Collection calls aren’t fun.
If you’re working in self storage, you probably didn’t sign up because your passion is tracking down customers to ask them for the money they owe.
Unfortunately, these communications are still an important part of self storage. Whether on purpose or on accident, tenants miss monthly payments. It’s at these moments that you have to know how best to handle the situation to navigate it in a professional and successful manner.
In this article, we’ll go over some best practices for making collection calls!
Missed payments happen.
There are a variety of reasons your storage customers might miss a payment.
They could simply forget, which is one of the most common reasons for late payments. There could be problems with their payment method if they’re on autopay. They could be having financial trouble.
Above are just three of the common reasons for missed self storage payments. That list is far from exhaustive, though.
You’re unlikely to run a self storage business—or work as a manager at a storage facility—for very long before encountering the need to make a collections call. It’s an important part of tenant communications.
Unfortunately, these calls can be sensitive and tricky. These are still your customers, and the ideal outcome is to obtain the payment and for the customer to continue to rent (and start paying on time!).
This is why you’ll benefit from becoming a pro at making collections calls. Having the know-how to make the calls will help reduce your discomfort with the task and improve the average outcome of the call.
Study these tips before you even make your call! This will help you be prepared and get into the right mindset for a successful collection call.
You should introduce yourself, the storage business you represent, and your reason for calling at the beginning of your call. While it might seem a bit too forceful to immediately bring up collections, this helps keep the customer from feeling tricked.
The best order of operations is often to introduce yourself and your business, exchange polite greetings, and then explain why you’re calling.
Confidence is key when making these calls. No matter what choices you make when dealing with the customer—whether it’s waiving a late fee or setting expectations for what happens if payment isn’t made—remember that you’re doing your job.
You’re not making unreasonable demands. Even if the customer has financial or personal complications, you can maintain that confidence while still showing empathy for their situation!
Sure, you’re probably not planning on referring to them by their storage unit number or anything crazy like that. But it’s important to actually use the tenant’s name. Because we’re on a one-to-one call, it’s easy to leave out names entirely.
Don’t do that. Make sure to use their name to add a human touch to your messaging. Just make sure not to overdo it and make it seem insincere!
Just like most people don’t want to make this kind of call, almost no one wants to receive them. Dragging it on with overdone or repetitive explanations or small talk will only make things worse for both parties.
While the call is important and necessary, try not to belabor it. Get right to the point after your greetings, find a solution, summarize the conversation and next steps, and then bring the call to a close.
Being a great communicator starts with great listening skills.
So long as you listen to what the customer says and acknowledge it, you can usually keep the conversation civil and positive. Half of the time, people get upset on a call it’s because they feel as though the other party isn’t truly listening to them.
You can gently respond to excuses or arguments by listening, acknowledging the legitimacy of their feelings—even if you don’t agree—and going from there in whatever direction is appropriate.
We often try to fill silence immediately if we’re feeling uncomfortable in a conversation. Especially over the phone.
Fight this urge. Sometimes, remaining silent is the best approach. If a customer is rude or aggressive, let there be a moment of silence before you respond. Sometimes this will put the heat on them and make them realize their mistake. It also gives you time to collect yourself and make a measured response.
As a bonus, these moments of silence can play into controlling the conversation by making your storage customer actively wait on a response. It’s a small communication trick that can help when someone is being unruly.
Making a collections call isn’t easy for everyone. Follow these steps when calling your self storage customers about missed payments!
Don’t go into a collection call without having all of the details in front of you and ready to go.
Have these facts prepared before making a collection call:
Armed with these facts, you should be prepared to handle many situations that could arise on a call.
The last thing you want to do is be caught off guard or need to ask for a moment to look something up. This surrenders control of the call.
Come prepared for the best chance of success!
It’s time to call your self storage customer about their past-due rent.
First of all, make sure to follow the tips listed above to help you create the greatest chance for success.
Remember that the ultimate goals of the call should be to recover the late payment and, if it makes sense, retain your customer. It’s always possible for people to just forget a payment or be having a hard time, and a poorly handled collection call can turn that into a lost tenant and bad word of mouth.
When responding to excuses, make sure to acknowledge your customer’s thoughts and feelings, but then provide a route back to the topic of the payment. For example, if they claim they forgot to pay, acknowledge that everyone forgets sometimes. Then offer to help them make a payment over the phone or guide them through the online payment process.
You should also make sure to leave your tenant with next steps.
Summarize the conversation and then remind them of what comes next. This might be them making a payment on an agreed-upon date, you sending an invoice, or something else entirely.
Regardless of what the next steps are, repeat them at the end of your call.
Don’t let the process end with that call.
Whether you took payment over the phone or are awaiting payment at a later time, send an email (or text, as appropriate) to your tenant as a follow-up.
If you’ve taken the payment or come to some other conclusion while on the phone, this can just be an expression of gratitude for the customer taking your call and a reminder of what you talked about.
If the tenant still has steps to take, this is a great time to remind them of those steps in text so that they have the email to reference (and so they can’t claim it was never discussed!).
During and after your call, take notes of everything that is discussed and store these notes in your self storage software.
This will make sure you remember what was discussed, and it can also be used as a reference by other managers or by yourself the next time you need to make a call to the same customer!
In the worst-case scenario, these notes could also prove useful in the event the problem with your client escalates.
Want to learn more about running a self storage facility and the state of the industry? Here are some of my other favorite posts!
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