Welcome back! This is our 2nd episode of the Smart Self Storage video : Mini Podcast Series. Keep reading or click the link below to watch/listen to the podcast. In this podcast, we dive deep into the storage world with a special guest that's never had experience with self storage facilities. If that's you, this episode is for you!
Watch or listen to the full episode on our YouTube channel for even more insights! Don't miss out - hit play now!
Janell: Welcome back to our Smart Self Storage: Mini Podcast Series and today is Episode 2 where we're going to be Debunking Myths about the storage world. I'm Janell and I'm here today with our Regional Supervisor.
Rosie: Hi, I'm Rosie.
Janell: And we have a special guest today.
Marina: Hi, I'm Marina.
Janell: Yeah, so Marina here actually has never rented a storage unit before and I wanted to invite her over just to see what her first impressions might be on storage facilities and what she thinks of it in general.
Rosie: So, let's get started. What's your first impression of a storage facility?
Marina: So, I've actually never rented a storage unit, and I don't know any family member who has rented a storage unit. So, I would say my first impression would be that while driving by a self storage building, they look a little dirty and they look sketchy.
Janell: Yeah, and I mean, I can kind of agree with that. And I think that also comes because usually self storage buildings are in industrial areas. And I don't know why there's no people walking around there. It does look kind of sketchy. Like you don't really see anybody around. So, I mean I could agree with that. But I mean, I was proved wrong when I visited our Smart Self Storage buildings.
Rosie: Yeah, good point. I think that's a really bad first impression you want to give off. So, with our Smart Self Storage locations, we really pride ourselves on cleanliness, making sure the properties we can clean, the storage units are actually clean. We do our best to maintain every single unit and we want to make a good first impression when anybody walks in through the doors. Now, Janell, you mentioned something about industrial locations, which is probably 90% true, but also, we have a lot of locations in residential areas too. So, for example, we have Chino and Chino Hills, which are more suburban areas. We have Downtown LA, which we're in the heart of like all the high-rise buildings, which is really cool. Probably one of the shorter ones compared to the high rises, but it's really neat.
But as much as it is hard to maintain and keep that cleanliness, we make sure that our team is on top of things. If there's a light out, if there's something that needs to be fixed, we tend to it as quickly as we can. We're not robots. We are human beings. So, we sometimes take time to schedule things to be maintained and cleaned properly. But we want to make sure that the customer has a great experience with us. So, your first impression makes a big difference. And so, we want to make sure we make a good first impression with our customers. So, a lot of our traffic comes from drive-by as well. So, we pride ourselves on making their signage nice and visible, so on and so forth. So, we want to make sure that we get good visibility.
Janell: I think the landscaping says a lot too. I know we take our time with landscaping and I think that's what you said. you know, people driving by, they see that it is an attractive building.
So, you know, it's kind of is inviting to go in there if they do need a storage unit, that it looks clean even on the outside or just the inside.
Rosie: And we want nice, bright, inviting features of our property, glass windows, so on and so forth, natural lighting versus light tubes and things like that. So, we want to make sure it's an inviting environment. But yeah, I get your first impression and it might come off as that because we don't have the best reputation when it comes to stereotyping storage facilities. We get stereotyped too. Sometimes it's not always the best, but, you know, our smart self storage team is the best and we take pride in taking ownership of our cleanliness and being prideful of our work. So, we stand by our locations and you can visit, you know, our website and see the photos for yourself.
Janell: And speaking of our website, check out our link down below to see more of our storage photos. So, moving on, what's another myth that you might have with storage facilities?
Marina: So, another myth I would have would be that it doesn't look safe and that it always looks like there's no one in there.
Janell: Yeah, like it always looks empty.
Marina: Yeah.
Janell: So, what do you have to say about that, Rosie?
Rosie: Yeah, that's... Not. That's a common misconception. So, with our locations, we have live on-site managers. We have resident managers that live on property as well. We have staff on site within our hours of operation to help customers that need rentals to make payments, take phone calls, so on and so forth, clean the property, so on and so forth. So yeah, we are... I don't know... you just have to visit one of our locations. It's not as scary as it seems.
Marina: Yeah, I definitely will.
Rosie: It's not unwelcoming. We actually welcome anybody to visit our locations.
Janell: And I think it feels unwelcoming, like you said, because it's so closed off. But I think that speaks to the security aspect of buildings, you know what I mean like it's like a gated community. Iit is gated - it's gonna look unwelcoming
Rosie: For sure yeah it is gated. You have to have your access code to enter and exit the property, but at least you come into the office within our hours of operations and you know to talk to the staff, show units, and you're welcome
Janell: So, I wanted to ask you a quick question. What are the access hours at the buildings?
Rosie: Oh, good question. So, it varies. Monday through Saturdays, it's typically seven to seven. And then we have shortened hours on Sundays.
Marina: Okay, so is it complicated to rent a storage unit? Because I feel like every time you hear about it, or I think about wanting to rent a storage unit, it sounds like such a tedious process to go through the application and just waiting to get a unit.
Rosie: Not at all. It's super easy. Well, we have two options. You can go online and rent or reserve a storage unit online. You'll have a list of prices, different sizes, and we do our best to give a guide as well because some people don't know what they need to store yet or visually what a storage unit actually looks like. We have those tips online too, to give um to the customer what they might give them a better idea of what they need to store, what size they need, so on and so forth.
So you can do it online or you can come in person um you can call as well if you want to get some pricing over the phone with our friendly staff and they'd be able to guide you. Or you could just come in person, drive by, stop in, and then just visit the You'll get a little tour of the property, see the actual storage unit you'll be putting your stuff in. And then, you know, paperwork actually takes, if you go in person, takes maybe like 10 to 15 minutes.
Janell: I think like going over rules and regulations, what you can't store, things like that. And I think the longest process and the part of the process would just be like you figuring out what size you need based on your needs, like what you're storing in there. And I think our managers are really well knowledgeable in that aspect. Like if you tell them I'm storing a couch and this and then be like, well, you need this. So I think just calling is your best bet because they're the most knowledgeable when it comes to storage units.
Rosie: Yeah. And we also want to also, that saves time because we want to make sure we have the right size for you as well. Not too big, not too small. So we want to make sure we have the right size to accommodate your needs. So if we know that in advance, we can also reserve it for you and then set up an appointment later when you're actually ready to store. We actually also do pre-renting as well. So if you need something kind in advance, we offer that service. You can pay for a storage unit you need in the future. So that's an option we give as well. So again, the rental is pretty quick, pretty simple. We go over rules and regs, the agreement as well. And then we just need your picture ID, a valid picture ID, and you're a customer of ours. Good to go.
Janell: I think I get what you mean by like, you know, it looks like a long process because I think a lot of people tend to put storage facilities and apartments hand in hand. And I mean, come on, like renting an apartment takes forever. So I see where that comes from.
Rosie: Yeah, exactly. So we make the process as quick as possible. And we want to make it easy to understand the rules, the regulations, the terms. And, you know, you're in and out of that pretty quickly and you get a copy of everything you're signing. So we don't expect people to read everything right in front of us. But they have the option to do that if they have the time.
Marina: That's pretty good to know.
Rosie: Yeah. So this is fun. What else do you think about storage units?
Marina: So another impression of mine would be that they only have large units and it looks like it would be for businesses only.
Rosie: So we cater to all different types of customers from businesses to personal use students. So anybody that's in transition, remodeling a home, moving from one place to another, dorming. We cater to all types of businesses and customers in general. We have units as small as 5x5 to units as large as 10x30. So we have a variety of units. So what we like to do when customers call for the first time or visit, and they don't have an idea of what size unit we want them to, or they need for their storage needs, we ask them, what are you gonna be storing?
What are the biggest items? Furniture, appliances, boxes, mainly. So it really depends on what the customer is going to be storing.
Marina: So since I've never been to a unit, how big is a five by five?
Rosie: Good question. So visually, like think of a box. So this is the way we always measure five feet wide by five feet in length. And so that's 25 square feet. So you could fit. Think of a hallway closet in a home where you could fit jackets, boxes. But we have height, so we're like a cube. So you could stack the boxes quite a bit. So that's why we give great tips on how to store and pack your items. How to organize them. Yeah, and how to make the most out of the space you're renting to get the most value for your dollar.
Marina: That’s pretty good.
Janell: So it's not just for businesses. Anyone could use them. Yeah, exactly. I know what's big right now is like, you know, Airbnb. And I know people, you know, turn their houses into Airbnbs. And I'm pretty sure a lot of their things that they don't want to be in their rental, they put in a storage unit. So it's not just for businesses. Anyone could use them. And if you just need a little closet, rent a 5x5.
Rosie: Another cool feature that some of our self storage locations offer is air conditioned and non-air conditioned units. So that's something cool that we can do to help tenants as well.
Janell: Okay, so for our last one, what's another impression you have?
Marina: So another impression of mine would be is it only long-term use? Is that true?
Rosie: No, not at all. We go month to month uh you rent for as long as you need, as little as you need and we are Home of the First Year Price Guarantee. So even if you don't stay a year, at least you know your rate that you rented with us at the beginning is locked in for a year.
Marina: Good to know.
Janell: So in light of everything we've talked about, how do you feel about storage facilities?
Marina: I feel like I definitely learned a lot more than going into this. I see it differently. I have a lot more information and I now know different sizes and units, what you can put in there, how reliable the workers are and they're able to accommodate for anything that you have.
So I've definitely learned a lot of new things in the self storage world.
Janell: I mean, it really is not complicated at all. From like, you know, first impressions. Because honestly, that was mine too.
Rosie: And not sketchy. I wouldn't work for 18 years in this industry if it was sketchy.
Marina: Yeah. Definitely.
Janell: So thank you for being with us on our Episode 2 of the Smart Self Storage: Mini Podcast Series. And I hope we debunked or Rosie debunked the myths that we have or answered, you know, common first impressions that people might have about the storage world. So, yeah keep up with us for the third episode. Thank you again. Bye!
Thank you for joining us for Episode 2 of the Smart Self Storage: Mini Podcast Series. We hope we've shed light on the common myths and misconceptions surrounding storage facilities. From cleanliness and safety to the ease of renting and the variety of unit sizes, we aim to provide a professional and welcoming experience. Keep following our series for more insights and tips. Until next time, thanks for reading/watching/listening and take care!