March 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Dealing with new competitors in your market can be tough, but the key to staying ahead is focusing on your strengths and what makes your business stand out. In this episode, learn from experts on how to stand out when new companies try to steal the spotlight. Discover how to keep your clients loyal, make your services unique, and keep your team motivated to do their best work. We also cover simple strategies for pricing, marketing, and building a strong brand that lasts. It’s not just about keeping up—it’s about growing and succeeding.
New to Jobber? Masters of Home Service listeners can claim an exclusive discount for Jobber at https://bit.ly/4d0KAEh
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
There's always going to besomeone cheaper, always,
so we just do not allow thatto change our business model.
We focus on havinggreat quality employees.
We have found that if weprovide excellent service,
a client may leave for the shinyobject, but they do come back.
Welcome to Jobbers, masters of HomeService, a podcast for home service pros,
(00:22):
buy Home service pros. We're in Las Vegas.
Today we're talking about how to beatnew competitors, taking over the market.
I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.Today's guest are Cassie Allen.
She's the COO of WheatleyCreek Services and Crystal Ham,
the founder of Go To Girls.Welcome to the studio, both of you.
Thank you. Thanks forhaving me. Happy to be.
(00:42):
Here. Thank.
You. Yeah, absolutely. So Cassie, tellus about who you are, what you do.
Absolutely. My name's Cassie. I amthe COO of Wheatley Creek Services.
Before I started working withmy husband at his company,
I was in the digital marketing worldand I had 20 years experience in SEO,
digital marketing, socialmedia, and email marketing.
Hi, I am Crystal Ham. I'm theowner and founder of Go-To Girls.
(01:03):
We are a residential cleaning servicein the Raleigh, North Carolina area.
Prior to starting my business, I wasin banking, worked with my husband,
who's also a small business owner inmanufacturing and go-to girls has been in
business in January, will be nine years.
Crystal,
what is the biggest challenge when you'rethe biggest guy in town and then all
(01:24):
these little ankle biter,
new competitors are coming into themarket trying to steal your clients?
What's the biggest challengethere that you've faced?
I think for us, we just focus onbeing the best that we can be.
There will always be competitors,
so we do not focus on someone who may bemore expensive than us or lower priced.
With us, we focus on attracting,retaining amazing employees,
(01:46):
focus on marketing,
really just providing the best serviceto our current customers that we have.
There's always going to be competitionand we just focus on being our best.
Yeah. Cassie,
what's the biggest challenge for you whennew competitors come into your market?
I feel like when somebody startsgetting closer to your level,
right?
You've been in business for five plusyears and somebody comes in and they've
(02:09):
been there five months andthey're starting to make waves.
You hear them in your social networks,
your social circles for otherbusinesses are talking about 'em.
So I feel like it's aninitial panic. What do I do?
They're going to take my clients,
but I really feel like you have totake a step back and what Crystal said,
rely on what got you to where you aretoday, look at your mission statement,
your values, and rely on those asyour strength to keep moving forward.
(02:34):
I feel like if you do that knee jerkreaction and start changing things just
based on a competitor alone, that youlose what got you to where you are today.
Yeah. What are some advantagesthat we have over a new competitor?
What are some of those advantages thata bigger company has over a smaller
company?
Well, for us it's our branding.It's the five star reviews.
(02:56):
It's really just the confidence, youknow what you're doing at this point.
If it's two years or10 years at this point,
hopefully you have yoursystems and processes in place,
you're confident in that. Forme, that's very important.
And then just relying on that brand,
making sure that you're gettingthat out there in the social media,
whether it be Facebook or Google, thingslike that is very, very important.
(03:19):
Yeah, I agree. And inaddition to the systems,
your SOPs and you have systems inplace that a new competitor likely
doesn't have, and that's goingto keep you going forward,
where usually when a newcompetitor is coming in,
they're probably looking at your website,
they're probably lookingat what you are doing,
they're looking and stocking your team,
and they're taking those ideas to helpbuild their company, which is flattering,
(03:41):
right?
But you definitely have to rely on thesystems that you've already put into
place.
I think that it's also a good way totake a step back and say, you know what?
Maybe we do need to get a little betterin some things where I'm going with
this. I think it's a goodway to wake up and say, Hey,
maybe we've been sitting around alittle bit to haven't innovated anything
lately. Have you guys everexperienced that dynamic before?
(04:04):
So what we do once a year is we do shopair competition overall just from the
quality from the services that theydo offer and then also the pricing.
I think it's important to knowtheir pricing. For example,
I don't want to be the lowest,
so it might be an opportunityfor us to increase our prices.
One of the things that we do as acleaning service that is really sort of a
(04:25):
niche for us is we offer laundry. SoI noticed when we came to the market,
some of our competitors startedoffering laundry service.
So I do think it's important.
I would say when you are comparingyourself to the competition,
make sure that it's something that you'reconfident in providing just because
another service offers that doesn'tnecessarily mean that that's the best fit
(04:47):
for you. For example,in my cleaning service,
the reason that laundry works well forus is we provide our clients with the
same cleaner for recurring service wherea lot of the other companies may not
have that model. So thatwould just be an example.
Providing laundry servicefor them may not work.
We have the same cleanereach time that works for us.
So I think when you are looking at theservices that other companies provide,
(05:11):
just ensure that it's a bestfit for your company as well.
I agree.
So I come with the digitalmarketing background and previously in agency life we
did competitive analysis forclients and these analysis take a
while, but you're looking ateverything from their website,
what you can research about them,about the size of their team,
maybe even the revenue all the waydown to their social media channels.
(05:33):
So I feel like yes,
you do want to go and check out yourcompetition at least once a year,
if not twice a year, so that you canstay fresh on what it is you are doing.
If you can get a lot of really good ideasand right when you're thinking of your
goals for next year,
it's a great time to go and look at whatyour competitors are doing to see if
there's things that you can pull in thatmight be able to help your business get
(05:55):
ahead as well.
Yeah.
One of the things, if I may add to that,
one of the things I look for most in mycompetition is really marketing ideas.
So for example,
maybe it's around fall and they're doingsomething around fall in love with your
home again or something like that.
Sometimes when you've been in businessfor a while, you run out of fresh ideas,
(06:15):
and so I do use them for ideasfor marketing just to stay
more competitive or have an edgethere with marketing as well.
I think that there's definitely ashiny object syndrome in place in the
marketplace where if there'ssomebody new and if you see their van
around town, some it feels likeyou see them around everywhere.
(06:37):
Even though that might not be true,
it can feel that way and your clientsmight mention them once or twice and
you're like, they're taking all of our,
I think it's important to stepback and just realize, hey, hey,
we have tons of clients. We still havetons of revenue coming in. We're good,
but we do need to take a step back andmake sure that we are innovating with the
times and all that.
What are some other things that you cando to stand out so that you can rise
(07:01):
above the shiny new competitors out there?
What are some other things that you cando to really set yourself apart from
those?
I feel like you don't need to worryabout outshining, shine fades.
You need to stick to your values andyour roots and what got you to where you
are. I've mentioned several times abouteditorial calendars and I would probably
stick with that.
Your year should already be mapped outand that's what you're sticking to.
(07:24):
So you don't necessarily have to switchgears to go after something that's shiny
right now because that'll fade.
You have that editorial calendar torely on and you can keep your marketing
consistent and keep sharing yourstory and keep building your brand.
I think for me,
the most important thing is trying tostay front of mind with marketing and just
(07:44):
really keeping that fresh,
making sure that you are posting enoughon social media or you have a company
that is posting enough trying new things.Like for my industry and cleaning,
really Facebook and Instagram are the twoareas where we get the majority of our
clients,
but there's a lot of sort ofinterest in Twitter at this point or
X with making the videos andappealing to a different audience.
(08:08):
But I would agree as far as stickingto what's the most important,
your quality, your company, andthis may not be the standard,
but for me, even thoughsomeone is my competition,
I try to help anyonethat's in the industry.
The way that I see it is just becausethere's another cleaning service where I
live.
I reach out to them and see if wecan help support them or perhaps
(08:33):
their schedule is full.
I want them to feel comfortable to reachout to me when their calendar is full
that we can take on. So even thoughthey're technically competition,
I just believe there's enough work outthere and if you're doing it right and
you're friendly withthose in your industry,
it can really work out well for you.
I agree. And we were actually talkingabout this before we came in that I had a
(08:55):
competitor reach out and they'remuch smaller than we are,
but they reached out and asked If youhad one piece of business advice to give,
what would that advice be? And we werehaving a conversation and I'm like,
I really like that.
I can look at this as a relationshipinstead of a competition.
We're both going to grow our businessestogether and even though they may be
smaller,
(09:15):
hopefully you're where we are in thattimeframe and we're going to work together
and we'll support our community.
Usually with new competitorscomes lower prices and some
people would say price slashingand other prices are so low.
How do you go about that posturingyourself with your team and your clients
to respond to these competitors whojust have such lower prices than we
(09:40):
do? What do you guys do about that?
We try to educate our clientsjust ensuring that they have done their homework.
Is that particular client, are theyfully insured? Are they fully bonded?
What is their process forvetting their employees?
Are they paying their employeesmore than a living wage?
That's really important for us.
There's always going tobe someone cheaper always,
(10:01):
so we just do not allow thatto change our business model,
we focus on havinggreat quality employees.
We have found that if weprovide excellent service,
a client may leave for the shiny object,
but they do come backbecause it's hard to,
they make it a cleaning $20 cheaper,
but if the quality is not there orthe employee doesn't make them feel
(10:24):
comfortable in their home, thenwhat's the price difference?
I agree. I think youhave to not slash prices,
but offer your value.
How are you providing more valuethan any of your competitors?
I had a client that potential clientsales lead talk to her last week,
and we are a lot morethan her current cleaner,
(10:45):
but she had already told me that what shedoesn't like about her current cleaner
is that she's an individual solo cleanerand she can't stick to the schedule.
So sometimes she comes,sometimes she doesn't,
and so that's when I step in andI start sharing my value. Yes,
we maybe do more,
but you already told me one of yourpain points is timing and scheduling.
We use a system, Java,
where we're able to schedule our entireteam and you're going to get an email
(11:09):
the day before that says that we'recoming and you can log in at any time and
you can see your upcoming schedule. Thenthe day of my cleaner's going to say,
I'm on my way and you're goingto get a text and they're there.
They'll be there in 15 minutes.
That is communicationand that's scheduling and that's the value that you're
getting out of working with our team.
And Cassie, a lot of these clients, theydon't know what they're talking about.
(11:29):
They just kind of throw these numbers out,
just kind of see howyou react sometimes too.
They might not even be serious aboutit, but a lot of times they'll say, Hey,
well so-and-so's a lot cheaper.Well, what matters most to you? Well,
I want you to be on time. Okay, great.How are they going to make that happen?
And you can start to go down thesethings that really matter to the client.
And so eventually you say,well, we're going to do that.
(11:52):
It might not be that black, white,
but it's really important at all salesmeetings to find out what really matters
to the client. And then ifyou can deliver on that,
then make sure they know that.
Absolutely.
Or in a case where they might be shoppingaround after using you for years and
you say,
what we've been delivering on the thingthat you say is the most important thing
to you for years, and nowyou're going to switch.
(12:12):
You don't know what's out there. Youdon't know what's going to happen,
but we're going to be delivering on it.
And I just think I like your approach ofgoing back to the value of the client.
What matters to them.
Is.
What ultimately mattered to us.
Well, I think also you,the first impression,
so the professionalism, going backto with jobber, we send our quotes,
(12:33):
everything is extremelyprofessional, it's very detailed.
There's photos within that.
You compare air quote to air competition.
We blow them out of the water with whatwe're able to do through jobber as well,
which is very nice.
I agree. I had a client the other daythat called me on the phone. They knew me.
So it's like a local referral andsaid, Hey, we want to deep clean,
(12:56):
we're going on vacation, and ifyou can come and do it on Monday,
that'd be great. And I said, okay,and I already know where they live.
So I said, just give me your emailaddress and we'll get it started.
And he's like, that's it. AndI'm like, yep, it, that's it.
Everything's going to be electronic.
You're going to get it in youremail and we'll rock and roll.
And so the ease of thatreally helps with converting.
And the professionalism.
Yeah.
We have their data. It's stored.It makes everything easy.
(13:18):
It makes the relationship easy.
Yeah.
It's a very good first impression.
Totally. Jobber makes, itmakes you look so professional.
Sure.
This is a great conversation.
I do want to pause for a minute to talkabout Jobber and what we love about
Jobber so much. Somethingyou said earlier, crystal,
was that Jobber allows you to makesuch a great first impression with your
clients. Let's talk about that some more.
So I have been a jobberuser for eight years.
(13:40):
I absolutely love Jobber.
Highly recommend it to any of the cleaningbusiness owners that I speak with.
For us, it just sets the tone for anexcellent professional first impression
from being able to customize what yourquote looks like to adding images.
The follow-up, once a clientapproves a quote, we get notified.
(14:01):
We can respond immediately.Once we set up the appointments,
our clients automatically gettext reminders, email reminders.
It just makes it seamless.
It reduces so much timeprior to me using Jobber.
Had to manually do all of that.Not only is it professional,
but it makes you more efficient as partof your system, part of your process.
(14:22):
Clients know to depend on it.
One of the things our clients love isthey can log into their own client portal.
They can see all of theirupcoming appointments through Jobber. They can also,
if they want to send in a changerequest, things like that.
My office staff love jobber because wecan track where our employees are in the
field. Safety for usis huge at this point.
(14:46):
We have all female employees.We're able to see where they are.
We're able to make sure that they'resafe. It makes time tracking unbelievable,
the timecard stamping in being ableto see where they are with on the
GPS to where they're located.
I could go on and on aboutall the amazing features.
Could not imagine running mybusiness without jobber. I love it.
(15:08):
Yeah, Cassie, I mean,she covered a lot of it.
I don't know how much more I could add.
I definitely love the GPS factorthat has saved us so many times.
I mean countless times. But yeah,
I really like how Jobber shows up andis the second customer service for
us. We have people in place tohelp us with customer service,
(15:29):
but when Jobber is doing a lotof that communication for us,
it definitely keeps us on top of ourgame and a big source of getting us to
where we are today.
Yeah.
Also the other thing it allows us todo is it allows our office team and our
ladies in the field to be on the samepage because both can put notes within
Jobber and we can all see each other'snotes as well as taking pictures,
(15:49):
attaching all of that. It's amazing.
I love when clients say, I thoughtyou guys were a franchise. I think.
That's a.
Company Jobber presents us soprofessionally. I love that.
So you can make a great first impressiontoo with your clients if you use
jobber. So new users get an exclusivediscount at jobber.com/podcast deal.
(16:10):
So go get jobber and start makinga great first impression today.
When there's new competitorsin town, a lot of times people,
what you want to happenis your client to say,
I don't care who else is outthere. I use these people the best.
They treat me well, andthere's a loyalty there.
How do you create that loyalty so thatyou don't even have to worry about new
(16:31):
competitors because your clientswon't even pay attention to them?
That's the peak, right? How doyou create that brand loyalty?
I would say relationshipsand personalization.
You're building relationships with yourclients. It's a working relationship.
But I was walking witha new potential client.
She has a ranch and it's four houses.So yes, I want to close this deal.
This is very big opportunity,but as we're walking,
(16:52):
we're talking and we're buildinga relationship. And I said,
I know that if hopefully we're going tobe working together for the next year,
two years, three years,
and we would hopefully get alongand we want to work together.
So I would rather come outmeet you, walk your properties,
learn about the places that aremore important to clean than others,
and there's no touch zones,right? Don't touch the art.
(17:12):
I need to learn that andknow more about your home.
That's building relationships,personalization side of things,
as simple as writing a handwritten noteand sending it to 'em and saying thank
you, or you haven't heard from 'em ina year and you call and you say, Hey,
I just haven't heard from you in awhile, not that you're not cleaning.
We have many clients that wedon't talk to for a while,
but we should connect with them, right?
(17:34):
We've been cleaning yourhouse for seven months now.
I just wanted to check in andmake sure that everything's good.
And here's my phone numberif you want to chat.
For us, it's all about the relationship.The way we structure our businesses,
we provide the same cleaner forrecurring service. So it's that same,
we have a system and a process throughcustomer service where we follow up after
every first home clean, we follow up aftera certain number of recurring cleans,
(17:58):
and then we use automation, which is very,
very important where wecheck in and provide surveys,
let our clients know that wewelcome their feedback. And for us,
it's little things. We send them happyValentine's Day, happy St. Patrick's Day.
We send our current recurring clients,we've been cleaning for a while,
perhaps it's time to upgrade and do adeep clean, and we send them a coupon.
(18:20):
We really just try to keep it warm andfuzzy and let them know that they are
important to us a yearlater, two years later,
as they were when we first originallystarted cleaning for them. So for us,
it's about those touch points as wellthat just let them know that they're
important to us. We also, again,
we utilize jobber to where if forsome reason there is an opportunity,
(18:42):
there's a break inservice for some reason.
I think sometimes the impression thata client can have from you is when
something goes wrong, not necessarilywhen things are always going.
We use the system todo follow ups and say,
last time there was a break with thisparticular area and now we're following
up. How was it this particular service?
So I think sometimes just showing thatyou care and following up when there is a
(19:06):
break, that can lead to loyalty as well.
Yeah, when I go to my local coffee shop,
they stamp my card and after10 coffees I get a free one.
Do you think that helps,
that kind of system helps with retainingclients in terms of incentivizing them
through a transactional kind of way?Like you've been here for a year,
you get a frequently, do youguys do anything like that?
(19:28):
Yes and no.
So we have a referral program and thenyou get a discount off of your clean
if somebody's referred and if yourefer one client is $25 off to
clients, it's $50 off and so on. Sowe definitely have a referral program.
We don't currently have a loyaltyprogram outside of a gifting program,
and I'll explain that,
(19:49):
but I do like the idea of a loyaltyprogram and I would love to invest
in something like that. Wejust haven't yet. However,
on a larger scale,
so we have clients that have beenwith us for three plus years and we
regularly do their cleans. We'realso doing their home maintenance.
We're taking care of theirentire ranch for those clients.
(20:10):
We actually just startedwhere we get Cutco knives,
which are really nice kitchen knives,
and we engrave their last name on it orthe property name. So if it's a ranch,
we put the ranch name on it.
And then we recently started giftingthose to a few of our clients with a
handwritten thank you note.
I feel like that's a large scale becausethere's a lot more money invested in
(20:30):
that, but it's a reallybig way to say thank you.
And even though my logo isn't onthat knife, their name is on it,
and every time they use that knife,they're definitely thinking of us.
So I thought it was a really great ideato be able to give a client in that
meaningful way.
We do it different. So forevery first time clean,
we actually take ourclients a welcome soap.
(20:52):
And so within the bag of thewelcome soap is a referral card,
a thank you card for choosing go-to girls.
And then what we do is we have it setup on their one year anniversary is we
provide them an upgrade.
We'll deep clean their kitchen for freeor their bathroom for free or their oven
for free. So we use that as the loyalty,
and that's just on theiranniversary is how we do that.
(21:14):
We offer them a free upgrade in oneparticular area and not their entire home.
I like that upgrades,
value added stuff is always betteroption usually than just a discount or
something. How do wekeep our marketing fresh?
It can be easy to see other campaignsfrom new competitors and their flashier,
they're cooler, they'refresher, they're newer.
How can we stay on top of things tomake sure that our marketing is still
(21:35):
relevant? Messaging is spot on withour clients, our target market.
What are some things that we need tobe doing as business owners who are
established in our market to, onething I like about McDonald's,
there's a lot of things about McDonald's.
I like how they're always comingout with new promotions and new
commercials and new this and new that,
and Burger King and Wendy'swant to have a chance,
(21:57):
is just so dialed in tostaying on top of their game.
It's very inspiring to me. So how do wedo that from a home service perspective?
So actually we have a va and aboutonce a quarter I will have her
go and see not just what competitorsare doing just in the industry
who's making waves,
go find a favorite home servicecompany on Instagram and find
(22:21):
what is unique things that they're doingthat we might be able to take advantage
of. We recently found a handymanand all of their Instagram,
if you scroll through it, when youstart to see branding and Instagram,
it's amazing.
You can see picture after picture ofhow they're using their employees,
how they're using their shirts and howthey're using branding in their imagery
and it gets you excited and you want tolearn how to incorporate that into your
(22:44):
own Instagram post orFacebook, both of them.
But we definitely go and try tofind others outside of just our area
and how they're succeeding online.
So when I started in my company,I did all of the marketing.
So that would be one of the things thatI would try to stay on top of is what my
competition was doing. CurrentlyI do have a marketing company,
(23:04):
so I really leave that up tothem. I'm fortunate to do that,
but I do throw in ideas. Shementioned about the Instagram.
That is really cool once youstart seeing the branding.
That's new for my company. Recently wejust started using Instagram. So for us,
we just look at the competition. For me,
one of the things that my new marketingcompany started doing is really trying
(23:25):
to build that loyalty with our quality.
So they started showing all of ourfive star reviews and things like that.
Maybe someone is new to mycompany, but it shows, okay,
you're not just going to theGoogle to see all the reviews,
but now it's on Facebookand now it's on Instagram.
And so I really at thispoint, I'm spoiled.
I have a marketing companythat does that for me,
(23:47):
but I throw in ideas sometimes.
I'm thinking about a sports analogy.
So one of my favorite tennis playersof all time is Roger Federer,
and he's retired now. Butone thing I liked about him,
and this totally relates towhat we're talking about,
is sometimes he'd be down in the matchand he's playing some new guy and
the guy's playing really, really well,
and there's always a point where youcould tell that he would look over and the
(24:07):
other guy was thinking, I'mabout to beat Roger Federer.
And then he just crumbles. He justhas the presence. He's like, Hey,
I've won 20 majors. You're not goingto beat me. You might be close,
but you're not going to beat me.
And there's just a flex that happenswhen you're just the top dog.
And so I'm curious if you guys haveany final thoughts for how can big
established businesses in a sense,
(24:27):
flex their establishment, their size,
their credibility in the marketplace,
any final thoughts on how we can reallyflex that muscle against these new
competitors that can help us stay on top?
For me, it's about reputation.
It's about focusing on what you havebuilt and being confident in who you
(24:47):
are and the quality that you provide. Forme, I'm one of the largest in my area.
Go look at my five star reviews.There's no one even close.
That's a flex for me's. No onethat can even come close to that.
But also for me, it's about notseeming like the big guy in town.
I don't want to seem like I'm the big guy.
I want to seem verypersonal with my clients.
(25:09):
I want to seem like I am thatsmall business that they hired.
I want to focus on the employeesfeaturing them on my page
because
that's the company to our clients iswho's in their home each and every time.
So that's the flex. My flex are myemployees. They are my number one asset,
the most important part of my company.
(25:31):
So we do spend a lot oftime focused on them,
and I would put my team up against anyother cleaning company where I live.
Bring it on.
Yeah. So that's my flex.My team is my flex.
Very well said. And I would agree.I would add community to it.
So our team is a critical partof our day-to-day, in fact,
going home. And onThursday we have best of,
(25:53):
and we're in three top competitionsand our team got us there.
And so it's a huge celebration.We're inviting them to go with us.
So we'll find out if we're the top threein painting, handyman and cleaning.
And that team got us there, so theyneed to be part of that celebration.
And it's huge.
And what's amazing about that isthat we are three years in business.
April was our third year, and we'realready in the top three in our community.
(26:16):
Wow, that's amazing. And it'stotally our team that got us there.
But community is a huge parttoo. We do a lot of networking.
I go to a lot of business events.
I sit on the board for ourlocal Main Street organization,
and I actually have a thing that I'mdoing right now where it's called a
hundred cups of Coffee,
and you sit down with a hundred differentpeople in your community and you get
to learn people. And it's assimple as just a cup of coffee.
(26:38):
But it's amazing because I'm meetingall of these local business owners,
political leaders and people thatare helping to run our community,
and I'm learning more about our community.
So just as much as buildingthe relationships with clients is also important to
build relationships with yourcommunity and celebrate your team wins.
And let me add to that, speakingof the competitions and best of,
(27:00):
I think that's something that you shouldwork toward whether you've been in
business for two years or whetheryou've been in business for 20 years.
My company in January will bein business for nine years,
and we've won eight of thelast nine years. So again,
that just shows consistency and quality.
But when I was in business for twoyears, I was the new person on,
(27:21):
I was the new competition.
I remember being in that and then allof a sudden I came out of nowhere.
So again, go for those competitions.
What's the worst case? You don'tmake it. You come in second, third,
at least you're gettingyour name out there.
But then once you start to build yourreputation and you win year after year
after year,
that really speaks to the consistencythat you provide and being in the
(27:44):
community, the quality that you add.
It's incredible how much credibilitythose contests give you. For sure.
Absolutely. And the blessingis as you get bigger,
then you have moreclients to vote for you.
Fair, definitely.
Then it gets unfair,
but you still put those stars up on yourpage and brag about it. Flex. Exactly.
Well, this has been a great conversation.
(28:05):
I'm going to boil it down tothree actionable items here.
Number one is don't panic. Remember,
no one can take away all your five orreviews all the contests that you've won,
your awesome team that you'vebeen cultivating all these years.
You still are number one, and youneed to act like it and not panic.
Number two is do some value added stuff.
You may be on a one year anniversaryof someone being a client of yours,
(28:27):
send 'em a gift or maybe do a big testdrawing on Valentine's Day or do things
that are relational thatare not just about business.
That creates this long-termloyalty with your clients.
And number three is resistthe urge to slash prices or
worse match pricing.
Don't match the price ofsome new guy you establish.
(28:48):
You are the main standard. So bethat standard. Don't slash prices,
don't cut your prices. Stay firm on that.
I would add if you slash your prices,
then you're not going to beable to pay your employees well,
which is going to be a downward spiralas well. So yeah, stick to your prices.
You work hard, you deserveit. Your team deserves it.
Well said. Crystal, how dopeople find out more about you?
(29:10):
Yeah, so our companywebsite is go the number two
girls.com. You can also find uson Facebook and Instagram as well.
You can find me@wheatleycreek.com.
And I'm on Instagram and Facebook.It's also at Wheatley Creek.
Great. Well, I appreciateboth of you guys being here.
You guys both have a lot ofclients and a lot of team members,
(29:31):
and so keep doing what you're doing.
You're having a big impact on yourcommunities and it's very inspiring.
So keep it up. I appreciate it. Thank.
You. Thanks Adam. Thanks Jarvis.
And thank you for listening.
I hope that you heard today that'll helpyou flex against the competition and
stay number one. I'm yourhost, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best. So go give it to 'em.
There's always going to besomeone cheaper, always,
so we just do not allow thatto change our business model.
We focus on havinggreat quality employees.
We have found that if weprovide excellent service,
a client may leave for the shinyobject, but they do come back.
Welcome to Jobbers, masters of HomeService, a podcast for home service pros,
(00:22):
buy Home service pros. We're in Las Vegas.
Today we're talking about how to beatnew competitors, taking over the market.
I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.Today's guest are Cassie Allen.
She's the COO of WheatleyCreek Services and Crystal Ham,
the founder of Go To Girls.Welcome to the studio, both of you.
Thank you. Thanks forhaving me. Happy to be.
(00:42):
Here. Thank.
You. Yeah, absolutely. So Cassie, tellus about who you are, what you do.
Absolutely. My name's Cassie. I amthe COO of Wheatley Creek Services.
Before I started working withmy husband at his company,
I was in the digital marketing worldand I had 20 years experience in SEO,
digital marketing, socialmedia, and email marketing.
Hi, I am Crystal Ham. I'm theowner and founder of Go-To Girls.
(01:03):
We are a residential cleaning servicein the Raleigh, North Carolina area.
Prior to starting my business, I wasin banking, worked with my husband,
who's also a small business owner inmanufacturing and go-to girls has been in
business in January, will be nine years.
Crystal,
what is the biggest challenge when you'rethe biggest guy in town and then all
(01:24):
these little ankle biter,
new competitors are coming into themarket trying to steal your clients?
What's the biggest challengethere that you've faced?
I think for us, we just focus onbeing the best that we can be.
There will always be competitors,
so we do not focus on someone who may bemore expensive than us or lower priced.
With us, we focus on attracting,retaining amazing employees,
(01:46):
focus on marketing,
really just providing the best serviceto our current customers that we have.
There's always going to be competitionand we just focus on being our best.
Yeah. Cassie,
what's the biggest challenge for you whennew competitors come into your market?
I feel like when somebody startsgetting closer to your level,
right?
You've been in business for five plusyears and somebody comes in and they've
(02:09):
been there five months andthey're starting to make waves.
You hear them in your social networks,
your social circles for otherbusinesses are talking about 'em.
So I feel like it's aninitial panic. What do I do?
They're going to take my clients,
but I really feel like you have totake a step back and what Crystal said,
rely on what got you to where you aretoday, look at your mission statement,
your values, and rely on those asyour strength to keep moving forward.
(02:34):
I feel like if you do that knee jerkreaction and start changing things just
based on a competitor alone, that youlose what got you to where you are today.
Yeah. What are some advantagesthat we have over a new competitor?
What are some of those advantages thata bigger company has over a smaller
company?
Well, for us it's our branding.It's the five star reviews.
(02:56):
It's really just the confidence, youknow what you're doing at this point.
If it's two years or10 years at this point,
hopefully you have yoursystems and processes in place,
you're confident in that. Forme, that's very important.
And then just relying on that brand,
making sure that you're gettingthat out there in the social media,
whether it be Facebook or Google, thingslike that is very, very important.
(03:19):
Yeah, I agree. And inaddition to the systems,
your SOPs and you have systems inplace that a new competitor likely
doesn't have, and that's goingto keep you going forward,
where usually when a newcompetitor is coming in,
they're probably looking at your website,
they're probably lookingat what you are doing,
they're looking and stocking your team,
and they're taking those ideas to helpbuild their company, which is flattering,
(03:41):
right?
But you definitely have to rely on thesystems that you've already put into
place.
I think that it's also a good way totake a step back and say, you know what?
Maybe we do need to get a little betterin some things where I'm going with
this. I think it's a goodway to wake up and say, Hey,
maybe we've been sitting around alittle bit to haven't innovated anything
lately. Have you guys everexperienced that dynamic before?
(04:04):
So what we do once a year is we do shopair competition overall just from the
quality from the services that theydo offer and then also the pricing.
I think it's important to knowtheir pricing. For example,
I don't want to be the lowest,
so it might be an opportunityfor us to increase our prices.
One of the things that we do as acleaning service that is really sort of a
(04:25):
niche for us is we offer laundry. SoI noticed when we came to the market,
some of our competitors startedoffering laundry service.
So I do think it's important.
I would say when you are comparingyourself to the competition,
make sure that it's something that you'reconfident in providing just because
another service offers that doesn'tnecessarily mean that that's the best fit
(04:47):
for you. For example,in my cleaning service,
the reason that laundry works well forus is we provide our clients with the
same cleaner for recurring service wherea lot of the other companies may not
have that model. So thatwould just be an example.
Providing laundry servicefor them may not work.
We have the same cleanereach time that works for us.
So I think when you are looking at theservices that other companies provide,
(05:11):
just ensure that it's a bestfit for your company as well.
I agree.
So I come with the digitalmarketing background and previously in agency life we
did competitive analysis forclients and these analysis take a
while, but you're looking ateverything from their website,
what you can research about them,about the size of their team,
maybe even the revenue all the waydown to their social media channels.
(05:33):
So I feel like yes,
you do want to go and check out yourcompetition at least once a year,
if not twice a year, so that you canstay fresh on what it is you are doing.
If you can get a lot of really good ideasand right when you're thinking of your
goals for next year,
it's a great time to go and look at whatyour competitors are doing to see if
there's things that you can pull in thatmight be able to help your business get
(05:55):
ahead as well.
Yeah.
One of the things, if I may add to that,
one of the things I look for most in mycompetition is really marketing ideas.
So for example,
maybe it's around fall and they're doingsomething around fall in love with your
home again or something like that.
Sometimes when you've been in businessfor a while, you run out of fresh ideas,
(06:15):
and so I do use them for ideasfor marketing just to stay
more competitive or have an edgethere with marketing as well.
I think that there's definitely ashiny object syndrome in place in the
marketplace where if there'ssomebody new and if you see their van
around town, some it feels likeyou see them around everywhere.
(06:37):
Even though that might not be true,
it can feel that way and your clientsmight mention them once or twice and
you're like, they're taking all of our,
I think it's important to stepback and just realize, hey, hey,
we have tons of clients. We still havetons of revenue coming in. We're good,
but we do need to take a step back andmake sure that we are innovating with the
times and all that.
What are some other things that you cando to stand out so that you can rise
(07:01):
above the shiny new competitors out there?
What are some other things that you cando to really set yourself apart from
those?
I feel like you don't need to worryabout outshining, shine fades.
You need to stick to your values andyour roots and what got you to where you
are. I've mentioned several times abouteditorial calendars and I would probably
stick with that.
Your year should already be mapped outand that's what you're sticking to.
(07:24):
So you don't necessarily have to switchgears to go after something that's shiny
right now because that'll fade.
You have that editorial calendar torely on and you can keep your marketing
consistent and keep sharing yourstory and keep building your brand.
I think for me,
the most important thing is trying tostay front of mind with marketing and just
(07:44):
really keeping that fresh,
making sure that you are posting enoughon social media or you have a company
that is posting enough trying new things.Like for my industry and cleaning,
really Facebook and Instagram are the twoareas where we get the majority of our
clients,
but there's a lot of sort ofinterest in Twitter at this point or
X with making the videos andappealing to a different audience.
(08:08):
But I would agree as far as stickingto what's the most important,
your quality, your company, andthis may not be the standard,
but for me, even thoughsomeone is my competition,
I try to help anyonethat's in the industry.
The way that I see it is just becausethere's another cleaning service where I
live.
I reach out to them and see if wecan help support them or perhaps
(08:33):
their schedule is full.
I want them to feel comfortable to reachout to me when their calendar is full
that we can take on. So even thoughthey're technically competition,
I just believe there's enough work outthere and if you're doing it right and
you're friendly withthose in your industry,
it can really work out well for you.
I agree. And we were actually talkingabout this before we came in that I had a
(08:55):
competitor reach out and they'remuch smaller than we are,
but they reached out and asked If youhad one piece of business advice to give,
what would that advice be? And we werehaving a conversation and I'm like,
I really like that.
I can look at this as a relationshipinstead of a competition.
We're both going to grow our businessestogether and even though they may be
smaller,
(09:15):
hopefully you're where we are in thattimeframe and we're going to work together
and we'll support our community.
Usually with new competitorscomes lower prices and some
people would say price slashingand other prices are so low.
How do you go about that posturingyourself with your team and your clients
to respond to these competitors whojust have such lower prices than we
(09:40):
do? What do you guys do about that?
We try to educate our clientsjust ensuring that they have done their homework.
Is that particular client, are theyfully insured? Are they fully bonded?
What is their process forvetting their employees?
Are they paying their employeesmore than a living wage?
That's really important for us.
There's always going tobe someone cheaper always,
(10:01):
so we just do not allow thatto change our business model,
we focus on havinggreat quality employees.
We have found that if weprovide excellent service,
a client may leave for the shiny object,
but they do come backbecause it's hard to,
they make it a cleaning $20 cheaper,
but if the quality is not there orthe employee doesn't make them feel
(10:24):
comfortable in their home, thenwhat's the price difference?
I agree. I think youhave to not slash prices,
but offer your value.
How are you providing more valuethan any of your competitors?
I had a client that potential clientsales lead talk to her last week,
and we are a lot morethan her current cleaner,
(10:45):
but she had already told me that what shedoesn't like about her current cleaner
is that she's an individual solo cleanerand she can't stick to the schedule.
So sometimes she comes,sometimes she doesn't,
and so that's when I step in andI start sharing my value. Yes,
we maybe do more,
but you already told me one of yourpain points is timing and scheduling.
We use a system, Java,
where we're able to schedule our entireteam and you're going to get an email
(11:09):
the day before that says that we'recoming and you can log in at any time and
you can see your upcoming schedule. Thenthe day of my cleaner's going to say,
I'm on my way and you're goingto get a text and they're there.
They'll be there in 15 minutes.
That is communicationand that's scheduling and that's the value that you're
getting out of working with our team.
And Cassie, a lot of these clients, theydon't know what they're talking about.
(11:29):
They just kind of throw these numbers out,
just kind of see howyou react sometimes too.
They might not even be serious aboutit, but a lot of times they'll say, Hey,
well so-and-so's a lot cheaper.Well, what matters most to you? Well,
I want you to be on time. Okay, great.How are they going to make that happen?
And you can start to go down thesethings that really matter to the client.
And so eventually you say,well, we're going to do that.
(11:52):
It might not be that black, white,
but it's really important at all salesmeetings to find out what really matters
to the client. And then ifyou can deliver on that,
then make sure they know that.
Absolutely.
Or in a case where they might be shoppingaround after using you for years and
you say,
what we've been delivering on the thingthat you say is the most important thing
to you for years, and nowyou're going to switch.
(12:12):
You don't know what's out there. Youdon't know what's going to happen,
but we're going to be delivering on it.
And I just think I like your approach ofgoing back to the value of the client.
What matters to them.
Is.
What ultimately mattered to us.
Well, I think also you,the first impression,
so the professionalism, going backto with jobber, we send our quotes,
(12:33):
everything is extremelyprofessional, it's very detailed.
There's photos within that.
You compare air quote to air competition.
We blow them out of the water with whatwe're able to do through jobber as well,
which is very nice.
I agree. I had a client the other daythat called me on the phone. They knew me.
So it's like a local referral andsaid, Hey, we want to deep clean,
(12:56):
we're going on vacation, and ifyou can come and do it on Monday,
that'd be great. And I said, okay,and I already know where they live.
So I said, just give me your emailaddress and we'll get it started.
And he's like, that's it. AndI'm like, yep, it, that's it.
Everything's going to be electronic.
You're going to get it in youremail and we'll rock and roll.
And so the ease of thatreally helps with converting.
And the professionalism.
Yeah.
We have their data. It's stored.It makes everything easy.
(13:18):
It makes the relationship easy.
Yeah.
It's a very good first impression.
Totally. Jobber makes, itmakes you look so professional.
Sure.
This is a great conversation.
I do want to pause for a minute to talkabout Jobber and what we love about
Jobber so much. Somethingyou said earlier, crystal,
was that Jobber allows you to makesuch a great first impression with your
clients. Let's talk about that some more.
So I have been a jobberuser for eight years.
(13:40):
I absolutely love Jobber.
Highly recommend it to any of the cleaningbusiness owners that I speak with.
For us, it just sets the tone for anexcellent professional first impression
from being able to customize what yourquote looks like to adding images.
The follow-up, once a clientapproves a quote, we get notified.
(14:01):
We can respond immediately.Once we set up the appointments,
our clients automatically gettext reminders, email reminders.
It just makes it seamless.
It reduces so much timeprior to me using Jobber.
Had to manually do all of that.Not only is it professional,
but it makes you more efficient as partof your system, part of your process.
(14:22):
Clients know to depend on it.
One of the things our clients love isthey can log into their own client portal.
They can see all of theirupcoming appointments through Jobber. They can also,
if they want to send in a changerequest, things like that.
My office staff love jobber because wecan track where our employees are in the
field. Safety for usis huge at this point.
(14:46):
We have all female employees.We're able to see where they are.
We're able to make sure that they'resafe. It makes time tracking unbelievable,
the timecard stamping in being ableto see where they are with on the
GPS to where they're located.
I could go on and on aboutall the amazing features.
Could not imagine running mybusiness without jobber. I love it.
(15:08):
Yeah, Cassie, I mean,she covered a lot of it.
I don't know how much more I could add.
I definitely love the GPS factorthat has saved us so many times.
I mean countless times. But yeah,
I really like how Jobber shows up andis the second customer service for
us. We have people in place tohelp us with customer service,
(15:29):
but when Jobber is doing a lotof that communication for us,
it definitely keeps us on top of ourgame and a big source of getting us to
where we are today.
Yeah.
Also the other thing it allows us todo is it allows our office team and our
ladies in the field to be on the samepage because both can put notes within
Jobber and we can all see each other'snotes as well as taking pictures,
(15:49):
attaching all of that. It's amazing.
I love when clients say, I thoughtyou guys were a franchise. I think.
That's a.
Company Jobber presents us soprofessionally. I love that.
So you can make a great first impressiontoo with your clients if you use
jobber. So new users get an exclusivediscount at jobber.com/podcast deal.
(16:10):
So go get jobber and start makinga great first impression today.
When there's new competitorsin town, a lot of times people,
what you want to happenis your client to say,
I don't care who else is outthere. I use these people the best.
They treat me well, andthere's a loyalty there.
How do you create that loyalty so thatyou don't even have to worry about new
(16:31):
competitors because your clientswon't even pay attention to them?
That's the peak, right? How doyou create that brand loyalty?
I would say relationshipsand personalization.
You're building relationships with yourclients. It's a working relationship.
But I was walking witha new potential client.
She has a ranch and it's four houses.So yes, I want to close this deal.
This is very big opportunity,but as we're walking,
(16:52):
we're talking and we're buildinga relationship. And I said,
I know that if hopefully we're going tobe working together for the next year,
two years, three years,
and we would hopefully get alongand we want to work together.
So I would rather come outmeet you, walk your properties,
learn about the places that aremore important to clean than others,
and there's no touch zones,right? Don't touch the art.
(17:12):
I need to learn that andknow more about your home.
That's building relationships,personalization side of things,
as simple as writing a handwritten noteand sending it to 'em and saying thank
you, or you haven't heard from 'em ina year and you call and you say, Hey,
I just haven't heard from you in awhile, not that you're not cleaning.
We have many clients that wedon't talk to for a while,
but we should connect with them, right?
(17:34):
We've been cleaning yourhouse for seven months now.
I just wanted to check in andmake sure that everything's good.
And here's my phone numberif you want to chat.
For us, it's all about the relationship.The way we structure our businesses,
we provide the same cleaner forrecurring service. So it's that same,
we have a system and a process throughcustomer service where we follow up after
every first home clean, we follow up aftera certain number of recurring cleans,
(17:58):
and then we use automation, which is very,
very important where wecheck in and provide surveys,
let our clients know that wewelcome their feedback. And for us,
it's little things. We send them happyValentine's Day, happy St. Patrick's Day.
We send our current recurring clients,we've been cleaning for a while,
perhaps it's time to upgrade and do adeep clean, and we send them a coupon.
(18:20):
We really just try to keep it warm andfuzzy and let them know that they are
important to us a yearlater, two years later,
as they were when we first originallystarted cleaning for them. So for us,
it's about those touch points as wellthat just let them know that they're
important to us. We also, again,
we utilize jobber to where if forsome reason there is an opportunity,
(18:42):
there's a break inservice for some reason.
I think sometimes the impression thata client can have from you is when
something goes wrong, not necessarilywhen things are always going.
We use the system todo follow ups and say,
last time there was a break with thisparticular area and now we're following
up. How was it this particular service?
So I think sometimes just showing thatyou care and following up when there is a
(19:06):
break, that can lead to loyalty as well.
Yeah, when I go to my local coffee shop,
they stamp my card and after10 coffees I get a free one.
Do you think that helps,
that kind of system helps with retainingclients in terms of incentivizing them
through a transactional kind of way?Like you've been here for a year,
you get a frequently, do youguys do anything like that?
(19:28):
Yes and no.
So we have a referral program and thenyou get a discount off of your clean
if somebody's referred and if yourefer one client is $25 off to
clients, it's $50 off and so on. Sowe definitely have a referral program.
We don't currently have a loyaltyprogram outside of a gifting program,
and I'll explain that,
(19:49):
but I do like the idea of a loyaltyprogram and I would love to invest
in something like that. Wejust haven't yet. However,
on a larger scale,
so we have clients that have beenwith us for three plus years and we
regularly do their cleans. We'realso doing their home maintenance.
We're taking care of theirentire ranch for those clients.
(20:10):
We actually just startedwhere we get Cutco knives,
which are really nice kitchen knives,
and we engrave their last name on it orthe property name. So if it's a ranch,
we put the ranch name on it.
And then we recently started giftingthose to a few of our clients with a
handwritten thank you note.
I feel like that's a large scale becausethere's a lot more money invested in
(20:30):
that, but it's a reallybig way to say thank you.
And even though my logo isn't onthat knife, their name is on it,
and every time they use that knife,they're definitely thinking of us.
So I thought it was a really great ideato be able to give a client in that
meaningful way.
We do it different. So forevery first time clean,
we actually take ourclients a welcome soap.
(20:52):
And so within the bag of thewelcome soap is a referral card,
a thank you card for choosing go-to girls.
And then what we do is we have it setup on their one year anniversary is we
provide them an upgrade.
We'll deep clean their kitchen for freeor their bathroom for free or their oven
for free. So we use that as the loyalty,
and that's just on theiranniversary is how we do that.
(21:14):
We offer them a free upgrade in oneparticular area and not their entire home.
I like that upgrades,
value added stuff is always betteroption usually than just a discount or
something. How do wekeep our marketing fresh?
It can be easy to see other campaignsfrom new competitors and their flashier,
they're cooler, they'refresher, they're newer.
How can we stay on top of things tomake sure that our marketing is still
(21:35):
relevant? Messaging is spot on withour clients, our target market.
What are some things that we need tobe doing as business owners who are
established in our market to, onething I like about McDonald's,
there's a lot of things about McDonald's.
I like how they're always comingout with new promotions and new
commercials and new this and new that,
and Burger King and Wendy'swant to have a chance,
(21:57):
is just so dialed in tostaying on top of their game.
It's very inspiring to me. So how do wedo that from a home service perspective?
So actually we have a va and aboutonce a quarter I will have her
go and see not just what competitorsare doing just in the industry
who's making waves,
go find a favorite home servicecompany on Instagram and find
(22:21):
what is unique things that they're doingthat we might be able to take advantage
of. We recently found a handymanand all of their Instagram,
if you scroll through it, when youstart to see branding and Instagram,
it's amazing.
You can see picture after picture ofhow they're using their employees,
how they're using their shirts and howthey're using branding in their imagery
and it gets you excited and you want tolearn how to incorporate that into your
(22:44):
own Instagram post orFacebook, both of them.
But we definitely go and try tofind others outside of just our area
and how they're succeeding online.
So when I started in my company,I did all of the marketing.
So that would be one of the things thatI would try to stay on top of is what my
competition was doing. CurrentlyI do have a marketing company,
(23:04):
so I really leave that up tothem. I'm fortunate to do that,
but I do throw in ideas. Shementioned about the Instagram.
That is really cool once youstart seeing the branding.
That's new for my company. Recently wejust started using Instagram. So for us,
we just look at the competition. For me,
one of the things that my new marketingcompany started doing is really trying
(23:25):
to build that loyalty with our quality.
So they started showing all of ourfive star reviews and things like that.
Maybe someone is new to mycompany, but it shows, okay,
you're not just going to theGoogle to see all the reviews,
but now it's on Facebookand now it's on Instagram.
And so I really at thispoint, I'm spoiled.
I have a marketing companythat does that for me,
(23:47):
but I throw in ideas sometimes.
I'm thinking about a sports analogy.
So one of my favorite tennis playersof all time is Roger Federer,
and he's retired now. Butone thing I liked about him,
and this totally relates towhat we're talking about,
is sometimes he'd be down in the matchand he's playing some new guy and
the guy's playing really, really well,
and there's always a point where youcould tell that he would look over and the
(24:07):
other guy was thinking, I'mabout to beat Roger Federer.
And then he just crumbles. He justhas the presence. He's like, Hey,
I've won 20 majors. You're not goingto beat me. You might be close,
but you're not going to beat me.
And there's just a flex that happenswhen you're just the top dog.
And so I'm curious if you guys haveany final thoughts for how can big
established businesses in a sense,
(24:27):
flex their establishment, their size,
their credibility in the marketplace,
any final thoughts on how we can reallyflex that muscle against these new
competitors that can help us stay on top?
For me, it's about reputation.
It's about focusing on what you havebuilt and being confident in who you
(24:47):
are and the quality that you provide. Forme, I'm one of the largest in my area.
Go look at my five star reviews.There's no one even close.
That's a flex for me's. No onethat can even come close to that.
But also for me, it's about notseeming like the big guy in town.
I don't want to seem like I'm the big guy.
I want to seem verypersonal with my clients.
(25:09):
I want to seem like I am thatsmall business that they hired.
I want to focus on the employeesfeaturing them on my page
because
that's the company to our clients iswho's in their home each and every time.
So that's the flex. My flex are myemployees. They are my number one asset,
the most important part of my company.
(25:31):
So we do spend a lot oftime focused on them,
and I would put my team up against anyother cleaning company where I live.
Bring it on.
Yeah. So that's my flex.My team is my flex.
Very well said. And I would agree.I would add community to it.
So our team is a critical partof our day-to-day, in fact,
going home. And onThursday we have best of,
(25:53):
and we're in three top competitionsand our team got us there.
And so it's a huge celebration.We're inviting them to go with us.
So we'll find out if we're the top threein painting, handyman and cleaning.
And that team got us there, so theyneed to be part of that celebration.
And it's huge.
And what's amazing about that isthat we are three years in business.
April was our third year, and we'realready in the top three in our community.
(26:16):
Wow, that's amazing. And it'stotally our team that got us there.
But community is a huge parttoo. We do a lot of networking.
I go to a lot of business events.
I sit on the board for ourlocal Main Street organization,
and I actually have a thing that I'mdoing right now where it's called a
hundred cups of Coffee,
and you sit down with a hundred differentpeople in your community and you get
to learn people. And it's assimple as just a cup of coffee.
(26:38):
But it's amazing because I'm meetingall of these local business owners,
political leaders and people thatare helping to run our community,
and I'm learning more about our community.
So just as much as buildingthe relationships with clients is also important to
build relationships with yourcommunity and celebrate your team wins.
And let me add to that, speakingof the competitions and best of,
(27:00):
I think that's something that you shouldwork toward whether you've been in
business for two years or whetheryou've been in business for 20 years.
My company in January will bein business for nine years,
and we've won eight of thelast nine years. So again,
that just shows consistency and quality.
But when I was in business for twoyears, I was the new person on,
(27:21):
I was the new competition.
I remember being in that and then allof a sudden I came out of nowhere.
So again, go for those competitions.
What's the worst case? You don'tmake it. You come in second, third,
at least you're gettingyour name out there.
But then once you start to build yourreputation and you win year after year
after year,
that really speaks to the consistencythat you provide and being in the
(27:44):
community, the quality that you add.
It's incredible how much credibilitythose contests give you. For sure.
Absolutely. And the blessingis as you get bigger,
then you have moreclients to vote for you.
Fair, definitely.
Then it gets unfair,
but you still put those stars up on yourpage and brag about it. Flex. Exactly.
Well, this has been a great conversation.
(28:05):
I'm going to boil it down tothree actionable items here.
Number one is don't panic. Remember,
no one can take away all your five orreviews all the contests that you've won,
your awesome team that you'vebeen cultivating all these years.
You still are number one, and youneed to act like it and not panic.
Number two is do some value added stuff.
You may be on a one year anniversaryof someone being a client of yours,
(28:27):
send 'em a gift or maybe do a big testdrawing on Valentine's Day or do things
that are relational thatare not just about business.
That creates this long-termloyalty with your clients.
And number three is resistthe urge to slash prices or
worse match pricing.
Don't match the price ofsome new guy you establish.
(28:48):
You are the main standard. So bethat standard. Don't slash prices,
don't cut your prices. Stay firm on that.
I would add if you slash your prices,
then you're not going to beable to pay your employees well,
which is going to be a downward spiralas well. So yeah, stick to your prices.
You work hard, you deserveit. Your team deserves it.
Well said. Crystal, how dopeople find out more about you?
(29:10):
Yeah, so our companywebsite is go the number two
girls.com. You can also find uson Facebook and Instagram as well.
You can find me@wheatleycreek.com.
And I'm on Instagram and Facebook.It's also at Wheatley Creek.
Great. Well, I appreciateboth of you guys being here.
You guys both have a lot ofclients and a lot of team members,
(29:31):
and so keep doing what you're doing.
You're having a big impact on yourcommunities and it's very inspiring.
So keep it up. I appreciate it. Thank.
You. Thanks Adam. Thanks Jarvis.
And thank you for listening.
I hope that you heard today that'll helpyou flex against the competition and
stay number one. I'm yourhost, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best. So go give it to 'em.
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