Once you hire an employee, have them read the company policy manual and train them to do their job. Many organizations place them in their position and come around once in a while to verify they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The only time any additional training is needed is if the form or the software changes.WRONG!
No matter what business you are in, from self storage to the hotel industry, we must continually educate our employees. Every action has a reaction and your front line employees can have an impact on everything from your profit to the unthinkable loss of a lawsuit because they formed bad habits, or were not aware of the law change. With the continued advancements in technology the way customers are attracted to our locations range from SmartPhone Apps, home Internet or good old Word Of Mouth. This drives the need for all employees to be continually trained on the ways to improve everything from your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Net Operating Income (NOI) to Customer Service and Sales techniques.
In today's self storage industry, many employees have forgotten that they are sales people not just caretakers collecting money. Bad habits have to be eradicated and new inviting habits formed. Every time a customer walks through the front door the employee should be standing to greet the customer, whether they are a brand new one or the guy that has been around for ten years. It is a common courtesy, that goes hand in hand with asking for the name of the new prospective customer. How else do they know who they are trying to rent to? If the prospect is leaving without renting a unit, the manager should have obtained a phone number or it will be impossible to follow up. A whopping thirty percent of customers that leave without renting can be reeled back in with a friendly follow up call or text to see if they still needed storage and a reminder that you sell packing and moving supplies. In our organization, we tape incoming calls for Quality Assurance. This gives our trainer an opportunity to review an employees' sales techniques and to insure they are solving a customer's storage needs. Our goal is to build upon the positive aspects of the call and give direction and coaching on how to utilize those strengths to improve the weak areas of the call. There is certain criteria that we want our employee to cover with each prospective tenant, but we do not want them to be robotic about it. Training in phone etiquette as well as technique for controlling a call to obtain all the necessary information to properly fit the customers needs is on ongoing process that can also be crossed over into face to face sales.
The Internet is the way a growing number of our customers find us. The better SEO you have the better the page ranking etc. How does employee training tie in with this? Again, they are on the front line dealing daily with the customer... the one that finds your facility. Training your employee to deliver top notch customer service will help them solve their customers storage needs, but they can also be trained to ask them not only to refer their friends, but to go to Google Places and leave a review for their facility. They can also ask the customer to use key words in their reviews such as self storage and the company name to enhance SEO.
One area that is continually changing is the area dealing with laws. It is a necessity that we keep ourselves up to date on all law changes and keep our employees informed of these changes. Not only must we be concerned with the lien laws, but labor laws, and changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Their lack of knowledge in the changes in these laws could draw an unwanted and unnecessary lawsuit. Your national and state self storage associations are great resources in these areas. Self Storage Association Texas Self Storage Association Tennessee Self Storage Association
Communication with your employees should happen on a routine basis and at least one hour per month should be spent on the continued education of each employee. I accomplish this with a weekly email to the entire group with an educational piece, kudos to the top performers, policy changes and marketing information. Then we also require all our employees to attend a training webinar once a month to cover various training.
With our managers and employees, we are not striving for Perfection, just exceptional service!
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