We have analyzed several hundred negative reviews left for a baby gear rental business and found that most businesses get bad ratings due to their own mistakes.
We have analyzed several hundred negative reviews left for a baby gear rental business and found that most businesses get bad ratings due to their own mistakes.
Yes, there were customers' mistakes also because they did not diligently read the details of rental terms before placing an order.
However, in the modern business environment, we should mostly stick to the “customer is always right” mentality and try to solve the issues in their favor.
Businesses have to fix their part before shifting the blame to their customers.
Positive reviews give us motivation to enhance our business and go forward with confidence, while negative reviews can help us:
Let’s look at the 10 mistakes that make customers leave bad reviews in the baby gear rental market.
If you are offering in-house deliveries, try to make them faster. People pay for the deliveries hoping to get the items exactly at the scheduled time.
Everyone has plans and do not mess it up!
This parent expressed her frustration through the following review:
When people book or reserve baby gear, they are confident that they will get the items according to schedule.
Unfortunately, some businesses cannot track their inventories accurately as they still use outdated inventory management methods.
The time of paper-based inventory management is over. There are plenty of technologies to simplify inventory management. We recommend using the inventory management system that is built into the Rental Software for more synchronization.
The last thing the customer needs is to receive an item that does not match the description. Especially in the last minutes.
In our previous article, we mentioned how poor descriptions can ruin events and parties when an organizer relies on the descriptions of event rental businesses.
For instance, getting a smaller tent than the host anticipated; getting decorations that are completely different than shown in the pictures; etc.
Description mismatch can also put baby gear rentals in uncomfortable situations like the one mentioned below:
An example of a good description is illustrated below:
Most negative reviews are associated with companies’ inability to satisfy their customers during disputes.
Such disputes usually occur when a rental company cancels the order unexpectedly or can’t fulfill their obligations, and fails to compensate customers fairly.
Here are the primary terms to include in the rental contract:
Please note: You can use Reservety to create all of the above, and have the customers sign them electronically during the booking process.
Good communication is key to improving customer experience. A business should be available all the time for customers' needs, and answer messages and calls promptly.
If there is an issue with the orders, or the business is unable to fulfill the orders due to reasonable causes, they must notify customers about the cancellations immediately so as not to ruin their plans.
One of the most common reasons why people avoid renting items is the concern with the hygiene of the rental products.
Since baby gear includes extra sensitive items and parents are overprotective of their babies, rental businesses should clean and disinfect the items after every usage or even after long storage.
You do not want to get the reviews like the one below:
Almost all customers research item prices to know how much they can save by renting the items.
If your rental rates are about the same as retail prices, it would not be so motivating for customers.
The following review sums this up:
Note: Setting up different prices, membership types, discount coupons, reward points, etc. is easy with Reservety.
Collecting rentals on time is as important as delivering them. Because if the items are not picked up as scheduled, it will create inconveniences for renters.
Think of a situation where you rented a crib for a hotel room and you left the place but the rental company did not pick it up as scheduled. Now, the hotel requesting you immediately remove your crib or you will be charged an extra fee for storage.
The situation as such is neither good for the rental company. The faster they collect the items, the faster they make it ready for the next customer.
Inventory management is key to organizing your warehouse, tracking item availability, detecting missing and damaged items, and accurately scheduling pickups and returns.
The negative review provided below is a good example of how inefficient inventory management can lead to disputes with customers:
Note: Reservety is perfect for rental inventory management as it has built-in tools to manage your virtual warehouse, label inventories, update item statuses, and automatically change the availability of each item.
This should be on the top of the list because when you sum up all the bad reviews, we notice that the majority of bad reviews are related to poor customer support.
Most mistakes are fixable when the customer support team is compassionate with customers and tries to address their issues, without being rude.
The situation mentioned in the review could have taken a different route if the owner hadn’t provided good customer support. Thus, we believe siding with customers during disputes is better for the company's long-term growth.
Reservety handles your website, bookings, inventory, and payments — so you can focus on growing your business.