Why Your Self-Storage Business Needs Omnichannel Communication

Self-storage tenants no longer rely on a single communication platform to interact with facility operators. As a self-storage business, staying accessible across different channels is crucial to foster engagement and provide top-notch service at your facilities. This is where the power of omnichannel communication comes into play.

Here are just a few key benefits:

• Engage with prospective tenants through their communication channels of choice.
• Keep sales conversations with prospective tenants moving forward.
• Provide existing tenants with a range of ways to contact operators.

Why listen to me? I have worked in the conversational AI space for close to a decade, with our previous AI company getting acquired. My day to day consists of speaking to operators of all sizes to understand their automation needs and wants, and see how to best help them get there. I currently am in charge of swivl's go to market strategy and am a co-host of the Self Storage Lab podcast.

What Is Omnichannel Communication In Self-Storage?

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In the self-storage industry, omnichannel communication refers to a tenant-centric approach where the interactions across various communication channels are unified. It implies providing a seamless and consistent experience irrespective of the communication platform used by your existing or prospective tenants. It’s all about covering all bases with different channels.

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Omnichannel Vs. Multichannel Communication

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While both terms may seem interchangeable, there's a key difference.

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A multichannel communication approach leverages various platforms - emails, website chat, social media, and phone calls - but these may operate independently of each other, potentially leading to a fragmented tenant experience. Omnichannel communication ensures that all these channels work in harmony, offering a more streamlined and tenant-friendly experience.

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For instance, a tenant inquires about your storage unit's dimensions on Facebook, later switches to email for follow-ups, and finally calls to book the unit. In an omnichannel system, all these interactions are recorded and tracked in a unified way, ensuring facility operators have the data they need to deliver consistent customer service to prospective and existing tenants.

Want to learn more? Listen to the Self Storage Lab

‍Episode 07 - The Importance of an Omnichannel Communication Strategy | Self Storage Lab

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Key Benefits Of Omnichannel Communication in Self-Storage

Adapting To The Multi-Device World

With the ubiquity of smart devices, your prospective tenants might discover your self-storage business on their tablet, send an enquiry via their smartphone, and book a unit using their desktop. Offering an omnichannel experience ensures your self-storage business is prepared to serve them consistently, regardless of the device or platform they use.

Meeting Tenant Expectations With Seamless Experiences

Modern self-storage tenants expect facilities to offer a unified experience across different communication platforms. Customers expect a seamless transition when they shift from one channel to another, such as from phone calls to emails.

Leveraging Insights For Superior Tenant Experiences

With all tenant interactions consolidated in one place, you gain a deeper understanding of their journey. This allows operators to personalize responses and services based on previous interactions and preferences. After all, data is king. When operators have a full timeline of customer interactions at their fingertips, this can inform and enhance customer experiences.

Streamline Operator Experiences

An effective omnichannel strategy simplifies your team's workflow. They don't have to juggle between multiple platforms to manage tenant interactions. Employees often point to poor communication or lack of collaboration as a major cause of workplace failures. Omnichannel communication can be a solution to these challenges.

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Challenges In Implementing Omnichannel Communication

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While the benefits of omnichannel communication are significant, implementing it into your self-storage business can come with its challenges:

Maintaining A Consistent Brand Voice

Ensuring a consistent tone of communication across all channels requires thoughtful planning and team collaboration. Creating templates for common enquiries can be helpful. If you are leveraging automation for various communication channels, you should aim to match the tonality of the automated responses with the communication of facility operators.

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You can train many AI-powered tools using your own data. This not only raises the potential usefulness of automated communication tools in supporting prospective and existing tenants but also enables you to drive consistency across all communication channels. Operators should have complete confidence in an automated channel’s ability to meet customer needs.

Integrating New Technology Into Existing Workflows

With no shortage of communication channels for self-storage operators to choose from, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of integrating everything together. Manual management of multiple touchpoints is inefficient and prone to errors. Fortunately, you can use solutions like Zapier to connect several of your communication channels together.

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Choosing The Right Omnichannel Platforms

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If you are interested in building an unmanned self-storage facility, we recommend taking a look through our Operator’s BluePrint to “Building an Unmanned Facility” — the all-in-one resource of all the tools accessible to an operator to run their self-storage business more effectively.

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You may also like:

Self-Storage Remote Management (Key Benefits + Getting Started)

Automated Self-Storage: An Operator’s Journey Through 5 Levels Of Automation

Self-Storage Management System (Why Operators Need Automation Tools)

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