents and trucks and gear, but quality employees are the most difficult thing to find. Being able to hire, train, and keep good employees is the number one thing for growth because without those employees, you simply can’t grow.” So, how do you create this ideal workplace environment to keep employees happy? The secret lies in clear communication and not overworking your team. How does tent rental software empower you to achieve these goals?

With easy-to-use software with powerful features like team messaging, internal notes, easy file upload and organization, and more, everything is crystal clear to you and your team. You no longer have to wonder who’s taking ownership of a job, who (if anyone) sent out a quote, or where to find a specific diagram or template. All of this is taken care of within the right software for your tent business.

Additionally, when you invest in software that streamlines tedious work, you free up your team’s time to either 1) devote more hours to value-adding activities, or 2) work better hours and maintain a happy work-life balance. Eric’s biggest goal currently for Sperry Tents NJ is “continued steady growth, while maintaining a decent quality of life for ourselves and our team members.” Finding this work-life balance for your employees is key to creating your ideal company culture.

Plus, software like Goodshuffle Pro is the perfect place to store standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your team. These help to train new team members and keep all staff on the same page. Whether it’s a general onboarding guide that explains how to build a quote, or it’s a specific setup diagram for a certain venue or inventory item, these SOPs can all be stored within Goodshuffle Pro. Talk about organization across the board, and peace of mind for you!

Make Fewer Mistakes

Technology should always lead to fewer mistakes, not more. Surprise: software is NOT supposed to glitch or be difficult to use. If this is your experience, you need to look into switching to an easy-to-use platform ASAP. Additionally, your software should empower you and your team to make the best decisions right away, and to eliminate double booking inventory completely.

Many event and tent rental professionals know that without software (or with the wrong one) you can send out as many quotes as you want, and only receive half the amount of signed contracts. This can be frustrating and is a huge red flag that you need a better tool to ensure you’re closing deals and getting paid. As Eric explains, “When you send out a quote, you’re promising that inventory to someone else,” which is why it’s so important that your clients are signing. One of Eric’s favorite features of Goodshuffle Pro is the conflict detection. With these easy alerts, Eric and his team can quickly sort their jobs by conflicts and potential conflicts (which alert them to where they could be double booking), allowing them to prioritize their jobs.

To keep schedules tight and everything clear and organized, you can even use Goodshuffle Pro’s project buffers to add travel or cleaning time to a job. For example, it’s important for your delivery team to know when they need to leave and be onsite, and it’s important for you to know how long your truck will be in use for a specific job. Even if the event starts at 12pm, your truck may be in use starting at 8am. Maintain order with easy project buffers! As Eric says, “Project buffers are awesome and so industry-specific, I love them.”

Lastly, we all know how quickly clients change their minds and updates need to be made. With cloud-based software, you’re empowered to easily make changes to a project while on the go. Make important updates from anywhere, on any device, at any time. Eric says, “I can easily log onto my phone and make a change or quickly cancel something. So many of the events we do are big tickets— they’ll want to make a major change, and will need a lot of help. Goodshuffle Pro being web-based makes it so easy to make those changes wherever I am in the world.” Steve adds onto this and touches on the impact of the pandemic by saying, “The fact that I was able to work remotely all the time during COVID-19, and wherever I was I could update a quote or email a quote, was great. Whether I had my iPhone or an iPad or my laptop, at home or at my desk in the office, being able to be mobile was huge.”

Software should make life easier

If your tent rental software isn’t empowering you and your team to save time, streamline team management, and make fewer mistakes, it’s time to switch to a different platform. Take it from industry experts, Sperry Tents. The owners of these branches have increased ROI and grown their businesses with Goodshuffle Pro’s powerful event rental software. Don’t wait to do the same— take the next step towards building your dream business today. Want to learn more first? Read Sperry Tents NJ’s success story here, or set up a 15-minute call with one of our event specialists.