What are your thoughts about this new service from eMove? Pros cons?

eMove announced the Centralized mail service, integrated within WebSelfStorage management software, meaning there is no third-party involvement for the mailings. Their system is fully automated and all unclaimed letters are sent back to the facility address.

The cost is the same as first class stamp and there are no additional labor, materials or postage costs.

Any feedback on this? Has anyone used a service like this before?

I'm not interested because:

1. A mass mailer is just going to send out all the letters that print. They won't pull out the ones where the tenant has called and explained they will be late and committed to pay on a certain day. They won't pull the ones that always pay 3 days late b/c that's when they get paid. They won't pull out the ones who came in that morning and left checks in my drop box. So, in addition to wasting postage, it could annoy a tenant who thinks I ignored his situation or didn't get the check he left in the box.

2. We often write personal notes on late notices, e.g., "We missed you this month!" or "You are in danger of going into lien status. Please contact us right away so that we can try to help you avoid losing your goods to auction." A mass mailer not only won't do that, but they wouldn't even know who should have a personal note and what it should be about.

3. You lose the ability to get a double bang for your buck. Now, I can drop in a flyer for a special sale on retail items, a storage special, a truck rental special, or notice of an auction (which draws buyers and also is a subtle hint to delinquent tenants that they could be next.)

4. Looking at those letters when they are folding them to mail reminds my employees that each one of them represents a collection opportunity. I want them to stay in front of collections, not behind them. I know when I send the letters out, so I know when to place the collection call. I don't know when WSS will mail my letters - not for sure, anyway.

Balance those things against the minor productivity gains, and it's a bad trade off, IMO.

KeyBee,
You make some great points and defiantly good things to consider. I'd have to also think that if you are going through all that trouble to personalized your letters you must be running a low delinquency. If not, then this effort would be costing you time and money. I'd have to admit that I'm a bit skeptical about the idea that personalizing a late letter lowers delinquency. Personalized or not, the customer is late and needs to be notified and this central mailing idea is a great one.

I go through less paper, don't have to keep a stock pile of stamps and the service costs me no more than the price of a stamp. I call that a win win. I'd rather deal with a few calls from late customers who got a letter after making a payment than not sending the letter at all. Such letters serve as a great reminder that they need to pay on time.

With central mailing I choose which types of letters are mailed centrally and have reports that allow me to monitor what has been sent. It's a great feature well worth giving a shot.

Chris, I think it's probably a great solution for some facilities. But for us, it wouldn't work that well for the reasons I listed. And just to clarify, We don't write personal notes on a lot of the late notices, but on the ones we do, it helps us maintain a more personal relationship with that customer. He or she may then be a little less likely to stiff us. (It's Kay from the storage place, not some anonymous person I won't have to actually see when I come in to pay.) At least in theory. LOL!

KayBee

Just a quick post to tell you that I think your insight about personalizing the relationship is wonderful. I have said for years it is the management team at a facility that gives it character and customer appeal. You have carried that to dealing with delinquent customers with your personal notes. Most of the bills that people owe are to big companies with no personal interaction. Ever try to talk to a real person at a credit card company or bank by telephone? I hope that every owner and manager that reads your post with think over how they are handling customers and realize your personal approach can really help.

MisterJim444

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Learning Never Ends

I agree with MisterJim and believe the personalized touch is worth it's weight in gold. Adding a brief hand written note or reminder to letters/invoices is a great way to extend the business relations with tenants.

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Michael T. Bishop
StorageLand - Management and Consulting Services
www.storageland.com
sales@storageland.com
208-919-0771 (Local)
877-630-0075 (Toll Free)