Customers trust their eyes. If someone steps onto your facility and it doesn’t look safe, there’s not a whole lot you can do to convince them otherwise.
That isn’t necessarily fair, of course. Maybe your facility has a bunch of hidden security features that keep it secure! And maybe the facility down the road that looks like Fort Knox has a manager who lets his friends take whatever they want.
If customers don’t feel safe with your facility, they won’t rent with you. We talked to an industry expert about which security features you should focus on to create a secure (and secure-feeling) facility!
On a recent GabFocus episode, we spoke with Aaron Harwell, founder of SpiderDoor, about which security features actually move the needle with customers.
He gave us his top three, which one he would absolutely invest in first, and added a little industry secret that could help improve your facility on a budget!
In this article, we’ll go over Aaron’s favorite self storage security options and how operators can turn those into rentals.
Tommy and Melissa asked Aaron which feature he would invest in first if he was given a facility that had no security at all.
Without hesitation, the answer was a security gate and fencing.
We’ve lumped these together because a gate without fencing isn’t very useful, and fencing without a gate makes it really hard to get into the office.
This may be the obvious answer, but that doesn’t make it wrong. A fence and gate are big and blatant, and neither your customers nor potential thieves can miss them.
Combined, they form a facility-wide sign that says, “We care about security!”
If there are two similar facilities near each other, but one has a gate and the other doesn’t, customers are going to see a pretty clear distinction between them. The unfenced, ungated facility will have to compensate for its perceived lack of security with lower prices or other extensive amenities.
Of course, there are ways for thieves to get around a gate or through a fence. Adding these won’t turn your facility into a fortress. But a fence and gate demonstrate security in a way that other options don’t.
Gates also have some advantages for operators!
You may be more used to hearing about all the ways gates can break (and how much of a headache it can be to get them fixed), but gates can make your life easier, too. Instead of overlocking a late tenant, your gate software can simply deny them access.
This saves you the step of going out and overlocking yourself, and it saves you the cost of the lock. Automated gate codes, if your property management software offers that, saves you the step of granting access to individual tenants. More advanced gates can even interface with the smart locks on your units and deactivate the alarms whenever the tenant comes on the property.
Read more about self storage gate software here.
Aaron estimated that around 70% of facilities have a gate and fence or some similar form of access control, but if your facility doesn’t, he recommended that as the first security-focused upgrade to make!
Dissenting opinions: I’ve also heard from operators who don’t put much stock in gates and fencing. They reason that fences are easy to cut or jump, and gate codes aren’t very secure either. Instead, powerful lighting and security cameras can provide deterrence.
An open facility has benefits, too -- first of all being that you don’t have to upkeep the gate or fencing! Use your best judgment to determine what value customers around your facility will place on fencing and gates.
The second most important feature, and the second Aaron would add to a facility that doesn’t have them, are security cameras.
This is another pretty widely-adopted security feature, and for good reason. Cameras show your customers that you’re keeping an eye on the facility and they show would-be thieves that there’s a decent chance you’re going to get their face on camera.
The number and location of cameras is important - you do benefit from getting the thieves on camera, even if the authorities don’t catch them right away. More important, though, is the impression cameras make.
When you’re walking a new tenant (or a lead) through the facility and they see cameras on every corner, they’re going to feel safer.
And Aaron shared one little secret with the group – one of his earliest facilities, the one with cameras on every corner?
The cameras didn’t work.
The point wasn’t having a video recording of everything that went on at the property. The point was to build a facility that felt safe.
This isn’t to say that cameras are purely for show! If you can afford real cameras at your facility, you absolutely should put them in. But if you can’t afford real cameras, fake cameras are better than nothing.
This might be why a lot of you know about SpiderDoor - their self storage unit alarms!
These are some of the nicest, newest updates in security technology in our industry, and there are a few other options for individual unit alarms. Simply put, you place one of these in the unit, connect it to the internet, and the alarm will monitor the unit for intruders.
The different brands of alarms work differently, of course, but all of them add another layer of protection that will alert someone if an unauthorized person enters the unit.
If you choose a model with an audible deterrent, the alarm will play loud noises to scare off whoever isn’t supposed to be in there. Most alarms will alert someone via text or other form of message when the alarm is triggered, too.
Some offer customizable alerts, so the tenant (or your facility) determines who exactly is notified under which conditions.
So, these do provide a heightened level of security! But the biggest benefit to your storage facility isn’t that you might scare away a thief with an alarm.
Let your customers choose if they want an individual unit alarm or not! This a great opportunity for value pricing. If some of your storage units have alarms and others don’t, you can let your customers choose which unit they would prefer - after you explain the benefits of a smart unit alarm, of course.
There are even alarms that can be easily added and removed as needed, so you can sell them as an upcharge on any unit!
You can also call out the option on your website, but make sure you’re informing your customer what the alarm actually does. Industry terminology like “smart units” can be confusing and most of your customers won’t know exactly what that means.
Feel out how much customers are willing to pay for this upgrade, then set your price point. Or, if you're in a really competitive market, you could offer this as a free upgrade to convince people to rent!
Whatever you're doing, if you have these security features, make sure your customers know about it! Not only will it make you more money, but it'll give your customers peace of mind knowing that you're taking care of their things.
Learn more about self storage security with these posts:
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