Every self - storage facility needs a manager – but you’ll make more money if you choose a great one. But to select a good candidate you must first think through what attributes they would possess. In this Self - Storage University podcast we’re going to explore what characteristics all great managers share.
Episode 139: What All Great Managers Have In Common Transcript
A self-storage facility only has typically one leader, one quarterback, one employee, and that's the manager. And how that manager fares in relation to all the other candidates you could have hired can have a huge impact on your bottom line. This is Frank Rolfe, the Self Storage University podcast. We're going to talk about the common traits that the great managers have and contrast that to some of the traits that the lesser managers possess. So let's start off with the concept of riding the wave. Now, riding the wave is a term that was coined by Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, and is in his book published in the 1970s called Dave's Way.
This was something you could actually buy at the drive-thru window at any Wendy's for one period in time, and I think the book cost one or two dollars. That's where I got my copy, and then I furiously read the book looking for business insights. And the most striking one that I remember was this concept called Riding the Wave. How Dave Thomas explained it was like this: Let's assume we're coming up on lunchtime at the Wendy's and there's no pickles.
What does the good manager do? Well, the good manager already checked the night before if there were any pickles. But let's assume there were pickles and then somebody knocks the pickles over and breaks them. What's the good manager do? The good manager jumps in their car, they run down, they get more pickles, they come back because they need those pickles for the lunch hour and they need to make sure that everyone is at their top form and they know they have to be there in order to get those pickles in those hamburgers and watch over the employees.
But the bad manager, the manager who never ever rides the wave, would not even look to see if they had pickles until the lunch rush had already hit. And then they would jump in their car during the lunch rush and abandon the building when people are asking, "Hey, where are my pickles?" The manager is not there to say anything, so they're gone for the entire lunch hour. They're out there trying to buy some pickles. When they return with the pickles, of course, they miss the entire lunch hour. All the customers are mad, the employees are disappointed, and it's a total mess.
Which manager would you rather have? And of course, the answer is, I want the manager who can ride the wave, someone who can look ahead, someone who's thinking 360 degrees about the business. Is your manager one of those people? If the answer is nope, not really, they don't really have that kind of foresight, they don't take responsibility like that... Well, then that's not going to be a great manager for you. Another issue that separates great managers from poor managers are people skills.
I've never seen a good manager at any facility who did not possess the ability to look customers in the eye, to shake their hand, to make them feel important and good about their decision to rent that unit, and to say, "Wow, I'm going to stay here because I really like the way I'm treated." Does your manager have great people skills or are they lacking in that regard? Because people skills are one thing you can't even really teach. It takes people their entire lifetime to possess those kinds of abilities, that kind of socialization. And if the manager doesn't have it, well, they're probably never going to get it. Another issue with the good managers...
Good managers are not afraid of confrontation because sometimes customers are unhappy, maybe reasonably so. Maybe your roll-up door doesn't work, maybe the gate malfunctions and doesn't open, maybe the security light's broken. But you can't hide from this fact. When a customer goes into the office to talk to the manager, the manager needs to approach them without fear, but instead with a degree of support and say, "Okay, what's the problem? Well, let's get that resolved immediately. Here's what we're going to do." That's how the customer asks, is that sensitive attention? In fact, studies have shown that a customer who had a bad experience has more loyalty if you then make it right than a customer who had no bad experience at all.
It's extremely unfair, isn't it? You can have a business that never has a problem and you'll have lower customer loyalty than a business that had a problem and then fixed it for the customer. But can your manager fix those situations? Or are they afraid of confrontation altogether? When someone comes in the office mad, they hide from them. Also, a good manager always puts the company first. So if you're having problems with occupancy and you decide you need to have a push, you need to be open on a holiday or on a weekend or at night...
The good manager sees this and has no pushback at all. They realize the problem and they know it's their job requirement to get it fixed, and they put the company ahead of what's convenient for them. The bad manager? Not at all. Bad managers, in fact, will leave early, not even be there when they're supposed to be there during their posted hours because they don't care about the business. They only care about themselves. They had a special lunch they wanted to go to and they knew they'd be hiding out for an extra hour, missing all the business back at the place.
But gosh darn it, they really wanted to go to that lunch. Is that what a good manager would do? Never. Good manager would say, "I'm sorry, I would love to have lunch with you, but I can't do it. This is all the time I have for lunch." Bad manager? They would jump all over that opportunity. But the one big aspect in most self-storage facilities that separates the good managers from the bad comes down to one item: The good manager is not all about the money. Self-storage management doesn't pay a whole lot.
It's not a career. It's not something that people at Harvard Business School aspire to. The money's never been there. But there's no worse fit for a self-storage facility than when the manager only wants bucks. That's all they care about. I can always see a manager going bad when they repeatedly ask for raises constantly. And if you give them the raise, they're back wanting another one 60 or 90 days later with the explanation that they got an offer somewhere else, they could work that pays more, or they're seeing all these ads that pay more.
You don't want managers who are only focused on the money. You want people who do their work because they like other attributes of the job... You like the independence, not having a boss staring over them, the simplicity of the business model. But you don't want someone who's in it just for the greenbacks. Because what's going to happen is over time, they're going to hit you up and hit you up for raises, and next thing you know, you're going to be breaking your budget with labor cost. And after all that, how do they reward you? They simply run off because they finally did get that one job that paid more than you did.
No sense of loyalty, no sense of putting the business first. They're just in it for the cash, and it's a terrible situation. The bottom line is, if you agree with these good attributes and your manager doesn't fit them, you need a new manager. Because all too often in the storage business, people stick with the old manager because it's the simple and easy path to follow. But is it the best path for you to follow? And if the answer is no, this might be the year in order to get that manager switched out. There's an old saying, "It's easier to change people than to change people." And that's definitely true. Sometimes injecting a new manager with those better attributes could do a world of good for your property. This is Frank Rolfe, the Self Storage University podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.