News and Self Storage Information from the Centreforce Technology Group

In This April Issue

Discounts - It's All In The Timing

SiteLink User Conference

ISS World Expo

AccessEzy In The USA

Google AdWords Workshop

AccessEzy On Your iPhone

Kevin Reilly

Discounts - It's All In The Timing

Our recent article about discounts certainly got a few people talking on the SSAA LinkedIn Chat page.

Paul Darden, respected ower of a large Self Storage Group in the US and the maker of District Manager, a software package that integrates with SiteLink Web Edition, analysed over 500,000 discounts and came up with some great insight to customer behaviour and the value of those discounts.

No one ever has completed as much research into Discounting as Paul has.

We are giving away more than we need to, many don't even know why and moreover, fail to benefit from discounts given....

The Story no owner or Manager should miss!

Read more here

SiteLink User Conference - A Major Success!

More than 320 people attended the inaugural SiteLink User Conference in Las Vegas on March 13.

Held on the day before the ISS World Expo, the User Conference was attended by SiteLink users from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, Asia and New Zealand.

Attendees heard Dr Ross Lampe, President welcome everyone and Markus Hecker, Chief Operating officer led a number of sessions, including Revenue Management.

Professor Luke Lenzen, the chief Information Officer of SiteLink talked about features of the Corporate Control Centre

James Renouf, head of Reporting ,aided by Bob Meyers and Michael Dogger presented the Manager's sessions with Q & A being the highlight of those sessions.

Attendee's chose between a power users track and a Managers track.

Sessions were around 45 minutes and Breakfast and lunch was provided.

A number of Aussies attended and they enjoyed participating with fellow SiteLink users.

SiteLink Experts ran Round Table sessions and supporting vendors like "District Bob Meyers from SiteLink explains features Manager","AutomateIT", "PayPros" and more.

Attendees heard from a panel of Experts, Carol Krendl, Rob Madsen, Anne Ballard and Dallas Dogger on how they use SiteLink Web Edition every day in practical situations for their sites and customers alike.

Lots of topics were covered, including reservation's and online move ins.

Users were given a preview of what is to come in the next 12 months for SiteLink
Web Edition.

Anne Ballard commented "I learned today some things I don't know about SiteLink and we are power users so its been a great day"!

A cocktail party rounded out the day and a number of attendees won great electronic prizes.

A recurring them was "I wish my staff were here, they would get a lot out of today"

Attendees were surveyed on the User conference and with such a positive response, you can be assured there will be a 2013 User Conference. Booking early will be important as this year it was sold out. Keep an eye out for next year's date here

ISS World Expo - Las Vegas 2012

Thousands gathered for this year's 21st World Expo on the 14th to 16th of March with 3 days of sessions that covered many topics.

Jim Chiswell, industry veteran, moderated the first session about "The State of the Nation" a panel discussion with the large operators present. They indicated that the market had some "green shoots" and were relying less on discounts to attract storers. They also painted a fairly sobering view that it's tough out there if you are not a big operator.

It was very evident that large operators were investing in web technology to improve their businesses with emphasis on web promotions, spending in the order of 6% of revenue.

A great session on Web site SEO and Google AdWords educated attendees to the importance of these tools to improve the exposure of websites.

A number of people commented that they did not understand nor have the inclination to deal with these topics. The bigger groups prey on smaller sites who can't deal with these new paradigms. It's part of the eventual consolidation that will no doubt continue.

The Trade show opened at lunch time on Thursday and remained open for 5 hours. Vendors were busy with new operators and existing operators all wanting to see the latest and greatest offerings.

Randy Smith, an owner from Texas has a different view to most. He contends that Google, mobile websites and SEO is all a waste of time! He thinks the Internet is full of snake oil salesmen. His session was certainly different!

Randy's session put forward powerful reasoning behind his arguments. He uses "Mass media" to promote his sites. He argues that its cheaper to target those who don't know you rather than those who are searching for Storage.

His topic was a novel idea, later challenged by many in a debate! It was great to hear another view, what works for some may not work for all. There is room for all methods to attract customers, what ever you do, do it properly, budget for it and measure it!

I am not sure being an "Internet denier" is a great idea. There is too much evidence to show that many Storers use the Internet as their first 'touch" of Self Storage.

One of the highlights of the show was the International Storage Summit hosted by

RK Kleibenstein, the father of Self Storage!

ISS assembled a panel of experts from around the world to talk about Storage in their regions. It was great for Australia to be represented and Dallas along with the other panellists answered questions asked by RK and fielded questions from the audience.

Did you know?

Japan has over 2000 Self Storage Sites?
In Chile, armed guards take you to your space for security!
In Mexico if your site is found to have drugs stored the state can confiscate your site!
Language is one of the biggest barriers to growth.
Getting building approvals in many countries is just as hard as it is in Australia
Storage rates in many countries are much higher than US or Australia

Stor-Guard Launches AccessEzy to US Storage Firms

Stor-Guard LLC is the exclusive US Master Distributor for AccessEzy in the US. Headed by John Wollam, an industry veteran and the founder of DigiTech, John and his team displayed AccessEzy for the first time is the US at the recent ISS Expo Trade Show.

Wollam has built his own Stor-Guard keypad to be used with AccessEzy and is keypad expecting brisk sales after being "overwhelmed" at the ISS Trade Show.

"I am so happy with the response" John said afterwards.. We were so happy with the positive response to our product range.

"Many were impressed to see the AccessEzy remote application running on an IPad, with site owners wanting plenty of information.

"The fact that our systems run on Windows XP and Windows 7, 32 bit and 64 bit has taken many by surprise as most access control software has not been updated for years". He said.

"Owners have a choice now. They can change to a modern up to date digital system and have remote features 24/7" he commented.

"This is fantastic, US operators can now have access to AccessEzy, something Aussie sites have had for years and years."He said.

The new Stor-Guard keypad features a prox reader/PIN reader, colour camera and intercom.

Centreforce will be selling these new Stor-Guard keypads shortly.

Robert and Elaine Coote from Lock Distributors were welcome visitors to the Stor-Guard

stand providing valuable advice and insight to future security products in the design pipeline.

Google Ad WorkShop - Are They Worth It?

Just when you thought you had a handle on promoting your Self Storage business, Google comes along with their AdWords product.

Google adwords are those ads you see at the top and to the right of the organic listing:

These are paid advertisments. They are used to drive traffic to your website. Centreforce manages a number of these camppaigns for sites and they do work. Budgets range from a few hundred dollars a month to thousands depending on the amount of ads displayed and the frequency of the ads clicked.

Key factors to remember with Google AdWords are:

AdWords take time to create and manage - it's not a set and forget process
Spending big is pointless without a targeted offer.
Web traffic will increase but you must measure the result.
Web offers deliver the best value.
Get a professional to create the campaign for you - unless you are a Google Nutter you wont work it out..!
It costs to manage a campaign from $250 per month + Ad creation. Sensis is typically $495 per month + the cost of the Ads
ads must target keywords to suit your business.

Self Storage sites are using these tools every day to drive very targeted Internet traffic to their sites. It's part of the Internet toolbox that is needed to compete.

As an example, here is a graph of traffic for a 1 week campaign done in NSW.

The graph shows the increase in traffic to the site once the offer and the Ads started to be shown. Google Ads are entirely measurable and can deliver a very targeted message in your area. There is no point having them in areas that don't buy from you.

A common mistake is for the ads not to be set up properly. Here is a good example:

A common search term: "Storage in Bathurst"

The search reveals two Sydney companies and none in Bathurst. The search criteria is not "Sydney" and both of these companies are most likely unknowingly advertising in Bathurst - probably a waste of time.and money, especially if someone clicks on the Ad!

So as you can see, it's an art to get it right. AdWords work when you get them to deliver a targeted message. For more details on how we can help you target AdWords to drive traffic - email us here .We make Adwords work!

AccessEzy on The iPhone and iPad

AccessEzy V2 users can enjoy remote access using AccessEzy's new iPhone and iPad App.

A world first for Self Storage.

Available on Apple's App store, you can:

See the event log
Adjust timezones
Open and close gates
Review alarm events and more

A great tool for the weekend and after hours manager,the AccessEzy remote application was designed for you.

Works with Version 2 of AccessEzy.

We Honour Kevin Reilly

No,he hasn't died! Kevin Reilly is retiring from full time Self Storage duties at the end of March. Kevin was the first permanent Manager of Capital Self Storage at Mitchell ACT. He has been the Manager for over 10 years.

As an industry we recognise products and companies, but today I want our readers to focus on people - like Kevin.

Running a large busy facility has been Kevin's game for many years, the Mitchell facility growing rapidly. He has single-handedly grown the business to its current high occupancy levels.

He is a guy we have had great pleasure to support. Never has he had a bad word for his owners, the products they selected or complained about the way the site has evolved.

He has just got on with it. He has done the work that others could not do, by hard work.

Kevin will do relief work and take it a bit easier. Kevin, it's been a pleasure to work with you and everyone at Centreforce wishes you all the best for the future!

About The Centreforce Technology Group

Centreforce Technology is the leading supplier of specialist technology for the Self Storage Industry in South East Asia with more than 20 years experience in Self Storage. For a full listing of our services, please visit our web site

OUR PRODUCT WEB SITES

SiteLink Web Edition- World's leading Software for Self Storage
RapidStor- Online Move In Technology
AccessEzy - Digital Access Control and alarm Systems for Self Storage
WebStor - Websites for Self Storage, Self Storage SEO/SEM services, YouTube Video's and professional photography

CCTV - We sell a full range of CCTV, Recorders, Cameras and Large screen commercial LCD and Plasma Panels, computers, printers and peripherals

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

MEMBERS

Centreforce Technology is a Licenced Security Installer and advisor - LN 324320