Cubby Customer Portal

Role

Lead Designer

Company

Cubby

Timeline

Q4 2023

Cubby is a platform created for self-storage operators to manage and expand their businesses. Operators often handle tenant inquiries regarding facility access and rental payments.

Recognizing that many of these tasks, like making payments, can be handled independently by tenants, we developed a customer portal to empower tenants to manage their rentals autonomously.

This not only enhances the tenant experience but also reduces the workload for self-storage operators in handling such tasks.

Authentication

Given that self-storage may not always be at the forefront of tenants' minds, we opted for a password-less authentication mechanism. This method involves sending a six-digit temporary passcode to the tenant's email or phone, enabling them to access their tenant portal without the burden of managing or remembering a password.

Tenants can use their email or phone to request a temporary passcode to access and manage their rentals.
Tenants receive an email or SMS containing a magic link and temporary passcode to log into their customer portal.
If a tenant did not use the magic link, they can enter their temporary passcode manually.

Rental details

In most instances, tenants have a single rental with a self-storage company. After logging in, they can immediately view their rental details.

All details about a single rental are shown, along with options to manage AutoPay and payment methods.

The rental details offer tenants an overview of all the information they have shared with the self-storage company as part of their lease agreement. This allows them to handle their preferred payment methods, enroll in AutoPay, or retrieve previously signed documents like the lease agreement.

A crucial component of the rental details is the rental summary at the top of the page, which clearly conveys the status and standing of the rental.

This rental is currently overlocked. The tenant needs to pay their balance to remove the overlocked status.
After the tenant settles their overdue balance, instructions on how to remove the overlock are displayed and sent to the tenant via email.

Additionally, the tenant portal encourages tenants to activate AutoPay in other instances. This is the preferred option for self-storage operators as it helps prevent tenants from incurring late fees and offers greater convenience.

Payments

The payment section within the customer portal is crucial. It enables tenants to settle their outstanding balance and even prepay for future expenses. This section offers flexibility in choosing payment methods and saves new methods for future use, enhancing convenience.

Paying the outstanding balance is straightforward. Details about the payment and individual line items are displayed on the right side.
Apart from the outstanding balance, tenants can also prepay for the future for up to 12 months.
After the payment is successful, a receipt-style success screen showing a summary of the payment is displayed to the tenant.

Multiple rentals

While most tenants have only a single rental, there are situations where tenants have multiple rentals within one or across multiple facilities with a single self-storage company. In these cases, tenants can collectively manage all their rentals with the self-storage company.

Overview of all rentals a tenant has with one self-storage company across different facilities.

Shared data, such as personal information or payment methods, that are common across rentals, can now be managed under a shared "Account Details" tab.

For tenants with multiple rentals, account details are shared across rentals and can be managed from a single point.

When it comes to payments, the Cubby Customer Portal allows tenants with multiple rentals inside a facility to pay for all or some of them in one go instead of paying for all rentals individually.

Tenants can select which rentals they want to include in a single payment, provided all rentals are in one facility.

Move-in tasks

Before the tenant signs the rental agreement, the tenant portal serves as a task list for tenants to complete all the necessary move-in tasks. These tasks include identity verification, optional insurance policy signing, and finally, signing the lease agreement.

Move-in tasks are the only items tenants can view in the customer portal until they have signed their lease agreement.

Self-storage operators have flexibility in determining the required data, so move-in tasks may vary among self-storage companies.

Identity verification is a multi-step process that includes general KYC data collection and document upload at the end.
Tenants can upload proof of their existing insurance if requested by the self-storage operators.

Once all the move-in tasks are successfully completed, the customer portal reverts to its default state, displaying the tenant's rental details and allowing them to manage their rental.

This is also when tenants can view their gate access code and other essential information. Typically, this information is withheld from tenants until the lease agreement has been signed.

Outcome

The feedback from self-storage operators has been particularly positive, noting a significant reduction in common tasks they had to handle before the Customer Portal was implemented.

While this foundation has been set, there is a clear opportunity to further enhance the overall customer and operator relationship, making it more efficient by increasingly adopting a self-serve model.