Managing Facility Expansion Without Sacrificing Quality

Most storage facility owners want to expand their business at some point. When demand rises consistently enough, you too may start thinking about expanding your facility. However, managing facility expansion isn’t simple logistics. You need to know your market well enough to scale properly and sustainably. 

The good news is that storage facilities are in demand in large urban areas. However, you need to plan your expansion strategically. Otherwise, your clients looking for business and personal storage might feel like you’re out of touch with their basic needs and move their belongings elsewhere. 

With this in mind, let’s explore different factors you need to consider to properly expand a Class A storage facility. 

Analyze Your Current Needs & Abilities

At some point, you may be justified in thinking your operations need to expand. But before you invest in a larger facility, take some time to analyze your current operations. 

You need to know your target audience like the back of your pocket to gauge if there's enough market demand. With that in mind, try to assess the satisfaction of your current customers. You need to know what’s working well and where you have to shake things up. 

How do you do this? First, take a look at the online reviews of your facility. Try to be open to constructive criticism and see which objections are voiced by multiple customers. If some complaints are repeated, chances are there’s some truth to them. Also, create a detailed exit survey for customers who decide to move on from your facility. 

Examine Your Logistics

You must also consider the logistics of your current operation and see if there’s any room for improvement. If there are any operational inefficiencies, you need to resolve them before expanding your operations. 

This is true regardless of whether you’re expanding a facility by adding more storage units or trying to add more locations across the town or even the country. In fact, the more you’re trying to spread, the harder you need to examine your current operation. 

Some storage businesses expand by adding franchises throughout the country. While this is a quick way to spread your presence nationwide, be careful. Entrusting your brand to franchisees you haven’t thoroughly vetted can have detrimental consequences. 

They could provide subpar services, mishandle customers, or even fail to keep a clean and secure storage facility. So, managing facility expansion with sufficient care is crucial. Make sure the people who want to run a branch of your storage company are ready to get on board with established processes. 

Study Your Current Demand

Properly managing facility expansion requires determining if you need it in the first place. In other words, you need to ensure your facility will remain profitable after the expansion. You don’t want to maintain a large facility for which there’s not enough demand.

So, consider your staffing trends, inventory changes, and any other points that could swing your decision in either direction. If you do decide to work on a facility expansion, make sure to complete a thorough financial analysis first.

In other words, you need to have a firm grip on anticipated costs for the expansion. This includes everything from operating expenses for the new facility to the necessary equipment, new units, and any additional construction. 

Expanding To New Locations

Opening new locations is the most expensive type of expansion — especially if you’re not using a franchise model. If you’re doing everything yourself, you need to think long and hard about where you intend to invest your time and money.

For starters, you need to conduct in-depth market research. That’s the only way to know where opening up a new location is feasible. Remember — the last thing you want is to invest heavily in a location without enough demand for storage. 

If your company is opening and managing locations without local franchisees, always take care not to overextend. Don’t try to open multiple new locations at once if you don’t have the workforce to focus on each. 

As you open new locations, try to extend your bottom line in each by investing in automatization. New innovative technologies can help your scalability immensely by reducing the need for an additional workforce. With that in mind, explore possibilities like self-service kiosks and various automated inventory systems. 

Besides lowering expenses, technologies like these can also help you improve the customer experience in each facility — and the value of your brand in the long run. 

Expanding Current Facilities

When it comes to expanding specific facilities, there are plenty of options. You need to consult various experts to determine whether your current space can support vertical expansion. Otherwise, depending on your area, you may need to buy nearby land lots, homes, or other buildings. And then, you’ll have enough room to expand horizontally.

If the land lots around your facility are empty, you may be able to lease them instead of buying. There are always possibilities, but you need to take a careful cost-benefit approach to ensure you’re not overreaching. 

Once you determine that your financials are robust enough to handle an expansion of your current facilities, you need to run a tight ship on the expansion. To ensure you don’t compromise on quality for your existing clients, everything needs to be as fast as possible — within reason, of course. 

So, consult experts who can help you establish realistic deadlines within your financial goals. 

Conclusion

Efficiently managing facility expansion is no easy feat. On the one hand, you need to make a long-term strategy that’s realistic and feasible. On the other hand, you need to execute the strategy without endangering or diminishing your current operations. 

That’s why customer experience needs to be at the forefront of your expansion plan. It should be your guiding light while you gauge whether there’s a need for an expansion at all. And when you determine how and where you’ll expand, always consider whether the growth will add value to your brand in the long run.

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Austin Pierce has extensive experience in optimizing storage solutions and ensuring customer satisfaction in the storage industry. When he’s not working at PortaBox Storage Lynnwood, WA, Pierce enjoys reading historical fiction and brewing craft beers.