 APRO: The Official Voice of the Rent to Own Industry
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 Rent-to-own News
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Rent-to-own News - Training sessions, roundtable discussion wrap Heartland
The seventh annual Heartland of America Trade Show concluded Thursday, with product specific trainings aimed at rent to own managers and a roundtable discussion of the industry trends, legislation and marketing.
Close to 100 dealers and managers from 20 independent RTO companies crowded various ballrooms at the Lodge of the Four Seasons Resort Wednesday morning to glean selling points from five different participating vendors in electronics, furniture, and appliances.
Participating training vendors included: LG, Whirlpool, Dell, Twin Star/Classic Flame and Serta.
After lunch attendees took part in the first ever Heartland Roundtable led by Association of Progressive Rental Organizations Executive Director Bill Keese.
Dealers and managers kicked around topics ranging from social media marketing, recent focus group potential customer findings and hiring practices.
Kathy Windsor of National TV Sales and Rental, explained her campany's adventures in social networking on Facebook.
"You have to remember when you post something on there, it's a backyard barbecue, you have to keep it friendly and you have to keep it informal," Windsor said. "You can't just pound your fans with the hard sell or they will get bored with you and stop interacting. You have to address concerns directly and honestly."
"Most of the time, when people have a problem with something, they are just venting, letting off steam," said Mark Windsor. "Most times you just apologize and make it right and that's the end of it."
Many dealers are already using texting reminders to assist their customers noting rental payment dates. Such texts must maitain a friendly helpful tone to be successful, the RTOs agreed.
The days training and roundtable concluded two days of recreational and trade show events that comprise the Missouri Rental Dealers Association centerpiece -- The Heartland of America Regional RTO Trade Show.
See full photo gallery of the 2011 Heartland of America Trade Show.
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2012 APRO Convention and Trade Show July 24-26, Memphis, TN
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RTOHQ: The Magazine
RTOHQ: The Magazine is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations' award-winning rent-to-own industry magazine, and it's available here. | |||
 CLICK HERE FOR OUR DIGITAL RTOHQ: THE MAGAZINE
RTOHQ: The Magazine’s upgraded digital format APRO's new, mobile-ready magazine is now available in addition to our print edition. The digital format provides the same informative content as our printed magazine, but also offers tools to make the reading experience more enriching. Access the table of contents page with one click or tap. Get additional information from advertisers by clicking on the links in their ads. The interface is easy to navigate and requires no special app—read our magazine on your computer, digital table or smartphone. Click here to access the digital version of RTOHQ: The Magazine March-April 2012.
A New Rent-to-Own Experience by Neil Ferguson Here’s the lowdown on APRO’s 2012 Convention and Trade Show, July 24-26 in Memphis. The RTO industry’s big event will offer many valuable experiences, including insights on how to turn your stores into “experiences”–the good kind for consumers
Who Is Your Competition? by Bill Keese In order to expand your customer base, you can learn a lot by observing your competitors. But first, you need to figure out just who they are. If you think your only competition is the rent-to-own store down the street, you’re not considering the bigger picture. APRO’s executive director offers a big-picture perspective.
A Review of Online Customer Complaints by Ed Winn III While rent-to-own companies have not cornered the market on negative reviews posted on consumer complaint websites, it’s no surprise that there are cyberspace beefs against RTO. APRO’s general counsel reviews some of them in search of a pattern and he considers appropriate response to online complaints.
Rent-to-Own Families, Part VIII by Kristen Card Our series of family-run rent-to-own businesses continues with profiles of the Homeiers in Kansas and two Texas-based sets of kindred colleagues, the Spangles and the Weisblatts.
Future issues of APRO's magazine will be available in this same new format. Click here to access past issues that are not yet archived in the new interface.
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Association of Progressive Rental Organizations 1504 Robin Hood Trail Austin, Texas 78703 800/204-2776, ext. 103 Fax 512/794-0097 |