2 Reasons Every Storage Facility Owner Should Invest in Self-Service Kiosks

If you are like most storage facility owners, you might be concerned about improving occupancy, reducing labor expenses, and avoiding the hassles associated with damage and theft. To protect your bottom line, you might be ready to send your office manager home early, so that you can monitor security cameras and rent units to customers after hours. However, there might be an easier way. Computerized self-service kiosks operate 24 hours a day, giving customers an easy way to get the help they need. Here are two reasons every storage facility owner should invest in self-service kiosks:

1: Never Refuse Another Rental

It never fails—your employees are about to close the office when a new customer arrives at the front door asking about a unit. What should you do—turn away a customer or ask your employee to stay past their scheduled shift? Fortunately, self-storage kiosks are designed to handle lengthy rental paperwork, no matter what time of day it is. Instead of meeting with an employee in real time, potential customers can enter their information, select a unit, and even purchase an insurance policy and a padlock—right from an automated kiosk.

In addition to keeping your customers happy, self-storage kiosks also mean that you won't have to refuse business when the office is closed. Since customers can rent a unit any time of day, you might earn a few extra rentals while managers are on vacation, or when the office is closed for a holiday.

Also, since self-service kiosks allow the owner to view rental data, you can evaluate your rentals when the office is closed so that you can shape your schedule in the future. For example, if you notice that your kiosk handles a lot of rentals between 7 and 8pm, you might decide to permanently extend your office hours to handle the extra business.   

2: Handle Maintenance Requests Sooner

Nothing is worse than getting into the office, only to be faced with a string of voicemails from a tenant concerned about their unit. Maintenance concerns can be especially troubling for a unit, especially if a door failure or hasp problem prevented them from securing their unit overnight. Fortunately, self-service kiosks can also be used to report maintenance requests, such as:

• Snow Removal: During the winter months, snow and ice can make it hard for tenants to access their outdoor units. If your tenants need to have their door de-iced or a snow bank removed, they can report weather concerns using the self-serve kiosk.
• Track Problems: If storage doors are mishandled or dirty, the heavy door can actually move off of the tracks. Unfortunately, once a door is off of the tracks, it can fall down onto unit contents or even tenants, creating a massive liability for your company. However, if tenants can report the problem at any time of day, you can dispatch your maintenance team to handle the problem.  
• Water Damage: If water is leaking underneath storage doors or dripping through the ceiling, you won't want to wait to hear from tenants. In addition to reporting the problem, self-storage kiosks can offer tenants text boxes so that you understand the problem better. For example, your tenants might be able to tell you where the water is entering and when the problem happens, so that you can correct the problem the first time around.

Some self-service kiosks can even be designed to automatically notify owners of maintenance concerns via email or text message the instant they are reported. This means that you can handle problems a little sooner, before they cause permanent problems for your facility.

Self-service kiosks can help you to improve your customer's experiences, without increasing labor costs or angering your employees.