Emotional Customers

Welcome to the self storage blog, our diary of the self storage world.

Today’s blog comes from our evening supervisor Wendy. For some reason we seem to get more calls in the evenings from people experiencing some real personal difficulties.

Occasionally we take calls from people who are extremely upset about their current situation. So in a way we turn into life counselors through the course of a phone call about storage! Sometimes callers see us as a good person to just listen to their problems for the moment. Being able to let someone about the problem seems to help ease their minds.

But we still need to remember to control the call and not get lost in their stories. Controlling the call in this situation can be a difficult task sometimes.
One way to get through that is of course by saying we are sorry for what they are going through and show some compassion. It is hard not to feel compassion for people. You know you are wishing not to be caught in their situations.

I had a lady call once that had just gotten her child taken away from her by the Department of Family Services and she was about to lose her home and she needed storage. She kept going on about that. Yes that would make someone very emotional. I would never want to be in such a position. Then she started balling on the phone with me and it made me want to cry. But I had to get the call under control. I tried saying I’m sorry again and then …”what about that storage unit”…. then she would cry again.

I felt pretty bad for her but I could not stay on the phone for hours with her, although by the end of the call I was her best friend. She said she felt like she had known me for years.

Through all that I did not get the reservation but I did get a hot lead for the store manager and an appointment time which is a lot better than nothing. That will give the manager of that store something to follow up with. And hopefully by getting the storage part of her personal challenge solved, she will be able to focus on her other issues and be able to make them better.

Wendy

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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