Episode 52: Finding Ways to Delight Your Customers (Like the Donut Man)

Episode 52: Finding Ways to Delight Your Customers (Like the Donut Man)

Brandon Schoen:
What you can be doing to integrate this into your cleaning business. How can you be going above and beyond with your employees, with your teams, with your customers, actually caring, taking extreme ownership and maximizing those results. Getting those five star reviews. And again, guys, that's going to just give you the momentum to drive forward and to start achieving those higher level goals. You know, more customers, whatever it is in your business that you need to overcome to get to that next level. But this is the mindset that you need to start cultivating and adopting is whatever it takes to get there. Whatever we gotta do to win, whatever we got to do to make this customer delighted. That is your purpose as a business owner, other than being a job creator and creating a lot of jobs and helping people in those ways, you're solving problems, right? You're a problem solver as an entrepreneur. So how can we be integrating this stuff into our business so that people have amazing experiences.

Announcer:
Grow your cleaning business, make more money, have more time. This is the Profit Cleaners podcast with your host Brandon Condrey and Brandon Schoen.

Brandon Schoen:
Hey guys, what's up everybody Brandon Schoen in the house. Welcome to another episode of the Profit Cleaners. The only place where you can learn from the top 1% of cleaning business owners from around the world to grow your business, maximize it and win. So today guys, I've got a real short story for you guys. So stay tuned. We're going to be learning all about how you can be finding every opportunity to delight your customers. Go the extra mile to go above and beyond and achieve extraordinary results in your cleaning business. Before we get into that guys, just some quick house cleaning. If you have experienced any value in any of these podcasts so far or on this one, if it shifted your mindset, given you a new attitude, a new idea, a new perspective, maybe made you laugh, cry, whatever it might be. Please give us a review. Subscribe to the podcast, shared out to a friend, help us out, guys. We're trying to grow this movement with you guys, Profit Cleaners, so we can all be extremely successful and win together. So that is the fee for the show. We're not running a bunch of annoying ads and commercials for a reason. We need your guys' help. So that's the fee. So that said, guys, we'll go ahead and proceed with the rest of the show.

So just want to tell you guys a little bit of a story. I was recently out in Fort worth, Texas with my family, a road trip, seeing my wife's brother and just want to do, explain what happened in this story has actually nothing to do and everything to do with the cleaning business at the same time. But it's all about mindset, what you can be doing and how you can be thinking in your business to be achieving extraordinary results. So again, we were in Fort worth, Texas. One morning, we were driving with my four kids, actually have a little baby. Now, all the kids were hungry for donuts. My wife's like, well, let's pull over and get some donuts, right? So we pull up the good old Google map on the iPhone and we searched for donuts. And as most local businesses guys definitely should be using local maps because they're a huge driver of local business. But we found the local business that showed up, of course, with the most reviews, the most doughnut reviews. And that's the one we went to.

So again, you guys, if you're not pushing reviews in your business, definitely need to be. Cause people definitely look typically for the top few businesses to work with. They have the top most reviews, right? Anyways, this is a doughnut shop. We're not expecting a whole lot out of this. We're just going to get donuts. So we pull up, it's the nicest part of town. It's a little more rundown looking, but again, we're not expecting much. We just need a few donuts for the kids, maybe some coffee. So we walk into the shop. I can tell that the guy in the front there is looking like they're getting ready to close. In fact, I look over at the door and it says closes in 10 minutes. It was like 11:50. And they closed at noon. Most local businesses. You guys have been there when they're trying to close. They're usually trying to like kick you out of the shop when you walk in last minute like that. And they're like, oh man, one more customer. Instead, this guy was, you could tell, he was really excited. We were there. He smiled big. He welcomed the Sandia. He paid us compliments. He was complimenting my kids just right there. I was like, wow, how to win friends and influence people. One-on-one right. If you're not already complementing or having your employees compliment customers or they're going into their houses, that's a simple one, right? They're just compliment your employees and customers. They will automatically like you more and be more genuinely interested in working with you further. So that was really cool right there. So right away, like I was like, man, this guy's awesome.

So we walked into his donut shop. He proceeds to show us all his donuts on the shelf really, really proud, really, really excited. And he really believed in his product. I could tell it's shining through his voice and the way he talked about it. So the kids pick out their donuts, really cool Spiderman and the mermaid and all these different donuts. They're really super excited. And then he proceeds. I said, well, what kind of coffee do you have? And right. And he proceeds to show me this amazing cold brew coffee machine that they've built. It almost looks like a bar brewery tap thing where you can pap and get different flavors. But he was just going to on to explain how high quality it was. And it's a really, really good flavor. And it's unlike other cold brew you've ever had. And then he proceeds to roll out this ice chest custom special, fancy ice chest below it and took, take out these tongues and show me these like handmade, special ice cubes that they put into it that has like special water. And then these ones are flavored and just on and on and on. Right. And I was just like, whoa, man, I just came in here for some donuts. This is amazing. Right. So I'm already totally wowed already. And he goes on to explain, like asking us questions. He's genuinely interested, which again, guys, it's very important that you're genuinely interested in your customers and your employees. So he's genuinely interested. He's like, Hey, where are you guys from? What are you doing here? I tell them all, we're just visiting out of town, but we're, we're coming through. We've got family here and he's like, oh man, welcome to town. And he's like, you know what? We actually close at noon. We're going to close in a few minutes. But he's like, just so you know, we close at noon. Anytime you want to come back. Just really, really nice cares about his business and letting us know and communicating that to us.

So already guys, I'm like, wow, this has been a great experience. We get the kids donuts, we get the coffee and we're heading out to the car. And lo and behold, I looked back and my wife's like, he's running back out. Wait. And I see the owner, he's running back out to chase in the parking lot. He's got three Capri suns in his hand and a whole another box of donuts. And I was like, whoa, what's going on here? So he runs up to our car. He says, take these for the kids. And he's like, here's some extra donuts. He said, we weren't going to sell them today. Anyways, want to welcome you guys here. Hope you have a great time. And just so glad that you came in today, right? Wow. That was really amazing customer service. So he then proceeds to run back in his store and he runs back out and he hands me a card and it's their business card. It has their social media on there and all their information. And this guy, the owner of the store, I didn't even mention this guys, but he's an immigrant, right? He's not even from America. He came here from another country. He barely speaks English, but yet he's out here hustling. He's out here running out. And he told me when I was in his donut shop, he said, we are the five star, top rated donut shop here in Fort worth. And he was proud of it. I was like, wow, like I can already see how you're doing that, but now I really see how you're doing it. So now he chases me out. He gave me free stuff, right? Law of reciprocity, a very, very powerful social influence law. Where if you give something of value for free upfront to somebody, they will feel compelled to reciprocate that value back to you in one way or another. So, but just as he came out, he didn't even know how to say it in proper English. Like leave me a review. He just said, just leave me comment, leave me comment. So I was like, of course, of course, normally I would definitely not have time in my day to do this. I would not even go out of my way to leave a review for a business, but I genuinely felt so compelled. So wowed by this interaction with like donut guy, just randomly downtown. I look over at my kids. They're ecstatic and they're overjoyed. They have free suns. Now they have a whole new extra box of donuts. My wife was like, wow, that was really cool. Just all of us were surprised, overwhelmed at what a cool experience that was in a really good way.

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Brandon Schoen:
Hey guys just wanted to let you know that we are taking one-on-one coaching clients and it's awesome. So if you want to be navigating the industry trends, figuring out how to grow your cleaning business to the next level. So you can win. Get more customers, have better systems, have better retention, all that good stuff. Then hop on one of our coaching calls and would love. We'd love to help you guys out.

Brandon Condrey:
So to reserve your spot, head over to Profitcleaners.com/coaching.

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Brandon Schoen:
So what I want to get back to you guys is this whole experience and this whole mindset that this business owner had and how we can apply this to our businesses, to our cleaning businesses. And just what this gets back to, which is not just getting a five-star review and growing your business that way. But it guys, it gets all comes back to going above and beyond, actually caring for your business, which is really, I don't know if you guys ever heard Gary Vaynerchuk. He's a very famous marketer. He talks about this all the time. How caring is the best marketing, okay. Just caring for your business. People genuinely can feel that you care even the way that you talk to them. Even the way that subconsciously doing things in the background, your body language, the way you look at people, the tone of your voice, all of that can be subtle signals to tell people that you care. So it's all very subtle, but this guy I could tell he cared about his business. He was excited about it. He had so much pride in it. He was showing me his business. He ran out and gave us free product, just making good use of the situation. He was probably going to close in 10 minutes and give away half that product or throw it away anyways. So he found a really creative way to turn that situation into a positive, productive situation where he said, Hey, you know what, let me give this family. I haven't seen before some product, even with a really good taste in their mouth, really good experience. And they'll be on their way.

And guys, that's the kind of stuff that is word of mouth. Just thinking about it. I'm telling you guys on the podcast about it. Now, just a simple experience I had at a donut shop. That's how powerful these little experiences can be for people. A lot of times people will go out of their way to tell these stories. If they have a really positive experience and how much more positive is that for your business versus somebody saying, oh man, I don't want to hear what happened to me with this cleaning company the other day. I mean, people are going to be more likely to probably share those in general, but if you can create these positive experiences in some way or another in your business, this is really going to go a huge long way for word of mouth and for your branding, your business and just what people say and your reviews. So I'll just coming back to you guys, actually care, be genuinely interested in your customers. If you're going above and beyond in your business, caring is the best marketing and really just taking extreme ownership.

There's a book by Jocko Willock. He talks about zero options mentality. You guys should pick that book up. Definitely. If you haven't read it again, it's called extreme ownership and it just puts you in the mindset of taking a hundred percent ownership for everything that happens to you in your life. Everything that happens in your business, whether you're where you want to be hitting your goals or not, it's all determined based upon are you taking ownership? Are you guys taking a hundred percent ownership of all of the inputs, all of the actions in order to reach a shave, the results that you're wanting in your business and guys, it's not going to be overnight. You can't just do a bunch of work. And tomorrow you're going to be making the exact revenue and have the business of your dreams. It's going to take work. It's going to take consistent, hard work, putting in the hard work and the hard effort and doing this stuff every day. But it will happen. You will manifest that success, but it's not going to come with being complacent or getting lazy or stop. Especially if you stop caring about the business, customers are going to feel it. Your employees are going to feel it as this is just coming back to again, how can you maximize the results? It starts with these kinds of mindset starts with thinking this way and saying, how can I really genuinely care for my customers? How can I find an opportunity to delight my customers in a new way today or in a way that they just weren't going to be expecting? So they're really wowed. And in fact, they're going to be really compelled to give me a five-star review. So that's ultimately kind of what we're wanting to achieve.

We've talked about this in the past, where we give away cleans for free. This is actually how we started our cleaning business was we gave away a lot of free cleans in the beginning and we still do from time to time. Every time we launch a new team, we'll give away five or 10 free cleans to generate even more reviews. But guys, that's a really great way, right? They're just going back to the donut example. He was given away free donuts, pre sons. What can you be giving away in your business? It's marketing and promotional purposes to generate that goodwill and that reciprocity so that it comes back to you in other ways. So it might not always be a review. It might simply be somebody talking about your business positively and now five or 10 other people have a really good idea and perception of your business because their best friend or neighbor had a really great experience. So it's like a slow burn. It's like an ongoing organic trickle-down effect that happens guys. But these are the instances and activities and things mindsets that you need to be thinking about. And how can you be integrating these into your business? Right? So what can you be doing to go the extra mile? Some of the things that we've done in the past, other than just offer extraordinary customer service, do whatever it takes to make it right. Take ownership. If there's any mistakes we're going to make it right. We're going to fix it. That's our mistake. We'll take responsibility, right?

That's it right there. Just caring, getting back in there, fixing it a lot of times what we've done in past cleans and we're still getting back into it is leaving a nice little leave behind something that prompts them to show our appreciation for them, whether it's it used to be flowers. Now we're testing different things and switching things out that we can leave behind. But guys, what can you do that really makes people feel great? It makes them feel like, wow, I'm not going to get this experience anywhere else. And they're just delighted, right? They're just like, wow, this, this company really cares. I can feel that they care. They did not have to do that. And they went out of their way. They went the extra mile and guys, a lot of this comes back to getting uncomfortable, right? And you, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you have to be come very used to becoming uncomfortable and doing the hard work and doing the hard things that don't feel right. Don't feel good. Sometimes God just don't want to do that. But a lot of times those are the small scenarios and examples that turn into the big things, right? So this, this example of the story I told you guys today of just the, the immigrant doughnut man in Fort worth, that literally chased me out of the stores and gave me free donuts and Capri suns. I mean, that's the kind of thing. It was so simple and maybe it was a little uncomfortable for him. And he had to spend a little money and give away some product to do it. But now I'm a fan for life. I left them a five star review, which I normally never do it. I felt so compelled to do that for though for this guy. And that's the energy and scenario that you're trying to create with your customers so much so that they can't help, but be compelled to leave you guys a five-star review, tell everybody else about you and what you're doing and how it's so great.

And that's really just a small example of it guys. So every conversation counts, right? You should really be putting your think about it this way, guys, every time you talk to a customer, every time you talk to employee, pretend that whatever you're saying to them is going to become a billboard on social media. And everybody's going to be looking at it and commenting on it. And a lot of times people get in trouble because they don't think of their business like this. They'll just have a weird interaction with the customer and somebody will hang up on the phone or something will be said, but just pretend everything you say is going to be blasted on a social media board. And this scenario right here, the donut man in Fort worth, he probably had no idea that I was going to be talking about this on a podcast, but it just shows you guys, if you're being a little bit outrageous, if you're being a little bit outside of what is considered normal, and you're going that extra mile to go above and beyond, those are the things that people will remember. Those are the things that are remarkable that people talk about that people share.

And again, it comes back to helping you get those reviews for your business, which is gold. That's going to help promote your business for years and years and years to come as those reviews, especially in the cleaning business where trust is a huge, huge issue. People want to see that other people had positive experiences before they hire a cleaning company.

So anyways, guys, I hope this podcast today, it was short and sweet, but I just want to get your juices going, get you thinking of what you can be doing to integrate this into your cleaning business. How can you be going above and beyond with your employees, with your teams, with your customers and actually caring, taking extreme ownership and maximizing those results, getting those five star reviews. And again, guys, that's going to just give you the momentum to drive forward and to start achieving those higher level goals, even more customers, whatever it is in your business that you need to overcome to get to that next level. But this is the mindset that you need to start cultivating and adopting is whatever it takes to get there. Whatever we've got to do to win whatever we got to do to make this customer delighted. That is your purpose as a business owner, other than being a job creator and creating a lot of jobs and helping people in those ways, you're solving problems, right? You're a problem solver as an entrepreneur. So how can we be integrating this stuff into our business so that people have amazing experiences gave you guys a few ideas today. Hopefully you guys can brainstorm storm up some more finding ways to get your product out there. If you've got a team that's just got free time, maybe you had a cancellation that day, go give a free clean to somebody that that's a need, somebody that a neighbor or a nurse or a first responder. We often do those free cleans for people like that, but find ways to use your existing product, to put it out there and to help more people.

And guys, don't be afraid to ask for reviews again, at the end of every clean we'll ask people for a review either through our review, push we'll, leave review cards on people's houses, on their tables after the clean of course, or we actually have a new texting system that we're testing out recently, that'll send them a text message to leave review. So those are all ways you can do it again, guys, if you're not delivering value upfront evil, aren't going to feel compelled to reciprocate that value and tell other people about you, where to buy word of mouth or by leaving a five star review. So find out what is it in your business that you can really take ownership of start caring about. Can you integrate into your services that just wow. Customers make them say, wow, that was amazing. And make them want to tell everybody and come back and use your services over and over and over again. So guys, hopefully this story was helpful. Hopefully inspired you, gave you some ideas, again, finding every opportunity to delight your customers until next time guys, keep it clean!

Announcer:
Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profitcleaners.com and remember keep it clean.