00:00:00:03 - 00:00:07:03
AJ
It's like, you know, you want to give a rent and Chris, but you don't even know what to do or even how to think about it. It'll go boom. Here's all of the different things you need to do.
00:00:07:04 - 00:00:21:12
Conner
It's just unreal to think that it's taken years of time and experience and effort to build those things, and in a second it's just like, yeah, boom, here you go. Being able to plug those things in and say, hey, is this a good deal, is it not? What are some of the pitfalls here? What should I be looking out for?
00:00:21:13 - 00:00:24:22
Conner
What are some of the benefits? It's massive, massive value.
00:00:25:02 - 00:00:36:06
AJ
So it's here. It's not going anywhere. The only question is, are you using it or not?
00:00:36:08 - 00:01:00:23
AJ
What's up everybody. And today we are talking about a I, I know seems to be all the talk lately, but we're really wanting to know can you run a storage facility with AI. So what are the things that you can or can't do? What are the things you need to think through? But how can this optimize, make it so you can run more efficiently and have better outcomes with less expense?
00:01:00:23 - 00:01:20:22
Conner
Yeah. I mean, it really makes me think back in the day when the internet was just coming out, everybody was just using Yellow Pages. Yep. We've even seen that in storage facilities even today. Right. People don't have the websites. They're still on the Yellow Pages. They're. They're not leveraging the technologies that exist today to stay competitive, to drive their facilities, to earn more revenue.
00:01:21:00 - 00:01:42:03
Conner
And they themselves, to improve their facilities or operations. Those early adopters of the technology are going to win every time. So that's what we wanted to talk about today. Like, how can we help you guys understand how to integrate this technology potentially in your operations and storage as a whole? Because if we don't start adopting the technology and utilizing it, we're going to be the dinosaurs, right?
00:01:42:03 - 00:01:44:07
Conner
We go extinct. And that's not where we want to be.
00:01:44:10 - 00:02:04:07
AJ
Absolutely. There's, a lot of functionality and there's a lot of buzz around AI. So we want to make sure that we hit on this, but don't overdo it. So one of the things I don't want is it just to be totally overwhelming right now. I think that to start the conversation, AI is simply just a tool.
00:02:04:08 - 00:02:27:07
AJ
It's not an end all be all. So it's how you insert it, how you utilize it. But like any tool, it's a leverage point that, like you said, we need to be integrating it because your competition is and, it will actually change the way you operate, the speed at which you move, which will result in new customers, which will result in better rental rates, revenue on and on and on and on.
00:02:27:13 - 00:02:57:16
AJ
So if we're breaking this down, we kind of have, a breakdown here. I have how were utilizing AI, which we'll get into. But I also said, let's take a look at what I think. So we literally just asked it, how could we do it. So we're going to do a mix here of ideas, suggestions that it is producing for us mixed with how we're using it and what we're doing, and some of the more high end applications and what that means for the industry and how much it's going to change.
00:02:57:18 - 00:03:10:00
AJ
Because it will, and it's going to change big. In fact, we were at the Innovation Summit and my presentation, I rolled out, our AI systems and some of the things we're doing with it. And it's very, very cool.
00:03:10:00 - 00:03:12:01
Conner
So this was the ten and Inc innovations. Yes.
00:03:12:06 - 00:03:12:16
AJ
That's right.
00:03:12:16 - 00:03:13:15
Conner
Just down in Newport.
00:03:13:15 - 00:03:15:02
AJ
Down in Newport last week.
00:03:15:02 - 00:03:15:09
Conner
It was.
00:03:15:09 - 00:03:16:00
AJ
Yeah last.
00:03:16:00 - 00:03:16:07
Conner
Week.
00:03:16:12 - 00:03:40:15
AJ
It's really really good. You know we talk a lot at the innovation summit about new technologies that are getting brought in application, what's working, what's not. And it gives owners and operators a really good look into, all of these changes, because like you mentioned, facilities that didn't move online as quick as other ones, they felt it and they got left behind.
00:03:40:17 - 00:04:03:05
AJ
And a lot of them had a hard time catching up, little things. But they had a huge, huge impact on the way we did business. And those that won or didn't win in this game. So when we're thinking about, I really what we want to look at is the overall operations. Now, a lot of these operations within your storage facility are processing operations.
00:04:03:07 - 00:04:29:06
AJ
Now, some of these things can be taken care of with simply having a good system. Like if I have a good property management system that is hooked into my marketing system, that my facility has keyless technology, gate systems, and we can incorporate all of that. Right? Which that's really the goal if you're talking about automation, which we do, and that's a big, big deal that, you know, those systems need to work together.
00:04:29:07 - 00:04:54:05
AJ
They need to be, you know, you need to have a tech stack that they're all incorporated. So it's seamless. That is to define the customer's experience. I go online, I search storage near me, I click on it, I rent it, I move in. It's all seamless without needing to have another person involved in that customer experience. It's not that they can't if they don't need to, but the option.
00:04:54:05 - 00:05:26:09
AJ
Right? So that's when we talk about like that automation portion. A lot of the functionalities that you can even do with AI will depend on how you are set up. It's going to depend what kind of hard technology you have in the asset right. The physical part of it. And then what software you're using. So everything that we're going to talk about mentioned is going to be an add on or needs to be taken into consideration of what your asset has in what you're currently doing.
00:05:26:09 - 00:05:48:13
AJ
Now, once again, it doesn't mean it all works for every application. That's my disclaimer. With that, we'll hit on a few things operations, marketing, revenue, customers, finance and then it will end with legal. So those are our four topics that we're going to have. Why don't we jump into and do you want to take the first one or do you want me to.
00:05:48:18 - 00:06:11:22
Conner
Yeah the operations management. So we're looking at the list here that we were asking I like, hey, if I was going to use you to run a storage facility, like, what would what would you do? And this is what it would look like. Operations management, it talks about automating processes, which means I could potentially help set up workflows for lease agreements, customer onboarding and maintenance schedules, customer service templates.
00:06:11:22 - 00:06:18:18
Conner
It could provide emails, chat bots, phone scripts, templates, for common customer inquiries. Those which.
00:06:18:18 - 00:06:35:07
AJ
We use. Yeah he is the templates are great. Before you send emails out to customers. Right. Automate the email. Say I want you to send an email out. It can actually construct the email to get the tone, the voice, make sure it's done correctly. That can go out to all tenants. So those are that's a great application that.
00:06:35:07 - 00:07:03:19
Conner
We absolutely want. And you look at those things from even just the communication standpoint directly with the consumer or even responding to certain things like reviews, like instead of having to jump in and respond to every single review, can you set up automations to, you know, utilizing AI, whether it's just drafting a response that's templated or using another system to, essentially be able to have auto responders going out to those reviews as they're coming in, that really helps with rankings, all kinds of stuff.
00:07:03:20 - 00:07:05:09
AJ
Asking for reviews. Yeah.
00:07:05:10 - 00:07:26:08
Conner
Like huge. Yeah. Like it's it's such a huge deal, especially when you're going more remote, with your operations and really trying to streamline operations in general, the more that you can just automate and, you know, jump in and manage and update and change here and there. You might seasonally want to change, whether it's your offerings or it's the verbiage that you're using.
00:07:26:14 - 00:07:47:04
Conner
Whatever it might be. Just you want to update your copy. There's things that you can do there. But all said and done, like having those things set up in a way that's just totally automated is is incredible. But I've obviously has to be managed, security and access controls. Another piece of it talked about it can research the best security practices and help implement digital locks, surveillance and access control systems.
00:07:47:06 - 00:08:13:15
Conner
That's another big one going into like automation and getting data and those different things. We utilize Genesis Noki system a lot that, ties into all of our systems, which allows us to look at gate access and to change access and to be able to automate processes that have to do with allowing certain tenants certain accesses or eliminating access automatically if certain triggers happen, like a delinquency, you know, somebody hasn't paid their bill automatically locked out, done.
00:08:13:15 - 00:08:30:19
Conner
Like, yes, nobody has to go in to overlock something at the facility just automatically happens. That's incredible stuff there. And again, as you're building this stuff out, do you have an automated message that goes out to your tenant that says, hey, you've been over locked because you're late on your bill, your credit card expired and you haven't paid yet.
00:08:30:21 - 00:08:48:11
Conner
Those are fantastic things. Then it said facility optimization. Analyze occupancy trends and suggest ways to maximize revenue per square foot. Which I really freaking love this one. Because this. I mean, how in the world did you guys used to do this back before? Oh, any.
00:08:48:11 - 00:08:52:17
AJ
Of this manually? And it was so much work.
00:08:52:17 - 00:09:13:18
Conner
I mean, you're talking a full time job. Yes. Going through and analyzing markets, market rates. And then, then obviously if you're just starting out, you don't have data a lot of times to work to reverse engineer from because you're talking again, you've got the street rate, then you've got the in place rate. It's not like you just have the data to look at the in place rates and think that, oh, I can get rates here, here or here.
00:09:13:19 - 00:09:37:20
AJ
Looking at that market analysis to you can actually ask it for suggestions within that individual market. So people you can ask for trends and what's going on. So how can you actually reach out and create a hook for those very specific markets. So it can do so much research for you and say this is what we're seeing. This is what can work and this is how you should define it.
00:09:38:02 - 00:09:44:04
AJ
Right. And how to implement it, ways that you wouldn't you don't even obviously you can know.
00:09:44:07 - 00:09:56:16
Conner
That information does exist, whether it's on whether it's demographic data, whether it's market data specific to self storage, whether you're trying to figure out what the in place rate needs to be change to or what the increase needs to be.
00:09:56:16 - 00:10:01:04
AJ
What that market wants. Do they do they want, you know, does this market want RV?
00:10:01:04 - 00:10:01:14
Conner
Yeah.
00:10:01:14 - 00:10:07:21
AJ
Do they want a closed RV right. Do they need light industrial. Like what is it. What is that market needing. And do you have it.
00:10:07:22 - 00:10:39:04
Conner
Yeah. And one of the most amazing things that that I've seen in that hand, how we've utilized AI a little bit in here is literally taking all of this data from the market, from our facilities specifically, and putting it in and saying, hey, we've got these units at this occupancy, literally, like dragging and dropping reports into it and saying, hey, look at all of this and suggest how you would manage this rate for this unit or this occupancy issue we're having here or whatever it is, see what it kicks out?
00:10:39:04 - 00:11:52:00
Conner
And there's been a number of times where it kicks out some really incredible stuff that we end up actually implementing.
00:11:52:02 - 00:12:11:14
AJ
This kind of leads us into the next. And that's the marketing lead generation. So when we look at marketing overall, how do you define your facility? And we look at this in two parts. First of all, you have the customers, but then you have your individual. So you have you have the market of customers meaning I'm talking the people, demographics, everything.
00:12:11:14 - 00:12:35:23
AJ
But then you have the market of storage. Okay. So then the market of storage is what units are in that market. Different units are different products. So we have customers and products and matching those up. I see I helping a lot of people with this. What are the gaps in the market? I'm always shocked when people don't realize that some of the size of units that they have, they have like a monopoly on like that.
00:12:36:03 - 00:12:54:15
AJ
Somebody may have a ten by 20 that's climate controlled, and they are the only location that has those types of units. So then when are you paying the right rate? Well, we're always full. We have more people. You're the only ones. So you can increase that rate massively. Whereas you may have other units that the whole market has and they don't want.
00:12:54:15 - 00:13:14:18
AJ
You're like, well how can I attract more people for this unit? So when you're out marketing, first of all, who are your customers, what products you have? How can you match that? A lot of that research can go into it. Then that can define how you generate your overall content. And I mean, I'm talking website SEO, write blog posts so you can find those gaps.
00:13:14:20 - 00:13:36:07
AJ
Then when you find them say, can you make an email marketing campaign? Can you make a blog post about this gap in the market? Literally write a blog post saying, did you know that in Maryland, Indiana that they do not have ten by 20 that are climate control? And this has been a large, you know, gap in the market, and there's all these problems associated with that.
00:13:36:07 - 00:13:55:11
AJ
Everyone but one person in this market, which is the storage facility, which happens to be yours. So you're talking about your marketing because you're talking about this gap in the market. And it's interesting and it's a blog post, then it leads people to you. So you can literally just say, great, this is an awesome concept. Write me a blog post about this, write me some email.
00:13:55:14 - 00:14:22:01
AJ
Then we want to generate website content that has keywords that are specific to that local demographic. That's the key. SEO content is better when it's very specialized and specific, because then Google can relate it way more and rank it better. Everything down to like the streets and the different businesses that are there and really building out to where it's not generic and broad based like your competitors.
00:14:22:07 - 00:14:43:00
AJ
And that can help you out a lot. I can do that for you. The next is your actual ad campaigns. So we copy is a big thing. So copy is the written word right. In campaigns and ads, when we look at writing copy emails, Google ads and then targeting once again the right audience, this is a great strategy to do that.
00:14:43:00 - 00:15:05:13
AJ
Your social media in that area, what descriptions? What should I post about in this area that generates like lots of clicks? You're talking about this micro marketing strategy that can be done quickly by AD, that can do it. So you're not having to think up all of the stuff. And I mean just fast, really, really fast and you just need to post it or you can link it and have it do that, actually do the publishing for you.
00:15:05:15 - 00:15:07:17
AJ
Amazing way to go about this one.
00:15:07:17 - 00:15:29:00
Conner
Something that you just said I wanted to touch on is the the right like marketing to the right customer? Because I think so often people get this idea of like, I just need to fill up, like, let's just get everybody that we possibly can. We'll get in, get them in, will this up and not really figure out that, hey, I want to attract this specific tenant for this specific reason.
00:15:29:02 - 00:15:48:09
Conner
And that's one of our strategies that we utilize is we want to attract a very specific type of tenant to the facilities that we own and operate. We don't want to attract the the problem tenants, the issues, the, the, the things that come along with that we want to attract the less price sensitive individuals. We want to target businesses.
00:15:48:09 - 00:16:07:21
Conner
We want to target, individuals in more affluent areas, in those different things, like there's there's a number of data points that we look into to target that specific customer. So when you're creating that ad copy or you're you're trying to lease up really identify who that is. Like who are you really talking to in that copy? What kind of tenant is your ideal?
00:16:07:21 - 00:16:12:11
Conner
Or you're like, you're talking to your book, your dream tenant. Like, what is that to you? I don't know, absolutely.
00:16:12:14 - 00:16:36:07
AJ
That's a big, big deal. The more specific you can be, you don't want all the customers. You have a market that may have, you know, 10,000 people in it and you want literally 50, like you don't want all those people. So I'm actually going to do the next one here. Then I'll take pricing and revenue management. If you want to take the number four and five, because I want to talk about here a little.
00:16:36:07 - 00:17:03:08
AJ
One of the things that we've done is Sam in the office, what occurs kind of become are like Azar. So what he's actually doing is every department he's going in and figuring out how we can improve with AI and applicant and different applications he's building out. So for our accounting, he built out reconciling the accounting from our property management software system and the accounting software system.
00:17:03:09 - 00:17:33:12
AJ
Instead of opting to do it manually with accountants, bookkeeping, everything else, he built a program using AI that will completely do it automatically. Now that is literally for us, a full time job, like a full time person, which we just eliminated because they are, reconciling those numbers and books. I mean, that's a big deal. That's that is a full time position that we're going the amount of hours of going through and balancing those and making sure they line up and work.
00:17:33:15 - 00:17:53:03
AJ
It's massive. That's a lot, a lot of work. And he made it. So he's like, what else can we do? Wait, what are other areas that we can say, hey, how do we get monotonous, busy work that we all have to do? Because that frees up our time to do more. So, we one of the other thing is, let's say you have a problem.
00:17:53:03 - 00:18:15:13
AJ
You want to create a loyalty program, right? Design, effective, referral programs to retain customers. You can ask it to help generate. So it's more than just doing the thing. It is that creative portion to give you ideas and suggestions that you can say what will work in my local market? Then social media, content like scripting or whatever to put that on.
00:18:15:13 - 00:18:39:23
AJ
Now, pricing and revenue management, this is something that we're doing, we're big on. I actually gave a presentation at the summit that we were in, and I rolled out our AI. That is a dynamic AI that actually helps you understand what to do in different situations. So we look at how do we do our revenue management optimize outside of just market competition?
00:18:40:01 - 00:18:51:08
AJ
Well, as we were doing this, we utilized a need to look at programs that could analyze our individual rates, our numbers, what our goals are. And it's a very huge.
00:18:51:13 - 00:18:52:02
Conner
Beautiful.
00:18:52:02 - 00:19:09:00
AJ
Beautiful equation. We it took us like three days to do three facilities with four people when we were doing it manually, but the one thing we added in was a lot of people we looked at you go, you have all these tools, but a lot of people don't know what to ask, right? You get in, you're like, great, but what do I even do?
00:19:09:06 - 00:19:33:12
AJ
So what we did is we created an AI which is only has the inputs. It's not general inputs. The only inputs are are date data and information that includes the books. That includes different things that we specifically designed. So you could literally ask it and you can say, how do I raise rents by not and not drop off occupancy too much?
00:19:33:14 - 00:19:48:05
AJ
And it will go boom. Here's what you need to do. How do I raise rents in this or this market? How do I increase or what what what rental rate increase should I even give? So like you, you know, you want to give a rent increase, but you don't even know what to do or even how to think about it.
00:19:48:07 - 00:20:05:10
AJ
It'll go boom. Here's all of the different things you need to do. And so it's working. Yeah, it pulls up, but it says, here's everything you need to look at to determine what you should be giving a rental rate increase for now, the software itself as we're done. And by the way, you guys, if you're signed into our newsletter, we'll put the link in here.
00:20:05:10 - 00:20:23:09
AJ
But go to the newsletter. We're sharing the stuff because once we brought the software to the public, which is our software, we use it internally. We built out I've spent an entire year and but I think a half $1 million into this thing, and it was what we needed for our company, but it will actually do it for you.
00:20:23:11 - 00:20:46:02
AJ
It's amazing. It's it's shocking, but it also is embedded with that AI that can instruct and teach you along the way. So make sure you guys sign up. You can see what we're doing more and you'll see when that comes out. But I we call our data and our data analytics the brain. And so it's able to be a functional thing not just you have to know or else you can't do it right.
00:20:46:02 - 00:20:57:13
AJ
And here's a tool. And that only depends on market. This can go to all markets regardless if there's competition in that market that you're pulling rates or not, which is like 80% of the markets in the United States.
00:20:57:16 - 00:21:06:16
Conner
That's incredible because I hear that all the time. And I was actually just before the podcast, somebody was talking about that where they're like, man, you know, I sometimes I want to use AI, but I just don't even know what to ask.
00:21:06:17 - 00:21:27:05
AJ
Yeah. Like I literally don't even know. It's like it's a great point. And so then you could ask and have tools to help you do that thing. Really cool. So it'll analyze all your data and automatically say, here's what you're missing, here's the suggestions, here's how to do it. So you don't even need to punch in anything. It literally looks at it and pulls up the health of everything and tells you, here's all the suggestions.
00:21:27:11 - 00:21:39:02
AJ
And then you can you can hit like literally a button and say, do it. And it works with your system and it'll automatically then go through and push out those improvements. Or you can change it.
00:21:39:02 - 00:21:42:08
Conner
Do it. Really? That's amazing. I'm just going to type it in. And what would AJ do.
00:21:42:13 - 00:21:48:03
AJ
Yes. And you can do that and it'll give you an answer too. So it's essentially my brain. Yeah. Here's my.
00:21:48:03 - 00:21:49:05
Conner
Problem. How it.
00:21:49:05 - 00:21:51:19
AJ
Ages, what age you solve.
00:21:51:21 - 00:21:59:02
Conner
Next up we got customer experience retention. Or did you have anything else you want to cover on revenue management? I mean, that was. It's a big one.
00:21:59:02 - 00:22:12:04
AJ
It's a big one. It really is. The only thing I think is research rates and nearby facilities. So that's a great one to plug in and just say, hey, could you see what you can find out in the market to give you some more stuff in the background?
00:22:12:04 - 00:22:19:22
Conner
But yeah. Yeah. No, that makes total sense, I like it. So it had mentioned those ancillary revenue streams too, which I think is I think it's.
00:22:19:22 - 00:22:21:00
AJ
Oh, that's a good one to hit on.
00:22:21:03 - 00:22:37:12
Conner
I think it's important because there's a few things that I think are changing in the industry. You know, there used to be a huge focus on merchandise and selling merchandise and having that. And, you know, as we've looked at it, we're looking at it like, well, really, how valuable is it? We're looking at eliminating it potentially in the future here.
00:22:37:14 - 00:23:05:01
Conner
Because you look at all of the soft costs that goes into managing inventories, ordering supplies, doing all of that, and then, you know, the minuscule amount that you get, you know, could we reallocate all that time and effort resource to something that's, you know, produces more revenue? Probably. So we're looking at those things which again, like a cost benefit analysis, I think it'd be great to throw into AI and say, hey, here's here's my merchandise, here's all the time and effort energy it takes me to do it.
00:23:05:06 - 00:23:14:03
Conner
Here's how much we're making off it every year. Here's all of our other operations. Like what can we do outside of merchandise that would make the same or more revenue?
00:23:14:03 - 00:23:32:05
AJ
And that kind of goes into like number five, like this financial and business strategy. Because one of the things we could do, like with that company were buying, like, remember when we sat down and we're like, hey, let's take a look at this. Yeah. So what we did in and I took I actually take the financials, we downloaded, put them in and I say this is what I'm looking for.
00:23:32:05 - 00:23:48:05
AJ
Tell me what you can find out about this. And it'll go through all the financials everything else. And it'll show me okay here's trends. And then I'll just tell them plot out a trend here and show me in the past three years moving forward, what are the things that could derail it? Right. And it just gives you a financial analysis and looks at it.
00:23:48:05 - 00:24:06:04
AJ
So all I do is take the financials, your spreadsheet off your the CRM, whatever that may be, and I stick it into it. And then I just ask you questions about the business and it can plot out and show me things, build out, all sorts of graphs, visuals that I can understand, that I can give to others.
00:24:06:10 - 00:24:23:19
AJ
You can do this if you want to go out and get investors, it can build it out for you. Literally say, go take off everything that's in here, all the financials, everything. Build out a value presentation to investors about how we're going to maximize the value. And this and explains. So this is what we want to do. Oh right.
00:24:23:19 - 00:24:26:10
AJ
And then use these numbers and it'll build it all out.
00:24:26:11 - 00:24:44:07
Conner
It's truly incredible I mean it does it in just a minute. You know it's amazing to just every time how accurate it is because obviously shocking. You know we go through things we check work and we we have a really good idea of where things are going to be. Just given our experience and the insights and the data that we have, it's just unreal.
00:24:44:10 - 00:24:53:04
Conner
It's like to think that it's taken years of time and experience and effort to to build those things. And in a second it's just like, yeah, boom, here you go.
00:24:53:07 - 00:25:05:20
AJ
Like and that's another great thing too, is like, you know, I think a lot of times we think that it's going to give us something even off the internet or whatever, you can put in your own data. And so you can put it in, say only use what was provided.
00:25:05:21 - 00:25:06:07
Conner
Yeah.
00:25:06:10 - 00:25:24:00
AJ
So then, you know, it's not taking anything out. It's not doing. It's just whatever it was then, then the I it's not doing a search right. It's not a search engine. Anything else. All it is is processing and it's processing what you have given it. And and you can ask it, say find things that I'm what am I missing?
00:25:24:02 - 00:25:29:12
AJ
Right. Find things that may be, trouble that you can't even see. And it'll do it really cool.
00:25:29:14 - 00:26:30:22
Conner
Yeah. No. Exactly. I'm going to grab a couple things from that pricing and revenue management and put them in that financial business strategy, because those are definitely very similar.
00:26:31:00 - 00:26:58:06
Conner
Next up, we've got the customer experience and retention piece that we were talking about. And it talks in here the onboarding and communication. So creating welcoming emails. Creating the frequently asked questions pages, automated follow ups, follow ups are absolutely freaking huge, man. And I tell you, like if we weren't following up on leads, whether that's by a person or by automated messages, we probably we'd probably see a drop in like 50% of our close ratio.
00:26:58:07 - 00:27:19:02
Conner
I mean, we would literally hardly close anybody. Yep. And that's due to a couple of things, because we're we're moving more and more towards this self-service concept and wanting tenants to really move in online, like I was talking about earlier, where we don't have somebody coming into the office expecting that service, you know, face to face. We really want just people to go online and move in and that's it.
00:27:19:03 - 00:27:40:07
Conner
Like we don't that's our dream tenant, right? Yeah. So if you're doing those things, it's really, really important to have those systems in place. And it's really important to have whether it's automated or you have a person doing it, having that lead follow up is really, really important. Having the follow up with just consumer, your your consumers and your tenants in general is really important, whether they've just moved in or just moved out.
00:27:40:09 - 00:28:02:13
Conner
We've talked about this on previous podcasts where the customer experience and that customer service that they're receiving is one of those low hanging fruit that can really set you and your operation in your facility apart from other facilities. It doesn't cost a ton of extra money to literally call someone and say, hey, just wanted to welcome you to the facility, wanted to make sure you got everything you needed.
00:28:02:16 - 00:28:27:15
Conner
How is your unit? This, this and that. And I mean hardly anybody is doing that, right? So little things like that really can go a long way to increase again, that customer experience and retention. Absolutely huge. They talked about churn prevention. So identifying patterns in customer cancellations and suggest retention tactics. That's a huge one too because on average we're seeing, you know, 810% churn every month.
00:28:27:15 - 00:28:45:14
Conner
So like we've had a really account for replacing that every month. Right. So what does that cost. How do we prevent that? What are some of the common denominators and the correlations between those people moving out and the reasons why? And can we address those things? Is it a pricing thing? Is it a unit thing? Is it a seasonality thing?
00:28:45:16 - 00:29:07:08
Conner
And how can we plan for that? And those are all questions that you can ask the AI and say, hey, yeah, okay, here's the problem. What are some ways that I can solve that? The other thing is, review and reputation management, which is funny. We actually talked about that a little bit earlier. Automated review requests and responding to negative, feedback professionally.
00:29:07:10 - 00:29:12:06
Conner
That's a really good one. Don't get caught up in the negative reviews. Yes, you'll definitely get them.
00:29:12:10 - 00:29:27:11
AJ
The only way you can do to avoid them is to get good reviews. Yes. Sorry. Yeah. Barry, you get a bad review. You can't do anything about it except bury them with good reviews. So you need to be on offense. Not defense.
00:29:27:13 - 00:29:28:04
Conner
Exactly.
00:29:28:04 - 00:29:36:14
AJ
Right. And this can help you. So how do I get more people to write reviews? Draft me an email to send out to customers asking for good reviews.
00:29:36:18 - 00:29:55:18
Conner
Right. Exactly. What's the best copy that I could put in my my email here that would get me the most responses, right? Like, well, on average, what are the most common things people are responding to in emails? Okay, tie that into this email that I want to get, you know, reviews on. I mean, it's just you can reverse engineer all of the stuff.
00:29:55:20 - 00:30:12:07
Conner
And to I mean, it makes me think of that, that strategy of, of the inverted thinking that Charlie Munger and them talked about where it was like, if I want to do the worst thing possible, what would I do? Yeah. What would I do? And avoid that. Do the opposite of that. Yep. Right. So, really, really helpful there.
00:30:12:07 - 00:30:32:08
Conner
Next up is the financial and business strategy. Tying in insurance and premium storage options to this. They talked about this in the pricing and revenue management section, that we covered earlier. But the insurance and premium storage options are really a huge piece of the financial and business strategy for us where we do sell, a protection plan.
00:30:32:08 - 00:31:00:19
Conner
We don't sell insurance, we sell protection plans. And then we, we're actually starting to require them, which is huge for us. And then, the minimum, or the premium storage options. That's another thing that's really important to make sure through your unit mix, through, the functionalities that you have built in your property management software, are you going to allow everyone 24 seven access or just businesses, and are they charged a premium for that, are they not?
00:31:00:21 - 00:31:16:00
Conner
Do you have units that have automation and some that don't, or are you charging a premium for the ones that have automation or don't, really, really important things to take into account there outside of just, the unit sizes, right? What are truly all of the amenities of that that unit.
00:31:16:02 - 00:31:17:05
AJ
And are they priced correctly?
00:31:17:06 - 00:31:43:18
Conner
Exactly. Right. So there's that, and it talks about cash flow and expense tracking. So, talks about helping to structure financial reports and monitor expenses. This is a big one to I mean, if you're really out there and you're starting out, you're a one man show. Yeah. You don't have an accountant on your team. You don't have, CFO, you don't have all these resources like, hey, here's again, here's all my data, here's my pal from QuickBooks or whatever it is that you're using.
00:31:43:18 - 00:32:09:22
Conner
Right. Like, what are some reports that I should be looking at every week, every month that really mean the most? What are the really the metrics that matter every day to this business that I should be looking at? And really building out those financial reports for you because you could be looking at all the occupancy in the world, but not be not paying attention to your revenue like you could have 80 or 9000% occupancy, but your revenue sucks, like so.
00:32:10:00 - 00:32:46:00
Conner
A lot of things to really take into account there. When you're really looking at metrics you want to make sure you're looking at ones that matter and then, talk to you about your invest investment analysis as well. So it assists in evaluating new facility purchases or expansions, which is huge because that's, that's a huge play for us, especially on the expansion side of things, where if we can get into a facility and have a cash flowing asset, while at the same time having that potential to expand, it's like we're getting the business acquisition, the real estate acquisition and the development acquisition all in one in a development just creates massive, massive equity.
00:32:46:02 - 00:33:08:03
Conner
It's just an amazing tool. But if you can get cash flow while you have a development and cover that carrying cost and actually make money, you don't have to sit there and flow to development for three years before getting that thing out of the ground and cash flowing. It's massive, massive value. So being able to plug those things in and say, hey, is this a good deal, is it not?
00:33:08:05 - 00:33:27:15
Conner
What are some of the, you know, pitfalls here? What should I be looking out for? What are some of the benefits? And to your point, how do I how do I have a discussion with an investor to talk about these opportunities in front of us with a specific asset? So really, really important things there. And then it also talks about the automation and software selection.
00:33:27:15 - 00:33:56:07
Conner
So recommended management software for lease tracking payments, customer management which that's amazing. I mean you talked about the tech stack. Like what are you using. So being able to go into the AI system and say hey, like here's my business. What are the most what's what would be the most ideal tech stack for me to do all the functions of the business and literally have a one stop shop for everything, or to have the least amount of software systems I have to plug in together, because that can be a nightmare.
00:33:56:08 - 00:33:59:17
Conner
And so trying to figure out the best and most streamline you can do those.
00:33:59:17 - 00:34:22:04
AJ
You can overdo technology. So there is a lot of diminishing return when it comes to your tech stack. Like it you you're throwing it on and it actually makes complexities which makes you miss things. Right? So it's just technology is a buzzword. That doesn't mean it makes it better. Right? So you have to be very direct and purposeful with it that you're not overdoing it.
00:34:22:04 - 00:34:42:09
AJ
And it's actually too much. Now. And so for example, AI is integrated into our tech stack and we utilize it, but it's meant to optimize everything we're doing, as in it's meant to condense, shorten and make it so we're not over piling too much.
00:34:42:10 - 00:34:57:12
Conner
No that's a great caveat. There's definitely a dichotomy there. You can get carried away. Too much of anything is not a good thing right. So really really important. Looks like we've got last on the list which is a big one. Legal and compliance. Disclaimer this is not legal advice.
00:34:57:12 - 00:34:57:19
AJ
Yes.
00:34:57:19 - 00:34:58:00
Conner
Right.
00:34:58:02 - 00:35:04:16
AJ
An attorney is not legal advice to everybody. We're not saying go to ChatGPT and have them file a lawsuit or something like you.
00:35:04:18 - 00:35:06:18
Conner
Yeah. Don't. Exactly, exactly.
00:35:07:00 - 00:35:28:23
AJ
Really I mean, you're talking about providing templates like you can look at lease agreements, evictions, auctions and understanding state and local regulations. But I would say anything that you do on that front should then be provided to an attorney before you ever did anything. So I think it can help you save cost, because time is money literally when it comes to attorneys.
00:35:29:00 - 00:35:46:20
AJ
So you can have it provide you all that stuff and then you could give that to an attorney and say, could you look over this and see what needs to be added, what I'm missing, and finalize it for me and get a stamp of approval after they finalize those documents? But it can also help you understand just the local regulations.
00:35:46:20 - 00:36:10:09
AJ
Right? And that's everything from zoning laws, fire codes, insurance requirements. So that can help you understand things that you need to understand. But you may not know how to find. But lean sells abandonment of units, right? That is not an attorney. It can help you out a lot, can save a lot of money, condense your amount of time you need to spend on it, and know where to go to find things.
00:36:10:11 - 00:36:30:07
AJ
But you need to review it. That's the thing with once again when we talk about. Yeah. So, theoretically, I think I could take a small facility and you could, that has all the tech, everything in it, and you can get AI to help and really condense and and do better with all of it. But it is a tool like everything else.
00:36:30:09 - 00:36:56:09
AJ
Now for most, it is a vastly underused tool that can give you more time. It's way better. So you're actually getting better outcomes and it can save you money from work. I mean, this is can literally full time positions right. Talking about. So it should not be underestimated. This can Revolut mechanize the way you're doing business understanding finding opportunities or seeing downsides.
00:36:56:11 - 00:37:22:23
AJ
But at the same time it's you got to remember obviously it has limitations okay. And not everything that comes out of it is approved like legal document work. Make sure things are checked. That's the caveat. But there will be no part of your tech stack that you have that does not involve AI in the future, meaning you may not integrate it, but the company that you are using does.
00:37:23:01 - 00:37:49:16
AJ
They are literally using their their software system. Whatever it is, is utilizing AI to do the functionality of whatever you're getting. So we will all be using AI that it will it'll be operating payment processing. Right. Everything else because it already is like I'd say, probably 50% of tech stack that we're using today is using AI already. And that's in like no time at all.
00:37:49:18 - 00:37:53:07
AJ
It just wait until these applications are built out. I mean, next year, do you.
00:37:53:07 - 00:37:55:09
Conner
Imagine in the next five.
00:37:55:09 - 00:38:16:22
AJ
Years, next five years what it will be? I mean, I mean, it's wild. The next year, I guarantee you all of your tech products will be utilized in, utilizing AI, even if you may not know it in some way. That's everything from literally writing code. So it's here. It's not going anywhere. The only question is, are you using it or not?
00:38:16:22 - 00:38:35:17
AJ
Don't be like the people. That said, the internet's a fad or I'm not going to use it. And then they fell so far behind they could never catch up. They're trying to adapt. And other people came in and the market consolidated really around the internet. It it did. So storage, the tools implications operators performance started skyrocketing compared to others.
00:38:35:17 - 00:38:56:03
AJ
And they were able to make huge amounts of profit by other things up. That's what we did. Right? And that was the name of the game I will be very, very similar to that in the coming years. So it's something that you have to understand. It is, for us, a daily part of operations today, daily we utilize it.
00:38:56:03 - 00:39:15:18
AJ
People in our office are all utilizing it. We have it built into things. It's building out entire, strategies and how we are doing everything from revenue management. So it's adopted. And that's how I think a lot of companies already are, are similar to mine, where we're adopting it. It's it's it is adopted already.
00:39:15:20 - 00:39:39:06
Conner
Yep. No. And like you said, I mean, just the amount of time that it takes to do a lot of this stuff manually is, it takes a ton of time. And if you can save that time for yourself and your team and allow them to and allow yourself to focus on higher level tasks that are revenue generating, like, hey, yeah, ChatGPT review these contracts, let me know what I can do to do X, Y, and Z.
00:39:39:06 - 00:39:43:11
Conner
Perfect. Kick something out. Like, yeah, I mean in seconds, seconds.
00:39:43:13 - 00:39:58:12
AJ
It's not like we're letting people go. Yeah, we're not doing what we're doing though, is we don't have to maybe hire as much as fast. And everybody that we have now can lift up. We can all do more. Yeah. And that's what you want, especially when you're a small company growing because you may not even have the ability to hire.
00:39:58:12 - 00:40:04:00
AJ
Right. And now you can still get those same things. In fact, a lot of those things will be better than if you hired.
00:40:04:01 - 00:40:08:15
Conner
Oh, exactly. And if you could take a lot of these people, the incredible people that you have on your team and.
00:40:08:15 - 00:40:09:01
AJ
Make them do.
00:40:09:01 - 00:40:11:00
Conner
More and make them do more and do better.
00:40:11:00 - 00:40:24:10
AJ
Which they like, because most of this stuff is processing busywork, admin, mining. Nummy. Yeah. Busywork. Yeah. It's I have to create the thing so I can execute. Now it's I can just execute so they can do more and more and more. Which makes you more money.
00:40:24:11 - 00:40:26:14
Conner
Yes. Yeah. Couldn't agree more man.
00:40:26:14 - 00:40:50:01
AJ
Awesome. Well everybody check out the, newsletter so you can see more of the products technology we're developing that also covers everything guys that that we see in the market, what's going on. And that's economics entrepreneurship as well as storage. So we've got tons of research in there. Fascinating. We have it's well over 60,000 people that read our newsletter.
00:40:50:03 - 00:40:52:18
AJ
And we haven't really been pushing it. So yeah. Check it out, everybody.
00:40:52:20 - 00:40:54:00
Conner
Awesome. Thanks, everybody.
