Striving to make sure each and every one of your tenants is covered by a tenant insurance policy not only protects your customers’ best interests, but also your own.
Many customers storing items outside their home may assume their goods are covered by their existing homeowners or renters policy. But that isn’t always the case and when it is, the coverage isn’t always sufficient.
When tenants who have suffered a loss realize they lack coverage, they often turn to the facility operator to place blame. Although self storage operators are rarely liable for individual losses, that doesn’t make them immune from reputational damage or litigation.
This is precisely why you should think about boosting tenant insurance coverage at your self storage facilities. The more tenants that are covered by insurance, the lower your reputational and legal risks.
Tips for achieving maximum coverage
Now that we’ve established why having all your tenants covered by an insurance policy is extremely desirable, the question remains: how do you get more of your customers to opt-in to a tenant insurance policy?
With inflation eating into household budgets, customers are more cost-conscious than ever. That means many are looking for any way to shave costs off the goods and services they buy, self storage units included. If given the opportunity, many customers would forgo tenant insurance to save money. That means in order to achieve higher tenant insurance enrollment, operators should be mindful about how they explain its value to consumers.
Here are a few tips for achieving complete insurance enrollment at your self storage facilities:
- Require tenants to carry insurance. Requiring tenants to have insurance for their stored goods and show proof of insurance in order to rent from your facility is a proven way to make sure every one of your tenants is covered for losses.
- Offer tenant insurance at the point of sale. Most consumers don’t go around carrying proof of insurance on them, and they might not always remember to obtain additional coverage or provide such proof to you within an acceptable time frame. Providing a reliable tenant insurance option avoids the obstacle of a prospective tenant having to obtain proof of coverage from their insurance provider in order to rent a unit from you. All they have to do is sign up for your policy and they are good to go.
- Educate the consumer. Many tenants assume that their homeowners insurance will provide sufficient coverage of their off-premise household goods, and will use that as a reason to decline your tenant insurance policy. But a closer look at many policies will reveal that coverage for off-site items is scant to non-existent. Furthermore, such policies often have high deductibles that can exceed the value of stored items. Once a customer has that information, they’ll realize that the tenant insurance plan offered at your facility is usually the best option for loss recovery versus any homeowners or renters insurance they may (or may not) already have.
- Be confident. Getting more customers to enroll in your tenant insurance program gives you greater peace of mind knowing they are well-covered in the event of a loss. When managers are confident that they’re providing a good product that will help the tenant avoid having a bad experience down the line, it can help increase conversions.
- Practice makes perfect. Getting customers to understand the value that tenant insurance provides can be a challenge, and getting that conversation just right takes plenty of practice. Take advantage of training opportunities offered by your tenant insurance provider to help your staff achieve more success with enrollments.
Final thoughts
Successfully getting your customers to enroll in a tenant insurance policy often comes down to presenting a product that you believe in. Choosing a reliable tenant insurance provider with a long track record is a good place to start. Getting customers to enroll in tenant insurance needn’t be an uphill battle if you work with a provider that offers training and ongoing support.
Al Harris is the editor of the Storage Beat and content manager at Storable. Based in Austin, Texas, Storable is the world’s leading provider of self storage technology, delivering a full suite of products including management software, websites, access control, insurance, payment processing and the internet’s largest marketplace for renting self storage units. Storable’s mission is simple: to empower storage operators to do more.
