May 2014 Newsletter – The Small Stuff

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Sit back and think about the work you do.  How would you classify it?  For some, this answer can be quite surprising.  Why?  Well, whether we work in manufacturing,plumbing, or really any other job, we all really work in the service industry.

Please hear me out.  Think about what we do, and the relationship we have with our customers.  Whatever industry we may be in, from servicing portable restrooms to repairing commercial plumbing systems, our job rarely stops with the technical aspects.  In fact, many companies even do something very similar to work that we do.  This is why we are classified as an industry after all.  But what keeps our customers coming back to us in particular instead of the hundreds (if not thousands) of other companies out there?  In a word; SERVICE!   Yes, our real job is making sure our customers are happy!

How are we doing with this job?  Our true job?  Are we just providing a warm body to do the work or are we making sure that every aspect of service is exemplary.  Are we making sure that even the small stuff is being covered because, believe it or not success lies in these small details.  Making sure the small stuff is done correctly is where we create that WOW experience for our customers, which in turn helps us keep and maintain loyal customers who will refer us out.  Covering these small details also allows us to justify premium pricing for our services because we provide the service other companies forget.

Let’s talk about a real-world example of this concept.  Recently, my wife and I went on a cruise to Bermuda.  The cruise was great… BUT(and a very big but…) the small stuff just wasn’t taken care of.   Things that just drive you crazy were missing or done poorly.  The ship had incredibly slow (and expensive) Internet (in the year 2014 when even children in remote African villages have Internet access), and a television that only received two stations.  Was the cruise fun?  Of course it was overall.  However, just like that tiny pebble in the bottom of your shoe, these two small details took away from the enjoyment of the trip.

So how does this reflect back to our plumbing or service business?  Hopefully we are already at the point of doing a fantastic job, because let’s face it, we wouldn’t be keeping a successful business going if we did not.  But we need to ask ourselves, are we just giving the customer what they have asked for or are we also following through with these very small things that really brings on a fantastic customer experience?

On your next job try figuring in a small percentage of the overall cost of the job to go towards those little extras that you know will need to be done.  Things you might not be able to think of right now, but will need to be done anyways.   This way when they come up they won’t drive you crazy that you have to outlay some money for them. Were talking about maybe 1% of the overall cost of these jobs.  If we figured on that at the beginning, we are ready to handle them.

Here’s an example of this in practice.  On a job I had recently, I saw that a hose bib had broken after the winter from being frozen.  This repair cost me about $20 and maybe 10 min. of time to replace it.  Could I have up charged the customer in this situation?  Of course I could have, but I didn’t.  I am still making a good profit on the job and it’s one of those little things that will go a long way in keeping that person as a faithful customer and referring my services out.

This month let’s try working on the small stuff.  Let’s see what we can do extra for our customers to give them that WOW customer experience!  I know you can do it, because chances are you already do.  Stay always profitable!

Sincerely,

Frank Taciak

 

Hello to Our New Friends in Success and Profitability

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A great big hello to everyone we met in Indianapolis! It’s been about a month now since we were all together learning and being encouraged about our businesses. So it’s a great time to look back and see the progress we have made using the ideas we brought home to incorporate in our personal lives and our businesses.

Let’s briefly review some of the great points we heard:

  • In our first talk, “Setting up the sale”, we talked about gaining and maintaining a sales profit mindset.  How is that going for us?  Have we adjusted the selling price of our services to keep up with what is happening around us?  Have we come up with a plan to justify raising our rates?  Remember, if we do more for our customers, we deserve more too.  After all, “If we do more, we charge more”.   How has this concept been going for you?

  • Our second talk, “Your best sales presentation”, showed us that great little video about free hugs and the deluxe hugs.  Remember what that video taught us?  It helped us learn how to charge for those “deluxe hugs”, all we needed to do was use a little bit of convincing and selling to our customers.  The most effective way to do this is to ask our customers effective questions.  Asking questions help customers convince themselves what they need which makes our job much easier.

  • Our third talk, “Servicing your sale”, helped us zero in on great customer service, which is what creates great businesses.  Do you remember why?  It is because when we make satisfied customers, we create good referrals, which lead to more great customers.  It is a circle of success.  So how are your customer communications working?   Success starts there.

  • In our fourth and final talk, “Our attitude to success”, we went over some basic ideas on how to have a more balanced life along with a successful business.  Success in this area calls for a little bit of planning on our part.  So how have we been putting our plans into action for balancing our business with our life?  We all know the saying “that anything that’s worthwhile requires effort”.  Just remember that our work will pay off handsomely in the end.

I would love to know how you’re working on these ideas as well as how you are sharing them with your friends, so please stay in touch!  I will share any good stories I receive with you all in next month’s email.

Remember, if you have any questions on how to implement these things just ask!  I am here to bounce ideas off of and give advice.  That is the greatest thing about going to these business meetings after all!  We get to meet people from all over the country (and even the world) who have similar experiences to ours that will help us benefit our businesses and our families.

As always, if you have any questions I am only a phone call or email away.  I am here to help you Be Always Profitable in Business and Life.

You’re Friend in Success,

Frank Taciak

P.S. Just a reminder if you haven’t been getting our quick tips e-mails, please make sure that you okay-ed your registration in the sign-up email you received.  Or let us know so that we can send them to you directly

 

How the 2008 Recession Made my Business Stronger: Part 2

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In my previous post I discussed my tumultuous feelings during the depths of the 2008 recession. I was still in business but hanging by a thread. My work was the same, but my customer base had essentially evaporated overnight. MY target consumer had no money, no credit, and no financial backing of any kind. As I saw it, I had only one option: move up market and charge more. That’s right, you read that correctly. I realized I had to focus my work on those that could afford me, even during a recession.

Well, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? I’d like to say the minute I thought of this, these customers started falling in my lap, but they didn’t. What I had to do was go back to the basics of what I was good at – and get even better. I was good at customer service, but I had to be great. So, that’s what I did. I was still getting some customers, and I made sure these customers were getting incredible service.

I resisted the urge to cut my prices to stay busy for the sake of staying busy. That’s what my competitors were doing, after all. And we’re not talking about cutting prices 10 or 20 percent. They were cutting prices to a point where there was no longer any profit. Every job was balanced on the cliff of losing money. To me, that was a recipe for bankruptcy. In the end, I would be putting myself in the same position as my formerly targeted customers.

So, what could I do? Instead of playing the price game by low-balling my bid, I came up with another plan. I started giving my customers options. To explain this process, I’ll take you through a scenario: I start with giving the customer the white glove treatment. It’s not just about doing a good job. It’s about giving your customer the best of everything – starting with the best phone call, and ending with the best thank you note after the check is deposited.

Let me give you an example. One homeowner I was in the process of selling to, was still on the fence about giving me the job. So, I asked her if she’d like to take a drive with me so I could show her the other projects I had completed in her neighborhood. The moment she sat down in my truck she said,

“Wow its so clean and tidy in here. I’ve never seen a guy’s truck like this. You must really be a person who takes care of things!”

Job. Sold.

My clean car had both nothing and everything to do with the job. It gave the perception of the value I would add to the job. Yes, I just came from the car wash before I saw this homeowner, but if I thought, “I can’t afford the $20 this week for a car wash”, or if I had put my business in a position where I couldn’t afford that $20, I would not have got that job. I would have missed out on thousands of dollars in revenue over a $20 car wash. That $20 conveyed the quality of my service and extended that white glove treatment to everything my business offers.

How the 2008 Recession Made my Business Stronger: Part 1

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I always thought that the sewer/septic business was pretty much a recession- proof business.  And up until the “non-recession” we had in 2008, it was a recession proof business.  But in the Fall of 2008, something began to happen that I had never seen before.  Yes, people were still calling me because they needed their sewers fixed, but my clients’ financial situations were completely different.

Homeowners want their sewers working correctly.  No one wants sewage running over their basement floor! Typically, people are also willing to pay for these problems to be fixed.  As a business owner, I needed to be paid for my services and that’s how I thought while bidding these jobs.  How wrong I was!

I would go to houses, bid the job, and ask for client’s go ahead.  And they would reply:

Client: “I can’t afford this.”
Me: “Can you put it on your credit card?”
Client: “No, my credit card is maxed out.”
Me: “Maybe you can get some help from a family member?”
Client: “No, they’re even more worse off than I am. Do you think you could finance me?”
Me: “Sorry, I don’t do private financing.”

The next prospect was exactly the same.   After about five of these, I finally had to ask why the homeowner had called me if they knew they couldn’t afford to get the work done.  Their only answer was, “I didn’t know what else to do.”  I saw potential customers using buckets as toilets and dumping them in their yards, rather than finding the money to repair their sewer or septic systems.

I won’t lie.  I didn’t have a sales solution when it started happening.  My seemingly recession-proof business was going out of business.  And it wasn’t because I was doing anything wrong.  I was running my business in a way that had made it successful for the past 20 years  – even through other “recessions”.  The problem obviously wasn’t how I did my work.  My experience and attitude towards high quality work had not disappeared overnight.  My sudden problem was my customer base.  I had an idea for fixing the problem in a way I didn’t really like.  If you’re in the same spot now, you might not like it either.  But come back next week and I’ll clue you in to my solution.