Rolling Along
Hours of Operation Best Practices
Communicating your hours of operation to your customer is a key piece of your business strategy. Please read blew for key strategies you can implement in order to effectively communicate and optimize your hours of operation for success.
POST YOUR HOURS OF OPERATION AT YOUR LOCATION
All Wheel Fun Rentals location should have an Hours of Operation Sign posted on the Kiosk or storage container for locations that utilize a roling cart setup. Click the link below for the editable WFR Hours of Operation Sign Template. This template fits into the silver frame linked below for a clean presentation and easy and inexpensive updates should you need to adjust your hours for your business needs. The WFR Hours of Operation sign template is WFR branded and designed to have both your current hours and upcoming hours listed. By including the next block of hours, guests have the information they need to make plans further into the season.
REVIEW YOUR VOICEMAIL, WEBSITE & ONLINE LISTINGS
Wheel Fun Rentals Central Marketing team works daily to ensure your business information, including current hours of operation are consistent on all forward facing online customer resources including Google Business Profiles, Yelp, Bing, Apple Maps and yoru website. Please take time to review your website and send any updates or changes to your hours of operations to the Marketing team at marketing@wheelfunrentals.com.
SET YOUR HOURS OF OPERATION TO MAXIMIZE REVENUE
Are you maximizing your location(s) open hours and renting product until sunset? If not, you’re most likely missing out on thousands of dollars of revenue. Many locations are able to increase their earnings 5%-10% simply by opening an hour before the crowds arrive, and closing at sunset. By following our guidelines, you’ll be taking advantage of an easy source of extra revenue.
What time does it makes sense to open?
Our recommendation is to open an hour before surrounding pedestrian traffic starts to pick up. If you’re concerned about labor costs, keep in mind: one additional Surrey rental every two or three days will cover the extra expenses associated with opening an hour earlier. On busy weekend days, this extra hour will often assure the fleet and staff are better prepared for incoming crowds. And most importantly, getting your bikes out earlier in the day enables them to act as rolling advertisements encouraging more rentals.
On the other hand, when is the best time to close?
In most locations, it makes sense to coordinate outgoing rentals and ensure all product comes back by dusk. So our recommendation is to stay open until the sun sets. The sunset time changes slightly every day, so you’ll need to adjust your official internal closing time every week or two throughout the season. WFR Central has implemented a great tool to easily track your “sunset” closing and last rental departure times within the posted hours of operation blocks on your website, click here for an example.
This tool and setting your closing time as sunset allows you to fully maximize the last thirty minutes of the day by allowing half-hour rentals at the end of each day. There is no reason to turn away a willing customer wishing to rent. For example:
Suppose a location closes at sunset, say 8:00pm, and you are asked: “How late are you open?“
Your response: “Our last one hour rental goes out at 7:00pm, while our last half-hour rental goes out at 7:30pm.“
It is convenient (and logical) to post hours of operation as closing at “sunset,” however we don’t like to leave the definition of sunset to the staff. We find if we leave closing time to the staff, it isn’t always consistent and the trend will be to close earlier. The widget on your website gives you a great tool to control your specific closing time and create accountability for your staff.
In the scenario above where the last rental returns by the posted closing time of 8:00pm, it is important staff know they won’t ever start putting away the fleet until 7:30pm (30 minutes before the posted closing time) and will typically finish no later than 8:30 (30 minutes after the posted closing time). As the days wax and wane throughout the season, make sure you are communicating revised closing times to your staff.
By choosing to adopt these optimized hours of operation at your location(s), not only will you be better prepared for the day, but you’ll ensure you’re maximizing your revenue generated from rentals.
It should also be noted that many locations have found great success with LED-Illuminated Surrey or Swan Boat Night Rides starting at sunset until a determined after dark closing time. If you would like information on implementing LED-Illuminated Surrey or Swan Boat Night Rides at your location(s), contact Mike Ullerick at mullerick@wheelfunrentals.com.
