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start of the crisis, including websites with pricing informa- tion, and were working towards more integrated and full- service technology solutions. He notes


that there were


improvements needed to reach their technology goals, but the environment through early 2020 was the push required to accelerate the process and implement touchless rentals, among other initiatives.


“We rapidly made significant enhancements to our on-


line abilities in 2020,” he says, adding that customers can complete an entire rental, start to finish, online thanks to those enhancements. The migration to online auctions prior to the pandemic assisted Public Storage to keep operations safe throughout the duration of the global crisis. “We built sophisticated models to handle the technology.”


McLellan is certain that demand for technology will only


continue to grow, so he advises other owner-operators to adapt to this change and incorporate automations into their businesses to provide various means of customer interac- tions. “Future demands have been accelerated, and if you’re not on the train, your business is going to suffer,” he says.


Although McLellan had already boarded the tech train, he


is “not convinced that people want zero human interaction.” “Not everyone is ready for the tech revolution,” says McLel-


lan, who views his own family as an example of the genera- tional gap: His millennial children use their smartphones and apps exclusively for any task they can, but his aging mother, on the other hand, is reluctant to use technology she is not familiar with and would be less likely to use a business if she couldn’t speak to a live person on the telephone. Further- more, McLellan states that she would never give anyone her credit card number either online or over the phone.


It is this spectrum of technology usage, as well as vary-


ing user comfort levels, that leads McLellan to say that self- storage operators must “cast the widest net.” In other words, for the foreseeable future, operators should bite the bullet on the added expenses to provide both traditional and tech- nological options to customers. “It’s expensive to do both, but it’s necessary to do both,” he says. “Keep adapting to be successful!”


Personnel Problems While McLellan states that Public Storage Canada is “seeing the fruits” of technology, and 2020 was, from a purely busi- ness perspective, a “fantastic year,” there have been some growing pains along the way with personnel. For starters, the surge in new technology has brought to light the dire need for employee training.


Embracing Zoom


McLellan reveals that Public Storage had a handful of employees, at all levels, who were initially hesitant to be on camera, but the company as a whole has fully embraced Zoom as an option for various aspects of the business.


In addition to using the video conferencing tool to


train its call center staff and agents, Public Storage has used Zoom as an alternative to in-person, weekly and monthly meetings. Some lunch meetings are con- ducted via Zoom as well; Public Storage has even sent coupons for Uber Eats to meeting attendees so they can enjoy some reduced fare.


To boot, the entire corporate Christmas party was executed through Zoom. The virtual festivities includ- ed games, speeches, awards, presentations, and the like.


It’s a good “hybrid option” between phone calls and in-person meetings, says McLellan, who notes that Zoom also has reduced excessive travel expenses for the company. It’s an alternative that Public Storage plans to continue using long after the pandemic passes.


Other video conferencing options include GoTo- Meeting, RingCentral, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, ClickMeeting, U Meeting, BigBlueButton, Bluejeans Meetings, and Lifesize.


McLellan points out that some Public Storage employees have


been with the company since the long-gone days of paper, hand- written ledgers. Although he emphasizes that they are phenom- enal employees, some simply are not tech savvy.


“We need employees with the skillset to keep up with the


tech,” he says. “These skillsets didn’t exist when some of those employees started, and we need to get them up to speed. In contrast, we need to teach the newer, more technologically minded staff to slow down and build stronger relationships with customers.”


Indeed, with constantly changing skillsets, continual training


is essential to the successful implementation of technologies. But needless to say, COVID-19 has made training a challenge,


June 2021


17


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