It is nearly 2021 and most people are likely eager to watch the clock tick away the final moments of what has been a year of unprecedented challenges. When the global COVID-19 pandemic officially reared its head on American soil in early March, fear and uncertainty ensued.
To remain operational, we at StorQuest quickly altered their business procedures to adhere to the new guidelines. Existing technologies such as call centers, kiosks and online tools for contactless rentals and payments proved advantageous to combat the stay at home orders. Swiftly reacting to the current environment allowed us to provide PPE, implement sanitation standards, install plexiglass and other barriers, post safety signage, revise protocols and more to protect customers and staff alike.
As history has repeatedly shown, self storage thrives in times of both market boom and bust. According to StorQuest’s data, this has been the case for 2020 as suggested by its web performance. For instance, the percentage of callers has increased 29 percent from 2019 to 2020. During the same period, leads increased 30 percent. Conversions were up 15 percent from 2019 to 2020.
Obviously, having a website is vital, and the importance of digital marketing continues to grow year over year as customers continue to rely on the internet and their mobile devices to locate and reserve storage space. What’s more, nowadays, and even more so during a global pandemic, customers expect to be able to complete the entire rental process at their convenience and safely from their smartphones.
Nevertheless, while technology and the internet have proven to be essential for operating self storage facilities during the pandemic, the agility and willingness to embrace those technologies has enabled self storage facilities, such as StorQuest, to thrive throughout the COVID crisis. At the end of the day, self storage companies have shown that anything is possible with the right resources and teams in place.
