Can you be too busy?

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, where we keep a diary of our mystery shopping and secret shopping experiences.

Can you be too busy?

Normally, at this time of year we all become giddy knowing that the busiest time of the year is upon us. College students are moving back home, moms are doing their spring cleaning, people are moving across town and everyone needs storage. Our phones ring all day and the occupancy rate goes WAY up. But as wonderful as all this new business can be it means that you will need a way of serving all these new customers. From the business point of view, you can never have too many customers. But from the customer service point of view, if you give poor service you haven’t gained a loyal tenant.

Over the weekend we finished all but 16 of our mystery shops. Today I picked up the stack of remaining secret shops to make and dialed the first number on the list. I was greeted by a cheerful woman who seemed to be ready to help me. When I asked for some rates she explained that she was too busy, and would have to call me back. I could tell she was in a panic by the sound of her voice. This lack of service may come as a surprise to some, but we get these types of calls more often than you would think.

I began talking about this call with my coworker and we realized that the manager at this store was only doing what she thought was best. Perhaps a coworker called in sick today and she was short-handed, or maybe a mob of people suddenly needed to come in on their lunch break and rent storage. In any case, it was clear that she was overwhelmed, but that didn’t make my request for storage any less valid. If I had been a ‘real’ customer I would have went down the list in the phone book and found storage somewhere else. So it is important for a manager to be able to serve each customer.

I wondered whether I should use the call as the mystery shop, or erase it and make another call later. I decided that I should do both. I think it’s important for our clients to know if they are missing out on rentals because they are understaffed. Maybe if they had a part time employee or a call center they could add a few extra tenants each month. And I also decided to redo the call because our job is to test how well they sell their store. Granted, if they push people off the phone without helping, they won’t be able to sell their store. But I want to give the manager a fair chance at selling me her store. So I am going to make another call tomorrow. Hopefully this time she will be able to meet my needs.

So, my observation is this: During the busy season, we see the quality of service go down because many of the managers are overwhelmed with new tenants in the store, customers on the phone, current tenants with billing questions, angry tenants that didn’t pay rent on time, etc… It is important to keep a close eye on what quality of service your staff gives when they are under pressure, it could make or break a few extra rentals.

Ta Ta for Now…
Sarah

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