I am very grateful that I have figured out how to make money in self storage.
Who I am now is someone you could take everything from, drop-off in a strange place where I know no one, and I would be OK, prosper, and soon have all I could ever want.
And I don’t think it would cross my mind to get back on my feet doing something illegal.
Apparently, there are people who wake up in the morning and try to create ways to get money or things without earning them legitimately. If that same energy is spent creating something that helps people, the irony is, they would have all they could ever want or need.
But for this episode, let’s focus on the people who wake up in the mornings trying to figure out how to make money doing something illegal, like breaking into self storage units.
Touchless Move-Ins
So, if you woke up this way every day, and then you heard about “touchless move-ins,” it appears as if there would be a light bulb go off in your brain.
We have had one incident of this, and other owners have had a lot worse than we have.
What am I talking about?
We had one person move in (you can use a kiosk or our website, it makes no difference), using a false ID and then gaining access to the facility to cut locks or break into units.
Now I do not have any statistics on how frequent this happens, but it happens enough so that you need to be aware of it.
No, we have not stopped using a kiosk, on-line move ins, or touchless move-ins, but we are very aware of the potential for problems.
This is clearly the path our industry and many other industries are moving towards. So, it makes no sense to just stop and go backward. We, as owners and as an industry, have to address it.
Here is an article I recently read on-line at the ISS site about “Mariposa,” a digital ID verification that integrates with industry software systems. We are looking into it.
However, for now, every morning, our managers have a new task. That task is to contact and try to verify the people who moved in online or through the kiosk they day or night before. They may not have the code work until they come by the office, or they may ask for some verification of the person’s ID.
My experience is that a good manager knows most of their customers and knows what goes on in their facilities. We will always mail out a card thanking all new customers and thank them for choosing us, making sure the address on the lease works,, and the card does not come back.
I am sure that as an industry, we will address this issue quickly. But until you have an ID verification solution, be careful, use common sense, but don’t go scared and just stop offering easy move-in solutions. You want to be easy to do business with, not hard.
I will share more on this as I learn, but now, just be aware of the potential dark side of “touchless move-ins.”
