TRENDS

Trust me with your stuff

by Stephen Hughes, CMO @ R6 Digital

As we move into 2022 and (hopefully) into a postpandemic world, many things will return to normal. People will start travelling again, restrictions will lift, and the economy will steam ahead.

However, some things will not return to what they were before. In most cases, these are pre-existing trends that were merely accelerated by the onset of restrictions.

We know that most self storage customers are in some form of upheaval. Whether this is moving house, divorce, death, job relocation, or otherwise, individuals’ trust is sure to be tested. Before the pandemic, RapidStor was the go-to tool for enabling customers to book online and was being adopted by more and more facilities. However, online move-in functionality went from helpful to critical when the pandemic ramped up. Customers needed to transact safely and effectively without a site visit and trust that the move-in was all going to be taken care of without direct person-to-person contact.

As we exit the pandemic era, person-to-person contact will resume, and consumers will continue to expect to move in online. Does this mean we need to think about our online presence more than we did in the past? Trust for consumers can be broadly defined as a customer’s judgement of the extent to which they expect to achieve a desired positive future outcome with a business. In the case of self storage, they want the confidence of a smooth experience and secure storage of their possessions, which is the cornerstone of the self storage industry. Traditionally, the positive expectation was created through assets at storage locations, with Stephen leads the R6 Digital Digital Marketing team, bringing a wealth of experience and strategic insight to help grow customers’ businesses.

obvious security, a clean site, professional signage, and skilled personnel all generating trust in your ability to safely store someone’s valuable possessions. This will ever change.

However, when customers no longer come to your physical locations to book storage, how is trust created?

Communicating necessary trust signals through your online presence, branding, and experience will be critical for every self storage business. So what new trust resolutions can you make for your business to ensure that you win in the competitive online battle for self storage supremacy?

Five ideas to Five ideas to get you started: get you started:

1Trusted brand Are your branding and visual assets modern, compelling, and communicating the quality of your services and offers?

2Social proof Increasingly, people trust other people’s reviews of their experience with your business. Never underestimate the power of leveraging your Google reviews on your website. Equally, ignoring criticism and biting back hard adds fuel to the fire!

3Demonstrate scarcity Do you enjoy high occupancy? Don’t be afraid to communicate it. This tells your potential customers others have trusted you, demonstrating your business is a trustworthy provider. 4 Quality website design Does your website design tell your potential customers that you are a quality and trustworthy business? This is the online equivalent of your street frontage and your store window – keep it clean, tidy and modern so people know you care about maintaining the things you own and can trust you with their valuable possessions.

5A great online experience Your great online experience should match your customers’ online move-in experience. Ensure that all information a customer needs to decide if your facility is the one for them is on your site, and they can transact seamlessly online. You know your business, but your potential customers don’t.

This is just a start, and getting these key lessons right will show potential customers visiting your website that your self storage facility is worthy of their trust, in turn enabling them to trust you with their valuable possessions. l

Right: SSAA Industry snapshot is an excellent example of taking a traditionally ‘offline’ medium and executing it well online.