OSLO, February 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
With 20 years old history from 1993 and a business of 40 sites in six European countries, City Self Storage can rightfully claim to be a solid player in the European self-storage industry.
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With operations from Norway to Spain, City Self Storage has direct experience of introducing self storage to different European audiences, of marketing it, adapting it to local tastes, building it out and, most importantly, generating a return on investment. With thousands of customers being served, City Self Storage has clearly found a formula for European success.
So, what has the 20 years long adventure taught us, and what can the rest of the industry learn from our experience?
Perhaps, the biggest tip City Self-Storage can give is to take a full scale customer-oriented approach. This business is about people - it is about meeting the needs of private and business customers with flexible storage solutions, and about being entrepreneurial and locally adaptable. Each market and every customer is different, and the product, the service and offering should reflect that.
This approach was proved by the award "European Customer Service Award of the Year" which was awarded for the first time at the annual European self-storage conference 2012, and it was won by City Self-Storage Europe. This award was given to an individual, facility or company that had demonstrated excellence in the provision of customer service. City Self-Storage's focus across Europe in all aspects of customer service, added services and great results in customer satisfaction surveys were the main reasons for winning the award.
"As a company City Self-Storage Europe is extremely proud and honored to win the award", says Frederik Selvaag, the Chairman.
Erling Nyberget, CEO follows "This truly is an award won by every single individual that works for City Self-Storage across Europe, who make an effort and difference every single day, by building relations to customers, understanding their different needs and putting a smile on their face."
In an industry where the core product, the self-storage room itself, often can become commodity-like, City Self-Storage is very proud to see that our strategic aim and focus across Europe on customer service, key account management and added value services are being highly valued by our customers and awarded by the industry. We do believe that these focuses, combined by the unique people that we employ are the reasons why 2013 - the 20th anniversary of City Self-Storage activities will be yet another year of solid growth in both occupancy and revenue.
Years of experience have also proven that City Self-Storage can share learnings and best practice in the European internal structure. Whether it is selling techniques, training, retail experience or marketing, City Self-Storage has massive know-how. Local businesses can also learn and benefit from the Scandinavian heritage. Having been founded in Norway in 1993 and being part of the family-owned Selvaag Group, City Self-Storage have a distinct culture of professionalism, trustworthiness, care for the environment, and creativity that permeates everything we do. We believe in treating people fairly and working to consistently high standards of quality. Also you cannot give excellent customer service if your own people are not enjoying themselves. Employee survey "Great Place To Work" is being used as a tool in all City Self-Storage countries and this year we were proud to see our Spanish organization among the best 15 companies to work for in Spain.
For the third year in a row City Self-Storage won the European Site Manager of the Year award at the annual European self-storage conference 2012. The award is given to a site manager who made an outstanding contribution that had a positive impact on staff, operations or profitability.
However you cannot have 20 years of operations without making mistakes or have failures. City Self-Storage surely has learnt its lessons along the way, been through consolidation and built up its operations again. But even through a consolidation period and European financial crises we have maintained a positive development on both income and EBIDTA levels in year-to-year comparisons.
We now look forward to the next 20 years, as we prepare for the next generation of self-storage in terms of operations, availability, product development and market growth.
Niels Meibom-Larsen, COO of City Self Storage, Tel: 0045-61205667, E-mail: nla@cityselfstorage.com
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