BigRentz, the nation’s largest online construction equipment rental network, announced it has achieved ISO 9001 certification, formalizing its world-class management standards. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), based in Switzerland, is a non-governmental, independent organization that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems. BigRentz has achieved the 9001 validation, which focuses on quality assurance principles such as customer service and management commitment to the process, an uncommon achievement in the industry.
To become ISO certified, a company must develop, maintain and continuously improve its business processes. It involves measuring and comparing business performance to seven quality standards or principles, including: Customer Focus, Leadership, Engagement of People, Process Approach, Improvement, Evidence-based Decision-making, and Relationship Management.
“I’m incredibly proud of this achievement for our company and of the hard work of our team,” said Scott Cannon, CEO of BigRentz. “The commitment and discipline required to achieve and maintain ISO Certification are qualities we regard highly in our company culture.”
Cannon said the company recently embarked on a new customer-service experience that included an updated website and frequent customer surveying, including Net Promoter Score polling. He said that while the team is nimble and always prepared to adjust according to client feedback, the internal audit process for the ISO certification helped the company to identify issues and areas needing improvement.
Liz Faruzzi, senior vice president of operations excellence, who came to BigRentz from a merger with Lizzy Lift, oversaw the ISO certification process. Part of Faruzzi’s role at BigRentz is to emphasize the importance of quality assurance, particularly as it relates to customer experience. She coordinated a large portion of the ISO certification process and said that the exercise revealed many best practices that, now implemented, have been leading to improved key performance indicators and customer satisfaction.
Faruzzi said she was pleased that the company’s certification auditor was impressed with many of the processes already in place and included as company strengths existing systems to process and track orders as well as to streamline and document issues and communication.
Certification will enhance service
“The ISO 9001 journey will help us to ensure that customers get consistent, top-notch service, and will help us stay vigilant about the process and outcomes,” Faruzzi added. “It also provides us with an opportunity to engage our front-line team in a different way, increasing engagement in our policy on quality.”
While the company says it learned there were many good practices in place, it has now documented and implemented them across the entire organization. Processes and training procedures are cataloged and easily accessible to all employees in a shared filed system.
To maintain certification, companies must continue to fulfill the guidelines pertaining to the processes involved in each of the categories. Certification is good for three years as long as the standard is maintained as proven through annual audits by the external certifying body.
BigRentz, based in Irvine, Calif., is an online construction equipment rental marketplace with more than 4,000 rental partners and 10,000 partner locations served. For more information, visit www.BigRentz.com
