Working with Your Self Storage Clientele

Longueuil storage places in Quebec, Canada face the same problems as other storage places.  One of the problems they face is dealing with the customers who do not want to lose their belongings in a public auction, but can not pay their bill.  This is always a tricky thing for mangers of self-storage places to solve.  Customers will some times lose their jobs or have medical bills or are short on money one month, and can not pay their storage rent.  As a manager of a self-storage place in the United States of America for many years, we have found some ways to make it easier for managers to deal with these types of problems.  As a manager of a self-storage place, this manager always tried to put the accountability on the customer in a very nice way.  “As long as you continue to tell the truth, this manager will always try to help you as best as we can, until we can not go on any longer.  We would rather have you tell us you can not pay for your rent because you are broke, than tell us you will pay on a certain date and never do it.  If you tell the truth, we can help you.”  This made it so much easier for the manager and the customer.  We could give them dates to pay and if they could not do it, we could make another plan up.

This method worked for us many times, in a matter of fact, it worked most of the time for us.  People appreciate honesty, and we always tried to be honest with all our customers.  If twenty dollars on a five hundred dollar bill will not cut it, it will not cut it.  We told them that instead of taking twenty dollars, because they will never catch up, we have found out in our experience anyway, so why loose twenty dollars at a time, and still lose money.  Longueuil storages in Quebec, Canada can also use this method if they want to.  Some managers would take the twenty dollars, but once you take what is called a partial payment in the business lingo, the auction process must start all over by law in the United States of America.  The auction process starts when a customer can not pay his or her bill and does not pay it for over thirty days.  The thirty first days is when the manager can start the process.  If that manager takes a payment of any amount, even a single dollar bill, the process starts all over, as if it was the first day again.  If a manager keeps doing this, only problems happen.

This is why you need verbal commitments from customers when they will pay, at what time and even how much they will pay.  This is done on purpose to tell the customer how vital it is to pay.  The time and amount corners them into that commitment, if they do not do what they say, the manager has every right to start the auction process.  The manager was trying to help the customer not to lose their stuff.  It is the customer’s own fault than for not keeping his or her’s word.  They have no right to get angry with the manager.  The manager tried.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.