Steel Storage, which provides self-storage design and construction services, along with other industry vendors will host the Self-Storage Expo Asia in Hong Kong, March 20-21, 2013. The event is designed for professionals with interest in building, owning or operating a self-storage business in Asia including interested investors and new and established operators. Attendees will:

• Learn about the fast-growing Asian self-storage industry
• Get insight to entering the Asia self-storage market
• Meet key suppliers, operators and experts in the business
• Get a glimpse into the future of Asian self-storage
• Learn money-making tips

The show will include exhibits by self-storage builders, manufacturers, property agents, appraisers, management consultants, security companies, software developers, and lock and merchandise providers. Industry operators and investors from Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the United States will share their experience in self-storage ownership, investment, development and operation.

The agenda will also include roundtable discussions and a social program. Participants can enjoy drinks aboard a traditional Chinese Junk in Hong Kongs Victoria Harbor and buy packages to attend the Hong Kong Sevens Rugby, which will take place March 22-24 at the Hong Kong Stadium.

The Self-Storage Expo Asia is sponsored by Steel Storage, PTI Integrated Systems, SMD Software Inc. (SiteLink) and other self-storage suppliers. Steel Storage, which works throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, has provided self-storage building solutions to the Asian market since 2003. The company provides self-storage design, manufacturing and construction products and services, including partitioning and door systems.

The expo will take place at The Langham, a five-star hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, in the heart of the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district. Event details can be found at www.self-storage-expo.asia.

A routine traffic check by police on Sunday led to the discovery of millions of dollars stored in small travel bags and backpacks in a unit at Kennards Self Storage in Brisbane, Australia. In addition to the money, police also found a sawn-off rifle.

The discovery happened after a 32-year-old motorcyclist evaded a routine traffic check at Kangaroo Point just before 9 p.m. He was later stopped by police near Fortitude Valley. Police reported the man was carrying a knife and 50 grams of methamphetamine or speed. He also gave police false identification.

A search of the mans home in South Brisbane uncovered a semi-automatic handgun, steroids several kilograms of drugs police believe to be speed or cocaine, and a taser in his car. During the search, police also found documentation regarding the rental unit. They executed a late-night raid of the unit, confiscating the cash and weapon. The man will face weapon and drug-trafficking charges.

Family-owned Kennards Self Storage operates 74 facilities in Australia in New Zealand. The company offers personal and business storage, wine storage, RV and boat storage, gun storage and deposit boxes.

An employee at East Conway Self Storage in Conway, N.H., was killed Monday when he was struck by a pickup truck on the grounds of the facility. Police identified Fei Sun, 31, as the victim but did not release the name of the driver, who was a customer of the facility.

Sun was a Chinese citizen who had lived in Conway for more than 10 years.

Emergency responders pronounced Sun dead at the scene. The vehicle that hit him was a late-model Ford.

Although the case remains under investigation, police do not suspect alcohol or drugs were a factor in the incident.

By Michael Sawyer

Self-storage properties big and small deal with similar challenges. Whether flying high or downsizing, facility managers continue to take on added operational workloads while serving tenants and fielding an unpredictable number of phone calls. An examination of two unique self-storage operations reveals some behind-the-scenes insight on why operators decide to partner with call-center services.

Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., SKS Management LLC operates 23 self-storage facilities throughout the state of California. In 2009, the company began exploring the advantages of using a call-center service, with a dual strategy to create a seamless customer-service channel and increase occupancy.

A step-by-step blueprint was drawn to shape a call center that would operate in a service and rollover-sales capacity. The goals included freeing managers to serve clients at the counter, fielding sales calls and developing business in the local marketplace. Rewards were immediate and, in 2012, modifications were made to perfect the model.

Prior to activating a call-center service, SKS studied its daily challenges and successes to build a better sales and service plan. Results show the mission went according to plan. SKS continues to increase revenue and grow an exemplary culture of customer service in todays tough economy.

Customer-Service Conundrums

Unannounced, calls come sporadically when managers are serving clients at the counter, on another call or away from the desk. Additional calls come during evening hours or when managers are offsite and not in position to view unit inventory and pricing. These predicaments lead managers to question guiding principles and industry standards of customer service. Should a manager:

• Answer the phone or serve the person at the counter?
• Develop new business in the community or wait onsite for rentals?
• When away from the office, pick up the phone and schedule call backs or let calls roll to voicemail?
• Carry out maintenance during business hours or schedule manual tasks after hours?

While there are many opinions on how to manage these dilemmas, the best answer may be the question: Why put yourself into those positions?

Hang Up at the Beep!

Many facility managers are tied to dated solutions, light years away from more efficient ways of competing in todays market. When used incorrectly, answering machines can aggravate consumers and create lost rentals. Traditional answering services can also transfer a negative impression when the person fielding a call can only take a message.

Leading U.S. telecom providers have released dreadful statistics regarding the effectiveness of voicemail systems. Studies reveal 50 percent to 82 percent of callers dont leave messages when they reach answering devices. Are these callers voicemail-phobic or simply moving on to the next facility?

When a person chooses to call, theyre expecting a human touch, says Natolie Ochi, vice president of SKS. In our industry, its necessary calls be answered immediately by a live person, positioned to help. Otherwise, we delay our tenants or lose rentals while potential occupants go to the self-storage company on the next webpage.

According to industry sources, the average value of one self-storage rental ranges between $700 and $1,100. Considering the loss of one missed rental per month, week or even day, many operators are no longer gambling with the hang-ups.

As facilities turn toward customer call centers to assist their managers in renting units, processing payments and serving customers, a new motivation is causing the movement. Improved results are coming from vendors who specialize in self-storage commerce. Facility owners spend sizably to get phones to ring, and while each and every phone call is considered sacred, property owners are no longer putting their managers into predicaments when fielding calls.

With much at stake and little reason to gamble, many operators have found it unreasonable to expect call consistency when managers are constantly multi-tasking. When the tenant and or future tenants are always getting real-time resolution of their need, new occupancy and a positive impression is most always developed, Ochi says.

Helping Independent Owners Breathe and Grow

A call center for independent self-storage operators can improve sales and showcase a more impressive corporate image. Remote support will allow you to manage your facility better and grow your business, or simply provide you with some break time while a remote team serves as your full-time, peak-time or after-hours assistant.

From the perfect greeting down to the last detail, call-center agents can be positioned to cover customer conversations with every feature you would like, when many times you cant. The answering machine can only record a message that gets returned 10 hours later. Clients and future tenants always appreciate reaching a helpful, live person rather than an answering device, says Thomas Drake, owner of Secure Storage of Lockport, a 400-unit facility in the Illinois suburb south of Chicago.

Drake's facility has designed a call center to work in a multi-purpose capacity. All calls are routed to the facility during the day and to the call center after hours. Still, daytime calls are scheduled to roll back to the call center following a fourth ring. The luxury prevents me from interrupting the most important person, the customer in front of me! A customized call center allows me to compete with the big guys, Drake says.

Affordability, State-of-the-Art Technology and Specialized Labor

For less than $1 per hour, a specialized call center will complete rentals, reservations and credit card payments, and save operators money. Today, affordable technology allows remote, self-storage assistants to work better, faster and cheaper, while offering immediate customer care.

Self-storage operators are choosing call centers because of the vast amount of technology these vendors possess. Because equipment and technology upgrades are so pricy, many operators will find that call-center contracting offers a better fit financially, Ochi says.

Since 2009, SKS has continued to grow an empire of facilities and managed properties. Still, Ochi considers SKS a boutique operation, perhaps a philosophy attributed to its success. By design, the individualized attention every caller and onsite visitor receives gives the company a unique competitive advantage.

As planned, the call center has allowed managers to focus on clients at the counter, develop new business and deal with more significant operational tasks. Upon launching the service, SKS began to receive a steady average of 500-plus account payments monthly via the call center. The latest modification included an interactive voice-response installation, a phone tool that routes payments and general inquiries to the call center and automatically sends sales opportunities to the managers. Today, SKS move-ins continue to rise while the call center processes more than 1,200 account payments monthly, provides numerous first-touch resolutions and closes a few after-hour rentals to boota plan well executed!

Secure Self-Storage employed its call center with a goal of providing each client with individualized attention, onsite and by phone. Drake, also a full-time CPA, now has more free time to focus on sales and operational duties while the call center covers the phones to make reservations, collect money and assist with general questions day and night. This small-business owner has also pulled off a perfect plan to focus on new-tenant rentals, save labor costs, lift the corporate image and showcase an impressive tradition of customer care.

Modern-Day Call Centers

Leading call-center models have been specialized with software applications designed specifically for the self-storage industry to perform as a remote sales and service assistant. Todays technology positions agents with real-time unit inventory, pricing and facility information, allowing them to process real-time rentals, reservations and payments into the property-management system at each facility on the network.

It is a big decision to let a third party get between you and your customers, says Robert A. Chiti, president and CEO at OpenTech Alliance Inc., a Phoenix-based company that operates a call center and offers self-storage kiosks. While facility managers are always the best bet in servicing tenants or sealing the deal on rental calls, theres still a big need for backup. Custom call centers have been proven to make a significant impact on the financial performance of each and every self-storage operation.

Michael Sawyer is the director of marketing for OpenTech Alliance. The Phoenix-based company is a developer of self-service solutions for the self-storage industry, including self-service kiosks, Web and mobile rentals, and a self-storage call center. The company also offers a host of self-storage cloud services. For more information, call 602.749.9370; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.opentechalliance.com.

Employees at Stor Keeper Self Storage in Honolulu uncovered decomposing body parts in a storage unit after the tenant went into default for non-payment. The human tissue was being kept in a freezer.

Facility staff entered the unit to conduct an inventory after the tenant, Bryan Avery, CEO of the Hawaii Institute of Anatomy, became 90 days past due on his rent. When facility owner Christopher Ulu called Avery about the freezer, Avery told him human tissue was stored inside. Ulu called police, who later opened the freezer, which had a horrible odor. The body parts were later identified by the medical examiners office as belonging to two individuals.

According to police, this isnt the first time Avery has been reported for storing human tissue. Cadavers were discovered last year in a freezer on property on Sand Island Access Road. Avery said the landowner was aware the cadavers were present. The bodies were returned to the medical examiners office.

According to the Hawai'i State Department of Health, Averys license as a mortuary provider expired more than a year ago. He also has a pending fine for possessing bodies without a death certificate.

No charges are expected to be filed, police said.

The Hawaii Institute of Anatomy offers post-graduate level gross human anatomy courses to healthcare professionals including chiropractors and massage, athletic and physical therapists. Avery has been teaching gross human anatomy since 1987.

U.K. self-storage operator Big Yellow Group PLC is providing storage space to Little Bundles, a local charity group benefiting families in need, at its Gloucester, England, facility on Eastern Avenue. Little Bundles collects baby and childrens clothing, nursery furniture, toiletries and other items to assist families in the communities of Gloucester, Hardwicke, Kingsway and Quedgeley.

The group began nearly three years ago in a volunteers living room but has become so popular it could no longer adequately store donated items. It is now connected to the United Kingdoms larger National Childbirth Trust project.

Big Yellow held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week to commemorate Little Bundles new storage capacity. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Big Yellow, who have been awesome, said Laine Lewis, project manager. We are so grateful for everything they have done to help us help as many families as possible."

Residents can drop off Little Bundles donations at the Big Yellow self-storage facility Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Big Yellow operates 76 self-storage locations in the United Kingdom, with most concentrated in Greater London.

The Florida Self Storage Association (FSSA) will host a live webinar regarding the state's newly revised lien law on Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. EST. The two-hour event is free to all FSSA members. Topics to be covered include lien letters, timeline for foreclosure, newspaper ads and more. Registration details can be found at www.floridassa.org.

House Bill 715 and companion Senate Bill 646 were signed by Gov. Rick Scott and April and went into effect July 1. The FSSA, with the support of the national Self Storage Association, lobbied for three years to modernize the 30-year old lien-law registration. The revised law will save the state's self-storage operators money, according to the association.

In addition to the webinar, the FSSA is offering a Lien Law Guide Book, which delivers specific legislative details with attorney annotations. It is available for $25 at the FSSA website.

The FSSA is a nonprofit organization of businesspeople involved in the self-storage industry in Florida. Its members include facility owners, operators, vendors, developers, investors, property managers and suppliers.

For years I've heard reports of the occasional self-storage operator receiving some sort of all-encompassing subpoena from a law-enforcement agency, meaning a subpoena to produce information about all facility occupants. However, in the last six to eight months, Ive noticed a marked uptick in these reports.

These subpoenas tend to come from federal agencies such as the FBI or Immigrations and Custom Enforcement, and are normally delivered by an agent who expects you to produce all the documentation requestedoften a list of your tenants names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card info, etc. Some even go so far as to request full copies of all your files. Onsite staff is asked to make a decision about patriotism while an agent flashes a badge and waits for a response. Here are some guidelines for self-storage operators facing this dilemma.

Can Agencies Do This?

Except where the FBI is investigating a drug case, there doesnt seem to be authority for a federal agency to fish with blanket subpoenas for information at a self-storage facility, or anywhere else for that matter. Generally, the existence of the subpoena is supposed to be made known to the person about whom information is being requested.

However, there are obviously investigations in which providing notice to people that their information is being subpoenaed would lead to interference. Thus, it doesnt appear every self-storage tenant needs to be notified by the agency that a subpoena has been issued before you respond, but a blanket subpoena is really a different matter.

Do you have to give the information while the agent is standing there? Certainly not. In general, a Duces Tecum Subpoena indicates youre supposed to provide information within a certain period of time. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure seem to indicate the minimum amount of time to provide information under a subpoena is seven days. The subpoenas my clients have recently been served have given them 24 to 48 hours to respond, but thats at least enough time to follow the advice in this column and contact your attorney.

Compliance and Finding Middle Ground

The answer to whether you should comply is complex. If youve been properly subpoenaed and you believe the agent to be a legitimate person issuing a lawful request (as opposed to a guy checking on his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend), then more likely than not, youre required to comply.

However, I've been able to resolve many of these situations by asking the agent or contacting the agents supervisor to reach some sort of agreement about whats really being sought in the subpoena. I generally begin these conversations by saying I dont believe its absolutely necessary for the agency to subpoena the operator's entire tenant list, and some of the information may not even be available, such as a screening or tenant report.

I also warn the agency that the facility operator and I believe we must notify every tenant that his information was subpoenaed. No federal agency likes citizen calls from senators or congressmen, so it will generally negotiate at this point. If asked, it will usually back down on the blanket subpoena because it's really only seeking information about who entered the facility at a certain time or a specific list of names. By asking for this information, I can often negotiate the subpoena to request info thats more specifically targeted to what the agency wants.

For example, if an agent is looking for anyone who entered the facility between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on a certain date, providing the gate log for four hours is a much easier pill to swallow than handing over the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, etc., of all your tenants. Conversely, the agent may be looking for certain people. He could give you a list of 20 namessome real, some fakeand you could tell him whether those files exist. Then he could specifically subpoena those files, or you could provide specific information from the files.

What You Should Do

Naturally, you dont want to interfere with a criminal investigation. Its neither your responsibility nor your duty to disclose anything to your tenants until the information has been tendered and you come to an agreement with the agency about how long the information exchange must be kept secret. You dont want to accidently cross the line.

The best solution is to contact your attorney if youre served with one of these subpoenas. Do not provide all the documents on site just because an agent is intimidating or seems to think hes entitled to it. Let your attorney negotiate with the agency to figure out what really needs to be turned over, if anything. Then provide the information with your attorneys blessing within the time lines provided.

No one wants you to hinder the law-enforcement responsibilities of the U.S. or local government. However, theres a trust between you and your tenants that their information will be reasonably protected by you, if possible. Although theres no law on the subject of their privacy, once a subpoena is served, that expectation is probably out the window. The more you can do to keep an appropriate buffer between you and tenant lawsuits and avoid impeding a criminal investigation, the better off you are.

Your safest course is to contact your attorney to negotiate these subpoenas as quickly as possible after youre served. Then follow his advice in a timely manner.

This column is for the purpose of providing general legal insight into the self-storage industry and should not be substituted for the advice of your own attorney.

Jeffrey J. Greenberger is a partner with the law firm of Katz Greenberger & Norton LLP in Cincinnati and is licensed to practice in Kentucky and Ohio. Mr. Greenberger primarily represents the owners and operators of commercial real estate, including self-storage owners and operators. To reach him, call 513.721.5151; visit www.selfstoragelegal.com .

New construction for a self-storage facility in Suwanee, Ga., was approved yesterday during a special meeting of the city council. Amburgy Properties will build and operate the storage facility under the Storgard Self Storage name.

The council unanimously approved rezoning and a special-use permit for a 2-acre lot near I-85 that currently houses a vacant building. Construction is expected to begin in February.

The council delayed its vote on the project last month after two council members requested additional information about the facilitys design and noted self-storage was not in compliance with the citys long-term vision for the area.

Storgard operates six self-storage facilities in Georgias Gwinnett County.

As of Oct. 1, self-storage operators in the United Kingdom must charge rental customers a 20 percent value-added tax (VAT) as part of the governments revised budget plan. The new law affects self-storage businesses that previously opted not to charge the VAT and applies to those with annual net revenues exceeding £77,000 (approximately $124,000). The British government expects the self-storage VAT to generate more than $56 million by 2015-16.

The self-storage VAT has been a source of controversy since it was introduced in March during a budget proposal made by British Finance Minister George Osborne. The VAT eliminates the U.K.s self-storage market exemption and puts the industry in the same category as traditional removal companies and other businesses that provide storage services but not necessarily in secure units or discrete areas, as characterized by the governments HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) office.

Around 30 percent of self-storage is currently taxed because of the option to tax. Some self-storage providers have never opted to tax but those that do are able to reclaim VAT on the costs of constructing or purchasing their storage facilities, according to an information sheet released by the HMRC. Some self-storage providers have used avoidance arrangements to convert their taxable supplies back to exempt supplies, gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors.

The application of the VAT on self-storage could mean thinner profit margins for some U.K. operators and higher prices for rental customers. The affected self-storage tax base in the first full year of the measure is estimated to be about £200 million ($321 million). The HMRC estimates the VAT will generate an extra £15 million ($24 million) in taxes in 2012-13, increasing to £30 million ($48 million) by 2013-14 and exceeding £35 million ($56 million) by 2015-16.

The impact on storage customers could be minimized somewhat due to the high occupancy of storage units by businesses. In the U.K., around 50 percent of our let space is taken by business customers, and we would expect the impact to be limited in this sector as many businesses will simply reclaim the VAT, Safestore Holdings PLC officials said in March, after the VAT proposal was introduced.

Safestore owns about 100 self-storage facilities and manages another dozen in the U.K. market.

Similarly, officials at Big Yellow Group PLC, which operates 76 locations in the U.K., initially said the impact could be absorbed largely by business customers: Approximately 30 percent of our revenue is derived from business customers for whom this change will be neutral, as the vast majority of them are able to recover VAT.

However, in July, Big Yellow hinted it was considering legal action against the VAT. Any formal appeals against the tax could not be issued until after Oct. 1 when the VAT went into effect, according to news reports.

Another big player in the market, LoknStore, said it would not be affected by the proposal because it already charged customers the VAT.