Gabfocus Episode 24 | Start to Finish:
Understanding and improving your customers’ journey
As a self-storage operator, getting and keeping customers is probably what keeps you up at night. If you want to keep your facility full and your tenants happy, you need to understand how your customer makes decisions. You need to put yourself in their shoes.
Featured Speakers: Rick Beal & Magen Smith
Moderators: Melissa Huff & Tommy Nguyen
Category: Marketing & Operations
Focus: Owners and Managers
Aired: March 18, 2021
Duration: 1:07:33
Highlights
If you don't have time to watch the whole Session, here are some of our favorite parts:
- At 5:40, Magen and Rick reflect on what makes people need storage. “You don’t need storage until you need storage.”
- At 11:20, Rick talks about the wide variety of ways that people find out about facilities and reminds us that every location is unique. He challenges us to be relentless about keeping track of how people find our facilities and letting that inform our strategy. "Manage your weakness and play to your strengths."
- At 14:25, Magen and Rick break down the main channels that people are searching for storage and remind us that building a strong marketing foundation is a game of inches not miles. "It's a business of attention."
- At 20:00, the whole panel discusses the different view points on rent increases and when's the right time to do them.
- At 27:00, Magen talks about potential customers' highest priority - and it usually isn't price. Often making it easy and being available is all someone needs to store with you. Rick talks about being a "Swiss army knife" and being able to highlight whatever benefit or feature a lead is interested in.
- At 32:50, Magen and Rick give advice for helping people through the process of renting. "At the end of the day, they have a problem. Figure it out and find a solution that works for them."
- At 41:40, all the panelists discuss why some customers may not be "worth it" if they aren't sticking around. Don't fill up with seasonal tenants and miss long term tenants. “Stepping over the dollar to pick up a nickel.”
- At 46:55, Rick dives deep into the onboarding process and insists "it's the most important part of the customer journey." He talks about the goals to set them up for success, to set their expectations for the rest of their stay with you, and to never stop improving your process.
- At 50:40, Rick recommends taking a big piece of paper and actually drawing out your customer journey. "If a customer calls or wants to rent online or comes into the office, what are the possibilities? What can happen? List it!" He remind us to go through each step and identify pain points that we can improve.
- At 51:35, Magen gives her advice making move-ins easy. She recommends offering helpful information when customers need it, not all at once. “Your rental isn’t done until their stuff is in the unit, the door is locked, and they're driving away happy."
- At 56:00, Rick and Magen talk about how often they communicate with tenants and how important it is to them create an "all inclusive" customer service experience. “Make it so people can take the good things for granted.”
- At 1:01:53, the panelists discuss how they go above and beyond to stand out to potential customers.
Question of the Week
We asked our experts: What’s something extra special that you do to stand out to potential customers?
"We hire people who are amazing. We hire the right people for each facility that connect well with our customers. The amazing people we hire are the ones who are doing the extra special things for every customer they interact with." - Magen Smith
Gabfocus Takeaway
The days of "build it and they will come" storage are done. As the industry grow more competitive and more used, tenants want and expect the kind of ease, customer support, and consideration that they experience in other industries - from finding you, to renting from you, to moving in to your facility, each step of their process and each interaction should be the best it can be.
There's not a "one-size-fits-all" approach, so every facility needs to map it's own "customer journey." Look for your facility online, call the number, drive up, try and navigate your units. Are there hiccups or headaches? Would someone who knows nothing about self storage be able to navigate? Understanding your customer lets you improve your processes, and when you do, getting and keeping happy customers will only get easier and easier.
