Why BSCs Have a Hard Time Building Trust with Clients | The Magnetic Operator Ep.3

What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Magnetic Operator. I'm your host, Kaden. This is Sam.

Hello, everyone.

And we are going to dive into a powerful discussion today regarding systems about your mo. So if you remember, your MO is not what you think it is. Everyone's going to say that it stands for your modus operandi. We are redefining what MO means on this podcast. It means the way you operate the magnetic operator.

Becoming a magnetic operator.

Yes. So today's discussion is going to be focusing on what a successful MO wields with finesse, which is feedback.

But it's not what you think.

It isn't what you think. And we'll tell you why. So whether you, you are a successful CEO or a new in house facility director, what you're going to learn today is being able to turn every single proof point of quality to a stepping stone for success. So let's dive in.

Let's do it.

All right, so in this initial body segment of this episode, we're going to actually follow a format from here on out. What we're going to call this main segment of the episode is going to come from a question that either an audience member has asked us or emailed.

In that we've experienced in our time working with building service contractors and facility managers.

Yep. And so this is called beyond Mach 1.

I don't have copyright to that. That's not to your own voice. I have copyright to my own voice, but I don't have the rights to that song.

Glad we clarified that.

But I actually hit that pretty well.

That sounded pretty good. So beyond Mach 1. What we mean by that Mach. The magnetic operators question. So in this segment, it's beyond Mach 1. What we're going to dive into is taking facility operations supersonic. I'm a fan of Top Gun, so that's why it's going to be called.

I think a lot of people like Top Gun.

Yeah, I mean, it did well in the theaters anyways. That's what MOQ is. We also have an acronym for what one is. We're going to dive into it. But before we do so, we have to go over the question that is being asked by Caleb in this episode that we have decided to focus on. Caleb asks, how often should I seek customer feedback to ensure we address issues promptly without overwhelming them. So it's interesting. So, Sam, let's first dive into. Where is this question stemming from? In the first episode of the Magnetic Operator, we talked about the three core relationships. Where do we feel this question is Falling in to those three core relationships.

Well, it's important that we probably rehash very briefly what those three are. So we have client to stakeholder or client stakeholder to service provider. Right. There's leadership to manager supervisor and then there's manager supervisor to frontline staff. Caleb's question, how should we seek customer feedback to ensure we address promptly the issues that are at hand? So this definitely is the first one mentioned the client stakeholder to service provider. So it's literally the organization that the team of facility managers or the building service contractor to their customer or those stakeholders. And so that's where it lands. But now we have to help you understand what one stands for.

So one, meaning the O is okay, the N is notable, and then the E stands for elite.

Where do you want to be? You want to be on the elite side?

Yeah.

Right.

So this Mach 1, the magnetic operators question we're going to dive into is in these episodes. We're going to explain what okay looks like to answer this question. We're going to explain what notable is or noteworthy even. And then we're going to give what we would say is the magnetic operator's status. So with this question, again, let's kind of go back into this question. Caleb asked, how often should we seek customer feedback to ensure we address issues promptly without overwhelming it? Sam, let's dive into what an okay answer or okay operations looks like.

Okay from an okay standpoint, if you're a building service contractor and I, I've worked with several hundreds of building surface contractors in my time working at OTUVI and working in just different arenas of the facility management realm. For building service contractors, it's usually just, hey, when the contract's about to renew, we should probably take a look.

Probably once a year or once every other year.

Right. Just in operations. If it's just okay, it's like, yeah, we'll just wait till then, till it comes up and we'll talk about it then. But maybe you're there, Maybe you're there.

And we're going to label you as okay.

Okay. Right. Honestly, whenever I talk to an in house facility team, the okay ones try to fly under the radar. They're trying not to.

Don't bug me.

Yeah, they're like, I don't want to be asked what the.

Or I don't want to go quality feedback. Just let me do my job.

I've run into that so many times. Yeah, right. And so the okay operator is literally trying not to gain feedback for the most part. But they're still okay. So if they were asked, hey, what is it? They'd be like, oh, yeah, I took a picture yesterday. I was like, okay, yeah, great.

But there's better way also with kind of flying under the radar is I've noticed that facility managers will wait till, like, budget time reapprovals annually. Hey, we're looking at the budget again. It's like with a contract renewal where the BSC is like, hey, we got to renew. Even a facility manager, a director who's saying, like, oh, crap, we got to look at the budget again. Do we really need this? They wait till last minute. It's okay. Because at least you're still asking the question.

Yeah.

Or trying to figure out, hey, do we need to change things? Do we need to improve things? But I think that's a good label of okay status.

But there are many of you out there that are in the notable state, which is definitely better than okay.

Yeah. Kind of like think of these as good, better, best.

Right, right, right. So, Kaden, what's notable?

What?

What would a notable operation look like as it pertains to feedback? Answering Caleb's question, when or how frequently do we do this?

It's a good question. I would say that the notable service teams, they actually have some type of frequency. Whether it is a couple times a year, quarterly, monthly. Notable teams actually realize that they want to gather feedback and so they'll deploy some type of survey that goes out.

A call cadence, perhaps.

Yeah, like saying, hey, I'm trying to get a frequent pulse of what you think. Now, we talked about this in a previous episode about asking questions. You could do a survey and ask terrible questions. Do you have any feedback for us? That's not a good question.

Yes, I do.

Yes. Or like a way for them to pull more feedback. So those of you in the notable category, I would even suggest there's a level up within the notable category of go back and listen to that episode about asking the right questions, asking better questions. Because if you ask for feedback, there's a way to ask for feedback that would garner more in the response. Instead of it being the okay status, which would take you to the last minute decisions, or, oh, hey, what do we need to change in this contract? Or how do we need to realign this budget before it renews, whatever it may be, I'm going to label that as the notable, meaning there's some type of system there. There's some type of frequency, even if it isn't consistent that they continually at least try and ask it ever so often. They might blast out a survey in some way, shape or form. I'm going to label that as probably you're in the notable category, meaning it is better because you are trying to.

Gather feedback a hundred percent. In one of the last episodes as.

Well, we did a.

Would you rather. Shall we do another one?

Okay.

So would you rather get honest feedback through a game of charades where your team expresses their feelings in charades?

Is charades the one where you can't say anything, you have to act it out?

Yes. Yes. Charades is where that is the case. Or you play 20 questions to determine how your clients feel while giving clues in mime. So it's kind of similar, but so.

Kind of game of charades versus 20 questions.

20 questions. But you're miming the questions.

Oh, so you can't still speak them.

I'm in a box. Help me.

I'd probably do charades because that would be fun. Actually, they're kind of the same. I love the game of charades. It's really fun to dive in. And obviously you wouldn't do that in the real world environment, but in a hypothetical funny environment, I'd probably take the charades route that allows the team to express their feelings.

But in that. Right. We're asking. The first part is you're talking to your team for feedback. The other one is client feedback. They both play a part, and it actually ties into what we're ultimately going to suggest to you, Caleb, on the idea of being elite. It's beyond just gathering feedback from your customers. It actually involves more so your team and your process. Right. Yeah, let's talk about that.

Yeah. So going back to the question, as you were saying that I think there's actually a different question truly actually at play. What you might be asking is actually the symptom of the fact that you aren't connected with your clientele as much as you want to be. Which is why you're asking, hey, how frequently should I be asking for feedback? Right. That's a symptomatic question to something else that I would say in my expertise is lacking, which is you don't have a system in place that gets ahead.

Of potential feedback or even the need to capture feedback, because you actually are gathering information through a process. Yeah.

So your ability to gather data on your operations, get insights into how performance is happening on the front line, on a managerial level between you and your client.

Even if it's charades.

Even if it's charades, the ability that you need to have a pulse on your team's. Performance to be able to anticipate what a client could complain about. Which means going back in one of our first episodes, we talked about the power of becoming aware. Becoming aware of what is happening is the first step to making improvements. Now in this regard, when it comes to feedback, you don't need to ask for traditional feedback or in the way that maybe you would think traditional feedback would be happening is I now have data that I'm looking at. I analyze performance and I have insights that I then go and present to my client and then we talk about it.

Visibility.

Right.

Transparency.

Yeah. So that data and accountability leads to the byproduct of trust and this open loop conversation and feedback. I don't want to say feedback in the sense that it's what people think. You ever see that video on social media? It was just like, hey, share with me your feedback. And it was like a little box.

Yeah.

And it shredded and it shreds as it goes through. Meaning like I don't listen to your feedback. Right. It is funny, but you know, that's kind of how people think of feedback. So if you were to go through and take a whole new different approach, instead of feedback, it's, hey, I'm going to start a conversation of insights and data that allows us to have a open, trusting discussion about what's happening and how they feel about the operations. Then you are gathering feedback. But it's next level. It is the elite level.

Right. So feedback is still important. Right. Capturing feedback, sending out the surveys, making the phone calls, that's still important. That's even the notable arena of our Mach 1, the next level. If you want to be an elite, have an elite MO Be a magnetic operator. Have an operation where you're getting ahead of your customer or the stakeholder in your organization. Instead of them coming to you when there's something wrong, you're training them and teaching them how to come to you to talk about things that are going right and then see how you can improve the things that are going wrong. That is powerful. That's magnetic. People want to operate in that motion with you. So being proactive and gathering that information is an elite motion for a magnetic operator. That's what we all want to become more magnetic in our operation.

Yeah. So as we thought about this question, Caleb, the tip to our entire audience is why we're diving into this specific question. But we're going to leave you with six steps that enable you to become an elite mo. An elite magnetic operator. So, you know, take out a pen, write these down and go through what I always say. It's not what's taught, it's what's caught. As we go through some of these things, you might have something come to mind that is beyond the reflection of what we're actually saying. So write these down. The first step that we would give you is to identify quality patterns in service, which means you need to be able to track what is happening day in and day out, measuring it, giving it an actual rating, a service quality rating of how well the job was completed.

It also is important, I think on that one, identifying the quality patterns, there's the three relationships. And each relationship has a certain quality effort that has to be captured. So what does the manager need to know the front line is doing? What does the manager have to deliver to leadership to understand the level of quality? What does the leadership team have to send to a customer to ensure that business will be secured or that the stakeholders not upset at the facility manager? It starts with identifying through capturing the quality.

Yeah. What that leads to is your ability to actually, which is step two is to prioritize the issues. What I mean by that is you can identify an entire list, but you can't just say, hey, here's all the issues. Some of them have a greater weight or a greater impact on the organization's operations. So it's super important to prioritize which ones are going to lead to the greatest impact, depending on the issue that came up as you were measuring which ones have more of an urgent problem to it. So pulling that list together, getting together, saying, all right, here's everything that we went through. We did a facility inspection or an audit or we asked, we gathered feedback from each of these core relationships. Right. Step three, I would say, is then develop an action plan. You've identified the list. How would you develop an action plan?

It involves a few things. First of all, you have to know who's going to own it, who's going to be held accountable, or who is accountable of the things you are capturing and realizing, hey, this is a problem area, this is quality that is lower. Who's owning this? Who needs to be basically dispatched or put onto this job to make sure it gets taken care of. So who's accountable? So the who, when should it be resolved?

Right.

If it is a big problem, resolve it quickly. If it's one that has to be looked at over time, that's actually the next step. Right. Is communicating the change and tracking that progress. Then defining the definition of done. What is the definition of done? And I'd even say, beyond just defining what done is to increase the level of quality, it's done well, what is the dodw the definition of done? Right.

Yeah.

Because if your people have clarity into knowing what the definition of done well is and you've set that standard with a customer or a stakeholder and it's actually delivered on and you're capturing that and then you shared the captured of the job well done, now you're getting recognized for the good work and the job well done, not just the challenges and the problems. And that's usually what the okay operator deals with, is, hey, here's a problem, go fix it. Now you're teaching the people that you're working with to recognize you for the good work you're doing. And that's what we all want. We want to be recognized for good work.

Yeah. So that was number three. Number four is to then go communicate those changes. You can't just go release new processes or a system or say, hey, here's my findings and and just not share those insights. So you need to share it with leadership staff members and to your clients and stakeholders. The reason why the elite status of an MO is gathering all this data and insights, the ability to then go proactively share it, the need for feedback comes probably more so from a reactive place. And so if you proactively take the approach to then go share those insights, to then have a discussion with your clients and or stakeholders that control your budgets for a facility director, whoever it may be, that step to communicate those changes is vital because it shows that you are taking a proactive approach, that you are aware of any issues and that you're taking care of them, you're going to handle the job just fine, that there is nothing to be complaining about. The more often you do that, let's say you have a monthly business review or an account review with these clients and or stakeholders. It allows you to present an opportunity for them to share feedback. But now it's coming in a form of hey, there's this survey or people just said, hey, do you have any feedback for us? I've presented how we are doing. Do you agree with this? Do you actually have an opinion based off of what I've presented? You're like, wow, you guys seem to be doing a lot of incredible work. But I still have these concerns which aren't being addressed through your data. Oh, well, let's talk about it. Right? So because you are creating the channel, then it will happen more frequently and you'll just keep improving. So that was number four. Number five, track.

Track the progress. It needs to be transparent. They have to access it, right? So you should utilize tools in technology. There's so many utilize tools that capture this quality for you, right? It showcases what you're doing, where you're doing it, who's doing it, what's happening with that tracking and then being able to easily share that insight again, that proactive approach, that's only going to lead to greater trust. It's going to lead to more time saved through automated processes. That is why you implement in this age of digital technology, right? Digital transformation, how you're tracking these things is part of your operation. What tools and process do you use to track? That's what has to happen next.

So, Caleb, the last point I would write down is like a rinse and repeat kind of thing. Continue to evaluate. That's number six. Continue to evaluate and make changes as necessary. Which means step one through five and go do it again and again and go sell that to your client. Go sell it to the stakeholder that, hey, I, as your facility director, am running this process. You have all of these complaints. Instead of living in a state of chaos, you then start funneling complaints through a channel of proactiveness. Here's how I'm measuring. Here's how I'm going to take care of you. And you're going to uncover things that even the client maybe didn't realize was an issue. That, hey, we are doing our part about becoming aware and establishing a consistent process that allows us to perform at an elite level. And that, Caleb, taking those six steps that we've just talked about and outlined is what will make you an elite mo.

Awesome. Good stuff.

That's a wrap on today's question. Caleb, thanks for your contribution to the podcast. If you have a question that you would like us to answer that you're curious about what we would take on in the Mach 1 scenario, email your question to VIP. That'll put us in the queue of all the questions we received that we'll cover in episodes and we'll discuss your question on an episode and allow others to learn from even your question. So thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the Magnetic Operator podcast. And until next time, enjoy your week.

Thanks, everyone.