A guest blog spot by Megan Eckert, executive vice president of USstoragesearch.com.
Have you ever tried to explain time zones to a 5-year-old? Well, let me tell you, it doesnt work too well.
I recently went back to my hometown and spent some time with friends and family. One of my friends has a young daughter. She's old enough to know I no longer live in the same place as they do and my sun sets at a different time, but not quite old enough to understand the whole concept. One of the first things she said to me when I arrived was, Megan, Im so glad you came back to our world! I tried to explain to her that I still live in her world, just not in her state. Im not sure she understood even then, but it was definitely worth a laugh.
This made me think: Do we in the world of self-storageowner/operators, managers and even vendorslive in different worlds than our customers? Its so easy to get caught up in our own day-to-day activities. Everyone has so much to do, and we all have so much demanding our time and attention. We get distracted in our own little universes and forget whats going on around us.
Do you make the effort to ensure youre in the same world as your customers? When we talk about marketing our self-storage businesses and closing the potential customers that call or walk into our facilities, we need to ask ourselves: Are we operating in their world? Do we know whats going on in their lives and really understand why they need storage? Its generally very easy to get into the mind of a prospect; if you inquire, even in the least, you'll usually get a very detailed response. In fact, I'm sure many of us have had the experience of getting to know a bit too much about a customers world!
But if you think about it, thats a great thing. If you're able to connect with a customers emotional reason for needing storage, you'll be able to provide a great solution. Once you understand and meet the customer's need, the rest is a piece of cake. Isnt it amazing that so much of what is important in life can be learned from children?