Inside Self-Storage (ISS) has opened the voting for its 2013 Best of Business reader-choice poll, in which self-storage professionals identify their favorite product and service suppliers in more than 30 categories. Categories include Best Customer Service, Most Innovative Product, Best Builder, Best Marketing Services, Best Finance Company and many others. Voting takes place at www.insideselfstorage.com/vote through June 30.

Participants can vote one time in as many categories as they wish. They must verify their e-mail address before they are allowed to vote.

The results of this year's campaign will be published on the ISS website on Sept. 1. The winners will be featured in the November edition of ISS magazine. They will also be honored during a ceremony at the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Las Vegas, March 31-April 2, 2014.

The winners of the ISS 2011 and 2012 Best of Business campaigns can be viewed at www.insideselfstorage.com/best-of-business/index.aspx.

For more than 20 years, ISS has provided informational resources to self-storage owners, managers, developers and investors. Its educational offerings include a monthly magazine, annual conferences and tradeshows, an extensive website, an education institute, an online store, and Self-Storage Talk, the industrys largest online community.

The U-Haul Co. of Fort Worth has purchased Royal Storage Super Center, a self-storage facility in Lewisville, Texas. The property is comprised of 11 one-story storage buildings and 538 units with more than 78,000 square feet of net rentable space.

"We are proud to be expanding our moving and storage services in Lewisville and look forward to serving customers in the area," said Ken Birch, president of U-Haul Co. of Fort Worth.

The facility, 811 E. Highway 121 Business, has indoor self-storage with drive-up loading and unloading. It will also offer boat, RV and vehicle storage, electronic access, 24-hour video cameras, extra-tall storage units and free online account management.

Established in 1945, U-Haul has 36 million square feet of storage space at more than 1,000 owned and managed facilities throughout North America.

Stor-All Storage, a self-storage operator with 44 facilities throughout Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, has completed a month-long renovation to its call center and hired a president of training solutions. The 500-square-foot center employs five agents and is located at the companys corporate headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

The renovation project included remodeling work, new technology and updating the centers phone system. The new Digium Switchvox phones enable tracking and connect directly to each self-storage location. Stor-All also upgraded its customer-relationship management system to improve agent response times and the ability to learn more about customers.

Our contact center is under a major cultivation, said Wendy Elliott, director of Stor-Alls contact center. Our continuous evolution of technology, paired with training and straightforward intention has drastically increased our speed of knowledge and reaction time to our storage customers. We continue to know more about our internal and external customers, areas of focus and the rewards that follow.

Mo Bellio was hired as president of call center training solutions to help improve agent selling skills and customer service, company officials said. I was ready to take the contact center to a different level, from a culture of providing elite customer service, to a true sales center that also happens to provide elite customer service, Elliott said. Mo was the person to guide us exactly where we needed to go. He broke down our calls, identified opportunities we were missing out on and, most importantly, showed us how to sell with intent.

Stor-All Storage is a family business founded in 1967. It is a fully integrated self-storage company providing real estate brokerage, asset selection, underwriting, construction, development, property management and investor relations services to its individual investment partnerships.

The board of trustees for self-storage real estate investment trust CubeSmart has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per common share for the period ending June 30. The dividend is payable on July 15 to common shareholders of record on July 1.

The board of trustees also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.484375 for the 7.75 percent Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares payable on July 15 to holders of record on July 1.

CubeSmart owns or manages 517 self-storage facilities across the United States and operates the CubeSmart Network, which consists of more than 800 additional self-storage facilities. According to the Inside Self-Storage Top-Operators List, the company is the fourth largest operator of self-storage facilities in the United States.

Butler Manufacturing, a manufacturer and builder of metal buildings for self-storage and other industries, has installed 2.1 billion square feet of its MR-24 roof system worldwide. The milestone is equal to covering 259,259 baseball fields or the cities of Lincoln, Neb., Savannah, Ga., and Des Moines, Iowa, combined, company officials said in a press release.

Through the expertise of our Butler Builder dealers, the MR-24 roof system has become the most specified standing-seam roof on the market, said Tom Gilligan, president, Butler Manufacturing.

Introduced in 1969, the MR-24 was the industrys first standing-seam roof system, company officials said. It offers durability and longevity, including a 360-degree Pittsburgh double-lock seam and the Butler Cote fluoropolymer finish system that is resistant to chalking, fading and chipping. Suitable for most roof retrofits and re-roofing projects, the MR-24 is designed to cover most types of existing roof material. The company also touts it as a sustainable and energy-efficient product due to steel being its primary material and its accommodation of the SunLite Strip and RetroLite daylighting systems. It can also be used as a platform for alternative energy systems.

Although a roof system can be one of the most expensive components of a building, it is a critical investment to protect a buildings structure, said Rodger Russ, Butlers North American sales manager, roof division. The MR-24 roof system is virtually maintenance-free, with in-place performance surpassing 40 years.

Butler Manufacturing, a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, designs, manufactures and markets metal building systems for commercial construction, including self-storage. The companys systems are marketed through a network of more than 1,400 full-service contractors with local trade areas.

By Rob Kaminski

Locks are the most commonly sold retail item in the self-storage industry, so youd think no one would be a better buyer and seller of these items than an experienced self-storage operator. But thats not necessarily so.

Originally, self-storage owners stocked locks as a convenience to customers who didnt arrive with one in hand. They also wanted tenants to use locks that provided better security and reliability. The disk lock met those needs and has become the gold standard of the industry, so we'll focus on that type here.

Some facility operators still believe that simply negotiating the lowest price and getting quantity discounts makes them shrewd lock buyers. And they might be right ... if all disk locks were the same; but theyre not. The reason theres always another peddler ready to undersell everyone is their disk locks are simply made cheaper.

Whats wrong with cheaper locks? Nothing if youre not the one selling them. But stick renters with locks that jam, break keys or can be opened by other tenants, and watch your profit and reputation suffer. This article will help you recognize a quality lock and then promote it to your customers.

Lock Criteria

Ever wonder how some disk locks can be sold so inexpensively? The secret is its rare for a manufacturer to find a more economical way of making locks. Overseas, labor costs are not a problem, so materials and machining is where they cut corners. The end product looks like other disk locks but lacks the quality your customers deserve.

So what should you look for to prevent or minimize problems that can hurt your customer relations? Here are six items to evaluate when it comes to disk locks:

• Quality metal: Broken keys are usually due to flimsy metal. Dont accept aluminum keys unless you enjoy grinding off locks plus giving refunds. Stick with brass or steel only.
• Rust issues: Jammed locks are usually caused by rust. In the internals or the keyway, rust can make it impossible to turn the key. Stainless steel stamped on the outside doesnt guarantee the insides arent zinc, aluminum or pot metal. Get the specs in writing.
• Drain holes: Rust prevention is why all quality disk locks have drain holes around the edge at 3, 6 and 9 oclock. If any are missing, pass on that bargain.
• Keyway pins: These should be solid brass, not just brass-plated. If theyre not, they could rust, too, and youll be grinding and refunding again.
• Key changes: Possible key changes are meaningless. Weve all heard of tenants trying their key in the wrong unit and opening it! A lock may have enough pins to make, say, 7,000 key changes mathematically possible. But making 7,000 different keys for 7,000 locks costs money. So some companies cut the number of actual key changes to 700 or 70 or even less to reach that bargain price point. Ask the manufacturer to put the number of actual key changes in writing. Any reputable supplier will stand behind its specifications.
• Discounts: Judge prices at less than quantity discount levels. Why tie up all that space and capital for months just to save a few bucks? Find a supplier of all the retail products you need with a low order minimum and buy a few weeks supply. Period.

Selling Locks

First, lets talk about how locks are often sold. Virtually every self-storage facility offers other kinds of locks in addition to disk locks. Theyre usually laminated or brass padlocks to give the renter economy options.

Disk locks, we know, are better suited and more profitable, so display them more prominently. Have one at the counter for renters to try. When they do, your manager can tell them why theyre better. If the manager needs training materials, ask your supplier. They should be free.

But if you stock locks other than disk locks, heres a different point of view you may want to consider: Why offer econo-locks at all?

Offering several types suggests any old lock will do. So maybe those locks at the discount store are OK. Or what about the old-school combination lock in the junk drawer? In either case, your lower-priced locks may still seem too high to them and you could even lose sales.

The problem is the public is very familiar with ordinary padlocks. On the other hand, the disk lock is often new to the renter. Its novel shape and construction support the idea that heres a lock designed for self-storage. And because the public is not familiar with them, customers cant be sure what they should cost.

Im not saying you should immediately display only disk locks. But it might be an eye-opener to test that approach at one facility over a month or so. Compare the ratio of lock sales to rentals to see what happens to your total lock sales. If they remain unchanged, then you would see better margins than you had selling lower-priced locks. It would also reduce your inventory outlay and improve overall security.

Rob Kaminski is vice president of Supply Side USA, a national distributor of packaging, moving and storage supplies for more than 50 years. He has helped self-storage owners improve their retail sales for more than 25 years. He has written numerous articles on the topic and speaks at industry tradeshows. For more information, call 800.305.6110; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.supplysideusa.com .

Storage Post Self Storage has added mobile bill-pay services for its New Jersey and New York customers. The new account-management program launched earlier this month and enables tenants to pay their monthly rent online from any mobile device. The additional service complements the companys desktop-accessible online-payment system, which has been in use at Storage Post properties since 2010.

"More and more of our customers are becoming smartphone savvy and turning to mobile devices to manage their accounts. Adding a functional mobile bill-pay system, supplied by Automatit Inc., keeps us up-to-date with the latest technology and provides the best account-management features for our customers," said Jackson Wilson, chief technology officer for Storage Post. "We've already seen a rise in online payments, and we anticipate participation increases in the coming weeks."

Automatit is a full-service website-development firm specializing in self-storage websites. Services include website development, hosting, application development, and search engine marketing and optimization.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Storage Post has locations along the East Coast and throughout the South, and is pursuing self-storage acquisitions.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has signed an amended version of the states self-storage lien law (Senate Bill 752) that enables self-storage facility operators to notify tenants about impending lien procedures via e-mail. The Connecticut Self Storage Association (CTSSA) and national Self Storage Association worked with lawmakers for three years to update the law. The changes go into effect on July 1.

Under the new law, tenant lien-notification e-mails must include a line stating that opening the e-mail constitutes acceptance of the notice by the tenant. If a self-storage operator does not receive confirmation that the e-mail has been opened within seven days of sending it, a second notice must be sent by registered or Certified Mail or delivered in person.

E-mail notifications do not extend to lien procedures concerning boats or motor vehicles. Notices concerning motor vehicles must continue to be sent to the states motor-vehicle commissioner and the vehicles lien holder or owner, if different than the tenant.

The CTSSAs mission is to provide a network of information and experience to those who are part of or wish to enter the self-storage industry in Connecticut. The association provides member facilities with support in matters concerning building codes, lien laws, auctions, property-tax strategies, manager education, and industry visibility, acceptability and promotion. Its programs and services include educational and networking meetings, a sample occupancy agreement, sales-tax information, auction procedures, and more.

The CTSSA will be participating in the Northeast Self Storage Tradeshow, June 5-6, in Westford, Mass. Association details can be found at CTSSA.org.