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PhoneSmart is your premier offsite sales force

PhoneSmart is headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, located in the center of the Midwest. Columbia is positioned along Hwy 70 and 63 and is the halfway point between Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri. The city is home to many colleges and universities, most recognizably, The University of Missouri, commonly referred to as Mizzou. Columbia has been described as a “fun, funky and surprisingly sophisticated” city with many local restaurants, specialty stores, galleries and shops located in and around the downtown District.

PhoneSmart was founded by StorageMart in December of 2000. The company originated as an offsite call center, intended for answering inbound self storage rental inquiries for its parent company. As the sales culture in the self storage industry grew more competitive, PhoneSmart quickly gained clientele among other self storage owners, including several Top Operators. To date, PhoneSmart has grown into a profitable business and serves hundreds of self storage facilities nationally and internationally.

A team of corporate executives is lead by Tron Jordheim, Director of Operations, member of the National Speakers Association and popular keynote speaker at several self storage associations. The corporate structure then branches into Call Center Directors, Robin Turner and Dana Shields; Total Quality Assurance Director Sarah Little and Administration Director, Elizabeth Pollard.

PhoneSmart’s services have expanded well beyond an inbound call center. In addition to its call center, the company offers lead generation, sales training, quality assurance and secret shopping to the self storage and apartment industries. The combination of these services creates a sales force that supplies rental property owners additional tenants every month.

Even though the company has developed several thriving products, its call center remains the bread and butter of the business. PhoneSmart captures missed phone calls by answering calls that would have otherwise went to a voicemail system or gone unanswered. In the self storage and apartment industries, unanswered phone calls mean lost revenue. Studies report that only 29% of callers who get an answering machine will leave a message and logically, customers whose calls go unanswered can not leave a message. This means that customers searching for rental space would most likely hang up and call the next guy on their list.

New tenants have great worth to the self storage and apartment businesses. An average rental is worth $800 to a self storage facility and the value of a new tenant in the apartment industry is significantly higher; if a home rents for $1,000 per month and the minimum stay is 12 months, the value of the average tenant is $12,000. These statistics certainly go to show that losing these rentals could be detrimental to the real estate company and that capturing even one more rental is more than profitable to the business. 

The monthly call center fees are well below the value of one tenant, which makes this service the closest thing to guaranteed success that any business owner could ask for.

The concept of a call center is defined by wikipedia.org as a “centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.” Major businesses use call centers and the centers have infiltrated nearly every industry. Call centers are ideal for handling large call volume and great for offering product support, information inquiries and customer service.

The PhoneSmart call center prides itself in being recognized as more than just an answering service, but an offsite sales force experienced in turning missed phone calls into rentals. Each of the call center’s employees undergo an extensive training program at the start of their career. Upon completion of the program, employees are randomly monitored for quality assurance and each individual is secret shopped twice per month. This vigorous training environment creates a highly trained sales force, ready to turn phone calls into rentals.

Once a client has signed up with the PhoneSmart call center, a team of administrators will set up the telephone lines to forward to the call center after a predetermined amount of rings. Clients may also choose to send all calls directly to the call center rather than allowing the phone to ring numerous times in the facility’s office first. Capturing rollover calls allows a self storage manager the freedom to do their daily tasks and not become distracted by the phone because they know that PhoneSmart will send them the reservation or hot lead. The call center is also beneficial when a self storage manager has customers in the office or is on another phone line. The PhoneSmart offsite sales force is also a valuable tool because sales reps are ready to take calls after normal office business hours; the call center is open until 11pm CST.

PhoneSmart’s offsite sales force answers the phone and greets each customer with the client’s name, as if they were actually in the local self storage facility. This gives each phone call a personal feeling as the PhoneSmart representative builds rapport and connects with each caller. Consumers often associate the word call center with a bad experience with their credit card or cell phone company. PhoneSmart goes out of the way to avoid the stereotypical cold or unconcerned experience and answers each call with a smile. The PhoneSmart call center is an offsite sales force that believes in their proven sales techniques and strives to provide clientele with reservations and hot leads from each rental inquiry.

In addition to the call center, PhoneSmart offers sales training to self storage managers and teaches them the same principals the company uses in their own call center. Some of the sales training services provided by PhoneSmart are:  

• Conference Call Sales Training: PhoneSmart's sales trainer will lead store staff through a sales course via conference call. The conference calls are typically held over a three day period for one hour each day. Facility staff will learn the sales strategies and self storage sales techniques PhoneSmart uses in their own call center.
• Sales Training Packet: This is designed to be set up in a classroom-like setting or can be completed individually. The Sales Training Packet equips staff with basic sales skills knowledge and specific techniques for the self storage industry. The packet includes two CD's, one Leader's guide, two Trainee workbooks, Role-Play game, and sales reference sheets.
• Training Seminar: Tron Jordheim offers unforgettable, exclusive training seminars that will improve the sales skills of veterans to the industry as well as beginners in the world that is self storage.
• Role-Play Helpline: Self storage managers can call into the PhoneSmart call center and speak to a member of the highly-trained sales reps. The sales representative will Role Play sales scenarios and give one-on-one training to meet the specific needs or concerns of the self storage manager.
• Telephone Teachers: This is a Training Session that lasts about 15 to 20 minutes between a PhoneSmart sales trainer and a self storage manager. PhoneSmart calls each employee as determined by a schedule provided by the store managers. For example, each month employees schedule a 20 timeframe, maybe before a shift starts or when there are two employees on the property, PhoneSmart will then call the employees based on the schedule provided. The phone call will be recorded and sent to the District Manager.

A typical phone call would go something like this: Phonesmart rep and store manager discuss any problem areas  he or she may have over the phone, the store manager can ask specific questions like, “How do I overcome the customer’s concern if they need to ask their spouse?” or “What if they say they’re just shopping around?”. PhoneSmart reps will offer tips and techniques to overcome those situations. The trained rep will also role-play with the manager and go through what an ideal phone call should sound like. PhoneSmart will help the managers understand how to apply the principles they learn through coaching and Mystery Shopping.

Each of PhoneSmart’s sales training services offer unique benefits and flexibility to self storage managers on any scale.

PhoneSmart’s Total Quality Assurance department runs the secret shopping programs offered through the company. These services have been developed to go beyond the customer service realm of a typical mystery shop and have been created as a sales training tool as well as quality assurance.

The company offers several styles and types of mystery shop that range in levels of sales training intensity. Some of the mystery shopping services offered through PhoneSmart are:

• Shock Call: A secret shopper calls a storage facility and asks for something other than storage (boxes, office hours, etc). The call is graded only on a Pass/Fail basis. If the manager asks the caller if they also need storage, they Pass. If they do not, they Fail. Calls are recorded and sent to the client.This shop is unconventional from a Mystery Shop. It's goal is to teach managers to ask every customer if they need storage. This shop was created out need in the self storage industry because many stores miss these rental opportunities.
• Mystery Shop: A secret shopper calls a storage facility posing as a customer asking about storage. The call is recorded and then evaluated. The recording is sent along with the written evaluations, to the client. The evaluation contains Yes/No columns to which points are assigned and a total score is given. It also contains a "What Worked Well" and "What Could Use Improvement" comment section.This shop is ideal for maintaining and improving sales techniques and customer service over the phone.
• Feedback Shop: Not unlike traditional mystery shopping, a shopper will call a storage facility and pose as a potential renter. The sales portion of the call is controlled by the manager, as any rental inquiry would be. At the conclusion of the call, the mystery shopper will reveal their identity and go into a coaching session with the manager. The coaching session prompts the manager to critique himself/herself and the shopper suggests several sales techniques that can improve the sales presentation. The manager then sets a goal to focus on over the next month.

The benefits of a Feedback Mystery Shop are:

• Offers instant, “real time”, feedback to the manager. No more waiting until the end of the month.
• Provides one-on-one training with the facility manager from one of our qualified sales representatives.
• Enables the store manager to begin closing more sales at the very next call.
• Ends chasing after bogus leads from a mystery shopper’s name and phone number.
  This shop is the most intense and immediate training tool. PhoneSmart has received great reviews from clients and the managers shopped regarding this technique.

The mystery shopping services offered by PhoneSmart are unparallel to other similar shops offered to the industry. Because PhoneSmart is a driven sales force, the training and critique offered by any of the sales staff makes the service not only a monitoring and quality assurance tool but also a strong sales instrument.

There’s no denying that PhoneSmart is made up of an ambitious team whose vision drives growth and expansion in their own business as well as the businesses of their clientele. This is a company built from a sales force that leads the industry in sales increases and stands above its competition.