No matter what business you are in, you have a reputation online. Self storage is no different.
You may not know about it; you may not even have any say in it.
Your customers will talk about their experience with you, whether it is good or bad, and your online reputation will begin to be made.
It’s your job to determine what they say with your actions.
In fact, in today’s technologically savvy world, your storage facility’s online reputation is either your best friend or your worst enemy.
Statistics show that 90% of consumers read online reviews before they decide to patronize a business, and online reviews can impact almost 70% of purchasing decisions.
For a self storage facility, this can be free advertising.
So how can you control your online reputation to drive more traffic and rent more units?
When a customer visits or calls your storage facility 90% of the time they end up renting a unit.
You want that unit to be at your facility!
First impressions are crucial, and if their first impression of your company is a lazy or rude employee, even if that employee was simply having a bad day, they are
1) Most likely going to go somewhere else for their business
2) Tell others about their experience.
Keeping tabs on your employees and how they are feeling about their job is important for you as a business owner.
If you can put your finger on a little problem and solve it before it becomes larger, you may end up preventing huge damage to your reputation in the future.
You aren’t going to be able to control everything everyone says, but you can control how you respond to it.
In many highly publicized cases of business/customer reviews, the business owner responded to a negative review in passive-aggressive ways, or simply ignored it, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
Instead, determine what the review calls for.
Negative comments can affect your SEO for self storage and eventually your sales, but how you address the issue can actually skyrocket them.
If your customer service department contacts the consumer and makes the issue right, they may update their complaint with a positive review instead.
While most of the content is out of your control, you can actually do something about some of it.
Laws are in place to protect consumers and businesses from extreme online damage, and knowing about those boundaries can help you fix your reputation if it was harmed.
Any negative content that uses defamatory language, reports false information or is specifically aimed to damage a company’s reputation is illegal and should be addressed aggressively to have it removed.
Businesses that have survived the years with a solid reputation have a few things in common.
They have earned their customer’s trust and respect – when this is lost it's difficult to regain.
They respond to consumer complaints quickly and – here’s the kicker – politely.
No matter how cranky the customer, they kill them (or their complaints, rather) with kindness.
And they learn from their mistakes.
No one is perfect.
They own them, admit them, and are transparent in how they are going to correct them.
Now that you know it’s out there, or you have become more aware of how it hurts your business, it’s your job to monitor your reputation carefully.
Ask for help from a professional if you want to boost your image or address negative content that you can’t handle on your own.
Your online reputation can be amazing, or amazingly dangerous.
To read more about my favorite StoragePug features, take a look at:
StoragePug is a modern marketing company for self storage. We create intelligent marketing websites that allow you to rent units & take payments through your facility's website.
