Managing Self Storage from ANYWHERE

How can technology transform self-storage operations and customer experiences?

Scott catches up with James Hatfield, Chief Revenue Officer of Live Switch, to explore how cutting-edge video technology is revolutionizing the self-storage industry.

James shares insights into hybrid management models, the power of VAs (virtual assistants), and how Live Switch is making waves in operational scalability for facilities big and small.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
4:56 – How Live Switch found its niche in self storage
8:50 – The power of virtual management from anywhere
15:00 – Hybrid management models: Specializing staff roles
23:16 – Virtual assistants: Expanding hours and reducing costs

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Chapters

• 4:56 How Live Switch found its niche in self storage
• 8:50 The power of virtual management from anywhere
• 15:00 Hybrid management models: Specializing staff roles
• 23:16 Virtual assistants: Expanding hours and reducing costs

Transcript

Announcer (00:03):

This is the Self Storage Podcast with the original Self Storage expert, Scott Meyers.

Scott Meyers (00:12):

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Self Storage Podcast. I'm your host at Scott Meyers, and we have today a special guest. In this episode, we have James Hatfield with Live Switch. Maybe some of you have been hearing a lot of the hubbub around Live Switch. It is gaining in popularity very quickly as the way to be able to showcase at your facility in today's world in which technology is really replacing a lot of the things that we do within storage, because, well, our business model is one of which it can so very easily do so. So I'm excited to have James on the show. James, welcome to the podcast.

James Hatfield (00:44):

Scott, thank you for having me. I look forward to discussion today and just talking a little bit more about how self storage is changing and where it might be heading. And I know everybody's at a different spot, but thank you for having me today.

Scott Meyers (00:56):

Yeah, that's the idea. That's why we're here. So James, without further ado, why don't you give us a little bit of background on yourself and Live Switch and really kind of the evolution of Live Switch and how it then came into the storage business?

James Hatfield (01:07):

Yeah, thanks Scott. So I'm currently the Chief Revenue Officer here at Live Switch. We purchased this company about three years ago. It's a 16-year-old company, and prior to this, my partners and I started one of America's first FinTech companies, and we scaled that from nothing to Inc 500 to a multi-billion dollar company that still stands today. But we came in to tech, we love technology, and we were able to acquire the company and start to really grow and scale it into different industries, even before self storage. We were, and still remain in a bunch of other industries, but self storage has been just great. The community, the folks in self storage have been warm, welcoming, connected, and I'm grateful for, and I blame him affectionately John Lindsay, for getting me into all this. But him, his family are fantastic and really enjoyed getting to know everybody a little bit more as we come into the industry.

Scott Meyers (02:00):

Well, we've had a great relationship with John as well and he and his brother and yeah, that family are doing some incredible things within storage. And I would be remiss, James, as we talked before we started here to once again send out thoughts, prayers, and condolences for all the loss that has happened down in Asheville where you're located and through that entire region. So on behalf of everybody here in Storage Nation on our podcast, I mean once again, just send our thoughts and prayers out to you.

James Hatfield (02:28):

Thank you so much. Never been more humbled from this, but it's also really what doesn't kill you kind of makes you stronger. And I've seen some things I'd rather not have seen in the last few weeks, but the things I have seen from folks within cell storage has been open arms, open hearts, and just people willing to at least listen or serve or give. And we're grateful. Thank you to all of you who are listening that have helped in some way. We really appreciate it and thank you, Scott.

Scott Meyers (02:57):

Yeah, my pleasure. One of the things I'm very proud of and being a part of this industry, coming out of single family and multifamily and office buildings and industrial and going to those trade shows and events and rubbing shoulders with those folks, I can honestly say that the storage community is one and that is so caring and is so willing to give and to share. And I think part of that is because we're so hyperlocal as far as how we overlap in terms of our competition, I think that may be a piece of it. But we're in an industry where people come into our doors all the time and they're going through some type of trauma and transition and that is the business. Their hair's on fire because something's going on, their basement flooded and they're going to put their things in storage or death, divorce, bankruptcy. We know all those reasons why people need it. And so I think when you're dealing with that from day to day and you're geared up for it and we cater to that and recognize it, and those companies that are training their staff behind the counter for who's coming and what's coming through the door, then I think it's pretty natural. Then when it happens in front of us that everybody just jumps in because it's natural, it's just there.

James Hatfield (04:00):

Yeah, I mean that's just nature of the business, why people are storing and it is through life events and we do ask our teams to do a lot when someone walks through that door to make sure that they're seen as an individual but also served as the business. I know renting units is a big part of it, but the human component of it is real. And when people can tell you care, it makes a difference. And it might not even make a difference to your bottom or top line, but it makes a difference to how we serve our communities.

Scott Meyers (04:32):

Yeah, yeah. Really doesn't matter at the end of the day. I mean that's what we're doing. We are a service business no matter how you slice it well. So there's a lot of tech companies that have also then come into self storage by way of people looking for a solution and then found tech and then putting it and it was a natural fit and things worked very well. So I think you know what I'm talking about here. Tell me how you fit in and how live switch did storage find you or did you find storage?

James Hatfield (04:56):

Does anybody ever find storage? It was never on the roadmap prior to this. Actually, what was on the roadmap was reinventing the nine one one telephone call and helping with safety and security on our campuses and schools across the US and beyond. That was our number one mission still is. Sometimes when you invent technology though, you don't always know who you're going to serve and help. And so when we brought this and as we were building this out because connected with the Lindsey family and with John, he saw it and he put the dots together and said, you need to come and meet the who's who's of sell storage and see what you got. We didn't, we took a time, months, months and months before you even decide to come into the industry. I don't like coming into any industry if we can't serve, give the experience better and stay because these fair weather software companies that come and go, you make that investment as an owner, as an operator, you're training your staff, but it just can be a waste of time and money to kind of chase the shiny objects.

(05:56):

So we really try to do is take our time and listen, learn and develop the technology from there. I've met people. What I like to do is get my pen and paper out and listen to people who've been in the industry for decades. What do you need? And I have builders, I have computer scientists. And when I present this to folks like, wow, this is really thoughtfully designed. Well, yeah, because we listened and we took notes and then we developed it for different experiences. And I'm seeing across the board whether you might be a mom, pop owner operator, or you might be a top 100. There's different ways to serve your local needs or serve your national needs and how you want to do your customer service. So we offer tools for that type of experience and we can walk through a bit of that, but everybody uses it a little bit different.

Scott Meyers (06:49):

And let's do that. Let's understand a little bit more about the offerings, the services and the resources that you're offering to providers and to the marketplace.

James Hatfield (06:57):

Absolutely. So why don't we start, let's say I'm going to take a different, we call them personas. So I own a couple facilities, four or five facilities, maybe I have a manager on site at each one or maybe I've got a satellite facility that I have a couple miles apart and I have someone managing two facilities. So sometimes your manager likes to take a lunch break, they leave the site for an hour, we'll be back in one hour. Well, sometimes during that hour someone drives by and walks in the door and hello, is anybody home? We can miss out on opportunities and based on the data, from what I'm hearing about three people walk in per facility per day. And you want to capitalize on that piece as well as the phone's ringing or people are going on your website. So when somebody, your manager leaves for lunch to go grab a sandwich, they can have a QR code or a phone number for that facility manager's phone to ring and that person doesn't have to drive run back over to the facility.

(08:00):

They can virtually walk somebody through the facility. It's just simply sending a text. Your tenant touches a text and you're video connected to the facility manager, even if they're sitting at the subway eating a subway sandwich because my owner operators say, James, I want to manage my facility from the beach or the bar. How can I do that? And so we've got a platform to do that, to connect with the tenant and to help them rent or solve a problem if there's an issue on site or at home. We also can connect your facility managers, people shopping at home. We know a video of a person based on the data has a higher close rate than chatting, talking on the phone or talking to a robot. That human connection, based on what we were talking about earlier matters. Someone's walking through the door after a divorce, ready to rent, ready to place their stuff somewhere.

(08:50):

You don't want to miss out on that. So our platform is helping to connect those pieces even if you're have just a few sites. I've got plenty of owner operators because we came into this space and we looked at it and said, look, there's a lot of tech here that are only for the mid-size and large-sized companies. What's someone to do if they're small? So I was like, well, because we operate across all different kinds of industries, let's make this affordable and simple and help because I want everybody to use our platform not just to select few. So that's a way to help in if you're a owner operator with just a few sites.

Scott Meyers (09:26):

Well, I think we've seen in this industry that because it is more of a commodity when people are shopping for storage, we know that they want it to be close by. They want to see from the website that it is a clean, secure place to store. They want it convenient, an easy way to be able to rent a unit. And then that's where part of the place where you come in and that is our conversion rate. It should be good owner operators should be in the 50 to 60% range. And so if you miss, as you mentioned that one call or you miss three calls a day, well add that up in a month's time. And that can be the difference between making or breaking any of your projections. And so obviously a very, very important piece, the face recognition and just being comfortable with someone, I mean that's been shown over and over again from branding a person's face being the brand or a person being the brand versus just a logo that's been proven to convert exponentially higher than just a symbol or something else.

(10:23):

The emails, I send out a lot of emails by way of a loom, just a video recording or anything that has a face on it, there's more response rate. We know that when it goes out to our community and even my staff. And so to be able to connect with somebody, especially in today's day and age, I mean we're seeing this, as you mentioned, technology is permeating every facet of our society because payroll and taxes are the two highest line item expenses. And so if you can reduce to some degree the payroll without degrading the customer experience, then that's the winning formula right there. So being able to capture those calls and have a live person is key. But what I was also interested in, James, is when I saw the video piece that you're utilizing within the experience for users, touch on that a little bit as to how you're incorporating a video into folks being able to shop and being able to see where it is that they're going to be storing their goods before they even get in the car and head down.

James Hatfield (11:23):

And it goes two ways, right? If everyone focuses on the facility, what about the consumer that's shopping from home? Because 75% of consumers now in sell storage are buying online and 25% come on property. So how do we make that home buying experience better? I don't want them throwing the family in the car and shopping my competitors. I want them throwing their stuff in the car and moving in today. So what can happen if somebody calls or chats or reaches out and they don't know what size unit they need or they have questions about their boat that's sitting outside or the rv? Well now what we can do is we can connect somebody from your team right to the person's home and that person at home can show you through their cell phone, through their smartphone, here's my mowing equipment. What size unit do you think you need?

(12:11):

Do I need, here's my boat, here's my rv, here's my stuff. Now it's not just about them seeing your facility, it's about your customer experience. No one wants to move in thinking they needed a medium unit just to have to turn around and throw their stuff into a large unit. And seeing things helps your staff, but also goes the other way. If you need to walk somebody through virtually your facility or handle an issue on site, oh, there's a rodent, so I can't figure my Bluetooth lockout right now, I'm having trouble getting into the gate. How do I meet that customer where they're at and see what they're talking through? Sometimes the customer has a hard time talking you through it or writing, chatting you through this. We're trying to put eyes and faces on the situation.

Scott Meyers (13:00):

So this isn't a very difficult sales process in leasing a storage unit. But I would say, James, that is probably the biggest disconnect is that conversation that you just described between the potential consumer calling into a storage facility and that person on the other end of the phone, whether they've been trained very well or not, or whether they're just playing busy. Well, how much do you have to store? Well, I don't know, I've got this or that. Well, is it a bedroom worth? Well, maybe. Well then it'll probably fit in a 10 by 10. There is probably no greater disconnect. And then maybe cause then for remorse when they come in, buyer's remorse, rent's remorse when they come in it's like, oh, it's too small, it was too big or what have you. So I guess I just don't want to miss that. It's not a huge deal. It's not a game changer, but boy oh boy, that has got a result in higher customer satisfaction just from that alone because the expectations that are usually not met when they come in. Now that's got to lessen that gap, I would say.

James Hatfield (13:57):

It does. It does. And all these little bits and pieces start to add up because I want to meet my tenant or my future tenant wherever they are. If you're shopping from home, if you're in front of my front door, if you are shopping from your cell phone while you wait to pick up your kids from the nursery, you know what I mean? I want to be able to connect with them how they want to connect. Do they want to connect with chatting phone call and I want to add video when it's needed. It's not needed every time, but it's certainly needed when it's needed and it's having that availability. The other side of this coin is on the operational side. So we're auctions site audits, documentation, a hub and spoke model for my facility managers. And everyone started to talk through this thing, and I'm sure you've heard it and people have heard it before, this hybrid management model and what that means because historically and currently we ask our facility managers to do everything you need to clean the unit, you need to do the customer service, you need to answer the phone.

(15:00):

They do everything. And the saying goes like, the quality of my facility is based on the quality of my manager. Well, to get harder and harder to find those unicorns at an hourly rate and getting to retain them. So some of our customers are starting to get into a hybrid model knowing their staff, this person loves fixing stuff, loves taking care of the facility, but oh my goodness, they hate customer service answering the phone and trying to close people. Okay, well let's have that facility manager if it's possible, hub and spoke your job, keep my facilities beautiful, make sure they're safe, clean, and you do that. My other person, they're great with people they love. People will listen to people for hours, but don't ask them to clean the toilets. I hate that. So now you can start to use systems like a live switch to say, look, you're my customer success person.

(15:58):

And in fact you can even work from home some days they like that. Or you can work from any facility, you're going to answer the call, make sure it doesn't ring on the first ring. You pick it up, you're going to chat and you're going to video support anywhere, any facility someone's at. And I'm going to centralize, even if it's one person, centralize my customer success to one person. Just like with my facility managers now I'm going to hub and spoke where I appropriate and they're going to go around. So there's a little bit of this hybrid model starting to take shape even. It's definitely not the largest size and midsize, but even at the smaller facilities, they're starting to put the pieces together and really understand their staff more to where they need to be sitting, still giving a good customer experience and making sure the facilities are taken care of.

Scott Meyers (16:43):

So let's touch on maybe the two subsets, and that is the folks that have one to five facilities, maybe it's a hub and spoke, but they're just trying to reduce personnel and give some economies of scale utilizing the technology. Give us some examples of what this looks like when you've implemented that in certain businesses. For companies that just have one to say five facilities, what is the biggest difference that they've seen? And then let's hit the bigger folks. I imagine there's some call center applications where you're reducing some call center agents or at least making the experience better. So let's touch on the both of those.

James Hatfield (17:18):

So for some folks, again, you're managing more facilities with less people. I was talking to someone today, she's managing four facilities by herself from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM and she's got to manage four facilities. I mean, she's probably one of the people I see getting asked to do a ton. So now what we're doing is equipping them with, Hey, let's put up these QR codes. It's not hard. You just literally download it, go to these to print and print it and put it up on the wall. So again, we're not talking about fancy hardware. These are stickers. You put those stickers on the wall and you make that very clear. If you need help, either call the phone number or scan this QR code and get live help. So that individual managing four sites will know because the QR code says, oh, this one's coming from my DUR North Carolina site, and oh, this one's on Chapel Hill and this one's, that facility manager knows where it's coming from and then they can answer those questions and issues.

(18:13):

In addition, they are able to, now I use an extreme one where one person's managing four sites. That's a bit it. It's real though. It's reality where you might have three or four staff on five facilities, you're going to want to say, Hey, one person, you are primary customer success person. You're on phones, you're on video, you're on chat. And then I've got my other two folks that are on facilities, okay, you're going to spend half a day at this facility, the other half here, and they're going to go through their punch list, they're going to turn units, they're going to clean, get the locks right, make sure that landscaping everything's done and they're operating in that hub and spoke model to be able to, maybe it's you had five staff and now you're down to four or your staff, you've been gassing 'em out. You got the one person handling four sites, you're putting tools in their hands to save windshield time and to get to those customers instantly.

Scott Meyers (19:05):

Well, now let's talk about an institutional style property. So a four or five, 700 unit facility that may have one to one and a half staff on site. What would be the best way for them to be able to move over to your platform and what could they expect to see?

James Hatfield (19:21):

Yeah, so we affectionately call it crawl, walk, run. In the crawl phase, what you're going to do is either probably have a centralized call center or you have home-based staff that operate like a decentralized call center, okay? You're going to start training a few of those folks at a couple sites. You're not going to go all the sites in the beginning, although you can do as fast as you want. What we typically see is I'm going to get a couple champions. You might even change their, we've seen some of our customers change their title to virtual success, virtual customer Success. And they'll say, Hey, I'm going to take these three sites

(19:55):

With these two staff members in the call center and we're going to roll it out that way. And we want to implement the QR to connect and the text to connect feature. And then we have another piece where somebody can do it automatically with no agent on the other end where maybe they're moving out, they just scan a QR code, show a video of a move out. And then because the call center can review that, but a lot of times the folks that are running these call centers want to have that call center be excellent at customer success. They get highly trained to make sure that the level of customer success they're giving is top notch. They're able to handle when someone comes in after that divorce or after the mom dies or they're moving and they're stressed out, they are trained to do that to video connect with that person.

(20:41):

And then they start to roll out to more facilities because that call center can now handle their entire portfolio and their staff members know wherever those calls are coming, whether people calling from home or they're calling from onsite, it's going right to that centralized call center. So that's phase one. Phase two is to start to equip your facility managers. So for the facility managers, what they're going to be doing is they're going to be doing their punch list for their site audits, and then if they have to document things for an auction, they can just pull out of their pocket, start taking as many videos, photos, having that documentation, whether it needs to be sent to an auction company, a protection or insurance company, or validated by getting some help from facility manager to facility manager. Maybe one's really good with plumbing and the other one's not. They can connect via video and that the plumber can tell the non plumber, okay, this is how you're going to fix that. The water fountain, it's not as hard as you think. And rather than them hopping on a plane, because these larger portfolios, you've got people flying all over the place. So can I save a few plane trips? It starts to add up quickly by just getting that video documentation. So there's an entire operational side that's phase two of the platform that's going to help these mid-size portfolios from call center to facility manager.

Scott Meyers (21:56):

Okay, so James, my mind's racing here and I would imagine or assume maybe that then the third party call centers are probably either using or going to be using this so that a facility owner that has one, two, three facilities that could call or contract with one of these call centers to be able to use your platform and then have this application work even if they don't own the call center. Does that make sense?

James Hatfield (22:19):

Makes total sense. And it's already in place and we're already going. So we have a formal partnership that XPS announced as an example. XPS can take spillover calls. So let's say you've put this in the hands of your staff and they're just all completely busy and a call's coming in, well, that spillover call can go right to an XPS agent and they can video support handle anybody. So that's already in place for spillover. In addition, extending hours is very popular right now. If you're traditionally open from nine to five, we're seeing a lot of success happening by opening up a little earlier, staying open a little later, and allowing a third party management company to handle those spillover calls with a QR code. And you can even put your open and close sign on a Bluetooth button. So you appear open, they walk in, oh, there's signage, and now you're able to pick up a couple extra tenants in those after hours positions. Even if you want to go 24 7 and overseas. I've got people overseas handling these too.

Scott Meyers (23:16):

Yeah. So that was going to be my next question. If you just want to extend your hours, so you have folks that are trained on your platform that are essentially working in a call center overseas, so they can take calls 24 7. And then I guess I would ask vice versa, do you have some overseas international facility owners that are utilizing call centers that are on a different time zone, say our time zone western time zone?

James Hatfield (23:40):

Yes, and

Scott Meyers (23:41):

Yes. Okay.

James Hatfield (23:42):

So I've got folks that have been really getting, doing 24 7 with virtual assistant companies because you can have someone answer at any time you want in the Philippines, and they pride themselves off being easy to understand and video ready, they'll wear your company polos, they'll have your company background and they can handle all that. And it's a fraction of the cost to have somebody overseas handling that, whether you want to extend hours or even during business hours if you want these to go over overseas. And there's large companies already on the move doing that, and there's even some smaller companies. I have that contract with a virtual assistant company and leverage our portfolio to do that. And you can't believe it's not just self storage. I literally have ice cream companies and different companies that are replacing their front desk agents with virtual

Scott Meyers (24:31):

Assistants

James Hatfield (24:32):

Just so much better for the bottom line.

Scott Meyers (24:34):

So let's talk about now the tech stack and what this looks like with regards to say, a no key system in our industry, or maybe we can glean some ideas from other industries in which there is a remote person, a BA in the Philippines that has access to a no key system with a Bluetooth, as you just mentioned, Bluetooth switching of on and off or open and close signs. But what about them having access to other entry and access systems within your business, whether it be self storage or not, so that these folks are empowered to handle a little bit more of these types of transactions overseas. Is that in place right now?

James Hatfield (25:16):

Oh yeah, absolutely. And it is even fast growing in some industries you might not think about even bookkeeping, CPAs, accountants, whereas huge companies overseas. There's a big company in Australia that has a ton of their staff in the Philippines and those folks are handling all the bookkeeping and people worry. I think the big myth to debunk is like, oh, isn't someone overseas going to rip me off or do something out of bounds when I give them access to my systems? The answer to that is what we've seen in the data, you're more likely to be taken advantage of from people in your office. Why? Because your paper or your key is right there and technology and platforms with the level of encryption that's going on now and usernames, passwords, it's even safer to have people overseas. And so it's kind of counterintuitive. And the only reason I know this stuff is because I've talked to a number of CEOs that either have this in place or they provide service because we sit in the middle of all that.

(26:13):

And I've had recently someone in the cell storage industry pulling their hair out because they couldn't find somebody just right staff. They just needed staff for the bookkeeping, for the onsite taking the phone, and they couldn't keep people. They weren't coming to work on common when they was like they were just banging their head against the wall. Well, they picked up a virtual assistant, they got trained. That person is dedicated. They have access and their work ethic. And again, I'm not trying to pit country on country. I mean I'm four jobs anywhere in the world. I'm just four people who will show up and do a good job. You know what I mean? Where I don't have to bang my head against the wall. So we're seeing these virtual assistants and people overseas can connect right into your systems. They're treated like a staff member and they can do jobs the way that you want them done and they can do 'em at a fraction of the cost. So something to consider, I'm not saying you should do it, but people have taken advantage of this in a good way.

Scott Meyers (27:08):

Yeah. James, we here at Storage Nation and all our listeners here, no stranger to VAs, and I think you'll find here most folks are absolutely 100% on board with that. I'm sure there's some outliers and the folks that mentioned some of the, they're a little cautionary in some of the areas that you just mentioned, but we here on the podcast, meaning my company, we've been utilizing VAs in many areas and talking about it here. And so yeah, we've had several of the folks that run these VAs and are doing some great things in storage on the backend. And I would say from, not necessarily from an operation standpoint, from the bookkeeping standpoint and other things that can be outsourced, but this is the piece that I think is interesting to me. The last frontier where somebody is actually handling the management and the customer experience as if somebody's walking through the door and talking by way of a video phone to somebody halfway around the world on a different time zone and still having a great if not a better customer experience, and then that person being able to tie into by way of Bluetooth the access control system of the facility to be able to open and close doors and operate and handle that transaction as if they were there on site.

(28:11):

That's the piece that has me most intrigued, and I think we're getting pretty darn close to that.

James Hatfield (28:14):

It's already here. There's already people doing this and it's in all different industries. A lot of it is just, I don't even want to call a leap of faith. It's more just seen as believing and experiencing it. And a lot of times that conversions happen when somebody goes to a different industry, experiences it, and then they recognize, oh my goodness, that was somebody half a world away and I got the exact kind of customer experience I would hope for. And that is what we just got to open our minds to. Now, I'll tell you caution, don't go on to Fiverr or different things like that and try to find your VA and expect that that would be a losing strategy. The winning strategy is there are companies out there that are based in the US that hire people overseas and they do all the training, all the development, and those individuals get to sit around with all different kinds of companies, but they extremely, they value that position highly and sometimes they're more qualified than someone you can get onshore and you're getting a higher quality staff that's more dedicated, that can handle the customer success and service the way that you want it done with your branding and they're being taken care of and developed by another company.

(29:25):

It's almost like you've got a friend in the battle because you've partnered with another company. There's so many good things if you do it the right way, where I think once you taste and see it, you're going to become more of a believer.

Scott Meyers (29:37):

Well, we have a partner in our mastermind that has come in that he focuses solely on the cell storage industry. And what he's doing is he's taken this niche, our industry and training folks every step of the way. And so you can hire his VAs either part-time or just bring 'em on board. He's trained them even on the acquisition side. So for folks that are looking to buy a sell storage facility, these folks are very well versed in going to the first one, say two, maybe three phone calls in with a prospective seller of a storage facility so they know what questions to ask after a mailer has gone out or just to cold call them and see if they're interested in selling, to asking them the proper questions to determine what the price is and if this represents an opportunity for the buyer, and then even to do some basic underwriting and ask for some information before they present it.

(30:25):

So there's that piece. Then in addition to the call center piece and some of the after hours that we mentioned, but now he's also training them how to do cost segregation studies for tax purposes and outsource CFOs that are just absolutely topnotch because they have a master's degree in whatever country it is that they're located to help on the backend in terms of from the financing side and as you mentioned, yeah, let's face it, it is difficult to find and to build a team to try to do it in Indianapolis, Indiana, to try to do it in Asheville, North Carolina of rock stars all within your local community where you can get these folks that are very well trained at a very good working wage and they can work either 24 hours if you set 'em up that way, your business or to be operating in those functions when you are not. And so we absolutely are getting to that place and many of our facilities are now unmanned and we're utilizing the hub and spoke, and there aren't too many places, as you mentioned that we have found that we aren't utilizing tech in a way of getting in contact with some folks. And I think almost any, I'm not, I hesitate to say all, but almost any clunkiness has really been taken out of those transactions Now from the place where we sit here in 2024,

James Hatfield (31:39):

That's right. And finding all those points of efficiency for your businesses, what you've got to do to make your investors happy, make sure your facilities are running on a dime and you've got to know your property and your tenants. This isn't going to work for every kind of property, every kind of tenant. You've got to look at your portfolio and decide where you want to implement these things, putting the right people on the right seats on the bus, and you'll be shocked not only what it can do for your top line, but your bottom line. And that's a big key that I think sometimes we miss out on is what about how's that bottom line doing? Are we being as efficient as we possibly can? So we need to be thinking about that to make sure our portfolio is humming.

Scott Meyers (32:18):

Yeah, well, trust me, we do every day that we're always looking at the bottom line because everything that we do up to that leads to an improvement in the bottom line. So James, with that, thank you so much for your time. I'm really excited and welcome to the community. I know it's been a year now since you've been working at a year plus, but we're grateful and thankful and the industry is improving as a result of it. So how do people find you if they want to reach out and learn a little bit more about how they can utilize your services?

James Hatfield (32:44):

Two ways, very simple Live Switch, L-I-V-E-S-W-I-T-C h.com, live switch.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn, James Hatfield, like the Hatfield's of McCoys. And yes, I am related my great great uncle, but is Devil Lance Hatfield, so you can get me quickly on LinkedIn as well, and I'd be happy to meet you and walk you through these things.

Scott Meyers (33:05):

How about that? Well, there's a little known fact that we didn't know before we met James. So once again, thanks so much for having you on the call and we're looking forward to having you out hopefully to one of our masterminds very soon to talk about some of those other applications that we were chatting about earlier. And so hopefully we can make that happen here very soon as well. So with that Storage Nation you have been talking with at James at Hatfield about Live Switch, looking at multiple ways to enhance that customer experience affect the bottom line that once again to continue to be as competitive as possible out there in the landscape. So looking forward to spending more time with you all on the next episode. This is Scott Meyers and James Hatfield signing off. Take care everyone.

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