Life In A Self Storage Call Center

This past weekend I had the pleasure of viewing a training tape from our parent company.  This was before the call center was created and the emphasis of this training was to get callers to come into the office.  It was a very creative production and using exaggerated characters it humorously depicted the good, bad, and ugly.

The good was a “neat as a pin” young woman with a cultured voice.  Her grammar and syntax as well as her poise and professionalism were picture perfect. She was taking calls in a pristine setting, everything in place and easy to reach,  that was as impeccably kept as her. She had everything in place but employed the technique of placing the customer on hold to look up information time and again.  She spoke into a hand held receiver.

The bad, of course, was a slovenly, bellicose, fast talking jokester on speaker phone who seemed to have not even a nodding acquaintance with American Standard English and no use for what we consider professional demeanor. His idea of “selling the store” was to rear back in his chair, pawing through heaps of papers and garbage on the desk while comparing the need for self storage to the need for open heart surgery.

I could not help reflecting on the changes that call center software and technology have brought to the storage business.  Even so, the objective is the same i.e. to get the caller to close the phone book, come into the office, and rent a unit. 

The blogs that PhoneSmart employees submit are, of course, about the many facets and trends in the self storage industry but they are really more about life in a call center.  We know that store managers and staff need to have excellent sales technique and management skills to keep the business prospering.  In the call center we need those skills as well, but also we need the ability to assimilate information rapidly and accurately.  We need to be “sittable” people, able to take call after call and be fresh, dynamic, enthusiastic, cheerful, and professional on each and every call.  It is no small task, as some of our operators take as many as 100 calls in an 8 hour shift.  I have taken a personal high of 80 calls in 8 hours.  Think about it! Call after call after call and trying to give your best on each one. 

As we are taking overflow calls during peak periods and after hours calls we are often dealing with unhappy tenants.  These tenants for the most part are decent people but there are many who are angry and abusive.  We try hard to keep our composure and professionalism even in the face of anger that is not proportionate to the situation and personally abusive and insulting verbiage.  We often wonder if those same people would be brave enough to say what they say if we were face to face and their bad behavior was not covered by the veil of circuitry and space. Often I feel sorry for some of them who seem to have no coping skills to deal with even the smallest inconvenience or consequence. When the calls are slower and we have time to chat with each other about our “problem” calls we often wonder what the rest of their lives are like if they cannot deal with being locked out of a storage unit.  How do they treat the other service people they must deal with day by day?  I often wonder if they will ever know how much less stressful life can be when you learn to take things as they come without needing to boil over and lash out at someone.

I have been in customer service since 1964. I am salty and pretty much bullet proof.  Many of my peers have expressed that they don’t think I am someone to “mess with”. I try to be a decent person but am not willing to be trampled on. I have handled my share of out of control people and I have had my share of reasonable people who conduct themselves appropriately in all business dealings.  Even so, I was not prepared for how deadly serious people are about storage units.  I realize that we are in an age of instant gratification and we have become a people who expect immediate response and result.  I have learned the gentle art of listening; gleaning information and yet letting what is not relevant roll off my back.  That being said, there are times when even I must put down my headset and walk away, mutter under my breath, go into tree pose and do cleansing breaths to get centered and calm for the next call.

I have often believed that before anyone is allowed to go to a store or call to purchase goods or contract for services that they should be required to spend at least 1 full week behind a customer service counter.  I have amended that to include spending at least a week on the phones in a service call center.  I think that there would be at least a few of them who realize how unfair and ugly their conducts are and how it degrades them in our eyes.

More than customer service co-workers we are family.  We watch out for each other and help each other.  Many of us have become fast friends and share our time off.  We care about each other’s families.  We share triumphs and sorrow, new babies and ending relationships. We do favors large and small for our peers.

Here at PhoneSmart we have your back.  We give information, reserve units, take and send messages and field complaints.  We have the most excellent one on one training.  We are service professionals of the finest sort.  We are armed with cutting edge modern technology and old-fashioned good manners. Check us out and see how we can turn your missed calls into profit.

Written by Kay Johnson, PhoneSmart business blog editor.

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

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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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