Urban Self Storage Transforms their Operations using CallPotential

It’s long been said that “The only thing constant is change.” In the age of rapidly-evolving technology, adopting new processes is important to staying competitive and accelerating success. Urban Self Storage has embraced change across their 70-location business in Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona to serve as a premier storage facility for the west coast.

Customer-friendly technology differentiates Urban from other facilities.

With over 30 years in the industry, Urban has remained a leading facility in the U.S. offering top-notch customer service. Urban CXO – Customer Experience Officer, Partner Cherie Tourangeau has played a key role in building the business. Working closely with CEO Patrick Reilly, together they have tapped into the entire customer experience, taking hold of online marketing strategies, customer service and relations, rate strategy, revenue management and more. These insights have helped establish new practices and technology like CallPotential software for a better customer experience while simultaneously increasing their revenue stream.

In 2014 Urban rolled out CallPotential’s Lead, Collections, Marketing, and Performance Manager modules to the entire organization. The result: the Urban team developed more organized day-to-day operations through virtual tools and automation.

“The power of post-it notes was fading quickly. The manual process and repeated outlook reminders were suddenly quite overwhelming in itself. Our duty to our customers and prospective customers meant consistent and timely communications, always. With CallPotential you have the advantage to customize functions based on your unique business requirements, schedule, as well as your customer’s needs.”

CallPotential’s tools allow a more organized workflow.

Managers and on-site staff at Urban have maximized efficiency when it comes to day-to-day tasks. The struggle of remembering who to contact and endless post-it notes are no more as they use Lead Manager to organize their lead data. Removing the manual work from follow-ups has both increased productivity and freed up their time.

“Following up with prospective clients is a critical aspect of our business. Organization to these communications is how we deliver customer satisfaction. Being able to ease the burden of a stressful moving process by generating timely reminders, keeping track of their move-in date, allows us to deliver a positive experience every time.”

Auto-pay and collections communication are keeping customers more engaged.

As Urban refocused their strategy to accommodate more virtual customer communication, they saw an uptick in auto-pay enrollment and collections activities. To adapt to COVID-19’s impact, they began offering partial payments and other flexible policies and have used CallPotential’s tools to track that information.

“The CallPotential system is easily customizable, which has been extremely beneficial as we navigate through COVID-19.” 

Even before the pandemic, they’ve relied on omni-channel communication including text and email to stay in touch with customers. As a result, they’ve seen major strides in their collection numbers.

“Overall collections improved significantly, as did our communications. Customers found our text to pay links quite convenient and many now prefer to wait to receive their monthly text message to complete their payment.”

Operations made a seamless, virtual transition.

For most facilities, providing a safe way for customers to interact has recently become the most important aspect of how they do business. As the onset of COVID-19 began, Urban was already ahead of the game with the tools needed to provide the same standard of service as they would in-person. “The impacts of COVID-19 and how people interact, has completely changed how we do business. From touchless transactions, to conveying our COVID-19 response plan, automated features and alerts via text and email, have been a powerful tool during these difficult times.”

Tools paired with endless support.

Staying true to their continuous efforts to enhance their customer service, Cherie and her team rely on CallPotential’s support team to discover new features and gain insight on the back end for better decision-making.  From set-up to implementation, the CallPotential team stays with Cherie’s team from day one to provide a smooth transition and offer immediate support and training opportunities. “Not all company support teams reply promptly or share that same level of urgency when it is needed. However, our experience with CallPotential Support is what all company support teams should strive to be like.”

Staying one-step ahead has kept Cherie and her team as front-runners in the industry. As they continue to grow their business, they’re armed with the tools to stay flexible, productive, and organized. “Tools give you momentum if you continually test, evaluate and improve them. Having the software and technology that adapts to your needs is critical. The value in convenient features to provide to our customers is something we are proud of offering throughout the Urban Experience.”