How One Call DOUBLED Customer Lifetime Value

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today I'm going to be sharing something I don't think I've ever shared before, and that is actually internal training around how we answer the phone at Augusta Lawn Care. Now, these are actually two live phone calls that come into our command center, which is behind me, and I actually break down how they can be improved, put someone in the hot seat, and actually break down the whole call. And this is probably one of my favorite videos we've ever shared publicly.

Thanks for calling us. Lawn Care. This is Dean. How can I help you?

Yes, I was checking to find out. Do you do mowing?

Sure do.

Okay. Do you know about what you charge for that? I'm looking for somebody to do mowing and the edging around and pulling the weeds.

Sure. What's. What's the address? I think I might be able to get your quote over the phone.

So good job here identifying the fact that we can actually solve the problem for the customer. Not just like, do you offer this service not just saying, yep, let me go ahead and pull up your account. But actually, hey, if you stay with me for just a couple of minutes and I get some information from you, I can actually give you a quote over the phone and get this on the schedule. Adding that last little bit kind of bridges the gap so the customer knows that by the end of this call, I'm going to be taken care of. Because remember, the customer doesn't call for a quote. They actually are calling to solve a problem.

You've never used our services before?

I don't believe so, no.

Okie dokie. Well, we can certainly help you out there. Let me get some info from you. Your first name, Jennifer. And your last name, White.

So one thing she's already said that points us to know our upsell is going to be is the fact that she wants weeding in the beds. And she said mowing and edging. So when we're first open at the phone call, sometimes it's easy to lose that because we're trying to quickly get to check their service area. Totally understandable. We got to keep our ears open to the fact that she said she wants weeding the bed. So let's see if we get that.

For the front and the backyards.

Yeah, it'd be for the front and the back.

Excellent. Okay. Yeah, I think I can get you a quote here. Now, the weeding that will be done by sending our estimator over to the property drives by. It's pretty casual.

Okay.

And then do you mow that little strip of grass in front of the driveway.

So this is really good. One thing you could do also is basically we haven't even told the customer the cost of the mowing, but we know we can give her the price. So what you can say is, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and measure property, get you the quote for the mowing, and then we can get you on the schedule for that. After that, I will get an estimator set up to come drive by your property and give you a quote for the weeding that way. Again, we're just pre seeing the fact that this is the next step of the process. And after you accept the estimate and we get you set up, then we're moving on to this other thing. So like giving them what to expect in the call so they'll stay engaged throughout the, the entire time.

I mean, in front of the, the, the sidewalk there by the curb.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

And then is there a fence around the, the backyard? Yes. Okay.

But the, the yard is not.

The yard doesn't go all the way to the fence.

Okay. There's some landscaping back there.

Yeah.

Okay, incorporate that.

Right. Event.

Okay, let me do a little arithmetic here. And I should have a mowing quote for you in just a moment.

Okay.

Now did you need any like mulching or bark put down things like that?

I may.

I need to kind of look and figure out what I need to do.

But for right now, no.

But.

Okay, so this is like alarm bells all over. This is great. So here's why we know this is great. She's. She, she has once mowing. We can deliver on that. She, we know she wants weeding. And then what? Dean here is great. She basically asked like, do you want any mulching? Instead of saying, would you like anything else kind of like mulching, Just go directly for the kill of mulch. Because we know she has landscaping in the back. We know she wants the beds weeded. What we can say is just say, hey, while I, when I do get the estimator set up for the weeding, would you like him to give me an optional line item to add mulch to the beds? So for all I know, maybe Dean goes that direction here. But it's a way to get them to say yes without like. Because right now when you say like, do you need other things? People are like, well, I don't really know if I can trust them because I haven't even seen them. They haven't been to my property. You haven't done any mowing. But if I'm in, if they're inviting us to already come on their property, do the weeding visit, let's just get them to accept that. Hey, let's also do another line item for the molten stall. So we're not really trying to get them to commit to much besides, hey, while we're there, we'll just do an optional item. It'll be totally in addition to the weeding. So great job of seeding this right now though, while he's getting the information to do the quote for mowing. So great job of keeping the conversation alive and not letting the call go silent. He's keeping that conversation around the upsell live throughout May. That may change.

Okay, yeah, if. Yeah, when our estimator comes over for the weeding, we can have him throw that in too, just so you have a something in your mind.

Perfect.

Great. Okay. So for a. Now for a weekly mowing, the price would be 39.

So what we just did there is essentially took a mowing customer that we're going to about to give pricing for. We've already, before even giving the price, we've basically had them commit to the fact that we're going to send an estimator to their house for weeding as well as installing mulch. These two services alone, an initial cleanup and some mulch installed, could be $1,000. The mowing, it might take us 30, 40 visits to make $1,000. So the fact is we were likely able to double the annual value of this customer by just having these couple conversations around weeding and mulch. Now. And what's crazy, this is what's crazy. By us talking about the mulch and the weeding now, it basically assumes we're selling this mowing job. So I can almost guarantee you this job gets sold because the way that the customer is talking with Dean is like, we're going to come do your property. And so this is going to be an easy sell. I can almost guarantee it dollars or.

Every other week would be 58.50.

Okay, I'd like to do the weekly mowing.

It's mode right now. I just want to get something going like next week.

Okay. Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem. Yeah, great. Okay, let me get this accepted and then we'll do a couple more little clerical things to get you all set up. I'm gonna. I'm just writing up the figures here.

Perfect. So what he's doing here is giving himself some time while he's inserting all the information, but also preceding the fact that, hey, after I get you set up, then we're gonna go ahead and make sure that we get these estimates for the weeding and the mulch install done as well.

Alrighty. Now, we do require a card on file for the, to initiate the service. If you have one handy, I can put it on the account now or send you a link to our client portal.

That would be good. I'm not, I'm not close to that right now.

Okay, great. I will send you a link and then, but first, let's get that estimator out for the, for the weeding. Okay.

So I like how he kept moving on here. What you might want to say here is like, no worries. Maybe while we're wrapping up the last bit of this conversation, if you want to find a card, because I do need that card on file to be able to get the estimate accepted. Because almost every single one of our owners do want a card on file. And we might, she might come around to that. But what you can say, this is perfect. You can just say, hey, okay, great, while you find a card, I'm going to go ahead and get you set up for that or weeding and mulch installation estimate. But we do need that card in order to get the job on. Because like, alternatively we could, we could always text them the link like we probably did here is text them the link to go to the customer portal, put their card information on file. Fine. If we do that now, though, we'll have the card on file by the end of this conversation. So we say, okay, great, I'm going to text you a link, click on that link, put your card information on file, and then I'll be able to get this job accepted right away. So again, the reason this is so easy to do this is because the customer wants the problem solved and he's been able to say, I have the solution. And now I just need the card information. And while you're finding that card for the next couple minutes, I'll make sure I get you set up for this, the other estimates.

Okay, great. Now, yeah, he, as I said, he usually just drives by when he's in the neighborhood. If that works for you, takes a walk around.

Okay.

No, as long as he can he access the backyard.

Yeah, just make sure you close the.

Gate and come out.

I think I've got dogs, so.

Copy that. And the weeds are in the front, in the back. You said there was some landscaping back there. They're kind of in the beds.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

You said there are dogs.

Yes.

And then for the mulching, just so he has an idea, I assume you have garden bed around the property?

Yes.

Okay.

Excellent. I will send this right over to him and he might be there.

Tomorrow, if not the day after. And it takes usually about a 48 hour turnaround for a quote like this. Okay, so look out in your email.

Yeah. So next I'll send the credit card, the client portal link so you can put your card on file. And after that we'll send you a schedule.

Perfect.

Perfect. Excellent.

Okay, thank you.

Is there anything else I can do to make this a 10 out of 10 experience for you?

Not that I can think of right now.

Well, since you think of anything, just give us a call back and we'd be happy to get you a quote or incorporate it into your service.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Hey, you're welcome. Thank you so much for calling.

Bye bye.

Take care. Bye bye.

Excellent work. Excellent work. We got the upsell upbeat tone throughout. The 10 out of 10 question was absolutely said. So we got ourselves a 10 out of 10 call. One way to improve that 10 out of 10 question, instead of just saying, is there anything I can do to make this a 10 out of 10 experience? That assumes like, anytime you're wrapping up a call, like, anything else I can do for you instead, what can we do to make this experience with Augusta long here a 10 out of 10, then they'll think more about the actual service. They'll think, well, actually, my last landscaper let the dogs out all the time because he forgot the gate or, you know, they stop showing up. Like, if you guys can just show up, like, we're trying to actually figure out what can Augusta as a whole, including the crew in the actual job, what can they do to make it a 10 out of 10 experience? So how you phrase that 10 out of 10 question? If you're just making, like, what else can I do to make this a 10 out of 10 experience? There's. You're wrapping up the call. They won't give you anything. But if you say, hey, when we come to the job, like, what can we do to make sure it's a 10 out of 10 experience for you? You'll get more detailed. So very, very good.

Thank you for calling Augusta Launch here.

This is Kate.

How can I help you?

Hi, Kate. I was wondering if you serve the, like, north Omaha area.

We do have routes that extend out that way and into that area. If I could get your address, I'll be able to see if you fall inside my route.

Yeah, I'll just say I really like. I don't think I've ever heard someone say this. I really like how she said, if you fall within our route instead of even just calling it service area, I really like that. Because the person's asking about mowing, like, that's a really, really solid, solid word.

Christine, I see that your address does fall inside my serviceable area. What were the services you were looking to have an estimate for?

Well, we are looking to sell our house. We're in the process of moving. We're looking to probably go on the market like July 10th. So between now and then, maybe some scheduled services to help me maintain the yard generally. But like, there's. There's an area of brush that needs clean. There's railroad ties that are on a flower bed on the north side of the house that need be stabilized on the flower bed. General just cleanup, just making it tidy and clean and, you know, ready for showing would be a huge awesome.

So anytime you hear someone talk about upselling the house, you immediately think, property cleanup, mulch install. How do we make this property look as good as possible, like as fast as possible? Also, the buyer, or, sorry, the seller of the house, or in this case our customer is very price insensitive. They're selling a house for 400, 500, $600,000. Spending an extra thousand or two thousand to make sure it looks really nice and they sell it immediately is not a big deal to them. They're very price insensitive. And so these are great candidates to upsell. As soon as you hear, let's get this property sold. We're trying to sell this property. Think, okay, can I get 2, 3, 4 different upsells as an optional line item on an estimate for this customer help?

Got it. Now, were you needing things like, I'm sorry, I'm taking a look at your property here, taking notes and seeing what we can offer you to help with the curb appeal and sellability. It looks like you've got some beds around that around the property. Would you like some mulch installed in those or just getting some, like, weeds pulled?

Yeah, so there's a, there's a flower bed right in the front and definitely getting weeds pulled, cleaning that up, making it look nice. Mulch probably there, there's a, like I said, the flower bed on the north side of the property that needs just like general cleanup and weeds pulled and things like that and maintained. And then there on the backside of the house, there's, I Mean the backyard, generally speaking. There's some flower beds in there. There's one main flower bed for sure in the backyard that would look really nice if that got cleaned out and mulched over. And then also on the backside, like in the backyard of the property, like along the alley, there's a little corner of our property that's not within our fence line but is part of our property that's just become overgrown. We took down two old trees right there and so around there it's just, it's just getting overgrown and that needs to just get like brushed basically.

Got it. So it's definitely a project where we're getting taken care of. All right now.

Yeah.

I need to gather just a little bit of information from you and then I can get the estimation process for this started. Sure. I can either just send my estimator by the property with this list that you've just given me and let them know this is what the customer would like to see in an estimate from us, or I can schedule a time between 8 and 5, Monday to Saturday.

Actually not after 3 on Saturdays. There's a note here that where you two meet at the property together and you discuss this full estimate together and then he writes it up and sends it over to you with our pricing. Okay.

Let me think about that. I'm going out of town for the next four days, but my father in law is here and into the weekend. If you have. If there's any time for someone to come by between Wednesday and Saturday or are we looking into next week?

I would be looking at this week. If you wanted to be the one that was there. I can absolutely get that scheduled next week. It just sounds like this is a bit time sensitive and I'm trying to make sure we get that to you as soon as possible. If you're confident with your dad meeting the estimator at the property, we are more than content to meet with him as long as you're receiving the estimate you wish.

Yeah, totally. I would be comfortable with, with Bill handling that while he's in town here. And he, we've discussed this. He knows sort of the problem areas that you know, that are kind of, you know, need to be taken care of.

So she did a great job of saying like, so when someone goes into a ton of depth, sometimes an in person estimate is almost required. And knowing this person is price insensitive and needing this job pretty quickly, an in person estimate might be worth it. Now if I have to do as a drive by, I could probably say hey, we want to pull the weeds in all the flower beds, install mulch and there's a backyard flower bed specifically they mentioned is really important as well as along the back alley where they removed a bunch of trees and brush. So that would probably be what I'd do if I was having to do a drive by. And I'm still going to give the notes for the in person estimate, but a project this scope probably looked in at 4, 5, 6,000 dollars. Doing an in person assessment, not a bad idea. But if you have to do a drive by because like she's leaving out of town. Also, great job of Kate picking up on the fact like hey, it sounds like this is time sensitive. Great hook there.

So yeah, that would work for me.

For us. Perfect. Now what was your name?

Notice how Kate does a great job of this is like saying perfect. Awesome. Great. We can do that. Staying positive throughout the entire call really helps the customer. And watch what the customer does is it matches exactly the way she's talking. Cool. That's awesome. She's matching Kate's verbiage of being positive and upbeat. That is really the essence of a 10 out of 10 call and that the first part is like an upbeat tone. If you use that upbeat tone, the customer will reflect that back to you.

So after he meets with your dad, he's going to send us over to your email and then go ahead and give us a call here in the office if you would like to answer any questions, get anything adjusted or even just move portions, if not all of it off to scheduling. Whatever your heart's desire, just reach out to us. And I'm taking a look at tomorrow's schedule. He actually has all of his available appointments up for the grads anytime between 8am with the last scheduled meeting taking place at 4pm wrapping up no later than 5. And that is not how long it takes. That's just how long we allot what time is best for you guys for him to meet you.

I know. Let me see here. We're getting mud and our utilities are getting hooked up tomorrow with the new house. So I'm working. Is there any.

What?

Is there any availability?

See, tomorrow's two.

Tomorrow's Wednesday. Is there any availability Thursday?

Absolutely. Let me see what he's got up for the grabs. And all of his available time slots are up for the grabs for Thursday as well. Okay, great.

Could we do like something like 9 or 10 in the morning on Thursday if that works?

Absolutely. I'm going to go ahead and nab the 9am time slot for you right now in person.

See how, see how it feels like Kay is on the side of the customer. Like I'm going to nab that for you. I'm going to get that reserved for you. Like she's on the side of the customer. That these little words is what goes into an upbeat tone really means. It's not just having a high pitched voice, it's also being upbeat. It is, I'm on your side. Let's figure this out together. I'm going to nab this. I'm going to go ahead and secure this for you. So great job.

For sale estimate. That's why I'm just putting it down. Home for sale estimate. This is in person.

Now.

My estimator's name is Jordan. He's going to be in a bright yellow truck, bright yellow clothes, Augusta all over the place. You're going to know it's us.

Bill.

Right.

You get a customer laughing when you have an upbeat tone. And once you get a customer laughing, they have reduced their stress and the anxiety of not trusting someone on the other side of the phone. So great job.

Here, go ahead.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

I was going to say, since I'm going to be out of state, can I also give you Bill's number in case Jordan needs to get a hold of him or, or anything like that?

Absolutely. What would his number be?

See, if Kate would have rushed this call and just got the information, the customer would have never opened up about the fact that Bill's phone number should probably be attached to these estimate notes in case something happens. So this is why having an upbeat tone, it seems like, well, it's so basic in terms of having a 10 to 10 call. It allows the customer to relax and give you more information and think cognitively about what happens if someone's not home or someone needs to change their schedule. Who do you call? So just excellent work.

Thank you. I'm going to include that into the note for the meetings with the estimator, but I'm not going to add Mr. Bill onto the account.

Perfect. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, he's just helping us out as we. Things have been a little crazy around here and he's in town, so I'm going to take full advantage of his assistance.

Not to be added to account, just assisting and has approval from Sonia to help along the process.

Okay.

We'd just like to know who is it that's calling the shot for an address? As long as you're giving us permission to interact with Bill, then We are totally fine. I'm going to note that onto the account. That way anybody who you interact with for your services is aware of that. Great.

Awesome.

All right.

Is there anything else?

We notice the reflection of the words great, awesome. It's exactly what Kate is saying on the phone back to her. So again, I like this call a lot because it really emphasizes the upbeat tone. And if you have an upbeat tone, the reason it's the number one is because if you have an upbeat tone, making upsell is very easy. Customer opens up there, let's. And then the 10 out 10 question becomes really easy because they've already let down their guard. They're happy with you, they don't feel stressed out.

Help out with, with the home there. Ms. Sonia, is there any other services you're curious about?

I think, I think for now that would be a huge help just getting it, getting sort of these trouble spots under control. And then it's something, you know, between now and, you know, when house sale sells, which could be, you know, the second or third week in July, you know, I'm not sure when, you know, things are finalized and things grow like crazy in the spring, especially with all these storms we've been having is like, you know, just kind of general maintenance kind of helping me maintain some of the, some of the mowing and some of the management of these trouble spots like is.

So we've already done a great job upselling the one time project. If you go on the upsell thoughtful upsell inside the wiki, you'll see underneath the project once you got a cleanup or a mulch installed. The immediate thing I'm going to is mowing it is maintenance. And so once these, this, you know, the beds are weeded, the flower beds have mulch. I need to mow the grass. I still also, the fact that she's talking about the third week of July tells me this is like four to six weeks away. Let's make sure she's also on a recurring maintenance for the flower beds so that they still stay good. And you say, hey look, we'll. We'll weed the beds and rake up the mulch. It just looks fresh all the time. So even though this, the, the, the recurring side here might be four or five mows, it might be three or four weeding visits. Like that's not a big part. The big part is gonna be the, the massive cleanup and mulch install. That's 4, 5, 6,000 dollars. Awesome. We got that. We can also go ahead and tack on more here by saying hey, let's get you on recurring services as well. So whenever you get recurring, we're going to try to get them on a one time cleanup, a property cleanup, a mulch install, something like that. When they're coming after the, the molten stall, the property cleanup, we're like, hey, can we also get you on maintenance, the recurring side of things?

Something also that could be scheduled like in, in the, in between time till we get things done with the house.

Absolutely. I've actually included into this estimate note for your meeting that we will need a maintenance estimate to keep the property nice until it's sold. So he will sen maintenance options for after does. Like for example, the garden beds, he'll let you know what the prices are to get those cleaned up, weeds pulled, mulch installed. And then it will have a maintenance on the garden beds separately. You got to receive the clean out in order for the maintenance to be effective. But some customers, they're just like, oh, well, I just want the maintenance. Okay, but we're not going to be reaching in and pulling all of that out then. No, no, that's not right. It's not. So I'll ask him to include that.

Awesome.

Yeah, it definitely needs the cleanup before the maintenance for sure. Okay, that's, that's fantastic.

Great.

This is a huge load off my shoulders. I have called probably 15 lawn care companies and I have yet to talk to a human. So actually getting to speak with you and something on the books is a miracle. So thank you so much. This is a huge load off.

Well, we are absolutely thrilled that you chose to reach out to Augusta. We're sorry you had to go through so many calls before landing on us. If you see any areas where we can improve or anything that we can do better, please let us know whether you choose to hire us or not, the moment you reach out to us. You're a customer and we like to know that our customers are taken care of. Customer service satisfaction, it is our number one goal. And well, if there's something you're not satisfied about, from our pricing to our scheduling to services provided, we like to hear from our customers how we can do better.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And I will let Bill know about the 9am appointment on Thursday and I will keep my eye open for the estimate in my email.

Take care, Ms. Sonia. I hope to connect with you later.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Bye.

Bye.

Awesome work. Awesome work. Very good calls. Okay, so the only thing we didn't ask here was the 10 out of 10 question. I think that Last interaction of, like, expressing how important customer service was. That was great. Asking the 10 out of 10 question, I think we kind of could probably guess what the person was going to say, but that's probably where I would have put it. At the very end there, he's like, hey, I really appreciate it. She's already thrilled with the fact that we just picked up the phone. Right. You notice here, like, this is. You notice, like, one of the most stressful parts for a person is when they're selling their house. Something other big life event usually happens around selling a house. The fact that this person is able to say, you took a massive load off of my shoulders just by answering the phone. That's why we exist. That's why we answer the phones. That's why we have 10 out of 10 phone calls. And so this is the importance of what we do. We try to solve the problem for the customer. And we haven't even solved the problem for the customer. She's already happy. But, like, ultimately, we need to clean up the beds, we need to get mulch installed, we need to maintain this property. And they need to sell the house. The actual problem is here is they need to sell the house. And once we identify the problem, that's how we figure out what to upsell them. That's why we have the upbeat tone. So they stay enthusiastic and they tell us what they're thinking. They tell us about Bill's phone number and all this other information. So overall, two good calls, as always. We can improve where we put that 10 out of 10 questions, getting the information. If I have to guess on that last one, it's a matter of, hey, you answer the phone. I'm super thrilled about that. If you guys can just get me on the schedule the next few weeks, that'd be. That'd be fantastic. And then maintain the property so we can sell the house. That's gonna make a 10 out of 10 for me. And so excellent work on these two 10 out of 10 phone calls. We can always improve. But fantastic work from Kate and Dean on these.