The Business Guide
Just a regular guy that decided to quit his stable job and start a business. After successfully being in business I've learned a thing or two, unfortunately the hard way. I've created this podcast to share my successes & failures and to talk about the "real" ins & outs of business. I'll be personally sharing my stories along with guests.
As Business Owners we wear so many different hats and we have so many different struggles, we will breakdown those struggles together and talk about how we've overcome them and how it's shaped us to be better. If your a business owner currently going through a struggle, I hope this content helps!
The Business Guide
Turning Reviews into Revenue: Mastering Customer Service
Ever wondered how to transform one-time customers into lifelong supporters? Jonathan reveals how his 12-plus years of experience in customer service excellence have fueled his business success. Tune in to hear personal strategies that can help you leverage positive online reviews to enhance your profitability and reputation. Jonathan shares how his meticulous approach to customer service on platforms like Yelp and Google has set his business apart in a competitive market.
What does it take to turn a one-star review into a five-star testimonial? Jonathan dives into the importance of setting realistic expectations and maintaining transparent communication with clients. Hear about an incident where he turned a dissatisfied customer into a raving fan by actively listening and addressing their concerns. This segment highlights the power of honest communication and dedication to customer satisfaction, providing you with actionable insights to apply in your own business.
Lastly, discover the art of handling customer complaints with grace and professionalism. Jonathan recounts real-life examples of managing negative reviews and turning them into opportunities to showcase his commitment to quality. Learn how consistent, reliable service and empowering employees can build a strong referral base and elevate your business. As Jonathan wraps up, he expresses heartfelt gratitude for his listeners' support and shares his eagerness to continue this journey of growth and excellence together. Don't miss these invaluable tips and stories that can help you achieve long-term business success through exemplary customer service.
Hey everyone, what's going on? It's Jonathan Wagner and I am your host of the Business Guide. Thank you so much for joining us on another episode. Today's episode is going to be one of the most critical aspects of running a business. It is customer service and having excellent customer service. You need to understand that you can use customer service as leverage to build your business and make more money, but it's easier said than done. So if you're wondering how to turn a one-time customer into a lifelong supporter of your business, then stick around for this episode. I'm going to share proven strategies that I have personally used on my businesses that will help you build and retain a loyal customer base for years to come. So if this is your first time joining us again, I am Jonathan.
Speaker 1:I am a business owner in the tough market of Southern California. I've been in business over 12 years. I've had a couple different businesses along the way, but my primary anchor business is a water damage restoration company. So dealing with fire, water, insurance companies, all that fun stuff. I have had my fair share of building a business, cash flow issues, employee issues, you name it. I have definitely experienced it.
Speaker 1:So the point of this podcast is to come together and really create a community. I have been just so tired of just going online and seeing so many different gurus on there trying to give you business advice and they're just so out of touch. Sometimes you've got either failed business people that are coming on and trying to sell you a service or you've got some gurus on there that are not even in the small business category anymore. They're worth millions and millions and millions of dollars and so out of touch of what we deal with as business owners or small business owners. So I wanted to create a podcast where we talk about those struggles, we talk about those hurdles, we talk about our milestones and how we have just overcome different problems. As I've talked to different friend groups, different business owners We've all been in the same boat or very close to the same boat and just being able to open up and talk through something as simple as maybe hiring your first employee or having to get rid of that toxic employee or maybe some cash flow issues, can really make all the difference in the success of your business. So I'm here as a free resource and just want to build good content to help other people succeed. As I have loved being in business, I would not trade it for anything in the world to go back and be an employee. I really do love and enjoy what I do. So again, first time here, that is who I am. And moving forward on today's episode, it is all about customer satisfaction.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to swim in and out of maybe just the topic of what is excellent customer service, but I really want the message in this episode to come across, as this is a tool. So, while it is awesome to have a great customer service and have your brand, have great customer service and your employees, at the end of the day, great customer service, and if you can't monetize that, then what's the point? You've got a good reputation, which is great, which is great. I don't want to build a business where we have a poor reputation and I've done bad things in the community or to other people. Sorry, I have neglected to put my phone on airplane mode, so it is just going off right now, so apologies. There A little train of thought. I'm sorry, as if this is your first time here, I do these unscripted and no edits, so I like this to be as raw as possible. So back to customer service as possible. So back to customer service. The message I would really like to get across on or across on this episode is I have been able to monetize customer service for me and my business and I have made so much money I mean, it's definitely in the millions off of having a great reputation. And this day and age, I am talking about reviews. So great customer service and obviously, them being posted online are going to go hand in hand on this episode. Right, this is no longer just having a good customer service and turning your customers into a loyal base, but you also want them to be a billboard for your business, and the beautiful thing of you know Yelp and Google and all these different review platforms is you can have a customer and that five-star review can reach thousands of people through its lifetime and make you a tremendous amount of money and can really set you apart from your competition. So it is important to always have good customer service, if you have not picked that up by now. So, moving into the core principles of excellent customer service Now, back when I first started my business and I explained this on a previous episode, but I had a mentor, if you will, and a former employer that was in the same industry as me, and that was carpet cleaning at the time.
Speaker 1:That's how I started my business and one thing that I had asked was you know, is there any tips you can give me to get the phones to ring, or whatever it may be? And he had said hey, you know, whatever you do, make sure your business is not listed on Yelp. It has ruined my business. I have a ton of negative reviews and previously working for this gentleman, I knew he legitimately cared about his customers. He left a great product behind and just, I mean, was an overall great guy and a great business, but he had some negative reviews online. So the first thing I did that night was I went out and filled out a Yelp listing.
Speaker 1:Now, at that time this was probably late 2012,. You know, reviews were just kind of taking off for maybe service-based businesses like myself. They were already pretty present in the restaurant field, if you would, but were just kind of coming down to maybe home service businesses and things like that. So I decided I really wanted to stand out. So I went on, I filled out a listing and I made it a mission that every customer that I had I would ask them for a Yelp review, and I was a stickler on this. I mean I was going out to every single project.
Speaker 1:There is so much work that goes into making sure your customer has had a good experience and then obviously, you know the follow through to make sure that they're leaving you an online review or a nice testimonial that they send you so you can post online. Now, the online testimonials are definitely great. If somebody doesn't leave you a review, I mean I definitely want people to know that they've had a good cut or my previous clients have had a good customer experience. But you know, if you've got a testimonial online, specifically your website, that can be altered. People can see right through it. If you have a poor reputation online and a ton of phenomenal testimonials on your website, so those are definitely great.
Speaker 1:But reviews are a great anchor right now and again, I'm talking all about being able to monetize this stuff make money, feed your family, grow your business, do big things starts with a simple request of can you leave me a review for my business on Yelp or Google? Now, throughout the years, it has changed. I have seen the way Yelp has kind of maneuvered. I have seen a lot of service-based businesses go away from Yelp, maybe more onto Google. Myself, I do like Yelp. I'm not as pushy on Yelp. If you will, I'm not asking my clients for Yelp reviews. I'm just saying, will you go on and leave us a review if we do ask, and that may be Yelp, it may be Google, maybe some other platforms, but primarily Google is a pretty good place now.
Speaker 1:So some good foundations of customer service is going to be active listening. You're going to have to have empathetic responses and a A going above and beyond expectation. So I feel that, as I've trained my crews and my employees, the going above and beyond is the first thing. Now this could be a double-edged sword too, because you really start jumping through hoops for clients. You're going to see how quickly people take advantage of that. Now, throughout the years, we've been able to obviously learn from our mistakes, pick up on hey, is this person trying to pull one over on us, or whatever it may be? But yeah, because they definitely use maybe an online reputation as a little bit of a leverage when I'm trying to maybe get a discount if they think your prices are too high or whatever it is. So it's definitely a double-edged sword. But again, primary focus is to make money, is to build the bank and customer service is huge, getting those reviews. So active listening.
Speaker 1:When I have somebody or my team has somebody that is just not happy with our service, we make sure that we are actively listening to what their issue is. We are making sure we're not giving a bunch of excuses back of maybe why it didn't get done. So you know we are always in the wrong. I really do. I do want to say, even though this is a loaded statement, but the customer is always right. Yes, the customer for us is always right. So we do approach our conversations as such. So I know when I was first carpet cleaning maybe there was an area that didn't get as clean as the customer thought it would I would say, hey, I have no problem going over this area. Again, matter of fact, before I packed up my equipment, I would have a customer come through and do a walkthrough and I would make sure that it was up to their expectations. A little key strategy in that as well was I would lower their expectations and I would deliver what I deliver, and most of the time it was to exceed their expectations. So again, I'm going to use the carpet cleaning as an example.
Speaker 1:Maybe I went in and their carpets were just so beat up. I would really just take their expectations and I would really just bury them into the dirt. I would say, look, these carpets are pretty beat up. They're a little older. I can tell there's a lot of wear and tear. Unfortunately, there's probably not much I can do for you. If you would like to proceed. This is the price and I will do my best job to get these as clean as possible. And that normally, you know, obviously translated in to the sales side of well, this guy's not being super pushy on his prices and I really want to get my carpets clean, so I'm just going to have it done anyways. I'm not going to replace my carpet. So nine times out of 10, they would tell me to start anyways.
Speaker 1:And even if the carpets were clean and maybe there was a couple of stains, I would say, hey, this is a stain in this area that I might not be able to get up and I would set that expectation. I would go through and I would do a phenomenal job, or the carpets would just clean up, great. And I would then come back, have a walkthrough before I packed up If there was an area that I needed to re-hit, I would go ahead and re-hit that. So that carpet cleaning and I really this hits home for me because this is when I was growing my business. This was the firsthand experience that I had with my customers. I really got to intimately work with them. I got to see what worked, what didn't work. So this is where my experience really kicked in on the customer service.
Speaker 1:So one is if I knew they had maybe a mediocre carpet, I would take those expectations. I would really wear them down into the ground and then I would deliver just a great product and that alone the customer was super excited. So set your customers' expectations. Don't leave a lot of room for them to be disappointed. Be honest, be transparent. Don't over-deliver something that you can't do. If I walked in and said I'm going to make these carpets look brand new and I wasn't able to deliver them looking brand new, then the customer is going to have a negative experience with what I promised them. So number one set that foundation.
Speaker 1:Obviously, if a client was not happy with my service, I would actively listen. So let's just say now I walked back in and I walked them through and I said, hey, why don't we go over this area again. This was a problem area, maybe a high traffic area that I'm having problems getting clean. Let me show you and I would go in and I would clean that in front of them, I would actively listen to the customer's complaints and I would really put it back on them. They would be right there with me watching me fix this issue. Then in return, gosh, there's really nothing else he can do Now. Adapting into future or, excuse me, moving on into the future Now I have employees and I'm dealing with issues that are outside of my control. When we are handling a customer service complaint, it is really hearing that customer out. I'll give you an example. We have a pretty good reputation on Yelp five stars across the board.
Speaker 1:A gentleman had reached out at probably seven o'clock on a I don't know, it was a Saturday at the time. This was years ago. At the time I was filling the Yelp inbox, if you will. So that was my responsibility and I shot the customers a message and said, hey, this sounds like it is not an emergency. And in my situation again now, being a water damage restoration company anything where we don't have active flooding or we have to get up water. It's not really an emergency. So again, this being a Saturday night, I remember I was watching a parade I said, hey, this doesn't sound like it's an emergency. It was a mold request. I will reach out to you Monday morning. Yeah, it was a Saturday. I'll reach out to you Monday morning and we will get your information and we will come out and set up a free estimate for you.
Speaker 1:That gentleman proceeded to leave us a one star on Yelp and said that I was super rude and did not relate to what he was going through. The way Yelp notified me at the time. It came through about an hour later, so it wasn't instant and at that time it was a little too late. So the next morning, on a Sunday morning, I called him and said hey, I want to apologize for my tone. I didn't mean to downplay what you're going through. I explained the difference between a flooding and a mold and I said that I would personally come out and assess his property that day.
Speaker 1:Now, again, double-edged sword. This is where I'm totally jumping through hoops for the clients. This is something that we have done in business. It's your threshold If it works or doesn't work. It works for us, it works for my team to go above and beyond for the customer. I got out immediately. It was probably I mean, I don't want to give an amount, but it was thousands of dollars worth of work and the guy gave me the green light right there on Saturday and on Monday we started.
Speaker 1:After we started I really kind of tipped off the employees. I said, look, we have a one-star review from this guy. We are really working to kind of repair that relationship. Just go above and beyond, and they did. They answered questions, they showed what they were doing and the customer loved our business and went back and updated the review to a five-star review. So that was how I was able to take the one-star and turn it into a five-star Again. Not every business is going to be down for that. For us it worked and for every five-star review we've got on our page.
Speaker 1:This is a testament to our good customer service, but also a verification. So I could have a plumber, for example, refer me to a water damage in a bathroom or a kitchen and say, hey, you should call this company. They are super cool people and they're going to really take care of you. Well, that customer's got that hot lead from that plumber. Now what the customer is doing, and we have found, is they go on and check our online reputation. So this is where that one review inadvertently or kind of indirectly, if you will makes me money. Where this person is just checking, hey, this is a good company, this person had good experience and I'm going to call them and that is proven to be the case for us and our customers. They're always kind of checking our online reputation. So having that excellent customer service is huge.
Speaker 1:In that situation I was empathetic. I kind of took the blame. After actively listening to the frustration of that guy, did fall back. Look, if you've got a big ego, this is not going to work for you, this is not going to work for your business. Assign it to somebody else to do. But I was able to actively listen to the guy, be empathetic and have my team build expectations and exceed those expectations and in return we got a positive review and a happy customer. So this is corely where we have been able to make money with our good reputation.
Speaker 1:If you will Excuse me, moving on as a business owner, especially a small business owner or the one that is out there doing the work, it can be so frustrating to see a negative review or a customer complaint come through your email box. It is okay to have customers complain about your business. Matter of fact, it adds a level of this business is a real business and gives a customer an opportunity to maybe look at a review or look at a testimonial and say this particular customer was being ridiculous. But I liked how the business handled this situation. Now, one thing that I would do for fun when I was first starting the business is I would go online and I would look at negative reviews of my competitors and I would look at their response, and this became something that I actively did, just preparing for the day that maybe I got a negative review, which way I would really want to go.
Speaker 1:Now I will say my mom she was in a. She had had a dog grooming shop for years. My mom she was in a. She had had a dog grooming shop for years. Her business consistently got negative reviews, never did anything to kind of bury those reviews, if you will, and what I mean by that is, if you've got one negative review, just try to get five positive reviews. Right. If you go into a restaurant and you have a really good experience and you're like, wow, this was the best experience I had. Well, odds are, and statistics show that you are not going to leave a review or a positive outlook on that business, even though you had a great customer experience. Matter of fact, it takes you 10 experiences before you're finally like, hey, I need to go on and leave this unsolicited review because they have done a great job. But the same situation in that same restaurant if you have a horrible experience one time, you are more likely to go on and leave that negative review. Likely to go on and leave that negative review. So asking your clients for reviews and having a positive customer service for them is so crucial in being able to prepare your business for a negative review. So that is kind of buried under Now in the first, in my earlier, when I mentioned my mentor, if you will, he had a couple bad reviews.
Speaker 1:At the time he had four bad reviews and they were dumb reviews, something he could have easily replied to, but, more importantly, he could have built up a positive reputation. Hey, I noticed that these were issues. I decided to fix these issues and I moved on. He didn't do that. He took a different approach. By all means. He was then scared of this online platform, yelp. So, handling complaints, you've got to do it delicately, and I'm going to give you two situations that we were able to handle some complaints, so one being something that I stand behind every single day and will continue to stand behind, and two was just an overall negative review. There was really nothing I could do about it, but the way I was able to handle it. So number one was let me go back to a time where this was literally our first negative interaction that had been published online.
Speaker 1:This particular lady we were in her house. It was a very big project for us. We had been on it for a couple months at the time. We were moving everything back and she had made racist comments to my staff and she had made them over and over again. And enough where my staff called me and said hey, we have an issue, we don't feel comfortable here. Now my crew takes care of me every single day. They take care of the business, they take care of our customers, they take care of everything right. So when they feel like they can't do something or somebody's in the wrong, I have that, you know, flexibility of making sure I have their back. I will always have their back and in this situation I was able to have their back.
Speaker 1:So I had called the client and confronted them and said hey, there were some comments that were made, pretty racist comments, and just want to let you know. They weren't appreciated and some of my staff were offended. You know, did you make these comments? And the lady stayed true to her comments, said absolutely, I made them, there's nothing we can do. I was very mean about it and so I politely said hey, we're going to be done. At this point we're going to go ahead and button up the operation. We actually walked back from a sizable chunk of the money that we had already negotiated with her insurance company and even gave her a couple recommendations of other people that may go in and help her. So, even though my crew was mad and we stepped back gracefully and referred her other companies in our space that could help finish the project, she went on and left us a negative review.
Speaker 1:That review stayed on my front page for approximately a year. I had customers ask me about that review. I decided not to reply to that review. Um, it was a review that I was proud of, and what I mean by that is, we had done a really good job at building a positive customer service experience where, I mean, we were untouched by any competitor and we really stood out. But to see that, one star for me in something that I thought, when the time was coming right, when I was finally going to get our first negative you know public listing how I was going to handle it, and I was so proud that I was able to have my cruise back. So, um, stand up for what is right in your business. That is something that, um, you know I did in that situation and I was able to um, use that. Uh, google later, for whatever reason, decided to flag the review. I'm not going to say that maybe me explaining it to customers throughout the year had maybe influenced people reporting that review, but ultimately that was flagged off and removed.
Speaker 1:Moving on to another one that I just could not resolve, we had again I mentioned we are in an emergency service field on a excuse me, I need to get a little drink of water. So on a Christmas Eve years ago normally our crew is off on Christmas Eve, just kind of on standby for emergencies we had had just a downpour the night before, with a big storm coming in the following day and we had had a customer call and she had asked if we could go tarp her roof. Normally we don't get up on roofs that were wet. We explained that and we decided to make an exception for her and get up there and take care of it. Since it was a flat, flat roof, my guys would be safe and we got there. She had asked if she could buy the tarp to save a couple dollars and we said no problem, she could buy the tarp to save a couple dollars and we said no problem. Well, she had had my crew on standby for two and a half hours as they sat in her front lawn waiting for her to go back to the store and get the right size, and she'd lived kind of far away from the hardware store. My guys were patient and they were there on Christmas Eve. She called she had a problem with the tarp. She didn't like the way it was done.
Speaker 1:After we were done and what we had done was industry standard. There was nothing that we could do differently. She had actually approved the guys and said it looked great and they were on their way and now, at this time they were at home with their families and she demanded that I send them back out. I said, ma'am, this you know this was done industry standard. There's nothing else we can for you. I'm happy to send somebody out the next business day, but there's nothing I can do this evening. And so that was it.
Speaker 1:I heard from her, I think, a couple days later. She was dissatisfied. I actually gave her a refund. I said hey, ma'am, there's nothing I can do to resolve this. Here you go, here's your refund. Merry Christmas, happy Late Christmas, whatever it was.
Speaker 1:And I had heard from the guys that the financial situation wasn't that great, so I just kind of thought it was a ploy to get a little money from us. Well, sure enough, about two weeks later we got a one-star review from her. It was really interesting to me because we had sent a crew out on Christmas Eve. She knew it was Christmas Eve. She knew it was Christmas Eve. She knew I called them in. She knew that we waited for her for hours while she went and got this tarp, she could save a couple bucks.
Speaker 1:She called and complained. I handled the complaint exceptionally well and ultimately ended up giving her a refund. So there was truly nothing else I could do. So the way I handled that complaint is I went on and explained just that, but I did it nicely. I said this is the situation and I I had it that I was talking directly to her. Since I handled it, sent this crew out this day. We waited for you, we accommodated you, it was very nice and I handled the review gracefully.
Speaker 1:Now I mentioned I would go on and read other people's reviews. It is amazing how many people will say I never dealt with this customer. This customer doesn't like me. Go on and read your competitor's review replies. They can be horrible. It does not take a lot to just step back and say you know what, even though I know I was right, somehow I was wrong and it didn't work out for this customer. I've had so many customers commend us on that reply and say, hey, it didn't work out, but it actually showed your business was real. You get negative reviews because at that time we still didn't have a ton of negative reviews. We had so many good reviews. People were like gosh, are you buying your customer satisfaction? So this then sheds light on hey, this is a real company, they're not bought reviews and we can trust them. So, being able to hear out your client and even though you may be wrong or the customer may be wrong, whatever it is, it's okay to walk back. Just handle the complaint gracefully and let the chips fall. If you do it the right way, your future clients will see. Hey, you know what? This client was being a little unreasonable and this company was being really good was being a little unreasonable and this company was being really good, and they will still earn your business.
Speaker 1:Now, throughout the years, let's go offline. We have been able to build a phenomenal customer base of referral sources because we've done such a great job. So just because, just because they don't go online and leave you a review doesn't mean that they are not going to go tell their friends and family. Let's go back old school and remember referrals are the best compliment in a business. It is free, it doesn't cost us anything. You just have to do a good job for that client when you're there.
Speaker 1:I have had so many clients again. Remember I'm in this industry the water damage restoration business. You may never have that service happen in your house. You may never have a fire in your house. You may never deal with mold, where I have a loyal fan base of people always on the lookout, loyal fan base of people always on the lookout, always on the hunt to refer us new clients. And, again, it's understanding for us what they're going through providing them with excellent customer service, exceeding their expectations, doing right by the client. Right, if I say I'm going to be there at 8 o'clock, I'm there at 8 o'clock. Matter of fact, I'm there at 7.55 waiting be on time. When the client calls, I answer the phone. If they can't get a hold of me, I will reply back to them. Right? So you want to make sure the customer has a great expectation and through this, just exceeding expectations, then buttoning up and delivering a solid project back to a customer. They are now a huge billboard for my business. Now, if their friends or family or anybody close to them has ever dealt with this, they jump on the opportunity to refer us and by all means we track our referrals. I would recommend you do the same thing.
Speaker 1:Now. I don't know if this is true I've never really looked into it, but years ago I heard a story of Ritz-Carlton. Drop me a comment below if you know if this is true. Supposedly Ritz-Carlton is a hotel chain, super high-end, but they want you to have a great customer service or a great experience in their hotels, and if you are dissatisfied with anything in their, excuse me. If you are dissatisfied with your experience at their hotel, you can tell anybody, from the general manager all the way down to the janitors, the maintenance workers, literally anybody in the food chain at their hotel, and any employee has a threshold to give a $500 discount or whatever it is. Now again, I don't know if it's true. I was told that story years ago, but I have taken that to heart of if my guys need to swim back on a charge because a client is unhappy or they feel that they need to give the client a discount, that they have the authority to do that without calling us and asking. That has paid dividends as well.
Speaker 1:So being able to build a brand around customer service is so many different things. It's not just asking for reviews, it's not just going above expectations. It's having yourself and your employees hyper aware of everything going on at their project. Or, if you're dealing with a product, making sure your product holds up to what you say it's going to hold up to and making sure that if there is even a tiny ounce of hey, something's wrong, we, as the employees, are already on top of it, making sure that it is resolved by default. The customers have a great service or expectation, so this has really proved true.
Speaker 1:I listened to I think it was Gary Vee years ago. Again, this is another guru. I don't want to say that he's a fake guru, because he's absolutely not. Check him out. Go to Instagram. Look at his fake guru, because he's absolutely not Check him out. Go to Instagram. Look at his stuff. He puts out great information. But Gary Vee had he gave an example years ago of somebody ordering a wine and having a bad experience and he was able to ship a wine back over to him and it was just a really easy way to resolve a customer service issue. And that customer ended up telling his friend, and his friend ordered thousands and thousands of dollars worth of wine.
Speaker 1:So, taking that into consideration, sending little gifts going above and beyond, when we have somebody that refers us, we then will follow up on making sure that they know we appreciate their referral, so we may send a gift basket or a thank you card or a thank you gift card to a client, because, again, we track where our leads come in from, as should you, and we make sure that our clients know hey, not only do we know that you had a good experience with you, know your project, but you obviously referred us. We appreciate that and we still will go above and beyond for you and your referral. Even though you may not be a paying client anymore, you are still valuable to us, so we recognize that as well. I would definitely say that, as you are building your customer service strategy and you really need to lay out a plan, guys, this is crucial. If you have a digital marketing strategy, if you have a print strategy, if you have a referral strategy, any strategy you have in your business customer service should be a priority. To make sure you're writing down what are you going to do if you get a complaint? What are you going to do to exceed expectations? What are you going to do to train your employees to you know? Shoot, give a discount if they need be empathetic? You need to be at the forefront of making sure your business exceeds your customer service expectation. And again, this is not for fun.
Speaker 1:I do want to say again, I want to emphasize I do not want to build a brand that is doing a disservice to my community. I want to build a brand that I am proud of and that is number one important for me, and that is number one important for me. But I also want to monetize my customer's positive experience and this has proven again a long-term build. But I have made so much money off of having a good customer service focus-based business, so put it into your business plan. Every customer you know raise your hand if you can say you meet customers expectations. Raise your hand if you can say you offer good customer service. Offer good customer service. Everybody offers good customer service. Even the guys that are getting negative reviews have a bad reputation. They offer good customer experience and they think that they are the best. Create a strategy that truly separates you, truly separates you from your competition. It will pay dividends.
Speaker 1:I want to wrap up this with a success story I have jot down. Share a particular one that I can remember and the truth is I could share that one but I want you to understand that it is literally Something that I hear from my customers at least once or twice a week about how they know we are so customer focused that that brought them into our company and ultimately selected us to handle their project, to handle their project. So to share one story and say, hey, this really works for this one particular client, I would actually be giving you a. I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't say that having phenomenal customer service actually keeps the leads coming in for me almost on a weekly basis. So it is so important for you and your business to figure out your customer service strategy, set yourself apart from your competition, be able to handle reviews graceful or negative complaints or reviews gracefully and grow your business. Remember, it's all about this in business, right, we do wanna build a brand. We do to build a great name in the community, but we also want to make money. A great name in the community on face value doesn't make you money unless people are referring you. What's the incentive to refer you? Send them a gift basket, send them a gift card, send them a thank you, Let them know that they are appreciated and, unfortunately, when that negative review or negative client comes through, handle it.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're in a customer service-based industry plumber, think, plumber, gardener, restoration, anywhere where we have that customer information you have a tremendous upper hand. You have the client's contact information. Odds are you've been out to the house. You know their address. You have their phone number whatever it may be a dentist, a doctor you have that client's information. Reach out to that customer. Say what can I do to exceed your expectations? I can see that you did not have a positive experience. Use that to your advantage.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, in restaurants, like the example I gave earlier, one bad experience, one bad night gets you a bad online review and odds are you don't have their contact information. You can't resolve that, are you don't have their contact information. You can't resolve that. So, in a service-based business, think of it as a blessing that you are able to get their address, to get their contact information, so you can resolve it. Make yourself stand out. If you have to walk back from a couple bucks or if you have to go back out and redo something, go do it. Make sure that client has a good experience with your business so they can go on and they can be a billboard for your customer service and ultimately get you more work.
Speaker 1:Remember, at the end of the day, it's all about the money in the pocket. You want to be able to grow your business. You want to be able to grow yourself, so don't forget that. You know, sometimes sucking it up, swallowing some pride and making sure that you know you stay true to maybe the customer is always right will really set you apart from your competition. So, guys, I really appreciate the time you have taken to sit through this episode.
Speaker 1:If you've gotten this far, I appreciate the you know the engagements on my videos or on the comment section, or the send me the text message on the podcast side. It is really cool to see that there are people actually out there engaging. This is on so many different platforms, so whatever, however, this is getting to you, if you can, please engage with this, let me know what you think. Let me please engage with this. Let me know what you think. Let me know what your thoughts, let me know what you would like to see in the future. And if you have a business-related question regarding your business, something that you're going through, send me a question or send me a note and ask me Again. On the podcast side, you can send me a text message. If you're watching the video, you can leave me a comment.
Speaker 1:I want to know what you're going through, what kind of questions you have, and I would love to answer that. In my experience of what I have dealt with. Maybe we can get you through that, and if I can't, and it's out of my league, I'll bring somebody in here or ask around and make sure we get answers to your questions. It is really important to me that I don't know. I'm leaving a good thing in the world of just being able to help people get to where I am and feel the way that I feel in business.
Speaker 1:I'm thankful for it. I am and feel the way that I feel in business. I'm thankful for it. I am appreciative of everything that I've had and I've earned and I just want more people to be able to benefit. So I appreciate you, I appreciate you listening and I look forward to the next episode. I look forward to growing with you as well. So that's it for today's episode on the business guide. I hope that you found this super helpful and I will wrap this up by saying I'll see you next time. If you have any questions again, drop me a comment. But I look forward to talking to you again. Take care and have a good day.
