Tom Howard
Appearances
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Well, this idea of recruiting, I think I used to think I could find like there's certain attributes that really make a person stand out. Like they tell a great story. They get good eye contact. But here's what I figured out recently. They have responsibilities. They've got a wife. They've got kids. They've got a car payment.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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They've got big goals and they want more. But it's the people that still just and you might you might made a 22 year old that just hasn't stepped into the responsibilities yet. They're still out there. I mean, I'm sure both of you guys have worked with early twenties. They just haven't, they just, they don't have enough pressure.
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They don't have the pressure because they still have mom as a backup mom and dad.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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What else is a, what other things are attributes you guys as I think about your top 10%, like the killers.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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All right, guys, welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today, I got two of my great friends, Travis Ringen, Ishmael Valdez, Tom Howard. Unfortunately, couldn't make it. Not the first, not the last time. Ishmael is a pro when it comes to... Actually, Ishmael's best trait is definitely recruiting. He is a beast. And Travis is just really analytical.
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Yeah. Well, I, you know, it's funny cause Ken Goodrich and I were talking, I actually did a podcast with him recently and he goes, dude, he goes, my daughter tells me all the time, What motivates me is when somebody tells me I can't. He goes, I'll never forget the day I was in a hotel room and it was like, I got to see the grandmaster. He's like, this older guy would like grant you.
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He'd look at your financials and tell you what to do. And I walked in there with my spreadsheet and I finally got picked on and I went in there and he goes, what's this crap? Get rid of the Excel sheets. I don't trust him. And he goes, and Ken goes, well, listen, my first goal is I'd like to, you know, after I buy the real estate, I'm looking at, I'm going to buy myself a jet.
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And he goes, I'm sorry, Ken, but you're not a jet material. You'll never own a jet. Just get that dream out of your head because a guy like you will never own a jet. And Ken's like, he walked out of that room and goes, I'm buying an effing jet. I will buy a jet. And that chip on your shoulder, that when people tell you you can't, you're right.
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It's like the people that might have had a little bit rough childhood or parenting that people said, you're never going to amount to anything. And that's important because, listen, I think we all learned at a young age, the people that really produce a lot, it's like we had to go out on our own now. a little bit. We've learned to work hard. No one was going to give it to us. We had to make a move.
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He puts his mind to something, he'll figure it out. How are you guys doing?
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And there's a lot of people, these guys might do good in business, but they're more entrepreneurs. Like, let me go sell. You handle payroll. You deal with the legalities. You do the EIN number. You do the taxes. You do the call center. Let me just- All the important stuff. Well, it's super important. Of course. But the sales side, it's so funny because I look at what Fetchatech did.
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They hired Dan Antonelli with Kick Charge. They rebranded it. You know, these guys right here. And they took the customer list. They hired a few good players. Yep. And the sales. Of course. It wasn't like some crazy marketing. The marketing was good. But it was reaching out to the list and monetizing the existing list. Yep.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And it was good service for a long time and just putting a few good sales guys in.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Tommy Leland talks about he's like every morning from 7, 8 a.m. role play. He's like, and it doesn't stop. And what's nice is he goes, I had a good guys that would come teach my guys that didn't have it. They'd role play, they'd role play, they'd role play, they'd role play. I think a lot of people are like, it's time to train again. And I'm like, training never stops. It's part of the culture.
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Thank you.
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It's like, and you know, I just had a meeting. What we did, and this is very complex, but it's the only way I knew how to do it. We looked at how much per job, because we're in 44 markets. Right. So we looked at how much each phone call as a dollar amount goes into the managers and all the helpers salary. So it could be a warehouse guy, it could be the manager.
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No, it's number one. It's actually number 10 in business in all of North America. Congrats, man.
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And we got anywhere from $9 all the way to $40. And we figured out the happy number is 17. So if you want more help in a market, but we're going to hire a lot more coaches. We're going to bring a lot more coaches to go in and work. Smaller markets are going to be on a plane a lot and bigger markets are going to be full time. And that's their only job.
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Their job, one of the things I used to make a mistake of is be like, okay, you're going to be recruiting. You're going to be training. You're going to be doing this, this, this, this, this. And we always give our best guys more work. We're like, even though you're very working 60 hours, I'm going to find more for you. And then you, then you watch them fail and you're like, what's wrong with you?
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So I'm like, this is your soldier. I already started writing up all kinds of bullets and everything responsible for, because these guys need to know, like, what does my calendar look like? What does my day to day look like? What is I at 8am? What am I doing at 9am? What am I doing all the way through when I'm sending guys back to Phoenix? What am I looking for?
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What's the software I'm using to hold them accountable? Is there an LMS learning management system? All these things. And if there's like training and so many people, how long have you guys settled for B players? I mean, in the early days.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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It just takes consistency. Never missed an episode since 2017. Not one week. Never missed one.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Yeah. And experience. I think I see it all the time. I mean, look, I've never seen, I remember what was it? Eighth grade was the first football team I was on. And all of us didn't know how to scrimmage.
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We didn't know even really how to, you know, we knew there was, we understand how football works, but we, when the snap happens, what goes on and we had to practice, practice, scrimmage, practice, practice, practice. And then we need special teams to coach us on certain things. Yeah. Then we need to learn how to run the drills. What drills are you guys running out there?
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What plays are you guys running? What scrimmages are you practicing in the home? Are you practicing in your training center? And it's not only sales, because listen, if you can't find the price in Service Titan, if you can't take somebody through Service Finance, Green Sky, or Good Leap, if you can't, have you ever bought your own product? Yep.
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If you've never ran through, if you can't run your wife through Good Leap very quickly and efficiently, how do you expect to sell financing? If you can't find the parts effectively, if you don't have the tools, one of the things, the reason I buy tools for all the techs, is because they showed up with like their grandpa's blue gun.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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It's good to have you guys. You know, I just, you know, it's interesting because Tom Howard, we talked to our, a lot with a service Titan and it seems like right now, 80% of the businesses are going down for the first time in service Titans history. And 20 percent are actually rising to the occasion.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And I'm like, okay, we need all the right tools so that we'll never be, because I don't have tools to do it quickly and efficiently. I'm never going to sell it. And so there is some things in the price book and stuff. And I think sometimes, I always say this, I used to tell people to raise their price. I'm like, don't raise your price to raise your service. If you can't get out. Raise the value.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Raise the value. You know, Lance Bachman, I listened to a Instagram post he did. And he's like, dude, at last freedom event, Tommy Mello was saying, raise your prices 10%. We went back and we raised everything and every one of his businesses, 10%. We lost two clients total out of everything. And that's, what's crazy is like, there's a certain lid on that though. I think we all know there's like,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And I don't raise my prices like, you know, Tom told me, he's like, every time I raise my prices, two things that was like really stood out was like my garbage disposals cost like three grand. He's like, that was a mistake because like there's certain things you could get at Home Depot and Ace Hardware.
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Those ones are tough that you could just Google it. But that reminds me. So if there was something like a Nuve, but not the contract that didn't give all the insights, I guess it would be comparable to a Nest as far as you could go on your phone. You can look at the temperature. You can adjust the temperature.
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Why would anybody in HVAC across North America, why would they still buy Nests over Nuve?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Because we are... Why not buy it or why buy it? Why would they even be thinking about... It's almost a rhetorical question, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And Tom's been flying around the country, making a lot of phone calls, trying to figure out what's going on. What do you guys think?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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It isn't there. I'm not in the day to day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I'm a big fan, obviously. I put my money where my mouth is. Yeah, you did. But the deal is, what happens if another contractor goes out to ABC? We'll call it ProSkill. And ProSkill installed this thermostat. And now NextGen's there.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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So, you know, in a fast paced industry, how do you balance staying true to the basics while also adapting and pulling on these new technologies? Because I know some people are like, dude, I can barely log into service site. And I don't they don't understand their their finances completely. Like, how does this work?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Like turning on the thermostats, pre-working it. Like you guys will handle that from the new, there's not like, if I am the contractor that owns the HVAC company or the general manager, COO or whoever, you guys are going to help train on, turn these bad boys on. This is how many people that have come to your jobs and tried to work on the unit without you knowing like all that.
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What is it? Let me hear a little bit.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I just came up with a genius idea for after the podcast.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Or it'll probably tell you when it's time to change your filter.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And what about this new wireless thing you guys are working on?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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You're cutting drywall. What is it? You're running wires for the heat?
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Yeah, I've tried to hook up a nest before. There's like eight different colors. It's crazy. It was years ago. I was like, I don't have a... So with that... You can't five wire, yeah.
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So back in the day, and they still have these, problem I had was batteries. Because if you're not installing wires, there was a lot of battery issues because there's some systems that work off of like the keypad typically now works off of a battery. When the battery dies, if it's not hardwired, but that's something. I think it's a better thing than having to wire.
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There's all kinds of stuff you got to wire even on a garage door.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I know what I'm talking about.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Yeah, well, I don't know.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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So a couple of things real quick. I want to kind of pivot a little bit because I think there's a lot of companies. Let's just jump in real quick. First, I think you're the best I've ever seen to it like your yell. Whenever there was a bad yell, you'd get on it like white on rice, like you would get on the Google reviews.
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But I think that there's $4 trillion sitting along the sidelines, $4 to $5 trillion. And one thing we learned through COVID is we're essential, home service. And I think private equity, venture capitalism, rich people are like, where could I put my money? Not putting it in hotels, not putting it in nail salons because if COVID 2.0 comes out- And by the way, AI is not taking our job.
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What exactly did you used to do when you were in the heat, the thick of it on bad reviews? I know you've created a culture that you just don't accept. Like you get back to the customer, you give back the money.
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And it takes 22 good reviews to cover a bad review.
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I have a million in my over one point one million dollars.
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That's, you know, here's one quick thing on that. I had a, I remember Adam used to jump on a call with a client and he'd always say how we were right. We did the right thing. And I'm like, they don't want to hear that. I'm like, even if we're wrong, you apologize and you listen and you say, we're going to solve this. We want to make you a happy customer.
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And so many times my management over the years has been like, but we didn't do the wrong thing. And I'm like, I'd always say like, here's what I would do. It was kind of like a, I'd say, listen, that's unacceptable. Like if the technician did something like really wrong, I'd say, listen, they're getting written up and I'd have them just a warning, sign it and say, this is to appease the customer.
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Don't worry about it. It's not even going in your file. But I'd say, sign this just as a warning. And I send it back to the customer. Like I take a picture, I would send it to the client and say, thank you for making our company better. And they'd call up and they'd be like, please don't let this guy get fired. Like I didn't mean to take it to this level.
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AI is not taking our job. So I was on a podcast with Leland Smith the other day. And man, that dude is still a goat. That's my boss. He's sharp. Yeah, he is. He just kept talking about lifetime value and how much their list means a lot and how much having past customers they've done work for. And he's a little old school with the mailers.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And like all of a sudden the review would come down. And that's one thing, too, is I've learned is, listen, our guy right now that does the review, kind of the reputation management, he goes, he says, hey, the owner, the founder, Tommy Mello, saw this and he's like living. He's living at this. So we got to figure out, like, what is this going to take? And it's not like a bribe.
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You don't want it to cost you to take it down. So I'd say, like, listen, what do you what do you do for work? They'd be like, well, I'm a teacher. Well, listen. You probably make like 50, 60 bucks an hour. We wasted two hours of your time. I'm going to beat that. I'm going to give you a couple hundred dollars because your time... It wasn't a bribe. It was like your time is worth this.
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Well, they can remind it, but here's another quick thing. If you keep a Yelp account open and you log into it in each one of your CSRs do and they go to find friends and they type in the client's email address, it'll show you. if they're a Yelp or not, and how many reviews they have, and if they're a one star, if they leave all one stars. So you tag it.
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And you guys probably spend different time, like Jerry might be on Facebook, you might be on Insta, you might be on X. And knowing where your customers hang out is important. And like, look, even on here I have, so Travis has 13 LinkedIn followers. Killing it. We've got on here that's basically the following.
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Yeah, 4.8, 4.9. Just they've done study after study after study. Here's another secret sauce. is when you get a bad review and it's unreasonable, like stupid, like I went to Home Depot and then you just read it and the clients will like, just read it and be like, so I respond with a nice paragraph, but I also say, see my response on this YouTube.
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And I go, hey there, Mr. Jones, we've tried to get ahold of you now over a dozen times. And I want you to know that this is troubling. No matter what, whether we're wrong or we're right, it doesn't really matter because at A1, we're trying to make sure you understand. We're trying to make every client satisfied. We know you're gonna tell your friends, your neighbors, and your family.
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all about our company. We want to represent this company started in 2007. My mom used to work for the company. And unfortunately, I can't get to every client's house like I used to be able to. And we want to make this right. You haven't gotten back to us. We'd love to hear from you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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But in the meantime, if anybody's reading this or watching this video, I want you to let you know that I'm going to take care of you just like I take care of my own mother. That video is the best way to respond. It's a link within the, it could be Google or Yelp or Angie.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And I think you guys have been working long and hard at a newer way of thinking about it in this new day and age about being in front, top of mind of the clients at all times. So I'm a big fan of Nuve. Ishmael called me up one day and said, do you want to make an investment? And I said, absolutely.
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You want to hear something? This is a strategy that a guy does at every company he consults. He literally, and this is malicious in a way, but he literally writes his own one star. But he makes it sound very, very foolish.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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What they do is they take that review and they use that for their social media ads. And everybody reads a one star. So they put that one star review and it looks just crazy. And just underneath it, it says, see what everyone else is saying. And that turns into their ad.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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A lot of times you just got to go back out there and get it working.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Those calls last 30 minutes most of the time. I just mute and I go back up, right? And I do the same thing. It's been years since I've done it, but I didn't mind. But it's a tough job to have. It is. Because you're talking to unhappy customers all day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Well, Leland's got 100% cash back if you want to, but he'd say, listen, he gives money back all the time. I think what you say is, listen, what other options did we give you? Because we've got like for A1, we've got 10,000, 25,000, 80,000 cycle. So what I don't say this to clients, but here's what I want to say. Where would you like me to save the money?
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Would you like me to send out a felon or did you want me to put cheaper parts? Is it the labor or is it the material cost? Because I can give you cheaper cost materials and I can give you really bad labor that are the felons out there. You know, which one did you want?
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You guys, you've been traveling to Armenia and just you got different developers all over the world for manufacturing. Tell me a little bit about what you guys think about holding the customer. I don't, I don't know who to pick, but tell me a little bit about what it's, what it's all about, because a lot of people have heard this and they think Nuve is just a thermostat, but there's so much more.
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I heard you say a couple... Skilled labor isn't cheap and cheap labor isn't skilled.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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There you go.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Did you want us out there the same day? Do you ever go out to a job where they're like, well, we've got a friend in the business. All the time. Where is he? Oh, he's off this week. He's out of town. He's in Europe for the next two weeks. Where is he going to be next time that you need him after he does the new equipment? It's interesting. So one last thing here I want to just talk about because...
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I think this number one topic, I think, at A1 is recruiting. And recruiting is different than hiring. It's different than putting out an Indeed and Glassdoor as a recruiter and Monster and Craigslist ads. It's actually going out and recruiting. And I've always liked to build people from scratch. I mean, great installers, though, I like experience.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I do prefer experience with a great installer because it takes years to become really, really good. What are some of the best tactics and strategies you guys have implemented to obviously pay more and make sure the world knows it? You feed your guys a lot. You always said every time I came to NextGen, you were getting 20 vehicles lettered in the parking lot.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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So it says that where they're a technician at on Instagram, how do you know that they work
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Probably TikTok now.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And in all, let me explain one thing. My happiest best performers aren't leaving. You could offer them equity, a hundred thousand dollars sign up bonus. They're not leaving. So what you get is somebody's disgruntled leftovers, typically unless you're actively recruiting them and they had a bad day, bad week, bad month, bad quarter. There's something that went wrong.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Maybe, maybe they're just not getting the TLC they need, but, Let me explain the difference between window washing, garage doors, and HVAC and plumbing. HVAC, you've got to go. It's a harder skill to learn. Plumbing, you've got to become five years. I would definitely be looking to steal technicians in those industries because it takes five years.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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If I can make somebody, I think you need to do both. If I had to build a company only off of stealing out of
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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Well, you did, but you stole like literally... I didn't steal. Whatever you want to call it. You got great guys and you gave them more flexibility. Like Daniel, he doesn't have to work as much. You gave him a more flexible schedule. And yes, that's how I started A1 really was 2015. Even though I'd already been in business for years, I got a guy from Precision. But this guy was a really good guy.
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He didn't like selling parts for like that. So we taught him how to sell more parts, get better warranty, show up the same day with a branded truck. And he taught me a lot. He taught me all about this profiling and everything else. And I think both work. And I don't have a favorite. I think you got to mix both.
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Well, especially, like, people are like, I just don't have enough business to recruit, but their booking rate's at 68%. So you should be recruiting a CSR. Yeah, there you go. And if your top guys are not getting great jobs, your dispatcher's probably not doing their job correctly, so you should be recruiting a dispatcher. And, you know, Leland made it very obvious that he cares more.
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He goes, listen, even if I take a zero profit job to get 40% off, I'd have to keep my install trucks working. Those installers need to make their bread, too. They gotta make money. And I just really, dude, I've hung out with Leland a couple of times, but just hearing like, it's like Ron Smith. It's like Paul Kelly.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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It's like those guys, they might be not as into the new technology, but their stuff is tried and true. And it's been tried and true for a long, long time. And they've just got their principles and they don't sway off their principles. And I mean, look, Service champions is very, very well. I mean, in the scheme of things, looking at every company, he's probably the most consistent.
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It doesn't have swings. It doesn't go way up and way down. It's just right down the middle. And he doesn't look for this rapid growth. He also doesn't have rapid drops.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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I tell people all this, I tell this all the time, as I say, uh, It's crazy what people think they can do in one year, what they overestimate what they can do in one year and they underestimate what they can do in 10. Because if people really think you're going to quit your job, you know what Leland told people?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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He'd go, if you're going to take that tech, if you're going to go take like to the technicians, if you're going to leave, You better take that manager, that guy, that guy that does the warehouse, that CSR, and that dispatcher. Because, you know, Victor was one of the guys that left. And he goes, when I went to this different infrastructure, I didn't even know my numbers.
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I didn't know what I was getting paid. Because, yeah, they promised me way more commission. But it's like, if you don't have the infrastructure of, like, if you go into an old person in California... There's like lawsuits. You don't get the second person to go out there and make sure that you talk to their kids. There's so much infrastructure you have to build into those companies.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
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And it's not easy to just build.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Well, I'll tell you this. I talked to Ken Goodrich about this. I said, where are you at? Because we just had 50 guys. We got 50 guys training right now next door in the training center. And these guys never felt 140 degrees in the garage. They never felt zero degrees in Detroit or Wisconsin in the garage. And he's like, you're never going to get below 35%. I mean, 35% turnover.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
When you're training that many people, you just take it. It's a part of doing business. And I have found that when someone's never had a job that they live in their car, basically. It's like, because there's no way that even if I recruit all from a garage business, I couldn't recruit enough. So I've got to build, I've got to build homemade technicians. And it's just a part of doing business.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Like, I'd love it to go down more. But then again, we have this kind of, you've heard higher, slow, fire, fast. And it's not necessarily fire. We just micromanage them until they quit or get better.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
And that's tough because you can't tell a lot by a guy from a couple of weeks. Like you got a lot of get them. And I've, I've been wrong so many times where I'm like, this guy's, there's no way this guy's going to be good. And then I've seen guys that I'm like, this guy's going to be, this guy interviewed a while back. This was like years ago.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Now he's like, dude, he's like, I go, how would you handle the situation? And he's like, I can take apart a gun with my eyes closed. And he's like, used to be in the military. And this dude blew my socks off. And I'm like,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
be an ace nope no good so final final thoughts here um technology is a big deal anybody that doesn't understand this idea of client retention with nuve i think is is missing the boat and i think they should if they want to get a hold of you guys about nuve what's the best way to do that easy nuve home.com nuve home.com we made it super simple for you guys to put all your information our reps will contact you like asap and get you on on the board for demos
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You guys are coaching a little bit. too, if they sign up for Nuve, you're giving them some time to talk them through more. It's not just you're signing up for the technology and keeping the customers, but you're also kind of making yourselves available to give them some group coaching.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
And so guys, if you don't know, these guys hang out a lot. The Facebook group Service Avengers, Ishmael started that group and there's a lot of great contractors that go in there. I'm part of that group. It's not quite the size of Home Service Expert. So just give me some final thoughts. Travis, I'll have you close us out.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
I love it. Ishmael, what do you got to close us out, bro?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Yeah, that's amazing. Listen, if you guys, newvayhome.com, I appreciate you guys listening to the podcast. One quick thing that Ishmael just did that I think some of us forget to do is thank our team and who we get to work with and really be appreciative because they come with a different point of view and they come with knowledge and they want to be respected.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
They want to feel like they have a voice. If you're turning this podcast off, why don't you just make a phone call to your general manager, to your CSR manager, to your dispatch manager, to somebody that's important in your company and say, I really appreciate you. You mean a lot to this business and thank you for following my dreams. Anyways, over and out here.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Thank you for listening to the Home Service Expert. Hey there, thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is out and ready to buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high-performing team like over here at A1 Garage Door Service. So if you want to learn the secrets that helped me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast and grab a copy of the book.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Yeah, Ishmael, when you got involved, I know you saw something there. It's dangerous getting into the tech world. A lot of things could go wrong, but it seems like you guys have nailed it. I think you went about it a little bit slower to make sure the tech was right. You tested the shit out of it, made sure that it works every time. And I know you get a lot of ideas.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You're like, no, it needs to do this. It has to have this display. It needs to be able to hit the button and make a phone call. Talk about some of the things that this thermostat actually does and why it's important from the consumer standpoint as well.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
I think there's something there that I really like about Nuve, too, is being able to turn the unit on before summer hits, being able to test the stuff. Because typically, the one hot day in whatever city or state you're in, you go to hit it and it doesn't turn on. You get flooded with calls. This allows you to kind of test before that day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text NOTES to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
I love it. I love it. So all this data, all this stuff, it's, it's, there's a lot of things coming out right now in the home service space. And, uh, I think what you guys are just trying to do is keep it simple. You're trying to make sure that they're aware and just look at the data. So what are some of the things you guys can notice that is going to be an issue from the data?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You know, it's funny. I was listening to Dan Pena and also Jeff Bezos recently. And they said, the thing that makes a visionary so powerful is their ability to fail. Like if you're in baseball and you got a 300 batting average, it means you're hitting three out of 10. And that's world-class. And everybody just, it's the people that sit and wait and they wait for these innovations.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
They don't do anything about it. There's so many companies I know. We're just not ready yet. We're not going to do this. Everyone at this table jumps in head first and we figure it out. We jump out of the plane, we build the parachute. It doesn't always work. And we're okay failing. Like failure is okay. And there's one thing to take away.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You know, there's a lot of things going to be in this podcast, but there's no special day that you're like, finally, I get to work on this project. Finally, I'll take a chance and expand or whatever it is. Now, obviously don't expand unless your current market that you're in, that you are located in is killing it. I think some people try to expand too quickly.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
They add a service when they suck at their current service.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You know, Leland said the other day, and I just really enjoyed his wisdom because he's older and he was just on. He was perfect. And he said, you know, Tommy, I was invested. I was involved in this best practice. It's kind of like we are, all of us. But they sent in their financials each month. And he goes, I was the worst one out of all seven of the companies I was involved in.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
One day, they told me, just sub out insulation and sub out hot water use. He goes, so he subbed it out. He goes, we didn't train on it. We just mentioned it. We sold 30%. And I like that idea of subbing out before you get good at it. We've been talking about this a little bit at A1. It's just, see if it's got merit. My top 20% of my guys are begging for more.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You know, everyone's like, we got to work with the bottom 20%. We got to bring the 30th to 60th percentile up. I'm like, dude, our assassins, our ninjas want more to sell.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
You know, and Leland was right. He's like, my top two guys made a million dollars. He's like, they did 7 million each. And I'm like, man, our guys, our top guys want more. Yeah. Like, let's give them more than rather than everyone focuses on the bottom instead of focusing on the top. In sports, though, who do you focus on?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
Do you think Tom Brady was at practice and they were focused on what he wanted? Do you think that Wayne Gretzky, do you think that, you know, I could go on and on sport by sport, Colby, Brian, Michael Jordan, like those guys were like, how do we become better? And I feel like as a, as a home service company, we're always like, our top guys are fine. We don't give them the love.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Keep Them Coming Back with Proven Client Retention Strategies
We give them love, but I'm saying like, they want more, they want more to sell. They want more things to be able to offer. Yeah. I'm really like, I told everybody this weekend, I'm like, our top guys need to get fed more. They want to make more money. And you know what? They'll make two, 300 grand, but I think they should be able to sell more things and be able to make as much as an HVAC guy.