A REAL Team Meeting at Augusta Lawn Care

Okay, let's see here. So let's go over the yellow slips real quick. So yellow slip for Noreen Burns. This is for Matt. But basically.

Basically we left without the treatments from here. So we're going to start making yellow slips when we start forgetting stuff too. So basically we went to the job site. They were supposed to have double fertilization, and we basically forgot, left the job. They called us and was like, hey, what's up? I thought we were supposed to have fertilization. And I'm like, oh, yeah, they probably forgot. So then they had to come back here. So I know it's easy and blame to be like, just leave first thing in the morning. Because it's so close. Like, oh, if I forgot something, I'll come back. But that day, we came back to the office three times. So that route, actually, Matt and Garrison did that day, did pretty good on as far as, like, they got like 24 jobs done. Great. But they probably could have got three more done if they didn't have to come back three times. So Matt already took care of that. When he came back, they went and did the fertilization. Keith Johnson, Kim Rookstool. We're gonna be taking care of that today. So Aaron, or, sorry, Josh and Riley will be taking care of this one. And this is really what we'll be talking about today. And that is doing walkthroughs. So I know I've said a couple times about the importance of a walkthrough, but this yellow slip is genuinely only because of walkthrough negligence. So this one, I know for a fact that this one, there is some. There was some differences with this job because it was two separate parts of a job. Riley did one part one day. Aaron and Josh did a different part the next day. So it was a little bit hard to be like, hey, let's do a final walkthrough on work I didn't do. So I. I get that part. But at the end of the day, when it comes to a walkthrough, we need to know that when we leave that job, they are completely done. No question marks. No. Like, I don't know if I like that. Because if they don't know if they like it when you're there, when they get back in their house, it's an email back to us as if, like, the world's falling apart. So it's always easy fixes. Like today, when Josh and Riley go back to the rook stools, it's all like five minutes here and like 10 minutes here and. And like, little things that just could have been picked up on and fixed really fast while we were at the job. Instead of them having to call us, me go back to the job, me make another visit, us come back, sending two guys another day and just completely kill the job. So as far as walkthroughs, I think we should kind of do what it actually should kind of look like. I know when I say walkthrough, some of the ones that have been here longer might have seen me do one with a customer. But at the end of the day when I show you guys in the morning, I expect you guys to do the walk through at the end of the day. Because otherwise it just. It would be hectic for me trying to do what the beginning of the day and the end of the day stuff. I wouldn't have any time to do anything else. So that being said, Liz is gonna come up here and we're gonna do like a trial of what an actual walkthrough should look like. So I know it's like a little bit awkward at the end of a job to come up to the door and start asking for critical feedback and negativity, but you have to do it then. Cause I promise you, it's more awkward for Riley and Josh this morning. Go back to the rook stools. Although they're like the coolest people in the world, it's more awkward now once you know they're unhappy. And I've called the office and gone through the whole rigmarole instead of at the end of a job and it's like, literally, you'll see the day. It's like, hey, just take that little piece of grass out. Take that limestone rake that this way. It's little, little stuff that being said on your walkthrough. Most people are nice and they're not gonn exactly what they're thinking. Sometimes you gotta look at their face and realize, do they really like this or not? If they're like, oh, okay, that's a very good sign. There's something they don't like. And you say, what's wrong? What can I do? And literally, it's almost always just move this rock or little, little stuff. It's not like, blow it up and redo it. We really, really gotta focus on walkthroughs. We've had three in the past week of callbacks, and that callback is a half day for us to go back and fix. So it basically eliminates any sort of profitability from the job, which I'm not so much worried about as the client being unhappy and leaving that taste in their mouth as if we tried to get out of the job before it was really done. And so even the rook sales, they're super nice. And they're of course like, oh, I'm sure they had to get the track loader somewhere else or whatever. And they did. But at the end of the day, we gotta make sure when we leave the job it's to satisfaction. So when you knock on the door and they come out, get them to come out. Like, I know sometimes some people, if they've been around the job the entire day, you don't need to walk through the job. Some people have literally been breathing down your neck the whole time, and they know everything that's gone on. And they literally do just need to say, yeah, it looks great, but if they have not been outside watching your job, we need to actually try to get them to see the job, see what was done. Then it's number one, they're not gonna be inclined to ask about something and they know because they think you're done and want to get out of there. And then two, you don't really want to pull everything back out of your trailer. So I'd say, like, at 90% of your job being done, that's when you do a walkthrough. They're gonna realize you're gonna blow things off. They know you're gonna, like, move the rocks that's left extra. But you want to do it before the end of the job, completely finishing, like wrapped up in the truck. So when you bring them out, what you're looking to do is either a, have your clipboard, and so on your clipboard, we're going to stop putting the number of hours because you see on your service autopilot, you see it on your app, and we're going to stop doing that so that you can look at the clipboard if you want, with the client. So you can literally be like, okay, so we moved the one boulder. So I'm just going to literally read this down. We moved the one large boulder with the track loader. We created some space for the cart, the golf cart. We dug out the soil so it's flat over here. And then we hauled all that stuff off at the back of the trailer and literally just walk them through what you did. Some people, like I said, they're not gonna need that. They're not gonna care that much. But for the people that do, this is like game changer. So the people that are the Most happy with us have had a good walkthrough. Literally, if you look on online reviews and all that stuff, the people that are the most happy with us are the ones we did really good walkthrough with and actually showed them things and pick things out they didn't like. It's always little stuff. And fixed it. So I'm really, really asking, can you.

Move that boulder four inches to the right?

Yeah. Like, it's just right now. Yeah, it's just stuff like that. Four inches. If we don't do it, then is a phone call or email to Liz. Them setting up an appointment for me, Me going and meeting the client. Them telling me that it needs 4 inches. Me coming back, setting up another job for us to go back to pulling people off another job. Like, it's a big process for the 4 inches. So if we can catch the 4 inches at the end of the job, much, much more efficient, does that make sense? I know it's not.

Or watch their body language. If they're, like, looking and they're like.

And then you say to them, oh, you seem a little uncertain about that. Is that not, like, how you like it? Yeah, something like that.

I would be weary if they have not seen the work you've done and they're just like, yeah, bye. Because there's a really good chance they walk out two hours later and they really look at it and then they're calling us and so.

And maybe just the limestone wasn't level.

Yeah. It just needed to be really small.

Tiny bit or something.

Yeah. So if you have questions, let me know. If you have questions on what to say. I know that I've done it a million times. I know there's that small twinge of like, I don't really want to ask because I finished the job. I don't really wanna ask if there's something wrong. But I promise you, it's easier then than, like, coming the next door.

Just, like, how annoying it is to come back.

Yeah. It's so, like. And they love it. Like, the clients love the fact that we do that walkthrough. So I just really ask that you really emphasize that. Can you explain if they're not there? If they're not there, that's when we're doing pictures and we're making sure. And then those are some. Sometimes you can't help that. We're pushing them to try to be there for a walk through.

Yeah. Like the one Russell did the other day. He went to the door four times. They were in and Out. And they ended up going to the dentist. Emergency. Yeah, Lisa Nakima. And so then they called me later and they're like, oh, he filled it in so nicely. But I needed to see it before. And I said, he came to the door four times, he was trying to catch you, he's not gonna come back.

Right, yeah. So sometimes we can't help it. However, we push them to try to be there at least for a walk through. Like you want to walk through at the beginning and end if at all possible. And so, yeah, yeah. Any questions on that? Can you explain if you're at a job for, let's say four days, what do you do every day? You should be checking with them every single day. Right? So. Because the reason is because on these big jobs, every single day we're getting work change orders, which is really just like, oh, you know what, I'd rather just move this over a bit or add a little bit of this. And so it's good to do it every single day. Because if you don't, when you do one on the fourth day, it's like, oh, why don't we like completely move that boulder wall? When on the first day they could be like, I don't like the line of that first course. Let's like move it back a bit.

Or like the OEMs, we knew they were gonna be on the whole time and you gave me pictures every night. I sent them like a two line report. That was huge because then they could say, oh, just change this or change this. And I had the message to you before you left in the morning.

Like, imagine at OEMs, if we would have done that, the edging on that wave that we started on and they get back and like, oh, we want it straight, all the turf would have come out. Right? So it's just about communicating with them. If it's a multi day job, it should be every single day. And that's like, at Donahue's, they've had a bunch of work change orders, but every single day we're in communication with them. So you know by the end they're gonna be happy with the product.

And that's what they've all mentioned recently, is that we're updating them and communicating. And it just amazes them like that we're all connected. So they're sending me messages like that. You guys are getting them.

So most companies wouldn't be transferring information to each other that effectively. So it's huge for the customer.

So if you have questions or if you're Gonna do a walkthrough. And you're like, I don't know about this. Either ask someone that's been doing it for a little bit longer, or ask myself, I can give you tips on getting that walkthrough and looking at their eyes and really seeing if they're actually happy. If they're not saying, wow, that looks great, there's a problem because we're doing landscaping and stuff that they don't wanna be doing. We're saving them time. It's. If they're not happy when you're leaving, that's the highest point of their happiness level, is right when you're leaving. That's the height of when you buy something. The moment you check out is the height of you'll ever like that product anymore. Right when you're buying it. So if they are even slightly annoyed or don't like something to tinge when you're doing a walkthrough, they're gonna hate it later on. And then that's when they call us on the rookstools.

The other day when Riley left, I don't think you were here the next day. So how would we have ended that? Maybe he would have just said to.

You, I was here the next day. I just wasn't on that job.

Yeah. So maybe when he was done, knowing it was only halfway done, this is kind of how far I got. They need to be aware of this, this, and this tomorrow. Then I'd have just made sure he never went new. We have more of the job to do. This is what Riley said.

Yeah, that one was a little bit different because we split the job in two. And it was because they kind of thought like, oh, Riley wasn't finished. They'll finish on the second day. But then you thought you were finished. And then the two guys came and had no idea what you had done.

And then they said nothing for like three or four days till I invoiced them.

No, most people don't say anything until you invoice, which is. I get it. Because hoping it's free. And then like, oops, I didn't know.

There was a problem.

Yeah. So cool. Questions? Anything? No. Matt, do you have any questions?

Not about walkthrough so much. Is anybody showing up or should I lock up? Wait, no, no, I. I text Garrison. Garrison's there? Yeah, I text Garrison. She's there at 10.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

And if they're not there, we could take pictures.

Yeah, pictures on the service autopilot, you know, a couple other. Maybe Even if you have questions about something? Not questions, but you think that might be something that I would usually want to do. A walkthrough, like, how much did I take down the hedge? Quick picture of that, you know, so that when we do send them the pictures, not just like random pictures, but like, things that you might have a question about if they were actually there. So cool. All right, good work. We will get started on today and I'm going to be walking through with.

Rook stools, Riley and Josh.

I already did Russell, so you're good and Josh is good.