From Complaints to Success in Your Cleaning Business | The Magnetic Operator Ep.6

What is up, everyone? And welcome to another episode of the Magnetic Operator. I'm your host, Kaden.

I'm Sam.

And we have quite the common episode for you today. Common in the sense that it's not a common problem you should have, just a common problem you will have. And what we mean by that, we'll dive into the meat. So customer complaint just comes with business. It's going to happen, but how you handle them is going to be your differentiator. Right. So in today's episode, as we've discussed with thousands of building service contractors over the years, we're going to talk about what the highest performers typically do and what opportunities they take when it comes to receiving customer feedback.

I think it's even beyond what you should do when you receive feedback or you get complaints. What we really want to highlight today in this episode is how to prevent it. That's really what a magnetic operator does, is prevents the problems before they become problems. So if that sounds like something you want to learn more about or are interested in honing in on, this is the episode for you.

Yeah. So we're going to take your operations, we're going to scale them to a level, help you scale them to a level that makes dealing with customer complaints, when they come up, if they come up, that'll be a key thing we talk about and how to handle moving forward. So diving into our main segment of the episode, Beyond Mach 1, taking operations supersonic. So today's question is coming from an audience member. It's Taylor. And Taylor says, I feel like my clients only talk to me when something's wrong, and when it is, they get mad. And so the question is, how can I fix things and keep my clients happy? Taylor, this is a very good question, and probably it is the most common question is, how do I keep my clients happy? How do I make sure that my relationship with them is great? And so we're gonna go through our Mach 1 scenario. So the question's been presented. Reminder, Mach 11 being, okay, notable or elite. And by the end, we'll teach you how the elite operator actually operates their business. So, Sam, let's dive into what an okay operator is going to do with this question.

So just to preface, obviously anybody is going to receive complaints now and then or frequently from customers. So how you're handling those, how you're preventing those, that's what we're trying to figure out here. An okay building service contractor is going to resolve the problem as it comes. Right. You have a problem, and we're going to take care of it. But it usually. Right. It's reactive. You're going to just take care of it and leave it at that.

Right.

They let the problems come to them instead of taking steps to actively make sure that they're not a problem in the first place. Right. Make the service better. It's more about the okay operator is just letting it come to them. Right. So the challenge that a lot of building service contractors face is in that reactive problem solving state. They aren't taking proactive measures, they aren't improving the service, they aren't preventing the issues. They wait for the problems to come and then they address them then. But this approach, I think, and what Taylor's trying to uncover is how do you avoid the recurring issues, the dissatisfaction of customers, the lack of continuous improvement in that operation.

Yeah.

That's what leads to those challenges that these building service contractors may face and have those angry customers coming to them frequently, only highlighting the problems. Right?

Yeah.

In this industry, that's a common thing.

Yeah.

They rarely or don't highlight the good things that your team's doing. They will only and usually pinpoint the challenges. And so that okay operator is just letting that happen and come to them when those challenges come and you just, you take care of it when it happens, which is still okay business, but there's a better way. So when we get to notable, what does a notable operator do?

Yeah, well, and even the first thing, you just the nature of business, right. You have someone who's paying you for your services, and just the sheer nature of that transaction typically lines up the client to be like, I'm paying you for something. I didn't get the results I expected. And so therefore I'm frustrated. If you're able to put yourself in your client's shoes and always keep that at the core of the foundation. Like, they've paid me to do something and I haven't delivered to their expectation. Start every conversation knowing in your own mind that, like, that is what's happening here. That's where frustration stems from. It's because you said you would accomplish something for a price and they don't feel like they're getting it. And so when you're able to start from that, even in the okay category, realize that, like, hey, as we go through these, is the okay operator the best way to operate when you think they've paid for a service and I'm supposed to deliver? We don't want to just be okay for our clients. So notable. What I would add to notable is you're still in a reactive state in the sense that feedback and complaints, they come to you, but you take a more active approach to communicate the after math. You might have some promises that says, hey, this isn't going to happen again. We've fixed the root of the problem. Right. Or so they think. And the challenge with this is while they are reacting and trying to take an active approach and ensure that the client knows that they're going to be taken care of and hopefully it doesn't happen again, it's that long term client satisfaction is still not being addressed. Right. It was still a reactive, foundational, reactive response. And when you operate that way, saying, hey, I take care of my customers, when they complain like I'm on top of it, they make sure that I'm apologetic, whatever that looks like. Again, it's a step up from just always waiting for it to happen and then just taking care of it because you are more active about it. But I'm going to label that as notable because it still isn't addressing the root of the problem, which you leaned into at the very beginning when we started talking, which was, what are you doing to prevent.

Yeah, right.

What are you doing to prevent wildfires?

Sam, only you can prevent wildfires.

So in that light of prevention, what does an elite operator do? How do they operate? So, Taylor, hopefully this is what resonates with you today in that your question, a hundred percent valid, is, hey, how can I fix things for my client and keep them happy? Well, we're going to go way before the relationship of in that moment, that interaction of frustration even started to the moment of prevention getting ahead. And obviously, Sam and I are both hockey players and one of the most important skills to know in hockey is to anticipate. And we'll share Wayne Gretzky's famous line a little bit later for those of you who aren't aware of it. But the ability to anticipate, that's what an elite MO does. So, Sam, dive into the details. What does the operations look like in this scenario of how an elite MO is going to perform?

I'm going to drop a truth bomb on you and the listeners here. Kaden, an elite operator doesn't deal with angry customers very often. Think about that for a second, Taylor. Right now you're experiencing some angry customers, mad customers, and you want to fix that. Right. But in the process of preparing to provide a service, if you have the correct aspects of that operation in place, that is going to prevent the actual angry customer experience. That happens frequently, Right. When you're at the elite state, it's set up in a way to not only resolve complaints, but you have the ability to get ahead of them before they even become problems. One of the best ways to ensure that complaints aren't happening is you literally know when they're a challenge before they've become a problem for your customer. Right. When you are actively listening, actively learning from your team what's going on, how are things doing, what's happening, what is our service and level of quality that we're offering, frequently analyzing. All of that takes place in the elite operators approach. And so there has to be this setup, this forecasting, if you will, of what the problems are, where they're happening, and taking care of them before they become an actual challenge. That's pinpointed because again, a customer in this realm will usually only complain or tell you when something is wrong comparative to what you said you would accomplish. And so that elite operator is going to have the things in place to ensure that it doesn't even become a problem. But on top of that, the visibility, the access, the communication, all of that's part of the operation. Right. And that is how you will create this preventative problem approach.

Yeah. What you just described is what Wayne Gretzky says, which was, a good hockey player plays where the puck is at, but a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. So an elite operator that has an MO of always being able to anticipate what's going to happen, it means that you're proactively searching the problem areas in a facility before the client would find out about it, and that you're actually taking care of it and resolving issues and you're hearing about issues before the client's the one that is reporting the issue.

Does. Do you feel like some people might think that's like, shady? It's not, no.

It's a proactive. I had this conversation, I was on a call and we had presented some solutions about this very problem. And it wasn't necessarily about the technology solution we were presenting. It was about the concept that if I could show my customer how I'm taking a proactive measure, because things happen day to day and the client isn't oblivious to the fact that things are going to happen and we're going to make mistakes. Right. But an organization, a building service contractor that comes in and says, here is what we catch continually and here's how we improve, and then here's how we go and train our employees to fix that. And like, there's this level of if you are able as an operator to go to your client and say, do you notice how when we started your account we were about here on our metrics? And you notice how we're like about here now, but yet you haven't noticed. You've just always seen that we've taken care of things. In the beginning, we took on the cost of the extra work to go fix what we were seeing as problematic. And then we found our groove, we found our routine. Right. That's pretty cool. And immediately as a building service contractor, I own that process and I have literally instigated one of the coolest ways to develop trust with my client. And the client will see that and the fact that you are transparent about it. And we'll talk about how that transparency plays a role later. That level of transparency and operations develops trust. That would make them question, am I going to get that with the next building service contractor that tries to come in and bid here? Because that was a unique experience. Right. So the ability to anticipate where the puck is going to be, which means you get ahead and the lay of the landscape so well that you can forecast that and you are looking at data. Here's what I promise you can't do is you can't just lick your finger and then be able to know where the wind's blowing.

Right.

That's not how it works. You have to have a complete understanding of how your operations is working in order to anticipate where the puck is going to be.

I don't have the exact quote in my mind here, but it takes moments to make a good impression, but it takes years to forget a bad one. What you do at the onset with a customer, setting the standard, being transparent, making sure they know what your process is of communication and, and the ability to showcase and see the value that your team will deliver and then when it is actually delivered. And on top of all that, the consistency and the frequency of checking that work and making sure that they have that visibility, that's how you ensure that that good impression. And so Taylor, getting into this motion of anticipation from the get go is. Is going to allow you to have less angry customers, naturally, because you're doing it in a way that gives them clarity into what they need to know to ensure that you're doing the job that they've hired you to do.

Yeah. In a former episode, we talk about feedback a little bit and we talk about the same principle. The idea is that, Taylor, is that you will give your customers opportunities to actually have conversations in an environment that is much more prepared for feedback and discussion instead of an emotional, angry moment. Right. Because of the tracking, because of the way you have things set up and you bring that transparency to your client, you literally open the door for that conversation in a much, emotionally, much more safer environment. Yeah, right.

Yeah.

And honestly, beyond the safety of that emotional environment, much more productive conversation. Right. To actually give feedback and being like, all right, well, this hasn't ballooned to a moment where it's going to pop and I'm ready to explode because I'm so frustrated as a customer. It's now, oh, yeah, something was happening. I'm starting to see a little trend, and here's what I would like to see happen about it now. You can get ahead of it. Right. Even if there is feedback in those moments to come in. So, Taylor, we're going to give you something that you could write down again, for those of you who have been listening. It's not what's taught, it's what's caught. So what is it going to be from what we're talking about today that you're going to go take back to your business? And hopefully this is something. So we've created an acronym, right, for puck. Being able to anticipate the Puck. Hopefully it'll make you remember. So, Sam, what's the P?

So the P is proactively addressing issues, Right. The okay, operator we mentioned earlier is reactive. The notable one is reactive, but has a little bit better operation in taking care of those problems. But the Elite's MO Is proactively addressing the issues. You identify the problems you. Before they escalate by regularly inspecting work and engaging with those clients on that work that's being done, providing reports, giving them access to the scores of those inspections of the buildings that you're servicing and providing a service over. That's the P inside of anticipating. The puck is proactively looking at that. But then you have you, which is.

Your ability to understand client needs. It is fascinating to me when a contract is written up, how some operators call that the relationship, and it's set in stone and that it, like it doesn't move right now. Contractually, you say, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're obligated to do. But the ability to understand a client's needs evolves after the contract has started. Right. And sometimes it's set in stone in the sense that it's not going to change much, but your ability to deeply understand and align with what they're Needing often I see this turn into quite an upsell opportunity or to expand the scope of work of the contract. Because of the way you are tracking and involving and trying to tailor to client expectations, you have the ability to actually bring it together and say, hey, you know what? This expectation that you have set can't be done at this level. And we're not far off from it. But it's going to take X more times a week to do this service to make sure that you're satisfied at this level. But now you're bringing data to a conversation. When you are an operator and you have all of those insights that makes the upsell much more effective because you're proving to your client that, that if you want that level of service, which you were dissatisfied with your former vendor, right, this is what it's going to take. But now I actually have data to back it up and to show. And again, at the end of the day, a client just wants to be taken care of and they do want to be taken care of at the cheapest possible price. But it doesn't mean that clients automatically want terrible service because they want to be cheap. There's this balance that you, your ability to understand a client needs, you know, goes back and forth between showcasing and understanding and trying to, to negotiate. Right.

I want to break this out just a little bit more too. Some customers don't want to be talked to. Right? Some customers don't want to interact with you a lot. They just want you to perform the service and they want to know that things are being done well. And so the C in PUC is communicating transparently. Now, when I say this though, and where we're talking about the need for being open, being honest, being timely in your communication with clients about those issues and the resolutions of problems, there are some customers that don't want that as much. But for Taylor and anybody else listening who's having this challenge of angry customers, it's what you do is in your operation internally that matters most and that you remain consistent in that approach and that operation. So what I mean by that is just because some customers may not want that level of communication doesn't mean that you still don't offer it, right? You still don't, you still give that experience and that approach, regardless of who it is. So that if a challenge arises that you have, you, you've covered all your bases and you know exactly what needs to happen when the time comes. And that's why Playbooks are important, outlining it, making sure they're aware Saying, hey, you may not want to speak to me about this, but this is our process and this is how you can know we're doing what we said we would do.

Yeah. Sometimes I've seen operators believe in this fallacy of, my customer doesn't like to communicate, therefore I don't have to communicate.

Yes. That's what I'm getting at. Right.

And it's like, no, you are the service provider.

Yes.

And you always do your part in communicating, even if it feels like you're talking to a blank space. Right. Right into the abyss and the last piece of the puck, the K, means keep improving. Often if you go through a situation and you go through and you're like, hey, here's how we've been improving. And you come to this belief like, hey, we've arrived. And you set this expectation with the client, like, hey, here's how we're just going to operate moving forward. And they might be satisfied with it because they think you, you are an elite operator. Right. Your M.O. is just incredibly successful and they love working with you, but the world keeps moving. And there are needs to constantly remind a client on how you're always improving. And even if you are performing at such a high successful level that you don't give up on a cultural belief system that there is somewhere else we can improve. And if you always have that mindset to be gathering feedback continuously on, where can I improve? Even if there isn't much movement to happen there because you're doing so well, you are always asking the question. You never give up on asking the question because there's always a risk, even if it's very small. There's always a risk that your competition is trying to plug at your accounts and you want to always be in a cultural mindset that we are constantly improving. We're always trying to find ways to take care of my customers. And therefore they have the trust that I'm remaining top of my skill set and my advancement as an operator to always be taking care of them so that they aren't tempted to go look or to hear someone, they may not be actively looking, but hear someone else out on what their price and what their process is going to be.

There's a. A customer of ours in Denver that I recently visited, and when I asked what their greatest challenge was, they had a hard time answering what their challenge was because they have been so successful in implementing a process of this elite motion of proactively and preventatively doing the things that matter most before they become an issue. And because they have this system instead of receiving complaints, Taylor, this customer of ours is utilizing that data, that approach, to take this opportunity to share this. And in turn, the customer is coming back to them and saying what? Wow, you've done an amazing job. You did so good. We want to provide this feedback and kudos of positivity and recognition to your team. And he was so excited that because he's set up the system that he has, he's getting positive feedback and recognition from his clientele because of the elite system that he's built out. And so you have that same opportunity. We all can have that opportunity to build out these processes that lead to greater outcomes. But to your point, that last piece, always improving. Lowe's said it best. Never stop improving.

Yeah. So to recap, the ability to anticipate the puck is to proactively address issues, to understand client needs, to communicate transparently and to keep improving. And that's what puck stands for. So in closing out this episode, today we're going to share some self assessment questions that will help you figure out how to anticipate the puck. And so as we read through these, again, it's not what's taught, it's what's caught. So hopefully these questions prompt you to come up with an answer that actually can get your operations moving in the direction that you want them moving. So we're going to list these off, write them down as we're going through these and take a moment to ponder them. And you might have to take much more than a moment to ponder them if you don't know the answer to them right away. But let's read off some of these. So is the scope of work enough to meet client expectations? We talked about that. But is the scope that you are currently agreed upon enough to meet those client expectations?

Am I providing my clients with an easy, non stressful way to provide feedback? Is there a mechanism for them to actually share that? If so, do they know how to do that? Ask yourself that question and give them an easy way to provide that feedback.

Next question. Do we communicate our actions and solutions back to the client effectively? Right. Going back to that communication piece, do we do that?

Are we proactive in identifying potential issues before they become complaints? What do you have in place with your supervisors and your employees to showcase to you that then can be showcased to the client that yes, we did find these and we're taking care of them. You do not have to worry, we will take care of this. So do you have that way to proactively identify the Issues?

Yeah. And do you have regular check ins with your client to gauge their satisfaction and address potential concerns early, even if.

They don't want to talk to you?

Are you trying to make sure that from the beginning, from the get go, do you have regular check ins? If you don't, it's an opportunity to establish an expectation with a client that hey, we're going to do this at this cadence and here's why and here's what it's going to deliver to benefit you. Right. You're selling them the benefit of doing that.

In sales, cadences are super important and in operations it's the same. Building that cadence and making sure everybody involved is aware is huge. Are we fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement within our team? Accountability is a buzzword. A lot of people don't like it. But it's an important aspect of work, especially when it comes to operations and what you're doing in internally and to the service that you're providing to customers. So is that culture of accountability and continuous improvement part of your mo?

Yeah. Are we transparent with clients about our processes and the steps we take to resolve issues? This one's fascinating because you can be like, well, yeah, I tell them we're resolved. No. Do they have an understanding in how you operate? Sometimes people are just like, oh, I don't want to, I don't want to share those details. More often than not it's because they actually don't have a documented playbook that they could share. But the transparency with clients, in fact, this happened. I'll share this real quick. I was on a call and the client had established what they called. It was their business name, the business name guarantee. And they used a quality management process to have this guarantee come in place to ensure that things work were handled correctly across all of their customers, all their entire portfolio. And the CEO I was talking with, he said, but that's internal. Right. That's for us to improve. And I think that's a huge sales pitch.

Yeah.

Let me teach you about our quality management process to let you believe and develop trust with us that showcases how we work, how we operate. Right. Clients really do appreciate, they want to know they're going to be taken care of. And even if a teaching of how your internal processes and systems work that helps sell the client, it's important to.

Note as well, we've mentioned a few things. Communicating transparency. Transparency is the visibility. Right. What's visible to your customer, the communication aspect, the cadences, the frequency of check ins, that's the Physical approach of meeting with somebody and talking about what is.

Visible to showcase, that's the pathway to transparency.

Yes.

Is communication.

So it goes hand in hand. The final question, and then we'll close this thing out. Are we regularly reviewing and analyzing complaint data to identify trends and areas for improvement? Is there a better way to link something to what we're trying to accomplish? It has to be through the reviewing and the analyzing.

So here's a common myth, or maybe not a myth, but an objection. When we teach people this, it's like, Sam, all of this sounds great, but I don't think you get it. My clients can be really rude. Yeah, right. People can be jerks. Okay, so here's the deal. It's not going to be fixed overnight. If you have a current rocky relationship with a customer, just start the process of doing what we've talked about today. And in the beginning, it's probable that your clients may still complain, right? But you are developing a habit. And that habitual process, as an organization will start delivering results. It will start building a greater relationship of trust and, and you're gonna start having an opportunity to showcase that you are being more responsible. And guys, in order to do that, you have to remove your own ego. Check your ego at the door before walking into that conversation. I understand that people can be rude. It can be tough doing business at times, but this is when business is fun. And if you are still the founder, not just the operator and reporting up to an executive C suite, if you are the founder of your company, right? And as a business owner, there's a reason why you got into business, right? And it could be financially motivated, it could be the freedom motivated. But at the end of the day, you get into business, the core principles, you have to take care of your customers. That's how you thrive as a business. So your passion, your energy to embrace this and to deal with the, the heart, this is what gets me excited as an entrepreneur. To get up in the morning and go have fun and to satisfy clients 100%. So going back, Taylor, hopefully this was insightful. And everyone else watching, hopefully this was insightful. Go figure out in your business how to anticipate the puck better. Feel free to like subscribe to more of these for more content. We have episodes coming to you consistently from here on out and we've been pretty consistent. Yeah, you can count on. We're hoping to get into about a bi weekly rhythm of this cadence and, and yeah, maybe in the future we'll bring someone on live to ask their question. And have a conversation.

That'd be great.

We'll see. Okay, thanks, everyone.

See ya.