I wish we had this low-cost technology when I got started. I would have many thousands of extra dollars in the bank.
By Marc Goodin,
Not all technology has to be fancy and expensive. In any new business venture, the rule of thumb is to implement the easy, low-hanging fruit that costs little and significantly improve your operations, and or make you significant profits.
My favorite technology in this category is automatic texting. It certainly doesn’t sound exciting until you look at the numbers. Before we had this option, our managers were spending a day a week constantly calling and emailing past due clients. Often not reaching them. A high percentage went to auction. Now, texting is connected to your CRM and sends out late texts automatically. For $30/month, you can’t go wrong.
Now our late clients are sent an automatic text on the following late schedule: 1day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and at 25 days late, a text reminds them that the next step is an auction notice and a $100 auction fee in 5 days. The 7- & 14-day texts remind them they can save the $29 later fee if they pay today. Texting has cut our auctions in half, allowing us to keep most of our past due clients out of auction. Once a client is 35 days late and owes 2 months’ rent, the chances of collecting rent are reduced significantly.
You can super-size your texting app by choosing one that takes direct payments. If you purchase the cream of the crop app, you can even send texts to prospective renters who contact you on a follow-up text schedule and a message you choose, and a host of other items.
We work hard to get our clients. Why not work smart to keep them?
As CEO of Storage Authority Franchising, Marc Goodin shares his passion, expertise, and unconventional wisdom with busy professionals to help them develop their own self-storage while they continue their careers. He owns three self-storage facilities that he designed, built, and manages. He can be reached at marc@StorageAuthority.com or directly at 860-830-6764 to answer your franchising, development, marketing, sales, and operations questions. His best-selling self-storage books are available at Amazon.
Marc Goodin
860-860-6764