PHOENIX, Arizona – January 27th, 2015 – Today, OpenTech Alliance, Inc., announced that INSOMNIAC® Live! has been chosen as the call center of choice by a number of leading self-storage operators including; Securlock Storage Centers, Assured Self Storage, The Storage Center, Guardian Storage, and Personal Mini Storage.
Family owned and operated for over thirty years, Personal Mini Storage manages a portfolio of 36 self-storage properties across the state of Florida. In 2014, the company decided to develop the call center concept for a number of strategic reasons. Increased NOI, property valuation and maximizing on their ability to rent units topped the list. Still, the company approached the idea of handing over their calls to an outsider with caution and pushback from several store managers.
“Our investment in the early stages uncovered a lot. We started on a trial basis with only 3 of our stores using the call center at OpenTech. Within a month, we were impressed to see a substantial increase in the number of calls that were being answered and tracked. We knew immediately that our managers were missing calls for a number of reasonable explanations,” said Joel Patterson, Operations Manager at Personal Mini Storage.
Sixty days later, the continued effect led the company to add call center services to every facility in its portfolio. Today, managers still have the first opportunity to answer every call, but when busy or unable to pickup promptly, Storage Counselors at OpenTech take over to ensure that a call is never missed. Patterson said the compromise with store managers to use the rollover service has driven a substantial influx in reservations and leads to their sales funnel.
Another big part of adding the call center service was to gain a level playing field with all of the REITs located in their 36 unique marketplaces. “Like any other independent self-storage operator, we battle with the REITs on an hourly basis. And all of the public owned storage companies use their own 24-7 call centers for a reason… to gain an edge on the private owners. We know that by doing the same, we have the ability to outperform all of the competitors in our Florida cities,” added Patterson.
Blair Valk, Vice President of Operations at Assured Self Storage also came to OpenTech with the need to increase telephone sales performance and the lead tracking process for store managers. The impact of the call center was a success, “Over the course of a year, the OpenTech call center contributed to an increase in occupancy from 71% to 82%, an all-time high,” said Valk.
Companies are also selecting call center vendors based on their ability to deliver deeper customer engagement and service capabilities like; automated text collections, express payments, onsite kiosks, online rentals, online chat, and mobile applications. OpenTech President and CEO, Robert Chiti predicts that over the next five years, storage vendors that can offer multiple capabilities and value-added technology solutions will have an edge over those that offer less, and largely compete on cost alone.
About OpenTech Alliance, Inc: Celebrating over a Decade of Service to Self-Storage, OpenTech provides solutions that connect storage owners with tenants. Through the development of a complete line of automated Kiosks and Call Center services, the INSOMNIAC brand has become synonymous with self-storage. The company offers a wide-range of self-storage rental solutions that increase revenues and improve customer convenience, while decreasing operating costs and workload. A place to find reliable, around-the-clock support is what OpenTech has come to be for thousands of self-storage owners world-wide. For additional information, please click: OpenTechAlliance.com or call an OpenTech Business Development Manager at (602) 749-9370.
Press Contact: Mike Sawyer, Director of Marketing
OpenTech Alliance, Inc.
602.324.8655
msawyer@opentechalliance.com
NOTE TO EDITORS:OpenTech Alliance, the OpenTech logo and INSOMNIAC are trademarks of OpenTech Alliance, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. INSOMNIAC kiosks are protected by U.S. patent number 5,946,660.
