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Reduce Your Self Storage Customer Acquisition Costs
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What could be better than gaining a new customer? A new customer that pays a monthly rental fee, purchases supplies, and tells everyone they know about your company. You would think, "not much more"!
But actually there is more you could ask for.
Think about the cost of acquiring this customer. What if it could cost less? What if it could lower your cost of acquisition by 20%?
It's possible.....
How you ask? Well, think about how much money you spend on advertising. Yellow pages, magazines, newspapers, web, etc. Do you know the bottom line that each one of your mediums is bringing you? Do you know which is performing the best?
What about the cost you incur when someone calls your facility? Again think about the cost of acquiring the new customer. Knowing this information is vital and will help you cut costs in those low performance mediums. That's money you can put towards your other mediums or better yet, your facility.
What's that you say? "All your advertising mediums are up to par and there is no possible way to improve them." Keep dreaming!
If this were the case, your cost per acquisition can still be lowered!
Think about this....You're advertising dollars are making the phone ring, but is it being answered every single time? What if your staff is helping another customer and misses the call. Your money just went down the drain.
Even if the calls do get answered is your staff capable to convert the sale? Most likely no. But if you could increase your conversion rate even by 5% it would drop your cost to acquire those customers.
You can hire an outsourced call center or build a sales call center in house. The in house sales center is harder to achieve but the payoff is worth it. If you're interested in increasing your bottom line, it's worth doing some research on the subject.
We've used a number of Call Centers in the past with varying results. I'd like to say that there are one or two that stand out, but in the end, we've had a great deal of success with several, and each time we buy another facility, we revisit the process of interviewing local and national Call Centers.
I suggest first looking to your statewide association, and then Google "Self Storage Call Centers" to begin your interview process as more are coming online each day.
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 | Scott Meyers |  |
Scott Meyers, CSSM, is the nation’s leading self storage educator. He travels the country revealing why self storage has become the hottest sector in commercial real estate over the past 30 years that virtually nobody has heard about. Practically every real estate investor and entrepreneur has uttered the words “I’ve always wondered about self storage, I’ve heard those things were cash cows”. It was only after becoming a penniless millionaire in the single family and apartment business, and a near bankruptcy experience managing several hundred tenants and toilets that Scott asked himself that very same question.
Scott is the owner and President of Alcatraz Storage® which operates several self storage facilities in the Midwest. Scott is a Certified Self Storage Manager (CSSM) through the National Self Storage Association and is a Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) through The National Apartment Association. He has been a real estate investor since 1993, and was an instructor of the Landlord 101 course through the University of Indianapolis. Scott Meyers speaks to investor groups nationwide but mostly enjoys spending time at home with his wife and 3 young children in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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