A day in the life of a Store Manager at Eurobox Self Storage

One of the advantages of having children is that you almost never have to set an alarm clock. As every day, today at exactly 7:10 am I hear a loud shout from the bedroom next to mine: “Daddy, Mummy, you have to come and get me.” As you can imagine, my son is awake and up on his feet straight away. From that moment the autopilot kicks in for the morning routine: shower, get dressed, breakfast and drive to the daycare. After that, I continue my journey to Eurobox Self Storage. Once I arrive at Eurobox Self Storage, I always need a moment to recover from the hectic morning while enjoying a cold glass of water. As every morning, I start the day by checking my diary: what appointments do I have today and at what times are the customers coming? I also check whether our moving van and trailer have been reserved. Then I can make a plan for the whole day. Next, I begin a walk-around inspection of the premises. During this round I look for storage units that have been cancelled and need to be vacated, and I tidy them up immediately. Our customers have access to their storage unit from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. Our reception is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and on Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. This means staff are not always present during the opening hours, so after the inspection I always review the CCTV footage from the times we were absent to check if anything “unusual” happened. After all the safety checks it’s time for the administrative part of the day. First, I clear out my inbox completely and deal with every enquiry and other email immediately. I always try to contact customers who have requested a quote by phone, so I can offer a tailored estimate. Experience shows that customers often find it hard to judge what size storage unit they need. After a short call, it’s usually clear to them what size they require. If the unit is needed at short notice, we make an appointment straight away to view the various sizes. If it’s only needed at a later date, I schedule a follow-up call for the future. As store manager, I’m also responsible for the financial administration. Every day I create a file and send it to the bank so the monthly rent is collected automatically from all customers on time. I also process all incoming and outgoing payments immediately. With that, all my regular daily tasks are complete. The rest of the day is dedicated to customer appointments for facility tours, responding to emails, answering phone calls, keeping the premises tidy and assisting existing customers. The tours are especially important: our customers choose the right size unit on the spot, and then we draw up the rental agreement. At Eurobox Self Storage you’re not tied to long-term contracts—we have a notice period of just fourteen days. This is ideal since it’s often hard to predict in advance how long a move or renovation will take. Before I know it, it’s nearly 6:00 pm, which means it’s time to wrap up the workday. At that point the moving van and trailer are returned by the customers who hired them that day. Of course, I inspect them for any damage or defects. If everything is in order, I refund the deposit straight away—we always do that immediately. Then it’s time for one last inspection round of the building. Once that’s done, I can lock the door with peace of mind and drive home. Security takes over from there. I’m in the privileged position that dinner is ready every day and the children have already been collected from daycare, so I can sit down straight away. After dinner I play briefly with the children, then it’s bedtime for them. Once they’re in bed, it’s time for me to flop down on the sofa and call it a day.