• Storage King USA oversees 180 self storage locations across 20 states, along with manufactured housing communities and small bay industrial properties.
  
  

• Their AI sales agent, Zoey, has handled more than 160,000 calls and 84,000 text messages so far this year.
  
  

• What began as a 36-location pilot, deliberately spread across four time zones, has since scaled to the company's entire portfolio.
  
  

• Every lead now gets an immediate, consistent response, 24/7, with the option to reach a live call center or property manager for anyone who'd rather not deal with AI.
  
  

Andover Properties is an investment firm specializing in alternative real estate asset classes, including self storage, manufactured housing, RV parks, small bay industrial, and car washes. 

The firm is one of the largest private owner-operators of self storage facilities in the United States, with a portfolio exceeding 15 million square feet across more than 180 facilities in 20 states. Founded in 2003 by Brian and William Cohen, Andover is headquartered in New York City with offices in Miami and San Francisco. 

Why a good enough process wasn't good enough

Before bringing on an AI sales agent, Storage King USA leaned on its internal teams and an external call center vendor to handle inbound leads. It worked, but unevenly. Speed, coverage, and follow-up varied depending on who picked up and when, and the company's biggest opportunity wasn't fixing any one weak link, it was making sure every single lead got an immediate, consistent response no matter the hour it came in.

Justin Bowen, VP of Operations at Storage King USA, first encountered Uniti at a storage conference in Vegas and was intrigued by the idea of every call being filtered through an AI agent first, one capable of actually navigating a tenant's questions and concerns, not just routing the call elsewhere.

Why a risk-averse operator said yes to AI agents

Handing a 180-location portfolio over to an AI platform wasn't a decision Storage King USA took lightly. "When you think about placing your whole portfolio on an AI platform, we definitely had some reservations,” said Justin. “As someone that's risk averse, we were very cautious."

Two things mattered most in the decision. First, that Uniti was built specifically for self storage, not adapted from a generic customer service tool, with an understanding of the industry's particular dynamics baked in. Second, the platform went beyond simple call answering: it actively engaged, qualified, and followed up with leads across voice, text, and email, functioning less like a call router and more like an extension of the sales team itself.

To manage the risk, Storage King USA started with a pilot of 36 locations, deliberately spread across four different time zones, so the team could see how the agent, which they named Zoey, actually performed under real, varied conditions before trusting it with the rest of the business. Along the way, Zoey's own reporting gave the team visibility into exactly what she was doing and how tenants were responding, data Storage King USA hadn't had in this form before, and used to build confidence in scaling further.

Uniti connected directly into Storage King USA's existing Storable platform, giving Zoey the same visibility into inventory and tenant data the on-site teams already had. "Starting with a smaller sample size of 36 locations helped us really understand the platform, the ability, the process where it needed tweaks," Justin said, "but more importantly, it was an access point to our tenants to have 24/7 access, the ability to rent, and data that helped us understand how we could build Zoey to be bigger as time went on."

The results: from a cautious pilot to full portfolio coverage

The pilot answered the question it was built to answer. Tenant adoption was strong, and the results were clear enough that expanding to the rest of the portfolio felt like the natural next step. "Going from 36 locations to 180 is quite a task," Justin said, "an exciting task, a fascinating journey."

Today, Zoey has handled more than 160,000 calls and 84,000 texts so far this year. That volume has given property-level teams room to spend more time where it counts most, in front of prospects, running tours, and closing leases, instead of tied up on the phone. Every lead now gets addressed, in Justin's words, "right there, right then," instead of waiting on a callback that may or may not come in time.

Brian Cohen, CEO of Storage King USA, put the scale of that shift plainly: "We operate hundreds of locations, and the standard we hold ourselves to doesn't change whether we're at location one or location one hundred. Uniti's AI agents now handle 100% of our inbound calls across all our locations. The team that used to manage that volume is now focused on the work that drives the business. The ROI has been undeniable."

Justin's advice to other storage operators

Asked whether he'd recommend Uniti to another storage operator, Justin didn't hesitate: "My first reaction would be yes." But he's quick to add that it isn't a simple switch to flip. "You need to really understand and define how you want your operation to work," he said. "It's an investment. It's expertise. And it's how and what you do to build that box to make sure the execution of that product is successful."

His broader view of the industry's direction is just as clear: "AI is moving from a competitive advantage to an operating expectation. The operators who learn how to deploy it effectively today will have a meaningful advantage when it comes to speed, customer experience, and conversion."