Thomas A. Rothstein - Lessons from the Party Rental Business

Feb. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Today I wanted to share with you two very outdated tools that I still used everyday because of reliability, Appointments books and Post Cards. With all of the modern day technology many people in the party rental business have shifted their entire reservation systems to electronic, or web based systems. Although electronic reservation systems are extremely convenient, there is still the risk of catastrophic system failures.

I joined the computerised reservation movement back in the 2001 after meeting a sales representative at the IAAPA Trade Show. We purchased the product and installed it on my reservation laptop the moment I got back from the trade show. Everything worked great and the support was wonderful, so I know your now wondering what was the problem? Great question, I'm glad you asked.

My daughter (18 months at the time) had this great fascination with unscrewing the top off her sippy-cup and pouring the content on the floor. Well what was a cute family moment turn into sheer horror when she poured all of her juice into my lap top. Every reservation I had for the next two months were destroyed as well as my entire customer database that was store on the hard drive. The system workedwell as a stand along product, but nothing could  have prepared it for the destruction of my baby girl.

We still utilize a web based reservation systems however, I mandate that all reservations are also hand written in a separate reservation appointment book. This way we always have two copies of each and every reservation regardless of coincidental circumstances of day to day operations.

One other tip I wanted to share with you was the use of Hand written Thank You  post cards. I can not count the number of compliments that I have received because of a hand written post card, or thank you letter. You have to personalize your services if you want to establish your base, or returning clientele. Something as simple as a hand written post card, especially if you can personally deliver it will lock up that customer until the child is well into their teens.

If you found this article helpful then I invite you to visit our free party rental training blog at  http://www.bouncingncash.com/

 Bouncer Boss

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Thomas A. Rothstein Business Consulting Firm provides organization development stratagies for small and large corporations.