3 Rules for Building a Customer First Self Storage Empire

Is your self-storage business keeping up with the digital revolution?

Scott breaks down the essential shift toward remote management and how technology is redefining customer experience. 

From online reservations and automated payments to AI-powered chatbots and interactive virtual tours, Scott explains why a seamless digital experience is now a necessity—not just a luxury. 

He shares lessons learned from implementing kiosks, strategies for maximizing uptime, and tips for leveraging automation to reduce costs while increasing customer satisfaction. 

Whether you're already embracing remote management or just starting to explore the possibilities, this episode is packed with insights to keep your self-storage business ahead of the competition.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

05:41 – Lessons from the First Self-Storage Kiosks

14:31 –Keeping Customers Engaged with Automation

20:59 – Social Proof & Online Reputation

23:24 – Avoiding Customer Churn

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Chapters

• 6:00 Lessons from the First Self-Storage Kiosks
• 14:50 Keeping Customers Engaged with Automation
• 21:18 Social Proof & Online Reputation
• 23:43 Avoiding Customer Churn

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, Scott Meyers, and in today's episode we are going to be focusing on the key, the number one key to successful operations when it comes to your existing self storage facility and how we approach our portfolio. And so if nobody's named it yet, then I'm going to name it and claim it. We have officially moved over to the place where our clients are looking to rent and have the experience in utilizing self storage as a remote first option, meaning from the time that they are searching for a facility and or a unit that is going to fit whatever it is that they need it for and to store in it. It starts remotely, it starts on the phone, it starts on the laptop, it starts on the iPad, and then following all the way through to when they move out, by taking a picture of their unit, closing out their account, and notifying that the manager who shows up the next morning that they have officially completed their contract and they have done everything necessary per the move out instructions that you have included on the app, on your phone, via your website, and everything in between, from making payments to handling any account issues, correspondence back and forth to the facility, you name it.

(01:22):

There is no reason and virtually no need unless they're utilizing some high touch ancillary services, but not even rental trucks. Do we need to have an experience with a manager or a site manager or person any longer? Most of that is done through the call center. There's very little that needs to be handled by a site manager at our self storage facilities. And so as we hit into the balance of this decade with a focus on remote manage because it reduces payroll, because it is simpler for us as an operator to run our facilities this way, it is also what our customers are desiring. So if you're not set up for that to begin with, if you haven't thought about that as you begin to underwrite and model your facility with that in mind, not having so much salary, payroll or even a manager on site, but utilizing technology, utilizing your website, utilizing the apps and the multitude of platforms out there to be able to manage your facilities by way of an online presence in call centers versus somebody that is sitting at the facility, well then this episode is for you.

(02:21):

So let's dive in. So in order to go down this path, I think you first need to understand who your remote customer is and you need to recognize that the shifting expectations that comes with this, so the ease of access, quick response time and seamless interactions, it has to work with every single piece of technology that they are utilizing and that they could contact that with you and your facility at all levels by way of the website itself and the apps that you're using, any platforms that you're using, they have to be accounted for in terms of redundancy, meaning your websites have to be running wherever those websites are housed, and any technology at the site also has to have a piece of redundancy built into it. Meaning if the electricity goes out that you have a backup hub, there are generators on site, you have a backup power, whatever that looks like for your clients to be able to access the gate to get into their unit because many times they may be coming over to your facility to get into their unit because their power has gone out and they need to grab their generator from inside their unit.

(03:16):

Well, if you don't have power, it's your facility. There's no way that they can come in to come in and get there a generator, and so therefore we're not serving our customer very well. And then it's not a customer-centric focused facility or business model. So all along the way, we have to have a redundancy and as we lean on and utilize technology more and more heading into the balance of this decade, we need to make sure that everything operates seamlessly, that our uptime is just as high as possible and in our industry across all platforms, we're striving for 98.5% or greater, which means that all of our vendors, anybody we work with, and as much as we can control the power company, we have to have some type of assurance that we get to that place so that there is no business interruption for ourselves or our clients.

(03:58):

And of course, is this something new for you? And even as we've been doing this for the past, oh, I would say 15 to 20 years, when we implemented and began to use the first major breakthrough in technology for self storage, our first kiosk, the insomniac 800, the built-in ATM machine that rents self-storage units, we began to build all this redundancy into our facilities and also into our platforms and then testing it along the way, we were looking at customers' expectations, their uptake and how much they were utilizing this technology and did it really warrant making some things maybe a little more difficult for them to use in the hopes that it would be a better experience only to find out that kiosk didn't work in all locations. There are some folks in some of our rural facilities in our secondary and tertiary markets where they wanted to come in and they wanted to hand the check over to somebody and they wanted to talk about local politics and shoot debris for a little bit, get a receipt and then walk back out.

(04:52):

They just wanted to visit their facility and their stuff and chat with the person behind that, the counter, some of these facilities, it was a waste of money to implement the kiosks because nobody ever utilized it. Even if there was somebody waiting in line and they could go over to the kiosks, we found that there were just some areas and some facilities in which it wasn't a hit, and so we yanked the units. Now times have changed and as kiosks and the use of technology has permeated all of our retail transactions as you go about your day, I mean we're running into kiosks and some type of automated point of sale system where we don't necessarily are always coming to contact with someone, and all you need to do is look at your local coffee shop, the movie theater, fast food, restaurants, gas stations, obviously ATMs, the finance industry has been utilizing ATMs in some type of posa for a number of years.

(05:41):

And so if you haven't done this in the industry, that is probably one of the simplest transactions that you could have from a person to person interaction to be able to utilize or at least lean on technology to enhance or replace, streamline that experience. Well then you're going to fall behind if you haven't already, but no worries, lean in. We're going to teach you just exactly what that looks like and to not lose any of the customer-centric qualities of a live interaction with your self storage facility manager. So of course as you're gathering that data and you're finding out what are the best ways that your customers like to interact with you or more importantly as you begin to implement some of these procedures and platforms, what kind of feedback are you getting back from them? What we found is not only the most important, but the responses that we're getting back is just not only the ease of use, the convenience, the security that they have and not worrying about, well, of course we haven't accepted cash for a number of years, but removing that transaction, a cash transaction from our facilities is something that is very important to both ourselves and our clients to not have to exchange cash.

(06:46):

That is almost a no brainer. And then the transparency, knowing that we can pull up any transaction, we can pull up any type of a record, any interaction that we have with our clients in case there's a miscommunication or if there's information they need to clarify or to get a copy of the lease to outline the items that are included in it for any reason. Everything is available, it's available at their fingertips. Their entire transaction is being recorded and held on their phone, and so their entire relationship with us, they can access at any given time, which obviously makes it better for us as well. Fewer customer service calls, less handholding and less time spent doing the redundant tasks and the redundant duties that technology can just handle in a matter of seconds. At the heart of this, what we designed for is simplicity. Technology in our industry has looked a little bit clunky over the years as we've continued to determine what is the best platform and then what are the proper boltons.

(07:37):

There is no one size fits all. There is no one platform in which everything and every vendor and every piece of technology works seamlessly and plays well with each other, but the more of the boltons you get, the less likely it is that they're all going to talk nicely to each other and interact and make it a better and a seamless customer experience for our folks that are interacting with us for the first time or on an ongoing basis. But what I do recommend and what we've done is the property management software has to have the ability to interact with our website that is also mobile friendly so that the entire front end from the time they find us on the site to reserving a unit, to renting a unit, goes into seamlessly into our database in our CRM, which is the account management software and then integrates it with our property management software that handles that transaction and the entire relationship so that if on the sixth of the month they're late, it automatically recognizes that and then connects with at the facility level to overlock their unit if we have the electronic gun locks on the back to notify the manager.

(08:36):

So that is the most important handshake is to determine everything that happens on the front end from the customer to how they interact. Then with everybody on site and without the management is critical. And so if you begin to chop that up into different pieces, you're going to find it's not going to be that great of a customer experience and that is going to then only increase the number of calls, customer service calls and the drag on the call centers time where they should be selling and converting new clients instead of handling current customer issues. And as the technology has increased, we are trying to make that experience online to be as close as possible to what it looks like to be able to walk into our facility and to walk up to the counter and take a tour of the actual units in the facility to see what that is like 3D modeling and a number of interactive videos that we've created and added to our websites.

(09:25):

And our property management platform allows our folks to do just that. If they do have a question, they have a virtual agent that they can talk to and then they can get connected to the call center if they need additional help when they're looking at the facility and they don't really understand what size they need to store, whatever it's that they plan to store well in the past and at many of our facilities now, we still have somebody on site. They can sit in a golf cart, they can go around, look into the exact units to see how big a five by five truly is a 10 by 10, so they can put a visual on it and understand what's going to be big enough, large enough or small enough to be able to store the items that they want to store. Similarly, at many of our stores now that they do have a kiosk or a portal to the call center in the office, when the client walks in, we have a much smaller footprint in terms of our office and there are two kiosks, and so they can complete the transaction there or they can connect with the call center by way of that video if they do have a question.

(10:17):

But on the back wall, we have the various sizes that are available at that facility, and so they can see a five by five, a 10 by 10, a 10 by 20, 10 by 15, however many sizes that we have, we will build them inside of that office so that they can just walk inside right there inside the office and they can understand just exactly without having to drive around the facility on a golf cart, which it may be hot or cold depending upon the climate where the facility is located. And they can see right there just exactly what it is that they're renting. We also have a video screen that when they touch it, a small movie rolls and shows them just exactly what will fit inside of that unit. Kind of gives them a little bit of guidance as to whether this is really for like a one bedroom or if it's for a whole house or some of the items that may fit in there and some consideration so that they can select the right unit the first time out.

(11:00):

Now, there are many benefits to utilizing technology all across the platform for getting information out not only for ourselves across our portfolio, but to our clients and then also to our prospects to have our marketing and our website tied into our actual pricing that we have at the site level, which we also manage with revenue management software to show just exactly what the price is, being completely transparent. So when people are looking, they can see what is the special, what is the price and how many are left. Now, many facility owners in the past and even before some of this advanced technology, everybody wants to create a sense of urgency. There's only one left reserve. Now even though they had 57 of that size, now it's tied into the software and it's based upon availability. And because of our revenue management model, it works more like the airline industry.

(11:46):

And when you get closer to the time of your flight and it's a popular flight and there's only a few seats left, the pricing goes up. Well, that's doing at our facilities as well. And so it's quite a benefit for our clients to be able to understand well, okay, if that's the case, and if they see the price changing while they're on the site, they may understand that, wow, now I may not want to pay that much and maybe I can utilize a smaller unit. But it gives them that choice on the options and understanding of what's popular and then also what the current pricing is right now as of today based upon availability at this facility, which is also tied to the market. They don't know that, but if they begin to look around at some of the other facilities or competition, they may see that some of that pricing shows up if they're all using a revenue management model as well.

(12:26):

And then of course, if they are overwhelmed, which you can't really get overwhelmed when you're leasing a self storage units, but if they are having some troubles or if they want to negotiate or if they have any question at all, having a chat bot down in the lower right hand corner is always a fantastic idea. And that chat bot should always answering any redundant questions from a list of 20 to 25 frequently asked questions or FAQ pages built into the backend of the software that can handle most of the questions that they may have. And if not, sit tight and I will connect you and immediately connects them to a call center where they can see a person by way above the kiosk or on their phone, or if they want to just text chat, they can get answers to the questions in real time.

(13:05):

So offering that, but then actually having that available, making sure that somebody is available to answer their questions is always going to put you in a better position. Because once again, I've said this hundreds of times, this is a commodity if you can't answer the questions right away, even if it's a negotiation for the price of a unit, they're going to go on down the road because they can and they're not tied to your facility. It's not like they're shopping for school systems, they're not shopping to be, do you have a pool at your self storage facility? They're not looking for any of that. They want to be able to rent a unit, move stuff in and know how to pay and where to pay. That's what they're after, and it has to be clean and secure, and all of that is done and shown by way of your website and the virtual tour.

(13:43):

And so once the initial transaction has been completed and they have done their move in, now the relationship by way of welcoming emails and text messages, reminders for when their rent is due, reminders if they're overdue, reminders if it's going into default, and the late fees that are assigned to that, any maintenance that's going to be done that may limit access to their units. If you're having a contractor appreciation day with donuts or a barbecue, any type of information you want to utilize and push to keep them involved to let them know, Hey, you're still here. You're here for them. This is a relationship. Even though we're a self storage facility and there's not a lot of interaction, we don't want to bombard them with messages, but we do want to let them know that, hey, we're on it. We are actively running our business and making it the greatest experience that we possibly can for you.

(14:31):

And then from time to time, even some tips maybe on the front end or along the way if they want to store some additional goods, just some tips on what to cover, how to keep any bugs out of their stuff before they bring it into a facility, because we have pest control at our facilities and they usually are the ones that bring in the bugs from somewhere else. So how to prepare some of your furniture and items to be able to store so that you're not surprised when you come in and open up the door nine months later. And at the facility level for the manager or the maintenance supervisor, there are other routine maintenance items that show up automatically and notify the contact person at the facility that is time to inspect the roofs again, and it's time to service the gate and the gate controller.

(15:13):

Any other routine maintenance item that needs to be done on a regular basis can be done and operated and run from this one platform with reminders in place so that the person on site who gets very busy at times doesn't remember everything, nor should it be in their head. They have regular reminders as to the things that you need to do to keep up with the facility, reminders to send out as well, reminders for tax purposes to get the sets of books and other financial items up to upper management or any other communication that has to happen on a regular basis to have the reminders in place. But then the standard operating procedures attached with them helps for a smooth operation and for lack of time spent on managing the managers so that everybody in the organization can work on increasing occupancy and increasing revenue.

(15:58):

And of course, for all of this, to be able to work properly, you have to train your staff. There's a different level of communication that is required when most of your interactions are done online. And by way of email and typing clearly we know that the emotion does not come through, which is both good and bad. We know when people's voice inflections change and where their eyeballs are as to how this message is being communicated. And again, it's not critical. The relationship between a client and self storage and the site manager isn't one that hinges on having a fantastic relationship. It doesn't equal the success of a facility, but we are all about retention. I mean, at the end of the day in any business, you want to keep what you got and get a little more. I mean, that's the basis of any business.

(16:38):

It's the basis of sales. So keep your folks happy, keep them engaged, and don't give 'em a reason to leave. And most of that comes by way of communicating with them on a regular basis. That way they know you're there when they need you and they know you care. And then giving our clients a way to be able to provide suggestions if they're having any issues, feedback that will help us in any way to not only enhance their customer experience, but obviously if there's some blind spots and things that we don't know about, we would like to know so that we can rectify those and then we can make it a point to then communicate that to the rest of the folks that are at our facility. So communication is truly the key to strengthening customer loyalty, which leads to referrals and drives long-term profitability.

(17:22):

So we reward our long-time customers, we give them exclusive discounts, special offers. We allow them to be the first in. If there is a highly coveted unit or if our boat and RV spaces have been full and there's other folks that are interested, we will communicate that first of all to our existing clients, to give them an opportunity to rent another unit to move into those units or if there's a special, now would be a good time. If you need another unit, we've got half off if you would like to move in any sales on locks, boxes and moving especially boxes at Christmas time, we offer boxes and many of our existing clients are buying boxes to ship and also to wrap Christmas items, whether it be locally or sending 'em across the country to their loved ones. And so feedback is what you want.

(18:04):

And if you're constantly encouraging your clients to provide feedback so that you can get better and to uncover any blind spots that they get frustrated with that you can't rectify or fix, if they don't let you know, well then you have to provide a mechanism for that as well. You have to make it very simple and very easy for them to be able to send those comments in to you by way of the app or having a QR code. I recommend a QR code that has direct contact to the site level, email and phone number at all of our facilities. So they can just click on that and at any time, they can get back in touch with you, which connects with the app as well. But then rewarding them for their feedback if they point out things, even if they're not so nice about it.

(18:44):

Thank you very much. And just for that, I got a little special something for you in the office the next time that you stop it. It could be a box of chocolate, it could be Starbucks gift cards. We hand those out a lot. Pizza gift cards, if there's a local pizzeria nearby or one that just stands out that everybody knows in your town, whatever that may look like, then reward them from time to time for helping you to get better at your business so that you don't lose that client or others who may be having the same challenge or just think that you don't care when in essence you didn't really know that somebody put another lock on the dumpster and now you can't get inside of it or that there's issue at the site that you were unaware of. And then taking it to the next level.

(19:21):

We put a banner across our gates on the very back that offers a sometimes 200, sometimes a $500 customer referral. So if they refer clients to us that need storage and they mention your name, then we will give them a discount and we will take that off of their rent as well. And any other way, get as creative as you would like in terms of giving a month free different gifts if they refer folks up to you. It's amazing how, believe it or not, in the storage industry, how many of our folks come by way of a referral because somebody had a good experience just storing their stuff, and it's just because we made it easy for 'em. We made it very simple and we communicated. We do the things that we're supposed to do, just the basic blocking and tackling of business, but now we're making sure that we communicate that to them by way of our platform and helping this remote facility to feel more like a hometown, like a small hometown business where they know who they're doing business with because they interact with you so often.

(20:15):

We also offer rewards for online reviews. If they give us a positive review, we've given them rewards. Sometimes it's just as simple as a very large candy bar or sometimes a small box of chocolate. Other times, if they are a super poster with regards to our facility, they post a lot. If they get to a certain level, we give them pizza coupons. Sometimes we give them a gift card that may be $10, 15, $20, whatever that looks like you can't buy. Well, you can buy those reviews, but people see through those, and that's really not a good legal practice that you want to engage in. We want true organic reviews from our folks that are very pleased and very happy to be storing their items there at our facilities. And so we encourage and reward folks. We have banners in our office that show them exactly how to do that and what we're looking for.

(20:59):

It isn't always, Hey, give us a five star rating and say this or this. It's just like, Hey, post honestly about your experience with us. And if you get to this level, if you've posted so many times, we'll reward you for that. And every time our regional managers or direct managers or myself when we walk into the office and we're talking with if we have a site manager onsite, or if not, if it is a 100% remote facility, then we'll talk with our district manager, our regional managers, and we want to find out just exactly what are the things that we can brag about. Is there some place, some area where we went over the top with a client and provided excellent customer service or just went way above and beyond? We'd like to not only recognize that the staff member that did that, but then we also want to create a testimonial and put that out in social media.

(21:43):

And in the places where our folks are looking for coupons or exploring storage, we want them to find us and the good things that we do as well so that they at least feel good about the place where they're storing their items because this business owner seems to care about their folks as well as their business and the community. And so what are the next steps? What's left? Well, we don't know what's coming down the pike in terms of technology. And again, a very static industry with not a lot of innovation, but we've seen in the past two years quite a bit of it, which allows us to be able to manage better, to manage our revenue better in all facets, to be able to have that customer experience be so much more focused on the customer and our clients and our prospects than it has been in the past that we will always continue.

(22:21):

And I strongly urge you to continue to seek more and better ways to utilize technology, to utilize AI, to make it a better customer service experience and make it a truly customer centric experience for our folks, because we want 'em to stay. We want them to generate referrals for us. We want them to talk well of us and to give high marks on the socials because people do look at other local businesses and the folks that are doing business with them in their community as being key to reasons why they would want to do business with this company as well. That's your company. So even though we don't have the experience of where some of our facilities, we do have site managers, but they know not to sit around and shoot the breeze for hours on time and go on the porch and drink a glass of lemonade, they do understand giving the facility a hometown field where people do feel like they're recognized and they're valued when they come in because all it takes is just doing a little something wrong and somebody's going to move out because this is a commodity. They can move down the road just to do things out of spite because they don't like or they had a bad interaction with. Our manager usually isn't a reason for folks to move, but when it comes time to renew

(23:24):

And they see the prices around or they got a coupon that landed in their mailbox or through the mailer programs to go store somewhere else, well, if you haven't treated 'em well and maybe just the straw that broke the camel's back or the fact that you just didn't communicate at all that would cause them to go to our competition. And so it takes very little effort, especially when you engage with and utilize technology to communicate one message to the masses at your facility. So to keep them up to speed, let 'em know that you see them and to provide that experience that they may not have or that they've never had when they were storing at another facility as well. So stay tuned. This will be an evolving subject as we will continue to lean into and also review many of the technology platforms and the ways that other folks are successfully implementing all forms of technology and AI into their businesses in years to come. So that Storage Nation, it's been a pleasure spending time with you again and chatting about the best ways. The number one way to succeed in 2025 is to increase that customer experience. It is competitive out there. I don't have to tell you that, but I just gave you the roadmap to become successful in 2025. So we'll see you on the next one. Take care everyone.

Announcer (24:35):

Hey gang, wait three things before you leave. First, don't forget to follow the Self Storage Podcast and turn on your notifications so you never miss another episode. And while you're there, please leave us a five star review if you like the show. Second, be sure to share your favorite episodes and more via Instagram, and don't forget to tag us. And lastly, head to the links in the show description and hit follow on Twitter and Facebook to get a front row seat with the original Self storage expert, Scott Meyers.