Should You Consider Add-on Services?

By Ray Fisher

To resolve the question of whether or not to offer add-onservices, the self-storage owner should focus on his purpose ofbusiness, his manager's time and the rental office.

Owners need to define their purpose of business. Are theygoing to provide an office with a manager that can provideon-going customer service, or are they going to provide an officewith a mini-mall of add-on services?

Add-on services that are not directly related to rentingunits--such as packaging and sending boxes, truck rental, mailboxrental, etc.--only benefit the entrepreneurs that sell the add-onservices or products, not the owner of the facility. Withthe failure rate of add-on services, established by themselves asa business, the astute self-storage owner will easily recognizethe detriment it would be to his business. The time and effortinvested in the add-on services only hinders the potential incomeof the self-storage facility's primary business--renting units.

Consider how the add-on services would affect the manager andthe office, in general. The manager is the most important assetof any facility. A manager is, or should be, fully occupied withensuring the success of the facility--through proper managementof the office, marketing and maintenance--without adding otherservices. Most add-on services distract the manager from otherduties and lessen his effectiveness in completing them.

The office should be inviting and pleasant to managers andtenants, as well as prospective customers. For the office to befilled with all the bells and whistles of add-on services onlyreduces the main objective of the business.

On the other hand, items such as locks, boxes and tape areimportant specifically to the business of moving and storingbelongings and, therefore, should be kept in the office. Thesecan be compactly displayed and easily marketed during the rentalprocess. Anything else beyond this infringes on the manager'sduties of running the facility and sacrifices a neat officeappearance.

Finally, it is recommended that the owner and manager discussthe pros and cons of add-on services to determine which willactually benefit the facility and which services deter themanager from more important activities. The objective is todiscover which services and/or products optimize the manager'stime and maximize the profits of the self-storage business.

Ray Fisher is resident manager of Keylock Mini Storage ofPinellas Park, Fla. In addition, he is actively involved inmanager training and technical support for Accountable Managementof Lutz, Fla. Mr. Fischer may be reached at (813) 526-1800;e-mail: [email protected].