Many firms are hiring secret shopping agents to provide them with feedback regarding their retail or storage personnel performance. This helps the firms in understanding the strengths and lacunae of their frontline staff. This method of evaluation is seen to be pretty effective in comparison to other methods of taking consumer and executive feedback. Earlier, surveys were conducted to know the consumer tastes and the consumers had to fill up feedback forms. Many consumers would simply march off the stores due to lack of time and more than that due to unwillingness to put in that extra effort to patiently pen down what they feel about their experiences. The forms were lengthy and pretty boring.

The secret shopping agents would make the feedback process very lively for the client. In the first place they would make the environment informal and extract information from them posing as fellow clients. Due to this, the real consumers would open up freely and voice their opinions. Hence this method of collecting vital information about consumer satisfaction seems to be very effective. This method reminds one of olden times when kings would send their agents or they would go out in disguise to get an understanding of what is happening in their kingdom.

When it comes to evaluating the property management or storage staff members, collecting information via secret shopping agents seems to be a very good method. Earlier there were boss and supervisor meetings where the boss would take reports about the performance of his sales staff from the supervisors. The supervisors would take a formal interview of the staff members to know their strengths and weaknesses. The members of the staff would not voice their opinions freely because of the fear of getting a negative evaluation. Hence, their problems would remain for years together unsolved and their performance would not make any progress.

Prior to appointing secret shopping agents, the top ranking bosses would go on periodic inspections to evaluate the quality of the performance of their frontline staff and the consequent consumer satisfaction. But the disadvantage out there was, the staff being already aware of the inspection would put on a show of perfection in front of their bosses and get back to their usual performance standards after he left the scene. So this method also turned out to be an ineffective way of getting the correct picture of the performance of the frontline staff.

The secret shopping agents, by posing as consumers, gave the opportunity of free expression to the frontline staff along with the consumers. The staff members unaware of any evaluation that is going on openly tell the agents what they feel about their employment with the firm, their seniors , the things that they are pleased about and the ones that displease them in their careers.

Apart from talking directly to the frontline staff members and the consumers, the agents also make direct observations of the activities at a retail outlet. They observe the maintenance aspects of the business venue they visit. They pay surprise visits to the malls and hence catch all the actions out there in its true colors. These agents are hence akin to spies. However, the purpose of such a mission is not to catch the frontline staff red handed and penalize them, but to identify the strong points and weak points of a system to facilitate further progress.

Storage Unit

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For A Hobby Gone Wild

Home improvement is an obsession with some people. They love taking out walls, ripping up carpet, and the smell of fresh paint. Once they have upgraded and remodeled their current house, they might get the idea to purchase a shabby, yet functionally strong fixer, just so they can keep the spirit of renewal alive. Their wives might insist upon it, so that they can finally live in a house that does not have any rooms walled off with plastic sheeting. Take it somewhere else, for crying out loud! It sounds good, in theory. You have got a place to play, and hone your home improvement skills, and by the time it is all said and done, you also have a really nice second home. Thing is, you can only live in one of them. So you decide to rent the other one out.

At first, it seems pretty self contained. I can handle this, you think to yourself, as you buy up a third and then a fourth fixer-upper to remodel. With three or four finished homes under your belt, all of a sudden, the responsibilities begin to become a little more than you bargained for, and what started out as a stress relieving hobby has turned into a stress producing nightmare.

Suddenly you are thrust into the unfamiliar world of residential property management , and you really do not know what you are doing. You find yourself scrambling around, looking for tenants to begin to compensate your bank account for the money that you used to remodel the houses in the first place. You want good tenants, though, and not just any old Joe off the street. How do you know that a family is not going to come in with crazy wood chewing dogs and a crayon wielding two year old, leaving your beautifully redone masterpiece in shambles a year later? 

Residential property management requires you to ask such questions, and find solutions. It is challenging. Keeping your homes maintained is important. Being present and available for your tenants is also crucial. They want to know that they can count on you to come to their aid if repairs are needed. Residential property management also requires you to learn a little something about homeowners insurance, property taxes, renters rights and your rights, as well. You hope that it will not happen, but every once in a while you are bound to get that tenant that breaks a lease suddenly, leaving you without a few months rent and a houseful of leftover storage items. Would you know what to do to get that money owed you? It is all part and parcel of the business.

Do not let all of this responsibility and obligation deter you from your love of home improvement, though. There is a solution. You just have to be able to pay for it. Residential property management does not necessarily have to come from you, as there are many professional companies out there that will basically walk into your business, with your cooperation, and take over the parts that you do not want to invest your time or energy into. If you cannot stand marketing, then they do the marketing. If you have no desire whatsoever to deal with financial statements and taxes, they handle it for you. If you are a weenie when it comes to getting back rent owed you and collections makes your skin crawl, professional residential property management can take care of that for you, for a fee, of course.

You do not have to forgo your passion for pounding nails or your obsession with laminate flooring. Go to you storage unit and get your supplies to remodel, add on, and improve till your heart is content. Make the world a more beautiful place, one freshly painted room at a time, and leave the technical stuff to your trusted and helpful residential property management professionals, and let them deal with it and report back to you. You have crown molding to attend to, after all.

For Rent

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Of all of the tools and practices that a business can use to measure the level of guest service that their customers are receiving, the mystery shopper program is one of the most intriguing and highly effective methods of doing so. It is one of the most valuable methods of receiving non biased feedback in regards to customers experiences, when performed by trained professionals. However, in its application it can be one of the most challenging tools to use, even though the simplicity of the process seems to suggest otherwise.

Having professional evaluators posing as random shoppers to evaluate the interactions that take place between guests and employees makes sense, because the best way to understand a guests experience is to hear it firsthand from them. And while that first hand experience can prove to be the most informative and valuable resource that a business has, when acquired as a result of a mystery shopper program , it can sometimes be a source of strain rather than a true measure of quality service.

When a retail, food services, mini storage or mini self storage employee disputes the claims made by and evaluator, which they often will, especially if there are incentives and benefits that are lost as a result of poor scores, it can create stress and strain as a situation of he said, she said in the workplace, which is counterproductive to the reasons why a business would participate in a mystery shopper program in the first place. Lack of adequate training on the part of the evaluator, usually resulting in an accidental reveal, can create tension in many different areas, between employee and evaluator, employees and employers, and also between employers and the vendors that provide the service. Since there is no nationally set standard of practice when it comes to training and hiring these evaluators, there are companies who make big claims, but then scramble about to fine a means of fulfilling them. It is worth noting that there is beginning to be much more formal training in the industry itself, producing more qualified evaluators with less risk of exposing the assignment and compromising the integrity of all involved.

Before implementing any kind of mystery shopper program , an employer has a responsibility to its employees to bring the information regarding the implementation of the program to the forefront, allowing employees to ask questions, find out the reasons behind the decision to bring anonymous evaluators in, and detail the incentives that employees have for doing good work and receiving high scores. When presented to the employees ahead of time, and gently reminding them that these observations could be occurring at any time and that good guest interaction requires treating each person with respect, kindness and courtesy, it keeps the focus upon where it is supposed to remain, on the customer relations, themselves rather than upon the black mark on their record that a poor evaluation might make.

Using a mystery shopper program as a tool to gather information as well as a way to measure the performance of their employees and their level of professionalism is easier said than done, but in so doing it restores the sense of trust that employees have in their employers because they need not feel as if they have the potential to be singled out and face repercussions as a result of the implementation of a new program. While some employees are motivated by incentives, others feel threatened by such tools. A balance is certainly required.

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Commercial property management is best utilized in situations where the owners of a retail building, multiple apartments, single family dwellings, mini storage or self storage buildings or other buildings that are designed for use as a revenue producing investment cannot adequately manage the buildings and tend to the responsibilities that are involved. it comes as no surprise that the more buildings one owns, the more responsibility there is in the maintenance and upkeep of said buildings. When the job becomes too much for one person to bear, chances are that enlisting the aid of a group of professionals will reduce your workload and reassure you that nothing is being overlooked.

Commercial property management requires much more than merely collecting monthly rent checks or fixing up a vacant unit in preparation for leasing it out to someone else. For instance, advertising your unit, whether it is a vacant storefront, an empty mini storage unit or a vacant two bedroom duplex with a fenced in yard, is a primary factor in the success of your business. Vacancies do not bring in money. Tenants bring in the money. If your advertising is poorly coordinated, or if the best you can do is a small sign in the window, then chances are your selection of potential tenants will be slim, at best. Advertising your vacancies is a way to bring in more successful candidates, giving you the power of choice when it comes to who you want to ultimately do business with, rather than selecting the first person that calls about the place and wants to rent it sight unseen. This is ultimately your investment, and while it is illegal to deny someone on the basis of race, gender, religion or disability, it is your right to make sure that the person that you choose to rent to is going to handle your investment responsibly, based on past performance and rental history.

Commercial property management will often take care of advertising for you. They have well established ties in the community and are able to fulfill your needs because of their years of advertising experience. In many cases, not only will they advertise your vacancy, but they will also meet the prospective tenants and lead them through the application process, as well as conduct thorough background checks to meet your specifications. Perhaps you want credit checks, performed as well as rental history, but references are not as important. If personal references are more important to you than credit scores, they will accommodate that, as well. Whatever your preference when it comes to screening potential tenants, a good commercial property management group will accommodate your wishes. After all, it is your investment, and you have the right to have it managed the way that you choose.

Commercial property management works for you, and not the other way around. Make sure that you do your homework when hiring such a group to represent you in your company. Yours should be the final word, hands down and bar none. If you find yourself haggling with someone that you have hired as to where your profits should go or have been going, look elsewhere. There are reputable groups out there who understand that your primary objective is to avoid the small stuff…the daily hassles and obligation of running multiple locations, so that you may focus your efforts and energies on the big picture of acquiring new buildings to add to your company. You are and should remain the boss, so make sure that whomever you choose to go with understands and respects your position.

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Anyone who owns or manages a retail business such as a clothing store, a convenience store or a home improvement center, or a business that is heavily involved with serving customers in one way or another such as a restaurant, coffee shop, cafe, boat storage or automobile storage place, hotel or night club, knows all too well the tremendous impact that secret shopping services can have on the employees of any such business that utilizes them. In fact, employees who know that their company or employer will be utilizing secret shopping services throughout their employment in the company, typically out perform employees of other companies who do not use consistent shadow evaluations to measure customer interaction and employee friendliness.

Why is this? Well, for starters, many companies that are actively using a consistent level of secret shopping services on their employees and businesses usually do so as some kind of incentive program, offering rewards for improvement, rather than to find and single out bad workers, as is sometimes assumed by the very nature of the evaluations being unknown. Many companies offer cash bonuses to those employees who are rated as above average or excellent when they have been the recipient of an evaluation. It is logical to assume that once an employee realizes that doing their job to the best of their ability not only gets them brownie points with the bosses, but also cold hard cash, then just maybe they think to smile a bit more often, and greet the customers more regularly.

In fact, entire training programs are very often created around the basis of the secret shopping services that are routinely performed at a company. For the most part, companies who use the results of their shadow observations and evaluations to come up with fun, convenient ways to motivate their employees to try harder often have the best scores over all. As an example, imagine working for a company whose manager hands out something along the lines of smile tickets, when he or she sees and employee smiling frequently or doing their job exceptionally well. The employee then puts their ticket into a tumbler and each week a name is pulled out of the tumbler for a cash prize or some other prize. Even though there may not be any evaluations going on that day at all, the line is cast, in that employees are asked to consistently participate in friendly, courteous service with their guests. It becomes a theme, and a recurring one.

Honoring employees for the work that they do and for the progress that they are showing just makes them feel good. Working for a company who values them, and rewards them in fun and exciting ways, enables them to be more responsive to customers and patrons whether the secret shopping services are being performed or not. That is, after all, the ultimate goal, friendly, courteous customer service every day, not just every other day, or once a week when they feel like it. Good customer service makes a lasting impression on guests to an establishment, and fun, respectful and unique management makes for happier, more responsive employees. At the end of the day, it is this combination of excellent management and training skills and responsive, happy employees that turn a guests experience from mediocre to stellar, and that is something that all businesses want to achieve.

Customer Service

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In the business of buying and selling other peoples homes and self storage properties, creating an effective real estate lead management system is perhaps the single most important factor in regards to the success of your efforts. When you learn the valuable skill of handling all of your leads and prospects effectively, it will increase your sales and further your personal production.

By implementing an effective system of organization and response, your real estate lead management program will help you to avoid wasting time searching for leads that you may have misplaced, because all of your prospects and leads will be effectively categorized and stored within the system itself. You can cut back on phone time by using email auto responders, and be more readily able to target your mass mail outs to actual prospects rather than simply to the general public. With just a little time spent on learning the proper procedures in implementing whatever software program you have chosen, your effort will reap the rewards once you have established a routine

There are many different types of top notch computer software programs that you can choose from to assist you with your residential apartment or self storage facility real estate lead management . These programs can include various forms, documents and hands free calling features, as well as computer generated responses to those prospects who want more information, but are not committing to having enough motivation to make a decision one way or the other, just yet. Having the ability to effectively sort through leads to determine who is ready to move forward is a great skill, and it comes from organization of your leads into various stages of readiness.

For example, while a mere prospect may simply be a person who may want to buy or sell at some point, you would be spinning your wheels in the mud by trying to convince them that now was a good time to move. They will ripen if and when they need to, without prodding or provocation from you. Leads, however, understand that action needs to occur, and how quickly they are ready to take that action is also to be determined and categorized. While it is nice to have business set up for six month into the future, things can and often do change within that span of time. Trying to load up your future months with a steady supply of semi motivated people does not pay your bills right now.

Stay committed to those individuals who are committed to moving forward within the next thirty to sixty days, and you will have your bread and butter. Keeping the most relevant leads a priority is easier to do when you are committed to your real estate lead management program, because throughout the process, those with the most potential always rise to the top. You need not go searching, for they will be at your fingertips, kept current in the system that you have implemented.

A great salesperson is not necessarily someone who can sell ice in the Arctic. A great salesperson is an individual who places extreme value in their system of real estate lead management and uses that system to its full advantage by always working their best and most promising leads with full intention, thus enabling them to refrain from wasting time and energy on people who are just not ready. In time, those prospects may become leads, but for now, keeping clear on a goal to assist those people who are showing true responsiveness is key.

Job Employment

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Living in the world today we are always being watched. When we go into any supermarket or retail establishment, we are being watched by employees as well as by surveillance cameras. When we stop and get gas, cameras are everywhere. We get our pictures taken if we run a red light at the intersection. Cameras are everywhere, even in some schools. We are even watched in parking lots of apartments and self storage facilities . Most of us rarely think about the fact that just about everywhere we go we are being observed. Perhaps it is for our safety in some instances, such as the cameras that are located within ATM machines to ensure that it is we who are accessing our accounts. It is fair to say that we have become numb to the observation, oblivious to the fact that people that we do not know nor do we suspect are checking us out.

Is that why it is so easy for evaluators to stand back and watch as they perform mystery shops on employees? Have the employees become so use to outside evaluation that they have managed to go on about their lives without even the slightest clue that an evaluation is taking place? Of course. We have all done just that. We have conveniently managed to forget that we are observed every single day of our lives, and we somehow carry on as if nothing had ever happened. Mystery shops are like surveillance, in a way, though not necessarily trying to catch employees in the act of doing something wrong. Rather, it is more along the lines of grading the employee for the job that has been witnessed.

Mystery shops seldom hurt an employee. In fact, the employee is actually the one who is inevitably hurting himself by failing to perform his duties according to his job description. The evaluators who are responsible for doing the mystery shops just happened to be there to witness the oversight and report the incident, as they are required to do. Poor performance or uncooperative customer service will eventually make itself known, with or without an outside evaluator assisting in the process. Sooner or later someone would have complained anyway. 

Perhaps our world has become so technologically advanced that we really do not mind being repeatedly observed. There are cameras recording us on computers, allowing us to stream our live image across the world in seconds, even from our cell phones. It is a fact of life that even in our own homes we are likely being observed at some point without even knowing it. Instead of fretting about it, we have grown accustomed to it as a source of evaluation itself. Mystery shops may not use cameras, but they are absolutely effective tools for evaluating the level of customer service that is being offered in just about any kind of establishment from self storage companies to hotel and resorts.

Cameras cannot make true evaluations, they can only record images. The human touch occurs when more than just a mental image is painted. Human impressions add that sense of depth and honesty to an evaluation that merely witnessing the incident on a camera could never do. As long as businesses cater to customers, there will be evaluations. It comes with the territory. Perhaps just getting used to the fact that evaluations can be occurring at any time strengthens the resolve to do a better job. That is the hope, at least.

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Property management firms may seem like a frivolous and costly expense to someone who only has two houses to keep up with, and in that circumstance, it probably is too costly to be feasible, unless the owner of the properties knows absolutely nothing about finding and keeping good tenants, repairing or maintaining the self storage units or homes.

Many individuals who find themselves in the business or renting often at least have some basis of knowledge in either the business side of the deal or the maintenance and make ready aspect. The more homes or buildings that one acquires, the larger the workload and the responsibility. Maintaining five or more apartment or storage buildings of various sizes can be a full time job in its own right. Factor in the effort required to find and screen trustworthy, reliable tenants, clean up the messes made by those who you thought were reliable but turned out to be slobs, manage the books, collect the rent, and stay on the case of yet another tenant who is late on his rent for the fourth time, forcing you to consider your legal options, and it makes perfect sense to look into property management firms to pick up even half of the slack and take care of some of these responsibilities for you.

If you are a handyman by trade, and do not consider yourself a social, business type, then perhaps you can look into property management firms who will agree to take on only the business aspects, such as advertising your vacancies, representing you when it comes to screening potential tenants, perform credit and background checks and generally be the go-to person when your tenants need to talk to someone about a complaint or concern. If you can handle the maintenance, the repairs, the make ready and the cosmetics of making the vacant houses and units sparkle, then they can handle the rest. That is certainly an option that you have, as the owner.

However, if you enjoy interacting with people, love meeting tenants, have a knack for accounting and book keeping, seem to get all of your rent collected without a problem and know when and where to advertise to get the right folks in, but you are clueless when it comes to repair, maintenance and make ready, then property management firms can assist in the hands on application of providing routine maintenance and contracting out other work that is needed in the way of repairs, such as plumbing or electrical issues.

Most property management firms understand that not everyone is ready or interested in just handing over their entire business to someone else to run. Often, an owner just wants a little help with the tasks that they are either not qualified to do, or that they particularly dislike doing. What a relief it is to be able to outsource certain aspects of your business and still be able to participate as much as you desire in the day to day running of it. It is, after all, your business, and anyone whom you hire to come in to assist you needs to understand that, as well. If you are not interested in full service management, just keep looking, as there are many companies that are more than happy to pick up where your knowledge or ability leaves off, leaving you in charge, if that is where you want to be.

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There are many important aspects of building a successful retail or portable storage or self storage business . Taking into consideration all of the things that go into running a company, from accounting to vacation requests, insuring that your company has a solid foundation when it comes to customer service is crucial. Whether a company finds its customers in the general marketplace or within the ranks of other businesses that it serves, every business caters to someone. For this reason, implementing a secret shopper program has become standard in many industries, simply because of the many benefits that it provides a company that is looking for ways to maximize their profits by improving their standard of service. 

Businesses benefit from a secret shopper program in many ways. The implementation of a consistent and successful campaign will provide management with a glimpse into just about every aspect of a customers experience, a glimpse that can only be obtained through the trained, non-biased eyes of the evaluators who perform the observations. These undercover evaluations give insight into the cleanliness of an establishment, from the patrons point of view, as well as other aspects of guest interaction such as acknowledgment and greeting, wait time and product quality.

From the managements perspective, key items such as the employees ability to up-sell, basic job performance and product knowledge can be measured. So, too, can a secret shopping program assist management by offering a yardstick by which they can measure and evaluate scores from the previous quarter, and in some cases, even their competitors scores. The highly skilled evaluators know what to look for based on checklists that have been specially tailored to the establishment where the assignment is taking place. The reports received by the evaluators are extremely valuable, because it gives management the ability to see where the trouble spots are. This facilitates renewed training programs as well as employee incentive bonuses, the results of which can be measured in future months with a consistent secret shopper program.

To be successful, each business has to make it a goal to consistently improve its practices, upgrade its product line and raise the bar on its customer service standards. In order to do that, the company needs to have some kind of efficient, easy and reliable way to gauge such progress. A well implemented secret shopper program does all of that, and more. It increases customer service by enabling upper management to see exactly where improvements need to be made, and giving them the detailed information that is necessary to assist them in coming up with ways to make those improvements possible. It also benefits the employees of a business by providing them with constructive, non-judgmental feedback in regards to their personal performance as well as assisting management in the creation of incentive bonuses and performance reviews that put more money in the pockets of loyal, dedicated employees. Plus, it benefits the customers by providing consistently better service every time they enter the establishment or use the service provided by the business.

When the success of a company hinges upon the support and service that its customers receive, it is imperative to monitor that support and service. Failure to do so can result in unsatisfied customers, which equals lost business, something that no company need ever experience as long as they take a proactive approach to customer service and support, right from the start.

Quality Assurance

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If you are an individual who is wondering how to simplify your life as an owner of multiple buildings for lease, there is an answer. The financial commitment involved is minimal compared to the amount of work that you will no longer need to concern yourself with in regards to the day to day operations of the business. The answer can be found in one of any number of real estate management services that are available across the country to take on the load for a reasonable fee. There are hundreds of capable, committed companies and motivated individuals in every state that, though they do not own multiple properties themselves, are more than willing to put their reputation on the line to make sure that someone elses investment is well cared for and protected.

Real estate management services work with the self storage owner or residential estate owner, and they take pride in being able to represent the owner in virtually all instances, with tenants, outside contractors and repairmen, accountants and insurance agents, and other agencies. These knowledgeable businessmen and women provide a comprehensive list of services that they are available to provide. Coming up with a specific outline of services, and fully customizing the amount and type of work that the owner desires to give them means that the business arrangement can be entirely set up to meet the owners specifications. Whatever decisions and actions the owner feels are his ultimate responsibility are his to choose.

When it comes to running the business, real estate management services can completely oversee all daily business dealings, including answering the phone twenty four hours a day, in case of tenant emergency, and coordinating the repair and maintenance of anything that needs to be done to any and all of the owners investments. When an air conditioning unit goes out in one of your units, the representative company answers the call, acknowledges the tenant for their patience and schedules the repair, making sure that the proper payment is received for the work and an invoice has been properly filed away.

In fact, real estate management services offer a comprehensive monthly report that lets the apartment or self storage owner know exactly how much money has come into and gone out of the business, where it has come from, where it has gone to. Rent collections, security deposits and even application fees are all handled by the representative company. They will even advertise the owners vacancies for them, screen potential tenants and make the unit or building ready for the new tenant to move in, whether that involves laying new carpet or replacing windows.

Real estate management services offer so much in the way of assisting the owner with their daily business operations, that it might seem as if the owner operates as the CEO of a successful company, making authoritative decisions that require his approval, decisions that he, himself has designated as being pertinent enough to be approved by him, and not too much else. If an owner has his hand in more than one pot, so to speak, and they are running multiple businesses at once, then business innovation is certainly what they are after, rather than business maintenance and upkeep. It just makes sense for these individuals to outsource to a responsible, knowledgeable company so that they can get back to the business beginning a new venture.

Real Estate Management

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