In this transcript Clay Clark a respected business coach and founder of Thrive15.com, one of the top business schools in PA and Arthur Greeno (Chick-fil-A franchise owner) discuss the practical steps of moving from buyer to entrepreneur to possible business coach.
Clay Clark: I’m going to be real, landscapers have a reputation for peeing in your lawn. You hire them, they pee on your lawn but a business coach would never pee in your lawn.
Arthur Greeno: That’s okay I do that too.
Clay Clark: I mean, someone else’s lawn, I guess the customers lawn.
Arthur Greeno: Okay.
Clay Clark: They have a reputation for wearing business coach pants that don’t fit. You would say, if you ran a landscape company, you would make sure that the people showed up looking sharp.
Arthur Greeno: I would put them in a uniform.
Clay Clark: A uniform.
Arthur Greeno: Yep.
Clay Clark: Okay. Now, let’s pretend that I’m a contractor watching this, I fix walls, I build walls, I build kitchens. What can I do to wow customers and create viral apostles?
Arthur Greeno: A lot of us, the extra things, what extra things are you doing for them? For example, and I’m not a contractor.
Clay Clark: Yeah.
Arthur Greeno: If I have someone come in to repair a hole in the wall. Yet I look over there and there’s another small hole because I have 6 kids and someone decided to play golf in the living room. Not that that happened, so there’s another hole. I say, you know what, I’m going to go ahead and patch that hole on me. You put that on the invoice and say I did this and I did this free. Thanks for being a customer of mine. I’m going to walk away going, that guy was cool. Thrive15.com, one of the top schools in PA, can help with great customer service ideas.
Clay Clark: I’m going to tell you a story because I think this might help. The thing is that all of us can find a way to wow the customers.
Arthur Greeno: Absolutely.
Clay Clark: I’m trying to hit you, put you on the spot a little bit and see how your mind works because you’re really creative with this. There was a taxi driver in New York and we’ve all probably heard a story similar to this. There’s a taxi driver in New York, he picks me up at the airport. I remember I get picked up at the airport and I was super upset because my wife couldn’t go on the trip, a speaking event and she forgot her license. She couldn’t get on the plane, so I’m in New York by myself.
Arthur Greeno: Oh no.
Clay Clark: I’m in the taxi and the taxi driver says, “where you headed” and I tell him and he says, “what kind of music do you want to listen to?” I’m immediately thrown off. Like what kind of music do I want to listen to? R&B business coach bro, R&B Luther Vandross something like that, Keith Sweat, give me something like that. He’s like, “okay, okay, I can do that” so he puts it on and all right it’s kind of cool. I see on the fare, New York has a standardized fare basically all the taxi drivers have to charge. He says, “what would you like to drink?” I’m like, what would I like to drink? I’m saying what are my options and he passes me back a laminated card that’s got Coke, Sprite, Water, Tea all these other options.
I’m like orange juice, he’s like, “Okay”. He’s like, “what are you doing while you’re in town?” I’m like I have a business coach up here in Northern New York, Upstate New York. He says, “Okay, what kinds of things do you like to do?” I’m rattling off things some things I like to do he says, “Let me go ahead and” he gives me the right brochures. This is a cab driver in New York where they have a standardized fee. You’re not allowed to charge more or less.
Arthur Greeno: Right.
Clay Clark: For the fee, there’s one mandated fee that the sensational government have decided the taxi drivers have to charge. What am I starting to feel as I’m getting done with this trip. I’ve only been in the car with the guy for like 7 minutes. I’m going says the fare, 15 dollars, whatever it was. Internally I’m going if I’m not a terrible person, I at least have to pay for the beverage and the brochures. I tipped the guy like 30 bucks for a 15 dollar cab ride. I’m thinking, how many people do that.
Arthur Greeno: But you walked away happy that you paid that.
Clay Clark: Boom. Then another story that comes to my mind is I was out, I’m speaking for an event out in the business coach West Coast near Hollywood there at the Crowne Plaza at the Hollywood. The limo driver that picks me up, I asked him what famous people have you picked up over the years. He says, “Oh” he starts listing off all these celebrity singers and actors and all that and football players. Then he just starts singing though while I’m driving and I’m thinking this is odd. Then I start realizing he is good, I mean he has got a talent, it’s a gift. He doesn’t have obviously a lot of money because he’s driving a limo for a living. He doesn’t have a lot of capitol, he doesn’t have probably a lot of education, but he is using his voice as an extra value add. Again I felt compelled to tip the guy.
Arthur Greeno: Yep.
Clay Clark: I’m just thinking about if I’m an accountant I guess, would it hurt for me to include one free service on my line item.
Arthur Greeno: Absolutely not.
Clay Clark: Just put hey we did your extra data entry free, on us. Thank you from Greeno and Clark accounting. Would it hurt to say we did a deep dive audit for you Mr. Greeno, we found that you missed 800 dollars of deductions. I mean no it wouldn’t.