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Not So Stereotypical
By admin on March 30, 2007 | No Comments

We recently started answering for a new self storage company client in the beginning of February 2007. We received quite a few calls since we started answering for them. Our call center sent their first leads to the store on February 2nd and by mid-March, we had sent over 40 leads to the store with approximately 9 of them being reservations.

We received a call from this particular self storage client this morning regarding their account and they stated that they were extremely satisfied with our service. They went on to that that since the start of using our service they had not received any complaints and as a matter of fact, numerous customers asked by name for the original sales rep that they spoke to over the phone (our sales reps here in the call center). Meaning that they each thought our reps were actual store employees.

Only when a telephone sales rep is that good, does this happen. We don’t tell customers that we are at the store, because when someone thinks of a “sales person”, they typically think of the stereotypical “car salesman” type– aggressive and pushy.

But that’s not what it’s about. It’s about excellent customer service, being sincere and caring about what your customers’ needs are and having the knowledge and confidence to give them what they need in order to fill their needs. These are some of the sales techniques that we live by.

Written by: Robin Turner, Call Center Manager.

Thanks for reading PhoneSmart’s self storage blog, a diary of the self storage industry.

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Looking for storage? 111 Cedar St, New Rochelle, NY 10801 has a unit for you.

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Is Self Storage Missing An Opportunity?
By admin on March 21, 2007 | No Comments

I thought that PhoneSmart had found a way to utilize every possible form of communication. The company has an inbound call center, an outbound call center, an email system for web leads, and extensive website, a newsletter, a magazine, and the ever-traveling Tron. Well, I was wrong. On Thursday I made a very strange outbound call. I called a fellow in California who had inquired about a storage unit online. He was very interested in renting from the location after I told him about the facility’s amenities, the availability of the units, and a few sample rates.

The call itself was odd because the man seemed a little uncomfortable during our conversation. Towards the end of our exchange, I figured out why. He was getting acupuncture while I was filling him with storage knowledge. He wanted to go see the facility when he was done, but he needed the address. He requested that I text message the address to him, and I did. I am a PhoneSmart team player.

So now all PhoneSmart needs is an outbound cell phone to text message information to potential tenants. It would allow the company to cover one more corner of the storage industry.

Written by: Shauna AuBac

Thanks for reading PhoneSmart’s self storage blog. We’re on the cutting edge of the self storage industry.

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

4615 National Park Hwy, Carlsbad, NM 88220 has a self storage unit for you.

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Turn Your Missed Calls Into Profit
By admin on March 20, 2007 | No Comments

Spring is on my mind

There were robins in my yard today. Yeah! In central Missouri that says that winter is nearly over. I am not a snow bunny and I just do not like winter. I am really cranky when I am cold and scraping ice off my car windshield.

Winter is a slow time in the call center but that does not mean that we are not busy. We have been sprucing up the place and brushing up on our sales techniques with special training sessions, clearing out the winter dust and, this winter, we have been expanding. There are several new faces and additional workstations. There are also new services.

PhoneSmart is ready to set the industry standard. We are dedicated to helping our client’s self storage facilities create a sales increase by taking those calls that would otherwise be missed. We do not to just answer the phones. We are concerned with standards of excellence such as “speed to answer”. We understand that callers must go through some recordings and transfers to get to us and we do not want them to have any unnecessary wait. We have a one-on-one training program that is so easy to understand that even newbies can start getting reservations on the first day.

We are the best! We serve the best of the self storage business. We are setting the pace for all other call centers nationwide! We are ready and anticipating the busy season ahead. If your on-site staff is missing money calls while they are on the lot with customers or wearing themselves out racing to get the phones while trying to do maintenance, call us. We will have your back. We can turn your missed calls into profit.

For all of the rest of you call centers . . . catch us if you can!

Written by Kay Johnson, PhoneSmart call center “lifer”

Thank you for visiting our business blog, an insider view of the self storage industry.

We are PhoneSmart your off site sales force call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Rent a storage unit at 1723 E. Florida, Springfield, MO 65803.

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Rent Storage Is What We Do For You
By admin on March 7, 2007 | No Comments

I remember about three years ago almost when I came to Columbia, MO. I had a job with a major retailer but had to find additional income. I looked in the paper and found an ad about a call center for storage. I thought to myself, why is there a call center for storage. That is pretty silly. However, I needed the money and it was sounded like a good opportunity so I went in.

I met with Tron and we chatted about how the whole call center for storage worked. I dazzled him with my intellect and he hired me instantly. (Take note of the implied sarcasm) I mean if you knew me, there’s no way he wouldn’t hire me. I still wasn’t sold on the whole idea that there were that many people in need of storage. As soon as I stepped into that call center and heard the phones ringing off of the hook with callers needing storage I was a believer.

I was just amazed at the amount of people and the reasons they wanted storage. I was curious to know where these calls were coming from. They were coming from all over the United States. Once again, I was astonished. It was explained to me that these calls are routed to us because the manager was busy and couldn’t answer the phone. The caller center acted as if they were people at the facility, found out the customer’s storage needs, and then recommended a solution for them. Many people were amazed by the service and they reserved spaces right there on the phone. This is business that the manager of that facility would have lost if he just let the call not be answered or didn’t have PhoneSmart’s call center.

In my time there, I took many calls and got many people to go down to the facility to rent a storage space or at least go down there to check it out. There were also a lot of people that wanted to reserve a space in order to guarantee one would be there for them. If I was doing this and everyone else around me was doing the same thing, I just couldn’t fathom why more storage facilities didn’t take advantage of this idea. The call center was turning the storage facility’s missed call, into profit. You should take a look and see your profits increase exponentially.

The longer you wait, the more customers you risk letting slip away- into “the other guy’s” facility.

Written by: Joel Little

Thanks for reading PhoneSmart’s self storage blog. Self storage is what we do- for you!

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Rent a storage unit at 2055 Mercator Dr, Reston, MD 20191

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Overcoming Reservation Faux Paux
By admin on February 27, 2007 | No Comments

When taking reservations for storage units, different companies have different approaches. Whether they charge $10 or $25 or $100, the purpose of the “reservation fee” is to create a sense of commitment. Some storage facilities, however, do not actually charge anything for the reservation but still require a credit card in order to guarantee a storage unit. To get the reservation, it may be easy to tell the customer that they can just cancel the reservation if it doesn’t work out for them. However, that is defeating the purpose of the reservation at all.

Reservations are meant to create a sense of commitment as I mentioned, and along with commitment comes a sense of ownership. By putting the reservation through, the customer in a sense feels a sense of ownership for the space and that brings them in to the office to finalize everything. The word “cancel” disassociates ownership and hinders the sales process. There is no ownership and the customer may still continue to inquire about storage with different facilities. In essence they are looking for a reason to cancel that reservation by finding something better, closer, even cheaper. So with a non-prepay situation then, we should put the emphasis on not charging the card and not at how easy it is to cancel the reservation. It’s a win/win situation: the customer doesn’t feel like they had to pay extra and you get commitment without having to charge the card. This is an excellent sales technique and can help create a sales increase for our client store.

Written by Julio Montes, evening supervisor.

Thank you for visiting the PhoneSmart call center blog. We offer an insider view of the self storage industry

We are PhoneSmart your off site sales force call center in Columbia, Missouri

Self Storage is just around the corner at 10401 Rhode Isle. Ave, Beltsville College Pk, MD 20705

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Your Space Is Our Space
By admin on January 12, 2007 | No Comments

Welcome to the PhoneSmart secret shopping blog, an insider diary of the self storage industry. Written by Carmen Huff PhoneSmart call center reservations specialist and business blog writer.

The majority of the time when someone calls needing self storage, they pretty much have an idea what they will be storing. Sometimes we cannot accommodate them. You cannot store perishable or illegal items and you cannot live in the unit. But aside from that, everything else goes pretty much goes!

Indeed, when a new renter becomes a customer for one of our storage clients, that storage unit becomes that new renters space whether they need temporary or long term space. Or perhaps they are doing a remodeling job and need to temporarily store those items, which are in the room being remodeled. Maybe someone is thinking of selling their home and need to store a few things so that the home will “show well” when being valued or viewed.

Some people have hobbies where they collect so much stuff pertaining to his/her hobby. I actually had a call not too long ago from a guy who collected World War I and World War II paraphernalia. He had stated he had so many posters on his wall and rolled up that he was at the point where he no longer had enough room for it all and thus had decided to find a storage place for all of it.It could be as simple as someone just needing to have a guest room cleared out for the season. Our clients’ storage facility becomes your space when you rent with one of them.

PhoneSmart, your offsite sales force call center located in Columbia, Missouri. Your local self storage unit provider in 11001 Exceisior Blvd. Hopkins, MN. 55343 Total Quality Services at Total Quality Assurance Services

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Size Is Right In Self Storage
By admin on January 2, 2007 | No Comments

Welcome to the PhoneSmart self storage blog, a peek at the self storage industry, its trends and sometimes a funny story. Written by Amy Ivy PhoneSmart support staff and business blog writer.

In the self storage industry you know when you rent a unit it is going to be the size it is supposed to be. A 10 x 10 is really going to a 10 x 10 and so on. Everyone uses the same measurements, but is can be written differently. Some units are longer than wide and some are wider than long. For example, length x width x height, or width x length x height. They will have the same square feet but the placement of the door may be different and while it may make a difference in the usability, it is still 100 square feet.

I wonder why this is not so in the clothing industry. This is especially frustrating in kid's clothing. Every brand is different. A 2T in one brand will fit, but in a different brand it will not. It makes it very hard to buy children's clothing and it is really difficult to try on children's clothing in the store.

What is even worse is purchasing clothing off the internet because you have to wait for them to get to you to find out they don't fit and then send them and wait another week of two to get the right size. Why can't everything be a simple as renting a self storage unit? You can even do that of the Internet, and when you show up your 10 x 10 is going to be a 10 x 10 and not a 5 x 10.

Your local self storage unit provider in 1575 Thousand Oaks San Antonio, TX. 78232 Total Quality Assurance Services Your all in one Quality Assuarance Portal

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True Stories
By admin on August 16, 2006 | No Comments

Carmen Huff, successful PhoneSmart call center rep spins a sad story for us.

Welcome to the PhoneSmart self storage blog an inside view of the self storage industry.

A Little Story about A College Student, and A Self Storage Unit That Never Came To Be

This is a rather sad story for those of us in the storage industry about how we lost a potential customer. I received a call from a parent telling me how her daughter was in the process of going back home for the summer from college and had wanted to store her stuff for the summer in a storage unit. The college student was a freshman attending college in another state was not familiar with the area but did go through the yellow pages and called a storage facility. It was sad that while she had tried to contact the storage facility several times, she was never able to get a hold of anybody there. Thus, her parents ended up driving over two hours to her new apartment when school resumed. As I was speaking to this college student’s mother, she was telling me she as the mother, was willing to pay upfront for six months worth of storage no matter what the cost if it has saved her having to drive up because her daughter is always acquiring things and never has enough room.

The mother emphasized how dearly she loved her daughter but how the drive alone, picking up he daughter’s stuff and eventually taking it back to the new apartment her daughter was going to move into the following semester was a headache, since her daughter was going to fly back home from the summer anyhow.

Unfortunately, the storage facility that the daughter had called to inquire about is not one of our clients, well at least not yet. The mother was calling me from her home state where she had looked up a facility in her area that is a client of ours and was curious if that company had a facility in her daughter’s college town area. While the facility that her daughter had called, advertised flyers on her college campus, she could never get a person to speak with. That facility must have been inundated with calls and they surely missed an abundant amount of calls from many other students needing to store their belongings.

So what did I learn from this…several things. Advertising. You must market/advertise your facility anywhere and everywhere. Especially in college towns, whether it is college boards or mailings to dorms and apartment complexes. Make flyers and have someone post them on college campuses advertising a college special offered to them so long as they store for two months, which most college students need to do so anyway. The average college student will have moved an average of at least four times while in college, most of the time having to store their belongings.

Once you have placed your advertisements, the calls from students needing that unit will start to pour in. You better make sure you have enough people to answer your calls and assist them, because if a student cannot get a live person ready and able to assist them to acquire storage, not only are we failing our college kids, for they have enough to worry about, but that new potential storage business is being lost.

PhoneSmart will go far and beyond to assist you as a client to aid those college students get a storage unit so that their parents won’t have to worry about having to drive hours to pick up their stuff, and at the same time your company is making money. It’s a win-win situation!

Self Storage in Texas Standard, Drive Up, and Climate Controlled Units Available…12430 Bandera Road, Helotes, TX
Call 210-372-0935

Quality Assurance Recommendation at Total Quality Assurance Services

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Thank You, RPH!!
By admin on July 13, 2006 | No Comments

Submitted by Natalie Thomas, ultimate secret shopper and prize patrol princess.
Welcome to PhoneSmart’s secret shopping blog, the inside peek at the mystery shopping and secret shopping industry.

Here’s what some of our clients think of the Role Play Helpline.

I just did a role play with Jeannette. She was very helpful to me in presenting the move in special. Her approach is really great & I will use it on my next phone call. It is nice to try different approaches & see what works best.

Jan

I just did the role play with Carmen and we both seem to have enjoyed it. She and I both made it relaxing and not intense that we were not able to have a come back response for the customer when they ask us certain question like is this 99.00 for the whole year for rental of the space and also she got me good she pretended to have an incoming call and I persisted to let her know the details and shot her the price and then I got her attention even though she did place me on hold. She helped me with selling points as well as telling me the good things I did. Helping our customers should not be intense but should be enjoyable knowing that we are there when they need us and we have what they need.

Deborah #122

I am sending this to let you know that the role playing line has helped me a lot. I was having problems getting people to give me phone #’s and they helped me by telling me to say it helps to have a number just in case the unit you need becomes available sooner or so we can call you with any information that might apply to you as a new prospective customer.

They have also helped me to get credit card reservations-by telling customers you know we are very limited on number of units available-so to assure you have a unit you might want to go ahead and reserve with $10 credit card payment today. Believe me this has really helped you should see my bonus envelope this month. (Note, I used the money phrase from week 2).

I was also having problems with keeping customer on line long enough to give them info before price and they helped me in this area. They told me to let customer know had to wait for price to come up on the computer and until it does let me tell you about our property and the specials we have to offer. This really works too, as we are getting many more hot leads, etc.

Today I called and spoke to Julio and asked him since we are 95% full and unsure if we would have a certain size available when they needed unit in future-how to handle this. He helped me by saying we could always let them know don’t have that size at this moment- we do have 2 units that are side by side and we could rent them for the price of the one you want, but would need to hold with credit card. He also said that if the size they want should become available then we would call them.

I don’t know about everyone else, but these things have helped me. You can tell our hot lead reservation rack is always full of hot leads and credit card reservations. This too accounts for part of the reason we are 95% full. Jackie & Cris always tell us to work our phone to the max give that customer all your undivided attention and you will get results. So you see the role play helpline helps as well as all the help we get from our upper management. Thanks for being there when we need you and keep up the good work.

Jean Hawkins #1610

If you would information about our Role Play Helpline please contact us at 1-866-639-1715.

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Selling Self Storage 101
By admin on May 26, 2006 | No Comments

PhoneSmart’s Sarah Little gives us a crash course in selling self-storage

Three years ago I began working in the Phone Smart call center. I knew I’d be selling self-storage over the phone. I had previously had a vacuum cleaner sales job, which was pretty hard-core selling. So, I thought to myself, “This will be easy, how much can there be to selling self storage?”

Although it seemed like an easy job, it turned out to be a lot more intricate and detailed than I thought. Aside from all the call center software, and rules, I had to learn the storage industry.

So whether you’re a veteran or a newbie at selling storage, let me give you a quick run down of the key points you should cover when talking to a prospect.

Greeting:
Be happy!! SMILE! Give your name and your store’s name and ask how you can help.
Qualifying:
Ask the customer these 3 questions (at least)
1. How soon do you need storage?
2. Are we a convenient location for you?
3. How much do you have to store so that I can find you the best size?
Value:
List some of the benefits of storing at your facility.
Price:
Give the price AFTER you’ve qualified and built value.
Close:
1. Create urgency (motivate the caller to rent now)
2. Take the caller’s contact info (name and number)
3. Encourage a reservation
4. Invite them in and make an appointment

Ending the call:
1. Ask if they have any other questions
2. Thank them for calling.

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