Time to Kick Off Secret Shopping

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Author: Self Storage

Article source: http://www.articledeshboard.com/. Used with author's permission.

Now that the Super Bowl is over it is time to kickoff a secret shopping program at your self storage facility. Self storage industry leaders use the power of secret shopping to train property managers and evaluate performance. If you have not yet started a program, you are falling behind in the self storage industry. How do you evaluate your property managers performance? Is it based on sales revenue alone? If so, how do you know if a property managers low sales production is from the result of slow business? Unless you are standing next to him all day during his shift, there is no way under your current system you can properly evaluate your property managers performance. If you could stand there all day then you do not need a property manager. Even so, your opinion may be biased. So, if you really want to know the ins and outs of your self storage property, insert secret shopping into your sales strategy.

Secret shopping does not require online detective course training. In fact, as the property owner, you do not have to do anything except hire a secret shopping company to conduct the exercise. So here is what happens. A secret shopper, who is professionally trained in self storage sales, poses as a real self storage customer looking for a self storage unit. He or she acts and inquires about self storage just like a real customer would. Only, the difference is that the secret shopper or mystery shopper is evaluating each aspect of the property managers sales technique. But this is not always a walk in the park. A secret shopper might challenge the customer with an awkward, but realistic situation. Everyday is full of real out of your depth challenges so it is only right to try and catch a property manager off guard.

In another type of secret shopping, a secret shopper may call a self storage facility and ask a question that is not related to self storage. The test is to see if the property manager asks the caller if he or she is interested in self storage despite calling for something totally different. If the property manager does, he passes, if not, he fails. It is as simple as that.

After the sales portion of the call has ended, during the point where the customer would normally hang up, the secret shopper reveals his or her true identity to the property manager. At this point the secret shopping exercise turns into a training session. The secret shopper offers feedback that the property manager can take with him on the very next call. At this point, the property manager can ask the secret shopper questions about his or her performance. The forum is an open dialog format.

Secret shopping is not designed to harass or embarrass a property manager in anyway. First and foremost, secret shopping was created for the self storage customer. Property owners expect property managers to treat their customers as if each one of them was extra special. But the only way to evaluate this is through the eyes of the customer. And that is where secret shopping takes place, from the point of view of the customer.

The original article is located at Time to Kick Off Secret Shopping