Whether you're new to storage and setting up your first facility, an experienced operator leasing up a new store, or just want to make a change to your facility's current software, there's a lot to keep in mind.
Thankfully, there are some experts available to give their expert advice on what you need to consider when swapping self storage management software!
Tommy and Melissa sat down with these experts. Together, our panel of guests gave us their advice on what an operator needs to consider before making a swap.
Question: "What should you consider when choosing storage software?"
Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:
In this Gabfocus Session: The Next Generation of Self Storage Software, Tommy and Melissa sat down with a whole panel of self storage software experts. Guests included Jack Colemanzo of Storeganize, Alyssa Winkelman of 6Storage, Steve Smith of Storage Commander, and Jason Palmer of Storable. The topic? All things self storage software.
Check out the full Session to dive deeper!
Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what our guests had to say:
I would just start with just kind of what we just touched on a minute ago. That's tenant experience. Right? And also the user experience that's using the software.
I think those are critical. And you want to have something that's going to be easy for those tenants to rent a unit. So I probably key in on that.
Also, integration needs we've already touched on as well.
And then also working with a software solution that's scalable as well. As you grow, the software can actually grow with you. "
—Steve Smith
"Yeah. And I think just, how involved do they want to be in their operations?
Of course, there are tons of people who want to automate and run it as unmanned as possible, but there are also still operators out there that want to be really involved.
Will your software work for both scenarios? You know, where you can, you can truly run your business however you want. And again, tying back to those integrations, can you pick and choose what you want?
And like Steve said, the all in one is a great option, too.
So do you have kind of both options? I can get everything I want in one place, or I have the freedom to choose. I just think it's really important that we give our customers the option to run their business how they want, but also the tools to do it with us if they want to entirely as well."
—Alyssa Winkelman
"Yeah, I mean, I think that as you look at the end-to-end solution, it's how do you optimize that tenant lifecycle?
And today, there's expanding options in terms of how tenants want to interact with you as a company. And so whether that's online or in the facility, there's flexibility to be able to optimize that tenant experience. We've seen kind of the trends kind of flatten in terms of demand in the market.
And so it becomes incredibly important that you're out in front of those customers. You're showing up and interacting with them in a way that they want to interact with you, whether that's online or in the facility, and then how that experience is all the way through to move-out.
And so having that seamless experience is going to result in those great reviews that those consumers are going to see online and result in repeat business. And so we want to make sure that we're maximizing that tenant experience.
On the flip side, ensuring, and Alyssa and Steve both talked about, from an operator experience, how do you ensure that you're picking a solution that's adapting to your business and configurable so that you can leverage it and gain adoption without having to shift your business to work the way that the software wants you to work?
And so I think that's an incredible, you know, a key part of that. The other piece that we're continuing to see that we have to pay a lot of attention to is there's increasing number of compliance issues that are happening in the market. And so the most recent in California with fees and fee regulations, you want to make sure that you're picking a vendor that's supporting your ability to deal with those compliance issues as they start to come up."
—Jason Palmer
"I think we see that a lot from the associations are pushing that as well, depending on the region, but also in and around Europe as well, they'll make it a mandate.
Right?
You know, you have to have an ID verification in the UK now if you're a part of the association. So that kind of drives software within that region to make that an absolute requirement and that kind of pushes a feature set of the software sometimes."
—Jack Colemanzo
