How many angry customers call and they want speak to the owner of the facility. Sometimes I chuckle at people who think they have the opportunity to speak to the owner of the facility. They believe that we have a direct line to the owner and they will be readily available to speak to them on demand. People think they can come into the facility and wait around for the owner to come walking through the door. When the customer is angry or not happy with the management they believe they can snap and the owner will be there with bells on. Are they crazy to think this?

Some self storage owners like to be hands on and do whatever they can to please their customers. This could include having their phone numbers where customers can see them. If you walk to into some large scale retail environments you will see that the regional manager or even the store owner’s phone number and picture will be on the wall behind customer service. It is sure that if the customer does not like what they are hearing, they whip out their cell phones and expect to speak to the person in that picture. Some people are actually shocked if the person owning the store answers the phone. Why should they be shocked? Their number is up there for a reason. Is that reasonable in the self storage industry?

As an owner, they want everything in their company to run smoothly. Some owners decide to visit their facilities often just to make sure that everything is running in tip top condition. They do not want anything out of place and they want to make sure that their managers are running good businesses. You will find that some owners walk customers around the facilities and get behind the counter as if they were the manager. The customers do not always know that they are speaking to the owner of the company and are shocked to see them behind the counter.

It shouldn’t shock customers to know that they can get to the owner of some companies. They should not think that they can get to the owner of every company. They just have to use common sense. The larger the company, the harder it is to reach the person at the top. Usually they do have someone that handles customer issues that escalate to the corporate side of things. Customers do not need to be offended if they cannot reach the top if their situation can be taken care of. Also there is not a guarantee that the owner is going to be side with the customer in any case. The owner still has to protect their business and ensure that customers are happy at the same time. No one said their job was easy.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

Every owner is looking for the next best thing to hit the self storage industry that they can apply at their facilities. They go to all these different trade shows and such just to get ideas and to ensure that they know what they are talking about when they get into many discussions about storage. They want to be up on the latest and greatest so when it comes time to make changes they can try to put it into their budgets. Owners know that sometimes they will have to change their thoughts and their normal activities in order to stay competitive. They do not have it as easy as some people think.

Owners know that they have competition right down the street and they are not always looking to put that company out of business. They are looking at coexisting as long as their business is still growing. If the business is growing, then no one has a problem. The problem starts when there is not any growth and then the owner has to go back to the drawing board about some things or make some major changes. Owners might look at the property managers first before they think about making any changes to the property. Hiring an new person or giving more training is a lot easier than making physical changes to a building.

When new facilities are built next to older ones, they will always look better because they are nice, clean and their paint is nice and fresh. To keep up with them, an owner is going to have to find a way to keep that kind of stuff in the budget. Sometimes that is all the owner has to do in order to stay up with the competition. They might not have to install some fancy security systems or even a gate. Owners have to think about the tough decisions daily. Property managers go home and they lay their heads down with a quick thought about what they have to do the next day. Owners are constantly thinking about how to improve their business. Their thought process never really slows down. If they let their selves have a moment away from their thoughts they could have a great idea pass them by.

There are many that want to own or operate self storage facilities but it is not for everyone. It takes a particular kind of person to run a company and live with the decisions that they make. Many people try to make decisions but then they can not handle the prospect that they were wrong and start to second guess themselves. The moment they start to doubt them selves about one decision, every decision they make from here on out will be questioned in their minds. I do not envy self storage owners. Their jobs are harder than I would like to handle.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.