How to develope Rent to Own leaders for success (Part 2 of 2)

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In Part 2 of this conversation with 23-year rent-to-own industry veteran Jason Winters, Pete Shau and Jason dig into the economic forces reshaping the RTO industry right now — and what rent-to-own operators, district managers, and store managers need to do differently to stay ahead of them.
The episode opens with a frank discussion about inflation, rising housing costs, and how shifting customer spending habits are changing the rent-to-own customer base in real time. Jason's take is counterintuitive but grounded in experience: economic downturns and tighter household budgets have historically pushed more customers toward RTO, making the industry more recession-resistant than most — but only if operators stop waiting for foot traffic to return and start going out to find customers where they actually are.
From there, the conversation gets into one of the most important and underserved topics in rent-to-own store operations: RTO delivery driver compensation. Jason makes the case — backed by examples from Bucky's and Amazon — that the rent-to-own industry is consistently undervaluing the one position that has the most direct customer contact. If the delivery tech is now the face of your store, the last person in the customer's home, and the individual responsible for explaining the rental agreement, setting up the merchandise, and making a lasting first impression, then paying that position at the bottom of the market is a direct investment in higher credit, worse Google reviews, and lower customer retention across your entire rent-to-own portfolio.
Pete and Jason also explore how automated RTO collections platforms — like the one introduced by Payd at RTO World 2023 — fit into this evolving landscape, not as a replacement for human relationships but as a tool that frees up store teams to focus on growing the business instead of chasing payments. Jason draws the comparison clearly: there are no more Blockbusters, no more Red Boxes, and the RTO operators who treat new technology as a threat rather than a tool are already falling behind.
The episode closes with a conversation about what great rent-to-own leadership development actually looks like in today's market — investing in the people around you, raising the minimum standard, and building teams where every person, from the delivery driver to the district manager, understands why the work they do matters.


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Видео How to develope Rent to Own leaders for success (Part 2 of 2) канала The RTO Show Podcast