Everything Audio is an AV rental company based in Darlington, run by Nathan and a small team he describes as caring and focused on quality. The business has been going for years, and Nathan got into audio visual rental because it’s a niche the area was underserved in.
Everything Audio rents out speakers, microphones, and other AV rental equipment, mostly to pubs and clubs on a B2B basis, along with individual end users. Nathan says the AV rental industry in his area is small, and Everything Audio is now the only company there with online booking. To get there, he built a rental website using Booqable’s website builder and runs the back office and order management through Booqable too.
Turning phone calls into online bookings
Before Booqable, Nathan says Everything Audio had no way for customers to book online. In a small industry where most competitors still work off the phone or in person, that put Everything Audio at a disadvantage even though the team had the equipment and expertise to compete. Booqable’s website builder gave Nathan a way to put a proper AV rental storefront online without needing a developer.
He used the templates to get a site running, added a custom domain, and set up a product catalogue with real-time availability and a date picker so customers can see what’s free and book it themselves. Everything Audio keeps its existing website too, and links from there straight through to the booking site Nathan built with Booqable, so customers land on the main site first and can click through whenever they’re ready to book.
That setup has done a few things for Everything Audio:
-
Given the business a professional online presence in an industry where most competitors don’t have one
-
Let customers book gear whenever it suits them, not just during business hours
-
Made Everything Audio the only AV rental company in the area customers can book with online
Nathan says being the only local AV rental company with online booking has genuinely set the business apart. Customers who want speakers or microphones for an event don’t have to wait for a call back. They can just book.
Getting rid of double bookings for good
Before switching to Booqable, Nathan was running Everything Audio’s bookings on duplicate pads and a calendar. It worked, until it didn’t. Organization and double bookings were the two biggest problems he ran into, which makes sense when you’re trying to track pickups, deliveries, and returns by hand across a growing AV rental business.
Booqable’s order management keeps the pickup and delivery schedule, along with returns, automatically updated. Availability is tracked automatically too, so if a piece of gear is already booked out, it won’t show as available for someone else to grab.
For Nathan, that’s changed the day-to-day in a few ways:
-
No more double bookings, since the system tracks what’s out and what’s free
-
A schedule for collections and deliveries that updates itself instead of needing to be checked against a paper pad
-
Less time spent untangling booking conflicts before they turn into a problem with a customer
Nathan says he’s noticed real improvements in day-to-day accuracy and time saved since making the switch. The bookings that used to slip through the cracks on paper just don’t happen anymore.
Bigger and better bookings ahead
“Booqable’s online store has made a real difference for us,” Nathan says. “It’s the reason we’re the only AV rental company round here that customers can book with online, and it’s put an end to the double bookings we used to deal with all the time.”
Everything Audio went from managing an AV rental business on duplicate pads and a calendar to running an online store with automated order management. Nathan’s plans for the business are straightforward: get bigger, and hold double the stock. With a booking system that can already handle the growth, that’s a lot more realistic than it would have been on paper.
