When a phone call comes into a self storage facility, no owner wants to miss it. Most potential customers pick up the phone first and call the nearest storage facility. Storage operators don’t want them to call up the next self storage business in the phone book simply because no one was in the office to answer. Having the call go to voice mail can result in a lot of hangups. As a result, many self storage facilities turn to the services of call centers or enhanced services so that no calls are ever missed or routed to voice mail. An example of the growing popularity in call centers and related software is inContact which has expanded its footprint in the self storage market with the addition of two new storage customers today.
inContact provides software to help call centers throughout the world gain new customers through its cloud-based call center software solutions. The company's services and solutions enable call centers to operate more efficiently, optimize the cost and quality of every customer interaction, create new pathways to profit and ensure ongoing customer-centric business improvement and growth. Effective call routing improves reservation rates, drives sales, and enables more responsive customer service. As an enhancement to call center offerings, the company provides an on-demand platform and integrated customer management software from salesforce.com. The combination of the two cloud-based solutions has shown to double a storage facility’s reservation rates from phone calls. The calling experience is personalized and data on phone, web and walk-in inquiries is merged into a single database.
"We are seeing growing interest for our cloud-based call center solutions among companies in the self-storage sector as they compete to win more sales, provide a high level of customer service and differentiate their companies in the market," said Paul Jarman, inContact CEO. "When faced with a myriad of options when choosing a storage provider, it's key to enable storage operators to seamlessly combine retail locations together into a virtual call center, flowing sales calls across these locations so a prospect always reaches a live person. In addition, our deep integrations with the leading CRM systems, like salesforce.com, provide powerful tools to enhance their cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers."
Some storage facilities route calls to its other individual storage facilities. But if an operator at another facility is out giving a tour there’s no one to answer the phone or it goes to voicemail and a sale is likely lost. A centralized call center as offered by inContact can maximize sales opportunities. The company’s experience in the self storage market and its cloud-based call routing platform has caught the eye of self storage facility operators.
"We are excited to be the provider of choice for six self-storage companies, including NYSE-traded Extra Space Storage, the second largest operator in the United States. inContact is uniquely positioned to deliver both the industry-leading service and business value to meet the demanding needs of the very competitive and growing self-storage market," said Jarman.
Another company, PhoneSmart offers an answering service, contact center and training services. It also offers an off-site sales force that can significantly boost revenue. The company can act as the first point of customer contact with incoming phone calls. It integrates a business’s website, e-mail, and telephone operations into one unit. Training seminars, resource materials, secret shopping and coaching calls are all available to help train staff. PhoneSmart has created more than 750,000 reservations and leads for industry clients.
Sources Used:
“inContact Expands Footprint in Growing Self-Storage Market.” NewsBlaze. Jan. 20, 2011.
inContact. 2011.
PhoneSmart. 2011.