KSS eKourier October 2022

FEATURE

MY ACCOUNT - A MODERN SELF STORAGE EXPERIENCE

• Where are the friction points during a typical customer journey when a customer will reach out for help? • What questions do customer service representatives find themselves answering over and over again?

• What information are customers looking to find in the customer portal?

• How do we design a familiar look and feel for both customers and teams?

My Account will feature a modern-day login using email, recognise customers storing at multiple locations and will handle all the universal self-service centric capabilities you would expect plus those specific to self storage. New customers will see the customer portal integrated directly into the rental flow, whilst existing customers will be transitioned in. Customers will be able to perform standard self-service functions, but they will also be able to rent additional space, buy boxes and view invoices and agreements to name some features. My Account will also be used as a vehicle to drive business preferences and initia- tives like being aware of insurance or recurring payment status and promoting those options when appropriate by baking in dynamic logic. The other aspect My Account offers, is a true understanding around our customers behaviour and choices leading to further personalisation capability and insights which is becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve for non-logged in website visits. Like other major product development, the Customer Portal will similarly be released as an MVP (strong enough to go to market without necessarily having everything) then updated as we learn and leverage feedback and insights.

In 2019, we set a goal to reimagine our website(s) and develop an enterprise grade platform that would modernise our product offer, brand, and ecommerce capability. We decided to invest in the underlying technology platform and a respon- sive shiny design which better presents our value proposition.

Productising self-service as “My Account” is a major step in innovating the service experience in the business, and another point of difference to our competitors.

20 months in, we are seeing uplift across the board through performance in Google search, and ecommerce conversion. In the background we are leveraging rich insights delivered with the platform to make informed decisions around customer behaviour to optimise conversions and customer experience all the time. It was always our vision to compliment the experience with a Customer Portal as the next major enhancement for our valued customers. Consumers are moving towards a fully connected world enabled by technology. They demand immediacy, connectivity and simplicity in every interaction on their buying journey and then self-service. 81% of customers across industries attempt to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live representative - Harvard Business Review.

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81% OF CUSTOMERS ACROSS INDUSTRIES ATTEMPT TO TAKE CARE OF MATTERS THEMSELVES BEFORE REACHING OUT TO A LIVE REPRESENTATIVE - HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

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To do this successfully, we needed to understand the current customer journeys. Finding answers to the below questions provided a guideline to work with.

• How many customers pay online?

Jeff Xanthos Chief Information Office

13 Kennards Kourier Oct 2022