June 17, 2025 • 32 mins
Want customers to stick around and spend more? In this episode, John Margalit (Happy Home Helpers) and Kelly Guerrero (Fast Landscapes) share simple, effective ways to increase customer lifetime value—from upselling with confidence to using automation and personalization to build long-term trust. Host Adam Sylvester guides the conversation with actionable tips you can apply to any home service business.
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):
One of the reactivation campaigns says,
when was the last time you hadyour mattress deep cleaned?
And then it has scientific data that wepulled from a study that shows how many
mattress mites will build upin a certain period of time.
Welcome to Jobber'sMasters of Home Service,
a podcast for home servicepros, by home service pros.
We're in Las Vegas,
(00:21):
and today we're talking about maximizingrevenue by improving customer lifetime
value. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.
Today's guests are John Margalitand Kelly Guerrero. Both of you,
welcome to the studio.
Thanks.
Kelly, why don't you tell ourlisteners who you are and what you do?
Sure. I am Kelly Guerrero. I amthe co-owner of Fast Landscapes.
(00:41):
We are based out of Florida,and I'm happy to be here.
Awesome. Well, yeah, I'mglad you're here, John. Yeah,
I'm the owner of Happy Home Helpers.
We're a house cleaning business andwe've recently added other services like
Junk Hauling and home organizing,
and I'm also the founder ofRag to Riches University,
where I teach people how to start andgrow a six-figure house cleaning business.
(01:01):
Bingo. Okay. Both Jobber users.
Yes.
We're all fans of Jobber here in thisroom, so that's exciting. Lawn care,
house cleaning, this would be a greatconversation. So customer lifetime value,
very important. What is it exactly?Kelly, why don't you go first?
Sure. Well, you have your customersfor your different services,
maintenance services or what have youwant to make sure that you're upselling
(01:23):
where you can and that they're lookingto you to be their provider for various
services, in my case, whetherit's mulching, palm tree trimming,
replacing bushes, things like that.
And we want to make sure we have apartnership with those customers.
Yeah, I think that toanswer your question,
the definition really would be how toget your current customers spending more
(01:44):
money with you over the lifetime ofthe service offerings that you're
providing them and over a period of time.
And the best way to do that is to staytop of mind, number one. And number two,
the most critical thing is to thinkabout whatever actions you take or
services that you provide. Everythingthat you do should stem from one idea,
(02:06):
and that's how to delight the customerso much that they want to talk about your
business and share it with others.
If you do that and that's your main goalwith every strategy that you develop
and everything that you do,
you'll always end up getting thatcustomer to spend more money with you over
that period of time.
You said two things there thatI really want to drill down.
One is staying top of mind andthe other two is delight. So John,
(02:30):
why don't you tell us aboutstaying top of mind and then Kelly,
I want you to share, because Iknow you're really good at this,
delighting your customers overa long period of time. But John,
what do you do to stay top of mind?
Yeah,
you want to focus on things that mostother companies in your competitors are
not doing. So for example,mail is like a lost art form,
like actual mail, like puttinga postcard in the mail.
(02:51):
So one of my favorite tactics isusing an app called Handwrytten.
It's H-A-N-D-W-R-Y-T-T-E-N,
Handwrytten.
(03:12):
And what it will do is it'llintegrate your contacts in Jobber,
and it'll use AI to write personalizedpostcards to your highest value
customers, and it'll send them in themail. And when people receive that,
they feel very special,
and you can also make a notereminding them that they're
due for maintenance or whatever.
So I really like that idea.
(03:34):
And then the other way to stay topof mind is to constantly leverage
automation. Whenever current eventshappen or the seasons change,
you can automate email and SMS to staytop of mind and keep those customers,
but I think SMS is the mostvaluable outreach tool.
Some people use their emaila ton and some people don't,
but if you send a text message tosomebody, they're always going to see it.
They're always going to check it, andthat's the best way to stay top of mind.
I agree. And because here's the thing,
we can say that our clients areloyal and they'll stick with us,
(03:57):
but they're not with ill intent.They're busy, they're distracted.
Oh, this postcard came and I'llcall them for my lawn care needs,
even though you've beenusing the same guy for years.
And so we have to stay in front of peoplebecause that's our job as a business
owner to make sure they don'tforget about us. So Kelly,
what are some ways that you really,
really wow your clients long-termto keep them happy and stuff?
(04:20):
Well, we also talk to the clientsthat no longer are with us.
Maybe they've switched to a differentprovider or they moved homes and now their
lawn care was maybe includedby their HOA or something.
We do use our database andwe email out regularly,
especially with season changes,different things they should be doing,
whether they should put mulch down now,
whether they should trim their treesor whatever the case may be, aeration,
(04:40):
we speak about that in orderto give education so that we're
empowering the customer to knowwhat they need to do for their yard.
And of course, we always include a buttonthat says, request your quote here.
And generally when we do that,
we see a flood of quote requests comein and then that is maximizing that
value for the customer.
What are some other ways that you guyshave learned over the years of just
(05:02):
increasing that value for the client?
You really need to make agenuine connection with your customers and you need to
build a community,
and the best way to increase thatlifetime value is to sell them,
cross-sell them and upsell them otherservices. So instead of guessing,
all you have to do is survey themby email and better understand what
(05:22):
else they want that might compliment theservice that you're currently providing
to them. And then once youget enough data and feedback,
then you just simply offer thoseservices or find ways to deliver
on whatever the needs and wants arefrom your customer base instead of just
posting on social media.
If you're going to take time towrite posts and write emails,
(05:44):
if you have somebody doing it for you,
it's not going to resonate with youraudience. Whenever I write emails,
I talk to my customers about the wayI feel and I ask them to tell me how
they feel because emotions aregoing to drive a lot of purchasing
decisions.
I think that's a greatpoint. I also like to,
in some cases get on the phoneand just touch base and say, Hey,
(06:04):
how are you doing?
We have a field in Jobber for a customfield with dog's names so that we can
call and be like, Hey, how did yourdog lucky get through the storm?
I know that was a bad storm we have.How are things going? Then I said,
do you need anything right now? AndI get to have that conversation,
and that's one of the thingsthat customer's feedback has been to me that we're
(06:25):
really good at communication and thatthey really do appreciate that someone
takes the time and it doesn't take muchof my day to just make a few phone calls
and check on those customersand see how they are.
Then they're the ones who go tosocial media and when people ask, Hey,
who can clean up my yard? Who'sa good lawn mowing company?
I have a whole bunch of my customersin the comments saying, oh, well,
(06:47):
you need to call fast lawnscapes because they're amazing.
Kelly is great atcommunication. She'll reach out,
she'll make sure you're taken careof great people, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah,
that's a brilliant nugget right thereis knowing personable and intimate
things about your clients and then makingnote of that so you can come back and
share it with them later so they really,
really know that you're thinking aboutthem. You remember things about them,
(07:11):
and of course, thingslike their pet's names,
nothing more could be morepersonable or making a connection,
and I love that.
One of my favorite things is usingthe Jobber email integration with
MailChimp and setting up a60 day reactivation campaign.
So it's triggered by an actionthat the customers take.
(07:34):
So if there's no action being takenin a 60 day period automatically it'll
trigger two MailChimp to sendout an email that we pre-written
asking them how they've been ifthey need anything. And just again,
staying top of mindwithout having to remember.
One thing that we're alittle bit different is a lot of our services are just
recurring services,
so we want to make sure that we'retrying to upsell on other things,
(07:57):
and that's where we use the same thingwith the integration with Jobber and
MailChimp, but for oursit's giving education about mulch. Why do you put mulch?
How much mulch should you put? Whenshould you put it? And then we say, Hey,
you can do it yourself,
and we have some really cute graphicsand photos of a guy breaking his back
holding mulch,
or you could have us come and doit for you and we're ready to go,
(08:18):
and people say, oh yeah, I got meon the schedule and it drives us.
We do that twice a year in Octoberand March. We call it Mulch Madness.
That's a brilliant examplefor me. With house cleaning.
We also do upholstery cleaning. So oneof the reactivation campaigns says,
when was the last time you hadyour mattress deep cleaned?
And then it has scientific data that wepulled from a study that shows how many
(08:39):
mattress mites will build upin a certain period of time,
how though that'll sell and how they'lldirectly impact your sleep and the
energy that you have during the daybecause of the loss of sleep and the
interference with yoursleep patterns that a ton of
activity and sales.
I think you'll come clean my mattress.
(09:00):
I cant think of the lasttime it was deep cleaned.
People are going to only do one of two
things. They're either going to movetowards pleasure or move away from pain.
So if you acknowledge thatand you integrate that into your strategy and to what
you're writing and your messaging,
then you're going to see a hugeincrease in lifetime value.
Something I'm hearing from you guys thatI totally agree with is one of the best
(09:23):
ways to maximize the long-term healthof your relationship with your clients
is selling them other stuff. And soif you cut the grass, that's great,
but if you also pull their weeds and youalso turn their bushes and you also do
their mulch,
and you also also also that just buildsa fence around that customer forever.
The more that you getyour fingers sunk into,
(09:44):
they can't go anywhere andthey don't want to doing more,
but the fewer services you do for people,
the more likely they're going to gosomewhere else not as involved with you.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like that although you'reoffering all these different services,
it's more like a relationship where firstyou maybe just do one thing and they
(10:04):
say, Hey, we can do that for you too.And they're like, oh, that's great.
Now we don't have to call somebody elsebecause what I found is if they ask if
we can do it and we can do it, they'renot going to bother calling anybody else.
They already have a trusted partnerthat's going to work with them.
Yeah, totally.
So if our listeners want to be datadriven about this and make decisions for
lifetime value from data, what aresome of those things that they can do?
(10:26):
Any suggestions on that?
Yeah, that's a great question becauseif you can't measure what you're doing,
you definitely can't manage it. What Ido is I use a software tool called Ellie,
ELLY, and what ELLY does is itgives you full funnel tracking,
so from which campaign and clicksomebody came from, for example,
all the way to what they bought from you,
(10:48):
how much of it they bought fromyou and over what period of time.
And what ELLY will do is it'll giveyou a visual representation of that.
So not only do you haveto have accurate data,
you have to be able tointerpret that data.
So once you get a story from your data,
then you know how to makethose data-driven decisions.
One thing I've seen too is now thatJobber has put in the campaigns feature,
(11:10):
there is a ton of great data, cool,
really little graphs and colors thatI am a big fan of that helps us see,
okay, when we send out this emailblast to people who clicked it,
who one of the,
and then what was the dollar amount thatwas generated from that email that was
sent out? And that's extremely helpful,
making decisions on whenand what to send out.
(11:31):
That's exactly it,
and once you realize thatand you're certain about it,
you can do more of that anddouble down on it, right?
Yeah, just nail and scale it.With the Jobber campaigns,
you can send an email to everyone whohasn't had a visit with lawn mowing in the
last three days.
So basically you can send an email toeveryone who doesn't hire you for lawn
(11:51):
mowing, and that's a great way tostart. If our listeners are thinking,
how do I start this? That'sa great place to start.
And I think one of the keys is youhave to think about this holistically.
We think about what we can do as thebusiness owner to increase the lifetime
value, but I also think about whatcan the staff do? So for example,
if my staff is doing a house cleaningand they see a stain on the carpet or the
(12:14):
sofa, I train them to report that back.
So then we can call that customer andsay, Hey, we noticed a stain on your sofa.
How about we create an appointmentfor you so we can bring the upholstery
cleaning machine andwe can get rid of that.
We do the same thing withbed maintenance and stuff.
If someone has a treethat's not doing well,
or more likely a bush or somethinglike that, we have them take photos,
(12:37):
reach out to the staff in the office andsend out a quote to the client and say,
Hey, we can get thatbush replaced for you.
So that brings the customer backtheir time. It saves them the time,
so they're not going to Lowe'son the weekend and doing that.
And that's one of the things that we'rededicated to doing is helping people
take back their weekends.
Exactly. And because we're managingthe growth of the business,
(12:58):
we don't have literal eyes and earson every job, but our staff does.
So if you can create a situation whereyou train them so well that they're
literally your eyes and earson the job in the field,
you can identify so many opportunitiesto increase lifetime value if you just
train them to look for it.
We do that too with commercialmaintenance clients.
(13:19):
We use the Jobber checklists forthe commercial maintenance clients,
and so we have a space where commenton what does the mulch look like in the
beds for this community? Whatdoes the shrubs look like?
Are there anything dead?
And then they can take pictures andwe send that to the client that way.
We're doing two things.
We're basically giving them a level ofcommunication that they just don't get
from other providers ever.
(13:40):
They are so excited that we send outthis very specific detailed checklist to
them with the photos of their job,
and then we're also upselling so thatthey get more services with us and we take
care of the problemsbefore they have to ask.
And your clients aren't thinking, oh mygosh, they're calling me to upsell me.
That's not how peoplethink. They think, oh wow,
you saw a branch that fell on the ground.Yes, please come cut up in haul away.
(14:02):
Please. Thank you for payingattention. Thank you for caring.
Thank you for having, I'mnot out my yard all the time.
I'm not paying attentionto this kind of stuff.
And so when you could add thatvalue to people and say, Hey,
we're always looking around for stuff.
We want to keep your home intip top shape, people love that.
It comes from a place of caring,right? Instead of selling,
and nobody wants to be sold anything,
(14:22):
but you can literally sell without beingsalesy or pushy just by saying, Hey,
we noticed this and we'd like tohelp you out with it. And a lot of,
I think my competitors and peoplethat I've spoken to at conventions,
they often say, look, we don't wantto over email or SMS are customers,
and you know what? Ithink the exact opposite.
(14:43):
If I have something of valueto tell them every day,
I'll send them an email every day.
I exhaust the heck out of myemail list because if you don't,
then what are you doing with it? Ifpeople want to unsubscribe, so what?
Let 'em, right? But you can never,in my opinion, over email anything.
I do agree. I do agree on that pointtoo, especially when you're giving
(15:05):
valued information.
If you're just emailing them for thesake of email them trying to sell them
something, well, yeah, thenI think you can overdo it.
But if you're reaching out andcoming from a good place of, Hey,
these things are happeningright now. For example,
for us with hurricane seasonwhen a hurricane happens,
we are blowing up that emaillist explaining what's coming,
(15:26):
what we're looking for, whereroad closures are happening,
what's going on with utilities,
and we give that information even thoughit has nothing to do with our bottom
line,
but we stay top of mind and they'rereally thrilled that we care enough as a
company about them and whattheir families are going through.
Exactly.
I read this great case study on SouthwestAirlines and they really cracked the
code on how to stay topof mind with their email,
(15:48):
and what they did was is they noticedthat the more offers they sent out,
the less engagement they got.
So instead of sending offersout about their service,
they started emailing people aboutwhat's going on in the cities they were
flying to,
and that created incredible engagementand it had a lot of value because if
somebody's spending a finitenumber of days in the city,
(16:12):
they want to know how to maximize theirtime there and experience as much as
possible.
So Southwest Airlines focused onthat content and that sold way more
than discounts and other offers, right?
Yeah. Instead of focusing on justtrying to make even better offers,
they thought about it from acompletely different angle.
This is a great conversation.
(16:32):
I'm going to pause for aminute to talk about Jobber.
We've talked about building lifetimevalue in the client that requires
communication and transparencyand being proactive.
How has Jobber helped you guys handlethose things with your clients?
For me, the automations that Jobber haswhere it sends out the we're on our way
tomorrow, you have a service,
(16:54):
those kinds of things that stay top ofmind with the customers and also let them
know what's going on with their home andtheir service that they have coming up
with you.
For me,
it's the ability to have them signoff with their finger right on their
phone or tablet,
the quote and the terms of servicethat way that they've taken a
look at the most important parts ofyour guarantee and your promise to them,
(17:17):
and then they've actuallysigned off on it.
Yeah, quotes the notifications, it's alljust so solid. It just works so well.
Clients often think thatwe're a way bigger company than we actually are because
Jobber makes us look solegit and so professional.
Absolutely. I've found that's beenthe situation with our company.
People are surprised that we'reactually as small as we are.
(17:37):
Right?
Because we just have thetop-notch tools at our disposal.
Well, you can wow your clients as wellwith Jobber. If you're not using Jobber,
you need to.
So go to Jobber.com/podcastdeal anexclusive discount and start using Jobber
today. ,What are some other ways,
other kinds of content that's beenreally helpful for you guys to nurture
(17:59):
long-term value?
I'm still a big believer in blogs.
I know that SEO experts allsay it's not worth your time,
but I really feel like it's worth itbecause I can give a lot of information,
give education because I'm a person thatI could talk your ear off all day long
about the plants in Florida, whichones like sun, which ones don't,
what to put when you havea dry area, et cetera,
and to be able to give that informationand have that creative outlet for myself
(18:21):
where I can put a blog story and thenI share that on social media and via
email. It's just there kind oflike a knowledge base, if you will,
of information so that people who arejust moving to our area or they're not
sure about landscaping,
they can use that to reference and getinformation completely free of charge.
So we add that much more value to ourcommunity and to our potential clients.
(18:43):
Yeah, I mean peoplearen't buying the service.
They're buying the outcome of the serviceor how the outcome makes them feel.
So the best strategy for usis to tie back the content
that we're serving people to theirhealth and wellness and what it does,
for example, a decluttered house,
how that improves your mentalhealth and creates less stress and
(19:07):
those type of things becausethat's what motivates the purchase.
Nobody really thinks about, oh,
my floors are clean.
What they're thinking is is that it'sgross if I walk on a floor that makes my
feet black.
So you want to point those things outthat tie back to the actual outcome and
(19:29):
the way the outcome makes them feel.
We do similar things with our marketingwhere it's more about taking back your
weekend.
People work hard and commutes are longand they get home and they're tired and
the last thing they want to do is go outand mow the grass or rake up the leaves
or whatever the thing is.
So basically we're giving them a waythat they can spend more time with their
family and enjoy their qualityof life that much more.
(19:51):
Yeah,
I love that because the most valuablething in life and the only thing you can
never get back is time. Absolutely.
And so if you can embed that in youroverall messaging about you're saving them
time and how that time can be betterspent doing things that they love to
do, that's how you win.
One that I'm a big fan of,
and you guys are this way too I'msure is being very proactive with
(20:14):
communication. For example,we can't come today,
it's raining all day or we can't cometoday because so-and-so called out sick or
things that happen in business.
How do you guys use proactivecommunication to really make sure people know that
they're paying attention to me,they haven't forgotten to about me,
they care about me enough to callme ahead of time or send me a text.
Anything like that thatyou guys are doing.Z.
(20:35):
We send out emails and texts,
especially if the schedule has beenimpacted by the weather or something along
those lines. Sometimeswe'll also make phone calls,
especially if it was like abigger job, like a one-time job,
a one-off job where we were doing somelandscaping installation or something.
If anything comes up in the course ofthat job where we're not able to keep the
promises that we had made and do whatwe were going to do on the schedule that
(20:58):
we were going to do it,
I want to make a phone call and I wantto have a conversation with that client
so that I'm able to make sure that they'reokay with it, explain the reasoning,
and then they're bought inand they agree that say, no,
it's better that we wait because yeah,
it's going to rain this afternoonor whatever the case may be.
Yeah,
we completely over-communicate andwhether it's using the feature in
(21:20):
Jobber to send that textmessage when you're on the way,
letting them know you're on the way,
just updating them witheverything that we see,
and if we see something that's off, wedocument it, we report it right away.
And I think that when it comes tocommunicating and staying top of
mind,
one of the most important things isto ask your customer how they prefer
(21:42):
to communicate. So a lotof people will say, well,
the best way to make asale is face to face,
and then the second best way is over zoom,
and then the third best way is aphone call, et cetera. Next is email.
That's actually not true. Thedata will tell you every time,
the best way to communicatewith a customer is the way that's most comfortable
(22:03):
for them. We'll actuallysurvey and in the job notes,
in the client profile on Jobber,we'll write down what they want.
Do they want text messages,phone calls, emails, et cetera.
And then we always refer back to thatso we know how they want to receive the
communication because if you take noteof that and you're respectful of that,
(22:23):
they're going to receive it a lot betterand they're not going to turn you off
because some people disable that featureif they get it too much or in a way
that they don't want it.
Communication is hugewith our company too.
It's really something thatwe work to stay on top of.
And I even use chatGPT sometimes tohelp me come up with especially the
difficult situations when I have togive someone some bad news and I know
(22:44):
they're not going to be happy about it.
I just feel like it helps refine me alittle bit and that I can kind of use that
as a starting point and go from there.
But communication is reallya key in our business.
Nine times out of 10, I would say,
when you have to deliverbad news to somebody,
they will take it fine ifyou tell them ahead of time,
but they get sideways when they find outabout it before you call them. I mean,
(23:08):
almost always be like, oh, that's fine,whatever. Thanks for letting me know.
But if they have to call you,where are you guys? Oh, sorry,
we're not coming today. Oh my gosh,it's nuclear and it should be nuclear.
You didn't fulfill your promise. And.
The team then also has to makesure they're communicating.
We had a situation oncewhere a truck broke down,
nobody told anybody in the office.
Nobody's fault.
(23:29):
And it just happened. And sowhen we did finally find out,
of course there was apologies all aroundwith the customers and they were okay
with it,
but it would've gone better had our teamreached out in that situation and let
us know.
But people are very grateful for thatphone call or that heads up text message,
whatever it may be.
Planning, right? And anticipatingalways being two steps ahead,
and then that way you can mitigate allthose issues and that's what keeps people
(23:53):
coming back to you, right? Disclosingto them, this is our guarantee,
this is what we're going todeliver. This is our promise to you.
And then if there's anything that comesin the way of what you're promising to
deliver that you stay ahead of it andinstead of waiting for them to call you,
you're calling them.
That's how you build that ultimate trustthat keeps people coming back more and
(24:15):
more.
One of my favorite things to do, I'mcurious if you guys have done this,
is really pay attentionto what is in the reviews.
And so people will tell you whatreally matters to them in the review,
their communication was great. Theywere on time, they were friendly,
they're professional, they did a reallygood job. All these different keywords,
(24:35):
and actually Google will actually at thetop of all your reviews will tell you
all the most commonlyused phrases and stuff,
and I tell you how many 18 people saycommunication or that kind of stuff,
and Facebook posts too. Whereveryour clients are talking about you,
you want to pay attention. They know mydog's name. That kind of stuff spreads.
And so now you say, okay,now I know what matters.
(24:56):
I need to know the name of everysingle dog. And everyone says,
communication that we need tocommunicate even better than we do now,
and it gives you a new standard when youstart to pay attention to what people
really care about.
They tell you on the phone toowhen you first book 'em as well,
but they'll tell you at everypoint if you just listen.
But the reviews is a great wayto go back and look and say,
everyone talks about being ontime, that text on the way,
(25:17):
the phone call on the way,
the notification the night beforesaying we're coming the next day.
All that kind of stuff might really matterand you have to pay attention to that
kind of stuff.
And I think that's a really great point,
but you also need to think about thenegative reviews because everyone gets
negative reviews. What dothose negative reviews,
even though none of us like to getthem, what do they have in common?
(25:37):
Where did we mess up and how can weset some processes in place so that
situations like that don't arise anymore,
so we're now in a proactive position sothat the next customer won't have that
same situation happen in theirproject or in their service.
Yeah. One of the things thatwe do to avoid that happening,
the negative reviews, is thatwe'll leverage automation.
(26:00):
So right after the service,
we have somebody manuallya human call them,
and then we also sendout an email that says,
on a scale of one to five, howhappy were you with the service?
If they do anything that's under five,
they get directed to book a callto tell us how you feel about it.
(26:21):
We really want to learnfrom this experience and improve it for you next time.
And then also something maybe we givethem a discount or some special offer for
not fulfilling the service to theirsatisfaction, but if anything's a five,
it just routes them directly toleave a review on our Google page.
One thing that we did too that is morein the field situation is for our one-off
(26:43):
jobs,
our techs have the instructions to get apicture of the customer with thumbs up.
That way once the job is done and wehave photos of the customer like this
smiling,
so then if they want to complain laterbecause the price or something like that,
or they're trying to look for adiscount, which people are people,
they're going to try andget what they can get.
Sometimes we can just pointto that and say, well,
(27:04):
you were really happy with the job.
What happened from the time it took thepicture to now and then address the real
issue or the real concernthat the customer has.
My favorite thing to do with those photosis have them post that photo in the
review because Google loves photoswith reviews, maybe a client selfie,
get your technicians in there aswell. People love that kind of stuff.
I love happy calls. Happy calls are soimportant. Every first time client, Hey,
(27:26):
how was yesterday? It was great. They'rea little late. Oh, sorry about that.
Anything else?
And you capture all that stuff beforeit gets online and you start talking to
the neighbors and nine times that it'svery positive and it's the most favorite
call that your staff in office willmake. It's like, how was yesterday? Oh,
they were awesome, and you'reawesome too, and everybody's awesome,
(27:47):
and so don't take that benefit away fromyour people talking to happy people.
It's really important.
Yeah. It goes back to, I thinkSnoop Dogg said this in this album,
you want to keep your money on yourmind and your mind on your money,
and so if you don't have adedicated customer success
team or person,
you're definitely going to fall short inhow much lifetime value you can create.
(28:09):
And I think that one of the best thingsthat I've learned in terms of gaining
leverage for that is findingpeople overseas that can
virtually come in and help youbecause it's a fraction of the cost,
and you can have more personpower actually manually doing those things because
nothing's going to make a connectionas well as human to human.
(28:31):
That's true. I agree. Wehave a CSR that is overseas,
and then also one that's here locally.
The CSR that's overseas mostly handlesmore of the commercial and the CSR
that's local handles more ofour area there in Florida,
because she's familiar withthe area what things are like.
She really likes to getthose calls from customers.
We also do the same thing where we callafter a service and see how it went and
(28:54):
when it's a good call, it's just sonice to hear her in her office say, oh,
I love that lady so much. She's so nicebecause they're happy with the service,
they're happy with her,
and then they go on to leave areally great review and all of that.
It becomes like a snowball effect whereif you're giving the great service and
the customers are happy andthey're leaving you great reviews,
well then you're going to getmore customers and more marketing,
(29:16):
and they're going to lookto you for more services,
and it's just win-win all the way around.
As the business owner,
one of the key indicators isspecifically if the customers
ask for someone or theyknow the names of your CSRs
When people call me or Ispeak to them and they say,
I spoke to Tasha the otherweek, boy, is she helpful?
(29:39):
Then I know they'redoing a fantastic, right?
They're really making humanconnections with people.
And it's funny you talked aboutsomeone being hyperlocal on your staff.
I have six people on the islandof St. Lucia, and to be honest,
I didn't even know that was aplace until I met them, right?
And apparently it's a great placeto do a honeymoon, but my point is,
(29:59):
is that because of technology andthe internet bringing everyone
together,
they know Las Vegas almost as well asI do because of the Google Maps and all
these things, and they'reroute mapping all day long.
So it's almost as if they'rehyperlocal even though they're.
Not here. Well, this was a greatconversation. It was really good.
I'm going to boil it down to threeactual items here for our listeners.
(30:22):
Number one is you want to stay in frontof your clients on top of mind all the
time and use some educational content,notify them of the seasonal changes,
not just sales pitches.
Number two is you want to track importantthings like dog names and the names
the kids,
and just special facts about your clientsso that they feel like you hear them
(30:44):
and care about them, andthey're not just another number.
And number three is upsell and cross-sell.
Train your people to see and identifyother services that you guys can provide
for them. The more services youprovide, the more loyal they are.
Guys, that was a greatconversation. Thanks for being here.
How do people find outmore about you, Kelly?
Yeah. They can find my FastLawnScapesbusiness at www.fastlawns.net.
(31:07):
Or if you're interestedin some coaching services,
I do have www.homeprocoaching.com.
You guys can find me @ johnmagalit.com.
That's J-O-N-M-A-R-G-A-L-I-T,
and I run Rag to Riches University whereI teach people how to start and grow a
house cleaning business.
(31:27):
So if you're interested in starting oneor you need help growing and you want to
get to that next level,
shoot me a DM or an email and you cango to johnmargalitE.com for all the
information.
Great. Well, John and Kelly,the businesses you guys are running are important.
You guys have employees and clients,and you're treating them well,
and you're serving your market. You'redoing a great job. So keep it up.
(31:48):
Everybody is very thankfulfor it. Thanks for having us.
Thank you so much.
And thank you for listening.
I hope you hear today will help youimprove your customer experience and
increase that lifetime value ofyour customers. I'm your host,
Adam Sylvester. You canfind me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best, so go give it to 'em.
One of the reactivation campaigns says,
when was the last time you hadyour mattress deep cleaned?
And then it has scientific data that wepulled from a study that shows how many
mattress mites will build upin a certain period of time.
Welcome to Jobber'sMasters of Home Service,
a podcast for home servicepros, by home service pros.
We're in Las Vegas,
(00:21):
and today we're talking about maximizingrevenue by improving customer lifetime
value. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.
Today's guests are John Margalitand Kelly Guerrero. Both of you,
welcome to the studio.
Thanks.
Kelly, why don't you tell ourlisteners who you are and what you do?
Sure. I am Kelly Guerrero. I amthe co-owner of Fast Landscapes.
(00:41):
We are based out of Florida,and I'm happy to be here.
Awesome. Well, yeah, I'mglad you're here, John. Yeah,
I'm the owner of Happy Home Helpers.
We're a house cleaning business andwe've recently added other services like
Junk Hauling and home organizing,
and I'm also the founder ofRag to Riches University,
where I teach people how to start andgrow a six-figure house cleaning business.
(01:01):
Bingo. Okay. Both Jobber users.
Yes.
We're all fans of Jobber here in thisroom, so that's exciting. Lawn care,
house cleaning, this would be a greatconversation. So customer lifetime value,
very important. What is it exactly?Kelly, why don't you go first?
Sure. Well, you have your customersfor your different services,
maintenance services or what have youwant to make sure that you're upselling
(01:23):
where you can and that they're lookingto you to be their provider for various
services, in my case, whetherit's mulching, palm tree trimming,
replacing bushes, things like that.
And we want to make sure we have apartnership with those customers.
Yeah, I think that toanswer your question,
the definition really would be how toget your current customers spending more
(01:44):
money with you over the lifetime ofthe service offerings that you're
providing them and over a period of time.
And the best way to do that is to staytop of mind, number one. And number two,
the most critical thing is to thinkabout whatever actions you take or
services that you provide. Everythingthat you do should stem from one idea,
(02:06):
and that's how to delight the customerso much that they want to talk about your
business and share it with others.
If you do that and that's your main goalwith every strategy that you develop
and everything that you do,
you'll always end up getting thatcustomer to spend more money with you over
that period of time.
You said two things there thatI really want to drill down.
One is staying top of mind andthe other two is delight. So John,
(02:30):
why don't you tell us aboutstaying top of mind and then Kelly,
I want you to share, because Iknow you're really good at this,
delighting your customers overa long period of time. But John,
what do you do to stay top of mind?
Yeah,
you want to focus on things that mostother companies in your competitors are
not doing. So for example,mail is like a lost art form,
like actual mail, like puttinga postcard in the mail.
(02:51):
So one of my favorite tactics isusing an app called Handwrytten.
It's H-A-N-D-W-R-Y-T-T-E-N,
Handwrytten.
(03:12):
And what it will do is it'llintegrate your contacts in Jobber,
and it'll use AI to write personalizedpostcards to your highest value
customers, and it'll send them in themail. And when people receive that,
they feel very special,
and you can also make a notereminding them that they're
due for maintenance or whatever.
So I really like that idea.
(03:34):
And then the other way to stay topof mind is to constantly leverage
automation. Whenever current eventshappen or the seasons change,
you can automate email and SMS to staytop of mind and keep those customers,
but I think SMS is the mostvaluable outreach tool.
Some people use their emaila ton and some people don't,
but if you send a text message tosomebody, they're always going to see it.
They're always going to check it, andthat's the best way to stay top of mind.
I agree. And because here's the thing,
we can say that our clients areloyal and they'll stick with us,
(03:57):
but they're not with ill intent.They're busy, they're distracted.
Oh, this postcard came and I'llcall them for my lawn care needs,
even though you've beenusing the same guy for years.
And so we have to stay in front of peoplebecause that's our job as a business
owner to make sure they don'tforget about us. So Kelly,
what are some ways that you really,
really wow your clients long-termto keep them happy and stuff?
(04:20):
Well, we also talk to the clientsthat no longer are with us.
Maybe they've switched to a differentprovider or they moved homes and now their
lawn care was maybe includedby their HOA or something.
We do use our database andwe email out regularly,
especially with season changes,different things they should be doing,
whether they should put mulch down now,
whether they should trim their treesor whatever the case may be, aeration,
(04:40):
we speak about that in orderto give education so that we're
empowering the customer to knowwhat they need to do for their yard.
And of course, we always include a buttonthat says, request your quote here.
And generally when we do that,
we see a flood of quote requests comein and then that is maximizing that
value for the customer.
What are some other ways that you guyshave learned over the years of just
(05:02):
increasing that value for the client?
You really need to make agenuine connection with your customers and you need to
build a community,
and the best way to increase thatlifetime value is to sell them,
cross-sell them and upsell them otherservices. So instead of guessing,
all you have to do is survey themby email and better understand what
(05:22):
else they want that might compliment theservice that you're currently providing
to them. And then once youget enough data and feedback,
then you just simply offer thoseservices or find ways to deliver
on whatever the needs and wants arefrom your customer base instead of just
posting on social media.
If you're going to take time towrite posts and write emails,
(05:44):
if you have somebody doing it for you,
it's not going to resonate with youraudience. Whenever I write emails,
I talk to my customers about the wayI feel and I ask them to tell me how
they feel because emotions aregoing to drive a lot of purchasing
decisions.
I think that's a greatpoint. I also like to,
in some cases get on the phoneand just touch base and say, Hey,
(06:04):
how are you doing?
We have a field in Jobber for a customfield with dog's names so that we can
call and be like, Hey, how did yourdog lucky get through the storm?
I know that was a bad storm we have.How are things going? Then I said,
do you need anything right now? AndI get to have that conversation,
and that's one of the thingsthat customer's feedback has been to me that we're
(06:25):
really good at communication and thatthey really do appreciate that someone
takes the time and it doesn't take muchof my day to just make a few phone calls
and check on those customersand see how they are.
Then they're the ones who go tosocial media and when people ask, Hey,
who can clean up my yard? Who'sa good lawn mowing company?
I have a whole bunch of my customersin the comments saying, oh, well,
(06:47):
you need to call fast lawnscapes because they're amazing.
Kelly is great atcommunication. She'll reach out,
she'll make sure you're taken careof great people, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah,
that's a brilliant nugget right thereis knowing personable and intimate
things about your clients and then makingnote of that so you can come back and
share it with them later so they really,
really know that you're thinking aboutthem. You remember things about them,
(07:11):
and of course, thingslike their pet's names,
nothing more could be morepersonable or making a connection,
and I love that.
One of my favorite things is usingthe Jobber email integration with
MailChimp and setting up a60 day reactivation campaign.
So it's triggered by an actionthat the customers take.
(07:34):
So if there's no action being takenin a 60 day period automatically it'll
trigger two MailChimp to sendout an email that we pre-written
asking them how they've been ifthey need anything. And just again,
staying top of mindwithout having to remember.
One thing that we're alittle bit different is a lot of our services are just
recurring services,
so we want to make sure that we'retrying to upsell on other things,
(07:57):
and that's where we use the same thingwith the integration with Jobber and
MailChimp, but for oursit's giving education about mulch. Why do you put mulch?
How much mulch should you put? Whenshould you put it? And then we say, Hey,
you can do it yourself,
and we have some really cute graphicsand photos of a guy breaking his back
holding mulch,
or you could have us come and doit for you and we're ready to go,
(08:18):
and people say, oh yeah, I got meon the schedule and it drives us.
We do that twice a year in Octoberand March. We call it Mulch Madness.
That's a brilliant examplefor me. With house cleaning.
We also do upholstery cleaning. So oneof the reactivation campaigns says,
when was the last time you hadyour mattress deep cleaned?
And then it has scientific data that wepulled from a study that shows how many
(08:39):
mattress mites will build upin a certain period of time,
how though that'll sell and how they'lldirectly impact your sleep and the
energy that you have during the daybecause of the loss of sleep and the
interference with yoursleep patterns that a ton of
activity and sales.
I think you'll come clean my mattress.
(09:00):
I cant think of the lasttime it was deep cleaned.
People are going to only do one of two
things. They're either going to movetowards pleasure or move away from pain.
So if you acknowledge thatand you integrate that into your strategy and to what
you're writing and your messaging,
then you're going to see a hugeincrease in lifetime value.
Something I'm hearing from you guys thatI totally agree with is one of the best
(09:23):
ways to maximize the long-term healthof your relationship with your clients
is selling them other stuff. And soif you cut the grass, that's great,
but if you also pull their weeds and youalso turn their bushes and you also do
their mulch,
and you also also also that just buildsa fence around that customer forever.
The more that you getyour fingers sunk into,
(09:44):
they can't go anywhere andthey don't want to doing more,
but the fewer services you do for people,
the more likely they're going to gosomewhere else not as involved with you.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like that although you'reoffering all these different services,
it's more like a relationship where firstyou maybe just do one thing and they
(10:04):
say, Hey, we can do that for you too.And they're like, oh, that's great.
Now we don't have to call somebody elsebecause what I found is if they ask if
we can do it and we can do it, they'renot going to bother calling anybody else.
They already have a trusted partnerthat's going to work with them.
Yeah, totally.
So if our listeners want to be datadriven about this and make decisions for
lifetime value from data, what aresome of those things that they can do?
(10:26):
Any suggestions on that?
Yeah, that's a great question becauseif you can't measure what you're doing,
you definitely can't manage it. What Ido is I use a software tool called Ellie,
ELLY, and what ELLY does is itgives you full funnel tracking,
so from which campaign and clicksomebody came from, for example,
all the way to what they bought from you,
(10:48):
how much of it they bought fromyou and over what period of time.
And what ELLY will do is it'll giveyou a visual representation of that.
So not only do you haveto have accurate data,
you have to be able tointerpret that data.
So once you get a story from your data,
then you know how to makethose data-driven decisions.
One thing I've seen too is now thatJobber has put in the campaigns feature,
(11:10):
there is a ton of great data, cool,
really little graphs and colors thatI am a big fan of that helps us see,
okay, when we send out this emailblast to people who clicked it,
who one of the,
and then what was the dollar amount thatwas generated from that email that was
sent out? And that's extremely helpful,
making decisions on whenand what to send out.
(11:31):
That's exactly it,
and once you realize thatand you're certain about it,
you can do more of that anddouble down on it, right?
Yeah, just nail and scale it.With the Jobber campaigns,
you can send an email to everyone whohasn't had a visit with lawn mowing in the
last three days.
So basically you can send an email toeveryone who doesn't hire you for lawn
(11:51):
mowing, and that's a great way tostart. If our listeners are thinking,
how do I start this? That'sa great place to start.
And I think one of the keys is youhave to think about this holistically.
We think about what we can do as thebusiness owner to increase the lifetime
value, but I also think about whatcan the staff do? So for example,
if my staff is doing a house cleaningand they see a stain on the carpet or the
(12:14):
sofa, I train them to report that back.
So then we can call that customer andsay, Hey, we noticed a stain on your sofa.
How about we create an appointmentfor you so we can bring the upholstery
cleaning machine andwe can get rid of that.
We do the same thing withbed maintenance and stuff.
If someone has a treethat's not doing well,
or more likely a bush or somethinglike that, we have them take photos,
(12:37):
reach out to the staff in the office andsend out a quote to the client and say,
Hey, we can get thatbush replaced for you.
So that brings the customer backtheir time. It saves them the time,
so they're not going to Lowe'son the weekend and doing that.
And that's one of the things that we'rededicated to doing is helping people
take back their weekends.
Exactly. And because we're managingthe growth of the business,
(12:58):
we don't have literal eyes and earson every job, but our staff does.
So if you can create a situation whereyou train them so well that they're
literally your eyes and earson the job in the field,
you can identify so many opportunitiesto increase lifetime value if you just
train them to look for it.
We do that too with commercialmaintenance clients.
(13:19):
We use the Jobber checklists forthe commercial maintenance clients,
and so we have a space where commenton what does the mulch look like in the
beds for this community? Whatdoes the shrubs look like?
Are there anything dead?
And then they can take pictures andwe send that to the client that way.
We're doing two things.
We're basically giving them a level ofcommunication that they just don't get
from other providers ever.
(13:40):
They are so excited that we send outthis very specific detailed checklist to
them with the photos of their job,
and then we're also upselling so thatthey get more services with us and we take
care of the problemsbefore they have to ask.
And your clients aren't thinking, oh mygosh, they're calling me to upsell me.
That's not how peoplethink. They think, oh wow,
you saw a branch that fell on the ground.Yes, please come cut up in haul away.
(14:02):
Please. Thank you for payingattention. Thank you for caring.
Thank you for having, I'mnot out my yard all the time.
I'm not paying attentionto this kind of stuff.
And so when you could add thatvalue to people and say, Hey,
we're always looking around for stuff.
We want to keep your home intip top shape, people love that.
It comes from a place of caring,right? Instead of selling,
and nobody wants to be sold anything,
(14:22):
but you can literally sell without beingsalesy or pushy just by saying, Hey,
we noticed this and we'd like tohelp you out with it. And a lot of,
I think my competitors and peoplethat I've spoken to at conventions,
they often say, look, we don't wantto over email or SMS are customers,
and you know what? Ithink the exact opposite.
(14:43):
If I have something of valueto tell them every day,
I'll send them an email every day.
I exhaust the heck out of myemail list because if you don't,
then what are you doing with it? Ifpeople want to unsubscribe, so what?
Let 'em, right? But you can never,in my opinion, over email anything.
I do agree. I do agree on that pointtoo, especially when you're giving
(15:05):
valued information.
If you're just emailing them for thesake of email them trying to sell them
something, well, yeah, thenI think you can overdo it.
But if you're reaching out andcoming from a good place of, Hey,
these things are happeningright now. For example,
for us with hurricane seasonwhen a hurricane happens,
we are blowing up that emaillist explaining what's coming,
(15:26):
what we're looking for, whereroad closures are happening,
what's going on with utilities,
and we give that information even thoughit has nothing to do with our bottom
line,
but we stay top of mind and they'rereally thrilled that we care enough as a
company about them and whattheir families are going through.
Exactly.
I read this great case study on SouthwestAirlines and they really cracked the
code on how to stay topof mind with their email,
(15:48):
and what they did was is they noticedthat the more offers they sent out,
the less engagement they got.
So instead of sending offersout about their service,
they started emailing people aboutwhat's going on in the cities they were
flying to,
and that created incredible engagementand it had a lot of value because if
somebody's spending a finitenumber of days in the city,
(16:12):
they want to know how to maximize theirtime there and experience as much as
possible.
So Southwest Airlines focused onthat content and that sold way more
than discounts and other offers, right?
Yeah. Instead of focusing on justtrying to make even better offers,
they thought about it from acompletely different angle.
This is a great conversation.
(16:32):
I'm going to pause for aminute to talk about Jobber.
We've talked about building lifetimevalue in the client that requires
communication and transparencyand being proactive.
How has Jobber helped you guys handlethose things with your clients?
For me, the automations that Jobber haswhere it sends out the we're on our way
tomorrow, you have a service,
(16:54):
those kinds of things that stay top ofmind with the customers and also let them
know what's going on with their home andtheir service that they have coming up
with you.
For me,
it's the ability to have them signoff with their finger right on their
phone or tablet,
the quote and the terms of servicethat way that they've taken a
look at the most important parts ofyour guarantee and your promise to them,
(17:17):
and then they've actuallysigned off on it.
Yeah, quotes the notifications, it's alljust so solid. It just works so well.
Clients often think thatwe're a way bigger company than we actually are because
Jobber makes us look solegit and so professional.
Absolutely. I've found that's beenthe situation with our company.
People are surprised that we'reactually as small as we are.
(17:37):
Right?
Because we just have thetop-notch tools at our disposal.
Well, you can wow your clients as wellwith Jobber. If you're not using Jobber,
you need to.
So go to Jobber.com/podcastdeal anexclusive discount and start using Jobber
today. ,What are some other ways,
other kinds of content that's beenreally helpful for you guys to nurture
(17:59):
long-term value?
I'm still a big believer in blogs.
I know that SEO experts allsay it's not worth your time,
but I really feel like it's worth itbecause I can give a lot of information,
give education because I'm a person thatI could talk your ear off all day long
about the plants in Florida, whichones like sun, which ones don't,
what to put when you havea dry area, et cetera,
and to be able to give that informationand have that creative outlet for myself
(18:21):
where I can put a blog story and thenI share that on social media and via
email. It's just there kind oflike a knowledge base, if you will,
of information so that people who arejust moving to our area or they're not
sure about landscaping,
they can use that to reference and getinformation completely free of charge.
So we add that much more value to ourcommunity and to our potential clients.
(18:43):
Yeah, I mean peoplearen't buying the service.
They're buying the outcome of the serviceor how the outcome makes them feel.
So the best strategy for usis to tie back the content
that we're serving people to theirhealth and wellness and what it does,
for example, a decluttered house,
how that improves your mentalhealth and creates less stress and
(19:07):
those type of things becausethat's what motivates the purchase.
Nobody really thinks about, oh,
my floors are clean.
What they're thinking is is that it'sgross if I walk on a floor that makes my
feet black.
So you want to point those things outthat tie back to the actual outcome and
(19:29):
the way the outcome makes them feel.
We do similar things with our marketingwhere it's more about taking back your
weekend.
People work hard and commutes are longand they get home and they're tired and
the last thing they want to do is go outand mow the grass or rake up the leaves
or whatever the thing is.
So basically we're giving them a waythat they can spend more time with their
family and enjoy their qualityof life that much more.
(19:51):
Yeah,
I love that because the most valuablething in life and the only thing you can
never get back is time. Absolutely.
And so if you can embed that in youroverall messaging about you're saving them
time and how that time can be betterspent doing things that they love to
do, that's how you win.
One that I'm a big fan of,
and you guys are this way too I'msure is being very proactive with
(20:14):
communication. For example,we can't come today,
it's raining all day or we can't cometoday because so-and-so called out sick or
things that happen in business.
How do you guys use proactivecommunication to really make sure people know that
they're paying attention to me,they haven't forgotten to about me,
they care about me enough to callme ahead of time or send me a text.
Anything like that thatyou guys are doing.Z.
(20:35):
We send out emails and texts,
especially if the schedule has beenimpacted by the weather or something along
those lines. Sometimeswe'll also make phone calls,
especially if it was like abigger job, like a one-time job,
a one-off job where we were doing somelandscaping installation or something.
If anything comes up in the course ofthat job where we're not able to keep the
promises that we had made and do whatwe were going to do on the schedule that
(20:58):
we were going to do it,
I want to make a phone call and I wantto have a conversation with that client
so that I'm able to make sure that they'reokay with it, explain the reasoning,
and then they're bought inand they agree that say, no,
it's better that we wait because yeah,
it's going to rain this afternoonor whatever the case may be.
Yeah,
we completely over-communicate andwhether it's using the feature in
(21:20):
Jobber to send that textmessage when you're on the way,
letting them know you're on the way,
just updating them witheverything that we see,
and if we see something that's off, wedocument it, we report it right away.
And I think that when it comes tocommunicating and staying top of
mind,
one of the most important things isto ask your customer how they prefer
(21:42):
to communicate. So a lotof people will say, well,
the best way to make asale is face to face,
and then the second best way is over zoom,
and then the third best way is aphone call, et cetera. Next is email.
That's actually not true. Thedata will tell you every time,
the best way to communicatewith a customer is the way that's most comfortable
(22:03):
for them. We'll actuallysurvey and in the job notes,
in the client profile on Jobber,we'll write down what they want.
Do they want text messages,phone calls, emails, et cetera.
And then we always refer back to thatso we know how they want to receive the
communication because if you take noteof that and you're respectful of that,
(22:23):
they're going to receive it a lot betterand they're not going to turn you off
because some people disable that featureif they get it too much or in a way
that they don't want it.
Communication is hugewith our company too.
It's really something thatwe work to stay on top of.
And I even use chatGPT sometimes tohelp me come up with especially the
difficult situations when I have togive someone some bad news and I know
(22:44):
they're not going to be happy about it.
I just feel like it helps refine me alittle bit and that I can kind of use that
as a starting point and go from there.
But communication is reallya key in our business.
Nine times out of 10, I would say,
when you have to deliverbad news to somebody,
they will take it fine ifyou tell them ahead of time,
but they get sideways when they find outabout it before you call them. I mean,
(23:08):
almost always be like, oh, that's fine,whatever. Thanks for letting me know.
But if they have to call you,where are you guys? Oh, sorry,
we're not coming today. Oh my gosh,it's nuclear and it should be nuclear.
You didn't fulfill your promise. And.
The team then also has to makesure they're communicating.
We had a situation oncewhere a truck broke down,
nobody told anybody in the office.
Nobody's fault.
(23:29):
And it just happened. And sowhen we did finally find out,
of course there was apologies all aroundwith the customers and they were okay
with it,
but it would've gone better had our teamreached out in that situation and let
us know.
But people are very grateful for thatphone call or that heads up text message,
whatever it may be.
Planning, right? And anticipatingalways being two steps ahead,
and then that way you can mitigate allthose issues and that's what keeps people
(23:53):
coming back to you, right? Disclosingto them, this is our guarantee,
this is what we're going todeliver. This is our promise to you.
And then if there's anything that comesin the way of what you're promising to
deliver that you stay ahead of it andinstead of waiting for them to call you,
you're calling them.
That's how you build that ultimate trustthat keeps people coming back more and
(24:15):
more.
One of my favorite things to do, I'mcurious if you guys have done this,
is really pay attentionto what is in the reviews.
And so people will tell you whatreally matters to them in the review,
their communication was great. Theywere on time, they were friendly,
they're professional, they did a reallygood job. All these different keywords,
(24:35):
and actually Google will actually at thetop of all your reviews will tell you
all the most commonlyused phrases and stuff,
and I tell you how many 18 people saycommunication or that kind of stuff,
and Facebook posts too. Whereveryour clients are talking about you,
you want to pay attention. They know mydog's name. That kind of stuff spreads.
And so now you say, okay,now I know what matters.
(24:56):
I need to know the name of everysingle dog. And everyone says,
communication that we need tocommunicate even better than we do now,
and it gives you a new standard when youstart to pay attention to what people
really care about.
They tell you on the phone toowhen you first book 'em as well,
but they'll tell you at everypoint if you just listen.
But the reviews is a great wayto go back and look and say,
everyone talks about being ontime, that text on the way,
(25:17):
the phone call on the way,
the notification the night beforesaying we're coming the next day.
All that kind of stuff might really matterand you have to pay attention to that
kind of stuff.
And I think that's a really great point,
but you also need to think about thenegative reviews because everyone gets
negative reviews. What dothose negative reviews,
even though none of us like to getthem, what do they have in common?
(25:37):
Where did we mess up and how can weset some processes in place so that
situations like that don't arise anymore,
so we're now in a proactive position sothat the next customer won't have that
same situation happen in theirproject or in their service.
Yeah. One of the things thatwe do to avoid that happening,
the negative reviews, is thatwe'll leverage automation.
(26:00):
So right after the service,
we have somebody manuallya human call them,
and then we also sendout an email that says,
on a scale of one to five, howhappy were you with the service?
If they do anything that's under five,
they get directed to book a callto tell us how you feel about it.
(26:21):
We really want to learnfrom this experience and improve it for you next time.
And then also something maybe we givethem a discount or some special offer for
not fulfilling the service to theirsatisfaction, but if anything's a five,
it just routes them directly toleave a review on our Google page.
One thing that we did too that is morein the field situation is for our one-off
(26:43):
jobs,
our techs have the instructions to get apicture of the customer with thumbs up.
That way once the job is done and wehave photos of the customer like this
smiling,
so then if they want to complain laterbecause the price or something like that,
or they're trying to look for adiscount, which people are people,
they're going to try andget what they can get.
Sometimes we can just pointto that and say, well,
(27:04):
you were really happy with the job.
What happened from the time it took thepicture to now and then address the real
issue or the real concernthat the customer has.
My favorite thing to do with those photosis have them post that photo in the
review because Google loves photoswith reviews, maybe a client selfie,
get your technicians in there aswell. People love that kind of stuff.
I love happy calls. Happy calls are soimportant. Every first time client, Hey,
(27:26):
how was yesterday? It was great. They'rea little late. Oh, sorry about that.
Anything else?
And you capture all that stuff beforeit gets online and you start talking to
the neighbors and nine times that it'svery positive and it's the most favorite
call that your staff in office willmake. It's like, how was yesterday? Oh,
they were awesome, and you'reawesome too, and everybody's awesome,
(27:47):
and so don't take that benefit away fromyour people talking to happy people.
It's really important.
Yeah. It goes back to, I thinkSnoop Dogg said this in this album,
you want to keep your money on yourmind and your mind on your money,
and so if you don't have adedicated customer success
team or person,
you're definitely going to fall short inhow much lifetime value you can create.
(28:09):
And I think that one of the best thingsthat I've learned in terms of gaining
leverage for that is findingpeople overseas that can
virtually come in and help youbecause it's a fraction of the cost,
and you can have more personpower actually manually doing those things because
nothing's going to make a connectionas well as human to human.
(28:31):
That's true. I agree. Wehave a CSR that is overseas,
and then also one that's here locally.
The CSR that's overseas mostly handlesmore of the commercial and the CSR
that's local handles more ofour area there in Florida,
because she's familiar withthe area what things are like.
She really likes to getthose calls from customers.
We also do the same thing where we callafter a service and see how it went and
(28:54):
when it's a good call, it's just sonice to hear her in her office say, oh,
I love that lady so much. She's so nicebecause they're happy with the service,
they're happy with her,
and then they go on to leave areally great review and all of that.
It becomes like a snowball effect whereif you're giving the great service and
the customers are happy andthey're leaving you great reviews,
well then you're going to getmore customers and more marketing,
(29:16):
and they're going to lookto you for more services,
and it's just win-win all the way around.
As the business owner,
one of the key indicators isspecifically if the customers
ask for someone or theyknow the names of your CSRs
When people call me or Ispeak to them and they say,
I spoke to Tasha the otherweek, boy, is she helpful?
(29:39):
Then I know they'redoing a fantastic, right?
They're really making humanconnections with people.
And it's funny you talked aboutsomeone being hyperlocal on your staff.
I have six people on the islandof St. Lucia, and to be honest,
I didn't even know that was aplace until I met them, right?
And apparently it's a great placeto do a honeymoon, but my point is,
(29:59):
is that because of technology andthe internet bringing everyone
together,
they know Las Vegas almost as well asI do because of the Google Maps and all
these things, and they'reroute mapping all day long.
So it's almost as if they'rehyperlocal even though they're.
Not here. Well, this was a greatconversation. It was really good.
I'm going to boil it down to threeactual items here for our listeners.
(30:22):
Number one is you want to stay in frontof your clients on top of mind all the
time and use some educational content,notify them of the seasonal changes,
not just sales pitches.
Number two is you want to track importantthings like dog names and the names
the kids,
and just special facts about your clientsso that they feel like you hear them
(30:44):
and care about them, andthey're not just another number.
And number three is upsell and cross-sell.
Train your people to see and identifyother services that you guys can provide
for them. The more services youprovide, the more loyal they are.
Guys, that was a greatconversation. Thanks for being here.
How do people find outmore about you, Kelly?
Yeah. They can find my FastLawnScapesbusiness at www.fastlawns.net.
(31:07):
Or if you're interestedin some coaching services,
I do have www.homeprocoaching.com.
You guys can find me @ johnmagalit.com.
That's J-O-N-M-A-R-G-A-L-I-T,
and I run Rag to Riches University whereI teach people how to start and grow a
house cleaning business.
(31:27):
So if you're interested in starting oneor you need help growing and you want to
get to that next level,
shoot me a DM or an email and you cango to johnmargalitE.com for all the
information.
Great. Well, John and Kelly,the businesses you guys are running are important.
You guys have employees and clients,and you're treating them well,
and you're serving your market. You'redoing a great job. So keep it up.
(31:48):
Everybody is very thankfulfor it. Thanks for having us.
Thank you so much.
And thank you for listening.
I hope you hear today will help youimprove your customer experience and
increase that lifetime value ofyour customers. I'm your host,
Adam Sylvester. You canfind me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best, so go give it to 'em.
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