Stephen Lee, owner of Hoosier Tools in Indianapolis, started his business more than a quarter of a century ago, and he did it his way. “A group of us were renting equipment to renovate and flip homes. Then, we came up with the idea to buy the equipment and rent it to other contractors doing the same thing to pay it off,” he recalled. “We would buy a concrete saw, generator or some scaffolding, and when finished with it, store the equipment in my garage until another contractor had use for it.
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“Two contractors led to four, four to eight, eight to 16, and so forth," he recalled. "Today, the numbers are much greater, but contractors still make up the bulk of our company’s rental business.”
Just as the numbers changed, so have a lot of other things, he added, not the least of which is the presence of social media. “Within the last 10 years, social media has really taken off. I’m personally not on Facebook, but we have a company site that is maintained by a third party. It’s great when customers like you and give you a rave review, but not so great when it works the other way.”
As he pointed out, Facebook and other forms of social media give people, including customers, the opportunity to vent online when indeed it would be better for them and the rental store if they communicated in person. Lee gave as an example of a customer who walked in to rent a trencher. Before renting the equipment, the store’s counter person asked if he has called 811 or another digger’s hotline to avoid cutting into a gas line, fiber optic line, or something else that could be either costly to repair or life threatening. The customer was unhappy, wanted to trench that day, walked out, and decided to voice his displeasure online.
“We’ve had similar things like this happen when a misunderstanding could have been worked out on the spot,” Lee added. “The thing about social media is it takes face-to-face interaction out of the equation. It’s very efficient about spreading the word... both good and bad words.”
All told, though, Lee sees technological advances like social media and software to track inventory, utilization rates, and even to help invoice customers, as having a very positive impact on the industry. “We don’t mail out invoices anymore like we did when we first started the business and like we did just a few years back,” said Lee. “We email them today and save money to the tune of $12,000 a year by not having to buy stamps and envelopes and stuffing the invoices. We save time and money and so do our customers.”
A general rental store, Hoosier Tools employs six full-time and two seasonal employees and has a customer mix that is 65 percent commercial and 35 percent homeowner. The store also sells and services Husqvarna and Toro lawn equipment and retails diamond blades, sandpaper and an assortment of other products.
