Ray Brooks is the owner of Dakota Moves, a moving tote rental business based in North Dakota. As a retired member of the Air Force, Ray has moved more times than he can count. And the worst part was always hunting down cardboard boxes and wrestling with tape. Boxes were getting harder to find, too.
So Ray started offering tote rentals instead. Dakota Moves rents out commercial grade moving totes with attached lids, the same kind grocery stores use to receive stock. Zip ties and labels come with every order, and the team handles delivery and pickup at the customer’s ground level door. Being veteran owned, they also offer a military discount.
Customers range from people leaving small apartments to families packing up full size homes. A big share of their tote rentals also go to corporate clients who are remodeling or moving offices.
Customers book online from start to finish on a website Dakota Moves built with Booqable’s website builder. Booqable, the first rental software they’ve used, also runs their back office, with automatic emails and order notifications doing the heavy lifting. And with bookings for their tote rentals recently up 300%, that’s mattered more than ever.
Keeping customers in the loop with automatic emails
There’s no storefront or front desk. Every one of their tote rentals is booked online, and the team of three is usually out delivering, picking up, or cleaning totes. Ray believes the more you communicate with a customer, the better. But writing a confirmation by hand for every booking would eat into time the team doesn’t have.
Now, when a customer places an order on the Dakota Moves rental website, Booqable sends them an email automatically. The email comes from the adjustable template that Dakota Moves can edit within their Booqable account, and it fills in the order and customer details on its own.
“We love the features that Booqable offers such as automatic messages and notifications to us and clients with communication,” says Ray.
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Every customer gets a confirmation of their tote rentals as soon as they book
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Order and customer details are always correct, with no copy and paste
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The team spends their time on deliveries and pickups instead of typing emails
Customers know exactly what they booked and when their totes will arrive, plus the team can keep up with more tote rentals without piling on admin.
Keeping up with tote rentals through order notifications
Everyone is cross trained and often on the road, so nobody sits at a computer waiting for orders. As bookings picked up, the team needed a way to know about new tote rentals wherever they were.
Booqable’s mobile app sends an order notification every time a booking comes in. Push notifications can be turned on too, so new orders pop up right on their phone screens. The team also checks off deliveries and pickups in the app.
Ray is just as happy with the inventory tracking. “We will never double book our totes because Booqable helps us manage our inventory,” he says.
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New tote rentals show up on the team’s phones the moment they’re booked
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Deliveries and pickups get checked off in the app on the spot
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Inventory stays accurate, so totes are never double booked
Whoever is free can see a new order and plan the next delivery from wherever they are. That means faster replies for customers and fewer loose ends as tote rentals keep growing.
What’s next for Dakota Moves
Dakota Moves has used Booqable from day one. “We have always been with Booqable and we have been very happy so far,” says Ray. “All that we have used have made a significant difference.”
With bookings up 300%, Ray says Booqable “definitely makes managing them easier.” Next, the team plans to grow their commercial tote rentals and bring the service to smaller communities in their area.
From one veteran’s frustration with cardboard boxes, Dakota Moves has built a tote rentals business that runs entirely online. Automatic emails keep customers informed, order notifications keep the team on top of every booking, and inventory tracking keeps every tote accounted for.
