November 4, 2025 • 31 mins
Too many jobs go sideways because of one thing: miscommunication. In this episode of Masters of Home Service, host Adam Sylvester talks with Erica Krupin of Kroopin’s Poopin Scoopin and Marco Radocaj from Balance HVAC, about why project transparency matters now more than ever. They share how setting clear expectations, documenting job details, and keeping customers in the loop prevent mistakes, build trust, and lead to smoother jobs all around.
New to Jobber? Masters of Home Service listeners can claim an exclusive discount for Jobber at http://bit.ly/4kAzgm0
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I can get them on the phone just soI can find out why did you hire us?
What's the reason? Is it a pain point?
Do you want your kids to be able toplay outside? Did you hurt your back?
That way we're able tohave that conversation.
I'm able to speak that language toyou so you can understand the value.
(01:09):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service,
the best podcast for home service proslike us. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester,
and I want you to crush it in business.
Do you want to createbuzz around your business?
Do you want your clients to rave aboutyou at the dinner parties? If you do,
then you have to givethem a reason to rave.
You have to give them a wow experienceof, Oh my gosh, that was awesome.
Blow their mind kind of thing.
One of the best ways to dothat is with transparency.
Over are the days of holding thecards close to your chest. Now,
clients want to know. They want to see,
they want to be behind thecurtain on what you're doing.
And I have two guests today.
They're really good at doing thatwith their clients, Erica and Marco.
They're both really good at lettingtheir clients behind the curtain,
communicating with them, and beinghonest and transparent with them.
So I'm going to let them speak today abouthow do you create this wow experience
through transparency on the job. So,Marco, Erica, welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here. So Marco,Erica, welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here.No problem. Thank you.
Thanks for having me back.
Yeah, welcome back, Erica. It'sgood to have you back. Erica,
you're crushing it in poop scooping.
Why don't you tell ouraudience who you are?
Well, my name is Erica Krupin and I'mthe owner of Kroopins Poop and Scoopin,
which is a dog waste removal businesslocated in Westland, Michigan.
I've been in business for almostseven years at this point,
(01:32):
and I couldn't imagine my lifewithout the pooper scooper industry.
It's been epic.
Bingo. I'm glad you're here.Thanks, Marco. How about you?
That is an awesome name for your business.
I just wanted to make sure I said that.So I'm the co-owner of Balance HVAC.
We're out of Vero Beach,Florida. We're a newer company.
We're starting year two.
Transparency is kind of the wholereason we started something new.
It's just really important andexcited to talk about it with.
(01:54):
Yeah. Well,
you guys are both good at this and soI want to get your perspective on this.
Today we're talking about workingsmarter and our clients want to have more
transparency than ever before to relateto a different industry. Car shopping,
you used to have to rely onthe salesperson. Now you don't.
You can find out what everyone find outabout the car and the salesperson can't
hide things from you anymore. Thehome service industry is the same way.
(02:17):
And so what would you guys sayis the worst thing that we're
doing as small business owners in thetrades to keep our clients in the dark and
not providing them that wow experience?
What do you guys think we're doing wrong?
I think the big thing,and again, like I said,
I think the transparency is why we startedthis whole balance thing is that the
whole interaction, especially with HVAC,
(02:37):
is we're going to show up atyour house early in the morning.
You didn't sleep well becauseyour air conditioning didn't work,
and now there's a guy up in yourattic making a ton of noise.
He comes down and gives you ahandwritten invoice for a lot of money,
and that's a horrible experience. Sothe value is gone. It is frustrating,
it is annoying. And if you're able tocommunicate with them very well, exactly,
this is what we did today,recommended next steps, is it working?
(03:00):
And then show them all the pictures andthe craftsmanship and the expertise of
your technicians.
Now you're able to add value to thisthing that before was like essentially
we're going from a closed kitchen to anopen kitchen and now people can see what
we're actually doing andthey can appreciate how hard those guys are working and
the environment they're workingin and actually the craftsmanship,
and I am going to say thatword probably 10,000 times,
(03:22):
but it's what it is. And I've seen ductwork and all the stuff that they do for
probably 15 years and you really don'tget over how much skill and effort
and attention goes intothose types of things.
And the customer's never seen that.
And I've seen it for 15 years and I'mstill impressed by it on a daily basis.
And it's nice to be able to relay thosethings with Jobber to the homeowners
(03:42):
after every single call that we go on.
Erica, if we cut someone'sgrass or we pick up their poop,
they can see it. The poop's gone ornot. Right now in Marco's situation,
they can't really see theHVAC, but with you and I,
we have to wow our clients in waysthat others may not. What do you think?
Oh, absolutely.
Here's the thing is I've had a lotof work done in my house and the
(04:04):
communication by thesecontractors, it's been terrible.
They say they're going to show up.
They don't show up the job that theysaid they were going to do, they didn't.
Or if they needed to do a changedorder, they didn't communicate.
And so I took all that in with mybusiness and I'm like, all right,
how am I going to over communicate withmy customers? Because like you said,
they can see it. If there's a pileleft over, we're high volume. I mean,
(04:28):
there's complaints. It happens.Even if there's one pile mist,
a kid's shoe will find that pileand we're going to get a complaint.
So what I like to do ispersonally, a complaint rolls in.
I acknowledge that thereis an issue immediately.
I'm going to get in contact with them.
I'm going to validate theirfeelings because they're upset.
I'm going to offer a solution andwe're going to rectify this as fast as
(04:51):
possible within 24 hours if possible.
Yeah, just listening to them,
repeating back their problems so theyknow that you heard them is all really
important. Marco,
how have you integrated communicationinto this whole process to make sure that
they feel like, wow,
that job was so well done becausecommunication was so clear.
You can't talk about transparencywithout talking about communication.
(05:11):
It is the same exact thing. So theway that we do it, we use Jobber,
we use the forms, and ifwe're doing a one-off job,
you're going to get a visit review form.
And it's really critical that we're notgoing to overwhelm you with HVAC jargon
because no one cares, right?
So our interaction with thecustomer after we're done,
this is what we did today,
these are the recommended next stepsor any recommended improvements that we
(05:33):
have, is it working yes or no?What's going to happen next?
Are we reaching out with aquote? Is everything done?
Are there any additional notes?
But it's something that it'svery important to answer those questions and that
visit review form is meant to be blackand white. It's supposed to be boring.
We work on making them boring and we'reall going to kind of write them the same
way because we want the information tobe uniform and something anybody would
(05:55):
understand.And then along with that visit review,
we always include a CompanyCam link,
and that's when we kind ofget to flex what we did today,
we're going to be able to use CompanyCam,
put little arrows and show them theissues, why we're improving things,
call things out thatmaybe they wouldn't see.
And that's what we can get intomore of the technical aspect of it,
but we want you to know,
here's what we did and here'swhat's actually going on up inside of your attics.
(06:17):
If you're not doing that,you're just missing value.
And then you have to compare your priceto everybody else, and that's not fair.
I think especially it seems like inVero Beach, Florida undercutting,
it's easy to be fast, it'seasy to be inexpensive,
it's really hard to be the best.
And I think that attention to detail andcommunicating and being transparent is
what kind of gives you that edge and ithelps you kind of maintain that edge as
(06:38):
well.
Yeah,
I think that one thing that we do in ourbusiness is we like to use a three-step
process. Hey, this is what's going tohappen next. We're going to do X, Y,
and Z. And because ifyou're about to cross River,
Don Miller uses this analogy a lot.
If you're hiking and you're about to crossa big stream and people are like, oh,
it's too big, too deep, too wide, wecan't cross it. But if you give 'em plans,
say, well,
if we jump to that rock and that rockand then that rock will be across, oh,
(07:02):
okay, great, let's do it. But theonly thing that changed was the plan.
And so I think if we give our clients,because they're always thinking,
what happens next? What happens if Iapprove this quote? What happens next?
Are they going to schedule? Are theygoing to call me? Am I going to be home?
Am I going to be away?
They have all these questions and you canso simply just set their expectations,
man, we're going to comeon Tuesday. If it changes,
we'll let you know aheadof time. When we come,
(07:23):
we're going to park in the driveway.
Can you move your driveway out ofthe way when we get there? Oh yeah,
that'd be Friday up the nightbefore. I'll move my car. Great.
And then it's going to take us threedays, maybe four. Is that okay?
It can be whatever the plan needs to be,
but I think at that point then theclient has expectations and they fulfill
those expectations. You keep your promise.Wow, they came on Tuesday morning,
they parked in the driveway and theytook three days. Bam, mind blowing.
(07:47):
And so Erica,
how else have you used communication inyour business to make sure the client
just felt like, wow, they'rejust really on the ball.
The two-way text messaging throughJobber has been huge for my business,
our main form of communication. So wesend out that 8:00 AM text message,
Hey, today is your service day, yourscooper will text when we're on the way.
(08:07):
Then guess what? When we're on theway, the scooper sends the message,
then we use the Jobber forms atthe end of the visit to say, Hey,
your gate has been closed and secured.
We attach a closed gate photo and welet them know their service has been
completed and then we leave and it'srinse and repeat. It's super boring,
like you were saying, keep it superboring, but it's super effective.
(08:28):
And I have over 400 Googlereviews and a mass majority of
them talks about the strongcommunication, the closed gate photo,
the on the way text messages.The customers lose their minds over this stuff,
and I love it.
Yeah, it's a simple thing to get right,
but it's also easy to get wrong ifyou're sloppy and don't really care that
much.
That was the thing is we got it wrong.
(08:49):
We didn't do the closed gate photosand dogs got out and was it us?
Was it the homeowner? We don't know,
but now we know thatwe're sending that photo,
so we're eliminating that from ourbusiness and lessons had been learned.
Proactive.
Yeah,
that's
great.
Marco,
I
want
your
thoughts
on
this
because
I
recently
had
an
HVAC
guy
in
my
house,
and
he
talked
over
my
head
for
20
minutes.
It
was
the
worst
experience.
I
don't
know
how
it
works.
You're
not
going
to
teach
me
how
it
works
in
20
minutes.
You're
not
good
at
it.
Anyways,
there's
all
these,
I
think
people
just
hate
being
talked
over
and
the
technical
jargon,
and
Oh,
this
valve
uses
that.
No,
I
don't
need
to
know
all
that
to
hire
you
to
fix
my
HVAC.
How
have
you
trained
your
people,
and
how
do
you
make
sure
that
you're
not
just
boring
your
clients
with
all
this
technical
jargon?
(09:32):
It is something, and I thinkanytime you go the course of, Hey,
we want to be transparent, we take timeto make sure that we're all talking.
We sit down every morning at thefamily table and we will go over,
we'll pick a day of the weekand we will go over, Hey,
let's go over some scenarios,
some verbiage that we want to use inthe common way, like mold, mildew,
what are we going to use? We're goingto use growth. We're not mold experts.
(09:54):
That's use the wordgrowth. And like I said,
I think it's so much easier to show youwhat a capacitor is than to tell you
what it just, Hey, we fixedyour capacitor. Great.
I have no idea what that is.It costs me $200. Unfortunate.
But also if I'm able to show youthe picture of the one that's bad,
that's oozing, whatever's insideof those things outside of the top,
it's blown into 10 different pieces.Now you understand what's going on.
(10:16):
So we don't need to show you how smartwe are. You need to be able to trust
that we're fixing things that are broken,
putting in new parts and doing the jobsthat we were able to tell you we were
going to do. Like you said,
we're going to set this expectationand then deliver on that expectation.
Another really big thing that we do, wecall it we don't want to chase ghosts.
We're dealing with air. You can't see it.
(10:37):
So if somebody's telling me theirbedroom is hot or humid at night,
part of this transparency is that weneed, how humid is it? How hot is it?
When is it getting hot,when is it getting humid?
So we'll leave things like data loggers,
give them actual data fromtheir bedroom at night,
and now we can start to fix a problembecause we've identified what's actually
going on.
Because if we're going by the oldhand-dometer it feels good up here or it
(11:00):
doesn't feel good,
that's chasing a ghost. I don't know howto tell you that's comfortable or not,
but there are specifications of where weshould be and we should know how to get
there, and we don't need to boreyou with all the nitty gritty of it.
You just want to becomfortable when you sleep.
So I think that's the really big thingis just being able to make it something
where this is a tangible thing.This is what we want at the end.
This is our expectation, and if youwant to get into the weeds with it,
(11:22):
we can go that route,
but I think you really just want to beable to sleep through the night and not
wake up sweaty.
So I think that's really kind ofkeep it streamlined in that respect.
We don't need to speak AC to you.
Yeah, I love the numbers thing becauseif you're talking about a specific
technical jargon thing, but you justsay, Hey man, this number is 85,
it's supposed to be 10. Oh, that'sbad. It's so easy. It's simple.
(11:45):
But I love that over-communicationis better than assumptions.
Do you want to talk about that some more?
I've learned this in marriage.I don't know, you're married,
you've been married for a while, men,women, everybody thinks differently.
So I don't want to assume that my customerknows what's going on in my business,
so I just want to make sure that all thei's are dotted and the T's are crossed
(12:08):
when we're going to come. Ifsay for instance, if their trash can isn't outside,
where are we going to put the doublebag of waste at so they're not like,
why is this bag of poop by my garage door?Well because we talked about that,
we're going to set it there becauseyour trash can wasn't outside.
So I enjoy just having the conversationand if I can't for the most part,
do it via text message,
(12:30):
but if I can get them on the phone justso I can find out why did you hire us?
What's
the
reason?
Is
it
a
pain
point?
It
matters
so
much.
Do
you
want
your
kids
to
be
able
to
play
outside?
Did
you
hurt
your
back?
That
way,
we're
able
to
have
that
conversation.
I'm
able
to
speak
that
language
to
you
so
you
can
understand
the
value.
Everybody
that
hires
us
values
something
different
with
the
service.
It's
not
very
just
cut
and
dry.
And
so
I've
been
really
learning
through
sales
to
speak
to
that
and
understand
my
customer.
(12:56):
How transparent are you guys withpricing? Let's talk about pricing,
job scope, all the factorsthat go into pricing.
There are sometimespeople will call and say,
I need an itemized list of every partyou're paying for and everything labor
charges, how much the poop scooping,how much is the sanitation,
all these different line items.
It's like I don't want toget that detailed in my quote or do you guys say, no,
(13:18):
that's important, that gives trust?Where do you guys stand on that?
I've actually never beenasked for an itemized bill.
Okay, that's never Congratulations.Wow, that'd be nice. Fantastic.
I mean because our overhead really, Imean our supplies aren't super expensive.
My main overhead is, oh,
the insurance is so expensive forthese vehicles And the workman's
(13:40):
comp, so that's really where my overheadis and payroll. So for the most part,
I just let them know,
hey your bill is going to be one 20for the month or one 10 for the month.
Your first clean is going to be this.
And I just tell 'em I don'ttry to offer a smaller rate.
Some other companies will be like, okay,
well let's tell them what theweekly rate is going to be.
So it's a lower price.So then it's not so big,
(14:03):
but they're not getting a weekly price.
They're getting billed onthe first of every month.
So they're going to look at me andbe like, well, you said it was 27 50.
Why did you charge me one 10? Oh, well,because 27 50 times, that's awful.
Two divided by 12. So that's actuallya rate. I'm not interested in that.
I just want to give them the numberupfront and then we can have the
conversation about the pricing afterwards.
(14:25):
I love when people ask for the itemizedbreakdown and I have no hesitation
giving them,
I'm not obviously giving them thereceipts of everything that we buy,
but I am going to let them know at thebeginning that we're not going to be the
least expensive, and that's okay, andwe will show you why. Give me a minute.
But I do make sure that I explain to themany air conditioning company can go by
the exact same air conditionerI'm going to sell you.
(14:47):
So that's not marking that up a ton.Where we want to
make sure that we are able to get ourvalue out of our technicians is the labor.
We're able to do that and back that upis because we're able to show them the
videos, show them the photos,
and we just have really smart guysthat really get that aspect of it.
And I wish I was smart enoughto come up with these ideas,
(15:09):
but the guys do this on their own becausethey're able to kind of create their
own content and show their value.
If you've had AC guy over your houseand there's a refrigerant leak,
we're going to show you a video of usdoing the refrigerant leak with our
electronic leak detectors. No. Is therea leak? Yes, the leak's right here.
You can see it on your own whenever youwant to go and look at that video. Then
another guy, when we're addingrefrigerant to your system,
(15:30):
we're going to weigh it in,take a picture, weigh it out,
take a picture so you know how much it is.
And we've gotten a lot of reallypositive feedback with that.
We did have one person, Hey,
you charge this for two anda half pounds of refrigerant,
why would you do two and a half? Areyou nickel and diving me? I'm like, no,
because the alternativewould be to make it three,
and that's what everybodyelse is going to do,
but we can show you it's two and ahalf pounds. Charge you accordingly,
and that adds the value.And I say it all the time,
(15:53):
you're paying for the bestemployees. The air conditioners are,
everybody gets the same one. We havethe best employees. Here's here's why.
I really like that.
I had the HVAC guy that came outmentioned earlier at the end,
I was mostly having fun at this point.I said, who are your competitors?
And I named a couple of them who Iknew they were and he didn't like that
question. And he was,well, we're just so good.
(16:14):
They're not really our competitors,
they're just like ankle biters orwhatever he said. And I was like, well,
whether you call them your competitorsor not, they are absolutely.
The reason I bring thatstory up is because I like how you're honest. Hey look,
the HVAC unit that I'm going to installis probably the same one that guy's
going to install. That'snot what sets us apart.
Let me tell you exactly what'sgoing to be different. Our service,
our technicians have, our averagetraining is five, seven years, whatever,
(16:38):
and rattle off three or four thingsthat truly are unique to your business,
that matter to the client,
and that's what people think about andthat's how they base their decision.
Not like a hundred dollarshere and there on an HVAC unit.
It's much bigger thanthat, don't you think?
Yeah, absolutely.
When I have had those conversationscomparing me to other companies,
(16:59):
the industry is getting a lotmore populated these days.
That's right. It is.
It
is.
And
I
had
a
customer
that
said,
Hey,
I
want
to
move
my
service
day
from
a
Wednesday
to
a
Thursday
or
whatever
the
day
it
was.
And
I
was
like,
I
can't
do
that
right
now.
I
don't
have
the
room
in
my
schedule.
We
have
tight
routes.
And
she
made
sure
to
mention
that
there
are
a
lot
of
competition
and
that
their
prices
are
lower
and
that
she
would
hate
to
have
to
leave
my
company.
And
so
I
was
like,
oh,
okay,
alright.
And
in
my
mind
I'm
just
thinking,
I'm
like,
okay,
how
do
I
want
to
handle
the
situation?
And
so
what
I
did
was
I
offered
her
a
couple
of
resources
for
other
companies
that
might
be
a
good
fit
for
her
that
could
service
her.
And
she
was
actually
very
offended.
She's
like,
You
want
to
lose
a
customer?
I
said,
I
can't
accommodate
your
needs
right
now.
So
I
want
to
offer
you
the
resources
to
be
able
to
find
somebody
that
can
accommodate
you.
And
it
is
tough
when
we
have
our
prices
higher,
but
we
want
to
pay,
like
you
said,
a
respectable
living
wage
to
our
staff.
(17:56):
And we just have to be able to figureout how to articulate that and hold our
ground. But I still feellike respect our customer.
Alright, this is great conversation.
I'm going to pause for just a minuteto talk about Jobber and how Jobber has
helped you increase your transparencywith your clients. So Erica,
from your perspective, how has Jobberhelped you increase your transparency,
especially through communication?
(18:17):
When a customer reaches out to us,
we're able to get back to them so quicklythrough the text messaging feature.
We use that all day every day.So if a customer has a question,
if they have a complaint or if they havean attaboy, which those come through,
the whole team is able to see that.So everybody knows what's going on.
If Ms. Betty is upset, we all knowif she is happy, we're riding high.
(18:41):
We're like, yeah, this is amazing. Andso getting back to these customers very,
very quickly is what allows us to,
I feel like charge a higher dollaramount because we're answering the text
messages, we're responding back towhatever needs to be responded back to.
And let's face it,
a lot of the home service providersare not even answering their phones,
let alone texting their customersback and we need to do better.
(19:04):
So true, my mosquito company, theytext me, but I can't text 'em back.
It goes to a black inbox and Jobberstwo a, Marco, what about you?
I want to set that black inbox up fortext message and phone calls on my phone
sometimes. I think that's a great idea.
My favorite thing with Jobber is thatit integrates with so many apps that we
use and it's not just for me, it'sfor the guys that are in the field,
(19:25):
that are in the attic performingthe work, doing the tasks.
It's nice that we can integrate companycam into our Jobber and it makes it
almost seamless.
It makes it really easy to recallnotes and look at these pictures,
get these pictures out to the homeownersand there's just no app fatigue from
the guys.
They have enough to be fatigued aboutand 10 different apps and having to
integrate them all at thesame time separately is very frustrating, cumbersome,
(19:46):
everything integrates.
It's really nice and it keeps everythingstreamlined and easy on the guys who
are doing the hard work.
In
terms
of
transparency
for
us,
I
like
how
clients
can
go
in
and
pull
up
an
invoice
from
last
year
if
they
wanted
to,
or
payments,
or
quote,s
or
it's
all
right
there
in
their
account,
and
so
they
don't
have
to
call
us.
They
could
go
see
it
themselves
before
they
call
us.
If
they
want
to
download
an
invoice,
they
had
a
question
about
it,
they
go
look
at
it
without
relying
on
us
to
send
it
to
'em.
It's
just
one
less
step
that
they
have
to
rely
on
us
for
transparency.
If
there's
a
dispute,
they
can
go
access
that
stuff
on
their
own
to
payment
information,
invoices,
quotes,
that
kind
of
stuff.
If
you
think
that
you
need
any
of
that
stuff,
which
you
do,
if
you're
like,
oh
man,
I
need
two-way
texting,
I
need
that.
I
need
quotes
and
invoices
and
integrations,
then
you
need
Jobber.
You
need
to
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today.
Marco,
I
want
you
to
share
an
example
that
you
shared
with
me
earlier
about
kitchens
and
open
concepts.
How
does
that
relate
to
transparency?
Tell
us
that
story.
(20:43):
Yeah, so one of theguys that work from us,
he always says that when youhave a contracting license,
you have this licenseto just write invoices.
And when you're hidingin the attic all day,
there is this layer of wherethere needs to be this honesty,
there needs to be a trust and what we'redoing, because it is big ticket items,
things can get expensive really fastand everything works a little different.
So we have to make sure we'rearticulating that and explain that to the
(21:05):
customer. So again, I thinkI've hammered it to death,
but we are really high on taking aton of pictures and photos and videos
because we want you to seewhat we're actually doing.
We want you to see whatyour money's going towards.
We want you to see that the guysare taking the time and attention,
but a lot of it also goesback to us spending time and training the guys because
(21:25):
again, with that open kitchen concept,
you can see everythingbeing made and that's great,
but every risotto that comes out of thatkitchen is going to look like the last
risotto that just came out of thatkitchen. So it's nice to have this new
business is that we canstart everything with these.
This is our SOP forrecovering refrigerant.
This is our SOP for addingrefrigerant for charging unit,
(21:45):
for installing a new flexible ductwork. Whatever these things are.
I know how Miguel will do it, how guywill do it, how Carlos will do it,
and I can explain that to the customers.
And then when they get thosepictures from the technicians,
I don't send them the guy send'em directly to the homeowner.
It's going to be exactly how I was ableto tell it and sell it to the homeowner.
And it takes time and it's somethingthat you have to plan for and it's
(22:07):
something that doesn't happen by accident.
And it's something that evenonce they understand, Hey,
this is how we're going tomake our risotto every time it's coming out this way,
we have to come sometimes go back andmake sure we're still making it the way we
talked about six monthsago, a year and a half ago,
however long it was because it's somethingthat matters every day and every call
is different as the company grows, we'rearound longer, we get more customers,
(22:29):
the expectations there, they'reshowing up, we're showing up now.
We're not new peopleexpect us to do this now.
So we have to make sure thatwe're continually growing,
continually teaching and taking timeto learn this stuff in the morning.
We do little things at the officejust to kind of keep it competitive.
We're all a little bit competitive there.
So we do company Cam Flex Friday wherewe'll come in and everybody can flex
(22:49):
their best CompanyCam picture of the week.
That's good idea.
There's
times
where
we'll
just
go
over
if
we
have
a
sticky
situation
on
some
service
call,
we'll
review
it
and
then
we'll
all
kind
of
take
a
time
to
fill
out
a
dummy
visit
review
form
on
how
we
would
word
these
things
or
what
additional
notes
or
important
comments
we
need
to
get
to
the
homeowner.
But
it's
really
just
kind
of
standardizing
your
process,
make
sure
it's
repeatable
as
something
that's
always
going
to
happen,
and
then
just
really
just
as
much
as
you
can
showing
them
what's
going
on.
Another
great
idea,
one
of
the
technicians
had
water
leaks
is
a
big
thing
in
Florida.
It's
humid.
ACs
run
all
the
time,
AC
drain
lines
back
up.
What
we'll
do
at
the
end
is
when
we're
done,
we'll
send
you
a
nice,
your
lock
in
the
gate
thing,
a
cute
little
video
of
just,
Hey,
the
drain's
draining
outside
and
it
is
such
a
silly
thing,
but,
Hey,
we
left
your
house
was
draining
exactly
how
it
was
supposed
to?
(23:34):
It's great proof thatyou did the work, right?
And it really is. And then showing 'emwhat came out of that drain line, dude,
it is growth. And everysingle time it's growth.
And you show that to thehomeowner and they're like,
thank you so much for getting that snotout of my drain line or whatever it is.
But it is nice to be able to show thatand just be very transparent and add the
value to it.
This
(23:57):
is
a
great
segue
into
the
final
thing
I
want
to
talk
about
Erica,
and
that
is,
it's
good
to
be
transparent.
It's
great
to
make
transparency
a
part
of
your
business
long-term,
a
consistent
result
every
time,
and
doing
it
over
and
over
again.
I
just
think
about
my
business.
No
one
can
see
inside
the
gutter.
No
one
can
see
it.
If
you
cut
the
grass,
you
can
see
a
cut,
and
clean
the
gutter.
There's
no
proof.
And
so
we
have
to
be
really
diligent
about
that.
And
so
our
technicians
take
photos
at
every
stop,
they
send
the
checklist
with
the
photos
to
the
client.
Every
time
we
have
clients
on
a
pretty
regular
basis,
they
basically
ignore
the
correspondence,
and
then
they
say,
You
guys
didn't
come
clean
my
gutters.
I
was
home
all
day.
There's
no
way
you
guys
clean
my
gutters.
I
was
home
all
day.
(24:35):
Well, man,
I'm looking at 65 photos takenat your house from 10:00 AM to
noon. Are you sure? We were, oh, okay.I guess I was gone during that time.
But without those photos, without thatability, that transparency, Hey ma'am,
we were there. In fact, I'm seeingall these photos before and afters.
Let me send these over to youagain. I want you to see this.
(24:56):
I want you to see what wedid. Our technicians did a great job. Water's flowing.
I want to brag on my technicians.
And so we've baked that transparencyinto our culture because it's really
important for our industry.
And it's also clients deservea really good experience.
And they shouldn't wonder if we screwedthem and actually clean the gut or not.
They should know without a shadow of it.
Doubt that we clean the gutters andthey're clean and they're ready to go.
(25:19):
So Erica, last thought here. How have you,
with your business baked injust systematized transparency,
anything else come to mind?
Oh, when you were just talking, Ithought, well, my camera didn't see you.
You must have not have been here.
Oh, yes, you know, oh,you probably get that lot.
Oh,
(25:40):
I've
danced
in
front
of
a
camera
the
next
time,
and
I'm
like,
I'm
here.
Catch
me
on
the
camera.
Yes,
this
is
really
important.
That's
why
we
send
those
on-the-way
text
messages,
we
send
the
closed
gate
photo,
we
send
your
gate
has
been
closed
and
secured,
and
then
we
double-bag
the
dog
waste
and
we
put
it
in
the
homeowner's
trash
can
or
wherever
we're
supposed
to
put
it.
So
then
this
way,
when
if
a
customer
says,
you
weren't
there,
I
can
pull
everything
up
in
Jobber.
I
can
look
through
the
text
messages,
I
can
look
through
the
pictures,
and
I
have
from
start
to
finish
exactly
how
we're
supposed
to
do
our
job.
And
I
do
quality
checks
with
the
technicians,
and
we
run
through
all
of
this.
So
it's
a
very
easy
job.
It's
just
follow
it
exactly
how
it
needs
to
be
from
start
to
finish.
And
nine
times
out
of
10,
we're
going
to
have
a
good
success
rate.
But
then
when
we
don't
have
a
good
success
rate
and
we
get
the
complaint,
we
handle
it
accordingly.
And
I'm
actually
gone.
I'm
here
recording
this
podcast,
and
my
scooper
is
handling
biz
back
home,
and
he
is
handling
the
complaint
that
we
got
without
me
being
there,
exactly
how
I
would
handle
it.
(26:36):
Well done. Well done.Bravo. That's awesome.
Sometimes I think complaintsusually come in two categories.
They're impossible to please.And two, they broke the system.
We didn't do the thing that wewere supposed to do in our system.
And it's usually a brokensystem. Problem is a complaint.
You guys left a mess behind. Well,
we've systematized cleaning up beforewe leave and we have steps for that.
(26:59):
So if we didn't clean it up, that meansthat we didn't do a step in our system.
And it's really important.We have to give our clients,
every client deserves ourbest. Not almost every client.
Absolutely.
And going back to the systems is thatwhen we start this thing and we're all
talking about all these great ideas thatwe have to communicate and all these
things we can do, it got a littlebit over our skis, so to speak.
(27:20):
So that system can be tweakedand it can be tweaked,
and it should always be thiskind of work in process.
And then when you havethose issues where you said,
this complaint is a break in thesystem, can we fix this system?
If we're having this
recurring issue,
we can identify within our system andsee if maybe it might just be that this
(27:41):
system isn't that great, andthat's okay, right? We can learn,
we can grow and we can change that.
But if you don't have a system in place,
you can't change anything becauseit's different every time.
So having that just repetition,having the same risotto each time,
it's just there's a million differentreasons that that's so important.
And it's not easy. It's not easy.
And it's something that does take timeto establish and think through and find
(28:02):
out where the holes in it are.
But once it's kind of operational andit works and it continually works,
it's nice to have that in place andthe customers feel they absolutely do.
It makes the technicians look likethey're in sync with what we're doing
back at hq and everything just moves alittle bit smoother. And if it's not,
it's easy to identify why and fix it.
Erica, Marco, this is great.I love this conversation.
I really think it's helping our listenersget a better understanding of how
(28:23):
transparency can really transformtheir business. A lot of actions,
a lot of takeaways. I'm going toboil it down to three main ones.
Number one is tell yourclient what happens next. Ma'am, we're going to do this,
we're going to do this, then we're goingto do that, and then do this, do this,
do that. And you keep your promise.And that is transparency, that's trust,
and that is an awesome business.
(28:44):
Number two is use photos and videos.
Nothing speaks louder thanphotos and videos of your work.
It brags on your technicians.
It brags on how great your company isand is proof that you did what you said.
Those things are so important. They'reso easy with technology these days.
And number three, if youreally want to be transparent,
then you have to have your quote matchthe invoice and you have to have your
(29:06):
quote honest.You can't, can't be tweaking it,
making it look like it's somethingelse. It needs to be true and honest.
Transparency begins with thequote. Guys, thanks for being here.
Really appreciate it. Thank you verymuch. That was great. Good blast.
One last question for you,both of you. Business is hard,
and if it was easy, everybody would do it.
And there's highs and there's lows andthere's lack of momentum and there's not
(29:30):
enough work and there's late nights andthere's people who don't understand my
lifestyle and all these things. It's hard.
So why do you guys do it? Why doyou guys run your own business?
Oh, man, the that I getfrom running the business,
it's almost better than thelows. It's just, I don't know.
It is actually hard to explain becausethere are times where you want to cry,
(29:52):
you want to give up,you want to go to sleep,
and if somebody could take your businessoff you for a dollar, you'd be like,
just take it. I'm so over this.
But the gratification that you get tofeel and see when you overcome those
challenges and you're able to holdyour head up high and be like, yes,
I did that. We did that. We'reable to grow this business.
(30:12):
It's something that just can't,it can't be done when you're,
I don't know, working for somebodyelse. And that's truly how I feel.
Awesome.
I'm going to say some real nerdystuff. I just love air conditioning.
I really do. I think it's reallyinteresting and it's challenging,
and my biggest thing that I likeabout it is getting other people
excited about it in that same way,
(30:33):
whether it's the employees orwhether it's the customers.
It's an exciting thing to me, andI like sharing that excitement,
teaching the technicians and justlearning better ways to do things.
I'm really big into alwaystrying to just tweak things,
make things a little bit betterand never getting too comfortable.
So I really like the challenge of justgetting people excited about something as
cool as air conditioning. So.
We need people that are master craftsmenwho are passionate about their field,
(30:57):
so that's awesome. Well, thankyou guys. Thank you, Erica.
How do people find out more about you?
I am all over Instagram, YouTube, TikTok,
either Erica Krupin orKroopins Poopin Scoopin.
You can get all our informationon balance dash hva c.com.
It has links to all of our socialsand all of our fun stuff on there.
So check it out.
You guys are crushing it. Keepcrushing it. Keep serving your people.
(31:19):
Keep serving your clients,and I keep making it happen.
You guys are doing a great job.
Yeah. Heck yeah.
Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah. Great job. Good work.
And thank you for listening.
I hope that you heard somethingtoday that'll make your business more
profitable, more efficient, and moresystematized and more transparent.
I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.You can find at adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients andyour family deserve your very best.
(31:42):
So go give it to them.
I can get them on the phone just soI can find out why did you hire us?
What's the reason? Is it a pain point?
Do you want your kids to be able toplay outside? Did you hurt your back?
That way we're able tohave that conversation.
I'm able to speak that language toyou so you can understand the value.
(01:09):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service,
the best podcast for home service proslike us. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester,
and I want you to crush it in business.
Do you want to createbuzz around your business?
Do you want your clients to rave aboutyou at the dinner parties? If you do,
then you have to givethem a reason to rave.
You have to give them a wow experienceof, Oh my gosh, that was awesome.
Blow their mind kind of thing.
One of the best ways to dothat is with transparency.
Over are the days of holding thecards close to your chest. Now,
clients want to know. They want to see,
they want to be behind thecurtain on what you're doing.
And I have two guests today.
They're really good at doing thatwith their clients, Erica and Marco.
They're both really good at lettingtheir clients behind the curtain,
communicating with them, and beinghonest and transparent with them.
So I'm going to let them speak today abouthow do you create this wow experience
through transparency on the job. So,Marco, Erica, welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here. So Marco,Erica, welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here.No problem. Thank you.
Thanks for having me back.
Yeah, welcome back, Erica. It'sgood to have you back. Erica,
you're crushing it in poop scooping.
Why don't you tell ouraudience who you are?
Well, my name is Erica Krupin and I'mthe owner of Kroopins Poop and Scoopin,
which is a dog waste removal businesslocated in Westland, Michigan.
I've been in business for almostseven years at this point,
(01:32):
and I couldn't imagine my lifewithout the pooper scooper industry.
It's been epic.
Bingo. I'm glad you're here.Thanks, Marco. How about you?
That is an awesome name for your business.
I just wanted to make sure I said that.So I'm the co-owner of Balance HVAC.
We're out of Vero Beach,Florida. We're a newer company.
We're starting year two.
Transparency is kind of the wholereason we started something new.
It's just really important andexcited to talk about it with.
(01:54):
Yeah. Well,
you guys are both good at this and soI want to get your perspective on this.
Today we're talking about workingsmarter and our clients want to have more
transparency than ever before to relateto a different industry. Car shopping,
you used to have to rely onthe salesperson. Now you don't.
You can find out what everyone find outabout the car and the salesperson can't
hide things from you anymore. Thehome service industry is the same way.
(02:17):
And so what would you guys sayis the worst thing that we're
doing as small business owners in thetrades to keep our clients in the dark and
not providing them that wow experience?
What do you guys think we're doing wrong?
I think the big thing,and again, like I said,
I think the transparency is why we startedthis whole balance thing is that the
whole interaction, especially with HVAC,
(02:37):
is we're going to show up atyour house early in the morning.
You didn't sleep well becauseyour air conditioning didn't work,
and now there's a guy up in yourattic making a ton of noise.
He comes down and gives you ahandwritten invoice for a lot of money,
and that's a horrible experience. Sothe value is gone. It is frustrating,
it is annoying. And if you're able tocommunicate with them very well, exactly,
this is what we did today,recommended next steps, is it working?
(03:00):
And then show them all the pictures andthe craftsmanship and the expertise of
your technicians.
Now you're able to add value to thisthing that before was like essentially
we're going from a closed kitchen to anopen kitchen and now people can see what
we're actually doing andthey can appreciate how hard those guys are working and
the environment they're workingin and actually the craftsmanship,
and I am going to say thatword probably 10,000 times,
(03:22):
but it's what it is. And I've seen ductwork and all the stuff that they do for
probably 15 years and you really don'tget over how much skill and effort
and attention goes intothose types of things.
And the customer's never seen that.
And I've seen it for 15 years and I'mstill impressed by it on a daily basis.
And it's nice to be able to relay thosethings with Jobber to the homeowners
(03:42):
after every single call that we go on.
Erica, if we cut someone'sgrass or we pick up their poop,
they can see it. The poop's gone ornot. Right now in Marco's situation,
they can't really see theHVAC, but with you and I,
we have to wow our clients in waysthat others may not. What do you think?
Oh, absolutely.
Here's the thing is I've had a lotof work done in my house and the
(04:04):
communication by thesecontractors, it's been terrible.
They say they're going to show up.
They don't show up the job that theysaid they were going to do, they didn't.
Or if they needed to do a changedorder, they didn't communicate.
And so I took all that in with mybusiness and I'm like, all right,
how am I going to over communicate withmy customers? Because like you said,
they can see it. If there's a pileleft over, we're high volume. I mean,
(04:28):
there's complaints. It happens.Even if there's one pile mist,
a kid's shoe will find that pileand we're going to get a complaint.
So what I like to do ispersonally, a complaint rolls in.
I acknowledge that thereis an issue immediately.
I'm going to get in contact with them.
I'm going to validate theirfeelings because they're upset.
I'm going to offer a solution andwe're going to rectify this as fast as
(04:51):
possible within 24 hours if possible.
Yeah, just listening to them,
repeating back their problems so theyknow that you heard them is all really
important. Marco,
how have you integrated communicationinto this whole process to make sure that
they feel like, wow,
that job was so well done becausecommunication was so clear.
You can't talk about transparencywithout talking about communication.
(05:11):
It is the same exact thing. So theway that we do it, we use Jobber,
we use the forms, and ifwe're doing a one-off job,
you're going to get a visit review form.
And it's really critical that we're notgoing to overwhelm you with HVAC jargon
because no one cares, right?
So our interaction with thecustomer after we're done,
this is what we did today,
these are the recommended next stepsor any recommended improvements that we
(05:33):
have, is it working yes or no?What's going to happen next?
Are we reaching out with aquote? Is everything done?
Are there any additional notes?
But it's something that it'svery important to answer those questions and that
visit review form is meant to be blackand white. It's supposed to be boring.
We work on making them boring and we'reall going to kind of write them the same
way because we want the information tobe uniform and something anybody would
(05:55):
understand.And then along with that visit review,
we always include a CompanyCam link,
and that's when we kind ofget to flex what we did today,
we're going to be able to use CompanyCam,
put little arrows and show them theissues, why we're improving things,
call things out thatmaybe they wouldn't see.
And that's what we can get intomore of the technical aspect of it,
but we want you to know,
here's what we did and here'swhat's actually going on up inside of your attics.
(06:17):
If you're not doing that,you're just missing value.
And then you have to compare your priceto everybody else, and that's not fair.
I think especially it seems like inVero Beach, Florida undercutting,
it's easy to be fast, it'seasy to be inexpensive,
it's really hard to be the best.
And I think that attention to detail andcommunicating and being transparent is
what kind of gives you that edge and ithelps you kind of maintain that edge as
(06:38):
well.
Yeah,
I think that one thing that we do in ourbusiness is we like to use a three-step
process. Hey, this is what's going tohappen next. We're going to do X, Y,
and Z. And because ifyou're about to cross River,
Don Miller uses this analogy a lot.
If you're hiking and you're about to crossa big stream and people are like, oh,
it's too big, too deep, too wide, wecan't cross it. But if you give 'em plans,
say, well,
if we jump to that rock and that rockand then that rock will be across, oh,
(07:02):
okay, great, let's do it. But theonly thing that changed was the plan.
And so I think if we give our clients,because they're always thinking,
what happens next? What happens if Iapprove this quote? What happens next?
Are they going to schedule? Are theygoing to call me? Am I going to be home?
Am I going to be away?
They have all these questions and you canso simply just set their expectations,
man, we're going to comeon Tuesday. If it changes,
we'll let you know aheadof time. When we come,
(07:23):
we're going to park in the driveway.
Can you move your driveway out ofthe way when we get there? Oh yeah,
that'd be Friday up the nightbefore. I'll move my car. Great.
And then it's going to take us threedays, maybe four. Is that okay?
It can be whatever the plan needs to be,
but I think at that point then theclient has expectations and they fulfill
those expectations. You keep your promise.Wow, they came on Tuesday morning,
they parked in the driveway and theytook three days. Bam, mind blowing.
(07:47):
And so Erica,
how else have you used communication inyour business to make sure the client
just felt like, wow, they'rejust really on the ball.
The two-way text messaging throughJobber has been huge for my business,
our main form of communication. So wesend out that 8:00 AM text message,
Hey, today is your service day, yourscooper will text when we're on the way.
(08:07):
Then guess what? When we're on theway, the scooper sends the message,
then we use the Jobber forms atthe end of the visit to say, Hey,
your gate has been closed and secured.
We attach a closed gate photo and welet them know their service has been
completed and then we leave and it'srinse and repeat. It's super boring,
like you were saying, keep it superboring, but it's super effective.
(08:28):
And I have over 400 Googlereviews and a mass majority of
them talks about the strongcommunication, the closed gate photo,
the on the way text messages.The customers lose their minds over this stuff,
and I love it.
Yeah, it's a simple thing to get right,
but it's also easy to get wrong ifyou're sloppy and don't really care that
much.
That was the thing is we got it wrong.
(08:49):
We didn't do the closed gate photosand dogs got out and was it us?
Was it the homeowner? We don't know,
but now we know thatwe're sending that photo,
so we're eliminating that from ourbusiness and lessons had been learned.
Proactive.
Yeah,
that's
great.
Marco,
I
want
your
thoughts
on
this
because
I
recently
had
an
HVAC
guy
in
my
house,
and
he
talked
over
my
head
for
20
minutes.
It
was
the
worst
experience.
I
don't
know
how
it
works.
You're
not
going
to
teach
me
how
it
works
in
20
minutes.
You're
not
good
at
it.
Anyways,
there's
all
these,
I
think
people
just
hate
being
talked
over
and
the
technical
jargon,
and
Oh,
this
valve
uses
that.
No,
I
don't
need
to
know
all
that
to
hire
you
to
fix
my
HVAC.
How
have
you
trained
your
people,
and
how
do
you
make
sure
that
you're
not
just
boring
your
clients
with
all
this
technical
jargon?
(09:32):
It is something, and I thinkanytime you go the course of, Hey,
we want to be transparent, we take timeto make sure that we're all talking.
We sit down every morning at thefamily table and we will go over,
we'll pick a day of the weekand we will go over, Hey,
let's go over some scenarios,
some verbiage that we want to use inthe common way, like mold, mildew,
what are we going to use? We're goingto use growth. We're not mold experts.
(09:54):
That's use the wordgrowth. And like I said,
I think it's so much easier to show youwhat a capacitor is than to tell you
what it just, Hey, we fixedyour capacitor. Great.
I have no idea what that is.It costs me $200. Unfortunate.
But also if I'm able to show youthe picture of the one that's bad,
that's oozing, whatever's insideof those things outside of the top,
it's blown into 10 different pieces.Now you understand what's going on.
(10:16):
So we don't need to show you how smartwe are. You need to be able to trust
that we're fixing things that are broken,
putting in new parts and doing the jobsthat we were able to tell you we were
going to do. Like you said,
we're going to set this expectationand then deliver on that expectation.
Another really big thing that we do, wecall it we don't want to chase ghosts.
We're dealing with air. You can't see it.
(10:37):
So if somebody's telling me theirbedroom is hot or humid at night,
part of this transparency is that weneed, how humid is it? How hot is it?
When is it getting hot,when is it getting humid?
So we'll leave things like data loggers,
give them actual data fromtheir bedroom at night,
and now we can start to fix a problembecause we've identified what's actually
going on.
Because if we're going by the oldhand-dometer it feels good up here or it
(11:00):
doesn't feel good,
that's chasing a ghost. I don't know howto tell you that's comfortable or not,
but there are specifications of where weshould be and we should know how to get
there, and we don't need to boreyou with all the nitty gritty of it.
You just want to becomfortable when you sleep.
So I think that's the really big thingis just being able to make it something
where this is a tangible thing.This is what we want at the end.
This is our expectation, and if youwant to get into the weeds with it,
(11:22):
we can go that route,
but I think you really just want to beable to sleep through the night and not
wake up sweaty.
So I think that's really kind ofkeep it streamlined in that respect.
We don't need to speak AC to you.
Yeah, I love the numbers thing becauseif you're talking about a specific
technical jargon thing, but you justsay, Hey man, this number is 85,
it's supposed to be 10. Oh, that'sbad. It's so easy. It's simple.
(11:45):
But I love that over-communicationis better than assumptions.
Do you want to talk about that some more?
I've learned this in marriage.I don't know, you're married,
you've been married for a while, men,women, everybody thinks differently.
So I don't want to assume that my customerknows what's going on in my business,
so I just want to make sure that all thei's are dotted and the T's are crossed
(12:08):
when we're going to come. Ifsay for instance, if their trash can isn't outside,
where are we going to put the doublebag of waste at so they're not like,
why is this bag of poop by my garage door?Well because we talked about that,
we're going to set it there becauseyour trash can wasn't outside.
So I enjoy just having the conversationand if I can't for the most part,
do it via text message,
(12:30):
but if I can get them on the phone justso I can find out why did you hire us?
What's
the
reason?
Is
it
a
pain
point?
It
matters
so
much.
Do
you
want
your
kids
to
be
able
to
play
outside?
Did
you
hurt
your
back?
That
way,
we're
able
to
have
that
conversation.
I'm
able
to
speak
that
language
to
you
so
you
can
understand
the
value.
Everybody
that
hires
us
values
something
different
with
the
service.
It's
not
very
just
cut
and
dry.
And
so
I've
been
really
learning
through
sales
to
speak
to
that
and
understand
my
customer.
(12:56):
How transparent are you guys withpricing? Let's talk about pricing,
job scope, all the factorsthat go into pricing.
There are sometimespeople will call and say,
I need an itemized list of every partyou're paying for and everything labor
charges, how much the poop scooping,how much is the sanitation,
all these different line items.
It's like I don't want toget that detailed in my quote or do you guys say, no,
(13:18):
that's important, that gives trust?Where do you guys stand on that?
I've actually never beenasked for an itemized bill.
Okay, that's never Congratulations.Wow, that'd be nice. Fantastic.
I mean because our overhead really, Imean our supplies aren't super expensive.
My main overhead is, oh,
the insurance is so expensive forthese vehicles And the workman's
(13:40):
comp, so that's really where my overheadis and payroll. So for the most part,
I just let them know,
hey your bill is going to be one 20for the month or one 10 for the month.
Your first clean is going to be this.
And I just tell 'em I don'ttry to offer a smaller rate.
Some other companies will be like, okay,
well let's tell them what theweekly rate is going to be.
So it's a lower price.So then it's not so big,
(14:03):
but they're not getting a weekly price.
They're getting billed onthe first of every month.
So they're going to look at me andbe like, well, you said it was 27 50.
Why did you charge me one 10? Oh, well,because 27 50 times, that's awful.
Two divided by 12. So that's actuallya rate. I'm not interested in that.
I just want to give them the numberupfront and then we can have the
conversation about the pricing afterwards.
(14:25):
I love when people ask for the itemizedbreakdown and I have no hesitation
giving them,
I'm not obviously giving them thereceipts of everything that we buy,
but I am going to let them know at thebeginning that we're not going to be the
least expensive, and that's okay, andwe will show you why. Give me a minute.
But I do make sure that I explain to themany air conditioning company can go by
the exact same air conditionerI'm going to sell you.
(14:47):
So that's not marking that up a ton.Where we want to
make sure that we are able to get ourvalue out of our technicians is the labor.
We're able to do that and back that upis because we're able to show them the
videos, show them the photos,
and we just have really smart guysthat really get that aspect of it.
And I wish I was smart enoughto come up with these ideas,
(15:09):
but the guys do this on their own becausethey're able to kind of create their
own content and show their value.
If you've had AC guy over your houseand there's a refrigerant leak,
we're going to show you a video of usdoing the refrigerant leak with our
electronic leak detectors. No. Is therea leak? Yes, the leak's right here.
You can see it on your own whenever youwant to go and look at that video. Then
another guy, when we're addingrefrigerant to your system,
(15:30):
we're going to weigh it in,take a picture, weigh it out,
take a picture so you know how much it is.
And we've gotten a lot of reallypositive feedback with that.
We did have one person, Hey,
you charge this for two anda half pounds of refrigerant,
why would you do two and a half? Areyou nickel and diving me? I'm like, no,
because the alternativewould be to make it three,
and that's what everybodyelse is going to do,
but we can show you it's two and ahalf pounds. Charge you accordingly,
and that adds the value.And I say it all the time,
(15:53):
you're paying for the bestemployees. The air conditioners are,
everybody gets the same one. We havethe best employees. Here's here's why.
I really like that.
I had the HVAC guy that came outmentioned earlier at the end,
I was mostly having fun at this point.I said, who are your competitors?
And I named a couple of them who Iknew they were and he didn't like that
question. And he was,well, we're just so good.
(16:14):
They're not really our competitors,
they're just like ankle biters orwhatever he said. And I was like, well,
whether you call them your competitorsor not, they are absolutely.
The reason I bring thatstory up is because I like how you're honest. Hey look,
the HVAC unit that I'm going to installis probably the same one that guy's
going to install. That'snot what sets us apart.
Let me tell you exactly what'sgoing to be different. Our service,
our technicians have, our averagetraining is five, seven years, whatever,
(16:38):
and rattle off three or four thingsthat truly are unique to your business,
that matter to the client,
and that's what people think about andthat's how they base their decision.
Not like a hundred dollarshere and there on an HVAC unit.
It's much bigger thanthat, don't you think?
Yeah, absolutely.
When I have had those conversationscomparing me to other companies,
(16:59):
the industry is getting a lotmore populated these days.
That's right. It is.
It
is.
And
I
had
a
customer
that
said,
Hey,
I
want
to
move
my
service
day
from
a
Wednesday
to
a
Thursday
or
whatever
the
day
it
was.
And
I
was
like,
I
can't
do
that
right
now.
I
don't
have
the
room
in
my
schedule.
We
have
tight
routes.
And
she
made
sure
to
mention
that
there
are
a
lot
of
competition
and
that
their
prices
are
lower
and
that
she
would
hate
to
have
to
leave
my
company.
And
so
I
was
like,
oh,
okay,
alright.
And
in
my
mind
I'm
just
thinking,
I'm
like,
okay,
how
do
I
want
to
handle
the
situation?
And
so
what
I
did
was
I
offered
her
a
couple
of
resources
for
other
companies
that
might
be
a
good
fit
for
her
that
could
service
her.
And
she
was
actually
very
offended.
She's
like,
You
want
to
lose
a
customer?
I
said,
I
can't
accommodate
your
needs
right
now.
So
I
want
to
offer
you
the
resources
to
be
able
to
find
somebody
that
can
accommodate
you.
And
it
is
tough
when
we
have
our
prices
higher,
but
we
want
to
pay,
like
you
said,
a
respectable
living
wage
to
our
staff.
(17:56):
And we just have to be able to figureout how to articulate that and hold our
ground. But I still feellike respect our customer.
Alright, this is great conversation.
I'm going to pause for just a minuteto talk about Jobber and how Jobber has
helped you increase your transparencywith your clients. So Erica,
from your perspective, how has Jobberhelped you increase your transparency,
especially through communication?
(18:17):
When a customer reaches out to us,
we're able to get back to them so quicklythrough the text messaging feature.
We use that all day every day.So if a customer has a question,
if they have a complaint or if they havean attaboy, which those come through,
the whole team is able to see that.So everybody knows what's going on.
If Ms. Betty is upset, we all knowif she is happy, we're riding high.
(18:41):
We're like, yeah, this is amazing. Andso getting back to these customers very,
very quickly is what allows us to,
I feel like charge a higher dollaramount because we're answering the text
messages, we're responding back towhatever needs to be responded back to.
And let's face it,
a lot of the home service providersare not even answering their phones,
let alone texting their customersback and we need to do better.
(19:04):
So true, my mosquito company, theytext me, but I can't text 'em back.
It goes to a black inbox and Jobberstwo a, Marco, what about you?
I want to set that black inbox up fortext message and phone calls on my phone
sometimes. I think that's a great idea.
My favorite thing with Jobber is thatit integrates with so many apps that we
use and it's not just for me, it'sfor the guys that are in the field,
(19:25):
that are in the attic performingthe work, doing the tasks.
It's nice that we can integrate companycam into our Jobber and it makes it
almost seamless.
It makes it really easy to recallnotes and look at these pictures,
get these pictures out to the homeownersand there's just no app fatigue from
the guys.
They have enough to be fatigued aboutand 10 different apps and having to
integrate them all at thesame time separately is very frustrating, cumbersome,
(19:46):
everything integrates.
It's really nice and it keeps everythingstreamlined and easy on the guys who
are doing the hard work.
In
terms
of
transparency
for
us,
I
like
how
clients
can
go
in
and
pull
up
an
invoice
from
last
year
if
they
wanted
to,
or
payments,
or
quote,s
or
it's
all
right
there
in
their
account,
and
so
they
don't
have
to
call
us.
They
could
go
see
it
themselves
before
they
call
us.
If
they
want
to
download
an
invoice,
they
had
a
question
about
it,
they
go
look
at
it
without
relying
on
us
to
send
it
to
'em.
It's
just
one
less
step
that
they
have
to
rely
on
us
for
transparency.
If
there's
a
dispute,
they
can
go
access
that
stuff
on
their
own
to
payment
information,
invoices,
quotes,
that
kind
of
stuff.
If
you
think
that
you
need
any
of
that
stuff,
which
you
do,
if
you're
like,
oh
man,
I
need
two-way
texting,
I
need
that.
I
need
quotes
and
invoices
and
integrations,
then
you
need
Jobber.
You
need
to
sign
up
today,
go
to
jobber.com/podcastdeal
an
exclusive
discount
and
start
using
Jobber
to
run
your
business
today.
Marco,
I
want
you
to
share
an
example
that
you
shared
with
me
earlier
about
kitchens
and
open
concepts.
How
does
that
relate
to
transparency?
Tell
us
that
story.
(20:43):
Yeah, so one of theguys that work from us,
he always says that when youhave a contracting license,
you have this licenseto just write invoices.
And when you're hidingin the attic all day,
there is this layer of wherethere needs to be this honesty,
there needs to be a trust and what we'redoing, because it is big ticket items,
things can get expensive really fastand everything works a little different.
So we have to make sure we'rearticulating that and explain that to the
(21:05):
customer. So again, I thinkI've hammered it to death,
but we are really high on taking aton of pictures and photos and videos
because we want you to seewhat we're actually doing.
We want you to see whatyour money's going towards.
We want you to see that the guysare taking the time and attention,
but a lot of it also goesback to us spending time and training the guys because
(21:25):
again, with that open kitchen concept,
you can see everythingbeing made and that's great,
but every risotto that comes out of thatkitchen is going to look like the last
risotto that just came out of thatkitchen. So it's nice to have this new
business is that we canstart everything with these.
This is our SOP forrecovering refrigerant.
This is our SOP for addingrefrigerant for charging unit,
(21:45):
for installing a new flexible ductwork. Whatever these things are.
I know how Miguel will do it, how guywill do it, how Carlos will do it,
and I can explain that to the customers.
And then when they get thosepictures from the technicians,
I don't send them the guy send'em directly to the homeowner.
It's going to be exactly how I was ableto tell it and sell it to the homeowner.
And it takes time and it's somethingthat you have to plan for and it's
(22:07):
something that doesn't happen by accident.
And it's something that evenonce they understand, Hey,
this is how we're going tomake our risotto every time it's coming out this way,
we have to come sometimes go back andmake sure we're still making it the way we
talked about six monthsago, a year and a half ago,
however long it was because it's somethingthat matters every day and every call
is different as the company grows, we'rearound longer, we get more customers,
(22:29):
the expectations there, they'reshowing up, we're showing up now.
We're not new peopleexpect us to do this now.
So we have to make sure thatwe're continually growing,
continually teaching and taking timeto learn this stuff in the morning.
We do little things at the officejust to kind of keep it competitive.
We're all a little bit competitive there.
So we do company Cam Flex Friday wherewe'll come in and everybody can flex
(22:49):
their best CompanyCam picture of the week.
That's good idea.
There's
times
where
we'll
just
go
over
if
we
have
a
sticky
situation
on
some
service
call,
we'll
review
it
and
then
we'll
all
kind
of
take
a
time
to
fill
out
a
dummy
visit
review
form
on
how
we
would
word
these
things
or
what
additional
notes
or
important
comments
we
need
to
get
to
the
homeowner.
But
it's
really
just
kind
of
standardizing
your
process,
make
sure
it's
repeatable
as
something
that's
always
going
to
happen,
and
then
just
really
just
as
much
as
you
can
showing
them
what's
going
on.
Another
great
idea,
one
of
the
technicians
had
water
leaks
is
a
big
thing
in
Florida.
It's
humid.
ACs
run
all
the
time,
AC
drain
lines
back
up.
What
we'll
do
at
the
end
is
when
we're
done,
we'll
send
you
a
nice,
your
lock
in
the
gate
thing,
a
cute
little
video
of
just,
Hey,
the
drain's
draining
outside
and
it
is
such
a
silly
thing,
but,
Hey,
we
left
your
house
was
draining
exactly
how
it
was
supposed
to?
(23:34):
It's great proof thatyou did the work, right?
And it really is. And then showing 'emwhat came out of that drain line, dude,
it is growth. And everysingle time it's growth.
And you show that to thehomeowner and they're like,
thank you so much for getting that snotout of my drain line or whatever it is.
But it is nice to be able to show thatand just be very transparent and add the
value to it.
This
(23:57):
is
a
great
segue
into
the
final
thing
I
want
to
talk
about
Erica,
and
that
is,
it's
good
to
be
transparent.
It's
great
to
make
transparency
a
part
of
your
business
long-term,
a
consistent
result
every
time,
and
doing
it
over
and
over
again.
I
just
think
about
my
business.
No
one
can
see
inside
the
gutter.
No
one
can
see
it.
If
you
cut
the
grass,
you
can
see
a
cut,
and
clean
the
gutter.
There's
no
proof.
And
so
we
have
to
be
really
diligent
about
that.
And
so
our
technicians
take
photos
at
every
stop,
they
send
the
checklist
with
the
photos
to
the
client.
Every
time
we
have
clients
on
a
pretty
regular
basis,
they
basically
ignore
the
correspondence,
and
then
they
say,
You
guys
didn't
come
clean
my
gutters.
I
was
home
all
day.
There's
no
way
you
guys
clean
my
gutters.
I
was
home
all
day.
(24:35):
Well, man,
I'm looking at 65 photos takenat your house from 10:00 AM to
noon. Are you sure? We were, oh, okay.I guess I was gone during that time.
But without those photos, without thatability, that transparency, Hey ma'am,
we were there. In fact, I'm seeingall these photos before and afters.
Let me send these over to youagain. I want you to see this.
(24:56):
I want you to see what wedid. Our technicians did a great job. Water's flowing.
I want to brag on my technicians.
And so we've baked that transparencyinto our culture because it's really
important for our industry.
And it's also clients deservea really good experience.
And they shouldn't wonder if we screwedthem and actually clean the gut or not.
They should know without a shadow of it.
Doubt that we clean the gutters andthey're clean and they're ready to go.
(25:19):
So Erica, last thought here. How have you,
with your business baked injust systematized transparency,
anything else come to mind?
Oh, when you were just talking, Ithought, well, my camera didn't see you.
You must have not have been here.
Oh, yes, you know, oh,you probably get that lot.
Oh,
(25:40):
I've
danced
in
front
of
a
camera
the
next
time,
and
I'm
like,
I'm
here.
Catch
me
on
the
camera.
Yes,
this
is
really
important.
That's
why
we
send
those
on-the-way
text
messages,
we
send
the
closed
gate
photo,
we
send
your
gate
has
been
closed
and
secured,
and
then
we
double-bag
the
dog
waste
and
we
put
it
in
the
homeowner's
trash
can
or
wherever
we're
supposed
to
put
it.
So
then
this
way,
when
if
a
customer
says,
you
weren't
there,
I
can
pull
everything
up
in
Jobber.
I
can
look
through
the
text
messages,
I
can
look
through
the
pictures,
and
I
have
from
start
to
finish
exactly
how
we're
supposed
to
do
our
job.
And
I
do
quality
checks
with
the
technicians,
and
we
run
through
all
of
this.
So
it's
a
very
easy
job.
It's
just
follow
it
exactly
how
it
needs
to
be
from
start
to
finish.
And
nine
times
out
of
10,
we're
going
to
have
a
good
success
rate.
But
then
when
we
don't
have
a
good
success
rate
and
we
get
the
complaint,
we
handle
it
accordingly.
And
I'm
actually
gone.
I'm
here
recording
this
podcast,
and
my
scooper
is
handling
biz
back
home,
and
he
is
handling
the
complaint
that
we
got
without
me
being
there,
exactly
how
I
would
handle
it.
(26:36):
Well done. Well done.Bravo. That's awesome.
Sometimes I think complaintsusually come in two categories.
They're impossible to please.And two, they broke the system.
We didn't do the thing that wewere supposed to do in our system.
And it's usually a brokensystem. Problem is a complaint.
You guys left a mess behind. Well,
we've systematized cleaning up beforewe leave and we have steps for that.
(26:59):
So if we didn't clean it up, that meansthat we didn't do a step in our system.
And it's really important.We have to give our clients,
every client deserves ourbest. Not almost every client.
Absolutely.
And going back to the systems is thatwhen we start this thing and we're all
talking about all these great ideas thatwe have to communicate and all these
things we can do, it got a littlebit over our skis, so to speak.
(27:20):
So that system can be tweakedand it can be tweaked,
and it should always be thiskind of work in process.
And then when you havethose issues where you said,
this complaint is a break in thesystem, can we fix this system?
If we're having this
recurring issue,
we can identify within our system andsee if maybe it might just be that this
(27:41):
system isn't that great, andthat's okay, right? We can learn,
we can grow and we can change that.
But if you don't have a system in place,
you can't change anything becauseit's different every time.
So having that just repetition,having the same risotto each time,
it's just there's a million differentreasons that that's so important.
And it's not easy. It's not easy.
And it's something that does take timeto establish and think through and find
(28:02):
out where the holes in it are.
But once it's kind of operational andit works and it continually works,
it's nice to have that in place andthe customers feel they absolutely do.
It makes the technicians look likethey're in sync with what we're doing
back at hq and everything just moves alittle bit smoother. And if it's not,
it's easy to identify why and fix it.
Erica, Marco, this is great.I love this conversation.
I really think it's helping our listenersget a better understanding of how
(28:23):
transparency can really transformtheir business. A lot of actions,
a lot of takeaways. I'm going toboil it down to three main ones.
Number one is tell yourclient what happens next. Ma'am, we're going to do this,
we're going to do this, then we're goingto do that, and then do this, do this,
do that. And you keep your promise.And that is transparency, that's trust,
and that is an awesome business.
(28:44):
Number two is use photos and videos.
Nothing speaks louder thanphotos and videos of your work.
It brags on your technicians.
It brags on how great your company isand is proof that you did what you said.
Those things are so important. They'reso easy with technology these days.
And number three, if youreally want to be transparent,
then you have to have your quote matchthe invoice and you have to have your
(29:06):
quote honest.You can't, can't be tweaking it,
making it look like it's somethingelse. It needs to be true and honest.
Transparency begins with thequote. Guys, thanks for being here.
Really appreciate it. Thank you verymuch. That was great. Good blast.
One last question for you,both of you. Business is hard,
and if it was easy, everybody would do it.
And there's highs and there's lows andthere's lack of momentum and there's not
(29:30):
enough work and there's late nights andthere's people who don't understand my
lifestyle and all these things. It's hard.
So why do you guys do it? Why doyou guys run your own business?
Oh, man, the that I getfrom running the business,
it's almost better than thelows. It's just, I don't know.
It is actually hard to explain becausethere are times where you want to cry,
(29:52):
you want to give up,you want to go to sleep,
and if somebody could take your businessoff you for a dollar, you'd be like,
just take it. I'm so over this.
But the gratification that you get tofeel and see when you overcome those
challenges and you're able to holdyour head up high and be like, yes,
I did that. We did that. We'reable to grow this business.
(30:12):
It's something that just can't,it can't be done when you're,
I don't know, working for somebodyelse. And that's truly how I feel.
Awesome.
I'm going to say some real nerdystuff. I just love air conditioning.
I really do. I think it's reallyinteresting and it's challenging,
and my biggest thing that I likeabout it is getting other people
excited about it in that same way,
(30:33):
whether it's the employees orwhether it's the customers.
It's an exciting thing to me, andI like sharing that excitement,
teaching the technicians and justlearning better ways to do things.
I'm really big into alwaystrying to just tweak things,
make things a little bit betterand never getting too comfortable.
So I really like the challenge of justgetting people excited about something as
cool as air conditioning. So.
We need people that are master craftsmenwho are passionate about their field,
(30:57):
so that's awesome. Well, thankyou guys. Thank you, Erica.
How do people find out more about you?
I am all over Instagram, YouTube, TikTok,
either Erica Krupin orKroopins Poopin Scoopin.
You can get all our informationon balance dash hva c.com.
It has links to all of our socialsand all of our fun stuff on there.
So check it out.
You guys are crushing it. Keepcrushing it. Keep serving your people.
(31:19):
Keep serving your clients,and I keep making it happen.
You guys are doing a great job.
Yeah. Heck yeah.
Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah. Great job. Good work.
And thank you for listening.
I hope that you heard somethingtoday that'll make your business more
profitable, more efficient, and moresystematized and more transparent.
I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.You can find at adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients andyour family deserve your very best.
(31:42):
So go give it to them.
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