You Called Us!

In this age of instant electronic information people are becoming wary and reluctant to give out personal information such as their social security number, their yearly gross income, bank account information, etc. Those who are victims of identity theft are especially hesitant. I have some callers in our storage business that will refuse to hold a self storage unit with a credit card whether it is being charged for a pre payment or not, they do not want to give the number out. I try to explain to them that we are on a secure line and that they are the ones that called us. I try to reassure them that they are aware of who is on the other end of the phone as they called us. I do feel as though that there is a certain level of fear that goes through their mind as they are making the calls. There comes a time when it is healthy to let go of the past and move forward. Those who are in a car accident (and if able to drive) get back in the car and drive again. Identity theft victims have been seriously scalded and it is very difficult for them to let go of their fears that it would happen again. Many of them have had their credit completely ruined. I do everything I can to reassure them that we are a company that takes pride in our services and our integrity of our call center. I let them know that since I have worked here I know of no instance where we have abused a credit card .We take thousands of numbers and have set procedures to insure that the information is not disseminated elsewhere. When I relay my confidence in our company about 1/3 of them will give me their credit card number.