I was shopping the other day and while I was walking around the store an associate was walking towards me. She went from blank faced to super smiley and asked, are you finding everything you need? Besides the glaring fake smile, her voice grated on my nerves. It’s really hard to go shopping without evaluating the shopping experience.

Are you giving genuine customer service or a rehearsed rendition of customer service? Whether you are answering a call in the call center, greeting a customer walking into your store, or taking a call in your office you must be genuine. It doesn’t matter if you have had to greet 3,479 people. All of them are entitled to the same customer service. Trust me, you might get away with a few that are not 100% but most people can spot a fake when they see or hear it. Being genuine also puts the customer at ease and allows them to open up to what you have to offer. Our secret shopping training materials stress smiling when you answer the phone and building good rapport with the customer. Both of these actions will help make your secret shopping evaluations go much smoother.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS executive and business blog writer.

Thanks for visiting our secret shopping blog, a blog that speaks of stories, tips, advice and more for the self storage and mystery shopping industry.

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Last week I saw the manager of our local StorageMart location outside on the grounds picking up trash. This was outside of the secured and gated area that most would consider a public area. She puts extra effort into keeping her property looking nice because she knows that curb appeal has a lot to do with the company’s image. When she takes potential customers on a tour of the lot with her golf cart she always carries a bucket and broom so that she can pick up any debris that might be blowing around the property. This manager lives on site so the property is really her backyard and she wants her backyard to be well kept.

Keeping a manager on site is a great added security benefit for your property. Even after office hours the manager can keep an eye on the property and lessen the time trying to contact someone in case of an emergency. By allowing the manager to live on site, pride for the property comes with the job. This also saves on travel time and absences. If the manager is on site, they will be able to make it to the office far more often than someone living off site and having to commute to work. Does your property have a manager on site? Think about it, it’s a great idea.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS executive and business blog writer.

Thanks for visiting our property management blog, a blog that has great self storage business tips and ideas for the property management industry.

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It’s very interesting when I try to describe my job. In normal conversation, people ask what I do for a living and when I say I help run a secret shopping department they sort of just look at me with a dumbfounded and puzzling look. I don’t feel like I can sum up my job description with just a few words, and when I start telling the whole story it tends to get a little winded. Here is what I tell people I do for a living;

Have you ever heard of StorageMart the storage company? Most say yes. Our company PhoneSmart is a smaller company that developed off StorageMart when the need for an inbound call center for storage rental arose. PhoneSmart was able to not only handle StorageMarts needs but eventually gained its own clientele in the storage business. Then as PhoneSmart developed, we were able to expand some of our client services to include more than a call center. One of these services is our secret shopping or mystery shopping department. (We now call it our Total Quality Assurance Services department because of the other jobs we do.) We are contracted by outside storage, apartment rental, senior living and assisted living communities to call their business and act as if we want what they offer. The calls are recorded and compiled and burned to CD’s. The CD’s are given to our team of evaluators and sent to the customer. We typically shop over 400 employees a month and hope to raise that number by the end of the year. Right now, there are two of us in the office and many shoppers and a team of evaluators handle the work load. It’s an interesting job in not so few words.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS executive and business blog writer.

Thanks for reading our Secret Shopping Blog, an inside peek at the secret shopping and mystery shopping industry.

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Rent self storage at 7536 Wornall Rd, Kansas City, MO 64114

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Another property management interview conducted was with a Brooke McCarty a local real estate/property management and investments person who has experience in the property management field. Here is what she said about property management;

What is the biggest challenge in the property management field?
The biggest challenge in the property management industry for us is keeping the units filled. There is such saturation in the rental market right now (local and nationwide) because of the steady building and with the housing market being very affordable with low interest rates and accessibility. The other thing that is challenging in the property management field is that you have to be able to answer your phone and follow up on leads as soon as you can. There is sometimes such a quick turnover in the rental/buying market that if you are not on top of your property management game it will pass your business by. It sometimes feels like you are always on your phone, juggling viewings, setting appointment and giving out information.

Then I asked them for the time they have been involved in property management, what were some of the changes they have experienced in property management?
While there seem to be plenty of customers to keep our property management business busy, the rental market can sometimes be too large. Lately our business has seen an over abundance of rental units and when you don’t know the landlord, price cutting among rental properties on the same street can hurt the business. Try to know your landlords and stay in communication with them, it will help your business.

I asked them mention a key item in property management.
The biggest factor in property management to me is the communication the landlord and the tenant. Being able to be the middle person in property management is sometimes a difficult task in the effort to please both parties. I would also say that being available to customers is key element in property management. Not all property management businesses are available after 5pm. I have found that by extending my schedule, I can make showing appointment in the early evening when it is convenient for my clients.

And last to share a funny story about property management………
Our property management business recently had a tenant ’stop’ a water leak with a piece of tape. So that did not last and  she completely flooded our rental and we just had to file an insurance claim on it for approximately $4,000 that she of course has no money to pay our deductible!!!

Conducted by Natalie Thomas, TQA’s executive and business blog writer.

Thanks for visiting our Property Management blog, a blog that can teach you a thing or two.

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Rent storage at 4000 S. Providence Rd, Columbia, MO 65203

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I did it!! It only took me 485 days to get unpacked since we moved into our new home. I know what you are thinking. Over a year to get unpacked??? Well, it wasn’t just unpacking, it was unpacking my life. When we moved into our new home, my parents brought over everything from their home that I had been storing there. We even cleaned out a small storage unit that we shared. When I say everything, I mean everything. Lots of old college books, notebooks, some high school stuff and even a box full of old report cards and projects from elementary school. As an adult, I have never been in a situation until now to get all my stuff in order. I was taking over half of our two car garage, and now it’s done. We have some more organizing to do in that space and are working on it as we speak. My parents gave us some heavy duty steel cabinets to store stuff in the garage and get it organized. I didn’t want to just shove everything into the attic, I wanted to go through everything and sort through it. We ended up with over 17 bags of trash, 4 boxes of old paperwork to shred, 10 boxes of recycled cardboard, numerous totes of stored (pictures, old letters, memorabilia) items, enough re-saleable stuff for a garage sale, a van load of donated items to charity, many repacked boxes and of course my items to put in my new house. Whew! I am glad it’s done and I feel lighter.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS executive and business blog writer, and previous self storage renter. 

Thanks for visiting our self storage blog, a blog that covers everything from the business of self storage to the personal side of storage.

PhoneSmart is your offsite sales force and call center in Columbia, Missouri.

Rent self storage at 14211 Gallant Fox Ln, Bowie, MD 20715

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