StoragePug is a modern marketing company for self storage.
In the current climate of the self storage market, the key to keeping your self storage investment running is to have the most positive reviews you can gather.
Companies today that are missing out on acquiring reviews from their customers are slowly losing business opportunities every day. By setting up a secure online checkout process on your website, you can opportunistically ask for reviews at the completion page when the customer is at their most satisfied.
Reviews set you apart when a potential customer is searching up your business online. Many consumers rely on the opinions of current or previous customers from internet review websites as much as word of mouth.
According to a recent study done at Harvard Business School, a correlation exists between a one-star increase in a Yelp rating and a 5-9% increase in revenue.
To better understand the review rating process, we have compiled key ways to grow your positive reviews so you can give your customers better peace of mind when they are leasing on your self storage website.
If you have not done so lately, please Google your business to see what people are saying about your services. You can receive some very beneficial information from your reviews.
For example, if you have a lot of negative reviews complaining about an elevator that is extremely slow and people are moving out due to this, this would be the perfect time to fix the elevator immediately!
Your customers not only profit your business but they also carry great intel that you as the storage operator may not be aware.
If you have not done so, claim all of your self storage locations on Yelp, Google My Business, Bing Places, SpareFoot, SelfStorage.com and Facebook, these are a few of the most trusted review websites.
Once you have claimed or created the locations at any of these review sites, you will have the ability to start responding and taking care of all of your incoming reviews. You can also set up Google alerts so you can be notified of when someone has reviewed your website or even mentioned you somewhere on the internet.
By creating a state of the art online checkout process, it wouldn’t be wise not to offer everything else that you would have your customer sign or need if you were renting a storage unit in-person.
Having the ability for customers to print out their agreement along with their renter’s insurance would be a perfect way to make your customers happy. You could even set up an electronic lease into your checkout process so the customers wouldn’t have to drop off their paperwork, they could quickly sign their documents right online.
According to Search Engine People, “Optimize your checkout process by minimizing the number of steps and leveraging customer reviews and trust badges.” By offering all of these easy to use features, this can increase the efforts of customers wanting to give your facility a positive review.
Modern customers need modern websites that can offer a fluid online rental process that can be done quickly and easily when renting a storage unit.
Provide a customer portal where customers can log in and view their balance, make payments, and leave a review. You could even offer an incentive for customers who leave a review, such as a discount on their rent or a free disc lock.
For new customers searching for available units on your website, clearly display all of the unit features and benefits they will receive with renting from your self storage facility.
When the customer is ready to make their purchase, try to keep the checkout process to as few steps as possible. Don’t have multiple screens asking multiple questions, get their necessary information, so you don’t lose them bouncing from your website.
Once the customer has completed the checkout process and has agreed to all of your terms, now would be the perfect time to either have a popup inviting (invite is a kinder word than ask) them to leave a 5 star review or even requesting a review in their confirmation email on the experience that they received going through the checkout process. As long as you made the checkout process as easy and straightforward as possible, you shouldn’t have a difficult time receiving a 5-star review.
Here at StoragePug, we can even help you with your online reputation management and checkout process. We regularly check review sites to notify you of new reviews, and we will thank your loyal customers for their positive comments.
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