L.A.S.T
Audio Transcription
Find out the inside secrets on how to elevate your team today. L.A.S.T. is and acronym used by business coach, Clay Clark, and Dr. Z when changing the game with your customer service.
Learn The Secrets To Customer Service From The Business Coach : Podcast Transcript
Automated voice: And now, pod-casting from the center of the universe, and the thrive15.com world headquarters. Let’s go. Presenting the world’s only business school without the BS, with optometrist and entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Zoellner, and the first world business administration entrepreneur of the year in your ear, Clay Clark. It’s the Thrive-Time Show on Talk Radio 11.70. Three, two, one, boom.
Clay: All right, Thrive Nation. Welcome back. This is the super-station. This is the place that you go for that audio dojo of mojo. It’s the place where you come here consistently because you know that this is the business show. It’s going to teach those specific step by step little moves that can make those incremental improvements in your wallet. It’s your practical moves, it’s practical training. My name is Clay Clark, I’m the SBA Entrepreneur of the year and I am a business coach. I’m joined here with Dr. Robert Zoellner, a guy who really does not need an introduction. But I want to tell you this-
Dr. Robert: But you’re going to give me one?
Clay: -he’s the voice of choice. He’s the man with the plan. He is the host with the most. He’s the dude with that positive attitude. He is that broda that we all, that we all are just starting to learn and know. It is Dr. Z
Dr. Robert: Thank you for that direction that I did not need. But I do appreciate that very much. If you’re not watching on Facebook live you’re missing a show. Clay physically was pouring every little ounce of his body into his introduction. His hands, his face, the contortion of his body, it was almost like a circus soleil. It was circus soleil.
Clay: I am doing verbal cartwheels nightly for Tulsa.
Dr. Robert: If we did like a like a rope, the vertical rope you could climb up and down when you’re doing that intro, just mic you up and you could just be like flipping and spinning.
Clay: If I had any physical talent at all I would be doing those things. But I just do verbal cartwheels for the thrivers. We brought on a guy who has a lot of skill.
Dr. Robert: A dude.
Clay: He’s a dude’s dude. He’s a dude with skill. He’s a guy who really some would call him the thrill. It’s Will the thrill rollator with 24/7 disaster groups so how are you.
Speaker 3: I’m doing extremely well.
Clay: Now we’re talking about a subject that is near and dear to my heart. It’s called last.
Dr. Robert: Wait, I thought we’re teaching people how to be first. Ricky Bobby, we want to be first because if you’re not first-
Clay: Here’s the deal now but this is not a political show so I’m going to make general statements right now.
Dr. Robert: General non political statements.
Clay: Here we go, a week ago we all got together and we all voted. What we did is we all came out of that ballot hoping our guy or girl would win. Let me just tell you what, the votes are in, half the country is not happy. The first thing that starts to happen whenever you take a stand for anything whether you’re on the right or left is you start to get some complaints from half the people.
Dr. Robert: That’s true.
Clay: The first thing you got to figure out is who are your people? If you’re listening right now and you’re getting some complaints from your non-people, let’s give an example. Let’s say that back in the day you were so excited that President Obama was the man. You love his world view. You wanted hope and change, you wanted both of them simultaneously. Well, guess what, my main man President Obama, he wanted hope and change too. You guys are working together now hope and change deal right there. If he’s filled in with complaints from the Republicans he can’t go. You know what, I could see your point.
I’m going to shift from the far left to the far right to accommodate you because if you do that you’d upset your core. If you have a business I’m a going to give you an example, one of the businesses I can think of right now is Chick-Fil-A. They’re closed on Sunday. They offer great customer service, fantastic cover customer service. They are a Christian owned business. They’re pretty up front about that. Another one is Hobby Lobby they’re pretty upfront about that. They’re closed on Sunday that’s their world view. They can’t start opening on Sunday to accommodate the people who don’t respect their religious beliefs, their desire to be closed on Sunday
Dr. Robert: But I want a chicken sandwich on Sunday.
Clay: They cannot do it because-
Dr. Robert: But I want a chicken sandwich and I go there I need a Chick-Fil-A there. That just mean
Clay: I’m not talking about compromising to the point that you lose what you stand for. But I am talking about if your ideal and likely buyers complain, there is a way to deal with it, a professional way. It’s a four step system Z.
Dr. Robert: Listen everybody and we know you’re driving home happy Tuesday. Unfortunately you only us for the best, live talk business show, you only have for one hour today. It’s like Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Because even the coach’s show is starting from 6:00 to 7:00. We’re only on from 5:00 to 6:00. Pay attention because we’re going to go fast. It’s rapid fire but this is something that every business owner, get your head wrapped around those that haven’t started yet just pre wrap around this. Because you’re going to have to deal with this and we’re going to give you the four steps in how to deal with this to make your life so much better.
Clay: Now here we go.
Commercial: You’re listening to this show on talk radio 11.70.
Clay: You know it’s like we’ve been working on this show for a long time and Z will tell me he’s going to hit the station call and I know what he points out me, we make eye contact, we affirm it and I just talk right over it.
Dr. Robert: Because you can, my taser is that long. Hey, Marshall, can you give me a longer taser?
Clay: Where is Marshall?
Dr. Robert: Whereas Marshall when we need a taser for me? Marshall.
Clay: Here’s the thing I’m going give you a notable quote, I’m going to unpack it for you. Z I want you to marinate, just soak it in here and we’ll soak it in here we go. This is from Eric Reese. This is the author of Lean Startup. By the way, he’s a lead adviser for Kleiner Perkins which is the venture capital fund that is funded such companies as Square, Google, Uber. He says this, “After more than 10 years as an entrepreneur, I came to reject that line of thinking. I’ve learned from both my own successes and failures and those of many others that it’s the boring stuff that matters most. Startup success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Startup success could be engineered by following the right process which means it can be learned. Which means it can be taught.”
We’re teaching you the proven process. This might be, “This is boring, I don’t want to talk about complaints.” Oh really. Because if you start to scale your business you’re going to get a [unintelligible 00:06:21].
Dr. Robert: You’re going to get him and I know everybody out there is going, “No, I’m going to make everybody happy. We’re going to be rainbows and butterflies and leprechauns and it’s all going to be and free cookies. We’re going to just, everybody is going to be happy.” I’ll tell you what, even the best companies going to irritate somebody sooner or later.
Clay: Here is what happens the first step when you irritate someone. The first step. L, l-a-s-t. L, you want to listen. That’s tough because if you’re not careful you immediately justify. I’m going to give you a story, that’s a true story. Unfortunately this is something that I did. Will you tell me how you’d respond if you were the customer. Here we go. Story time. Years ago I went out there and I started this company called Four Seasons landscape. My thought was the deejays only work on Saturdays and Sundays really no one gets married on a Monday or Tuesday. I thought these guys who are working, they make $600 in two days.
They just work Saturdays and Sundays maybe Friday, Saturday. I could use this untapped workforce to mow lawns. This vagabond crew of I’m telling you we’ve got these guys who have never lifted a finger. They’re just deejays. They’re going out to these are parties, these are late night hours. They show up there and our move was we’ll mow your lawn your first mow was only a dollar. That’s my move I do. If you happy then we’ll go ahead and sign you up on our monthly service and we’ll beat any competitors price by $10, so that was our move.
We got to out there we mow our first lawn. We did as none of us knew what we were doing, knowing that we weren’t accurate. What happened is the guys, they took the worksheets and – I’m just making up an address – for the address might have been 777 South Lewis let’s say when instead that’s our user address. But that’s might be the address.
Will: Or the 7070777 I think.
Clay: That’s true. What happened is but let’s just say that I wrote down they thought it was 1 1 1 1. But anyway some guys showing up on your lawn, mowing your lawn.
Will: You didn’t know they are going to show up and mow. It’s a good Samaritan.
Clay: Furthermore they’re bad. When you sign up for a dollar you kind of go, “I’m going to risk it, I’m going to risk it”. But you didn’t ask for it. We’ve got guys who’ve never mown lawns, no training by the way just motivation. All my training I was a young guy like 21, 20. All my training was purely motivational. It was like guys you have to want it because if you want. Let me tell you what, if you want the yard to be green, then we’re going to make green. I remember saying crap like that I felt so good. You want to make the green, you make the lawn green. The guy was like, “What is that [unintelligible 00:08:54]?”
Dr. Robert: Let it rain green, let it rain green.
Clay: Let it be green everybody. The guys go out there and mow. I’m going to tell you what, they got that on that low setting on that mower and they’re just destroying [unintelligible 00:09:05] and they got the weed eater and they are cutting like you know when you do it wrong and you’re cutting down into the dirt. It’s like a hatchet job totally, totally destroyed. Then the guy pulls in his driveway and he’s not our customer.
Furthermore I told the guys I said, “Guys, we’re going to go door to door and put door hangers up.” Well the guys started to be more efficient to stuff it in your mailbox which is actually a federal offense to touch someone else’s mailbox. I’m getting city calls and not only that but I wasn’t coachable and I wasn’t aware that you should own and listen to people when they’re upset.
I’m like, “Hey, hey listen we’re going to make up for it. My guys I apologize they’re not doing a better job. They really need to be more focused. I’m not at any point-” If you are a guy, if I showed up and I mowed your lawn and you weren’t actually someone who even wanted me to mow your lawn and then I screwed it up and then attempted to justify why we screwed up, how would you respond?
Will: I wouldn´t be very happy.
Clay: It´s funny now but you know. My wife used to talk about it but I’m like it’s too soon. Seriously it´s only been like five years. Because we were so aggressive. I am not exaggerating Thrivers, we probably in 45 days, generated, I don´t know, hundreds of complaints? Because we were just so aggressive, and there was no systems. It was all about, we got to be good and capture the market. How would you respond? Someone in your neighborhood, they come into your gated neighborhood, and you have a nice lawn and they come in and they just hatch it, they destroy it, they mangle all of the bushes. Then they give you a bill for a dollar and want to know if you want to sign up!
Dr. Robert: I would be livid. I would not be a happy camper as we used to say back in the day. I would want to know who´s in charge, I’d be calm about it but, inside I’d be boiling.
Clay: Typically what I’d do is whenever they would ask you who´s in charge, I would [unintelligible 00:10:58] go, “I will put you on hold real quick let me see if the owner is available”. I’m like, “I don’t know what to do.”
Will: Just keep them on hold.
Dr. Robert: Even more frustrating. Marshall where’s my taser, I need a taser right now.
Clay: I understand the DJ business is rocking and I thought I could conquer the world. One business is doing so great, let’s do another one. Why nor? I had no system, just the ambitions, and the thing was I should have listened.
Dr. Robert: Well, if you listen what happens is you made a mistake, and you’ve got to own it. You’ve got to own it. As the owner of the business out there, I’m telling you what, some of your employees are going to make mistakes, and you´re going to sit there and say, “I didn’t do that.” But you know what, the buck stops wit you.
Clay: When you listen to the problem, what it does is it sucks the air out of the fire, it dissolves the tension. It takes it back a notch. But when you try to justify, oh no.
Dr. Robert: But really, I’m going to tell you something now, listening is not looking at your phone, listening is not rolling your eyes, listening is not the going “ah ah ah”, you’ve got to listen.
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Automated voice: Live, local, now, you´re listening to the Thrive time show on top radio 11.70.
Clay: Alright Thrivers, welcome back to the thrive time show during your drive time home with the business coach. I’m going to tell you what, this show right now is going to be a lot of fun at my expense. Because we’re talking today about how to deal with customer complaints. We’re talking about the system of called last, it’s listen, answer, satisfy, trust. We’re going to beak it down, teach you how to deal with those customer complaints that I’m sure you have never received, because you’re a top flight entrepreneur. You’ve never had a complaint but I have had a few complaints, I know that Z’s never had complaints.
Dr. Robert: So many, it’s hard to count.
Clay: I know our special guest here Will, Will is such a special guest here. He’s Will the thrill. The founder of 24/7 disaster group. He´s never had a customer complaint, right Will?
Will: Sure.
[laughter]
Clay: Can you explain to the Thrivers what kind of business-
Will: Our customers complaints have gone way down, as we’ve learned lessons-
Dr. Robert: That’s the direction we want them to go.
Will: You learn lessons.
Clay: Let me ask you this, if someone is listening and going, “What is the 24/7 disaster group? Are you guys like a rap group? Are you part of the WooTang Clan? What do you guys do?”
Will: We do fire, water and storm damage restoration.
Clay: Fire just devastated my kitchen do you help me out?
Will: Yes, we help you out.
Clay: What if it spreads and takes up the whole house, do you do that?
Will: We can do ground up new construction. We can demo what’s left, tear the slab up, we can do anything.
Clay: Go ahead and name drop. What are some of the places that you have done something? Because someone right now is listening and your kitchen has been destroyed by a leak, or a fire or something just recently, just happened to you. You´re trying to find a good guy to help you out. What are some of the bigger companies or places that you’ve worked at over the years?
Will: We do residential and commercial so we’ve done a lot of houses. Just average houses up to high midtown houses. We do a lot of work on commercial properties. One of our biggest projects and probably most technical was a huge fire and a water loss at one of the downtown buildings that’s historic. You can’t go in and do business as usual, you’re working through the historic process and conservation of that building.
Clay: Wow so you can do it all man.
Will: We do everything.
Clay: What’s your website? How can people find you?
Will: You can find us at 24/7disastergroup.com and on Facebook, check us out on Facebook at 24/7 disaster group
Clay: I have a story that I want to share about. This is another complaint that I generated.
Dr. Robert: I love your complaint stories by the way they’re very entertaining.
Clay: This was me when I was 16 and my dad, he just passed away about 7 weeks ago. But I’ll tell you this, my dad I know he is in heaven right now laughing about this one because he was so mad. I’ve never seen my dad so mad and it makes me glad to share the story. Here we goes Z. Imagine that I’m your son and this has happened. It’s my first big gig, I’ve convinced the school, I said “Hey, would you let me DJ, I’m 16. Can I DJ the school dance?”
Our DJ is impossibly terrible, “Please let me, I’m 16, please let me do it.” They let me do one and it goes well. It was the students against drunk driving dance it went very well. Then I went to Mr. Johnson, “Mr. Johnson I’m so sorry if you’re listening right now, I have no idea, I didn’t know this moves.” I said, ” Can I promote the next dance?” He said, “Sure.” I don´t remember the name of the next dance, all I remember is that I got approval to do the next dance.
Which means I could promote it, I could do all the sounds, the lights, I had black lights, I built these things called light boxes I couldn’t afford real lights. I built all this fog machines, it was awesome. Pulling all night with Leis Chiplosky and Bjorn, Bjorn and Leif, Erin Rashendorfer, Erin Anderson and all these Minnesota guys who were working all the time.
Dr. Robert: Did you know Sven?
Clay: I didn’t know Sven but I did Rashendorefer and Ottison, we are out there, we were working all night trying to get this ready for this dance party. Here’s what happened Z.
Dr. Robert: I’m listening.
Clay: I´m passing out flyers at every school. By the way you don’t invite other schools to your school dance. But I was like, “Hey, this is my chance.” Because the deal I worked out is I get to keep [unintelligible 00:17:18], I get to keep all of the door charge after the first 200 kids because they never had more than about 250. They’re thinking these kids probably — I can’t even drive you, I’m like 15 or 16, maybe I could drive but I wasn’t driving I didn’t have a car.
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Clay: I guarantee they were thinking, this kid is probably going to get some 200 kids there, 250. I remember I was dating this girl Katy back then. I talked to Katy and I said, “Is your father-” Katy’s father was concerned and rightfully so because I was a punk, I dressed like Eminem and stuff. He’s very successful farmer in town, he’s concerned that I’m a punk and I’m going to be an idiot. I remember telling her listen, “I will make this school dance the biggest school dance in the history of Dassel Cokato schools. Dassel and Cokato were two towns they combined because the school was so small. I go out and I promote.
I get my backpack and I’m promoting. I’m pushing it, I’m going, I’m asking my buddies to pass out flyers, no exaggeration. The night comes, and you start to hear like the roar outside, of people little talking, little roar. All of the sudden my aunt Tina was there, because she was there, and everybody was so excited to see me, put on this first big dance. They like this is the dream.
They go, “Clayton, there’s like 500 kids out here.” I go, “Really?” They say, “Yes it´s probably 500.” Well, pretty soon, I don’t know the number I don’t want to make up a number but it was probably almost a thousand kids. The gym has a rule, a fire of code, you can´t have more than 450 kids in a room. I´m crancking it up and it´s just [sound of music] and I’m not exaggerating. People remembered it back in the day, this is a historical fact. It was so awesome that I was crowd surfing, it was just [beats] and I’m just-
Dr. Robert: Because it was packed it in.
Clay: Yes, I’m 16 and they were like, “Who is this Demi god who’s put on this awesome party.” You’re 16 in a small sleepy town.
Dr. Robert: Yes, that’s what all the Faculty was thinking. Like yeah, this is so awesome.
Clay: It’s just awesome I remember. I put the song “DJ Cool, let me clear my throat” which we often use in the show. He says, “Let me clear my throat,” and there’s this high energy and it’s just going. Anyway it’s awesome. He says, “Mr. Clarke,” he pulls me aside and says, “We’re going to have to kill the music and get some kids out of here because it’s getting out of control.” I’m like, “No”. Because everyone want’s to see the Beasty Boys, I almost see the Brass monkey. The Beasty Boys were like my heros, they were my moral compass. I’m like, “You’ve got to fight for your right to party.” I´m telling like a 50 year old man
Dr. Robert: It’s going the wrong direction.
Clay: I get on the mic Z and I’m like, “Do you guys want to shut this party down? They were like, “No.” I am not exaggerating. I got thrown out of the dance party that I threw and almost thrown out of school. I was expelled. My dad had to come get me. It was horrible. It was a horrible. It’s a small town as 2038 people who live in Cokedo at a time there’s like 1500 in Dassel. Everyone now knows the Clark kid. That’s the punk who got thrown out of school.
You know what I did when I got a chance to meet with that principal. He sat me down he says, “This is your opportunity son.” For me when I get in trouble it’s funny. For some reason I’m a laugher. He’s like, “Son,” my dad’s there “I want you to apologize, this is your opportunity explain how you made an error in judgment and if you do it we can move on. We can’t get past this.” I’m like, “You know I didn’t know it was going to be that big. I didn’t know it was going to be that big and I didn’t want to stop the party because it was so awesome.” Again I’m not listening. I’m not attempting to answer in a way that owns the problem. I’m just attempting to justify. When you attempt to justify what big is that [unintelligible 00:21:16].
Dr. Robert: How did that work out for you?
Clay: I’m going to tell you what, I was grounded for such a long period of time, people started to speculate that I was never going to be ungrounded. I’m not kidding, it was nuts. My dad was furious. But for some reason I just thought it was awesome. I just probably stopped thinking it was awesome when I was about 20 years old. But I just thought it was the greatest thing in the world and I just refused to apologize and I created an angry mob. I literally just incited almost a riot in my town. Dumb.
Dr. Robert: Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Clay: I guarantee someone’s listening to this right now and you’re like, “That’s so funny.” But I actually probably should call that customer and apologize. I probably should apologize.
Dr. Robert: I think I should listen and I should answer.
Clay: We come back we’re going to learn how to answer, how to satisfy, how to actually make it right. How to make it right and make it right quick, on the thrive time show.
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Automated voice: You’re listening to the thrive time show on talk radio 1170.
Clay: All right, Thrive nation welcome back to the inspiration station. It’s the place that you go to get that practical knowledge you’re not getting in college, it’s that business school without the BS. Yes my name is Clay Clark and yes, I am a business coach. I have been sent here really to entertain and educate and to help you learn to start and grow a business. But to do that I brought on today I have today I cannot do it by myself.
In fact if I did it by myself the show would only be 30% as good because I’m going to tell you what, we have a business yoda in the house. This guy is like the business mentor. He’s the business guru. He’s a guy who if he drive you around town you’re going to go. Looks like a Dr. Zoellner optometry. Looks like a doctor. Zoellner auto auction looks like he’s everywhere. I see a sleep center. I see a boss. I swear I saw it in an old movie. I saw a horse ranch. What does this guy do. Dr. Z please explain to the folks listening what do you do.
Dr. Zoellner: I follow Thrive 15 rules that we set aside on our website. Because I’m going to tell you something right now. I’m going to just dispel a lot of things you may be thinking. You’re driving home, it’s Tuesday we’re only on for one hour, we’ve got to pack a lot of stuff into this hour. That is that listen folks, there’s no magical secret wind your wave. There’s not, there’s no pixie does that I go and I just sprinkled on to a plot of land and say, “Business, there you are, boom.” There’s none of that. It’s systems. It’s hard work and it’s following the things that we’ve laid out. The thing about it is, business coach, Clay, and I have done it we’ve done the thing done.
We’ve made plenty of mistakes. We’ve had our share of great mentors. We’ve had our share of bad mentors and sometimes you can learn just as much from what not to do as you can what to do.
Clay: If you study a jack ass long enough you’ll learn something.
Dr. Robert: You’ll learn something. What we’re trying to do with this show is to encourage you and to help you and to coach you up on starting your business or growing your business or take your business from just surviving. Oh, we made it this month to thriving.
Clay: Absolutely. That’s exciting when you know that you can do it. To bridge the gap between– a lot of people listening right now who want to start a business. But then there’s people who actually are crazy enough to do it. What we did today is we brought on a guy who’s crazy to start a business but then he grew the business. Now his business is doing very well. It’s Mr. Will Rollator from 24/7 Disaster Group. Sir how are you.
Will: I’m doing very well.
Clay: Have you ever– well we’re talking today about how to deal with customer complaints. The last method. Have you ever, ever at any time ever irritated a customer.
Will: It happened a lot when we first started. It’s getting a lot better now.
Clay: What kind of mistakes did you do back in the day?
Will: Let’s say with us we deal with a lot of subcontractors when we’re doing construction. One that comes to mind this is in my first year of business. Before we had systems in place we would send a customer down to pick out flooring customer selects flooring with the subcontractor, with the vendor.
Clay: Basically she picks out some tiles she comes at both.
Will: This was wood flooring. Well, they made a change and informed us of that and I think our project manager didn’t inform the foreign company. On the next time the owner comes to look at their home, the wrong floor is in. That’s a problem.
Clay: Basically, I put in a different floor. You should basically deal with it. Bottom line yes sweetheart, I’m a contractor, I’ve got a lot things going on. Hopefully you should be thankful you have a floor.
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Clay: Zohan, when situations like that have happened in your business you know this but the first step we’re teaching, you listen.
Dr. Robert: You listen and listen folks listen, listen, listen, listen, listen to what I’m saying. Really, really listen. Eye contact, nodding, paying attention not looking at the butterfly flying by the person, not slipping out your phone to text the last person who text you. Not looking at your watch and wondering how long are they going to talk for? Not reach over and fist pumping someone walking by you in the hallway and saying, “Hey, let’s do lunch later at TGIF Friday tickets.” Really, really listening and that’s the key.
You listen, you nod, you pay attention because you’re going to have to repeat some things. You are going to have to be thinking about some things. I’m telling you what, we were gifted with two ears, it’s just math. Look at them you count them. You could pull down your visor or your drive and put on your visor, flip up [inaudible 00:28:26] tears, tears and one mouth. If [unintelligible 00:28:31] on listening and really listening and connecting because people listen. You can’t fool them. They know when you’re not listening and you’re standing there in front of them and you’re not. They know you’re not listening. That upsets me the more.
Clay: One rule that I always have is you can’t pretend like you’re not at the German-American festival when you’re definitely at the German-American fest. That’s a rule I have. You can’t pretend to be listening when you’re not listening. That’s a rule of those two rules.
Dr. Robert: Yes you could not pretend to be listening when you’re not listening because I feel like [unintelligible 00:29:00] be like, “You’re not even listening to me.”
Clay: Are you are you listening there Bjorn as a fan. [crosstalk] David Hasselhoff, it’s so nice. What were you saying? That’s what happens. Z, we talk about satisfy, you want it move to satisfication. You want to make sure you reach that that area where someone goes, “I have been satisfied, the customer who’s been wronged gets that satisfaction. We come back. I want you to talk about how specifically you go about bringing that satisfaction to a customer who’s upset because-
Dr. Robert: I’ll tell you what, do not turn the radio. Do not get out of your car. Do not go anywhere. Listen. Because when I come back, I’m going to give you the secret sauce on how to satisfy. It’s so simple and yet it’s just so wonderful when I unpack this. When I learn this. When I found this it was life changing. You don’t go away.
Clay: You’re going to feel like you went to the end of the rainbow when you saw this.
Dr. Robert: This is the pot of gold waiting on you.
Clay: They have to be lucky charms.
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You’re listening to the Thrive-Time Show on Talk Radio 11.70.
[end of commercial]
Clay: All right Thrive Nation, T-Town, Okola homies, welcome back. We’re broadcasting right now from the left coast of the Arkansas River. This river today, I was looking out the window at the thrive15.com world headquarters and I realized this river, Z, I love this river for two reasons. Do you know why I wrote that?
Dr. Robert: One is–?
Clay: One is I could walk down the middle of it today if I wanted to or I could get in a canoe and make my way. I could go in a canoe or I could go on foot. Either way I could make it all the way where I wanted to go in the river on foot or in a boat.
Dr. Zoellner: It’s beach front property.
Clay: It is beachfront property and there’s a tree that’s starting to sprout up there. We need some more water in that thing.
Dr. Zoellner: We won’t to have it swim. We could build those low water dams, it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be wonderful. When you come out for your in-live work shop here at the Thrive Headquarters, hopefully level of water in it and-
Clay: We’ve had a lot of water all year.
Dr. Zoellner: Yes we have.
Clay: It’s been awesome. I just saw this guy kind of fishing but he was standing on the dune fish and I was like, “How’s that possible? There’s lot of water in here.” Then we have a very special guest with us today Dr. Z. We have a man who is a man’s man.
Dr. Zoellner: He’s a man with plan.
Clay: If you’re on Facebook Live right now, you’re seeing he’s like a Viking meets entrepreneur. He’s tough, but he knows how to do customer service. He started a company called 24/7 Disaster Group. Is this a rap group or what does your business do.
Will: They’re country.
Dr. Zoellner: Country rap group. They go around making disasters.
Will: No, we’re a fire, water and storm restoration contractor.
Clay: Why is it so important in your mind, for anyone listening right now, why is it so important that every business owner learns how to deal with complaints, in your mind?
Will: If you can’t deal with complaints and resolve them or you take them personally, you won’t be able to grow.
Clay: Have you ever had a sleepless night where you laid in bed because you upset a customer and you just couldn’t mentally get over it when you were starting out in business?
Will: Yes, because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to customer satisfaction and doing what we do well.
Clay: Z, we’re going to talk about ‘how do you satisfy’. Once you’ve listened and you’ve attempted to answer the customer and really answered their issue or their grievance, talk to us about satisfying the customer.
Dr. Robert: Well, on our way out on our last segment, I promised everybody I’m not going to give you the golden egg. I’m going to give you the golden goose.
Clay: The whole goose?
Dr. Robert: The whole goose. I’m not going to give you a fish, I’m going to teach you how to fish.
Clay: I don’t have a fish sound.
Dr. Robert: You like the fish in the Arkansas River, like one dude was doing on the dune, trying to fish for fish on the dune. Here is the key phrase that you use, here is the secret sauce, the magic pixie dust that you sprinkle, and that you do [explosion] and the bomb goes off. You dropped the bomb on me gap-pan. I’ll really queue that up. That is, after you’ve listened and you’ve answered that you have said, I am so sorry, I apologize, I take full responsibility, I tell you what, I’m sorry that it happened to you. We did not pick you out of the crowd and say, “That’s the person we’re going to upset today.” We did not show. I did not build this building, start his business to treat people the way you were treated today and I own it. I’m so sorry for it.” That’s the answering part.
We’ve listened to the problem, I’ve answered and I’ve owned it and said I’m sorry, I said the buck stops with me. I’m the boss. Nobody cares as much as I am. I’m embarrassed. I apologize for it. Then on the satisfied part folks, here’s the secret sauce, you look at them in the eye and you say to them, “What can I do to make this better?” What can I do to make this better?
Clay: You’ve said that sincerely.
Dr. Robert: Yes. What can I do to make this better, because a lot of times your default thing is, “I’ll just give them everything. I’ll just throw everything in the kitchen sink.” On an earlier show where we were saying, “Hey, there’s $1,000 discrepancy. Who’s getting $1,000.” That’s not a bad move, and then they felt guilty about it as he said and they came back, and they negotiated it was $500.
Clay: What would you do as a wizard?
Dr. Robert: As a wizard, what you do say is, “What can I do to make you happy?”
Clay: That’s scary. It is scary.
Dr. Robert: It is scary. It is scary. You’re stepping out on a ledge because now what you’ve done is you’ve– and this is the analogy I use and what is, is you’ve made a mistake and so now you’ve handed them the hammer and you’ve said, “Okay, now you have permission. Hit me with it.” What you’re doing is you’re kind of scrunching up your body up and you go. Most people won’t swing it very hard, most people. Every now and then you get a dude that’s going to be like way lay you with it.
Clay: “Just punch me in the face bro. Just punch me.”
Dr. Robert: Every now and then you’ll have that dude that says, “Okay, I want you to give me your business. I want you to give me both your cars. I want you to write me a big fat check. I want your son. I want him to come work for free for like 10 years.” They have these outlandish things that they want. That’s one out of whatever, then you look at them and go, “Okay, that’s not fair. We’re going to be fair and try again.”
A lot of times they’ll just look at you and say, “Man, I just want someone to thank you. I just want someone to listen to me and apologize and own it. I’m really satisfied. Hey I don’t want you to lose money on the deal. I just want my glasses done correctly. I would like it maybe– Why won’t we just do a re-exam on you? Let’s just take those glasses and put them over here. We’ve got the technology to make you a good pair of glasses that you can see clearly and comfortably out of, and let’s just start from scratch and do it right. How’s that sound because I don’t want to lose you as a customer. I’ve worked too hard to get you in here.”
Clay: Any time that you screw up it feels like this [music]
Dr. Robert: Yes, I kind of does.
Clay: But you can quickly turn it into [music]. I’m sorry. I’m listening. I’m listening, “So can you tell me what happened?” They can tell you. Then you answer. You say “I apologize. I’m the owner and I own it. I want you to know there’s no one to be upset at other than me. I want to ask you, “What would you like for me to do to handle this situation? What would you like for me to do to handle this situation?”
Dr. Robert: Most people are reasonable and they’ll ask for a reasonable request. You’re set in the back of your mind, nine times out of 10 I’d be like, “I’d have given you more.” I’d have done more but that’s what makes you happy. I’m here to make you happy.
Clay: If the customer says, “Please take me on an all-expense paid trip to Europe. Yeey, it will make me happy. Hoorah.”
Dr. Robert: “That’s not reasonable. Let’s be fair.” I always used the ‘fair’ word. That’s not fair. Let’s be fair about this. Then, the fourth one is, and the last thing is ‘T’.
Clay: Trust.
Dr. Robert: Trust.
Clay: You’ve got to build that trust baby. The trust is all up. This is what trust is, trust is doing what you said you would do. I see so many people, this is an example. My wife and I, years ago, we bought a car about a Tahoe, so frustrating. I go to that the guy says, “Hey Mr. Clark,” he knew me through some staff. He goes, “I really want to earn your business. I know you’ve never bought a car from me. I’d really appreciate if you’d buy from us it’s a used car dealership in town.”
Vanessa goes over over there he says, “Mr. Clark, I know you’re going to have a baby soon.” Vanessa was pregnant with the twins and he says, “Here’s the deal. If you guys want to buy it tonight I’ve talked to the manager. They always talk to the manager. He said , “I’ll talk to the manager. We’re going to throw in the DVD player tonight with the screen that comes down. We’re going to throw that in there and you guys will get that installed here for you. When you’re bringing the kids home from the hospital, it’ll all be set up.”
So Vanessa says, “Okay, sure.” What happens is we pay the man and we write them the check, we come back the next day it’s not done. Next day. Not done. He keeps saying “I’m so sorry,” he listens. He owns it, “That’s my fault.” He even attempts to satisfy us say’s, “I’ll tell you what, we’re going to get that installed for you.” Every single time everything he didn’t do do it, every single time. My wife is a very normal reasonable person but whenever I imitate her I always use the Vanessa voice. Here’s the Vanessa voice. She says, “I don’t understand why you tell me you’re going to do something and you never do it. I just don’t understand. You told me you’re going to do it and you didn’t do it. What is–“
She’s just very emotional like “Why is this person lying?” She just can’t even handle the thought that someone’s not lying to her, and I am going, “Because he’s a jackass. We are not going to do business with him again.”
Dr. Robert: You lost T.
Clay: We did, and he said three times to attempt to– so my wife who doesn’t have the ability to speak disparagingly about somebody. She does not have the ability to gossip, a rumor. My wife’s not that kind of person. But here’s the deal. Many people have said, “We love your Tahoe. We love it. Where’d you guys get it?” She goes, “Well.” “No, where’d you get it?” She says, “I can’t recommend them.” They always go, “Where did you go? I want to make sure I don’t go there.” I am not kidding. That whole circle —
Dr. Robert: That’s like that negative word of mouth. You do someone wrong and they tell 10 people. You do them right, they tell two or three. It’s crazy.
Clay: It’s not cool. Here’s the deal, if you want to get into the specifics of customer service. If you want to make a linear customer service work flow. If you want to build all the processes, the checklist. If you say– I’m trying to manage a staff of 100 people. You say I’m trying to manage a staff of 1,000 people. If you’d say I’m trying to manage a staff of 40,000–
Dr. Robert: Or even one, even.
Clay: Or even one, yes. What you do, you go to thrive15.com, and that’s where Lee Cockerell is. Actually, Lee Cockerell is the guy who used to manage Walt Disney World Resort.
Dr. Robert: He is a star. His time management component is unbelievable.
Clay: He’s up there teaching you how to start and grow a business. It’s Lee Cockerell and a host of other millionaires, mentors and everyday success stories. It’s all found at a website, Z, what’s that website called?
Dr. Z: thrive15.com. That’s t-h-r-i-v-e 15.com. Their videos are roughly around 15 minutes. It’s like Netflix. It’s a monthly fee of $19 which is less than you’d spend on Starbucks this month, let’s call it what it is. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on business coaching, you can get it for $19. You get downloadables. You get templates. You get in-person workshops here at the Thrive 15 headquarters.
Clay: You can ask questions. It’s all available and the main thing we want to encourage you to do there Thrivers, is if you know somebody right now who’s in the military, if you know somebody who’s in the military and they’re serving our country that are a veteran, maybe they’re in the active, maybe in the reserve, tell them, “Hey, listen thrive15.com, it’s free for you” and they say, “What’s that?” Say it’s the world’s best business school and it’s absolutely free for you and then go sign up yourself because we do one for one. So get yourself a business coach today!
You get to buy membership for $19 and the people who are keeping this country safe get to do it for free. That’s the deal. If your house is on fire, you probably want to put it out, but then you want to call 24/7 Disaster Group. If you got a leak in your ceiling, you got to call 24/7 Disaster Group and, Z, three two one boom.
[00:42:32] [END OF AUDIO]
