What do you do as a customer when a retail manager or worker treats you incorrectly? Do you decide not to shop there anymore? Do you decide to tell that manager what you think? Do you try to find a customer service number for that location and tell the corporate office? There is not a wrong or right way to handle this situation. Some people feel that based on the situation that they will choose what the next steps will be. Hopefully they decide do something that does not contain a violent act.

No one is perfect especially in the retail world. There are all kinds of reasons that people will act out against the customers they are trying to serve. Unfortunately the customers do not always understand and they feel they should be taken care of regardless of the situation. This is true in most cases. During the holiday season or a really big sale, sometimes customer service is not always the best and managers get frazzled. No matter how many classes they take or how many years they have been in the industry, everyone will have a bad day and chooses to react in a way the customers will not like. As a customer you have a choice as well on how you want to handle that situation.

It is said that cooler heads will prevail, but that is just a saying. Depending on the situation, we may decide not to be cool about it at all. We hope that the person in charge or the corporate office will correct the issue that you had with the retail associate, but that is not always a guarantee. No retail establishment wants to lose out on customers, but at the same time they will not be able to satisfy everyone. They do their best not to let a situation escalate, but it will happen from time to time. No one is perfect. Think before you act and everyone will be fine.

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Oftentimes a place of business will have a visitor from the regional, district or even the corporate office. The store sometimes now when that person is coming so they are able to prepare for the visit. When they think of preparing for the visit, what do you think they need to do? For the most part you will see the manager of that individual store flying around making sure that every aisle is cleaned properly, all representatives know the information they are supposed to know, all paperwork and such is in order, etc. This is what they believe their visitor is looking for so they bust their butts to ensure this is happening the way it is supposed to be. Sometimes they do all these things and the district or corporate personnel are not even looking for those things. The things listed above are what the upper management expects.

In any business you have to lay out what is expected from each level of the organization. After you lay out what is expected from everyone, you then need to make sure they understand so there is no confusion. What potentially could happen is that a team member can say they didn’t understand the instruction thus not doing what was asked. Follow up is very important when expectations are laid out. So when higher management is coming for their visit, they are expecting the basics are already being followed. Most likely they are coming to talk about new initiatives and to offer their help on any given topic.

To the higher management team it would often give them a sense of amusement or even disappointment when they do not see the basics done. If the basics are not done then how can they expect a store to move on to a different level? There have been times in which the corporate team has come into a location and walked back out because the basics were not done. They did not feel they needed to waste their time with that store. That is more than just an embarrassment.

The best way to ensure that your visitors will enjoy their visit is ensuring that the basics are done without mention and you are working toward fixing whatever issues you are having. You should not wait until the day before their visit before you begin to inform your staff of the things they need to do. You should be looking over your business daily and ensuring the quality of our service is above standard. The more emphasis you place on checking your systems and making sure the expections are met, the better you are off in the long run. If you are able to identify any problem early, you could potential avoid any disaster that could come your way. On a daily basis, check to ensure the basics are up to par. It should not take you very long if this is an everyday check. Eventually the basics will be so perfect that you will not have to check them as often.

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When a couple goes through a divorce, there are usually squabbles over who gets what.  I don’t believe one person should be able to take what belongs to someone else, even if they are married.  You often hear stories of wives getting a large chunk of her former spouse’s things.  Most people are not fully thinking when they are getting a divorce while others believe they should completely take everything that belongs to them.  Unfortunately there are many divorces that do not end with both sides seeing eye to eye. There seems to be one side of the equation that wants noting to do with the other side and wants everything to be over and done with soon.

You will find that there are many people who are going through a divorce that actually do hide their belongings from one other. They will place their belongings at a friend’s house or even use self storage. I would personally use self storage because of the security and the property manager can not give information on who rents there. So you will be able to keep your belongings away from your significant other.

Once the judge makes their ruling, then you will be obligated by going with what they said in terms of dividing up the belongings. So the self storage unit will come in handy when you are going through a nasty division of property. Finding a quality self storage facility will aid you in your endeavor of closing that chapter in your life.

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It is never easy to be the person at the top of the organization because they are the ones that will have to make the tough decisions on how the company goes. They are in a really bad position when something that they have decided on comes out to be wrong for the company. The flip side of that is that when something goes right, they can take credit for what happened.

Sometimes the people at the top are the ones that are making the hiring and the firing decisions. If they are the ones that decided whether or not a person gets added to their team or someone needs to go, they have to ensure they are thinking about the good of the company. When you are deciding who would be a great addition to the company there is are many different things you have to consider. The quality of your product depends on you making the right decisions when you are hiring and firing your staff.

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Who does not think a good prank is priceless? There is a couple of things that make a prank good and to be remembered. The planning and the execution of the prank have to on point or the whole thing could fall apart. What are you hoping to accomplish from this prank? Do you want comedy, shock value or just simply you are bored and have nothing else to do. There have been great pranks that have gone down in history and that can never be replicated.

If you are ever the victim of a good practical joke or a prank, just laugh it off. Of course this is if the prank did not cause you bodily harm or you losing anything important to you. The prank is supposed to be out of the blue for the person that is receiving it. Now self storage is not off the hook for a good prank. Most of the good pranks in self storage typically occur over the phone. Sometimes you have no idea you are being pranked until it is too late. In self storage you have to realize that you are attempting to sell someone an empty space for them to fill with their belongings. Did you really think that no one would think of good pranks based of that simple fact?

So people will call these different self storage facilities and start with the basics of the call answering all the facility manager’s questions. Of course one of the first questions a manager would ask is, what will you be storing. One prank that recently came about is when a customer told a local storage manager that they want to throw parties in the facility. Now of course most facilities are fenced and locked down with some security measure. It is not sure how you can have a party in a storage unit and invite your friends. At some point during the call, the property manager has to know they are being pranked.

Many managers feel they can laugh at such nonsense, but others feel their time is being wasted. If you know you are being the victim of a prank, it is ok to hang up. Realize though that you could hang up on a person that has a serious inquiry about storage if you are not careful. Make sure you are fully aware of what is going on before you react. You do not want sacrifice the quality of your store and your customer service if you guessed wrong.

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Walking into any retail environment could be dangerous. For the well trained shoppers, they know how to avoid the aggressive sales agents and to focus on what they want. There will be a point in which they will have to speak to someone from the store in order to make a purchase. Oh wait, I guess they have self check out at some stores now. So you can totally avoid human contact if you desire it. Why do people avoid sales people?

Many believe that sales people will try to overpromise them something and not deliver. There sometimes is a gap between what a self storage manager promises a customer and what they actually can give them. Just like any other retail environment self storage is very competitive. There are self storage facilities all over the place. They are battling each day for the business of a customer. Unfortunately there times in which the manager says something that they are not able to come through on. Then they end up losing the customer in the long run. Believe it or not, people actually want they are promised.

There are property managers that say that they are not lying to the customer when they know they are not able to come through on a promise. There are those that feel they will just deal with the problem if one actually comes. Many retail companies that decide to falsify their information hope to never get caught and the customer just continues on like all is ok.  As soon as that customer or customers find out what is going on, they will have to decide on their next move. The customer could decide to make a big deal about it and confront the retail environment about going back on their promise, just go with the flow and take the loss, or just go to their competitor. No matter which choice is made, the self storage facility or retail company will hear a complaint. Those complaints add up and could eventually hurt your business.

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Customers will try to find out as much about the self storage facility from different sources. They will go online, ask a friend and even call around. Of course some facilities will do their best to put their best feet forward to impress their potential customers. Since not every customer knows what separates a good storage facility from a bad one, we have listed a couple of things to look for below.

Is the location is a safe area? This is a question that a lot of new customers do think about. When they are looking around for the best quality self storage facility, it is important to really know where the facility is located. If you are not sure by looking online or in the yellow pages, do searches on a map or you can call the storage facility to ask them. Then you can usually look on a map or find some information about that area. It is even a great idea to take time to drive by the location. Take a look at the block the facility is on, the block before and the block after the facility. You can get a good idea of the area the location is in.

Doe the store take care of doors, fences, ect? As you are driving by or deciding to visit the facility, you can observe the facility itself. How do they take care of their property? Are the doors worn? Does the facility look like it could use a paint job? Does the facility look like someone has been there in the last couple of years? Sometimes the environment can overwhelm the storage facility if someone is not taking care of it.

Is the location clean? When you go down a visit the facility or drive by does the facility look like someone actually cares about the appearance of the facility? Is there a lot of debris just blowing around the facility? When you walk into the facility can you tell the last time the carpet has been vacuumed? There are many more questions to ask yourself as you visiting facilities. The reason you are thinking about these things is to determine whether or not the facility will take care of whatever you need. If the storage managers take care of the facility and insure the quality of their facility, they will take your requests seriously as well. There will be facility managers who try to shine even though their facility is not pleasant. Unfortunately the appearance and condition of the facility, might attract some unwanted visitors such as bugs, rats and other things.

What kind of security technology is at the store? We are not saying that a facility has to be completely locked down to the point where there is an armed guard standing out front, but typically a quality facility will invest in some security technology. Facilities will actually brag about their technology if they have some. They will tell you about their access control gate, where only those people that have pin number allowed access. They will tell about their motion sensors that will have the lights turn on when you enter that portion of the storage facility. That’s the company thinking about saving money and not have their lights on all the time wasting money, which in turn makes your rental costs go up.

Does the staff back up the store? What does the staff really think about the facility they are working for? Do they think this facility is good to rent from? Even if the facility manager does not think so but they still decided to say yes, you will be able to tell. Then you have to decide if you want to rent from a facility that decides to lie. If the facility manager says that the quality of this facility is not great at all and they go on for a time telling you what’s wrong, then you have to decide if you want to rent from a facility who’s manager does not like it there. You have many things to think about.

How full is the facility? That will definitely tell you some things. If the facility is full that could tell you that people like to rent there for some reason. Is it the location, the price, friendly staff or something else? If you time it just right, you might be able to bump into a person that already rents there. You might be able to ask them a couple of questions to find out what made this facility the one they wanted to rent from.

As you see, there are many different things that make one self storage facility better quality than another one. Not all facilities are created equal. In fact, the basics of self storage are the same, but every facility tries to put their spin on it. After all this information, finding the right facility for you could be as simple as having an honest conversation with the property manager. Sometimes the facilities that do not have a lot of flash, get the most customers due to their honesty.

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If you ask around, you will find that many people are still a little skeptical about using their credit card over the phone. Of course there are countless people who have used their credit cards over the phone or on the internet that have gotten their information stolen. This has led to them having their identities stolen which have affected their lives not for the positive. What people have been doing is still trying to do business over the phone or on the internet, but deal with trusted sites or companies. It is very important these days as well as very convenient to use their cards over the phone.

Many self storage facilities have taken precautions and the time to ensure their security is top notch so that customers feel safe giving their credit cards over the phone or on the internet. When customers call into the self storage facilities looking to rent a space, managers will ask them to reserve over the phone. Customers can feel comfortable knowing that they know where the facility is, who they are talking to and also that they are calling the store for information. They are not being solicited to have their credit card taken.  So when the manager asks you to reserve a space, know it is in your best interest and you can feel comfortable.

If you are driving and cannot get to your card to reserve, you should pull over to get your card so that you do not miss out on the space. The reason you are calling the facility is to get a space. If the manager at the facility tells you that they are limited on what they have, then you should use your card to reserve the space. Typically there is always somewhere you pull over that you can pull over in order to get the space you need reserved.

There are a lot of reasons to reserve, but the most important one is that the unit will actually be there when you go to get it. There is no good feeling to be felt knowing that your storage unit is gone because you did not step out on faith and reserve the space. The managers at the facility want your business so they will for the most part not lie to you and try to take your credit card information for their own personal use. Reserve the space and feel good knowing you can cross that off your to do list.

If you reserve a storage unit, then the price and specials that you were quoted will be locked in. If you do not, then the quote may change. Many people try to be mad at the facility for changing their price when the manager told them it could change. Just grab your credit card reserve the space. A quality self storage facility will ensure they have the procedures in place to protect your identity and also take care of your storage needs.

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Every team needs a goal to go after each day. If a team or even an individual does not have a goal to go after daily they will be just working aimlessly. It is a great idea for a person to have a goal so they are able to work towards accomplishing something for the day. If the whole work place has a goal to work towards, then the person in charge has to find a way to make the goal for each person attainable, but at the same time hard to get so they have to work for it. Why has a goal for your work place? You should have a goal for the simple fact your employees are asking for one.

Having a goal does not put added stress on your associates, it actually will make them try harder in making every customer count as well as every call they take. Employees do not want to be told they are not hitting their goals and they are partially responsible for the team not achieving their goals. In fact there are some companies that will display the results of each representative so that everyone sees how well they are doing. Not every representative will think that is a great idea, but there is a motive behind that for the employer.

The motives for displaying the representative’s results could be for a couple of different reasons. The management team wants everyone to see how their peers are doing so if someone is struggling in one particular area, the associate can go to the rep that is doing well can help the one not doing so well. The management team also knows that no one likes to be at the bottom of any report or any reporting board. So when a representative sees their name at the bottom, they will most likely seek help to improve.

If you look at and ask any business that is considered a top notch company, you will see that they have goals. Whether the company is retail, self storage or what not, they will have a daily goal or a yearly goal. Owners are always looking at ways to improve their bottom lines but they know they have to push their associates to do better. Give your associated daily goals and they might surprise you.

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Many companies do not know or feel they need some kind of system to check their quality. There is no doubt that companies need some kind of checks and balance system to know how they are actually doing and what needs improving. It would depend on the type of company that is being talked about and what they do to earn income on how often they need to check their quality. No matter what type of company you run, this kind of system is needed.

You can fool yourself into thinking that everything that you are doing is what the customer is actually wanting. You can believe that you are running on all cylinders and even all your employees are pleased that they work for the company. Maybe your company is being run so successfully that all that is true. It is not likely. The saying that you are only as strong as your weakest link, that is true. If you have the employee that you deem the weakest of all your associates as a customer facing employee, you can not always be too sure what they are saying to the customer. That will and can scare some CEOs.

There is not a written script or report that is a one size fits all kind of solution. You could have a lot of different ideas under your roof if you ask your employees what the customer seems to like or find someway to get the opinion of the customer. In every business that is out there, the customer controls whether or not that company fails. It would be in your best interest if the customer loves what you do for them and you have some kind of system in place that can ensure their happiness with your product or service. Yesterday was too late to get started with putting your quality system in place.

Do not think that if you find something of concern when you create this system of checking your quality that it will be fixed over night. Take the time to understand what is wrong and really think about how the problem can be solved. Try to correct the issue the first time instead of having to go back and attempt to correct the same issue. It may not seem like it first, but taking the time to have some sort of total quality assurance system as a part of your daily business will keep the doors to your business open.

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