When Disaster Strikes

Robin Turner, call center manager and self storage insider, offers the following.

Welcome to the PhoneSmart call center blog, an insider view of the self storage industry.

Last year some areas were hit with devastating blows by the wicked weather that swept across the globe. Many lives were changed and lost due to the horrific disasters that came about. Many are still trying to regain and cope with what happened last year.

As we’re now approaching the 2006 hurricane season again, what type of situations are you prepared to deal with? If you dealt with last year’s catastrophes, then you may be a bit more prepared this year. However, if you weren’t… you should start planning now “just in case”. You never know what the future holds and you don’t want to be caught unprepared.

When Katrina hit, many self self storage facilities were not prepared to rent units due to one reason or another. Some properties had lost electrical power in their area and were not prepared to manually rent the units and give cash back… a calculator can be very helpful in those times of need. A back up procedure can save much time so you can revert directly to that, instead of having to figure out what to do while you have a line of confused customers at your door.

You need to be prepared to handle customers who have lost mostly everything they own as well as possibly… lost family members. It can be quite a chaotic and stressful time for many. Making it as easy as possible will relieve at least a bit of tension.

If you have some steps that you can take in order to relieve some of your patrons that can also make a difference. Take for example: perhaps bottled water and plenty of toiletries available, plenty of copies of rental agreements on hand, etc. in case the electricity goes out, toys for the kids to play with while waiting with their parents, etc.

These little perks will be more than just good sales techniques; they’ll help strengthen the human spirit in its time of need. How will you prepare for potential disasters so that your store stands out from the rest in your area if you have to deal with a crisis satiation?