Self Storage

How To Build An Unmanned Storage Facility Using Automation

March 1, 2023
6 minutes

Are you curious about how to build an unmanned storage facility using automation? If you want to know how to start a self-storage business and build an unmanned storage facility, you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to look at how you can leverage automation to streamline your daily workflow processes and dramatically increase your facility bookings. In our 2021 study on the state of automation in the self-storage industry, 58% of respondents said they were actively exploring or developing automation solutions. Rising interest in the use of automation solutions to address growth bottlenecks and enhance customer experiences has led to the emergence of AI-powered tools like swivl. We’ll circle back to swivl later on.

Why are self-storage businesses embracing automation?

Self-storage businesses are utilizing automation tools to streamline revenue-generating actions. When prospective customers express interest in your self-storage facility, you must do all you can to get them to a conversion event quickly. According to a 2017 Demand Study conducted by the national Self Storage Association, nearly 60% of all customers rent from the first facility they’re able to reach. Unless you have team members dedicated to engaging with prospects at the drop of a hat, it’s difficult to speedily address incoming queries. Time is of the essence. If there is nobody available to answer your prospect’s queries, their potential interest in your self-storage facility will eventually fizzle out. Self-storage businesses of all sizes are using automation tools to accelerate their communication with leads and book up facilities faster. Some tools can escalate sales queries to humans whenever necessary. Alongside using automation to nurture and convert leads, you can also use these tools to elevate customer experiences. For instance, if a customer has lost their access code to your unmanned storage facility, they could use your AI chatbot to seamlessly resolve this issue. swivl is a first-of-its-kind self-storage AI assistant that businesses cannot operate without. The goal is not to replace employees. Automation tools enable teams to pour time and effort into high-value tasks. Without the support of workflow automation tools, these tasks would end up on the back-burner. You can think of automation tools as an extension of your human workforce - helping to reduce operating costs and drive a renewed focus on revenue-generating tasks.

What are the benefits of automating a self-storage business?

If your team is constantly bogged down with an endless stream of customer-facing tasks, finding ways to automate these tasks is an absolute must. When your team spends every working hour focused on the daily operations of your self-storage business, this leaves little room for business development activities - which can stifle revenue growth.Those with ambitions to build unmanned storage facilities must embrace automation to turn this into a reality. With access to automation solutions, you can communicate and collaborate with prospective and existing customers to swiftly meet their needs. AI is infinitely scalable. Adding more people to your team is not necessarily the answer to delivering better customer service. Automating a self-storage business creates opportunities for unmanned storage facilities. With the right solution in your corner, unmanned storage facilities can often operate more efficiently than manned storage facilities. It all comes down to fully harnessing the potential of automation solutions and finding ways to neatly integrate these into existing workflows.

Digital documentation

With the support of the right solutions, you can automatically generate digital rental agreements and seamlessly have these distributed to all parties. As more operators across the industry begin to embrace digital documentation, this is becoming commonplace in the standard customer journey for tenants and is now widely accepted as standard practice.

Variable-rate management

When you integrate a variable rate management tool with your unmanned storage facility sales flow, rates can get automatically adjusted based on different factors, such as occupancy triggers or the type of unit. These tools are ideal for ensuring you are always maximizing revenue potential. Based on supply and demand, you can gain insights on when to raise rates.

Auto-generated data reports

While the creation of spreadsheets to analyze critical sales data is undeniably beneficial, nobody wants to spend hours manually inputting and formatting data. Fortunately, automation tools can do the heavy lifting for you. As you focus on high-value tasks, integrated tools from across your workflows can automatically update spreadsheet data in real-time so you never miss a beat.

Software-based cloud access control systems

Access control is essential to the smooth running of any unmanned storage facility. When you have access to a software-based cloud access control system, this will ensure you are able to tailor customer experiences to the specific needs of your tenants. Once they have signed their lease digitally, the automated access control system can text a gate code to the tenants.

How To Start A Self-Storage Business With Automation

To automate your self-storage business and build an unmanned storage facility, you must know how to leverage big data. Most self-storage businesses sit on a treasure trove of useful data that can help to drive personalized digital experiences for potential and existing customers. Currently, most self-storage businesses do not know how to use this data for their own benefit. As more self-storage businesses explore ways to optimize their workflows, data is your secret weapon for success. You can use data to extrapolate tenant information and predict customer behavior. With a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips, you can begin to make data-backed decisions that will have a direct impact on storage facility bookings.

Why do you need a self-storage AI assistant?

Build your self-storage business on a solid foundation

When self-storage businesses recognize the need for AI-powered solutions, they often debate whether to build or buy a solution. As a self-storage AI assistant, swivl comes fully loaded with an industry-labeled natural language model. This means you can easily deploy our AI assistant and allow it to handle customer queries with confidence while you focus on other pressing tasks.

Never miss an opportunity to interact with prospects

If you are engrossed in a task and do not have the time to rapidly answer queries from prospects, swivl will do the heavy lifting for you. The AI chatbot assistant can answer questions from prospects all day, every day. This is a game-changer for teams with overflowing workloads that cannot put aside daily tasks to respond to queries and nurture prospects.

Does the self-storage AI assistant get smarter over time?

You can import knowledge into swivl and give it the rocket fuel it needs to send your customer communications soaring to new heights. From existing FAQs and help desk tickets to chat history and customer interactions, you can pour tons of data on top of our natural language self-storage model. The more you import, the greater customization you will experience.

How much does the self-storage AI assistant cost?

To embrace automation, self-storage businesses should not have to break the bank. swivl is an affordable yet sophisticated AI assistant for your self-storage business. After scheduling a demo with our team, you will get to see swivl in all its glory. Our team members are ready to take you for a test drive around our intuitive tool so you can gain a complete picture of its potential

Streamline Revenue-Generating Actions with swivl

Whether you are looking to inspire customer retention or generate new revenue for your unmanned self-storage facility, swivl is ready to automate customer interactions. When high-value requests are made, swivl can intelligently escalate these requests to agents for support while providing context to the agents with full transcripts.

The best bit? Non-technical team members can easily hit the ground running with swivl. You do not need coding experience to unlock value from our solution. It’s remarkably easy to get started - with no action taking more than just a few clicks.

Are you ready to get the ball rolling? Schedule a demo today.

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