The Changing Role of a Self Storage Manager

With the changing business environment, the role of a self storage manager is also changing today. When the warehouse business was booming during the 1990’s, the managers had to just ensure the smooth functioning of the storehouse. Today it is not so. The warehouse industry is facing several challenges and the role of a storage manager has become important as well as challenging.

Present Role of A Self Storage Manager

Maintaining Good Occupancy Rates

Though the need for warehouses is increasing day by day, most people postpone their decisions to hire store units. This is because households as well as companies are cutting their expenditure. With people facing layoffs, declining salaries and reduced returns, they have less money at their disposal. This has posed a severe challenge for the warehouse industry in maintaining their occupancy rates. Normally, the occupancy rates vary between eighty to ninety percent. But now the storehouse owners are facing the heat of the economic meltdown. The manager has to handle the tough task of attracting customers to keep their units occupied. He is responsible for charting a proper marketing campaign at the least cost to ensure good occupancy. In order to deal with this problem, the manager should have efficient marketing skills and business acumen. He has to keep ROI in mind while preparing the marketing campaign.

Maintaining Margins

At present, the demand for the warehouses is less compared to the supply, and therefore the storehouses have to offer their units at competitive rates. There is no scope for the storehouse owners to increase their rents. Also, to keep the occupancy rates good, the storehouses have to offer various discounts and freebies to their customers. This has posed a challenge for the storehouse manager of maintaining the margins. The manager is responsible for the development and deployment of various cost cutting strategies. He has to ensure that the overheads of the warehouse are kept at minimum so that the firm can make neat profits.

Security

Another area of concern for the manager is the security of the storehouse. A storehouse can have a good occupancy rate only if it has a good reputation. In warehouse business it is very important to develop goodwill, to attract the customers. In order to do so, the firm should have good security. The manager has to ensure that all security gadgets are working round the clock and no unauthorized person enters the premises.

Customer Service

If a storehouse wants to stay ahead, it has to ensure a good customer service. Suppose a storehouse has good security and clean store-units, but if its customer service is not good, it may not be able to attract customers. The self storage manager has to train the staff on how to deal with customers. He has to ensure that all customer queries whether online or offline are answered on time.

Besides the above, the manager has to see that all operations within the firm are carried as per statutory and regulatory requirements.