Part I - State of Technology: Uncovering Customer Trends

Consumer behavior has changed and operators need to rapidly adopt technology to stay current in today's economic landscape. Just last week, we put the final touches to our newest edition of the State of Technology in Self Storage. Building off of two years of data and a mass surge towards AI-driven experiences, the report highlights unique insights to showcase how new technologies are affecting the industry.

This special series will be divided into three episodes, going over the main sections of the report:

1. The Trends our data showed us about the average self storage operator and customer
2. The key business areas that will be impacted by AI and new technologies.
3. And, the main takeaways from over 2 million customer conversations used to optimize business operations.

Today’s episode will be part 1 of 3, where we will explore the trends we uncovered from our data and, how operators are adapting to what we call, the Modern Customer.

Mentioned in this episode:

A Year in Review

• Recognition of the challenging past 12 months affecting various industries
• Tight budgets and cautious spending in response to economic challenges
• Changing consumer behavior and the need for rapid adoption of technology

Trend 1: Efficiency Matters

• Learn how operators are reassessing their operational stack, optimizing teams, tools, and data to enhance the customer journey's
• Addressing organizational bloat and improving overall journey for customers
• Emphasis on intelligent automation and resource optimization

Trend 2: Conversations as Meaningful Experiences

• Prioritizing customer experience for immediate engagement
• The significance of two-way conversations, cross-channel interactions, and deeper customer insights
• Empowering customers and creating personal connections

Trend 3: Augmented Intelligence

• How are operators leveraging augmented intelligence today
• Moving toward a data-driven culture and utilizing machine-generated insights
• The focus on workforce evolution and the benefits of an augmented approach

Trend 4: Breaking Silos

• Importance of breaking organizational, data, and mentality silos
• Embracing team sharing and access to diverse data sources
• Overcoming challenges of fragmented customer experiences and duplicated efforts

Common Thread: The Modern Customer

• Placing the customer at the center of business decisions
• Catering to the expectations of the modern customer
• Addressing generational demand and preferences
• The significance of seamless and convenient access to physical facilities

Stay tuned for Part II where we explore the technology and customer-centric amenities that operators are investing in to stay competitive.