Rent-to-own News - Blue Ribbon is Ohio RTO Champ

RTO "Superbell" awarded to Blue Ribbon Rentals in Ohio "customer gain" contest.

Blue Ribbon Rentals eclipsed Countryside Rent To Own last week in the country's only Independent rent to own company face-off for new customers. Last week's "RTO Super Bowl" capped two weeks of heated competition between Ohio's four largest independent RTO companies that all parties agree was a win for all involved.

The race to add customers -- close to 1,000 were added by Blue Ribbon, Countryside, Showplace and UHR across the competition -- and pull a larger share of Ohio's $285 million RTO pie was highly competitive, according to Blue Ribbon Rentals owner Bill Wendell. The friendly competition, inspired by mutual respect between some of the industry's most influential players, also brought out the best in his associates and kept them focused on job one, he said.

"The purpose of a business is to gain and keep customers and if you are not focusing on that, you are not focusing on the right thing," Wendell said. "This was really a testimony  to what our managers and associates can do if they focus on customers. The other contestants were outstanding and the gains we made were exceptional. We gained more in five business days last week than we gained in 17 weeks from May to August."

In the final week of competition, Blue Ribbon edged out Countryside by gaining an average of 14.1 new customers per store to Countryside's 13.08 per store. Only stores over one year old were eligible to compete which boiled down to around 60 stores between the four companies. Blue Ribbon beat out UHR and Countryside beat out Showplace in the opening round of playoffs earlier this month.

"This was a great growth period for us," said Countryside owner Mike Tissot, who, along with Showplace owner Gary Ferriman, began the "customer gain" contest three years ago. "It goes to show that when you focus on the right things you can move the dial on the right things. We just need to do more of the right things every week in 2011 just like we did for this contest."

To the winner go the spoils, which in this case is a large Oak mounted bell and a 40 inch Toshiba flat panel television, courtesy of DSI. Blue Ribbon will raffle the TV to it's employees and put the bell on display.

"Beyond the gains we made as companies, this was a great showing for the independents of our industry," said Blue Ribbon Operations Manager George Schorsten. "There is a bond of  camaraderie there that is unique. Win lose or draw, it was a positive showing for everybody."