CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company and a leader in furniture rental and leasing solutions, has just announced its Partner Referral Program for colleges and universities. Participating schools will generate new ancillary revenue streams from the millions of students living off campus attending these institutions today.
The program is very simple. CORT creates a web-listing placed on a school’s website along with off-campus housing information offering students furniture rental services. This listing includes a toll-free phone number and a web address that links into CORT’s Customer Service Center and is tracked through its customer relationship management (CRM) database. For every furniture rental lease CORT secures with a student who was referred from that school’s website, the participating school receives $75.
“This is a win-win strategy for schools,” said CORT senior vice president Mark Koepsell, “As colleges and universities can leverage the program to create an additional revenue stream while providing off-campus students a service that helps them obtain affordable, high-quality furnishings for their apartment.”
Through the web-based portal, students can view furniture rental options on the CORT website or speak to a CORT representative on the phone. The program allows universities to capture some of the revenue they lose when students choose to live off campus, while providing a great value to students and parents.
This program is another example of how CORT works with universities to develop direct and indirect relationships through which schools can offer furniture rental packages to students. Rented furniture can be delivered and removed “on-demand” by furniture moving professionals as students come and go from their living quarters during the school year.
CORT also offers additional services to support higher education institutions based on each school’s individual needs. For example, at some schools CORT is managing on-campus furnished housing programs with leased furniture packages. CORT also offers a furniture purchase-leaseback program through which CORT purchases furniture from an institution and leases that inventory back, thereby converting those furniture assets into cash and working capital as well as removing and updating individual items as needed and freeing up cash flow and staff time necessary to maintain an inventory of furniture.
About CORT: For the past 40 years, CORT has been a leading provider in rental furniture and has provided services to more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. CORT also provides the nation’s most comprehensive range of rental relocation services, including area-orientation tours and online apartment search services at www.ApartmentSearch.com. CORT is a Berkshire Hathaway company and has offices in every major U.S. market and a global furniture rental network of affiliates in more than 50 countries. For more information about CORT, visit www.cort.com.