KSS April eKourier 2024

FEATURE

DISASTER REVIEW

"Being a furniture Removalist I use self storage centres almost on a daily basis. I highly recommend Emily and her team at Kennards Hoxton Park for their service and expertise. Really helps to have someone on your side regarding the endless complexities faced inside the self storage world." "Such amazing service from the boys today. Thank you so much for all your help. Definitely recommend Kennards Port Melbourne." "To be honest with everyone, the team and place have been more than exceptional with me and my patience... communication is at its best, thanks team Napier." "Recently having used the facilities at Kennards Self Storage Mt Eden, I wish to state that I found this was an excellent facility for vehicle access, width of corridors, size of lift, size and number of trolleys etc. The staff were friendly and profes- sional, maintaining great communi- cations throughout my tenure there. Nothing was a problem. A totally professionally run facility." "Kennards Self Storage in Hawthorn was so convenient to store by belongings while I moved home. I always knew my belong- ings were secure no matter the weather and time of year. The staff were exceedingly friendly! I would 100% use Hawthorn branch again." "Just want to acknowledge the fantastic customer service and friendliness and help provided by Nilesh and Shrut at Yeerongpilly. Highly recommend this storage facility and the team."

A t the time of writing this article, it will be 12 months since the flooding events of Cyclone Gabrielle in Auckland, more so in the Hawkes Bay, followed by the Three Kings unit fire. With the flooding events, we were fortunate in that none of our sites were affected, but our communities and customers were in a massive way. Auckland had flood levels not seen in a century while the Hawkes Bay had significant flooding of the entire district, that in areas took months to completely recede, and the Napier town was without power for over seven days. KSS supported the Hawkes Bay with donations of boxes to support agencies providing relief to affected families. Our team were onsite, including myself, to ensure the gates were manually opened and customers were able to access their unit, and our presence on site also continued the security monitoring we normally provide by CCTV. The Three Kings fire started from one customer’s unit, from what I will describe as one silly careless act that resulted in two fire sprinklers opening. While that is bad enough, the impact was greater as the unit was located on the third level and water only flows down… We had over 200 customers affected to various degrees however our quick recovery efforts minimised the impact and the event was resolved within the next week.

like this shows how far the business has come in my tenure and no matter how difficult the situation, we always recover and return to normal. We always review our emergency response post event to learn what we did well and what we can improve on, you can call it our disaster care factor, as no matter what happens, it is how we react and fix things that the customers see and they judge us accordingly. This brings me to how Team Members can help in their every day routines before any potential disaster occurs. Firstly by ensuring Protection Cover discussions are handled the best we can at both sign up and Care Call touch points. Also, by ensuring we have all the best contact details; phone, email and alternate contacts. One thing I know in a site emergency, the faster you can contact a customer, the easier and less damage seems to result in the worse event cases like a flood. When the Three Kings fire customers were contacted, it was those customers we could reach the quickest, and came down to inspect their unit, that were saved from the worst. I would encourage all Centre Managers to check your sites Emergency Response Plan (ERP) and ensure all the details are still correct. In the unlikely event of a disaster event you will thank yourself that your ERP is up to date and you can action things quickly with less panic, more accuracy and better execution. Andrew Kirkham NZ Operations Manager

Upon reflection, our efforts and experi - ence with recovery from emergencies

9 Kennards Kourier April 2024