How many reservations can we get?

Welcome to the self storage blog, our diary of the self storage business. One of our client’s store managers asked us how many credit card reservations our reps typically average. He was trying to compare our results with rental inquiries with what he is doing at his store.

Our call center manager, Robin sent him this response, which you might find of interest.

You may want to take a few thing into consideration when trying to get an overall picture of reservations per day. Certain circumstances will affect those numbers.

Personally, I like to look at a goal of credit card reservations per number of calls taken instead of per hour, simply because everything depends on the number of calls you take in an hour. Your results will also depend on what time of day or time of week you are working. Ideally, I go for 1 reservation out of every 10 calls. This number also includes wrong number call-ins, current customer calls, truck rental inquiries, etc.

Circumstances to consider: During the 1st and last week of the month, as well as Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays, during the morning/afternoon shifts, and the summer or holiday season you’re more likely to have a greater number of reservations.

Other considerations: some stores might be sold out and we can’t take a reservation for them. This year’s natural disasters have also played a part this year in the number of reservations. For example, we answer for the Lake Charles StorageMart. While the store was without power and when its computer was down, we couldn’t take any reservations at all for a period of time.

Depending on how long you can hold the unit will also be a factor. For example, store managers may be able to hold units longer since they know exactly how many units they have left, where as we may only have a general idea.

Just recently we made a slight change to our hold time on units, expanding the time frame from the max hold time of 2 weeks, up to a 4 week hold. This will also start to affect our numbers.

Unfortunately the winter season is fast approaching and rental inquiry calls will decline. Right now our numbers are still fairly good. Many reps are averaging 1 credit card an hour or better. Not too shabby!
Robin

Tweet This Post 

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

View admin's Profile      Subscribe via RSS