Mike Minutes Mastermind 04/23/2024

Hello, Guess nation. Well, let's go and get jumped right in. I am going to put the YouTube link just as a Facebook post. Honestly.

0423 2024.

Boom. Okay.

So yeah, can't stream the Facebook group anymore, but I'll put the link in the Facebook group each time we go live.

Okay, that's done. Where else do I have to put it? Oh, I don't have to put it there anymore. Okay, cool. Okay.

All right, well, let's go and jump into questions. There's only a few questions it looks like, so if you have one, feel free to submit using the form or just put in the comments.

We'll get started.

All right, questions.

First question is from coach Connor. Question I got on coaching call. Are you able to act out on the Philly team as Lynn's coin the overseas agents? Just like how people can opt out at Max. Nope, you can't. It's all part of command center. And we do surveys. So we sent out 17, 8, almost 1800 surveys last month, got about 200 responses, which is actually pretty phenomenal to be able to get our CSAT score, customer satisfaction. So we track that. We delve into every single person that puts a negative feedback on that. And almost all the time it is people that are waiting for an estimate and someone hasn't got back to them. They're waiting for, they met someone two days ago and they haven't got their email, they haven't got their text messages, whatever, they haven't got their estimate. So most of the time it's that. But we also track it for Max. So it's a great way for us because people will comment on Max so we can then delve into the call, see what went wrong or what they could have been confused or mad about. Yesterday, Liz and I came up with like 12 other edge cases that we've been seeing as points of.

Max being frustrating people. And so Max is great when someone is asking for an estimate. He doesn't do great when someone's really, really mad because they talk really fast, they get mad at him, they don't let him talk, etc. So we're just trying to make sure that he understands things that are like edge cases for when people get mad and also understand what people are wanting and then repeating it back to them to make sure we know what they want, especially when it's really unclear what they're saying, because I know it's very hard to hear what people are saying. So we can repeat back to like, hey, just to confirm. So you look like you're looking for a mowing estimate, et cetera, et cetera and confirm that so it's higher accuracy. People also have much higher CSAT customer satisfaction scores when they know they get off that call that whatever was.

Information was given was repeated back to them. So they know that whatever they are wanting was actually received. So anyways, all that being said, that is not a possibility. Numero 2 Bryce Glossing Van Word Ohio what are the reasons you got out of retailing products? I purchased a competitor and included a small retail site. I'm debating on keeping it or shutting it down. Yeah, the pros of having retail site is for me was like I was able to pay for an office person.

The downsides is all of your busiest hours are weekends, evenings, holidays. Like you gotta have way more availability. So like Liz and I would work 70 hours a week in part because we had to work like 12 to 14 hours on Saturdays. And if we would have been open Sundays, we would have made more money, way more money. Because like that's when you make money, is when people are out in their yard working and that's weekends and holidays. So it's, it's just a matter of like the pros are you probably could afford a full time office person and then they could be doing like the stuff that you need for scheduling, routing, invoicing, picking up the phone and then just helping the customers when they come in. But it's also a matter of like when you have spring rush and you have all these mowing customers and projects coming in. You also is when all homeowners want to do their, their work around their house. And so what that creates is just even a bigger spike in demand. Like if you looked at a demand curve of say mowing where it's like rises up in the spring and then kind of eases off throughout the summer for, for materials, it spikes so high for materials and then drops like a rock after summer. So like it does exactly what I don't want, which is it doesn't complement my revenue. Like lower in the winter. It just magnifies spring rush to the up team like so much that it's just insane. So that's why I got out of it. Usually depending on where you're at, your margins get compressed by big players and you get compared to them. So it just depends too. Like we were in a really good market. I was able to charge an extra 10 to $15 per cubic yard compared to our competition, which was 30 minutes away. We were like a solid 30 to $40 per delivery. Cheaper as well because we were close to like a very small market, so it worked well. And so yeah, it was great when you sell like five, six thousand dollars of material in a day, but then you'd go three or four days of rain or in the winter and like you don't sell anything. And during the winter there you could go an entire month and sell a few thousand dollars worth of material. And again, your margin on that's maybe 40% gross and you're keeping your office hours like doubled in order to.

Do retail. Like retail is in general, like very taxing because you have to keep such long hours open, hours of operation. Your admin costs go way up.

Also, that office person is really tough to find someone that's willing to drive a tractor or a skid steer and also do office work. Like usually you have someone who can drive a tractor and be mechanical and you know, get dirty and stuff like that. And you have someone who wants to be in the office to get someone who can do both. Pretty tough. Honestly. Most great office people have not like driven tractors and skid loaders and stuff like that. So it's not. Not to say that it's impossible, but it is a rare breed. It's a little harder to find people.

Coach Connor. I'm sure I know the answer. However, I have an employee who through meritocracy has fallen from an A player to borderline a C player. Calling out once a week, calling out late once a week, not completing routes or budget hours, making the trainee do all the grunt work. Trainee said employee stops at his house a couple of times a week or always on his phone. Give me one second here.

Sorry, I need to turn up my audio a bit.

However, he's the first to stay late, first to work a weekend and loved Augusta. That was past tense. I'm having a hard time with someone that's likely loyal but no actionable of that in the productivity but isn't with is in spirit with the guys and customers love him. I would say first and foremost, like have a conversation with this person. Obviously they're capable of high performance. So that's like a box that usually you can't like. It's tough to find. So I wouldn't like just fire this person if they have been an A player. It means they have the capability to be that. I would then try to see like what is causing them to fall to this level. It sounds. I'm just going to go out and Lemon guess. I'm going to guess there's something personal that's really blown up in their life because if they're going to their house, it means something's really bad. Now, should they have brought that to you? Should they have talked about with you? Yes. This is the approach I would personally take. Assuming you want to keep this person, I would first bring up the fact that here, here are the things that have happened that like, you know and I know that this is not like what we stand for at Augusta. It's not our standards, etc. I wanted to talk to you as a personal level and see why, because I don't believe that you speaking to the employee, that that's the type of character and traits that you would exemplify. I've seen your performance in the past. It's phenomenal. So I wanted to see is there anything that's gone on personally that might be causing this behavior? Because I know that's not the kind of person you really are. And now you have attributed them to being as someone who is like hard working, lives by the standards, holds a high standard. And then you say that has not been happening. But I still regard you as a very high standard person. And like, what's the gap? And then they will have to divulge and you just. I'm just gonna guess there's something personally in their life that's pretty bad. Could be divorce, breakup, they're struggling with an addiction, something like that. And then what you can do is, okay, thank you for sharing them. I appreciate it. I would love for you to stay on the team. In order for that to happen, we have to get back to where we were. Here are the things you've had. You have four or five things listed out on paper. These are the things that have to change. I want you to be here. I want you to grow here. I want you to thrive. And I also understand that you're going through personal stuff. I'm just gonna guess it's that.

But these things have to change. And I want you to be here. I'm willing to support you if you need a day off per week so you can take care of those things, and it's a struggle to work, etc. Just go ahead and plan it. Do you need four days a week?

Again? Depending on where that conversation goes and whether or not you're even willing to offer that, that'd be a different conversation. But.

I would not throw this type of person to the curb immediately. Especially during spring rush when you need them. You need them to train. If I keep in mind Too. There are times you will put up with this sort of behavior, not because of the person, quote, unquote, deserves it, but because your, your other team members need them during spring rush. And that it's like, well, I want the standard high. Yeah. But if you're going to have a high, like a person that's getting a lot of work done, leave during spring rush, guess who, where all that work falls on, it falls on the other team members. So is it really fair to them to let someone go?

All of it, all of it's going to fall on them now. So I would. That's why during spring rush I am usually going to work with someone for a little bit. I'm going to try to like get them at least get through spring rush or at least a few more weeks till I can find a replacement.

And hopefully they turn things around. Hopefully. But I'm going to be less likely to be trigger happy because I need work to be done. Not for their sake. If they're not willing to turn around, if they're not willing to do the hard work, they're not willing to buy by standards, they're eventually going to get kicked out. But I'm going to keep them potentially for a little bit longer just for the sake of the team. And there's been times where, like, whether it be like every business I've ever had, where it's like, I know that there's stress, stress, everyone's stress level is high, everyone's bogged down in work, everyone's overwhelmed. And then there's someone that comes along and like starts showing up late, calls out several times, I will be willing to just put up with it, knowing I'm going to have to let them go down the road. If they don't change behavior and I have, after a conversation with them, they don't make changes. But I might put up with it longer. Simply not for them. And it is for the rest of the team because if I, if I let them go in the middle of that crisis, there's just more weight on the existing team. So keep that in mind during spring rush. I know. And then there's also times where it's like, we've been in the middle of spring rush and there's a hard line that needs to be drawn and you gotta make an example of someone. So it's always very difficult to like, make a broad assumption of what to do in these scenarios. But I would. It's usually between those two things, like, do you want to make a statement? And by doing so increase everyone's efficiency, productivity, buy in standard, or are you going to work with this person? Get what you can from them, assuming they don't change their behavior, but you're doing it for the sake of the rest of the team. That's kind of the trade off.

Fantastic.

Cool. All right. Well, there's definitely less, a lot less people live. When I go onto YouTube, I also know that probably most of you just got the text message because I went live right away. So people are just starting to come in live. So I will try my best to try to get like leave that 10 minutes or so between when I send out the notification versus getting on live. But yeah, it's not great because usually we have like 20 people live right now. We have had like four or five. So I apologize for that. I will see what I can do to improve that. And sometimes it's just difficult for me to like send out the text message and then like have to let 10 minutes go by cause like, I'm just sitting here waiting. So anyways, I hope you have a fantastic day. Feel free to fill out the form. I put it in the description. Now that everyone's on YouTube, it's in the description anytime. Like favorite that, that, that, that URL. If you have a question out today, pop it in there. I love to answer it. So love you all. Hope you have a fantastic Tuesday and we'll see you tomorrow. Take care.