Mike Andes says winners accept losses and iterate instead of protecting their ego. He points to Augusta Lawn Care, which improved its Net Promoter Score to 57-58 by surveying customers, taking complaints seriously, and fixing what broke. The formula: ask, listen, take the hit, improve.
Around 57–58.
You don't have to be right to win. Most people want to be right more than they want to win. And it's reflective in the fact that they care what everyone thinks about them so much to the point where they'll not take action. For example, if I am trying to win a World Series, if I am trying to get a championship, if I'm trying to get a bunch of home runs, realize that is the long term goal of winning. No one cares about the individual games that you play from 160 times. They care about who wins the championship. There will be L's all along the way. There's been never a team that has been perfect in the mlb. There will be losses. And if you get so caught up in the fact that you're going to have losses, you will just never swing. The people who get the most home runs and the most hits many times also make a lot of strikeouts. They also pop up the ball and they get out, they get off balance in a swing and they look like an absolute fool in front of home hundreds of thousands of people. And if you're not willing to be wrong, if you're not willing to make the wrong decision, you will just not make decisions. And when it comes to customers and employees, there's gonna be times that you will want to appear right when you know you're correct and they're saying something in factual. However, you take the L because you want to win in the long term. For example, a customer might come online and say horrible things about your service. They make all sorts of falsehoods and claims about your company and what you did for them. The natural inclination is to appear, which is post invoices, email screenshots, text messages, send or sign contracts, and like make a big deal about appearing right when sometimes stepping back in the long term, taking the L on that customer and then just fixing the problems. The communication style, how you addressed the initial deposit, how you sent pictures beforehand to actually prevent this from happening in the future. One of the things that you can do in your business, technically speaking, is survey your customers and ask for their complaints and actually ask them what makes you mad and then what can I do more to serve you? They're gonna tell you exactly what you need to do in the business to be able to make it more valuable and therefore be able to charge more for it. In the future, make sure that people don't leave and customers are more happy at Augusta Lawn Care to bring that to my business. What I've learned over the past little bit is We've really focused on surveying and fixing complaints. And trust me, when you take surveys from all your customers, they're going to give you really honest feedback that hurts. And like drinking from a fire hose, if you have a larger organization, you get dozens, if not hundreds of responses and feedback and complaints. And people like, if you allow them to give them give honest feedback, they're going to skewer you on some things. Here's the thing. Take the L. Like, be okay with the fact that someone's mad and then go fix it instead of trying to appear right and like, oh, no, like, I'm right. Like, I have the data. I know I have the invoices. I have the written. I know this. I'm right. Who cares? Take the L and then go fix what caused the complaint to happen. At Augusta Lawn Care, I've made all sorts of big mistakes that really have impacted all of the owners inside of Augusta nation. However, our NPs score, Net Promoter score currently is around 57 to 58, which is pretty good. And it's trending upwards because of the work we've done in terms of surveying and fixing complaints. Like, what are we not doing good? What are the things that make you mad? And secondly, how else could I make this amazing for you? What else could I give you in terms of resources or templates or products or whatever? What can I do more for you? And if you're willing to do this with your customers and actually take their complaints and you know what? Feedback is a yellow slip. It is a callback. It is someone complaining and saying, your crew didn't do this at my property. If you look at that as feedback, and instead of being like, oh, no, I gotta be right, take the L, take the L. Maybe you have to refund them a little bit. Maybe you have to concede the fact that you didn't do a great job. Maybe you have to concede the fact that you need to change the process, but then go change the process and fix that so then the future comes. Customers don't complain about that thing. And the reason that our Net promoter score, MPS score at Augusta, has continued to go up is because I've stayed focused on winning. I know I'm going to make mistakes. If I continue to swing, I will strike out. I will swing off balance, I will make errors. But in the long term, I just want to focus on winning. And if that's the goal, I don't care if. Whether or not I. Every single swing I hit make connection. Every single swing has got to be perfect. And if you constantly are thinking about what other people are going to say about you, what customers are going to think, what employees are going to think, what your family is going to think, if you're constantly thinking that way, then you're just never gonna swing because you're looking for perfection instead of progress. If I could go back and tell myself just one line on this topic, it would have solved me so much headache and pain and a lot of tears and sleepless nights. And it was, it would be this, don't be afraid to forfeit the battle and sacrifice your ego in order to win the war. The war at Augusta Lawn Care is we want to change the level of professionalism in the landscape industry. And I'm gonna have L's I. I'm going to have strikeouts along the way, but I'm staying focused on winning.
If you're focused on winning and you want to be around other winners, I recommend you go to blue collarsummit.com it's gonna be a three day conference where myself, John Taffer and a host of other seven figure and eight figure entrepreneurs from the home service industries are gonna be speaking and sharing our advice with you. Go to bluecollarsummit.com look at your tickets, your spouse tickets, and your general manager tickets to make sure you win the war.
