Why onboarding a venue is your key to success

So, you’ve placed a powerbank sharing station in a venue? Great! Hopefully, it’s in a great venue, maybe a crowded bar or shopping mall, and will start generating lots and lots of rentals straight away. But, placing a station doesn’t mean your work is done. Not yet. You have a very important step left to make sure your station performs as efficiently as possible: The Onboarding.

What is onboarding?

Onboarding a venue, in this case, means making sure the venue owner and the staff get all the information they need about the powerbank sharing station. More about that later.

Why is venue onboarding important for you?

Stations generate users

Our statistics and research show that stations generate users. Simply put, a majority of Brick users download the app when they are standing in front of the actual station. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. It’s when you are low on battery and find a Brick station for the first time that you try us out and become a user. This is also the most cost-effective way to get new users.

Rentals lead to rentals

Not only does the station generate users, but one rental can actually generate several more users. The statistics show that rentals lead to rentals. What we mean by this is that when people see someone renting a powerbank they’re more likely to try it out themselves. This phenomenon is very common; a lot of people feel more relaxed around trying a product out when they’ve seen somebody else use it, and who has the lowest bar to try it out? That’s right, the venue staff.

The onboarding is key to your success

This is why the onboarding process is one of the most important steps you take in order to get a network that leads to plenty of rentals.

Great onboarding can make or break the success of your station. It’s the staff at the venue that affects crucial parts of the life of a powerbank rental station:

• The staff is ultimately in charge of where the station gets placed inside the venue. The station should be placed in a highly visible location and can be found by all who need a powerbank.
• The staff is also the closest referral for any given station

For example, bars and nightclubs have had to deal with charging people's phones for years. It’s a tiring question to get and they are often happy to get help from us once they understand the concept. When the staff understands and likes the concept they are more than likely to refer to the station for all customer's and visitors' charging needs.

How to onboard a venue

Onboarding a venue is very simple. It’s all about informing, being helpful, and creating connections.

First of all, it’s about explaining and showing the station and how it works to the staff. Exactly how this is done is not important, the important thing is to make sure as many people on the staff as possible are informed. This can mean showing the station to a person who can inform the rest of the staff or trying to onboard a group of people at once. Sending out a quick email with instructions can also be very efficient.
It’s also customary to give the staff a promo code so they can rent for free. Free rentals make sure that they can get comfortable with the service and discover how useful it is for themselves.
It’s absolutely necessary that the staff on site knows how to use the station in order to comfortably refer their customers to the powerbank sharing station.

Making sure that the station is placed in a great spot is also part of the onboarding process. The placement of the station affects your revenue. If the station is hard to find, it’s going to be used much less, and be less helpful for the staff and the visitors. The staff should be able to focus on their tasks and simply refer to the station for charging needs. An efficient station can also lead to customers staying longer and happier.

Being helpful is about not only informing about the how and why of the station, but also making sure the venue knows they’re in good hands. First of all, Brick takes care of the station installation and makes sure it works perfectly. Brick also takes care of all customer support via the app or website and refills the station with powerbanks if needed. The station is fully automated and works without anyone at the venue needing to do anything with it.

Even though the stations are completely automated, questions and issues could come up. When this happens it’s important to have a good connection with the venue. You want the venue to reach out as soon as possible if they have questions or problems. If there is any trouble with the station, the information should reach you, or Brick HQ, as soon as possible. Make sure the venue knows that they can contact Brick via the support or email or call their local representative, meaning you, whenever something comes up.

Another important reason for the venue to feel like they are in good hands is that a lot of restaurants, bars, clubs, and similar venues in a city have connections with each other. A great onboarding process leads to people liking and enjoying Brick, which in turn leads to more rentals, more users, and more stations.

Lessons from a failed onboarding

What can happen if you completely drop the ball with the onboarding and fail to do it? Well, we know from experience that the worst possible outcome is pretty bad.

If all of this fails; the staff doesn’t know what the station does or how to use it, they’re not informed where they should place it and they don’t know what Brick does, or how to contact us, the result can be catastrophic. Worst case the station gets put away, forgotten about, and ends up collecting dust in a basement, completely useless.

Key takeaways

To summarise, the onboarding process should not be taken lightly. It’s not very difficult to achieve good onboarding, but a completely failed one can lead to a lot of unnecessary problems. We at Brick are giving you tools to achieve good onboarding and are constantly working on perfecting the process.

Some key takeaways from this article:

• Great onboarding can be the key to your success
• Stations generate users
• Rentals lead to rentals
• It’s necessary that the staff on site knows how to use the station
• The placement of the station affects your revenue
• Make sure the venue knows they’re in good hands
• It’s important to have a good connection with the venue

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions! We’re available in the app, on the website, and via this form that gets you in direct contact with us!