What is this customer worth long term?

Mikey P

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I have been servicing this family since my Coit days.
Mom and all her pals love me to death.
She calls us out twice a year like clockwork for one traffic lane cleaning and one wall to wall with lots of furniture moving. We clean uph and stone there as well. Plus the occasional emergency spot cleaning.
They live in what I would guess is a 2.5 million dollar home in Saratoga Ca. Very ritzy hood. Four kids under 12. White nylon pile. House keeper and a baby sitter/helper. Four bed rooms, hall, LR, Office and Family rooms. About 1400 feet of carpet. Lots of Limestone and Wood. Some rugs.

Since I went on my own she has used us 15 times with a job average of $609


Today they got their first puppy. Golden Retriever.




Hoofa!
 

Greenie

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...and you were bitchin about a $50 jug of OxyBlaster.

Maybe she should call Coit back.









Doncha hate when your friends bust your balls.
 

MicahR

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Micah Richardson
Ya BABY!

Did you give them the retriever?

I thought about giving out cute puppy's one year, but I was going to give out miniature dachshunds. So cute and lovable and stubborn!

I love people with pets!

Reminds me of a song involving money......
 

Mikey P

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She told me in front of one of my helpers "dont you ever send him out here by himself! My friends and I want you and only you. If you stop coming we'll find someone else."...



Those very words..
 

Greenie

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yea....they said that shit about Lisa too.

I still woooed em'

Too bad Wally can't :(
 

Ken Snow

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Mike - start grooming someone, or multiple someones to be in front of your customers besides you. If you have a lot of customers like them who will have no one else, your business will die the day you can't clean carpet anymore.

As far out as that day may seem, one little mishap and it could be today or tomorrow.

Ken
 

Steve Toburen

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What is she worth?

Short sighted view? 15 x $609.00= $9,135.00 divided by the number of years you have been in business for her value per year.

Long term vision of "what she is worth"? Multiply those numbers above by "all her pals that love you to death" by the number of years that you plan to stay in business. (In SFS we work some very conservative numbers with cleanings every other year at an average of $140.00 each one and still find out the lifetime value of a Cheerleader is $35,840.00!)

BTW, congratulations on the growth of this board, Mike. Hopefully it will prove to be yet another industry resource.

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS Mike, everyone should focus on Ken Snow's gentle warning above. The Cheerleader concept works. BUT the numbers can only go so high if your customers are addicted to YOU! I went through the "weaning them off of me" cycle and yes, it is a painful time. But if you do it right it can be done. How?

1. Hire well-groomed, mature, quality people that your customers will feel comfortable with. (Yes, I know this is a huge and thorny subject.) But simply put, with the right people business is both easy and a joy. With the "wrong people" it is agonizing. (I know you and I have both been there, Mike.)

2. Orient these folks on the Emotional Dynamics of the Home Front BEFORE you ever let them touch a scrub wand. Homeowners (especially women) feel intimidated, trapped, invaded and very fearful with strangers (usually men) working in their home.

3. Develop Value Added Service techniques that answer these "Unspoken Fears" with "Unspoken Answers" in how they act and speak with the homeowner. Put these steps down in writing and rehearse them with your new employee BEFORE he touches the scrub wand.

4. Now you can teach them how to clean but you already are an expert there. This is the easy one!

5. When it comes time to start the "weaning process" this is what you do. Matter of factly state,

Statement One: You: "Mrs. Jones, you remember James, don't you? He will be your lead tech on Monday and Bill Smith will be assisting him. They will arrive at 9 AM on Monday."

Client (swooningly): "Oh no, Mikey, I only want YOU!" (Yes, I know, Mike. This is great for your ego but bad if you don't want to get old pushing a wand.)

Statement Two: You: (with a small laugh) "Now Mrs. Jones, we both know James did all the work last time anyway while you and I stood around and talked all day. James is a better cleaner than me and I guarantee you will be happy. My job is making sure you stay that way no matter which of my employees come to your home."

Client: "Well, I don't know ..."

Statement Three: You: "Mrs. Jones, I truly believe in my heart that James and Bill will do as least as good a job for you as I have done. They will be using the same big truck I have always used, the same cleaning agents and the same cleaning techniques AND I personally have trained them. Tell you what, I'm going to personally call you on Tuesday, the day after your cleaning, and verify that you are just as happy with James and Bill as you were with my work. And if you aren't absolutely delighted, the cleaning will be on me. How does that sound?"

Client: "No, Mike, I only want you in my home."

Statement Four: You: "I understand, Mrs. Jones. You want the security of having the owner there. And believe me, when you have James in your home that is ME because I personally stand behind his work and character. However, I personally am not available. If you really and truly only want the owner of the company working in your home I can refer you to a friend of mine that does all of his own work. He doesn't use the powerful equipment we use but he does an OK job ..."

Trust me on this one, Mike, you will seldom get to #4 and when you do they will always cave in. After all, where else will they go? BUT, you and your people better be ready to perform and yes, I use that word deliberately. It is just like putting on a stage play in front of an audience full to critics. You better have your script down pat. The problem is the vast majority of owner/operators trying to get off the truck never invest the time and effort to "write the script", much less train their techs in how to perform.

Now, for those owner/operators who can't/don't want to follow the above process. No problem. Stay on the truck doing the job you love but a)raise your prices, b)start an aggressive Personal Investment Plan for your retirement with your excess profits, c)purchase a good disability insurance policy and d)buy good life insurance. But DON'T put yourself, your employees and your customers through the agony of sending poorly trained technicians into the same homes where you have been wowing the customer for years.

My two cents and admit it, Marty, you read every word! (Actually looks like a good subject for my ICS column to me!)
 

Scott

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Ken and Steve bring up some excellent advice.

When my dad was grooming me to eventually take his place, I would get the "Where's Rick?" line for the first year or so.

Then when we hired our first tech and got him going, we'd get the "Where's Scott"? line.

Then when we added more techs, we'd get the "Where's Brian?" line.

The ultimate "insult" is when you go out to a jobsite where only one of your techs has been in the past. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hi, I'm Scott - the owner of the company - and I'm here to clean for you today.

Client: Oh hi, I was expecting Joe today. He's cleaned our carpeting for the past 3 times and he always does such a great job.

Me: Yes ma'am, Joe is actually tied up with other appointments today.

Client: Oh....

Me: Just to ease your fears ma'am, I trained Joe.

Client: Hmmm...well, I sure hope you can do as good a job as Joe can. He always works so hard and makes our carpet look great every time.

Me: I can assure you that I will do as well as Joe. As I said, I taught him everything he knows.

Client: Ok, go ahead I guess. We'll give it a shot and see if you're as good.

It happened on so many occasions that I just gave in and hired more techs so I could work more on the business and create scale. My fears were erased as I, like so many before me, discovered it doesn't really matter who cleans the carpet so long as they like you and you do a good job.

In a way, you're still "there" even though you're not. Your brand is there, the result of your training is there, your equipment is there, and the only thing missing is you in person. It's not as big a deal to the client as you think it is, especially once you've hired the smile and taught the technical and created a "clone" of you.

The key, as Steve points out in SFS, is them liking you or the representative from your company. Once that's accomplished, the mission becomes so much easier.

Scott
 

The Preacher

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i was gonna say the same thing as Steve and Scott, but they beat me to it!!! LOL


all of what they said is good. the SECRET to getting out early, either off the truck or RETIRED is being DEBT FREE.

Just think if you had no debt other than the electric, phone, food and other simple monthly bills how much easier your lives would be. you could do a job per day and spend the rest of the time doing what makes YOU happy, rather than having to make Mrs. P happy 4x per day.

Read the book Total Money Make Over, by Dave Ramsey. Getting debt free is my goal in the next 12-18 months.
 

Mikey P

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Most excellent dude!






Thanks for the kick in the pants Steve and Ken.

I got this new guy that I've been by habit training to be a helper and not a tech.

Monday is the day.
 

Fon Johnson

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Oct 15, 2006
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Short and to the point..

If you are your business, you would me amazed how quickly it can all end. I can tell you from experience. I have screws in my leg that cost about twenty grand each..
 

-JB-

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Dave had a good CC business, multiple trucks, very profitable by most peoples definition a "success". One Sunday at Church, Jim, owner of Jim's Flooring Center, a local retailer & fellow carpet cleaner, jokingly said to Dave, "maybe I should sell you my business, you seem to know how to run things pretty well."
A few weeks later, Jim called Dave and invited him to lunch. Turned out he had given it some thought and decided it was time for a change, so he and Dave struck up a deal. As part of the arrangement, Jim agreed to stay on and train Dave on the retail end for six months, till he got his feet wet.
Things were going great, the transition was seamless, and nearing the end of the mentoring period. One afternoon the two men were in the store, and in walked a young couple. Jim and Dave asked the couple how they could help them? The couple responded that their real-estate agent sent them over to get some new carpet, and told them that Jim's Flooring was the best store around, they were told to ask for Jim.
At that Jim promptly turned and looked straight at Dave and gestured and said "well that's Jim right there", after introducing Dave as Jim, Jim excused himself and went home, his mentoring was complete, the new customers were now comfortable working with "Jim", and were never the wiser.

An interesting side note-
Dave also shared how he had purchased another competitors CC business. I thought that would be a tough transition too, but again he had it figured out. When the clients from the acquired company called for cleanings, they answered the phone identifying themselves as the old company as not to raise any flags about the changes. But, when they came out to do the cleanings, he sent his companies trucks, and used his companies paperwork, eventually converting the old client base over to his company. He claimed that not a single client said a word about it, now that's what I call an innovative risk taker.

Dave was one of the most quiet and unassuming men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, but one super person.

Hey Dave are you out there?
:?:
 

Jack May

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John
Awesome reading above... thanks for sharing.

What about these two scenarios.... 2 man show, owner and 1 full time tech. 2 vans both equipped for HWE, VLM, Stain, UPH etc

1). I've trained my tech to do the CC, uph, WDR, FDR and minor stain work. HOWEVER, I've reserved my speciality work for myself because of fears of teaching him everything I know only to possibly loose him to soemone else. Not that I live in fear each day of that happening but its a very real concern for some and it is in the back of my head that it may happen someday.

My specialty work is the carpet repairs, warranty work for carpet mills, leather repairs, advanced stain work etc.

2). We're getting very close to adding the 3rd person into the business. I do have a 'suspect' :lol: but it isn't cut and dried. Now my existing tech is NOT the right person to keep climbing the ladder ahead of the new guy whoever that my be. How would you handle this situation? I want to handle as much of the training of the new person myself so that everything gets done and trained 'our' way but so much of my day is not spent on the basics of the business like CC, UPH, WDR, FDR etc. Yes I do all that but not all day. I often do the specialty stuff and quotes and demos, and marketing and admin etc etc. How would you go about training this new person when I can't give him 8hrs a day on all the basics etc?

Help appreciated. John
 

Steve Toburen

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"How would you handle this situation? I want to handle as much of the training of the new person myself so that everything gets done and trained 'our' way but so much of my day is not spent on the basics of the business like CC, UPH, WDR, FDR etc."

Having been through the entire growth cycle, John, (went from owner/operator to when I sold the company 16 full time employees) I have to say the stage you are in right now will be the toughest. To solve your situation above we implemented a system we called Fast Track Training. We appointed a "Training Officer" who served both as an "on the job" trainer but also as a mentor during those critical first two weeks of employment.

In your case it would be your existing tech. The secret is to have each day written out what you want trained on AND to have the accountability of a written test each day PLUS the enticement of the cash bonus.

I have a sample Fast Track Training Outline taken right out of our SFS Operations Manual available, John. If you (or anyone else) would like a copy just e-mail me at stoburen@homefrontsuccess.com and I'll e-mail you one right back. (You will of course need to customize the Training Outline to suit your business procedures but it will at least give you a framework to start with.)

You should also send your new tech to a IICRC Basic Carpet Cleaning seminar asap taught by my buddy Billy Yeadon who will need to bring me along to monitor the class since we both really like your part of the world. (And our wives will need to come to "monitor" the two of us.)

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS Your second question re: the Emotional Dynamics of promoting the new guy over your existing help is a sensitive issue. (I always tell each SFS seminar that "people will always be your biggest problem" and I'm not referring here to your customers!) I usually handled stuff like this through a technique I called "Creative Procrastination". (Sioux just called it "shirking my responsibilities".) In other words do nothing and see what happens. Either the new hire will be so strikingly better than the transition will be obvious and therefore without resentment or your old employee will get miffed and quit. Ahhhh, the joys of employees ...
 

Jimmy L

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Jimmy L
Being in California and all maybe it would be a good idea to hire a gay helper.They are much more plentiful in your state and women love them and are not threatened by them.

Or maybe a illegal immigrant would be more welcome in their home?
 

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