The internet has changed the world. This isn’t a big statement, it is just a true one. It has changed the world in many great ways, and just one of those great ways it has changed the world is with the way we find local businesses, or in this case, local self storage facilities.
Before the internet the ways we might have looked for local self storage facilities could have included:
- Through friends and family, asking them if they had used self storage and could recommend a self storage unit.
- Looking up the number of a self storage unit in the Yellow Pages or Local Pages
- Getting a flier or leaflet through our door advertising a local self storage unit
- Asking colleagues for recommendations
- Asking shops with related services if they can recommend a self storage company
- Popping in to local self storage units we may have driven past previously
Although many of these methods are still working today, they do provide a limited amount of information. With so much choice out there, the name of a company is just not enough to necessarily warrant a visit. The internet has provided us with so much information now, we are used to having all the details at our fingertips to compare the services of companies we might want to use.
The benefits of searching for a local self storage facility via the internet are:
- It is quicker
- It is less time consuming overall
- We can find out loads about a company without even contacting them
- Avoiding awkward sales pitches on site (from some facilities!)
- Getting the best value for money
We can find local self storage facilities in many ways:
We Can Check Forums And Message Boards
We can easily find message boards and forums discussing different companies. People may be recommending local services, people may also be saying bad things about local services. The point is, people are talking about local self storage and we can read what they are talking about to get an insight.
We Can Check Social Media For Advertising
Most businesses are now advertising online, because social media outreach is pretty much endless compared to a leaflet in the local area – it makes good business sense to advertise any business on social media. So you can easily search for the company on social media to potentially benefit from open days and even special offers that they have going on. They are also likely to post behind the scenes blogs and pictures so you can get a real insight into the people behind the facility. People are also likely to talk about the companies on social media, like they do on forums and message boards.
We Can Check Websites
Websites provide us with quick and easy information about a company. We can find out about them, who they are and why they do what they do. We can find out what services they offer. We can read testimonials from customers. We can find out how to contact them, and send them an enquiry via email if we don’t have time to talk on the phone.
We Can See Customer Service Exchanges
One of the best ways to tell if a company has their customer services right, is to see how they interact with customers. With the internet, we can see customers complain and see how the company reacts to those complaints. This could be on any site, but you might have to find one where the company are aware of the complaint, like on social media, in order to see a reply from them. This is a good indication of whether or not they are a company you want to have dealings with yourself.
We Can See Where The Company Is
Using online maps and route checkers we can easily see how close a self storage facility is to us. This is really useful as they may come up as local when you search online, but they might be more than 30 minutes away, or they might require you drive a busy network of roads to get to them.