This Women’s History Month we are celebrating our team members for their contributions to our organization, including Beatrice Dalton who has spent more than 25 years with the company.

Beatrice has been a driving force in helping us provide stellar customer care here at Public Storage.

Since she joined the company, she has risen through the ranks to help train and lead new talent within our customer care team.

“The reason why I’ve stayed was because of the people,” she said. “I felt needed and I felt that I could empower people to be more confident that they would be able to recognize what direction they could go in their career—and if they wanted to move up. But I also wanted to address the needs of the customers in a positive manner.”

Celebrating Influential Women in Her Life

Beatrice was born and raised in Los Angeles. The youngest of four girls, she credits her single mom, Ethel Dalton, for being a great role model. Her mom earned a living as a domestic worker and early on in life instilled discipline and a strong work ethic in her children.

“She made a home for me,” Beatrice said. “I never wanted for anything that was needed.”

Beatrice shared that her mother also helped her develop her creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. At a young age she realized if she wanted something, she knew she would have to work to earn it.

“It’s funny to me now but I built up my network in the neighborhood,” she chuckles as she recounts the memories. “I would go to my neighbors and ask them if I could go on store runs. I found out that I could also get the soda bottles and take that to the store to get money—25 cents went a long way, you could get a soda and a bag of chips and a candy bar.”

Her first job was in junior high school working in the student store, which at that time paid $1.50 every Friday.

“I started learning that I could get that and save it,” she said. “I wasn’t going for candy but I wanted the school supplies.”

Those formative experiences also enabled Beatrice to understand what it meant to help and give to others. When she joined Public Storage, that aspect of helping others became a central focus of her career.

As we recognize Beatrice this Women’s History month, she named one other woman who has been influential and a mentor to her, Debra Wright, then director of Customer Service.

“We came and we worked hard but she made sure she fostered a lot of good mentorship within the department,” Beatrice shared about her manager. “She kept our department running smoothly and had high expectations on how to provide good Customer Service. All while remaining professional. Grace under pressure.”

Another influential woman in her life is her daughter, Kisheal, who is currently teaching abroad in Spain.

“She’s the key to my heart and I always want to protect her,” Beatrice said.

Creating a Career at the Orange Doors

Beatrice first joined Public Storage when it was experimenting with a pick and delivery service component of its operations and then moved to the corporate office at startup of the Pick Up and Delivery Call Center. She came aboard as an agent, and within a year was promoted to a retention specialist and supervisor. When that project subsided, she moved into what was then Customer Service for another project known as Mini Storage and has remained with our customer care team.

“It was very interesting to me being there. I got a chance to hear more of the customer service side and that gave me a more up-close and personal relationship with customers,” she said, adding that she has enjoyed being able to help customers in person and now virtually.

She has served various roles including agent, mentor, and lead, and over time became a supervisor—helping to interview and train new agents.

“We’ve come a long way,” she said. “We did a lot of stuff manually, but over the years there has been more automation and now within the last three years we have transitioned from a call center to a care center.”

One of the things she’s enjoyed most about her time at Public Storage is being able to mentor others. But Beatrice also developed a reputation as the social director in the office—helping to organize birthday gatherings and coordinate epic potlucks.

“Just as we worked hard, we also loved to celebrate them,” she said of her team members.

Throughout her years at Public Storage, Beatrice is proud to have taken part in many new projects, such as helping test website improvements, social media and even our phone system. Another unique memory was working on our Rose Parade entry.

“My daughter and I worked on the float—we had lived our whole lives here and never had a chance to do that,” she said. “It was amazing to be a part of that.”

Having been in the office early on in the company’s history, Beatrice also has fond memories of late founder B. Wayne Hughes.

“I met Wayne, he was very personable when he would come to the office. I’d see him in the office and he was just a very approachable person,” she said.

This Women’s History Month, and every day, we congratulate Beatrice on more than 25 years assisting our customers and training new agents.

“They went by fast. You look it was 5 and you look up it was 10, and you look it was 15,” she said. “I have always enjoyed developing other agents and encouraging them to do better. As well as to address the needs of the customers in a positive matter.”

Thank you, Beatrice!

In honor of Women’s History Month, we gathered amazing female leaders who are represented at all levels and who come from such varied backgrounds for a discussion.