Are pay stations in the self storage industry good or bad?

Technology is an undying trend that has been playing a huge roll in our everyday lives for many years now. The use of technology has become essential to the way we conduct business and live our lives on a day to day basis and it is only going to become more essential and in-depth as time goes on. With this being said self storage facilities have been utilizing technology in such ways as running our facilities with specialized software, using e-mail and our websites to connect with tenants and to keep in touch with current tenants. Technology is even used as the way we keep our facilities safe with personalized gate access and high resolution security cameras monitoring the facility at all times. In today’s modern world we even make use of advanced pay stations that make it easy for tenants to come to the facility and pay their bill through an automated pay station that looks very similar to an ATM or cash machine that you would see at a bank or in a local convenience store. These pay stations even have the ability to rent a unit through their automated system so your visit to a storage facility to rent a unit can now be done even if there is no associate or manager on site to help you along the way.

With these advanced pay stations becoming more and more popular, let’s talk about some pros these pay stations have to offer.

First off, if you are a person who works late at night or simply can’t get to your local storage facility to pay your bill while an associate or manager is there, these pay stations make it extremely easy for a tenant to make payment at their convenience. All you have to do is walk up to the pay station, follow the prompt and pay your bill via credit or debit card. These pay stations also allow you to drop off cash or check payments in their secure lock box if you do not feel comfortable using your credit or debit card over the machine. Another great factor that the pay station has to offer is that you can rent a storage unit right on the machine with no need to interact with an associate or manager. Simply follow the steps when prompted and get your own personalized storage space literally at the touch of a few buttons. With technology being so advanced now a day these pay stations are doing the job of managers and associates, but is that really the best path to take?

Now let’s weigh out some cons of the pay station or rather benefits of having an associate or manager on site to handle your payment or rental. With an associate or manager on hand to take your inquiry or payment you do in fact get a personalized experience that no machine can meet or beat. Having a machine to rent units is great but what happens when the tenant has questions or is unsure of what size space that they need? The tenant would have to guess what size space they needed to store their items and could potentially waste time and money by picking a space that would be to small or to large for their needs. With a manager or associate on site there would be no question that they would be able to show you the space and suggest a size that would work perfect for you to save you money by not going with a unit that would be to large for your needs. Now when the tenant has a question about the rental agreement or simply is unsure of certain aspects of self storage an associate or manager could happily and easily answer any question the tenant had on the spot. No machine can give you every answer you’re looking for about your particular facility and your personalized rental agreement.  These are just a few cons to mention about an automated pay station but the list could go on and on when you think about it. Human error is a common thing but what happens when there is error in technology? You could be mid transaction while the pay station has a glitch and than what? Human error is easily corrected but technological error can take days to fix depending on the error or problem.

Here at Storage Station we feel there is really no better way to handle inquiries, payments or rentals than with a real life person that the tenant or potential tenant can deal with directly. Although there are many pros of having a pay station we find that the personal touch is way more valuable than having a machine to do a humans job.  Some facilities may save money on payroll by having a pay station but we would rather give someone a job and future over saving money on a pay station any day of the week. Now are pay stations really that useful in the self storage industry? Personalized human interaction or pay station interface? We gave you the facts now you decide.

Brought to you by :

Flood Storage : http://www.storagestations.com/New-Jersey/Wayne-Storage/