» mini self storage

Welcome to the self storage blog, our diary of the self storage business.

We were part to an odd twist of fate the other evening. A lady called one of our clients after hours and the call rolled through to us. The lady stored her belongings at one of the storage locations we service in Canada. She was getting ready to travel out of the country early the next day to the United States. She needed her birth certificate to bring with her to get back into Canada. She had her birth certificate in her storage unit and like many people do, she waited until the last minute to go and get what she needed from her unit.

Of course, her payment had not been processed correctly or she had not made her payment and her unit was over-locked. So of course she was freaking out. We thought we would take a shot at the store’s after hours non-emergency number to see if we could find the store manager and see what he could do for her. Although what we really wanted to say was, “Why are you waiting until the last second to get something you can’t do without?” We got no answer on the after hours contact. We got no answer on the after hours contact number.

We told her that there was no answer and we could not help her. Of course, that was not what she wanted to hear. Then she said she had tried the door and it was open, so she walked into the store office. EEK. The store was supposed to be closed and locked up. I looked up the cell phone number for the owner and gave him a ring. He tracked someone down who could go to the store and sure enough someone else had forgotten to lock the back door at the end of the day.

What started out as an unfortunate customer who had put herself in a bad situation turned out to be a good save on finding an unlocked door. I am not sure what happened to the lady. I hope she got her problem worked out.

I guess you could draw a couple of lessons from this. One: if you need something early tomorrow morning, you may have waited too long to go get it. You should always assume that there will be a wrench in your plan and plan accordingly. Two: it is good to have someone watching your back after hours to catch any weird situations and keep them from spinning out of control.

Tweet This Post 

Welcome to the self storage blog, where we look at the world of self storage.

It is getting busy and many of you are moving in too many directions. Have you remembered to take your visual tour of the property today?
I almost walked past a piece of trash on the ground today. Each day we put ourselves on automatic and get ready for our routines. We focus on the few things we really would like to accomplish today. While we are doing that, we walk into our stores without remembering to look around and see the litter, the dust or whatever else might be floating around. I guaranteee you your customers see this immediately. So don’t forget to make a quick litter-tour and visual inspection a part of your routine.

I walked into a business yesterday that I was hoping to buy from. I got a terrble first impression because the people there had not done their visual tour. There had been trash in front of the store for many days. The store staff didn’t even know that I was already feeling bad about doing a transaction with them before I even opened the door. Why put yourself at a disadvantage?

bye for now, Tron

Tweet This Post