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Will you be in Orlando on January 8th? The self storage association is hosting a meeting of its Affiliated Associations Council, where all the different state and international associations that are affiliates of the SSA can sit down and discuss the issues of the day. I will be hosting a lunch on January 8th along with our friend Linnea Appleby of PDQ Management Solutions. We will be at the Crowne Plaza at noon on Monday. GO to the link o the right side of the page and click through to PDQ to reserve your seat at the table. We will have an informal discussion with a small group of interested people, talking about increasing revenues, making our operations more efficient and any storage issues people are concerned about.

Later in the evening the self storage association will hold a dinner meeting for the affiliates. There are some interesting topic to discuss. How can the affiliates work together to create more interest in their areas and to do more to help members. There are always discussions in this group about how the SSA can help the affiliates and how the affiliates can help the SSA.

I hope to see you there.

Tron Jordheim PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and Call Center in Columbia, Missouri. Thanks for visiting our self storage blog; the inside scoop into the self storage industry.

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When I am taking calls in the evening at the PhoneSmart call center I am often speaking with a current tenant requesting information about a notice or bill received. In most cases I can listen to the complaint or question but am unable to offer much help other than transferring the caller to voice mail. This is not always a popular option as the caller may feel brushed off or perhaps they have already left a message and are feeling neglected because no one has returned the call.

We have a new company that we are answering for. This company does not have us send the caller to voice mail, but instead, we take the name and number and unit number and type out the message to send in the same manner as a hot lead is sent. Many of these callers seem to be more soothed and reassured by the fact that I am listening to the question or complaint and they can hear me typing as we speak. Perhaps more companies could follow suit.

From my experience in customer service I have learned that an unhappy customer can be soothed if they believe that someone is taking the time to acknowledge the problem and take some sort of action on their behalf. I think that all of us would happy to type out a simple message for the caller if it will help improve customer relations with their self storage facility. This would be a powerful sales technique as well because that person could become a powerful ad agent for the facility.

One happy customer can lead to a sales increase.

Written by Kay Johnson PhoneSmart call center blog editor. Thank you for visiting our blog we offer an insider view of the self storage industry. We are PhoneSmart your off site sale force call center in Columbia, Missouria href=” http://Illinois-Aurora-60540-self-storage.storage-mart.net ” target=”_blank”>Your local self storage unit provider in 819 N. Eola Rd. Aurora, IL. 60504

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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.

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.

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My mind is always going over lists of things to do, things to remember, things I forgot, things I’ve been meaning to do, etc. I am a packrat not in the physical sense but in an intellectual sense, not that I’m claiming to be intellectual. Quite the contrary! I sometimes become so scatterbrained because of all the chaos that I can’t focus on a simple task.

The end of the month seems to be the pinnacle of when my mind’s inbox becomes full and I have to push the delete button or archive unused folders. This is the time of month when our deadlines have no mercy on me, even during the holiday. The 30th, and God love it when there’s a 31st, sneak up on me and everything I thought I had time for becomes a pressing issue. (I won’t even think about that nasty month with only 28 days in it!)

Yes, my mind definitely needs an assistant. Perhaps the next wave of self storage technology could be mental storage vaults?

Written by: Sarah Little, TQA Executive

Thanks for reading our business blog; we know the self storage industry inside and out. Your local self storage unit provider in 640 S.W. 2nd Ave. Miami, FL. 33130 Total Quality Assurance Services Quality Assurance Testing

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Jeanette Puccetti PhoneSmart call center rep relates her experience with self-storage. Welcome to our blog. PhoneSmart gives you a window into the world of self-storage Wanted: Storage Unit for a College Student

O.k, I’ll be honest with you: when I first started out in the storage industry I thought that paying for storage was a little silly, even a bit excessive. However, due to my own experiences, my viewpoint has changed. Let me explain…

I used to live in a two-bedroom home with another person, my boyfriend. We broke up soon thereafter, and I found myself squeezing all that I was able to into a moderate sized studio apartment. I packed the closets from top to bottom and utilized the space around the apartment as well as I could. I placed plastic bins under the bed- everywhere- I even built a table using 8 boxes covered with a tablecloth. This took up A LOT of extra space, causing me to stumble around and bump my elbows and hips on hard corners throughout my house!

I thought about how nice it would be to glide throughout my house easily locating the belongings that are daily necessities. So I finally came to terms with my glaring need for storage. Packing up the stuff that I wanted to keep, but didn’t actually need at my apartment to put into storage was simply freeing. I felt like a huge burden had been lifted off of my shoulders as I lightened my load into a secure, fresh smelling storage unit. I am now a believer. My life is more structured with the excess gone and I no longer hit my funny bone on corners!

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Welcome to the self storage blog, where we share our experience in the self storage industry. Sometimes people ask us what we think callers want. He is the short version of the answer. Most callers do not know what they need or how to shop for storage. They often assume that price should be the issue, but they don't know what their money is buying. Store features and amenities become a great way to show callers that they are buying more than the cubic footage of storage area.

Features and amenities also give us a chance to create some value in the property to justify the cost and to differentiate the store from others in the area. Most callers are frustrated with the entire storage shopping experience and are not storing because of a happy situation in their lives. Many shoppers have gotten answering machines, busy signals, unprofessional phone treatment and very little help on previous phone calls. Being able to be helpful while professionally selling a property brings a certain amount of relief and comfort to the caller. Price is usually not the main issue.

Most callers are far more concerned with convenience of location and with getting a clean, friendly, secure place for their belongings. Price may be the first question out of their mouths. But it is usually number three or four on their list of priorities. The window of need is a little wider than many expect. There are many storage callers who do not need a unit immediately but want to do shopping and decision making now. The window of need seems to be about 4 weeks in most cases.

Callers often think they need to do comparison shopping to find the right location at the right price. What we usually experience is that a great many shoppers will make a decision “now” if you can satisfy their emotional needs and assure them that the store they are calling will meet their needs and expectations at a fair price. bye for now, Tron

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