When you have years of experience, you often build the knowledge to help others do better. Cathrin Kirchhoff took her many years of experience traveling across Europe by car and turned it into LuckyBoxOWL. She now helps customers to have better travel experiences and uses Booqable to manage the day-to-day running of her rental business.
LuckyBoxOWL
Cathrin founded LuckyBoxOWL in March 2022, using the knowledge she has gained from vacations taken across Europe over the past decade. She decided to start the business at the time because a lot of people were preparing to go on their first proper vacations since COVID hit in 2020. So, the opportunity to try her roof box rental concept was perfect for the time.
In Germany, many people prefer to drive to their vacation destination rather than flying or by train. They visit everywhere from southern Europe to Scandinavia and often need to take a lot with them, especially when they are on a family vacation. Cathrin has much experience with this and, over the years, learned that roof boxes are the best solution to this common problem.
she wanted to use her knowledge to help families to have a better experience when going on vacation. She chose roof boxes as the primary focus of her rental business as they are one of the best ways to make travel more comfortable. They allow you to store your clothing and other items on top of your car rather than filling up the inside and taking up precious space.
Documents and Spreadsheets
When Cathrin started her roof box rental business part-time, she managed her order processing and resource planning with spreadsheets. However, this was very uncomfortable and confusing to use, leading to errors. It was not the ideal solution, but it worked for a period of time. Though as her inventory expanded, the amount of work required also increased.
Rental agreements, offers, and invoices were created manually in word documents. This process was long as the spreadsheets had to be cross-referenced and updated, then an offer was created. Once customers agreed to the offer, the spreadsheets had to be checked again to ensure the products were still available. Then an invoice was created and sent out to be paid.
The process of first contact with a customer to payment was incredibly long and required a great deal of work. Cathrin had no way of automating any of these tasks and had to complete them himself every time someone made a request to rent her products. It wasn’t long before she became tired of this laborious process and searched for a better way of doing things.
Automating (almost) everything
Cathrin found that Booqable did everything she needed to turn what used to be a time-intensive task into one that basically ran itself. Every document in the system automatically populates with the customer’s order information and can quickly be reviewed and sent directly to the customer in just a few clicks without using any additional software.
Now, customers browse their inventory, check availability, and send a request for a quote. Cathrin reviews the quote Booqable creates and sends it to the customer. Once they have approved the quote, Cathrin confirms the reservation and sends them an invoice and rental agreement. Customers can then pay online through a payment request, also auto-generated.
Not only has Booqable streamlined the order process for Cathrin and her customers, but it has also made resource planning and inventory management more effortless. She has a complete overview of what equipment is available with real-time stock information and what she needs to prepare for upcoming orders.
Helping more travelers
Cathrin has received excellent customer feedback since implementing Booqable into her workflow. They have praised LuckyBoxOWL for the fast and error-free processing of their orders. She would like to develop the business more and become more stable, so that she can help more travelers to enjoy a more comfortable vacation experience.
