Some words of advice to owners of self-storage facilities: when customers call and ask questions about video surveillance, climate control and privacy, those conversations will often turn into sales.

Approximately 70% of callers asking about these three features ended up reserving, confirming, or booking an appointment with self-storage facilities across the U.S., according to data released today by Marchex Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX), a mobile advertising technology company.

“In our analysis of more than 20,000 phone calls, it was clear that storage facilities aren’t just a place to stash and forget about your spare belongings,” said John Busby, SVP of the Marchex Institute, the research and insights arm of Marchex. “People really value safety, protection and privacy when choosing where to store their stuff.”

The findings are the first in new series called “Industry Trends,” a quarterly release by Marchex that spotlights data in a particular business vertical.

As part of the findings, Marchex’s Call Analytics technology detected regional patterns in consumer interest for privacy and climate-control features in self-storage facilities. For example, consumers in Washington D.C. were most likely to ask about privacy, followed by those in Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana and South Carolina.

When it came to questions about climate-controlled units, Nevada topped the list, followed by Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

The data also found that 68% of callers want to discuss appointments in the morning, which makes the a.m. prime time for transactions. By the afternoon and evening, consumers are less inclined to take the next step in the buying process, with just 32% of calls asking about appointments.

One major impact to the bottom line: not answering the phone.

“The self-storage industry is dominated by small business owners, and many of them don’t have the capacity to field calls all day,” Busby said. “This data can at least tell owners the most appropriate times to staff phone lines and, more specifically, what features their employees should be ready to answer questions about.”

The U.S., with more than 52,000 storage facilities, boasts the largest share of the world’s units; worldwide, there are about 59,500 facilities, according to the Self Storage Association, an industry trade group which cites figures from Q4 2013, the latest available.

About Marchex

Marchex is a mobile advertising technology company. The company provides a suite of products and services for businesses that depend on consumer phone calls to drive sales. Marchex’s mobile advertising platform delivers new customer phone calls to businesses, while its technology analyzes the data in these calls to help maximize ad campaign results. Marchex disrupts traditional advertising models by giving businesses full transparency into their ad campaign performance and charging them based on new customer acquisition.

Please visit www.marchex.com, blog.marchex.com or @marchex on Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex), where Marchex discloses material information from time to time about the company, its financial information, and its business.

Marchex Corporate CommunicationsSonia Krishnan, 206-331-3434Email: skrishnan(at)marchex.com

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