It’s a good time to be in the dumpster rental business. According to a report from Intel Market Research, the already large industry — it’s currently worth some $830 million — will experience a CAGR of some 5.2% through to 2032, resulting in a valuation that exceeds $1.12 billion.
In other words: demand for dumpster rentals is high and growing. With that said, any dumpster rental business that assumes that it can automatically get a slice of the growing pie will be disappointed. Competition for customers remains high, and, as such, it’s only the rental businesses that proactively work on growing their operations that can expect to boost their profits in the years to come.
Need some help growing your business? We’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll run through some smart strategies that, when combined, should make a real difference to your business’s prospects.
Lean Into Your Local Standing
As with all industries, there are some players in the dumpster rental game that hope to get all the customers. But the truth is, while those national brands might have the infrastructure and marketing budget that intimidates, what they don’t have is a local reputation.
If you’re a small, local business, then it’s recommended to lean into it and use it as a way to draw customers. In many instances, people — and especially local businesses — want to work with people local to their area. Even emphasizing your local touch on your website can be enough to convince potential customers that you’re the right choice.
Make Your Dumpsters Stand Out
A lot of people are going to walk past your dumpsters. If you’re not yet using your dumpsters as a real-life advert, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to make your brand memorable.
All too often, you see dumpsters that are old, beaten up, and without contact information. In a competitive industry, that makes zero sense. Even giving your dumpsters the basic treatment (such as a phone number and a lick of paint) doesn’t make that much sense.
The best approach is to make your dumpsters truly eye-catching. That means a bold color, strong branded name, and phone number/website. If it catches the eye enough times, then people will remember who you are — and that greatly increases the chances that they’ll call you when they need their own dumpster rental.
Upgrade Your Website
You probably don’t need us to tell you that most people make a search when they’re first beginning their journey towards hiring services/buying products. You probably do it yourself. One study even found that 89% of customers began their buying journey this way.
In other words, it’s highly likely that a big chunk of your potential customers will look online before they even think about booking. The question is, what do they see when they visit your website? In our experience, we found that most dumpster rental websites are overly basic, typically featuring an outdated design, poor information, and low-quality photographs.
In this day and age, it couldn’t be easier to create a website that makes a positive first impression. With a refreshed look, informative resources, and high-quality imagery, you’ll be demonstrating to your customers that you’re a dumpster rental business of today, not days gone by.
Allow Customers to Book Online
Another addition to your website that can make all the difference is allowing your customers to book online. It’s 2026, and not only are consumers comfortable with booking things online, but they often prefer it. You should also allow customers to make their reservations via other means (phone call, in-person, or even SMS/WhatsApp), but the online booking option has to be there. Plus, this approach can just lighten the workload for you and your employees, since the customer can essentially manage the entire booking process themselves.
Optimize Your Operations With Technology
Utilizing technology to improve your operations used to be optional. Today, it’s essential. There are dumpster rental business apps that can help businesses to find leads, analyze competitors, plan routes, and assist with smart waste management. Any one of those things can help to increase profits; when you put them all together, you have a powerful suite of tools that can have a transformative impact on your business’s operations and bottom line.
Speak To Each Potential Customer Differently
You’ll get more business if you make your dumpster rentals available to a range of different customers. However, if you do that, then it’s important to ensure that you speak to each different type of potential customer differently. The main customers you’ll be targeting will likely be:
- Homeowners
- Contractors
- Municipal organizations
- Property managers.
All of those customers have different needs, ways of working, and expectations. On your website, you can demonstrate that you understand how to cater to those customers by having separate service pages for each. This can be a much more effective strategy than simply having one service page that tries to speak to all of them, since in practice that approach will be more likely to speak to none of them.
Ask For Reviews
Finally, look at finding ways to get reviews from your happy customers. It’s not a groundbreaking strategy, but it is an important one — in today’s digital climate, in which consumers look for as many sources of validation for a business, positive reviews from customers really can make a big difference. In some cases, a potential customer won’t even consider working with a business if they don’t have any reviews or if the ones they do have are negative.
Getting reviews is also a lot easier than many businesses assume. You don’t have to just sit around and wait to see if a customer leaves a starred rating and writes a few words. You can actively encourage them to do so simply by asking. If you’ve delivered a great level of service and you know they’re happy with your work, then it’s reasonable to kindly ask them to leave a review. Most people are happy to do so, especially if you explain how much of a difference it makes.
