Yes, I have a facility where there is no manager.
Automation has allowed that.
But, for the most part, projects I have been involved in have managers. I like managers.
I like the level of customer service a good store manager can provide.
So, for the most part, I still like to do deals that are large enough to provide the economics needed to put in high-level store managers.
Also, in boat and RV projects, I love the level of care that can be provided for the high-end customers these projects attract.
But that does not mean I haven’t automated.
The Old Days
In the “old days,” if the store was open, there was someone there working it.
I am even old enough to have had one project where the manager lived on-site in an apartment.
Interestingly enough, in the good old days, we averaged $250,000 of gross income per full-time employee.
Don’t ask me why I started tracking that. I think I was trying to figure out how many employees I needed in the project I was analyzing, so I started following that number.
So, I continued to track that.
Then, kiosks started appearing.
At first, I avoided them because I thought, “How can they compare to the level of service a manager can provide?”
But I soon realized the narrow-mindedness of my ways and started putting them in our facilities. I didn’t do that to replace the manager, just to (1) provide customer service after hours to our customer base and (2) allow customers to use them if they choose to if the manager is busy or for any other reason the customer wanted.
I will never forget the first time I saw someone come to the facility, stop, and rent a unit on the kiosk while our manager was available. I thought, wow, the world is changing.
Evolution of Our Managers
We began to notice that there are certain times of the month when the facility is slower than others.
Each facility had its rhythm, but in general, towards the end of the second week and through the third, there were far fewer transactions going on in the facility.
We started not having a manager at a faculty every business hour of every day and started rotating the managers around some.
Then, almost magically, the average gross income per full-time employee started going up.
Over $300,000 per full-time employee, over $350,000 per full-time employee.
When I sold that brand off in 2019 & 2020, we were over $380,000 of gross income per full-time employee.
What other business can that happen in?
I am sure there are some, but I don’t know them.
I am sure there will come a day when, in a large facility, the lease up and running of the facility will be fully automated.
Perhaps robots will roll or hover around the project, caring for customers.
But until then, I still think for larger projects, good managers allow for the level of customer service I like and I want to provide people.
For smaller projects, say 20,000 to 40,000 or so, fully automated can work and provide the economics needed for a sustainable business.
But the one thing I know is that my opinion today will most likely change.
The world is changing fast, and I realize I do, too, until I step off it.
Especially in the world of self-storage.
