When running a self storage business, you’re always on the lookout for ways to keep your existing customers happy while attracting new ones.

One strategy is to hold a customer appreciation day. It’s just what it sounds like: a day when you do a little something extra for your customers to let them know they’re important to you and your self storage business. This helps retain tenants and is likely to result in them speaking highly of your storage facility in online reviews and in person.

If you’ve never hosted a customer appreciation day at your storage facility, here’s how to do it:

Get the Word Out

To start you’ll need to pick a day. Try to avoid holidays, as people are more likely to have plans on those days. Consider a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when people will want to find something fun to do.

You can print some flyers and post them around your storage facility or give them out to tenants and new customers who visit the office. However, you should also have an email list with all your current tenants on it. If you don’t, now’s the time to start building it. When new customers rent units, on the form, ask for their email address, and include a box they can check if they would like to receive news and deals by email from the facility. If you have a website, you can also invite visitors to sign up there.

Two weeks before your customer appreciation day, send the list an email inviting customers to come in to the office, and explaining what they can expect. Send a follow-up email a week later, then another a day or two before the event itself.

Sale

This is a great time to run a sale on the items in the store portion of your office.

Since you will advertise the event to your customers only, you can drop your prices to their lowest as a way of thanking them.

Treats

Put out a cooler of various sodas, a big pot of coffee, and have cookies, bagels, and assorted chocolates available for customers to enjoy when the come into the office.

In fact, you may want to contact a local cookie shop or bakery and order a large catering platter for the event. You’ll be supporting the local economy and making your customers feel extra special.

Perhaps you already have coffee and cookies for waiting tenants. On customer appreciation day, you can do even more.

Giveaway

Do a raffle giveaway for something anyone would enjoy. Perhaps it could be a set of movie tickets, tickets to an amusement park or a gift certificate for a local restaurant. If you run several storage facilities, you could hold your customer appreciation day at all of them and have one big raffle for a weekend trip.

Since this is customer appreciation, make the entries free in exchange for the tenant, or visitor’s, email address and agreement to sign up for your mailing list. You’ll build your list, a popular marketing tool, and make a customer very happy.

Group Event

Often, self storage facilities are away from downtown areas. Not necessarily far out of the way, perhaps just four or five blocks from many other businesses, but secluded enough that your customer appreciation day will be an event your facility does alone.

However, if your facility is in the middle of a downtown area, or perhaps at the corner of a shopping center, talk to your business neighbors about doing a group event. Done this way, appreciation day becomes an opportunity for cross-promotion.

In addition to providing treats and raffles for your tenants, you can share coupons unique to your event. Customers at the cafe two doors down may get a certificate to save 20% off any month’s rent at your facility, and you may carry certificates for a free latte drink with the purchase of any food item from the cafe. Such an event can bring in customers who want to see what each place is offering.

We hope these suggestions help you run a successful customer appreciation day, and that the event not only strengthens your relationship with your existing tenants, but helps you bring in new ones as well.