» Price Self Storage
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Remember to Pay Your Storage Unit Rent on TimeBy jeff on March 14, 2011 | 178 Comments
It is a very hard time these days making sure that all your bills are paid. Unfortunately not everyone is in the position to pay all their bills will have to make some sacrifices in order to make ends meet. Many people end up giving away their homes and moving into smaller ones or living bare bones in life. For those that are using self storage in order to ensure their belongings stay safe. Now will they be able to pay for it. What ends up happening to people who cannot pay their storage unit off, their belongings after some time will get auctioned off. While some people will see this as a tragedy, some people will see this as a business opportunity. For the managers at different Overland Park storage units, they usually have particular days of the week in which they have auctions to sell off the belongings people aren’t able to keep paying for.
Since many Overland Park storage units have a set day in order to conduct auctions, there will be many people waiting for the chance to make some bids for the storage space. Usually the manager at the location will open up the door and let people look inside to see if there is anything that they want to purchase and then bid on it. You won’t be able to see everything that is in there so you have to be smart. People might come from all around Overland Park in order to take a look to see if there is anything that they want to purchase. Since they decided to put this kind of things on television, more and more people think they can strike it rich through auctions. It is pretty clear that most of the time people leave their things at the facility because they no longer want it.
At the Overland Park storage units location it can sometimes a very difficult time trying to figure out what the manager is going to open next. You will never know what could be of value and what could have totally wasted your money. You will sometimes see the same people that go from auction to auction that have a great eye for value and they profit tremendously off of them. They will also find things that they really have wanted for years but they could not have afforded otherwise. They will definitely have luck out at this Overland Park storage units auction.
It is not a secret that some Overland Park storage units might make some good money from these auctions but please believe they rather not do this. The rather see that people are happy and they are paying their bills on time. They rather see that their buildings are full of residents that are able to visit their storage spaces whenever they want to without the problem of being locked out or having to visit the office because there is a problem with the bill. For some reason people just believe managers are trying to bet people to not pay their bill. They believe that they want them to just default on their lease so they can charge them more and more in late fees. That is beyond the truth. Everyone is happy whenever the customer is able to pay their bill on time.
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Numbers To Price Self StorageBy admin on August 30, 2009 | No Comments
When you set out to price self storage , you are going to have to keep a few things in mind. Indeed, many aspiring customers make a critical mistake when they are comparing their options. They seem to think, first and foremost, that affordable units are the very same thing as cheap units. This, of course, is quite clearly not the case. When you really sit down and think about it for a moment, this point becomes overwhelmingly clear. If you have not done so already, allow yourself to consider the difference between an affordable unit and a cheap unit before you begin to call around to price self storage .
As you set out to price self storage , you will do yourself well to remember that a cheap unit is not merely a way to safe money. A cheap unit is, typically speaking, a bad unit. For a moment, think about the word itself. Cheap. A cheap product is a poorly made product. It is a product that will not satisfy, and a product that, as such, sells at a lower rate than its affordable counterparts. When you buy a cheap product, you have to keep its lack of functionality in the forefront of your mind. Rarely, if ever, is a cheap product going to perform in the way that you want it to perform.
On the other hand, an affordable product is, quite simply, one that fits within your budget. An affordable product can perform exactly as you want it to perform. When you set out to price self storage , keep this point in the forefront of your mind. You are not going to want a cheap unit that is going to fail to satisfy your needs. Rather, you are going to want an affordable product that fits within your budget and can actually perform the kinds of tasks that you need it to perform.
It is not going to fall outside of your budget to get a unit that can keep your belongings safe. And really, when you think about what you mind end up paying for a cheap unit, this point is going to become all too clear. Lets say that you are comparing a cheap unit to an affordable unit. The cheap unit is forty dollars per month, whereas the affordable unit is eighty dollars per month. Let us further say that you are going to store one thousand dollars worth of your personal belongings. If you are planning to stay for three months, then you are going to end up paying one hundred and twenty dollars more for the affordable unit. When you compare the extra one hundred and twenty dollars to the one thousand dollars that you are risking, you can clearly see that the safer unit is the better option. Proportionally, you are paying very little for the guarantee that your belongings are going to stay safe.
Thus, when you set out to price self storage , be sure that you are not forgetting to run through a few of these kinds of calculations. Weigh the benefits of the affordable unit against the burdens of the cheap unit, and reach a decision based upon the value of the belongings that you are storing. Usually, these calculations are going to lead you towards the affordable unit.
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Price Self Storage For A Budget
Property management is important for all realty owners as there are many aspects of looking after a property. Many people invest Warehouse business has become very competitive in the past few years. With so many warehouses competing to attract the customers, it is essential not only to give good services but also to offer the same at low prices. There are various ways that can help you offer low price self storage to your customers. Some of them are listed below.
Size Of The Units
The price is based on per square feet area and hence customers would like to hire a store unit that is closest to their requirements. You can do some research and find out that what size store units are in demand in your area and accordingly have more of that size. This will help you in better utilization of the space and thus have better revenues per square feet.
Differential Pricing
Not all customers would like to keep their goods for long. Some keep it for few days, some for few weeks and some for months. Depending upon the term of the contract, you can have a variable pricing strategy. This will help you offer low price storing to customers hiring units for the long term.
Retaining Customers
It is difficult and costlier to attract new customers as compared to retaining the old customers. By retaining your customers, you can significantly reduce your marketing and advertising costs. This would help you in offering store units at lower prices or in offering free additional facilities.
Customer Services
A good customer service is very important for the success of any warehouse. So if your customer service is great, you have an extra advantage over the storehouses with similar pricing and features. This also helps in reducing your advertising costs because a well treated customer will spread the word. If your business is good, you can save money through economies of scale which would further help you to offer low price self storage .
Internet Marketing
You cannot do away with the advertising in this competition, but you can definitely keep your advertising cost at minimum. Internet marketing is one option that can help you to keep these costs down and hence help you in offering low price self storage .
Systems And Procedures
You should keep your systems and procedures simple and effective. Lengthy and cumbersome procedures not only make your task difficult but also add to the costs. You should look for all non value added activities and eliminate them. All this would help you improve your quality and hence reduce the costs associated with the poor quality too.
Manpower
You should do proper work force planning which would help you to accurately estimate the requirement of manpower in each and every department. Proper training of the manpower is also important to run the warehouse efficiently and give good services to the customers. This would help you to reduce your costs in the long run.
Cost Of Utilities
You have to keep your overheads at the minimum to offer low price self storage . You should develop a warehouse, which makes maximum use of the natural lighting and ventilation. This would help you in cutting your electricity costs. You should look for options like solar lighting the initial investment may be high but the running costs will come down drastically.
In short, you have to look for all the wastage that is happening at your storehouse and plug it so that you can offer your customers a low price self storage .
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Essential Price Self Storage FactorsBy admin on February 3, 2009 | 16 Comments
Price self storage is something that everybody is concerned about. People want paid storehouses that are cheap. But at the same time they do not want to compromise with the quality of the amenities or the client satisfaction provided. A storehouse is priced according to its size, the features that it offers, the reputation of the firm and other related factors. It is not that always all people want to go for cheap storehouses. Sometimes people might want to store their items in costly storehouses owing to their monetary value or importance. Paid storehouses of different costs are available in plenty in almost all localities of a given city. One need to just locate a good quality paid storehouse in a desired locality and hire it.
The price self storage depends on how well maintained it is. Storehouses that are kept in a neat and clean manner and periodically checked for any defects and security loopholes are the ones that have higher hiring charges. Their affordability depends upon the features that they offer. Storehouses with excellent security infrastructure and environmental regulation are the ones that cost higher than the ones without these features. But one must exercise some prudence while selecting storehouses. If the locality in which the storehouse is located consists of moderate climatic conditions, then there is no point in hiring a storehouse which has features to control temperature and humidity extremes.
The price self storage also depends upon the size of the storehouse. It is always better to opt for a storehouse that is neither too big nor too small. By hiring a storehouse of a big size, one will only be wasting money on unused area, and by hiring a storehouse that is too small one will only cram up the items in it due which these items will get damaged in the long run. One should always hire only the amount of area that is required to organize all the items in them neatly. There are storehouses of various sizes available. They range from the size of a small closet to a large storehouse that can accommodate items that usually fit in five or six bedrooms.
The price self storage can be used to store furniture, clothes, seasonal garments and accessories, sports equipments, vehicles and even appliances. One might need only twenty five square feet of area or five hundred square feet area for storing items. One can choose from a range of storehouses of different dimensions. These storerooms, warehouses and cabinets can be used not only for storing personal belongings or household items but also office items, such as files. These storehouses are being increasingly resorted to by people who desire to free up their office areas by removing all extra items that clutter up the place and give it a shabby appearance.
A price self storage can also come to the aid of retail outlets that are loaded with material. The extra stock, sample merchandise, extra inventory and many such items can be placed in a rental warehouse that is in the vicinity of the retail outlet and accessed as and when the stocks in the retail outlet get exhausted. This will help in giving the retail outlet a neat, well organized and spacious appearance which will greatly help in it acquiring a higher impression in the eyes of its clientele. These storehouses are a must for anybody who wants to keep his premises neat and spacious when there is limited place available.
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A Few Things We Learned In Writing 300,000 Leads
Welcome to the PhoneSmart self storage blog, a diary of the self storage industry.
We recently wrote our 300,000th lead/reservation. That gives us a little experience to talk about. Many things have remained consistent since we started talking to self storage callers. Here is our take on what we have found.Callers:
Most callers do not know what they need or how to shop for storage. They often assume that price should be the issue, but they don’t know what their money is buying them. Store features and amenities become a great way to show callers that they are buying more than the cubic footage of storage area. Features and amenities also give us a chance to create some value in the property to justify the cost and to differentiate the store from others in the area.Most callers are frustrated with the entire storage shopping experience and are not storing because of a happy situation in their lives. Many shoppers have gotten answering machines, busy signals, unprofessional phone treatment and very little help on previous phone calls. Being able to be helpful while professionally selling a property brings a certain amount of relief and comfort to the caller.Price is usually not the main issue. Most callers are far more concerned with convenience of location and with getting a clean, friendly, secure place for their belongings. Price may be the first question out of their mouths. But it is usually number three or four on their list of priorities.The window of need is a little wider than many expect. There are many storage callers who do not need a unit immediately but want to do shopping and decision making now. The window of need seems to be about 4 weeks in many cases, but can be as long as three months. This is why you should never give up on a lead.Callers often think they need to do comparison shopping to find the right location at the right price. What we usually experience is that a great many shoppers will make a decision now if you can satisfy their emotional needs and assure them that the store they are calling will meet their needs and expectations at a fair price. Even buyers who won’t need storage for a few months would like to decide where they will be storing in a few months. You need to take them off the market the first time they call if you can.You will also get many people who will call you back after a pleasant initial contact and will decide to rent on the second contact.This is why many of our clients are experimenting with ways to send us more prospective renter calls and less current tenant calls.The Storage Market:
It is very local. Pricing varies tremendously from market to market, sometimes even within the same town. Callers generally accept this as being a part of local supply and demand issues and a part of paying for the convenience of storing close to home.The state of Sales in self-storage or how stores sell themselves:
It appears that the standard approaches of educating and counseling callers about storage are outmoded. In a time when demand outpaced supply and most people storing were ignorant about storage, it may have been enough to let callers know your office hours and your features to bring them in to the store. Consumers are becoming shoppers. Supply is exceeding demand in many areas. People have more choices. Competition is heating up in many markets. The “build it and they will come” days are gone. Stores that do not adopt effective sales techniques will simply educate callers who will rent at the next place they call. Most storage owners are trying to create a retail atmosphere and get away from having caretakers on the site and have sales people at the site. This transition is slow in happening. Stores that are not simply being friendly on the phone but are also selling will rent more units.Missed business:
Stores are missing a lot of phone calls. We talk to about 50 live callers on average per month in the summer for our stores on the overflow call service. Since about half of the people we talk to are current tenants, you can assume the average store is missing 25 rental opportunities in a month.There is a wide variation in the actual number of calls we take for a store. Some smaller properties in smaller markets only send us 20 or 25 callers. And some larger stores are sending 75 or 100 callers.Anyway you slice it that amounts to a lot of money left behind. The bulk of the calls come during office hours while the manager is busy doing something else or while the office at the store is full of tenants and prospective renters. We also get a good amount of calls in the hour or two just before and just after opening and closing.We also see very little late evening calls from the west coast. Many believe that people like to shop after work. The bulk of the calls we get late in the evening are from the east coast. In our experience, west coast shoppers are done shopping by six or seven in the evening.What we don’t know is the value of talking to current tenants. Does reaching a friendly person on the phone rather than a busy signal or an answering device help a tenant stay an extra month or two? If that were true, than there would be some real value in making sure all callers got a live voice. We must assume that any excuse a person can come up with to leave their belongings in storage is a good one. If the pain of paying the bill is less than the pain of going and removing the stuff, than the stuff stays. So if the phone experience is not painful, it must help in the long run.Driving People to the store:
The old tale says that if you can get someone in your store, you can rent to him or her. This proves to be truth time and time again. So our mission is to get people to our clients’ stores. We have found the best way to get someone to the store is to take a credit number to reserve a unit. If this option is not available, a conditional hold or a first-come, first-served reservation is good. If this option isn’t available, for instance the caller does not know for sure when a unit is needed, a site tour or visit works. When all else fails and we can’t do anything to get the caller to the store, a follow-up call from the store staff can do the job. Between the time we talk to a caller and the store calls back, the situation may have changed. Or the store manager may know enough about the local market, that this knowledge can help the caller overcome any hesitancies and come on down to the store.Effective business models for call centers in self-storage:
There are only a few models that seem to work. We have tried many and will try more. One advantage of being a part of a company that owns 40 storage facilities is that we can use them as a laboratory, and they can use us as a laboratory.1- Overflow calls. The store misses a call and it goes to the call center.
2- All calls. All callers reach the call center and do not go to the store.
3- 100% of rental inquiries. An auto attendant sends rental inquiries to the call center and tenant calls to the store. This can be done for overflow or all calls.In the overflow scenario, the call center is the back-up to the manager and is there to keep the crumbs from falling off the table. The call center can also be used to reduce staffing hours at the store during the slowest periods of the week. It is cheaper to let us handle a few calls, than to keep a person at the site during the slowest times.In the “all call” scenario, the call center handles all issues but complicated customer service or billing issues. These issues can be sent to the store by email, fax or voicemail for the manager t -
Is Price An Issue?By admin on April 25, 2006 | No Comments
Welcome to the self-storage blog. Phone Smart’s diary of the self-storage industry.I was speaking with several self storage insiders the other day and one of them was lamenting about how is lost a rental because of a difference in $10 between his store and his competitor’s store. So we talked about price for a long while. And I guess we came up with a few points that may be obvious to some of you, but nevertheless, here they are.
1. Sometimes you will lose someone over $10 no matter what you try,
2. Sometimes you can overcome a $10 or even $20 difference by getting good at selling value and helping the prospect see convenience in your offering.
3. You always have to try to get off the subject of price and talk value.
4. You may need a way to answer people’s questions while saving price for later.
5. In some markets, you have to give a little in price to get the occupancy you need.
6. People inquiring about rentals ask about price because they don’t know what else to ask about.Consider some of these points and give me some of your experiences in the Price Game. I would be curious to see what you think.Bye for now, TronSelf Storage Search Engine Finding Storage Faster
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HO, ho ,hoBy admin on December 19, 2005 | No Comments
Today’s self storage blog is from our evening supervisor Wendy.
‘Tis The Season
Oh what a joyous time of the year it is! Now you would not think that things would be busy in storage this time of year. Of course we don’t just answer for the cold states though. We answer the phones nationwide. So of course some parts of the US they can move and store year round!… Which translates into more commissions for us and more rentals for our clients…Yeah!
I have also noticed in my calls, that people are calling to hide Christmas presents in storage until Christmas. I don’t know if anyone else had noticed. I think this aspect of the business would be very profitable if played up. So we have started planting the seed. We mention to callers that storage units are a great place to hide Christmas presents from the kids or a spouse. We also use this as a way to build some urgency. Some people think that it might be slow in storage this time of year and they don’t need to put a unit on hold.
But I tell them that with so many people using storage to hide Christmas presents, that there is no way to know if a unit will be available if they don’t hold it. This helps us close rentals on the phone.
I think all facilities could make a profitable gift giving season by offering storage for the holidays, so nosy little girls and boys don’t find out what they are getting until Christmas morning! Maybe offer a special just for this time of the year since it could be very profitable. But that’s just my opinion.Hopefully a helpful tidbit for next year’s season.
That’s all for now… MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wendy
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Just the price…By admin on September 12, 2005 | 172 Comments
Just the price, please!
How many times have we heard that phrase? Many of us have seen that funny commercial with the guy shopping around for insurance quotes. Sometimes those words can be annoying to hear, especially if you are well trained in selling the value of your storage. Approaching these potential customers is really easy if you consider the fact that they are relaying their biggest concern right off the bat. You will know right away that this poor person has probably spent quite a bit of time talking to other storage companies, and must have heard every sales pitch in the book. All they want is that one magical fabulous price to end their phone imprisonment.
It’s really important to recognize and empathize with this shopper’s woeful attempt to find a storage unit at a good rate. They are probably tired of answering all of the qualifying questions that we would normally ask, and you can hear the frustration in their voice if you attempt any kind of price stall. Surely this person would much rather be doing anything other than shopping around for storage. Sometimes, they will hang up if you fail to give them what they want quickly. You really have to think on your feet in order to grab their attention.
I’ve learned from experience that a quick joke or shared laugh often breaks their monotonous search. Say a person calls and says: “What’s the price of your 10×10’s?”
Most of us would try to find out if they had ever used storage before, or ask what they were storing in an effort to qualify the unit size. Then you’re hit with, “Can I JUST GET THE PRICE, PLEASE?” Now the course of the call is changing quickly. How can you still maintain control? Try some of these:
-“Wow! You sound like that guy on the commercial! I hope your not pulling your hair out over storage, hair replacement costs more than moving!”
-“What’s the best price you’ve gotten so far? Maybe I can beat it! Mine were FREE last Tuesday!”
-“I sound like I must be the 100th call you’ve made today! What do I win?”
-“Sounds like you’ve talked to quite a few companies today! Well, guess what! You’ve finally reached the best one!”
-“Hmm…the 10×10…okay…bear with me while I look up the price. It’s the strangest thing, I had the prices on all of our units memorized yesterday, but can’t remember them at all today.”
Think of a phrase that suits your personality and have it ready to use whenever you hear
“Just the price, Please!” Sometimes a little laugh can break up the monotony, giving you more phone time to help the customer. If nothing else, it may even brighten their day!
-Laurie Cox, Phone-Smart Sales Force
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Storage in Katrina’s wake
Today I was traveling to the self storage association meeting in Las Vegas. Being on the road gives me time to look at the big picture and think about where our industry is going. Of course today I saw lots of headlines about hurricane Katrina. It’s a very sad situation. The rebuilding of communities will certainly change how we do business in those affected areas. Many trades people will travel to help with the rebuilding, and they will all need to store their tools somewhere. They’ll need to store their material somewhere. All the retailers coming into these areas to help supply the reconstruction will have to store their inventory somewhere. The people who will be soon moving into new apartments and new homes will need to store their new belongings somewhere as they set up home. You might suspect that many will end up living in smaller quarters then they’re accustomed to and will need storage for their other items. Many will have a temporary home and will collect belongings as they try to replace what Katrina washed away. There will be many supplies going into the affected areas that will need to be stored somewhere. So it may be that one of the first things that gets rebuilt in affected areas are storage facilities, especially since many storage facilities can be built quite quickly in comparison to a building homes and apartment complexes. It may also be that zoning and land use regulations will be temporarily suspended as these communities are rebuilt. We shall see how it all develops. Starting tomorrow I’ll know more about the reactions from self storage insiders as I have a chance to meet with clients and acquaintances.
bye for now Tron
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