We recently sent Steve, one of our new developers in Brisbane, to go on a site visit to Storage King Everton Hills. Being one of the largest Storage King facilities, Everton Hills gave Steve a great opportunity to get valuable experience and see first hand how a self storage facility operates.
See below Steve’s report on his experience:
The early morning was spent initially observing how the main office operates. They have a very busy shop and I was glad to be there on a day when they had all their staff onboard. The store is mainly run by one person, Julie the site manager. I also met Dylan and Sarah, who were very charming and energetic with excellent knowledge in the field of self storage and did not mind sharing their knowledge with me.
The main office and box shop
I was observing how they used Storman Software. I was pleased to see that they regard our software very highly and report having a good relationship with the Storman team. During this time I was also able to identify improvements that can be made to Storman to help in the day to day operations. Being a developer, this helps to highlight the importance of many of the projects we are currently working on at Storman.
Being new to self storage, there was a lot to learn for me! One thing that never dawned on me before the site visit day, was how much self storage businesses had to comply with the many aspects of the law while operating their business, for example not being able to remove items from a unit if the customer was overdue on rent.
The main sweeper inside a unit block
I was not one to shirk in helping out with manual work at the facility. This large facility requires upkeep and the maintenance and cleaning is a rather large job. I was out with the sweeper around the site for a few hours, managing to lose a significant amount of calories in the process with most of the sweeping being outside on a hot day. Getting out and doing some exercise while working is something that I am not used to as a developer. It made me realise how Storage King staff are great all-rounders. They consider themselves office workers, retail staff, handy people and also as cleaners in their roles. They have a can-do attitude that is inspiring.
The inside of one of the storage areas
After the site visit, I am returning to Storman Software as a coder with a better understanding of how the self storage business works. This day has also made me feel inspired to improve our software even further, in order to make our customer’s day-to-day work that little bit more pleasant and efficient. I would like to thank Julie and her team for letting me study them for the day! Looking forward to my next visit.
