The Better Business Bureau of St. Louis recognized StorageMart for its dedication to ethical business practices and service to their customers, employees, and community by naming it a 2014 Torch Award recipient.  The award was recently presented during a luncheon at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.

“We couldn’t be more proud,” StorageMart CEO Mike Burnam said.  “We’ve always made total customer satisfaction our guarantee.  Being recognized by the Better Business Bureau for our customer service proves those aren’t just words being used as a marketing tool, but a true reflection of how we do business.” Torch Awards are presented by individual Better Business Bureau chapters on a yearly basis.  Nominees must show creativity in their ability to manage customer expectations, provide excellent customer service and resolve disputes. They must demonstrate the ways they inspire their workforce to adopt and communicate their ethics and further their mission.

StorageMart formed in 1999, but the Burnam family has been in the self storage business for going on forty years.  Mike Burnam believes the familial nature of StorageMart has helped the company stand out in the industry when it comes to customer service. “As a family-run business, we understand how important it is for people to come to work and actually enjoy what they’re doing,” Burnam said.  “So we do everything we can to make that happen and enhance that feeling to create a trickle-down effect to our customers.  We train our managers to have the same respect for customers as we do for them as employees.  That atmosphere has helped our managers and staff foster relationships with our customers that help us not only quickly resolve any problems that might come along but be able to troubleshoot in order to prevent a lot of potential problems from ever taking place.” The time, effort and resources StorageMart puts into its training programs and working environments might seem excessive to an outsider, but Burnam believes the results speak for themselves. “If you want to get something, sometimes you have to give more,” Burnam said, “but for us more than pays off in the long run.  It’s all the people who work for our company who are truly responsible for all the positive feedback we’ve received directly from customers, through internet reviews and through the Better Business Bureau.  There’s no way we’d be where we are today without the help and support of the entire StorageMart family.” About StorageMart Headquartered in Columbia, Missouri since its formation with a single store in 1999, StorageMart now owns and operates 149 full-service self storage facilities throughout the United States and Canada.  In addition to renting out self storage units, StorageMart properties offer for purchase a wide variety of high quality packing and moving supplies, making each StorageMart a one-stop shopping spot for all moving, packing and storage needs.  StorageMart is a 2014 Torch Award recipient, from the St. Louis Better Business Bureau.  Company President Cris Burnam was named a 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.  For more information, visit www.storage-mart.com. StorageMart Gives is the charitable arm of the company.  Its mission is to identify strong, non-profit organizations to work with as partners in every market StorageMart calls home.  Partner organizations include the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Open Books (Chicago), the Food Bank of Northeast and Central Missouri and the Des Moines Music Coalition as well as organizations dedicated to animal welfare, children’s advocacy groups and women’s shelters.  StorageMart is also a charter member of Charity Storage, an industry wide giving back program providing financial assistance to non-profit organizations across the United States, including Kure-It Cancer Research. About the Better Business Bureau Founded more than a century ago, the Better Business Bureau strives to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust by setting core standards, identifying, encouraging and supporting best practices, celebrating marketplace role models, creating a community of trustworthy businesses and charities and identifying substandard marketplace behavior. For years Better Business Bureau chapters have used the Torch Awards to recognize businesses and charities showing creativity in their ability to manage customer expectations, provide excellent customer service and resolve disputes.]]>