A Word From SkilCheck Services

Self Storage Facility Marketing

The Texas Self Sorage Association is hosting a really great webinar on September 28, 2011 that will help you get your self storage facility’s marketing on the right track.

Are you measuring your marketing results?  Do you know how best to do this?

With this webinar, you will have a self storage industry veteran, John Manes showing you the ropes.  Listed below are the main bullet points you will take away from this webinar:

• You’ll finish this webinar with an understanding of: marketing versus branding (yes, they are different)
• Basic Internet marketing…in plain English
• How to successfully execute such “guerilla”
  marketing tactics as press releases, car washes, chamber events, and more
  Why the facility manager is a marketing campaign!
• Tracking your marketing efforts (otherwise, what was the point?)

To Register

You can REGISTER ONLINE

COST

$25 Per Connection

Carol Krendl, CEO of SkilCheck Services, is having a virtual sit down with self storage owners across the US to walk them through the new California Lien Law Changes on February 23, 2011.

The changes are in effect NOW so it is important to know the law and ask any questions you may have.

In this webinar, we will discuss:

* See how the California Lien Law got enacted
* Learn the new mailing requirements for lien notices
* Discover the new Declaration of Opposition terminology
* Download all of the legal forms you’ll need to be up to date – for FREE
* Get your questions answered live with authoritative feedback from the person who assisted in getting the law enacted

Carol Krendl helped get this great new law enacted and will be able to answer your questions.

Register for the webinar here:  http://www.skilcheck.com/webinars/webinar.html

SkilCheck Webinars

Carol Krendl, CEO of SkilCheck Services, is hosting California Lien Law Change webinars through the end of 2010 to help our fellow self storage owners/operators make the transition.

We will be discussing:

• See how the California Lien Law got enacted
• Learn the new mailing requirements for lien notices
• Discover the new Declaration of Opposition terminology
• Download all of the legal forms you’ll need to be up to date – for FREE
• Get your questions answered live with authoritative feedback from the person who assisted in getting the law enacted

Reserve your space today:   Webinars

We’re interested to know how you reward good SkilCheck scores at your facility or location(s)?

If you’ve never used our service for your mystery calling needs, now is the time to try us out!!

We are offering a free phone evaluation to anyone who wants to see what our service is all about.  No catch!

Simply contact our office either via phone at (800) 374-7545 or email at info@skilcheck.com and we will get you set up.

Why not?  See how your managers are helping your customer service be the best it can be!

How SkilCheck’s Mystery Calling Program Works

How SkilCheck’s Mystery Calling Program Works…

Our Mystery Shopper will call your business posing as a potential customer. We use a technique that allows us to show a local number on your facility’s caller ID display. We can customize your mystery calls to hit on any special points you have in mind.

Each mystery call is then sent immediately to one of our professional evaluators who listens to and analyzes each recording for presentation, technique, and salesmanship points.

SkilCheck uses a 100 point scale to evaluate how your employee handles each mystery call. We have a standard form that our evaluators use but always welcome your customized requests to make the experience more personal for your company. There is no extra cost to put together a customized evaluation form for your site(s).

Employees who score 90 or above on the SkilCheck scale for their mystery call receive from us a professional certificate of completion for their outstanding salesmanship. Those who score 100 receive a special certificate and one of our esteemed “SkilCheck Sales Superstar” pins!

Read this informative blog on the NAAHQ website this morning:

How do you think the average leasing team is doing and how do you compare? I recently had the pleasure of reviewing last quarter’s industry report card from CallSource, where they conducted a Telephone Performance Analysis of 1,436 communities nationwide. Having been in the multifamily industry for over 14 years, the results are not surprising.

Of 81,800 telephone calls:

* Only 36 percent were converted to appointments.
* Only 61percent of leasing professionals obtained the caller’s name.

As multifamily training specialists, we conducted a survey to see how the Atlanta metro market stacks up.

Out of the 10 communities we contacted, eight calls were answered by a leasing professional, (two went to voicemail).

Of those:

* 25 percent asked to schedule an appointment.
* The leasing professional obtained my name on 38 percent ofa the calls.

According to the report, this equates to 2,623 appointment opportunities missed, resulting in 656 fewer leases. The total lease revenue lost by these communities is an astounding $7,742,506.

If you are a leasing professional, the odds are that your first contact with a prospect will be by telephone. In fact, four out of every five of your residents first contacted your community by phone!

The industry’s top leasing performers convert 50 percent to 60 percent of their qualified telephone traffic (compared to the industry average of 37 percent).

The most successful leasing professional of the 10 communities we shopped was able to obtain the answers to the following questions by using a conversational format that kept me engaged:

* How soon are you looking to move?
* How many people will this be for?
* Whom am I speaking with?
* How long of a lease term are you seeking?
* Will you be bringing any pets?
* Is there a budget you are trying to stay within?
* Why are you moving?
* Are you able to stop in this weekend?
* Confirmed the spelling of my first name and asked for my last name
* Asked for my phone number and E-mail address

She sold me on the location by telling me how easy my commute was going to be and describing how spacious their floor plans were. She did such a great job painting a picture; I would’ve set an appointment with her immediately if I didn’t already own a home!

Each one of the eight calls answered by a leasing professional had the same opportunity to build a rapport with me, and convince me to set an appointment.

Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you’re taking full advantage of the opportunity that each leasing call represents:

* Do you start selling the minute you answer the phone?
* Is the ringing of the telephone an interruption to your day?
* How many calls go to voicemail or an answering service on a daily basis?
* Do you take the initiative on every leasing call to ask your prospect to visit your community?
* When you’re busy, do you rush the conversation just to get back to whatever you were doing?
* Do you try to get to know your prospect and build a rapport?
* Do you try to get your prospects contact information (phone and E-mail)?
* Do you try to qualify your prospect?
* Do you ask how they heard about your community?
* Do you engage your prospect and make the conversation memorable?

How much would your conversion of telephone-to-traffic be affected if you were to truly concentrate on turning more of those calls into appointments? How much more effective would the resulting visits be if the appointment was built on a flawless first impression?

Read the original post here

You know you need a property mananger when… by Trevor Henson

A friend of mine recently bought an apartment building here in Los Angeles and asked me “How do I know when/if I need property manager?” To which I told him there were several reasons to hire – or at least consult with – a management company. I then proceeded to rattled off my top ten list of “you know you need a property manager when:

1) If you find yourself taking calls at 1 am to fix a broken water pipe in your building – you might need a property manager.

2) If you don’t remember the last time that really nice guy in unit #108 paid rent – then maybe you need a property manager.

3) If most of your residents have pets and you have never heard of a Pet Agreement or Pet Deposit – you might want to hire a property management company.

4) If you just realized that the residents in unit #207 moved out TWO months ago – it might be time for a property manager to take care of your building.

5) If you find yourself spending more time at your apartment building coordinating maintenance than you do with your wife, kids or friends – you should call a property management company.

6) If you think your apartment building MIGHT be under rent control, but you are not sure what that means – you should call a property management company (or your lawyer) immediately.

7) If you do not know what your Net Operating Income (NOI) is or how to find out – it may be time for a property manager.

8 ) If a resident moves out and it takes your handy man 2 weeks to touch up paint and clean the carpet – you should consider property a property management service.

9) If you are not sure how much rent to charge for your newly vacant apartment or single family home – perhaps you should think about a property manager.

10) If you moving out of the city, state or country and plan on keeping your investment property – you DEFINITELY should speak with a property management company.

The point that I was attempting to drive home to my now landlord-of-a-friend was that there is quite a bit more to property management than simply collecting checks and repairing toilets. An investment property is a living, breathing entity that requires a significant amount of time and attention. If my friend was not ready, willing and/or able to take on the responsibility, then there was most certainly a property management company in his area that would be more than happy to help him out.

Trevor Henson is a managing partner of First Light Property Management, a Los Angeles based multi-family property management firm. This blog was originally published on Multifamily Insiders.

As reported by Inside Self Storage

Amendments to California Assembly Bill 655, intended to improve the state’s self-storage lien law, passed the Senate on Friday with a 30-0 vote. The measure must now be approved by the State Assembly and be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before it becomes law.

Championed by the California Self Storage Association (CSSA) with financial support from the national Self Storage Association (SSA), AB 655 modifies the current lien law as it relates to mail-notification protocols and the “Declaration in Opposition to Lien Sale” provision.

The bill relaxes notification requirements for self-storage operators, allowing delivery via First Class Mail with certificate of mailing as opposed to the more expensive Certified Mail.

In regard to the Declaration, the associations sought to eliminate it completely, but legislators were not open to such a dramatic change. Compromises will result in significant savings to California self-storage operators if the law is passed. The revised law would allow operators to file suit in small-claims court, a much less costly procedure than through the current superior-court system. Operators can still file in superior court when small-claims court is not the best forum, such as with an out-of-state tenant.

The revised law also provides storage operators with guidance on when a Declaration can be considered invalid. For example, one of the most common types of defects is when delinquent tenants provide an incorrect address or no address in the Declaration.

Another new provision of the law requires the tenant to explicitly state why he believes the lien on his property is invalid. This will require the tenant to articulate why the owner’s lien is not legally valid before returning the Declaration. It also gives the facility owner a clear understanding of the customer’s reasons for returning the Declaration.

I was browsing the web the other day and noticed a nice feature that some sites offered…the ability to chat with a customer service representative live and online.

I loved using this feature and so have installed it on our SkilCheck website.

Any time you’d like to pop online and say ‘Hi’, please do so!  We’d love to hear from our clients or anyone who may want a bit of information from us!

I can easily answer any questions you may have regarding our mystery calling or mystery shopping program as well as our training materials and seminars!

See you online!

Desiree