In a mailbox rental system that has limited functionality, setting up pricing should be very simple. Find the box size and set a price for each duration of rental you will be offering to your customers. Simon is a bit more difficult due to the fact that Simon does not have such limited functionality. In Simon, you can set many different box sizes/types and any number of rental durations up to and beyond 20 years! And, there is a new variable we call a usage level whereby you can set any of the box size/types and durations with different rates based on the customer’s usage of the box. Is it a business box, a personal mailbox, someone who is only going to receive a small amount of mail, a senior citizen, someone who is in the military. You can do almost anything you want, and set fees accordingly.
Box Sizes/Types
You will first want to tell Simon what box sizes and types you have to offer your customers. Simon already has Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, Forwarding and Package Drop boxes set for you. All you need to do with these is to set whether any or all of these options will be acceptable at your business. See, bullet D in the Box Size/Type image. You will also want to set the sort order for the box size/types you offer so that when you go to the tool to set rates, the ones you use the most will be at the top of the list.
The Forwarding and Package Drop type boxes are different from the others. Both will not use key or combination lock access. These will be ‘virtual’ boxes that you will want to set up an area within the mailroom where you accumulate client mail. The numbers you set up for these types of boxes will be unique numbers and not a part of the actual lock boxes you have in your system. The point is, you do not want to use up your lock boxes on clients who do not come into the store to check their mailbox, because they are a mail forwarding customer or someone only using your business to have packages delivered somewhere other than their home. Please note that the Forwarding and Package Drop types use the codes F and P. These codes are unique and should not be changed or used for some other type of box. They are different and Simon sees these codes as having different characteristics.
If you want to add your own box size/types, click on the pencil button (bullet F), and then add information to the left of the pencil button. Give the new box a 1-digit code, a description, a sort order, and set its availability. As you can see in the above image, I have added a new size--Jumbo. Also note that I have given it a sort order of 9 and checked it as available. The sort order is important since Simon sorts by this number and the larger the number the lower on the list it will appear. Naturally, the most common box should be at the top of any list.
Usage Types
Next, you will want to set usage types. You may not have any usage types except for standard usage. If this is the case, set Standard Usage as available and as the default. The default means that this usage level will be the one used when you add a new boxholder, unless you change it to something else. Only one of the usage levels should be set as the default usage; otherwise, Simon may get confused as to which usage level to use as the starting usage level when adding a new boxholder.
Standard, Business, Light and Heavy usage levels are automatically added when you install Simon, though only the standard usage level is set for you. If you want to add special fees for military and senior citizens, you can add your own in the same manner as shown in the Box Size/Type area.
On the Mailbox Rental Store Preferences form, click on the Usage Types (bullet A) item in the list to show the information shown in the above image, select the Usage Type from the list that you want to look at (bullet B).
Adding a new usage type is easy. Click on the pencil button to start a new usage type (bullet J), add a 2-digit usage code (bullet C), the Description or name of the usage (bullet D) and a brief usage description (bullet E), the sort order with the most often used with the lowest number so it will appear at the top of any list where it is shown (bullet F), whether a usage level is available or not (bullet G), the default (bullet H). The longer description mentioned at bullet E only appears on the pricing printout.
As shown in the Usage Level image, we have added two usage levels as an example of what you might want to do. See, orange highlighted area.
Before you add pricing there is one more item you will want to set-–Rental Durations.
Rental Durations
Simon is already set to use 1, 3, 6 and 12 month rentals. You should set the ones you want to use at your business. You can do this by selecting the duration you want to change, then at the button, check the checkbox at bullet F.
And, like every other option shown in this article so far, you are fairly unlimited as to what you can do here.
The orange area shows how you can set your own rental durations. Please take notice that we have added a 9-month rental and have added a nine in the duration (months) column. For the 18-month rental, we have added a 19 in the duration (months) column and a 26 in the 24-month rental column. Why? Because you are giving free months and this is how you let Simon know how many months are actually being given to the client.
After you have set the Box Size/Types that you will use, the Usage Levels you will offer, and the Rental Durations for which you will rent boxes, you can use the Mailbox Rental Fee Editor to set the fees for these many rental differences.
Mailbox Rental Fee Editor
You can find the Mailbox Rental Fee Editor by clicking on Mailbox Pricing at bullet A as shown in the image below, and then click on the button at bullet B. If you have not set any rates yet, the area shown around bullet C will be empty as shown. After you have rates set, rates will appear in the bullet C area when you make choices from the aqua blue lists.
You should click on the Box Size/Type for which you want to set fees (bullet C). Then, click on the Usage Type for which you want to set fees (bullet D). You cannot set fees for a Box Size/Type without first choosing a Usage Type since they work in conjunction with each other. For instance, a small box can have different pricing for standard, business, senior citizen, and military personnel usage. In fact, why else would you create a senior citizen usage level if you did not intend to give lower rates to senior citizens.
Once you select a Box Size/Type and a Usage Type, either the button at bullet F or the button at bullet G will be enabled. If you have no fees set yet for the Box Size/Type and Usage Type you select, the Add New Fees button will be enabled only. If you have some of the fees set for your available rental durations, but not all, both buttons will be available, because you can still add fees for the durations not already set and you can edit the fees that are set. If you have all of the fees set for all available durations, only the edit button will be available.
Add Mailbox Rental Fees
After you choose the Box Size/Type and Usage Type for which you want to add pricing, the Add New Fees button will appear. When you click on the Add New Fees button, the Add Mailbox Rental Fees form will appear.
If you know the fees you want to charge, you can just select the duration in the list at bullet E, and type in a fee at bullet F. Once you have the fee set as you like it, click on the ‘Set Fee’ button at bullet H. Once you do this, the duration will be dropped from the list at bullet E.
The sort order (bullet G) will automatically be set based on the sort order for the box size/type, usage level and duration. By adding these values together, you will be offered a sort order that should allow your durations to fall in a likely order.
If you want to set your fees based on a set dollar amount per month, with greater discounting for those renting for longer periods of time, you can use the Discounting tools along the right edge of the Add Mailbox Rental Fees form. As shown in the image, you set the monthly fee you want for each month in a rental period (bullet A), the percentage discount you want to give as incentive for your clients who choose longer durations (bullet B), and the dollar fraction (default cents) you want to use (bullet C). In the Discount Sampling area three samples will appear showing the shortest durations you have (bullet D).
The percentage discount might need a bit of explanation. As shown in the image, we have set a 1.2 percent discount. Now, if you had a 1-month rental, 1.2 percent would be reduced from the 1-month rental. For three months, 3.6 percent will be reduced from the 3-month rental (3 times 1.2). By doing it this way, the discount will be increased on longer durations, thus giving the incentive to rent for longer durations.
To use these samplings, you can click on the button at bullet D adjacent to the fee you want to set. The information in the sampling will be moved to the left side of the form. Click on the ‘Set Fee’ button to set this fee into Simon. Now, the samplings will change. The sampling you just set will be removed from the list and the listing will be rewritten to include another sample. You can continue doing this until all the fee samples are used to set your fees.
After adding a few fees, or all of the fees you want to set, you can close the Add Mailbox Rental Fees. You will see that the fees are listed in the Mailbox Rental Fee Editor.
Edit Mailbox Rental Fees
To edit these fees, you can click on the Edit Existing Fees button on the Mailbox Rental Fee Editor form. The Edit Mailbox Rental Fees form will be opened.
This is a very simple form where you can change the fees, change the sort order, or you can delete a fee you no longer want.
Once you have finished the setting of your fees, you should print the report that lists your fees. You can use this as a marketing tool, or you may just want to post it for your employees.
Pretty amazing stuff, huh?!?