January 14, 2025 • 37 mins
Ever felt like you're at the top of your game but still battling feelings of inadequacy? After a month-long hiatus, I return with a candid reflection on navigating the rocky terrain of business setbacks, personal lows, and the facade of positivity. This episode offers a heartfelt journey through my holiday season slump, where Moana became an unexpected source of comfort, and resilience was the name of the game. Join me as I share insights on overcoming the ebbs and flows of entrepreneurship, reminding us all that sometimes the path back to positivity starts with acknowledging where we stand.
Who knew a pizza oven could change your life? Discover the magical world of the Ooni Karu 16, a Christmas gift that came with not just delicious homemade pizzas, but also an extraordinary customer service experience. Hear the story of how this oven brought unexpected joy and satisfaction, complete with a cracked stone crisis expertly handled by the Ooni team. Their exemplary service, coupled with my newfound pizza-making prowess, reaffirms the impact of genuine customer care and its ability to turn customers into brand advocates, much like the legendary service at Nordstrom.
Southern hospitality shines as we explore the cultural icons of Quick Trip and Waffle House. Learn why these establishments are more than just pit stops—they're experiences that epitomize spotless environments, friendly service, and unwavering efficiency. From the competitive pricing of Quick Trip to the 24/7 charm of Waffle House, these beloved Southern staples show how unique training and incentives create memorable customer interactions. Plus, our recent appearance on the 680 the Fan podcast connects us with the Atlanta community, where we share inspiring stories and invite you to join our continuing journey of growth and improvement.
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a greasy diner where they've been able to
figure it out, and people thatI know come from Michigan and
one of the first places they'llstop is Waffle House.
Even before they come see me atmy house, I'm like, hey, yeah,
we're on our way.
You know, we're going to stopin Waffle House up in Tennessee.
I said, well, we have them here, so if you just want to keep on
trucking, I'll get to theirfarm freeway exits where there's
(00:23):
a Waffle House on either side.
Welcome to the Small BusinessSafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
(00:49):
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Hey everybody, it's Alan andChris.
Happy 2025.
You're not supposed to datethese podcasts, but in case you
want to go back and date apodcast, this is it.
(01:10):
We're in 2025.
We took a month off.
Man, we've been doing this forthree solid years and a quarter
and Alan's laughing.
And we actually said you knowwhat I don't want to guess?
Actually, I'm the one who saidthat.
So why know what I don't wantto guess?
Actually, I'm the one who saidthat.
So why did I say I didn't wantto guess?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Are you going to get into why you didn't want to
guess?
Because you just told me I did.
Are you going to tell everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I am man.
I'm going to tell you what, man.
Yeah, I got into a funk, guys.
I was down on running my biz.
Things didn't go like I'd hopedin 2024.
Uh, you know, I look back on mybody of work over 16 years and
I got myself into a really deep,dark funk and I was not
(01:52):
pleasant to be around.
And this is the holiday season,which really sucked and you're
usually the life of the party.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The human hummingbird had no sugar uh, so don't get
me wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Just like a lot of people who are depressed, I
faked it till I got home andcrashed, and I crashed hard.
I've slept more in the lastthree or four weeks and I
probably did the four monthsbefore that and you were like in
the basement in your jammies,eating ice cream and watching
like chick flicks right so doyou know how many hallmark
(02:23):
movies were made in 2024?
Do you know, alan, because I dodo you?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
did you watch them all 32?
Oh god, oh god, you were superdark.
Why didn't you?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
call me I.
I, because because that's whathappens.
Here's what happens, guys.
We just don't know when we'rein it what to do.
And uh, while I was in it, no,I did not watch 32 Hallmark
movies.
I will tell you, I bingewatched a lot of Disney, I told
Alan.
I said you're going to laughwhen I tell you that I watched
Moana.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And I spit out my bourbon.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's right.
So can you go through that?
Absolutely, man.
I mean, we're here to inspireand talk to you guys and great
following, and this came on theheels of us going to a holiday
party with one of our greatguests we've had in the past,
steve Beach, and we went to hisplace.
We met a couple of other peoplewho have been on our podcast,
met new people who are dying tocome on our podcast, met other
(03:16):
radio personalities who hadheard about our podcast.
Nothing but positivity all overthe place.
And what Alan doesn't know isthat day, the next day, I was
even a deeper funk, and why.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's because Steve gave me a bottle of bourbon and
not you, because Steve Beechamgave Alan a bottle of bourbon
and not me.
For once it was about Alan andnot Chris.
I was so mad.
Wow, the genesis of revenge, ohit was so bad.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I can't believe that just happened.
So, as we get started on this2025 reinvigorating repositivity
, let's make it all happen.
We decided let's get backtogether and just talk for a
minute about customer serviceand things that have gone right.
So, yeah, I'm in that deep darkstate, you know, but I'm coming
out of it and I have um, and Igot myself back up on it because
(04:04):
it's all biorhythms.
Man, we get back in it.
You got to readjust things, yougot to get things moving.
So, hell, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, and when you're a small business owner, you
kind of have to do that all byyourself.
I mean, you're part of amastermind group and it could be
somebody spotted it and thenthey pull your funk.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But and I I'm asking your team is not going to pull
you out of your funk your team'snot going to pull you out my
mastermind group I masked itwhen I met with them, uh, before
and uh, so I went through, youknow, basically a holiday season
where I had a lot of fun withmy family, don't get me wrong.
But I, as I told you, alan, I'mnot that guy who goes, hey, man
, people got a lot worse than me.
I got a great life.
I do, um, but that does nothelp me snap out of it.
(04:42):
Um, even going to church andcelebrating all the great things
that Christmas is about withfamily didn't do it.
Um, it was a tough run and yeah,it was.
I had no idea, yeah, I know.
So I thought, um, in fact tothe point where I was like you
know it, maybe, maybe, uh, maybeI should just stop doing a lot
of things.
(05:03):
You know, just call it good,you know 54, and maybe I can
retire, what?
No?
So I went, screw that.
No, none of that.
I got a lot more to give andI'm so excited and I'd love to
tell you it was one person orone thing that got me out of it.
It wasn't, it was a culminationof things and I will tell you,
(05:23):
it all came to a head when Alancame back in here in the studio,
aka my basement, where thebourbon is and said, man, we got
to get after this, let's go doit.
And I'm like, yeah, let's go.
I'm excited again.
So we're here, we're going totalk.
Today's episode is just goingto be Alan and I, and we're
going to get you guys back intoit in 2025, riff it up a little
bit, but talk about greatcustomer service.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, we are customer service.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Freaks.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, Hey-o.
So do you have, and if youdon't, you can think about it.
But do you have any stories totell where you were just
absolutely blown away bysomething?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
a company did for you .
So I don't have one off the topof my head right now,
especially in the last coupleweeks, because you know last
month it would be hard.
Uh, because, um, I wasn'tlooking for it.
You're not looking for it.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I've.
I've had a couple, you know,you know one of my stories with
Nordstrom's and I've got a.
I've got a new one that justhappened to me over Christmas
that I want to tell you aboutbecause it makes me think how do
, how do these companies havethe culture that allows their
employees to be this awesome?
And especially since peoplejust are at an epic level of
(06:32):
sucking all around us right now,I mean, the whole world is just
on fire and mad at each otherand irritated and offended, and
so when you say that what you'retalking about is in the service
industry, when one person istrying to discern another
service to somebody else.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is that we're all short, right?
We're like you know?
Hey snap, snap, snap, I'm on myphone.
Hey snap, snap, snap, I've gotmy earplugs in.
So that's how people aresucking.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, no, they're just sucking in so many ways.
When you're interacting with acompany, it's almost like you've
got somebody in a customerservice position who's assuming
that you're guilty, treats youlike a criminal, has no interest
in what you have to say.
You have to fight for what theypromised you in the first place
.
I mean all those things.
It drives me insane.
(07:18):
And every once in a while yourun across a bright spot, so I
want to tell you about one ofthem.
Every once in a while you runacross a bright spot, so I want
to tell you about one of them.
So you know, two years ago, alittle over two years ago, when
my dad died and we were rollinginto the Christmas season and I
think my wife was feeling likeextra, you know, supportive, and
(07:41):
I really appreciate it.
She's like what do you want forChristmas?
And I said and we have thiscertain budget that we kind of
work with mentally We've neveractually said it out loud but I
said I really want a pizza oven,but I can't find one that I
think is good enough within thebudget that I think that we
normally have for each other.
And she goes well, how much isthe one that you want, and I
(08:05):
said there's.
There's one called an uni and Ithought it was from, I thought
it was italian.
It's actually a scottishcompany, I think, if I'm not
mistaken sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guess who is thinking about getting an uni and guess
who is now cross that off thelist not a paisan wait, I'm
listening, I listening.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I'm listening, I'm back, I'm back.
Yeah, so she goes.
Why don't you get the one thatyou want, which you know?
Wonderful girl.
And so I get the Ooni.
Which one did you get?
I got the Karu 16.
Because you don't want the 12?
Because it's too small.
You can't rotate the pizzaproperly With the dual fuel.
I have both wood and then I cando gas you are my hero and I'm
(08:46):
coming over and you're makingpizza for me, yeah, okay, the
only reason why you should have,because I've been looking at
this sucker.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I'm not kidding .
I actually had it on my wishlist and Christmas list, but I
didn't put it on there becauseof the funk I was in, by the way
, because I didn't want any ofmy family to buy it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
This would make you happy.
It would pull you out of a funk, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
All right, continue.
I love this, yeah, and I cantell you the difference between
the gas and the wood andeverything.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But just for the listeners, I've been making
homemade pizzas for well over 20years and I've been pretty
obsessed with it and I felt like, in my regular oven, the New
York pizzerias.
And then of course, the kindthat I was going after was the
Neapolitan style and they'redoing a wood oven and again
(09:31):
they're up at those highertemperatures.
But I love that wood fireflavor.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So I get the Ooni and it shows up and you remember
the first time you opened aniPhone box and you were just
kind of impressed at how it waspackaged.
Yeah, I was.
I would say that's how I knewApple had the game figured out.
Yeah, you're right, because Iwas a BlackBerry guy and I had
to get my first iPhone and youremember that too.
I still remember that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, it was a similar experience and I opened
it up and then I opened themanual and on the very first
page it says okay, we know thatyou really want to start making
pizza, so here's the 10 thingsyou need to know.
But we really want you to readthe rest of the brochure because
we think it's awesome, that'swhat it said.
It said pretty much exactlythat and I'm like I think it
(10:14):
might know, alan, yeah, I go.
How cool is that?
I mean that just sort of gaveme kind of a like okay, I like
these people.
It's not that they just, youknow, made this thing in China
and sent it to me.
And there was an issue that Ihad.
I can't remember if it was justtrying to register the thing
for my warranty or if it was.
They have an app and the app isgreat.
So if you want to make acertain amount of pizza balls at
(10:36):
a certain amount of weight,this much flour based on your
hydration percentage, I meanit's pretty cool.
So I remember I had a littletrouble figuring that out and I
reached out and I got thisimmediate response and it was
really friendly and it was superhelpful and I was like, oh,
that's kind of impressive.
And then the Uni itself wasbetter made than I expected and
(10:57):
it had a couple just a littletouches to it that I thought
these guys, I mean they get it.
So I get a survey.
And the survey is like you knowwell, what do you think of your
uni and would you recommend itto friends?
And I said well, I gotta behonest with you, you know, I
(11:18):
expected to get a good product.
What I didn't expect was I wasreally kind of impressed at how
well it was made.
I was even more impressed atthese little touches.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I'm even more impressed that you filled out
the fricking survey.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
No, it was yeah, I like giving feedback where it's
due, yeah, and I said and I saidand honestly, my pizzas now are
otherworldly.
And I said, but what I'm reallyimpressed with is this really
cool vibe that I'm getting fromeverybody I've had contact with,
(11:51):
and so I just sent the.
I sent that in two weeks later,completely forgot about pizza
and everything.
And there's a FedEx box on myfront door and I open it up and
inside is this and I've got ithere in the studio and I'll show
Chris Crappy little white frameand there's a moon and there's
an alien and there's anastronaut in a pizza box.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Allow me.
So what is it actually showingus?
It is showing us an alien, anastronaut, eating pizza on an
otherworldly planet.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I did not make the connection.
Then I turned it over.
You can read it.
Oh my God, Look at the littlenote.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh, my God.
Look at the little note.
I can't believe what I'm aboutto read.
Everybody, I'm going to readthis note.
We'll post this out.
It says welcome to the unicommunity, alan.
We hope your pizzas continue tobe otherworldly.
Happy uni-ing, so somebody.
(12:47):
Happy uniing, so somebodyactually flippin.
Read it, read it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They read my survey and found this incredible thing.
It's it's a crappy little clipart in a crappy little frame and
they, but they, sent it to mewith that note now that is cool
if you go to our youtube channel, by the way, everybody, small
business safari, don't forgetthis.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right guys, keep us going, keep us going out there.
We got some exciting newscoming in 2025.
I just told you about how dark,deep and dark it was.
There's no reason I should bedeep and dark, because not only
are we on the radio, but we areactually going to go
otherworldly when it comes thisway.
So I got the otherworldly upthere.
What a great customer servicepoint.
So they listened to you, alan.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Alan and I wasn't complaining, I mean okay.
So what they did was theyturned me from a fan to a raving
apostle.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You are a raving apostle.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Raving apostle.
So I hang this up and you knowwhere my pizza oven is?
It's in the fish shack out back.
Yeah, and I've got thisredneck-y little fish shack with
all my smokehouse and my biggreen egg and and all my stacks
of different kinds of wood andstuff oh my god, you know who's
gonna buy a noonie everybody,yeah, I think we all need to buy
a noonie.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So I'm not going to.
But here's what I am gonna do.
I'm gonna drive five miles upto ellen's house and I'm gonna
say, ellen, make me a pizza mom,yeah, yeah, meatloaf, meatloaf.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's right, mom, meatloaf.
So I hung this up and I took apicture and I sent it and I sent
, obviously I sent him a thankyou note and I send the picture,
and they respond superpositively oh, that's so cool
and I like great, and she goes.
Now I do have to say you should, you know, and all of a sudden
she gets all corporate about howfar the uni should be house and
stuff to not cause a firehazard.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
But hey, don't worry, baby, I'm a full-on freak when
it comes to firing people up,all right so that was.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
This was january 2023 .
I got it um for christmas.
I got it basically in earlydecember 2022, so a few weeks
ago.
I'm making pizza.
They're the best I've ever made.
I did a 72-hour slow ferment.
I tortured the yeast on thecountertop and they were
phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
By the way, if you're just tuning in.
This is not a cooking show, butwe'll continue.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All right, best pizzas I've made, but we are
going to have paella with ourfriends in Spain.
I think for 2025, we need tostart doing some of these live
remotes that we talked about.
That's the Chris I've beenlooking for.
So I make these amazing pizzasthey're the best I've ever made
(15:15):
and I've made some really goodones and these are just
transformative.
And what I do is, you know, atthe end of the night I let the
fire die down and in the morningI go out and I clean it up and
you flip the stone and itactually bakes off the stuff on
the other side the next time youcook and all this stuff.
So I get it all set up for thenext and I look down and the
(15:37):
stone is cracked and I'm like Iwonder if this is under warranty
.
But pizza stones cracking are apretty common thing and I can't
find any information about thewarranty.
So I just reach out to Ooni andI sent him a picture and then I
sent him my serial number and Isent a nice little note.
I wasn't demanding anything, Ijust said, after a night of
(16:02):
baking the best pizzas I've evermade.
You can imagine thesoul-crushing nature of my
discovery.
I use the word soul-crushing.
Nice touch Alan that my pizzastone had split in half and I'm
wondering is this a warrantything, or do I just need to
order a new one?
I threw out there that I waswilling to order a new one that
(16:24):
night, in the middle of thenight, I get an email response
back and it wasn't a thank you.
You know what?
What do you?
What do you normally get whenyou send in something?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
We'll be back in touch with you after 24 hours.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And some other shit going on.
Right now Nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah Well, yeah, so if you do get a response, it's a
very boilerplate.
You know, thanks, we're goingto look at.
You know we'll review thisthing.
You're going to get some sortof automated corporate answer.
You know what I got, alan.
Oh no, Exclamation point.
I mean not hey, I'm so sorry tohear about this, or thanks for
letting us know.
It was, oh no, like she totallyfelt my devastation, the soul
(17:07):
sucking nature of seeing thatyour stone is cracked, and she
said you know, i'm'm gonna goahead and process this and get
you a new stone.
And she goes.
Meanwhile, here's a couple ofmy favorite recipes no, and it
was for stuff you can make inyour uni.
That isn't pizza, like I make ashrimp scampi in there now with
the wood fire that's just killed.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Oh, come on yeah oh my god, uni has on it.
We were tagging the hell out ofthem on this.
Yeah, I mean, and actually Ijust I was writing while you're
talking because it's just youand me and I don't have to look
like I'm interested I actuallyappreciate the level of feigning
to be interested.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You've, I did, I've done it uh so that was good and
it was.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And I, I wasn't talking, I was just listening.
So that's good.
But no, we're going to tag thehell out of uni because I've
been looking at it and lookingat it, and looking at it and
didn't pull the trigger Because,again, where I was at, I was
just like, ah, you know, da, da,da.
So I went ahead and made pizzasin my cast iron, in my oven.
Ah, not the same, are they?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
No, not even close.
No, now I will do Detroitpizzas in my oven and you know,
every once in a while, if I justdon't feel like dealing with
the elements outside, you knowI'll do it, but it's not even
close.
I'm actually going to show youa picture here in a minute, but
I mean, oh, wow All right.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
So Ooni customer service, showing that personal
touch that people are listeningto you, that overcomes the suck
right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, and it didn't feel like I had to prove or I
had to.
I mean, you know they asked fora little bit of basic
information, but it was just aoh no.
You know, our friend alan'spizza stone is broken.
We need to help him, and I meanhow much.
And so when you think about,like nordstrom, who we've talked
about in the past, and I meanthey have this amazing customer
service reputation and I'veheard stories where they take
clothes back that they nevereven sold.
(18:57):
And back in the day when theywere first getting started, you
know some guy returned tires.
They've never sold tires.
You know that kind of thing.
That was out in Seattle.
Yeah, there's a certainpercentage.
They obviously know there's acertain percentage of the
population who's going to takeadvantage of them.
I mean, you're dealing withthat right now in your business.
I am Absolutely.
And how do you not assumeeverybody's trying to screw you
(19:19):
when they're a customer?
And then how do you budget to?
I mean, this is what I'm tryingto figure out.
I mean, I don't know if this isunder warranty.
Maybe it is under warranty,probably not.
They just freaking handled it.
Now they're getting a freepodcast out of it.
Chris is going to buy an uni.
My niece is getting married andI already sent her her uni.
(19:40):
She's my cooking buddy and Isent her uni for her wedding
present.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
But you don't know that, especially as a small
business guy.
But you do bring up a point andthis is what I would tell you
anybody small businesses you'regrowing the first year you're in
business and you only made$50,000.
Let's say you killed it, man.
You did a million in revenue.
Way to go, big guy.
Awesome for you.
Yes, I'm jealous because Ididn't do a million, but you had
(20:09):
to refund somebody $50, $500,$5,000, it doesn't matter.
Here's the deal.
You have to, and I heard thatearly on is like you know what?
Sometimes you have to refundpeople money because you can't
make everybody happy.
However, if you did this, I'msorry that this thing went the
wrong way, but that is a greatpicture.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Is that not an unbelievable looking pizza?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Thank you for sharing the picture.
Oh, that's right, but let'stalk about this.
So, as you build, your budgetin 2025,.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Man, that is a really thick crust too, and it's light
as a feather and it justcrackled on the outside.
It was just a poof.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It was perfect.
You know that would have beenreally good.
So my number is 678-429-4857.
And that's what I share witheverybody on the podcast.
You want to call me?
Go ahead, you know, don't,because I won't answer, but you
can text me and I'll definitelyrespond to you because if you
got a business question I wantto help and that's what we've
(21:11):
been doing.
I actually just got doneresponding to another email
today from another listener.
But let's go back to thiscustomer service part of this.
You don't know if it works andit translates.
You just don't.
You never will.
You are that astronaut up inthe moon in an airspace vacuum
that you don't know if it'sgoing to happen and you don't
know if this guy's takingadvantage of you.
(21:32):
But you know what you can do.
You do know this.
He has spidey senses.
You know when somebody's tryingto take advantage of you.
Not everybody is right.
I've always said this thecustomer is not always right,
but if you put the customerfirst, you can do the right
thing by them you're right,that's a different mentality and
you have to do it supercheerfully.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And I mean mean, and that's the difference, because
when you were talking about, hey, if it's 50 bucks, it's like
okay, fine, screw you, here'syour $50.
Well, what good does that do?
You May as well not give themthe $50.
But the way that they were likeoh no, they're like that's
terrible.
Let me help you.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I mean, I felt like we're on the same team.
It just you know.
But let me tell you about theway you responded to them and
the way a team responded back toyou.
And here's the thing Sometimespeople will respond to you as a
service provider and it sucks.
When somebody responds to youin a nice way, you should go
above and beyond.
They always say you know theold adage the squeaky wheel gets
grease.
Yeah, you guys should be going.
The squeaky wheel gets grease.
Yeah, you guys should be goingfor.
The sweet wheel gets grease.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, what I viewed that line yeah, because the
people who get stuff from youare the people who are assholes,
and so you just begrudginglygive them stuff.
What do we do for the peoplewho are awesome, we pay full
retail.
I mean, I've always said thatI'm like, could we not do
something for our good customersthat they're just not expecting
, like this clip art in a littlecrappy white frame?
(22:59):
That is one of my favoritethings.
I mean, it did cost them, itwas a little bit of time.
It cost them the postage.
They didn't need to do it.
I wasn't complaining aboutanything, it was just.
But suddenly they turned meinto this apostle.
I mean, what can we do for ourcustomers who are good to turn
them into raving apostles?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, and I'm coming at it from the wrong side again
because of my mentality andwhat's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I know you want to slash tires I do especially this
one guy.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
He called out and he not only blessed out my
dispatcher, my call center, myservice manager and my general
manager, and I listened to himtalking to my general manager.
I was about to get in the carand go over there and just
absolutely, yeah, absolutely doeverything, he just said,
because he provided the material.
It was a butcher blockcountertop.
(23:47):
We put it together.
It is amazing because of theworkmanship that we did.
But he doesn't like that.
The wood is different becausehe bought this stuff from a big
box store.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The wood is different than what.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The wood is a butcher block and where it miters up in
the corner it's different.
It doesn't match up perfectly.
The grain doesn't match up Well, of course it doesn't, it would
never.
But he told us to do it, so myguy did it, and my guy did it.
Biscuit joint great, did allthe workmanship the way it was
going.
And so you could ask yourselfwell, chris, why didn't you guys
(24:21):
tell him that that was going tolook bad?
Because I've got now 10examples online and I have one
that I personally did 15 yearsago that people loved and they
said they want to do it.
And I said, boy, I've neverseen this done, the first one I
ever did.
And I did it with one of myguys and I can promise you my
(24:44):
craftsmanship compared to thisone was not as equal it was.
I mean, it was good, it wasn'tperfect.
And this guy is now suing me.
I'm like, really, but and hewent right to the mat right off
the bat, didn't even give me achance to hey, let me come out
there and see it, because that'swhat I did.
My first email to him is I'dlove to come out there and have
a conversation with you and talkabout it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
no, no response seeing that goes to the cost of
just um having a good customerservice reputation.
I mean, you're ultimately goingto take care of this guy and
now you're going to be in courtand some people just flat suck.
But the key is to not assumeeverybody else is going to be
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, so here's the thing.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
You can't let my dark mentalitypermeate to the other 99 people
out there who aren't like thatno, and your employees can't see
you do that either.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And so then, if you have a culture of, hey, let's
look for ways to send thisstupid little framed alien to
our good customers, whatever theequivalent is in your business,
don't you think that that justsort of creates this super
positive vibe in the office?
And so then that guy stands outeven more separately as you are
(25:53):
a uniquely qualified asshole onthis planet, and it makes the
good people look that muchbetter.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think so.
I think you're right, I mean so.
Again, back to customer serviceOoni, awesome, that was a great
move.
You talked about your Nordstromexperience in the past, I think
.
Now, in today's world, I dothink they're getting a little
stale.
They're still great, but theystill don't have that because
they were so much better thaneverybody else.
But do you feel likeeverybody's kind of catching up
(26:21):
to them?
Is there another one that youwould recommend?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
There's two companies just who are outliers, in my
opinion, in a world that youwouldn't expect it.
But one is Quick Trip Gasoline.
And for the parts of thecountry or the world that don't
experience this, I didn't knowabout quick trip till I moved to
Atlanta.
They're actually out of Tulsa,oklahoma, but they're mostly
across the South and it's aabsolutely spotless gas station
(26:49):
with a big convenience store.
Every kind of fountain drinkgreat coffee, bathrooms are
spotless and no matter what timeof day or night you walk in,
the employees immediately greetyou and I know that they pay
their people well.
I think they have a greatmanagement track, I think they
have good benefits, but still,you're, you're working in a
(27:09):
convenience store gas stationand there's a really crappy one
across the street that stinks.
The bathroom's plugged, itsmells like some weird incense.
You know, I mean, what's thedifference between the two?
It kind of goes back to ourtalk about chick-fil-a versus
everybody else.
I mean, they're just sellingfast food, but it's just.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
It's a completely different experience when you go
there and in today's world,that's the, that's the biggest
part, that, uh, you know what?
Are you willing to go acrossthe street for five cents less
and maybe not use the restroom,maybe?
However, these guys arecompetitive in their gas, so
their commodity is there whenyou go in there.
Quick Trip is my go-to when I'mhere.
(27:49):
Racetrack is number two interms of convenience stores.
Why?
Because you can get gas.
I'll take a chance every oncein a while and grab some food
there.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Uh okay, not lying they actually now quick trip?
It's not bad.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I get the turkey wraps, but I get them custom
made.
Uh, and the bathrooms.
You always got to make sure youget up for a multi-seater.
But that back to the customerservice.
What did you just say?
You always got to go.
You can't go for a one-seaterman because you're always
waiting for dudes.
Yeah, right, and you're notwaiting for dudes.
If you're going in there,you're trying to get your stuff
done and get it over with.
I'm not waiting for some guy todrop.
You know what I'm saying.
(28:26):
Maybe you're not.
It's called drop and trow, bro.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
But then you know Waffle House.
I mean that company's beenaround forever.
There's 200 of them just inAtlanta.
Now we're talking, let's talkWaffle.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
House.
So Waffle House is asoutheastern US staple, yep, and
what are they known for?
Cheap food that's open 24-7.
In fact, they actually now havea great.
Another moniker is that theWeather Channel says it's called
the Waffle House Indicator.
If they're closing wafflehouses, you know it's bad.
(29:01):
It's a bad storm if wafflehouse is closed, all right.
So when you walk into wafflehouse, it is a greasy diner.
If you've never been in thesoutheast and seen a waffle
house, to paint the picture, itis a small.
Uh, what?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
20 by 60, maybe 30 by 60, yep, maybe 30 by 90 brick
building glass on the outside,open open grill with a counter
and then a real counter and afew booths uh, usually 10 to 15
booths around it and they're allbuilt the same.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And you walk in there .
Nobody greets you and says, hey, welcome to waffles.
They say hey, where you want tosit, and and you get a
laminated menu and they wipe offthe table and you sit down or
you sit at the counter if youwant the show to see what's
going on behind you.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Just don't look down on the floor.
It's nasty.
You'd never look down, but no,they do greet you when you come
in Well, to tell you to hang onsugar.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, you do get honey and sugar and all that.
Hang on sugar.
You sit down.
So when you sit down but youknow the minute you sit down
what happens Lights are up, youare greeted immediately.
You are asked what do you wantto drink?
What are you looking for?
Let's go.
Are you guys in a hurry?
All right, let's go.
They know exactly how to workwith you and you hear them in
the back with the open grill.
It's right in front of you.
Stuff's flying everywhere.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And I mean it's such a mix of folks and obviously a
lot of times I'm in the country,so it's a lot of country folks.
It's people that you know maybedidn't go to school, blah, blah
, blah, blah, and it could be 3in the morning.
There's drunks at the counter.
And they're friendly and thefood is consistent and it's
(30:39):
become a cultural phenomenon.
I mean, I remember the, thewaffle house near my dad's place
in aiken, south carolina.
They actually had a valentine'smenu and this is one of these
places where I think there'sonly a total of 10 ingredients.
It's just how they combine them, people get married at waffle
house.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
So the answer is yes.
The reason I know this isbecause waffle house House was
founded here in Atlanta, georgia, and I know the biggest
franchisor of these and I got achance to talk with him about
this years ago so long ago thatI'm not sure I even know how to
get a hold of him to get himaround here.
But it's amazing the trainingthat they go through.
They realize who we're dealingwith.
(31:13):
A lot of these people you saidand I love that you said that
they didn't graduate high school.
Some of these people perhapsmay have been the other side of
the bars.
Yeah, but they'll do it.
But you know what they do.
Everybody is incented on everyshift for a pool team bonus.
They're all there together andthey're all going to get the
same bonus, based on the tipsand everything else that comes
(31:35):
through.
So, based on the revenue,what's going on?
So you go?
Well, wait a minute.
What about the cash tips?
The waitress skip.
You're right, those are.
You can't get those.
But you know what, though?
She wants to share it with thecook and the chef, because if
she shares with them, then guesswho gets her food first?
Right, guess who gets a biggertip, she does.
So he put the whole team poolthing in there and that's how
(31:58):
they've incented this greatbehavior.
I mean, when you go in there,this is not fine dining.
This is not the top 10, 100restaurants in the world.
This is a greasy diner wherethey've been able to figure it
out, and people that I know comefrom Michigan and one of the
first places they'll stop isWaffle House, even before they
come see me at my house.
How about that?
Yeah, yeah, think about thatfor a minute.
(32:20):
I have friends come down.
I'm like, hey, yeah, oh, we'reon our way.
Oh, you know, we're gonna stopin Waffle House up in Tennessee.
I said what we have them here.
So if you just want to keep ontrucking, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I'll get for people who don't know.
Waffle House.
I swear to god, this is true.
There are some freeway exitswhere there's a Waffle House on
either side of the freeway, buthow?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
do they do it.
They're a greasy spoon.
You can think about the worstdiner you've ever been into in
your life, and when you go inthere it is not much better than
that.
But the hospitality I mean eventhe cook will turn around as
he's doing the smash iron on thebacon, or if he's flipping the
eggs, or if he's flipping theeggs, or if he's going over the
(32:59):
waffle iron, he's gonna.
He's gonna chat you up.
What's your order?
My order has always been, and Igo protein mostly, so I go
almost all eggs all the time oh,and I love their salsa.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So the salsa they took away with covid because I
would get a ham cheese, jalapenoomelet grits, grits and raisin.
I can tell you that, tells youI want this, I want the salsa,
but I've heard in certaincertain waffle houses it's back,
it's killing me.
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
But you know you talk about the customer service at
every level.
It can happen.
And if you train your folks andcensure folks, here's the thing
inspect what you expect, backto incentivizing what's going on
.
I just did this with my CSRs.
I want them to sell more out ofmy handyman company, out of the
office than we send estimatorsout to why?
(33:46):
Because it's more profitable.
If I can send a handyman out,dispatch a guy and we're
starting to bill right away,then we're more profitable than
having to roll somebodypotentially for a free estimate
and then pay their gas, paytheir car allowance, do all this
.
That's a more expensivetransaction for me.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Do you have them sell over the phone?
Always, always.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Oh, that's a whole other thing.
Oh, it's not a whole other thing.
Smile, alan.
Hey, welcome sugar.
Apparently, we're going to haveanother podcast about that, we
do.
We talk about this treating ourfirst touch super scars, that
they know that they're the firstpeople that you interact with,
that you've got to put themfirst and center and then, as
you do that, you've got to putthat customer first and center,
(34:30):
and if you put them first andcenter, then you can help them.
We can't help everybody,especially as a handyman company
who asks us a lot of differentstuff and a lot of expectations
that are not set, that we needto set, and so that's what they
work on.
So back to great customerservice.
You talked about your Ooniexperience, which is amazing.
We just drained an entireepisode talking about your Ooni
(34:54):
and the Waffle House, twototally diametric things.
I'm kind of hungry, I know, andnow with that, we've got to
keep on drinking, keep on eating.
Hey, everybody, if you hung outwith this one, you've got to
make sure you go out there,promulgate the good word.
Here's what's going on in 2025.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Say promulgate?
Is that a big word?
I think it's one you just madeup.
Is that a?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
big word.
I think it's one you just madeup.
No, I think it's a word.
I'm using that in Scrabble babyTriple word score promulgate.
Just like my family asked mehow can we go play Wordle?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I said because I got plenty of things that can
confuse me every day and make menot happy.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
So, hey guys, go check us out.
We're out there, apple.
We're out there on Spotify.
Apple, we're out there onSpotify.
We're about to be on the 680the Fan podcast, because I'm on
the radio every week talkingabout home stuff here in Atlanta
on 106.3 and 680 the Fan Lookat you.
And while we're doing that,we're also talking to great
(35:48):
people and great companies hereon this podcast.
Man, we're just trying to helpyou get better, because let's
just all get better together.
You know what?
I shared some deep stuff early.
Um, I'll share more.
Just give me an email, chris atthe trusted toolbox dot com.
Chris at the trusted toolboxdot com.
Hey, alan, we gotta get out ofhere.
That was a great story.
Thank you for sharing.
Let's go uni it up.
(36:09):
Cheers everybody, we're out ofhere.
This is a greasy diner where they've been able to
figure it out, and people thatI know come from Michigan and
one of the first places they'llstop is Waffle House.
Even before they come see me atmy house, I'm like, hey, yeah,
we're on our way.
You know, we're going to stopin Waffle House up in Tennessee.
I said, well, we have them here, so if you just want to keep on
trucking, I'll get to theirfarm freeway exits where there's
(00:23):
a Waffle House on either side.
Welcome to the Small BusinessSafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
(00:49):
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Hey everybody, it's Alan andChris.
Happy 2025.
You're not supposed to datethese podcasts, but in case you
want to go back and date apodcast, this is it.
(01:10):
We're in 2025.
We took a month off.
Man, we've been doing this forthree solid years and a quarter
and Alan's laughing.
And we actually said you knowwhat I don't want to guess?
Actually, I'm the one who saidthat.
So why know what I don't wantto guess?
Actually, I'm the one who saidthat.
So why did I say I didn't wantto guess?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Are you going to get into why you didn't want to
guess?
Because you just told me I did.
Are you going to tell everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I am man.
I'm going to tell you what, man.
Yeah, I got into a funk, guys.
I was down on running my biz.
Things didn't go like I'd hopedin 2024.
Uh, you know, I look back on mybody of work over 16 years and
I got myself into a really deep,dark funk and I was not
(01:52):
pleasant to be around.
And this is the holiday season,which really sucked and you're
usually the life of the party.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The human hummingbird had no sugar uh, so don't get
me wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Just like a lot of people who are depressed, I
faked it till I got home andcrashed, and I crashed hard.
I've slept more in the lastthree or four weeks and I
probably did the four monthsbefore that and you were like in
the basement in your jammies,eating ice cream and watching
like chick flicks right so doyou know how many hallmark
(02:23):
movies were made in 2024?
Do you know, alan, because I dodo you?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
did you watch them all 32?
Oh god, oh god, you were superdark.
Why didn't you?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
call me I.
I, because because that's whathappens.
Here's what happens, guys.
We just don't know when we'rein it what to do.
And uh, while I was in it, no,I did not watch 32 Hallmark
movies.
I will tell you, I bingewatched a lot of Disney, I told
Alan.
I said you're going to laughwhen I tell you that I watched
Moana.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And I spit out my bourbon.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's right.
So can you go through that?
Absolutely, man.
I mean, we're here to inspireand talk to you guys and great
following, and this came on theheels of us going to a holiday
party with one of our greatguests we've had in the past,
steve Beach, and we went to hisplace.
We met a couple of other peoplewho have been on our podcast,
met new people who are dying tocome on our podcast, met other
(03:16):
radio personalities who hadheard about our podcast.
Nothing but positivity all overthe place.
And what Alan doesn't know isthat day, the next day, I was
even a deeper funk, and why.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's because Steve gave me a bottle of bourbon and
not you, because Steve Beechamgave Alan a bottle of bourbon
and not me.
For once it was about Alan andnot Chris.
I was so mad.
Wow, the genesis of revenge, ohit was so bad.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I can't believe that just happened.
So, as we get started on this2025 reinvigorating repositivity
, let's make it all happen.
We decided let's get backtogether and just talk for a
minute about customer serviceand things that have gone right.
So, yeah, I'm in that deep darkstate, you know, but I'm coming
out of it and I have um, and Igot myself back up on it because
(04:04):
it's all biorhythms.
Man, we get back in it.
You got to readjust things, yougot to get things moving.
So, hell, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, and when you're a small business owner, you
kind of have to do that all byyourself.
I mean, you're part of amastermind group and it could be
somebody spotted it and thenthey pull your funk.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But and I I'm asking your team is not going to pull
you out of your funk your team'snot going to pull you out my
mastermind group I masked itwhen I met with them, uh, before
and uh, so I went through, youknow, basically a holiday season
where I had a lot of fun withmy family, don't get me wrong.
But I, as I told you, alan, I'mnot that guy who goes, hey, man
, people got a lot worse than me.
I got a great life.
I do, um, but that does nothelp me snap out of it.
(04:42):
Um, even going to church andcelebrating all the great things
that Christmas is about withfamily didn't do it.
Um, it was a tough run and yeah,it was.
I had no idea, yeah, I know.
So I thought, um, in fact tothe point where I was like you
know it, maybe, maybe, uh, maybeI should just stop doing a lot
of things.
(05:03):
You know, just call it good,you know 54, and maybe I can
retire, what?
No?
So I went, screw that.
No, none of that.
I got a lot more to give andI'm so excited and I'd love to
tell you it was one person orone thing that got me out of it.
It wasn't, it was a culminationof things and I will tell you,
(05:23):
it all came to a head when Alancame back in here in the studio,
aka my basement, where thebourbon is and said, man, we got
to get after this, let's go doit.
And I'm like, yeah, let's go.
I'm excited again.
So we're here, we're going totalk.
Today's episode is just goingto be Alan and I, and we're
going to get you guys back intoit in 2025, riff it up a little
bit, but talk about greatcustomer service.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, we are customer service.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Freaks.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, Hey-o.
So do you have, and if youdon't, you can think about it.
But do you have any stories totell where you were just
absolutely blown away bysomething?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
a company did for you .
So I don't have one off the topof my head right now,
especially in the last coupleweeks, because you know last
month it would be hard.
Uh, because, um, I wasn'tlooking for it.
You're not looking for it.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I've.
I've had a couple, you know,you know one of my stories with
Nordstrom's and I've got a.
I've got a new one that justhappened to me over Christmas
that I want to tell you aboutbecause it makes me think how do
, how do these companies havethe culture that allows their
employees to be this awesome?
And especially since peoplejust are at an epic level of
(06:32):
sucking all around us right now,I mean, the whole world is just
on fire and mad at each otherand irritated and offended, and
so when you say that what you'retalking about is in the service
industry, when one person istrying to discern another
service to somebody else.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is that we're all short, right?
We're like you know?
Hey snap, snap, snap, I'm on myphone.
Hey snap, snap, snap, I've gotmy earplugs in.
So that's how people aresucking.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, no, they're just sucking in so many ways.
When you're interacting with acompany, it's almost like you've
got somebody in a customerservice position who's assuming
that you're guilty, treats youlike a criminal, has no interest
in what you have to say.
You have to fight for what theypromised you in the first place
.
I mean all those things.
It drives me insane.
(07:18):
And every once in a while yourun across a bright spot, so I
want to tell you about one ofthem.
Every once in a while you runacross a bright spot, so I want
to tell you about one of them.
So you know, two years ago, alittle over two years ago, when
my dad died and we were rollinginto the Christmas season and I
think my wife was feeling likeextra, you know, supportive, and
(07:41):
I really appreciate it.
She's like what do you want forChristmas?
And I said and we have thiscertain budget that we kind of
work with mentally We've neveractually said it out loud but I
said I really want a pizza oven,but I can't find one that I
think is good enough within thebudget that I think that we
normally have for each other.
And she goes well, how much isthe one that you want, and I
(08:05):
said there's.
There's one called an uni and Ithought it was from, I thought
it was italian.
It's actually a scottishcompany, I think, if I'm not
mistaken sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guess who is thinking about getting an uni and guess
who is now cross that off thelist not a paisan wait, I'm
listening, I listening.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I'm listening, I'm back, I'm back.
Yeah, so she goes.
Why don't you get the one thatyou want, which you know?
Wonderful girl.
And so I get the Ooni.
Which one did you get?
I got the Karu 16.
Because you don't want the 12?
Because it's too small.
You can't rotate the pizzaproperly With the dual fuel.
I have both wood and then I cando gas you are my hero and I'm
(08:46):
coming over and you're makingpizza for me, yeah, okay, the
only reason why you should have,because I've been looking at
this sucker.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I'm not kidding .
I actually had it on my wishlist and Christmas list, but I
didn't put it on there becauseof the funk I was in, by the way
, because I didn't want any ofmy family to buy it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
This would make you happy.
It would pull you out of a funk, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
All right, continue.
I love this, yeah, and I cantell you the difference between
the gas and the wood andeverything.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But just for the listeners, I've been making
homemade pizzas for well over 20years and I've been pretty
obsessed with it and I felt like, in my regular oven, the New
York pizzerias.
And then of course, the kindthat I was going after was the
Neapolitan style and they'redoing a wood oven and again
(09:31):
they're up at those highertemperatures.
But I love that wood fireflavor.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So I get the Ooni and it shows up and you remember
the first time you opened aniPhone box and you were just
kind of impressed at how it waspackaged.
Yeah, I was.
I would say that's how I knewApple had the game figured out.
Yeah, you're right, because Iwas a BlackBerry guy and I had
to get my first iPhone and youremember that too.
I still remember that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, it was a similar experience and I opened
it up and then I opened themanual and on the very first
page it says okay, we know thatyou really want to start making
pizza, so here's the 10 thingsyou need to know.
But we really want you to readthe rest of the brochure because
we think it's awesome, that'swhat it said.
It said pretty much exactlythat and I'm like I think it
(10:14):
might know, alan, yeah, I go.
How cool is that?
I mean that just sort of gaveme kind of a like okay, I like
these people.
It's not that they just, youknow, made this thing in China
and sent it to me.
And there was an issue that Ihad.
I can't remember if it was justtrying to register the thing
for my warranty or if it was.
They have an app and the app isgreat.
So if you want to make acertain amount of pizza balls at
(10:36):
a certain amount of weight,this much flour based on your
hydration percentage, I meanit's pretty cool.
So I remember I had a littletrouble figuring that out and I
reached out and I got thisimmediate response and it was
really friendly and it was superhelpful and I was like, oh,
that's kind of impressive.
And then the Uni itself wasbetter made than I expected and
(10:57):
it had a couple just a littletouches to it that I thought
these guys, I mean they get it.
So I get a survey.
And the survey is like you knowwell, what do you think of your
uni and would you recommend itto friends?
And I said well, I gotta behonest with you, you know, I
(11:18):
expected to get a good product.
What I didn't expect was I wasreally kind of impressed at how
well it was made.
I was even more impressed atthese little touches.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I'm even more impressed that you filled out
the fricking survey.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
No, it was yeah, I like giving feedback where it's
due, yeah, and I said and I saidand honestly, my pizzas now are
otherworldly.
And I said, but what I'm reallyimpressed with is this really
cool vibe that I'm getting fromeverybody I've had contact with,
(11:51):
and so I just sent the.
I sent that in two weeks later,completely forgot about pizza
and everything.
And there's a FedEx box on myfront door and I open it up and
inside is this and I've got ithere in the studio and I'll show
Chris Crappy little white frameand there's a moon and there's
an alien and there's anastronaut in a pizza box.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Allow me.
So what is it actually showingus?
It is showing us an alien, anastronaut, eating pizza on an
otherworldly planet.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I did not make the connection.
Then I turned it over.
You can read it.
Oh my God, Look at the littlenote.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh, my God.
Look at the little note.
I can't believe what I'm aboutto read.
Everybody, I'm going to readthis note.
We'll post this out.
It says welcome to the unicommunity, alan.
We hope your pizzas continue tobe otherworldly.
Happy uni-ing, so somebody.
(12:47):
Happy uniing, so somebodyactually flippin.
Read it, read it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They read my survey and found this incredible thing.
It's it's a crappy little clipart in a crappy little frame and
they, but they, sent it to mewith that note now that is cool
if you go to our youtube channel, by the way, everybody, small
business safari, don't forgetthis.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right guys, keep us going, keep us going out there.
We got some exciting newscoming in 2025.
I just told you about how dark,deep and dark it was.
There's no reason I should bedeep and dark, because not only
are we on the radio, but we areactually going to go
otherworldly when it comes thisway.
So I got the otherworldly upthere.
What a great customer servicepoint.
So they listened to you, alan.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Alan and I wasn't complaining, I mean okay.
So what they did was theyturned me from a fan to a raving
apostle.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You are a raving apostle.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Raving apostle.
So I hang this up and you knowwhere my pizza oven is?
It's in the fish shack out back.
Yeah, and I've got thisredneck-y little fish shack with
all my smokehouse and my biggreen egg and and all my stacks
of different kinds of wood andstuff oh my god, you know who's
gonna buy a noonie everybody,yeah, I think we all need to buy
a noonie.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So I'm not going to.
But here's what I am gonna do.
I'm gonna drive five miles upto ellen's house and I'm gonna
say, ellen, make me a pizza mom,yeah, yeah, meatloaf, meatloaf.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's right, mom, meatloaf.
So I hung this up and I took apicture and I sent it and I sent
, obviously I sent him a thankyou note and I send the picture,
and they respond superpositively oh, that's so cool
and I like great, and she goes.
Now I do have to say you should, you know, and all of a sudden
she gets all corporate about howfar the uni should be house and
stuff to not cause a firehazard.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
But hey, don't worry, baby, I'm a full-on freak when
it comes to firing people up,all right so that was.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
This was january 2023 .
I got it um for christmas.
I got it basically in earlydecember 2022, so a few weeks
ago.
I'm making pizza.
They're the best I've ever made.
I did a 72-hour slow ferment.
I tortured the yeast on thecountertop and they were
phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
By the way, if you're just tuning in.
This is not a cooking show, butwe'll continue.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All right, best pizzas I've made, but we are
going to have paella with ourfriends in Spain.
I think for 2025, we need tostart doing some of these live
remotes that we talked about.
That's the Chris I've beenlooking for.
So I make these amazing pizzasthey're the best I've ever made
(15:15):
and I've made some really goodones and these are just
transformative.
And what I do is, you know, atthe end of the night I let the
fire die down and in the morningI go out and I clean it up and
you flip the stone and itactually bakes off the stuff on
the other side the next time youcook and all this stuff.
So I get it all set up for thenext and I look down and the
(15:37):
stone is cracked and I'm like Iwonder if this is under warranty
.
But pizza stones cracking are apretty common thing and I can't
find any information about thewarranty.
So I just reach out to Ooni andI sent him a picture and then I
sent him my serial number and Isent a nice little note.
I wasn't demanding anything, Ijust said, after a night of
(16:02):
baking the best pizzas I've evermade.
You can imagine thesoul-crushing nature of my
discovery.
I use the word soul-crushing.
Nice touch Alan that my pizzastone had split in half and I'm
wondering is this a warrantything, or do I just need to
order a new one?
I threw out there that I waswilling to order a new one that
(16:24):
night, in the middle of thenight, I get an email response
back and it wasn't a thank you.
You know what?
What do you?
What do you normally get whenyou send in something?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
We'll be back in touch with you after 24 hours.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And some other shit going on.
Right now Nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah Well, yeah, so if you do get a response, it's a
very boilerplate.
You know, thanks, we're goingto look at.
You know we'll review thisthing.
You're going to get some sortof automated corporate answer.
You know what I got, alan.
Oh no, Exclamation point.
I mean not hey, I'm so sorry tohear about this, or thanks for
letting us know.
It was, oh no, like she totallyfelt my devastation, the soul
(17:07):
sucking nature of seeing thatyour stone is cracked, and she
said you know, i'm'm gonna goahead and process this and get
you a new stone.
And she goes.
Meanwhile, here's a couple ofmy favorite recipes no, and it
was for stuff you can make inyour uni.
That isn't pizza, like I make ashrimp scampi in there now with
the wood fire that's just killed.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Oh, come on yeah oh my god, uni has on it.
We were tagging the hell out ofthem on this.
Yeah, I mean, and actually Ijust I was writing while you're
talking because it's just youand me and I don't have to look
like I'm interested I actuallyappreciate the level of feigning
to be interested.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You've, I did, I've done it uh so that was good and
it was.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And I, I wasn't talking, I was just listening.
So that's good.
But no, we're going to tag thehell out of uni because I've
been looking at it and lookingat it, and looking at it and
didn't pull the trigger Because,again, where I was at, I was
just like, ah, you know, da, da,da.
So I went ahead and made pizzasin my cast iron, in my oven.
Ah, not the same, are they?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
No, not even close.
No, now I will do Detroitpizzas in my oven and you know,
every once in a while, if I justdon't feel like dealing with
the elements outside, you knowI'll do it, but it's not even
close.
I'm actually going to show youa picture here in a minute, but
I mean, oh, wow All right.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
So Ooni customer service, showing that personal
touch that people are listeningto you, that overcomes the suck
right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, and it didn't feel like I had to prove or I
had to.
I mean, you know they asked fora little bit of basic
information, but it was just aoh no.
You know, our friend alan'spizza stone is broken.
We need to help him, and I meanhow much.
And so when you think about,like nordstrom, who we've talked
about in the past, and I meanthey have this amazing customer
service reputation and I'veheard stories where they take
clothes back that they nevereven sold.
(18:57):
And back in the day when theywere first getting started, you
know some guy returned tires.
They've never sold tires.
You know that kind of thing.
That was out in Seattle.
Yeah, there's a certainpercentage.
They obviously know there's acertain percentage of the
population who's going to takeadvantage of them.
I mean, you're dealing withthat right now in your business.
I am Absolutely.
And how do you not assumeeverybody's trying to screw you
(19:19):
when they're a customer?
And then how do you budget to?
I mean, this is what I'm tryingto figure out.
I mean, I don't know if this isunder warranty.
Maybe it is under warranty,probably not.
They just freaking handled it.
Now they're getting a freepodcast out of it.
Chris is going to buy an uni.
My niece is getting married andI already sent her her uni.
(19:40):
She's my cooking buddy and Isent her uni for her wedding
present.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
But you don't know that, especially as a small
business guy.
But you do bring up a point andthis is what I would tell you
anybody small businesses you'regrowing the first year you're in
business and you only made$50,000.
Let's say you killed it, man.
You did a million in revenue.
Way to go, big guy.
Awesome for you.
Yes, I'm jealous because Ididn't do a million, but you had
(20:09):
to refund somebody $50, $500,$5,000, it doesn't matter.
Here's the deal.
You have to, and I heard thatearly on is like you know what?
Sometimes you have to refundpeople money because you can't
make everybody happy.
However, if you did this, I'msorry that this thing went the
wrong way, but that is a greatpicture.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Is that not an unbelievable looking pizza?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Thank you for sharing the picture.
Oh, that's right, but let'stalk about this.
So, as you build, your budgetin 2025,.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Man, that is a really thick crust too, and it's light
as a feather and it justcrackled on the outside.
It was just a poof.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It was perfect.
You know that would have beenreally good.
So my number is 678-429-4857.
And that's what I share witheverybody on the podcast.
You want to call me?
Go ahead, you know, don't,because I won't answer, but you
can text me and I'll definitelyrespond to you because if you
got a business question I wantto help and that's what we've
(21:11):
been doing.
I actually just got doneresponding to another email
today from another listener.
But let's go back to thiscustomer service part of this.
You don't know if it works andit translates.
You just don't.
You never will.
You are that astronaut up inthe moon in an airspace vacuum
that you don't know if it'sgoing to happen and you don't
know if this guy's takingadvantage of you.
(21:32):
But you know what you can do.
You do know this.
He has spidey senses.
You know when somebody's tryingto take advantage of you.
Not everybody is right.
I've always said this thecustomer is not always right,
but if you put the customerfirst, you can do the right
thing by them you're right,that's a different mentality and
you have to do it supercheerfully.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And I mean mean, and that's the difference, because
when you were talking about, hey, if it's 50 bucks, it's like
okay, fine, screw you, here'syour $50.
Well, what good does that do?
You May as well not give themthe $50.
But the way that they were likeoh no, they're like that's
terrible.
Let me help you.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I mean, I felt like we're on the same team.
It just you know.
But let me tell you about theway you responded to them and
the way a team responded back toyou.
And here's the thing Sometimespeople will respond to you as a
service provider and it sucks.
When somebody responds to youin a nice way, you should go
above and beyond.
They always say you know theold adage the squeaky wheel gets
grease.
Yeah, you guys should be going.
The squeaky wheel gets grease.
Yeah, you guys should be goingfor.
The sweet wheel gets grease.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, what I viewed that line yeah, because the
people who get stuff from youare the people who are assholes,
and so you just begrudginglygive them stuff.
What do we do for the peoplewho are awesome, we pay full
retail.
I mean, I've always said thatI'm like, could we not do
something for our good customersthat they're just not expecting
, like this clip art in a littlecrappy white frame?
(22:59):
That is one of my favoritethings.
I mean, it did cost them, itwas a little bit of time.
It cost them the postage.
They didn't need to do it.
I wasn't complaining aboutanything, it was just.
But suddenly they turned meinto this apostle.
I mean, what can we do for ourcustomers who are good to turn
them into raving apostles?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, and I'm coming at it from the wrong side again
because of my mentality andwhat's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I know you want to slash tires I do especially this
one guy.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
He called out and he not only blessed out my
dispatcher, my call center, myservice manager and my general
manager, and I listened to himtalking to my general manager.
I was about to get in the carand go over there and just
absolutely, yeah, absolutely doeverything, he just said,
because he provided the material.
It was a butcher blockcountertop.
(23:47):
We put it together.
It is amazing because of theworkmanship that we did.
But he doesn't like that.
The wood is different becausehe bought this stuff from a big
box store.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The wood is different than what.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The wood is a butcher block and where it miters up in
the corner it's different.
It doesn't match up perfectly.
The grain doesn't match up Well, of course it doesn't, it would
never.
But he told us to do it, so myguy did it, and my guy did it.
Biscuit joint great, did allthe workmanship the way it was
going.
And so you could ask yourselfwell, chris, why didn't you guys
(24:21):
tell him that that was going tolook bad?
Because I've got now 10examples online and I have one
that I personally did 15 yearsago that people loved and they
said they want to do it.
And I said, boy, I've neverseen this done, the first one I
ever did.
And I did it with one of myguys and I can promise you my
(24:44):
craftsmanship compared to thisone was not as equal it was.
I mean, it was good, it wasn'tperfect.
And this guy is now suing me.
I'm like, really, but and hewent right to the mat right off
the bat, didn't even give me achance to hey, let me come out
there and see it, because that'swhat I did.
My first email to him is I'dlove to come out there and have
a conversation with you and talkabout it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
no, no response seeing that goes to the cost of
just um having a good customerservice reputation.
I mean, you're ultimately goingto take care of this guy and
now you're going to be in courtand some people just flat suck.
But the key is to not assumeeverybody else is going to be
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, so here's the thing.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
You can't let my dark mentalitypermeate to the other 99 people
out there who aren't like thatno, and your employees can't see
you do that either.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And so then, if you have a culture of, hey, let's
look for ways to send thisstupid little framed alien to
our good customers, whatever theequivalent is in your business,
don't you think that that justsort of creates this super
positive vibe in the office?
And so then that guy stands outeven more separately as you are
(25:53):
a uniquely qualified asshole onthis planet, and it makes the
good people look that muchbetter.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think so.
I think you're right, I mean so.
Again, back to customer serviceOoni, awesome, that was a great
move.
You talked about your Nordstromexperience in the past, I think
.
Now, in today's world, I dothink they're getting a little
stale.
They're still great, but theystill don't have that because
they were so much better thaneverybody else.
But do you feel likeeverybody's kind of catching up
(26:21):
to them?
Is there another one that youwould recommend?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
There's two companies just who are outliers, in my
opinion, in a world that youwouldn't expect it.
But one is Quick Trip Gasoline.
And for the parts of thecountry or the world that don't
experience this, I didn't knowabout quick trip till I moved to
Atlanta.
They're actually out of Tulsa,oklahoma, but they're mostly
across the South and it's aabsolutely spotless gas station
(26:49):
with a big convenience store.
Every kind of fountain drinkgreat coffee, bathrooms are
spotless and no matter what timeof day or night you walk in,
the employees immediately greetyou and I know that they pay
their people well.
I think they have a greatmanagement track, I think they
have good benefits, but still,you're, you're working in a
(27:09):
convenience store gas stationand there's a really crappy one
across the street that stinks.
The bathroom's plugged, itsmells like some weird incense.
You know, I mean, what's thedifference between the two?
It kind of goes back to ourtalk about chick-fil-a versus
everybody else.
I mean, they're just sellingfast food, but it's just.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
It's a completely different experience when you go
there and in today's world,that's the, that's the biggest
part, that, uh, you know what?
Are you willing to go acrossthe street for five cents less
and maybe not use the restroom,maybe?
However, these guys arecompetitive in their gas, so
their commodity is there whenyou go in there.
Quick Trip is my go-to when I'mhere.
(27:49):
Racetrack is number two interms of convenience stores.
Why?
Because you can get gas.
I'll take a chance every oncein a while and grab some food
there.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Uh okay, not lying they actually now quick trip?
It's not bad.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I get the turkey wraps, but I get them custom
made.
Uh, and the bathrooms.
You always got to make sure youget up for a multi-seater.
But that back to the customerservice.
What did you just say?
You always got to go.
You can't go for a one-seaterman because you're always
waiting for dudes.
Yeah, right, and you're notwaiting for dudes.
If you're going in there,you're trying to get your stuff
done and get it over with.
I'm not waiting for some guy todrop.
You know what I'm saying.
(28:26):
Maybe you're not.
It's called drop and trow, bro.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
But then you know Waffle House.
I mean that company's beenaround forever.
There's 200 of them just inAtlanta.
Now we're talking, let's talkWaffle.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
House.
So Waffle House is asoutheastern US staple, yep, and
what are they known for?
Cheap food that's open 24-7.
In fact, they actually now havea great.
Another moniker is that theWeather Channel says it's called
the Waffle House Indicator.
If they're closing wafflehouses, you know it's bad.
(29:01):
It's a bad storm if wafflehouse is closed, all right.
So when you walk into wafflehouse, it is a greasy diner.
If you've never been in thesoutheast and seen a waffle
house, to paint the picture, itis a small.
Uh, what?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
20 by 60, maybe 30 by 60, yep, maybe 30 by 90 brick
building glass on the outside,open open grill with a counter
and then a real counter and afew booths uh, usually 10 to 15
booths around it and they're allbuilt the same.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And you walk in there .
Nobody greets you and says, hey, welcome to waffles.
They say hey, where you want tosit, and and you get a
laminated menu and they wipe offthe table and you sit down or
you sit at the counter if youwant the show to see what's
going on behind you.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Just don't look down on the floor.
It's nasty.
You'd never look down, but no,they do greet you when you come
in Well, to tell you to hang onsugar.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, you do get honey and sugar and all that.
Hang on sugar.
You sit down.
So when you sit down but youknow the minute you sit down
what happens Lights are up, youare greeted immediately.
You are asked what do you wantto drink?
What are you looking for?
Let's go.
Are you guys in a hurry?
All right, let's go.
They know exactly how to workwith you and you hear them in
the back with the open grill.
It's right in front of you.
Stuff's flying everywhere.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And I mean it's such a mix of folks and obviously a
lot of times I'm in the country,so it's a lot of country folks.
It's people that you know maybedidn't go to school, blah, blah
, blah, blah, and it could be 3in the morning.
There's drunks at the counter.
And they're friendly and thefood is consistent and it's
(30:39):
become a cultural phenomenon.
I mean, I remember the, thewaffle house near my dad's place
in aiken, south carolina.
They actually had a valentine'smenu and this is one of these
places where I think there'sonly a total of 10 ingredients.
It's just how they combine them, people get married at waffle
house.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
So the answer is yes.
The reason I know this isbecause waffle house House was
founded here in Atlanta, georgia, and I know the biggest
franchisor of these and I got achance to talk with him about
this years ago so long ago thatI'm not sure I even know how to
get a hold of him to get himaround here.
But it's amazing the trainingthat they go through.
They realize who we're dealingwith.
(31:13):
A lot of these people you saidand I love that you said that
they didn't graduate high school.
Some of these people perhapsmay have been the other side of
the bars.
Yeah, but they'll do it.
But you know what they do.
Everybody is incented on everyshift for a pool team bonus.
They're all there together andthey're all going to get the
same bonus, based on the tipsand everything else that comes
(31:35):
through.
So, based on the revenue,what's going on?
So you go?
Well, wait a minute.
What about the cash tips?
The waitress skip.
You're right, those are.
You can't get those.
But you know what, though?
She wants to share it with thecook and the chef, because if
she shares with them, then guesswho gets her food first?
Right, guess who gets a biggertip, she does.
So he put the whole team poolthing in there and that's how
(31:58):
they've incented this greatbehavior.
I mean, when you go in there,this is not fine dining.
This is not the top 10, 100restaurants in the world.
This is a greasy diner wherethey've been able to figure it
out, and people that I know comefrom Michigan and one of the
first places they'll stop isWaffle House, even before they
come see me at my house.
How about that?
Yeah, yeah, think about thatfor a minute.
(32:20):
I have friends come down.
I'm like, hey, yeah, oh, we'reon our way.
Oh, you know, we're gonna stopin Waffle House up in Tennessee.
I said what we have them here.
So if you just want to keep ontrucking, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I'll get for people who don't know.
Waffle House.
I swear to god, this is true.
There are some freeway exitswhere there's a Waffle House on
either side of the freeway, buthow?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
do they do it.
They're a greasy spoon.
You can think about the worstdiner you've ever been into in
your life, and when you go inthere it is not much better than
that.
But the hospitality I mean eventhe cook will turn around as
he's doing the smash iron on thebacon, or if he's flipping the
eggs, or if he's flipping theeggs, or if he's going over the
(32:59):
waffle iron, he's gonna.
He's gonna chat you up.
What's your order?
My order has always been, and Igo protein mostly, so I go
almost all eggs all the time oh,and I love their salsa.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So the salsa they took away with covid because I
would get a ham cheese, jalapenoomelet grits, grits and raisin.
I can tell you that, tells youI want this, I want the salsa,
but I've heard in certaincertain waffle houses it's back,
it's killing me.
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
But you know you talk about the customer service at
every level.
It can happen.
And if you train your folks andcensure folks, here's the thing
inspect what you expect, backto incentivizing what's going on
.
I just did this with my CSRs.
I want them to sell more out ofmy handyman company, out of the
office than we send estimatorsout to why?
(33:46):
Because it's more profitable.
If I can send a handyman out,dispatch a guy and we're
starting to bill right away,then we're more profitable than
having to roll somebodypotentially for a free estimate
and then pay their gas, paytheir car allowance, do all this
.
That's a more expensivetransaction for me.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Do you have them sell over the phone?
Always, always.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Oh, that's a whole other thing.
Oh, it's not a whole other thing.
Smile, alan.
Hey, welcome sugar.
Apparently, we're going to haveanother podcast about that, we
do.
We talk about this treating ourfirst touch super scars, that
they know that they're the firstpeople that you interact with,
that you've got to put themfirst and center and then, as
you do that, you've got to putthat customer first and center,
(34:30):
and if you put them first andcenter, then you can help them.
We can't help everybody,especially as a handyman company
who asks us a lot of differentstuff and a lot of expectations
that are not set, that we needto set, and so that's what they
work on.
So back to great customerservice.
You talked about your Ooniexperience, which is amazing.
We just drained an entireepisode talking about your Ooni
(34:54):
and the Waffle House, twototally diametric things.
I'm kind of hungry, I know, andnow with that, we've got to
keep on drinking, keep on eating.
Hey, everybody, if you hung outwith this one, you've got to
make sure you go out there,promulgate the good word.
Here's what's going on in 2025.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Say promulgate?
Is that a big word?
I think it's one you just madeup.
Is that a?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
big word.
I think it's one you just madeup.
No, I think it's a word.
I'm using that in Scrabble babyTriple word score promulgate.
Just like my family asked mehow can we go play Wordle?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I said because I got plenty of things that can
confuse me every day and make menot happy.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
So, hey guys, go check us out.
We're out there, apple.
We're out there on Spotify.
Apple, we're out there onSpotify.
We're about to be on the 680the Fan podcast, because I'm on
the radio every week talkingabout home stuff here in Atlanta
on 106.3 and 680 the Fan Lookat you.
And while we're doing that,we're also talking to great
(35:48):
people and great companies hereon this podcast.
Man, we're just trying to helpyou get better, because let's
just all get better together.
You know what?
I shared some deep stuff early.
Um, I'll share more.
Just give me an email, chris atthe trusted toolbox dot com.
Chris at the trusted toolboxdot com.
Hey, alan, we gotta get out ofhere.
That was a great story.
Thank you for sharing.
Let's go uni it up.
(36:09):
Cheers everybody, we're out ofhere.
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