Self Storage Accolade

Welcome to the self storage blog, PhoneSmart’s diary of the self storage call center world.

I wanted to respond to Dana’s posting from yesterday. Dana is far too humble. Her idea of getting the schedule right is to be 99% correct 99% of the time. She is also too smart to ever think she has the demand patterns completely figured out. That is why she is so good at doing our call center telesales rep scheduling. She is correct that every day brings a new surprise. And although she understands the self storage trends and the trend lines very well, the peaks and valleys will surprise you and the unpredictable nature of the weather and consumer behavior will always throw a wrench or two in her plans.

Never the less, Dana is the main reason PhoneSmart maintains some of the best answer percentages, speed to answer rates and service levels of any call center out there. We are typically answering 95% of calls in 6 to 8 seconds. These are not only terrific statistics for a Self Storage call center, but any center in the whole call center worldwide industry would be proud of such stats.

Yes we get caught short or long sometimes. But our call center has developed some pretty good methods of keeping people busy if the phones are slow or getting other people on the phones if they go crazy. I know it drives Dana crazy that the self storage peaks and valleys and surprise days are unpredictable. One day she may beat the market and come up with a predictor she can sell to the Dow Jones Company for tracking stocks.