To Pre-Pay Or Not To Pre-Pay, That Is The Question

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Do you have those times when no matter what you say to the customer they just do not get the idea of the pre-payment?

At our call center we reserve storage units for different storage and property management facilities all over the United States. The storage and property management industry is a business that has became a big deal all over the United States. We happen to answer for a lot of different storage and property management companies. We tell their features, security and most important the cost of the rent. When a customer decides to rent storage or an apartment, then we will reserve the storage unit or apartment for them. We take their information like name, address and when they will go in to the storage or property management location to fill out the rest of the paper work and get their unit number.
 
It is always important to let them know availability is limited so we can reserve the storage unit or apartment for them. Then we would say, The way we reserve a storage unit (or apartment) is to take a prepayment over the phone on credit card. Most storage locations and a few property management locations can reserve a unit with a ten dollar non-refundable prepayment. Some other stores or property management companies may have it a little more, but nonetheless there is a prepayment.

We usually explain it something like, We take a ten dollar non-refundable prepayment over the phone on a credit card, this is not an extra charge it goes towards your first months rent. Then when you go in you will just pay the remainder how ever you want. Then we usually get something like this, you mean there is a deposit?  No, it is not a deposit or an extra charge it will go towards your first months rent. It seems no matter what we say it confuses the customer or they think it is an extra charge.

Well if this is driving you nuts try something like this, We take a ten dollar non-refundable prepayment over the phone on credit card or debit card it is not an extra charge, and it goes towards you first months rent. Really what it means is you have a ten dollar credit when you get to the store. Then we usually get a response like, Oh okay, this is less confusing. We have more success saying it this way and a lot less confused self storage and property management customers.

It is funny how explaining it a little different (really it is the same thing) helps people to understand it? They do not seem to get prepayment but they do understand credit.

We also have stores and property management companies that reserve storage units without taking any money, so on those store we say, we hold it on your credit card. Now we do not charge anything to it, it is like a hotel reservation it just reserves the storage unit and when you come in pay it any way you like. Oh, this one causes problems too. The first thing we usually hear, Well when on vacation my hotel reservation froze the money on my card. Then we usually will say, yes sometimes that does happen we wish we had a better way to compare it, but we do not. And then we will have to say we promise we do not charge anything to it. To tell you the truth once we give you a reservation number, your credit card number will disappear, we do not keep it on file or anything. That usually helps those self storage and property management customers. Help your self storage and property management callers understand what is best for them. It will be appreciated by the office managers when the customer comes in.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.