Section 7 • Marketing While the Greatest Generation chose to make phone


contact less than the other age groups, 37.4 percent of mil- lennials chose to first contact the facility by phone. Being tech savvy by nature, millennials also reported using email (11.6 percent) and the facility’s website (14.6 percent) more than the other three age groups.


According to Chart 7.2 on page 81, 45 percent of the busi-


ness customers surveyed reached out to the facility first by phone, making this their first contact choice. In-person vis- its were the first contact for 37 percent of those surveyed, while 10 percent chose email and only six percent visited the facility website as their first means of contact.


In general, customers tend to rent from the first facility


they visit nearly 59 percent of the time, as seen in Chart 7.3. Slightly more than 25 percent actually visited one more facil- ity, while 15.9 percent report that they contacted more than one other facility before making a decision to rent.


While baby boomers and Gen-X renters fall into this aver- age range for renting from the first facility visited, nearly 62 percent of millennials chose the first facility, as did almost 71 percent of Greatest Generation renters. (See Table 7.2.) Baby boomers and Gen-X renters tend to visit additional facilities before renting, unlike millennials or Greatest Generation renters.


As seen in Chart 7.4, nearly 51 percent of business rent-


ers chose the first facility they visited. Twenty-nine percent visited one additional facility; 20.5 percent visited more than one other facility.


    


Rented from the first facility I contacted


Contacted one other


61.6% 55.8% 56.4% 70.8% 27.7% 26.9% 23.5% 17.5%


Contacted more than one other 10.7% 17.4% 20.0% 11.7% Source: 2017 Self Storage Demand Study (SSA)


In general, customers tend to rent from the first facility they


visit nearly 59 percent of the time, as seen in Chart 7.3.


First Learned About Facility It is always interesting to look at how customers first learned about the facility from which they rent. Chart 7.5 looks at the responses given by those surveyed about this question.


Driving by the location appears to be the way most


customers first learned about the facility from which they rented. As seen in Chart 7.5, 31.2 percent of the customers surveyed reported that they drove by the facility on their way to or from home or work. Given this, we can see how es- sential curb appeal is in terms of marketing. Would you rent from a facility that looked unappealing when you drove by?


Nearly 20 percent of those surveyed reported that they


were referred to the facility by a friend, family member, co- worker, or some other person by word of mouth. Referrals


82 Self-Storage Almanac 2018


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