4 Steps to Creating the World’s Best Customer Service Experience
Show Notes
Audio Transcription
In this episode, you will find out how to increase your customer service to the level of excellent. Join business coach, Clay Clark, and Dr. Z as they teach you tips they have learned on their entrepreneurial journey.
Learn From The Business Coach On How To Create A Great Customer Service Experience : Podcast Transcript
[music]
Automated voice: And now broadcasting from the center of the universe and the thrive15.com world headquarters.
Male voice: Let’s go.
Automated voice: Presenting the world’s only business school without the BS, with optometrist and entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Zoellner, and the former Small Business Administration entrepreneur of the year, in your ear, Clay Clark. It’s the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170. Three, two, one, boom.
Clay Clark: Hello, Tulsa, and welcome back to your favorite business show with your favorite business coach. It’s the ThriveTime Show during your drive time home. You see, your head at home, you’ve had a tough work week and many of you are saying, “We had a lot of politics this week. We had a big political week, we had a lot of just political discussions and the political fatigue for me is at an all time high and I just want to know how to start or grow a business.” You’re listening to the perfect show because as always I’m joined here today with the co-host with the mo-host. it’s Dr. Robert Zoellner. It’s a locally famous entrepreneur and a man who’s put the letter Z all over Tulsa. Sir, how are you?
Dr. Robert Zoellner: I am Fantastic. Today listening audience, today which is Friday, thank God it’s Friday. It is a special day for two particular reasons.
Clay: Two particular reasons?
Dr. Robert: I want to give a shout out, if you are a veteran, just give it a honk right now. Just give me a honk right now, just go [honks].
Clay: Just do it.
Dr. Robert: You’re driving home, you’re a veteran,you fought in any of the wars or you didn’t fight. You were the guy that stayed behind and supported everybody but you were a veteran or you are an active military. Just give that thing a honk and you just go, “Honk honk honk.”
Clay: Honk that thing, honk it.
Dr. Robert: As you hear more honks, you know there are veterans too. It’s Veterans Day. The other one is, today is the 25th. 25th anniversary of me opening up my very first business. If I could survive 25 years, everybody listening out there to the ThriveTime Show, you can do it too.
Clay: Have you survived different presidencies. I mean did you skip them, you just called a time out.
Dr. Robert: This isn’t Russia. I wasn’t [unintelligible 00:02:10] the whole time. Yes, I have, technically I have.
Clay: There has been Democrat presidents and Republican presidents and you didn’t call a time out and say, “I cannot operate under these economic conditions.”
Dr. Robert: I quit. I can go no longer. You know like James Brown on stage, “I can’t go on. I can’t go on.” He was limping out the stage but he really could go on.
Clay: And the rules have changed.
Dr. Robert: Often the rules have changed. The rules have change within my profession quite a bit. Practicing optometry 25 years goes looks totally different than it does today. I would tell you if you start a business today, in 25 years I promise you, I promise you there will be a new set of rules and they’ll be a new set of rules within your industry too.
Clay: So, government has made changes that have affected your industry, you’re still here 25 years ago.
Dr. Robert: 25 years ago, my silver anniversary.
Clay: I have to ask, I’m so intrigued by this I want to know, the first day that you opened, did you have a business loan, did you max out every credit card or what was your move. How did you find that first startup?
Dr. Robert: Well, I’ll tell you what God, if you believe in Him but there is a God. He gifted me with two kidneys, I just sold one of them and I got quite– quite a bit before I was young and healthy though I had saved and saved and saved saved worked multiple jobs. Then when I started, I was working seven days a week because my practice wasn’t seven days a week. The days that I wasn’t open, we’re open six days a week that seventh day, I went to got a job somewhere else.
Clay: Bernie Sanders might be listening. You worked more than five days a week.
Dr. Robert: Sorry, Bernie.
Clay: You did work seven days. Is it historical fact, you worked seven days a week?
Dr. Robert: That is an historical fact. I would have worked eight or nine if I’d come from your planet, Clay, because I know Planet Clay Tron, where you’re from, no one really knows exactly where it is in the-
Clay: In the universe.
Dr. Robert: [unintelligible 00:03:51] or wherever it is, we’re not sure where it is but, anyway.
Clay: It’s a powerful place. Now, I will tell you this, we are honored today because we have a very special guest here. We have Mr. Will Rohleder with 24/7 Disaster Group. This just in 24/7 Disaster Group, sir, how are you?
Will Rohleder: I’m doing great. It’s great to be here.
Clay: For anyone listening who says, “What do you do? What is your core business? What is your purpose, what do you do? What kind of business are you involved in?”
Will: Well, at 24/7 Disaster Group, we are a turn key, fire Water and storm damage restoration company. We work on residential properties, commercial properties and even industrial properties.
Clay: Do you ever work on properties that are involved in the German-American festival. Do you ever ever work. Do you ever ever done some disaster relief at the October fest.
Will: Not this kind of disaster.
Clay: A port a potty were to turn over.
Dr. Robert: Oh, that’s a disaster.
Clay: Would they call you, could you come fix it?
Will: We could fix it. They probably don’t want to pay for us to fix it.
Dr. Robert: Oh, I don’t know if I’m in that port a potty, I’ll pay it. I’ll pay it.
Clay: Honestly, those big events like that I get worried go to those things. That could tip over at any time. But seriously guys today, we’re going to get focused.
Will: Is that what you worry about?
Clay: I do. I can’t go in there.
Will: I thought was that lie top of the list?
Clay: I wont go in there. I’m always like, “This thing can tip over.”
Will: I don’t blame you. You’re right, it’s probably a very unsafe place, you’re right. It’s good. It’s your luck and you’ve made it so far. You’re wise, safety first.
Clay: We’re talking today about four steps to creating the world’s best customer service experience. Z and we’ve teamed up and we made a very special gift for all the veterans. There is something for all the veterans listening right now because we want to offer you the very best customer service experience going with our theme here. All the listeners right now, if you’re listening and you are a veteran or you are on active duty or you are reserve or you’re the spouse of any of these people, you as a free gift from us to you-
Dr. Robert: Totally free.
Clay: You get free access to thrive15.com. Right now, go on up there, it’s free for all members of active duty, the reserve, the veteran military, it’s our way of saying, “Thank you.” It’s absolutely free for you. Go on to thrive15.com, the world’s best business school, totally free access right there for you.
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Dr. Robert: Clay, you know why we do that. Well, number one, we love our veterans. I’m not going to give a trick question. We love our veterans but studies come out and shown that the unemployment rate with veterans is higher than with non-veterans. That’s not the way it should be and so we said, “Hey, listen. We are making a web site that can be business coaching for people that want to start their own business, control their own destiny. And you know what, we thought about it, we said, “What better group than the veterans?” Just said listen, “Whenever somebody signs up, we’re going to give a win to a veteran.”
Clay: Absolutely, we will say again, “Thank you, thank you and thank you.” Here on this fabulous Friday, we appreciate you for making this country free and without you guys we just we really couldn’t be talking about things like starting a grown up business because it wouldn’t have that safety. Again, we’re talking about the four steps to creating the world’s best customer service experience and this first step is winning, is customer loyalty. I want you to think about this, okay. We’re talking about wows, W-O-W-S. That’s the four steps for creating the world’s best customer service. It starts with those Wows,okay. The W is winning is customer loyalty. What happens is when you win, you create sustainability and profitability. And I’m going to rock your mind with the statistics. Z, are you ready for this Mr. Statistics?
Dr. Robert: I’m ready, my mind rocked.
Clay: Here we go, this is from Harvard, the good friends at Harvard. This is what they said, they estimate that a 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can produce profit increases from 25% to 85%. That’s the Harvard Business Review.
Dr. Robert: What, reread that, reread that. That’s got to soak in. I’m driving home, I don’t my time to write anything down, read that again.
Clay: They estimated a 5% increase. Let me give you my Harvard voice,
Dr. Robert: 5%.
Clay: They estimate that a 5% increase in customer loyalty can produce profit increases from 25% to 85%.
Dr. Robert: Well, I’m not– I am a mathematician, actually but taking 5% and magically transforming that into what I’m going to called the black box accounting to either 25 or 85, that’s incredible.
Clay: I’m going to go ahead and just look at my magical to do list. Those on Facebook live can see this thing.
Dr. Robert: Magical, magical.
Clay: Z has got to the point in his life where everyone who works for him and with him has to do lists. But he does not. He no longer needs them, he is in the next level.
Dr. Robert: My to do list is to make sure you have your to do list.
Clay: That is true. Here is good example, today we had a call from a guy named Steve, a lady named Katherine, a guy named Ryan, a lady named Sabrina and a lady named Marie and a guy named Gentry all today and a lady named Jennifer all today, that called me and said, “Hey, could you help us with our PR and marketing.” and I didn’t spend a dime on advertisement. This happens all the time. You know why that happens, because our PR firm which was called– it’s called Make Your Life Epic, it’s a PR and marketing firm where we do Websites and branding that kind of thing.
People are happy, they tell their friends and it just keeps growing and growing and growing but you know what, when you go out there and get that first customer, it’s expensive.
Dr. Robert: It is.
Clay: It’s expensive. I want to throw back to you as we talk about this, Z. Then, I have a couple of questions here for Will. When you started your optometry clinic and you had no customers. How did you get those first customers in the door, man, how did you do it.
Dr. Robert: I’m telling what, this is going to be crazy but I took 10 percent of my gross revenues and I put it back in advertising.
Clay: 10?
Dr. Robert: Which is an extremely high number. That’s an extremely high number, I just committed to it. I lived at a level toward 90 percent of what I was making would cover myself up. I was in a little town home which is a little two story town home thereby, 61st St. Louis. I just had everything dummy down and just lived as minimal as I could because I knew that that getting those first customers and building the business, those first few steps of doing that was more important than having Dish’s cable TV or
Clay: Did you say 61st St. Louis?
Dr. Robert: Yes, somewhere in there. I think it is, yes.
Clay: I lived at 67th Louis. Did you live at 67th in Louis?
Dr. Robert: That may be it, yes. Then other town homes back on the west side of the road there.
Clay: Hearthstone.
Dr. Robert: That could be that.
Clay: We might have lived in the same place.
Dr. Robert: Oh, my Gosh. I knew there was a connection between us.There’s a connection though one does.
Clay: I want to ask is, Will, how did you get your first customers there at 24/7 Disaster Group.
Will: Our first customers all came through word of mouth or referrals. 24/7 started as a side business initially. A lot of the contractors are subcontractors that work for us. Take for instance, a plumbing company, they would send us referrals so we started doing that work and then it’s grown into its own, own separate business.
Clay: When we come back, we’re going to be getting more into your story and how you were able to start a business but what’s impressive about your business and I think it’s exciting for people listening is, you started with this little, almost like a little seed we’ll call it and it grew. By doing a great job consistently, the company has now flourished where you’ve got– trees rumor has it can reproduce themselves with more seeds. It’s growing and growing and growing and growing–
Will: That’s crazy.
Clay: It is crazy but you’re growing your business through word of mouth. It’s exciting and I think it’s inspiring for anyone listening that they too can do that. We’re also going talk about the specific steps that you have to implement to create a wow customer service experience. Very specific, very detailed steps because everybody wants to do great customer service but very few people do.
Will: One thing I just want to tell you right now, I can actually say wow backward, it’s wow.
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Automated voice: Live, local, now, you’re listening to the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Hello, Tulsa, welcome back to the ThriveTime Show during your drive time home. Hello, hello and hello, It’s a Friday. It is a wonderful day to be alive in this great United States of America. We have a show that I’m so excited about today. It’s Tulsa’s only local business radio show but it’s a topic that I, as a business coach, am always passionate about, it’s the four steps to creating the world’s best customer service experience. What we did today is, we brought on two guys who know a little bit about the customer service game. The first guy we brought on here is the co-host with the mohost. The Dr. Zoellner. The who– he started off with his optometry clinic and he did such a good job building it that, that word of mouth grew. He opened another location then he said, “You know what, I’m going to leverage that, that name, that brand, I’m going to open another business and then another business and pretty soon there was many businesses and now he’s here, we’ve caught him. He’s here with cuffed him, he’s on the show tonight. Dr. Z, how are you sir.
Dr. Robert: I am fantastic. Thank God it’s Friday. Thanks God– Thank God, it’s my 25th anniversary for opening up my first business. Thank God for our veterans, Happy Veterans Day everybody. I’m going to tell everybody out there listen, you’re driving home, you punch it in and you did the week, you’re going to go home and do the the football, the tailgating, that Friday night football, all the stuff you do on the weekend. Rake your leaves, it’s maybe not so much leaves yet but it’s getting there.
Clay: You know what I do on the weekend.
Dr. Robert: Yes, I’m going to tell you something right know, if you said to yourself listen, “I’m only going to listen to Clay and Robert for two hours my entire life.”
Clay: That’s it.
Dr. Robert: That’s it.
Clay: That’s it.
Dr. Robert: I’m going to pick two hours and that’s all I’m ever going to listen to the ThriveTime Show. That’s it. This is the show you want to listen to.
Clay: This is the show because this is the show about duplication.
Dr. Robert: If you get this down, if how to wow your customers with the best customer service that right there, that right there is a golden goose.
Clay: I’m going to tell you this, there is a business owner that I spoke to about three weeks ago and I felt so bad because I wasn’t being asked for advice. I knew how to help this person and just listen to them talk. I started to just– I wanted to help but one thing you have to know, one aspect of wisdom is know when not to talk. You don’t give people advice unless they ask for it.
Dr. Robert: Exactly. Then it goes on and it’s just heated.
Clay: But they were talking about how their business is struggling because they keep– they’re getting– their reviews are bad on Angie’s List. And I’m going [inaudible 00:16:01] I know I’m not saying but my inner dialogue.
Dr. Robert: Inside you’re like “I can help you.”
Clay: And so they reached out and said, “Clay could you help us.” The question was could you help us fix our reviews. Reputation Management our PR firm helps people and a lot of– we will help clients who are or maybe your competitors saying untrue things about them but I’m not going to go make up a false reality. But we look into it. And John on my team John calls Angie’s List and they go, “The guy has like 13 some odd complaints and all very consistently.” The more business he gets, you see, the worse-
Dr. Robert: It’s going to be.
Clay: – it’s going to be. He just wants to focus on burying that reputation and I’m going, ” Let’s just do a google search.” Google awful. We do a– and nobody’s perfect but it was bad. If he was embodying and learning these systems that we’re teaching tonight, his business would be thriving and he would be growing instead of shrinking. We also brought a guy on the on the show here today, who knows a little bit about great customer service. Mr. Will Rohleder of 24/7 Disaster Group, can you explain well for the folks out there that don’t know what 24/7 Disaster Group does?
Will: At 24/7 disaster group, we specialize in fire, water and storm damage restorations. Water leaks at homes or businesses. Obviously, fires, tornado damage, hail damage, our turnkey contractor do all repairs.
Clay: Were you just a kid grown up who was passionate about leaking pipes or what caused it. What was your step one. How did you get started in this business?
[crosstalk]
Will: No, I’ve been in construction and manufacturing industry my whole life. I grew up my dad had a construction business, cabinet and furniture manufacturing facility. I’ve been in construction, done construction management, owners rep, started my own construction company back in 2009. We do commercial, industrial construction plant installations and 24/7 started as a side business with, I said earlier, like a plumbing company or H-vac company or fire suppression company, they would call us because we had guys on staff that can do small projects. Then it just snowballed and we saw the market and the margins that could be made and it took off from there.
Clay: one thing you didn’t mention, Will, which is now become a thing.
Dr. Robert: It has become a thing.
Clay: What about an earthquake?
Dr. Robert: Like my things get rattled and a wall falls down. What about earthquake stuff?
[crosstalk]
We just had another big win this week.
Will: We will do earthquake repair. One thing people need to look for though, most people aren’t covered. They don’t have insurance coverage.
Clay: Good point listening out there.
Will: Or the deductible might be 5000 or 10 or 15,000 dollars and a lot of people don’t have that cash laying around.
Clay: I will tell you this, if you’re listening right now and you want to start a business, the first step for getting the customer service is, you have to learn how to acquire a customer. That could be through trade shows, marketing, branding.
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Clay: Web development, mailers, I mean you have to grind to get those first customers.
Dr. Robert: Grind it is.
Clay: It’s tough. It’s tough to do it. It’s very expensive. I will tell you the cost. My wife and I used to spend it to book, even one wedding when we started D.J. connection, we looked at it. We were spending almost $200 a customer to convince a bride to book with us.
Will: And just put perspective at the height of D.J connection, when you’re doing 4000 events a year, that 200 dollars went down to what?
Clay: Well, I do know because when we sold the business I really looked at a lot of those numbers. We were down to under 50.
Will: Yes. That’s huge. It was a huge difference.
Clay: The deejay business what was tough is that, even if you loved your wedding you can’t convince somebody else to go get married. Whereas like optometry, everybody has eyes and what half the population probably needs vision.
Dr. Robert: It’s about 50%
Clay: About 50% and again every business, the word of mouth and the referral ratios will be different but people usually don’t go, “Oh Sharon, your wedding was so fun, I should get married again” People just don’t usually– but again that the big mystic statistic I want to make sure that we don’t move past– this is from Harvard, the Harvard Business Review, they said that a 5% increase in a customer loyalty can produce profit increases from 25 to 85%. Here’s how we do it, I want everyone to get out of sheet of paper tonight and I want you to make a step-by-step from left to right a timeline of how you will engage with the customers. What do you mean? Here’s an example, the phone rings, what do you say?
Dr. Robert: Hello? I’m making my timeline.
Clay: A lot of businesses do that though, right? They just go, “Hello?”and you’re like, “Is this a business?” Have you ever done that before, you’re calling a business and you just go, “Is this a business?” How we answer the phone, and there has to be a wow to it. Do the scripting.
Dr. Robert: Yes, and once you figure that out, what you do you write it down.
Clay: Yes. You write it [unintelligible 00:21:10]
Dr. Robert: I forgot to say that part this time, I forgot to say it.
Clay: You never want to delegate something until you’ve nailed it. I always tell people, you don’t want to scale it, until you’ve nailed it. Once you have nailed it, you want to record it. It’s very, very important that you ask yourself, “What do we say when we answer the phone?” And the next step is, when we interact with customers face-to-face or in an appointment, what do we say? A lot of entrepreneurs are saying, “Well, I just say whatever comes natural and that’s how I look things” Well, that’s you. You’re not building a business you’re building a job. As we come back, we’re going to teach you how to script out a specific linear system that’s going to wow customers time after time, Z. Z, tell them–
Dr. Robert: Linear, is that like a straight line? Is that like a line?
Clay: Yes. Linear. It’s not–
Dr. Robert: To step, to step, to step, to step– we become robotic. You’re trying to be robots?
Clay: A lot of entrepreneurs are just thinking and they’re just getting random ideas brainstorming every day. We’ve got to have a linear path.
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Clay: All right, thrive nation, welcome back to your inspiration station. The place that you go for that audio dojo of mojo, where we teach you that business school without the BS and yes, my name is Clay Clark, the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, broadcasting in your ear and very, very near, we have somebody here. It’s Dr. Robert Zoellner. Sir, how are you?
Dr. Robert: I am fine. We’re going to talk about a linear process.
Clay: A linear process. How to build a customer service experience that wows. We have a very special guest on the show today. We have Mr. Will Rohleder with 24/7 Disaster Group. Sir, for anyone listening, what do you guys do?
Will: Fire, water and storm damage restoration.
Clay: Fire, water and storm damage restoration?
Will. That’s correct.
Clay: How are you growing these days? Where do most of your new business come from?
Will: Right now everything is word of mouth and then we have sales people that go out and get business and we’re working.
Clay: Word of mouth?
Will: Yes. Word of mouth.
Clay: Whose mouths?
Will: That would be subcontractors that we use, that’s other industry professionals, that’s a few adjusters, insurance agents, past customers and clients.
Clay: Thrivers, this was not a planted– I did not– this was not a scripted moment. He’s generating word of mouth because he has great customer service.
Dr. Robert: What?
Clay: Because people typically don’t refer things they don’t like.
Dr. Robert: What?
Clay: That’s why we’re talking today about, “the four steps to creating the world’s best customer service experience”.
Dr. Robert: Honestly, I thought word of mouth is you hire dude named Guido, and he goes and goes, “I’ll tell you what– I got this fire and water restoration company that’s we’re going to start using.”
Clay: Well, we’re going to have to–
Dr. Robert: We’re going to have to come and visit you, and you’re not going to like that visit, okay?
Clay: There’s no hostile forcing of word of mouth in Oklohama.
Dr. Robert: Is that not– I thought that was word of mouth.
Will: Sounds like Guido might be the one starting the fires.
Dr. Robert: That’s phase two. That’s marketing. That’s– we’ve got word of mouth, marketing’s next week show. Okay?
Will: Okay. Sorry.
Clay: He’ got the whole game, he’s creating a need, starting fires making people referring him. No, but in all sincerity, we’re talking about step one which is winning equals customer loyalty and sustainability and profitability, okay?
Dr. Robert: Wait, profitability? Is that ethical?
Clay: The thing about profitability, I want to walk you through this because this is so hard for people to derive.
Dr. Robert: First of all, is that ethical?
Clay: I would say that profitability is definitely– profitability is definitely ethical. It’s very exciting, it’s very motivating. It’s why we’re in business.
Dr. Robert: Yes, yes.
Clay: There’s a lot of business owners that are not making a profit because they’re not figuring out this game. You want to make a linear, we’re talking about making a linear workflow. Step one, how do you answer the phone? Step two, when you interact with the customer, what do you say? I’m going to give an example of what to do. Think about a very, very fun restaurant maybe you don’t like this restaurant, maybe you’re offended by it, but here’s an example, Dicks Last Resort.
Dr. Robert: Okay. I got it
Clay: It’s in Dallas. Have you been there?
Dr. Robert: Yes. You’re right. It’s fine and offensive, in a fine offensive way.
Clay: What they do, is their whole niche, is they make fun of you.
Dr. Robert: The whole thing? It’s like Bobo the Clown [unintelligible 00:26:33]
Clay: Have you guys got the chance to go there. Will, have you been to it?
Will: I have not been there.
Clay: What happens is, years ago we had a bridal show and one of my businesses was called DJ Connection,and what we would do is we’d work at the bridal show all day from like 10:00 am to about 6:00 PM. I’d tell the guys-
Dr. Robert: Oh, yes. Signing those brides up.
Clay Clark: – every guy, you have to look at least 10 weddings and if you book 10 weddings, I will take you out tonight to Dick’s Last Resort. They knew that, it’s every time we had a bridal show. This became a legendary thing. One of our top sales guys didn’t know the niche in the whole customer service experience. You walk in and this is a restaurant where they ridicule you. You walk in and the guy he says, “What do you jerks want to eat?” This is what the waiter says. I’m like, “Well, I’m going to have a yadi yada.Well, the guy next to me is already naturally pretty prickly, he’s one those guys–
Dr. Robert: Perfect. Perfect guy to take.
Clay: He’s ready to– he’s pretty much ready to fight at all times. He’s an intense guy. Imagine the typical guy you could think of. A high-pressure sales guy that smokes a lot, that’s my guy, that’s my Mark. All of us know this game and we know that he’s going to get incensed. He’s going to get irate. He’s going to lose his mind–
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Clay: – I remember he orders a blue moon beer, and the bartender go to the–the waiter goes, “Really? I figured” He was like, “Figured what?” And he says, “No. It just says a lot about you. He comes back and brings a fruity girly drink. He’s like, “I ordered a blue moon beer”. He goes, “I’ve got you a drink that I thought was a little more your personality”
At this point he’s leaving.
Dr. Robert: Yes. He’s ready to fold out [inaudible 00:28:12]
Clay Clark: Then they come by and they take a hat, they make a hat out of a paper and they write horribly offensive things on the hat and they put it on your head.
Dr. Robert: And people pay for this?
Clay: They pay for this, but all I’m saying is they know their niche. What they’re trying to do, is they’re trying to create a word of mouth experience where people will come back and bring friends and then on antithesis of this is Disney, where you ask where the bathroom is a fairy princess says, “Oh, the bathrooms over here”
Dr. Robert: “I’ll follow my gold dust to the bathroom”
Clay: Yes. They’re very kind and very– all I’m saying is there intentional.
Dr. Robert: Oh, yes. And the smells, are very intentional. Because one of our mentors on thrive15.com, just happened to be Lee Cockerell, just happened to run Disney World.
Clay: Managed 40,000 people at Disney World and it [crosstalk]
Dr. Robert: The bakeries, with the special thing to blow the smells out [inaudible 00:29:03] unbelievable.
Clay: They literally have a fan that blows the smell out, when you’re walking by your going, “I am hungry”. You weren’t hungry before but now I am a little bit hungry. Then when you walk in– by the way you have to exit through gift shops, you see this is a linear path. They’ve thought about all these stuff. If you’re listening right now and I want you to do for the first time in your business career, because almost no one does this, so many people in business they do it if their a builder, like Will over here, or a re-modeler or a guy who’s doing some kind of construction, they’ll actually build a blueprint. But very few people build a blueprint for their customer service experience.
Dr. Robert: You know what’s great about this Outtakes song I want to play right now? Is it fits perfectly with the Disney World theme, because I asked Will on the– in the break I said, “Hey, Will, what’s top of mind song for you?”
Clay: What’s your favorite song?
Dr. Robert: He’s like, “Well, probably one of my daughter’s been listening to a lot.”
Clay: I don’t remember his saying the daughter. I thought he just said, “One of my favorite songs was, Let it go”
Dr. Robert: That’s right, he did.
Clay: He did say his daughter’s.
Dr. Robert: But it fits him perfectly with the [segway?] of Disney World.
Clay: Will Rohleder, his favorite song, Frozen, Let It Go.
[music]
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Automated voice:You’re listening to the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: All right, thrive nation, welcome back to the ThriveTime Show during your drive time home. My name is Clay Clark and I’m a former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, but before that, I was a guy who had a vision to start a business. And before that, I was a guy going to college at Oral Roberts University without any money. And before that, I was a guy who grew up without financial resources, didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t have money to start a business.
I once thought you can’t start a business until– it takes money to make money and you have to be rich before you can start a business. I over time learned that, that wasn’t the case, but I had to start somewhere. This is why I am so passionate about this show, is because Dr. Z and I, we have dedicated our lives, our time, and our energy to teaching entrepreneurs how to start and grow a business because we’ve been blessed to be able to have the mindset, the aggressiveness, the attitude, the coach ability, whatever you call it to want to start a business and we’ve been able to do it very successfully over the years.
We know if you’re listening right now, and you fit into this statistic from Forbes, 57% of you want to start or grow a business. We know that is the statistical proof 57% of you want to start or grow a business. But it can be often very hard to do it. We’re teaching you today how to specifically– let’s say you did start a business, but now you don’t know how to wow the customer to generate that word-of-mouth business. We’re talking today about the four steps for creating that world’s best customer service experience. Dr. Z and I are joined here today with Mr. Will Rohleder of 24/7 Disaster Group. Will, can you explain to the fine folks at home what you do, my friend?
Will: Again, we are a turnkey– I like to say turnkey because we handle everything to do with fire, water, storm damage restoration for your home or business. We can pack out contents, take them off-site, clean them, clean your building up, and put everything back together.
Clay: Before we get into the steps that Z has put into his auto auction to make it so successful, I want to ask you, your business is now growing primarily through word-of-mouth. It’s growing by leaps and bounds by people recommending each other. What are you doing differently than the typical disaster response company, the companies that are out there when they have a flood or a leak or fire damage, that are out there doing the remodeling. What are you doing differently that’s generating that word-of-mouth? What’s your system?
Will: The first thing is a pretty novel idea. We actually do what we tell our customers we’re going to do. I know, I know. Being that we are a turnkey company, we’re able to provide services that other companies in our market don’t.
Clay: What does turnkey mean?
Will: You don’t have to call three or four different contractors, you don’t have to call someone to clean up from a flood, clean up and extract water. You don’t have to call someone to pack out your couch or your clothing with a fire, and you don’t have to call someone else to do the repairs. We do everything from start to finish.
Clay: Typically, whenever I’ve called somebody for– my wife and I had a leak, recently one of our houses, we had a leak there, and we contacted a guy. I always feel like when you call a guy to do the repair, you’re always talking– I love the Patriots by the way, I love the people in Boston, but I feel like you’re talking to a Bostonian, or an east coast guy, and usually like, “Yes, I’ll go get my guys, we’ll head on over there. We’ll just kind of boom and knock it out,” and you’ll go, “Do you have a team?” “I know a guy.”
And you go, “You know a guy?” “I know a guy. He’ll be over there probably– what’s today, Friday? I would say between Friday and Monday.” And you’re going, “That could be a three day swing.” “Yes. Basically, I’ll just give you a call.” And I’m going, “I have a job.” I have a job, so my wife and I, previous to knowing you, this is a true story, this is a few months back. We literally called– and this guy, I’m sure he’s a good guy, I’m sure he needs to listen to this show. Hopefully, he figures it out but he tells my wife, I’m not kidding, he says, “What I’m going to do is, I’m going to go ahead and I’ll be over there around noon.”
My wife drives to the house, we have five kids, and waits. About four o’clock, five, my wife calls me, “I don’t think they’re going to show up.” My wife heads back to the office at the river walk to meet me up there and then he calls, “I’m up here at the place. No one’s here, when are you coming back?” She says, “I–” It goes on and on and on and on and on, and I find that’s typical for most contractors, most construction companies I’ve dealt with. Maybe I’m wrong, Z, is that your typical experience?
Dr. Robert: Yes, it can be. I think they might be sometimes worse than the cable company but when you find a good one and you’re on a good one, then that’s not the case anymore. Just sorting through and finding one– That’s why word-of-mouth is so important. That’s why it’s so great that Will’s building his business that way, because you do a great job and people talk about it, and boom boom boom. You kind of dovetailing what you were saying earlier, Clay, about starting a business. My kids just did a camping trip to Grand Canyon.
Clay: Oh really?
Dr. Robert: Yes. Two of my kids and their significant others were out there camping out. They went, they got all these historic pictures, they had a fantastic time.
Clay: Were they glamping?
Dr. Robert: No, they were camping. Part of what they were going to do is they were going to hike down to the bottom of that and they turn around and hike back.
Clay: That seems like a lot of hiking.
Dr. Robert: Yes. The point is that it was a long way, it was a 32 mile trip. You know how they started it?
Clay: On jet packs?
Dr. Robert: By one step, and that’s what we’re going to encourage you to do. You’re driving home right now, it’s Friday, you’re going, “Yes,” you’ve got the ThriveTime Show on, you’ve got it cranked up, you’re listening to it, you’re honking, you’re waving at folks, you’re in a great mood, it’s Friday, and you say to yourself, “One of these days, I’m going to start a business.” One of these days, I’m going to do it, one of these days I’m going to stop working for the man and I’m going to become the man. Or the woman. Not gender specific.
Clay: I would become a transgender dominant force in this market.
Dr. Robert: There you go. We all have our targets to shoot for.
Clay: That’s my niche.
Dr. Robert: That’s my niche. My point is that we’re going to try to do our best, our darndest, to encourage you to take that first step. Once you do, you listen to the show and you listen to mentors i.e. us, and don’t do the other way called mistakes.
Clay: Or jackassery.
Dr. Robert: Or jackassery.
Clay: Brought to you buy the word jackass.
Dr. Robert: You listen to us and you listen to this show, we’re going to help you. Today’s show is so exciting because you learned how to wow one person. You learned how to wow one customer. That’s the secret sauce.
Clay: Here’s the deal. You have to write it down. Once you figure it out, once you nail it, you’ve got to make it repeatable. You’ve got to make it repeatable.
Dr. Robert: It’s like I’m trying to figure out how to bake a cookie. Then finally one day, I make the world’s best cookie.
Clay: Z, it’s the best cookie you’ve ever made, it’s so good.
Dr. Robert: It’s like you’ve been slaving in the kitchen, you’ve been going, “What am I going to do?”
Clay: Can we stop? We’ve been making cookies all month, we’ve never made a good one. Can we just-
Dr. Robert: Then finally, the aroma, wafts all through the kitchen.
Clay: Oh, my God. Z, do you know what this means?
Dr. Robert: You open the oven, you got your little mitten on, your little mitten, so we don’t have a disaster.
Clay: This could be it.
Dr. Robert: You pull the tray out, you smell it and go, “Oh, man.” That’s the best cookie ever. You let it cool just a little bit, and then you take a bite, you go, “That is confirmed, the best cookie ever.”
Clay: And there’s no gluten in it. It’s perfect.
Dr. Robert: And then you say, “I forgot how I made it. What’s the ingredients that I put into?”
Clay: I thought you were taking notes? Now, here’s the deal. If you don’t implement the system, Z’s going to teach you. Z’s going to tell you how he does it, in his auto auction. You buy a car, it can be very frustrating trying to get the title done. Very frustrating buying a car in an auction. Z’s made a great system, but if you don’t implement what he’s teaching you, this is what’s going to happen.
Voice: Now you kids are probably saying to yourselves, “I’m going to go out and I’m going to get the world by the tail and wrap it around and pull it down and put it in my pocket. Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re probably going to find out as you go out there, that you’re not going to amount to Jack Squat.
Clay: That’s what’s going to happen if you don’t implement this system. Z, go for it, my friend.
Dr. Robert: It’s all about customer service, and it’s all about learning and failing forward. You go, “Oh, that didn’t work out so well. How do we fix it?” You find the limiting membrane and fix it. Like for example in my auto auction. We did a free lunch and we just fed people and had great auctioneers and we had great check-in, great cleaning up the cars and the cars were in order and we did all of our paperwork correctly.
Then all of a sudden now, they got to come in and pay for them, and it was just a mess in there. We have a lot of computers set up, about half of our people are bilingual because there’s a lot of Hispanic business car dealers in the Tulsa region. When they get up there we have experts in the title work, because title work, that’s difficult. It’s challenging.
Clay: It’s hard.
Dr. Robert: A lot of car guys get up and go, “Help me. This is my profession, this is what I do, but I need help in it.” You have professionals up there, they have their checklist, they walk everybody through, and they’re efficient with their time, they get him in, and get him out of there. Because I don’t know about you, but when I go on a business, I want to get what I came in for and get out.
Clay: You could have made your auto auction one of those businesses we’ve all been doing before, where you walk in and they’ve got just a nasty atmosphere and it’s just like the wallpapers from the seventies, and it feels very DMV-esque. There’s a lot of really just gross businesses out there. I’ve been to them. We’ve all been to them, and you go, “This is –.”
Dr. Robert: They’re probably qualified for Will’s job on disaster relief. Because you walk in, and you go, “That is a disaster.”
Clay: Yes. Have you ever just gone into a DMV and started doing a radical remodel without their permission just to help them?
Dr. Robert: Not for the government,no. Real.
Clay: Unbelievable. We come back–
Dr. Robert: You see a disaster, you got to be like Batman just jump in there and fix it.
Clay: Unbelievable. I can’t believe this. Now when we come back, we’re going to be talking about step number two: own the results. Whether you’ve good results, or bad results right now you have to own the results because everybody hates bad customer service. But check it out by default, we will deliver it, even if we’re not intentional. Stay tuned.
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Automated voice: Broadcasting from the center of the universe. Featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur Dr. Robert Zoellner and US-SBA entrepreneur of the year, Clay Clark. This is the ThriveTime Show, on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Hello, Tulsa and welcome back to the ThriveTime Show presented by E.W. Scripps company and the thrive15.com people. That’s us. We’re here broadcasting from the left coast of the Arkansas River from the Thrive 15.com world headquarters. Some might be saying, “What is thrive15.com? And why do they need a world headquarters?” These are good questions and Dr. Z, could you explain to the folks out there who aren’t familiar with what thrive15.com is, what the Thrive15.com experience is really all about?
Dr. Robert: Well, I’d say we got a little thing called Forbes. That means a big deal.
Clay: I might have heard about it.
Dr. Robert: They actually have this saying, where they said, they said that we are one of the best business school experiences online you can actually get. Wow! Well, and what we’ve done is — Clay, I tell you what, you without a doubt are the world’s best business coach. You really are. You do a fabulous job, but the problem with you, you know what the problem with you is, Clay?
Clay: I don’t have pigment?
Dr. Robert: Well, that’s not a problem.
Clay: I took algebra three times?
Dr. Robert: Still not a problem.
Clay: I don’t enjoy fun enough?
Dr. Robert: Well, okay. Now you’re getting closer. But I’m working on that. You’re getting better, you’re getting better by the way. The problem is there’s only one of you.
Clay: I’m thinking about that.
Dr. Robert: There’s only one of you. The point is that you can only business coach one business for an hour. What you’ll just boom boom boom boom boom. What we did is we said, “Hey, listen . This business coaching excellency, this business coaching mastery, we’ve got to scale-erie to give it to the world-erie.
Clay: Wow, there’s a lot of -eries there, it’s eery.
Dr. Robert: It’s got a little eery. Yes. Well, that was on purpose just to make sure you’re listening. Don’t wreck on your way home. What we did is not only did we get you we said, “Listen,” we can’t just have Clay on there, and just make thousands of videos of Clay sitting there going, “Hi, I’m Clay Clark. I’m the world’s best business coach–“
Clay: I smell terrific.
Dr. Robert: Here we go. What we did, is we gathered up. We’ve scaled the world and we’ve found very successful business owners, we found very great guys that wrote great books, great speakers, guys that run huge businesses and we went to them and at first we begged them. We said, “Please come be a mentor on Thrive15.com.” What we did is, we found out with their expertise was and filmed them in a fun way. Because fun is when the key is, fun’s the key. Fun’s the key. Then what we did, we chopped them up into 15-minute videos roughly, plus or minus. You have to time. That one was 15.3.
Clay: Yes, 15.27–
Dr. Robert: 14, I got shortened at two seconds [inaudible 00:46:36] .
Clay: Technically I was shortened at two seconds.
Dr. Robert: On that video. During 15 minutes because you’re in cognitive load and time constraints and all that, you can Netflix it, like binge-watch all these different videos. Let’s say today you’re going to listen– I need to learn about customer service. You can actually go in and look at hundreds of videos in customer service by different mentors that do it, or you could go in and say, “I’ve got a favorite mentor and I want to just watch all that dudes or ladies.
Clay: You got to watch Michael Levine by the way. He’s the PR consultant–
Dr. Robert: He’s the best, isn’t he?
Clay: –for Nike, for Michael Jackson, for Prince. I’m going to tell you what, this dude is a trip and he’s dyslexic but he’s a best-selling author.
Dr.Robert: These are great people, what you do for a measly $19 a month and today’s veterans say, we have to give a shout-out to the veterans. Tell you this, this is our heart. For every time you sign up, we give a free subscription to a veteran, or an active duty member, or a reservist, or their spouse who wants to start or grow a business. You get a two for one bang there and today’s of all the days in the calendar is the day we can really celebrate that veterans day.
Clay: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. Robert: 11/11.
Clay: 11/11.
Dr. Robert: Friday. That’s the little snippet of Thrive15, but there’s more.
Clay: There’s more. There’s thousands of videos, there’s templates, there’s downloadables, go check it out, Thrive15.com.
Dr. Robert: But you know the thing that seems to be the most exciting?
Clay: What is that?
Dr. Robert: These people get on, they see it, they go [inaudible 00:47:53] , “Is this legit? Is this real?” They get a feel of it, and they start getting into and become what we call a thriver, and then they get the opportunity to come out to one of our workshops.
Clay: People love the workshops. Those are two days, it’s eight hours per day. Two-day workshops, it’s mind-blowing. I promise it’s a fire hose of knowledge. You’ve taken so many notes, your hand is sore and that’s why we’re in the fun zone of Tulsa here, the riverwalk. You can go whack some golf balls there.
Dr. Robert: Yes. They are Flying Tee.
Clay: Flying Tee. Do they go to Los Cabos down there?
Dr. Robert: Take it deeper than the Arkansas River? We always recommend that.
Clay: Always go– Or you can take a walk down there. All right, nobody’s here.
Dr. Robert: It like the beach, it’s just water and sand.
Clay: On our customer service-focused show today, we brought in a customer service wizard, a guy who has really grown his business primarily through word-of-mouth. It’s Will Rohleder with 24-7 disaster group. Will, how are you?
Will: I’m doing great today.
Dr. Robert: Hey, for anybody who wants to know more about your business or how to learn more about you, what kind of problems do you solve, and how can they get in touch with you?
Will: We solve any problem someone might have in a home or business or commercial facility when it comes to the need for restoration. If that’s from a flood, burst pipes in a home, fire, storm damage, we do everything that relates — We do earthquake work also, yes.
Clay: I have five kids. Basically, if you have kids under the age of 12–
Dr. Robert: It’s a disaster.
Clay: – you just call this guy and then the whole disaster group comes down and they just help you fix everything. Seriously, my kids have left blenders on, they’ve left the bath on.
Dr. Robert: Why would they?
Clay: That’s what they have to do.
Dr.Robert: Just to turn those things off?
Clay: Unbelievable. Now here’s the thing, we’re talking about step number two. We’re talking about the four steps to creating the world’s best customer service experience. Step number two is, own the results. Everybody hates bad customer service but by default we all deliver it. I’m going to give you some examples of the good guys and then I’m going to tell you what I did wrong back in the day.
Dr. Robert: Back in the day.
Clay: Here we go. QuikTrip, what is going on with QuikTrip? It’s so good, why is it so good Z? Every time you go to the bathroom, it’s always clean.
Dr. Robert: Always clean.
Clay: What’s the deal, how come the other guys can’t figure it out?
Dr. Robert: I tell you nobody uses that I guess.
Clay: Seriously,how comes other gas stations can’t figure it out. If I’m going to Oklahoma city, I am worried.
Dr. Robert: What, about port-a-potty tipping over?
Clay: I’m thinking the quality of life is going down in that. If I go out there and I don’t stop at Starbucks or something I can’t just pull over to gas station. I’ve got to just go. I can’t go to the bathroom again until I get back to Tulsa
Dr. Robert: Oh, no. That can be unhealthy on your bladder. I’m not a real doctor but I’m a part of that team.
Clay: I blame non QuikTrips for my bladder problems. Another example would be Airlines. Jet blue, Southwest Airlines they consistently rack up awards for great customer service. Whole foods, consistently getting great marks for customer service. How come certain grocery stores can’t figure it out?
Dr. Robert: You know what I need to do, I just got inspired. Right then, I just got inspired.
Clay: What is it?
Dr. Robert: Well, Southwest Airlines, since I’m a frequent flyer on their on their airplanes, they send me a thing in the mail every now and then it’s called a kick tail.
Clay: Kick tail?
Dr. Robert: Kick tail.
Clay: what is that?
Dr. Robert: It’s a little slippery thing. It’s number,ed, it has my my code on it, it can ultimately come back, they can trace it back to me . I guess the company’s a big deal. What they did is send me these and say listen, “You don’t have to hand these out but if somebody in our team anywhere along the line does something really awesome, you hand them one of these kick-tail little certificates.” I promise you when you peal that thing out to handed to him, they light up like a Christmas tree.
Clay: Really?
Dr. Robert: Oh, yes. they light up like a Christmas tree.
Clay: l have never heard about this.
Dr. Robert: Yes, it’s called kick tail. I just got inspired, I’ve just started thinking, I’m going to do that in optometry clinic. I’m going to have my doctor’s or my front desk– maybe the doctor give to every patient one of those little things that said,”I want you whatever one of my employees is you think does the best job today would you hand that to them?”
Clay: That’s the move.
Dr. Robert: Yes. I think it’s a great move and I just got inspired by them. Instead of thinking, you go around in life you don’t have to reinvent the wheel folks. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You find the parade, that’s the parade ,that’s a kick tail parade and I’m going get out in front of it.
Clay: Here’s the thing, l’m just trying to help you guys. We’ve all been to a wedding. I used to be a wedding entertainer. We’ve all been to weddings where the best man is intoxicated. If you ever been to a wedding with the best man’s intoxicated, his goal is to try convince you that he’s not intoxicated.
Dr. Robert: Yes, that’s the move, that’s the move.
Clay: We did a wedding at the City Plex and this guy comes up to me he’s like, “Hey, I want to know do I look like I’ve been drinking? and I said, “Hey, buddy, l need to get up there and stand and deliver.” Just to get the piece of paper. I decided I’m going to go off the curve.
Dr. Robert: It’s Teleprompter?
Clay: He gets up there and he tells the story and the story was heated. True story, true story. I remember Travis was shadowing me that night ,Travis the new D.J. Travis it’s first and the last experience because he’s like I can’t do that. I said ladies and gentlemen now let’s go to give a round of applause for the best man he has a wonderful heartfelt tribute here, he’s going to give a toast for the bride and the groom. We gather round the groom, the best man gets up and goes, “All right, the bride I going to be honest you were you’re hot and I have always wanted to tell you. The thing was, is that wow you– and he just keeps doing this Ron Burgundy comments.
Dr. Robert: Oh, no. Oh, no.
Clay: I’m trying to like duck and cover him, I’m trying to pivot, lam trying to– What happens everybody in the audience goes this guy is drunk. Everyone’s looking at each other going how drunk is he? He goes on to say, “Well, last night the best man, the groom and I we went out and we hit a we hit a deer and because the groom was less than intoxicated than me, he took the wheel and drove us home.” That’s the kind of guy he is. Everyone was like, “Oh.” I mean people were offended. I’m sure everybody’s had someone that’s been hurt in a drunk driving accident. Everyone’s offended, they’re incensed and everybody knew that it was bad except for the best man, who thinks he’s awesome. He’s like, “I want to thank you guys, l want to thank you and I want to thank you.” and the whole time to mice is like, boop, boop, boop because he’s pointing the mic.
Dr. Robert: It’s painful.
Clay: That is what bad customer service is like. You’re out there working hard, going 90 miles an hour screwing up your customers life. They know it’s bad, everyone knows it’s bad but you don’t know it’s bad. When we come back, I’m going to teach you three proven specific moves that are going to help you get some transparency on the situation so you’ll start to know what’s going on. If you are the drunk best man, you probably want to analyze that game tape, you want to watch it because no one ever watch wedding videos but you probably want to get that wedding video and you want to say how drunk was I? You want to watch that because I’m telling you that stuff’s going up on YouTube and what you want to own that.
Dr. Robert: That was social-media, there’s a trail to follow your whole life.
Clay: You can’t run around not knowing you’ve got something on your face, you got to know. We’re going to teach you the three specific moves to make sure that your customer service is on point. When we come back. Heading to break your little princess Izzy.`
Dr. Robert: Yes, let’s go. Don’t go crazy, we’re going to go crazy to tell you how not to go crazy.
Clay: Stay turned.
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Automated voice: You’re listening to the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: All right, thrive nation will come back here for the [unintelligible 00:56:44] broadcasting here with thrive15.com world headquarters here. It’s ThriveTime Show on your drive time home.My name is Clay Clark, I’m the former SBA entrepreneur of the year.
With me here we have an incredible guest. Here we have Mr Will Rohleder there with 24/7 Disaster Group and we have the co-host with the mo-host, Dr. Roberts Zoellner. Dr. Z, how are you?
Dr. Robert: I’m great thank God it’s Friday. Everybody out there listening you survived another week.
Clay: You did it.
Dr. Robert: But you know what this show is not about surviving, Clay.
Clay: No, it’s not it’s about?
Dr. Robert: Thriving.
Clay: This just in.
Dr. Robert: These things that get banned around poles and numbers and all that.We’ve had months of all that just shoved down our throat, but one thing that sticks out to me is that Forbes come out with the number that said 57% of you listening out there want to start or you just started a business and want to grow it.
Clay: That’s statistically speaking more than half.
Dr. Robert: Now you’re just throwing math at me.
Clay: That’s more than half. You listening right now you want to start a business at some point. I want to ask Will because Will has started a business, grown a business. Will, when did you know you want to start your own business? How old were you when you knew you had the itch?
Will: It’s been in me ever since I was a little kid. We did tree service, lawn service. I remember probably when I was eight my brother was five we had a bike shop in the neighborhood. We would actually fix all the kids bikes, replace flat tires or tubes.
Clay: Really?
Will: Yes.
Clay: So this has always been a path for you, entrepreneurship?
Will: Always. It’s always something I wanted to do.
Clay: Now here’s the part where I think a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck and that’s where we’re going to dive into here. A lot of entrepreneurs get very good at doing something and so they create a job. They’re self-employed, they create a job. I
f you want to create a business, a business is a vehicle that has the capacity to create time and financial freedom without you personally doing everything. That’s the distinction. You get good at doing something the world applause, the world is willing to pay you for it. That’s a job, but if you create a business the business is able to work with when you’re not present. Its able to generate results independent of you. The steps to doing that is you must deliver great customer services. You just have to do it.
Dr. Robert: You have to do it. I’ll tell you what, if you’re listening out there and you’re going, “I want to own my own business. I want to do it but these guys are encouraging me I’m going to take that first step.” You figure out either service or product you could do that you can make some money on. That you can make some money on. Then you figure out how to wow your first customer and you know what you are on the road of success to having a great business.
Clay: Absolutely.
Dr. Robert: Then there’s other things you’ve got to do. That’s sounds pretty simple but those are a couple of first steps and that’s what we’re here to help you with. First, you’ve got to come up with your thing-
Clay: A little thing.
Dr. Robert: That makes money, profit.
Clay: Profit. So weird.
Dr. Robert: Yes, I know.
Clay: Why is it always about profit?
[crosstalk]
Dr Robert: [unintelligible 00:59:42] I just do that to better the world.
Clay: Let’s just work together and make a better community. Can we raise taxes–
[crosstalk]
I want to raise taxes.
Dr. Robert: You figure out how to make your thing and make money and then you go, “Okay, now I know how to do it but the second and maybe even just important step is wowing-
Clay: Wowing.
Dr. Robert: – those customers.
Clay: Now check it out here thrivers. Once you wow, people will refer now. Someone should write that down, once you wow, people will refer now. Step one, winning is customer loyalty. You define winning by customer loyalty. Step two, you got to own the results and I talked about this before the break. I’m going to give you the three moves for how to tell if your customer service is not awesome. One, pay mystery shoppers to buy from you every week.
Dr. Robert: What?
Clay: Every week pay somebody to buy from your business without —
Dr. Robert: So, you’re telling me I just hire some random dude to go into my shop —
Clay: Jamie Jackson, if you’re listening. Jamie, you helped me so much. Jamie’s a sweet lady. She was a cheer coach, she worked with my wife and I remember hiring Jamie to come to the bridal show and try to book a wedding through my company.
Dr. Robert: Oh, sneaky.
Clay: There I discovered we were not following the scripts, we were not quoting properly. We really did almost everything wrong and I realized through mystery shoppers, “Uh-oh, I have some things to fix”. And today, Elephant in the Room, our men’s grooming lounge, Z, we have guys who get their haircuts for free. I typically will give them a hundred-dollar bill and I’ll say, “Go in there and you can buy anything you want as long as the person who’s checking you out tries to sell it to you”.
Automated voice: You’re listening to the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: It’s a thing and I get that feedback from them. So number one, is the mystery shopper.
Dr. Robert: Mystery shopper.
Clay: Number two, this one it’s a little — people get a little freaked out on this. This is where you pay people based off of the results or the surveys from customers. You go to your team and you say, “Guys, our goal is to get a perfect 10. We’re going to ask the customer how happy they were with their stay at our hotel on a scale of one to 10. If they give us a 10, I’m going to give you a bonus. If not, you’re going to make the lower average or the normal pay”.
Now, they’re chasing bonuses every week and that is called a merit-based pay. You’re paying people based off of what they do, not based on what they intend on doing. Companies that do this are QuikTrip, Marriott Hotel, you have, Starbucks does this, Southwest Airlines does this, it’s a merit-based pay.
The third and this is probably the most difficult. It is the hardest for me to do, is look at your business like a customer. And it’s so hard to do it, Z, because you go into your optometry clinic every day and it’s so easy to look at it like the owner with almost a justification bias, where you want to justify why things aren’t right. But if you look at it like a customer or maybe even a negative customer, you look at it like, “Gosh, if I was negative or I was a new customer, what would I think about this experience?” You have to do that.
Dr. Robert: There’s a show on TV, I think it’s still on, but it’s called Undercover Boss. It was that exact same thing, it was amazing. Amazing how many times those bosses would dress up and of course, these are big companies, so a lot of people might not have even known them if they weren’t dressed up. But they would come in and they would be just a regular dude off the street. They’d mystery shop their own business, basically. It was so eye-opening for them. It was a great experience and it was a great lesson in owning a business.
Clay: Now, Will, I want to ask you this from a customer service experience level. When you do have an occasional complaint because I know we all have a complaint, it’s so important to respond–
Dr. Robert: [mumbles] No problem. Never.
Clay: I know you’ve never had one Z and probably Will has never had one either but if you do ever make a mistake, how do you handle it? What’s the proper way that you guys try to handle it over there at the 24/7 Disaster Group?
Will: For us, customer service and customer satisfaction is our number one goal and that’s key. I can think of something that happened just last week. Our sales guys go out and they’re supposed to stick to a script and do what we tell them to do and what they’ve learned. People get off their reservation, I don’t know what — Sometimes they try to just make a sale however they want to but we had a discrepancy. The job’s done, invoices out, and the owner was under the impression the work was going to be $1,000 less than it was. We just told the owner, “You know what? We’re going to eat that $1,000”.
Clay: Wow.
Will: He was happy and he ended up calling back about an hour later. He knew there was miscommunication, I think from his end too, so we ended up splitting it. But we look at even if we’re losing money on that job, them telling 20 or 30 other people how terrible we were because we made this little mistake, isn’t worth it.
Clay: Yes. And I’ll just tell you this for Elephant in the Room, when it’s your first time haircut, if you come in and say, “Hey, it’s my first time here”. Your first haircut is always a dollar. Elephant in the Room, it’s our men’s grooming lounge, that’s our move. And so, you come in you say, “Hey, it’s my first time I’ve been in here”. It’s a dollar. Well, a lot of times the front desk people don’t know it’s your first time, if you don’t say it’s your first time. And they’re supposed to ask, “Is this your first time?”
Dr. Robert: “Sir, is this your first time?”
Clay: But sometimes they don’t ask and just like in your situation, if we ever find out there was a discrepancy, we try to go back. But the thing I want you to write down thrivers, I want you to commit to it, respond fast. Fast.
Dr. Robert: You got to respond fast and when we get back, I’m going to tell you a couple little secrets about –
Clay: Oh, secrets about what?
Dr. Robert: – responding to customer complaints.
Clay: Couple of secrets, you’re going to give us just a little teaser? You’re not going to give us a little — Eat a little more nuggets? Just a little more down that trail? No?
Dr. Robert: You got to stay tuned.
Clay: You got to stay tuned. Now thrivers, also when we come back, we’re going to be talking about the importance of being coachable.
[background music]
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[music]
Automated voice: Live, local, now. You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Hello thrivers and welcome back to the Thrive Time Show during your drive time home. It’s business school without the BS. This is the show that you go to when you want to learn how to start or grow a business. But the idea, that you could actually change the results you’re getting in your life. That kind of concept that you are in control of your own life is a powerful idea but it starts with you doing one thing, being coachable.
You have to be coachable and so today we are talking about the four steps to making the world’s best customer service but the first step is you must be coachable. I must be coachable, you must be coachable, we all must be coachable and so we’re going to get into this here, okay. We have a very special guest here, Mr. Will the Thrill, by the way, with the 24/7 Disaster Group. How are you, sir?
Will: I’m doing well. You Clay?
Clay: I’m doing awesome. Doing awesome on this Friday. And we have Dr. Z in the house. Dr. Dr. Robert Zoellner. Sir, how are you?
Dr. Robert: Thank God, it’s Friday. Shout out to the veterans and my 25th silver anniversary of my optometry clinic today.
Clay: Where is your optometry clinic located?
Dr. Robert: Eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven.
Clay: Where can we find these places?
Dr. Robert: Two wonderful locations, freestanding buildings. One at 69th in Memorial, and one at 30th in Harvard. Come on in, seven days a week. We take walk-ins and we will try to wow you. I will take you around and I give you my personal promise. If you’re not wowed let us know and we will make it a wow. And that’s what I’m getting ready to talk about right now, is what happens when you don’t wow, right?
Clay: Yes. Well, step three is you have to have a willingness to change. You must be coachable. Now, Jack Welch has perhaps some of the best management writings and wisdom I’ve ever read. His book Winning is legendary.
Dr. Robert: Legendary.
Clay: His book straight from the gut. Unbelievable autobiography but he says this, “Face reality as it is, not as it was, or as you wish it to be”. This is Jack Welch, the CEO of GE who grew the company by 4000%. These are some issues that I see in businesses and I listed them out here for you. If you’re listening, I’d encourage you to maybe just jot down a couple of these. If you go, “This is happening at my business”.
One, your customer service team or your sales team is actually trying not to schedule customers at the end of the day.
Dr. Robert: Makes me crazy.
Clay: At the end of the day. It’s like 4:55 a customer comes in, “Hey”. And they go, “Yes, we’re shutting down”. And they push people away. I mystery shop a lot of our competition in the haircut business and I will tell you, universally, there’s one sports clip that does a very fine job. But universally in the hair industry, people are always trying to shut down 15 minutes before it’s over –
Dr. Robert: Oh yes, get out of there.
Clay: – because their shift is done, so that’s one. Two, viewing customers as a nuisance. Just where you say — people call and you answer the phone, you say, “Thank you for calling yadi, yada”. And the customer says, “Yes, I have a question”. They go, “It’s on our website”. I can’t stand that answer. You’re calling the customer service line because you need customer service and they go, “It’s on our website”.
Automated voice: You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Third your team starts saying that’s not my job and pretty soon people are going to start saying, “I don’t have a job” if they keep saying that. The next was etiquette, sloppy etiquette.
Dr. Robert: Oh, these are making me crazy Clay. They’re making me crazy.
[crosstalk]
Clay: You’re supposed to wear a uniform so you start untucking that beast, you start not wearing the name tag. You ever been to those restaurants where people are required to wear a nametag and write their name on it and the guy cares so little about his job that the name is now missing.
Dr. Robert: Yes.
Clay: And you’re like, “Is your name Mo?” And he’s like, “What?” and you look down and it’s only the letter ‘M’ and part of an ‘O’ looks like it’s showing and you can’t figure out what his name. It’s just that kind of thing.
Calling in where your team starts to call in the customer and say, “I’m sorry but I can’t deliver the service.” I’m calling in, “Sorry can’t do it”.
Dr. Robert: Can’t do it.
Clay: The wedding photography industry by the way– I used to be involved in, a company called Epic Photography. We would pick up about one or two weddings a month as a result of photographers calling the bride on the day of her wedding saying, “I’m sorry I can’t do it. We’re running behind.” Could you imagine that call? Are you kidding me? You’re running behind. What are you running behind– what are you doing?
The next one is gossiping, talking bad about your customers. You can’t do that. No.
Dr. Robert: You’re making me crazy. You’re making me crazy, man.
Clay: No follow-up. Your customer service is starting to drift. Another one is governmental changes. You’re going, “Well, because of the changes, I now longer have control of our customer service and therefore you’re putting it off on the government”. And I know government can be a challenge in many industries, but you got to be responsive.
These are just a few examples but, Z, I want to ask you, how frustrating is it for you when you talk to an entrepreneur who’s not coachable.
Oh, your head. You’re hitting your head on microphone.
Dr. Robert: I was hitting my head on the microphone going down that list I’m like, “Oh, let’s just hit home” because I’ve dealt with every one of those and you’re just like, “Oh, Billy, really. Oh, just makes me crazy”.
Clay: When someone is not coachable they come to you and they go, “Hey, Z, I want to know how to grow a business and I know at your optometry clinic that you have check lists, and you guys fire-
Dr. Robert: How do I do it without a checklist.
Clay: – you fire people that won’t perform and you have checklists, but I don’t want to use a checklist, and I don’t want to fire people.
Dr. Robert: I learned something when I was a camp counselor at Camp Takatoka on Fort Gibson Lake in Northeast Oklahoma.
Clay: Oh, come on.
Dr. Robert: 1984.
Clay: Bang.
Dr. Robert: Boom.
Clay: Boom.
Dr. Robert: And that is, I was doing the WSI class, the Water Safety Instructor class.
Clay: Oh, come on.
Dr. Robert: It’s like a life guard on steroids.
Clay: Life guard on steroids.
Dr. Robert: On steroids. One of things that you learned in that is that if someone is out there drowning in deep water in the lake or the ocean or a big body of water. You swim out there and they don’t listen to your instructions and they’re panicking and they’re flailing and they won’t do what you want them to do. You’re at risk for them also. What they’ll do is they’ll grab you and they’ll push you down to trying to get up out of the water. They’ll end up drowning you and then drowning themselves.
When you swim out there to them and your giving them instructions, and your telling them what to do, and they don’t follow them and you can’t get them to settle down to where you can save them, you know what you do?
Clay: You punch them in the face?
Dr. Robert: No.
Clay: What? [laughs]
Dr. Robert: You do the old backstroke. You know why?
Clay: Why?
Dr. Robert: Because sometimes it’s better to have one drown than two drowns.
Clay: Oh, Billy. Are you being serious?
Dr. Robert: Yes, I am.
Clay: Is that actual advice they gave you?
Dr. Robert: WSI look it up.
Clay: What camp?
Dr. Robert: Google it, it’s a thing. What happens is if they go out there and they’re not complaint, they’ll drown. They’ll try to get on top of you and drown you.
Clay: Was this Camp Kalama?
Dr. Robert: It’s a thing. That’s what you do. If they won’t listen to you, you just backpedal away.
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Automated voice: You’re listening to the ThriveTime Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Hello, thrive nation. Welcome back to the inspiration station. You are listening to Tulsa’s only local business radio show right here on 1170 talk radio. I’m going to tell you what, I, on this Friday– I can tell you this, I mean this in all sincerity, I am so excited for you right now. Because if you’re listening to this right now, and you master these skills, if you’ve been struggling in a world of unrepeatable business systems, in a world where you have to do everything.
If you learn what Dr. Robert’s about ready to teach you, it can absolutely free up your life. I’m not exaggerating. It can change your life because when you earn financial freedom, and you combine it with time freedom, you my friend are free. You can get out there and do what you want to do. It’s your thing. You can do what you want to do.
I ain’t going to tell you where to spend that time. I’m not going to tell you but what we’re going to do today is, we’re going to teach you specifically how to build these repeatable systems. We have a very special guest on the show there. Mr. Will Rohleder of 24/7 Disaster Group. Sir, How are you.
Will: I’m doing fantastic.
Clay: For people just listening, what do you do? What is your core industry? What do they do?
Will: We are a turnkey restoration general contractor. Any fire, water or storm damage event at your house or business facility, we take care of it. Start to finish.
Clay: If I burn my house down?
Will: Well, if you burn it down, we probably don’t want to talk.
Clay: If I burn my kitchen down can I call you?
Will: If your kitchen catches some fire, call us. Yes.
Clay: If I got a leak and it won’t stop?
Will: Call us.
Clay: If I got a wind damage rips off my roof.
Will: Wind damage, sewage backup, anything.
Clay: What’s your website?
Will: You can find us at 247disastergroup.com. That’s 247disastergroup.com.
Clay: And suppose I’m a very forgetful man. What’s the name of that website again? How am I going to get there?
Will: It’s 247disastergroup.com.
Clay: Oh wow. Okay awesome. Dr. Robert is here and I want to brag on you for a second sir. You took an optometry clinic. I’ve met many, many optometrists. I’m not exaggerating. I’ve probably met a half dozen guys who told me — they say this. They say, “It’s not possible to scale optometry. You don’t understand”. They’ve called me wanting me to help them grow their business, and they have literally told me it’s not possible.
Dr. Robert: It’s not.
Clay: You can’t do it.
Dr. Robert: Sorry, next.
Clay: You’ve done that. Then you went on to the next industry which was– what was the next industry went into?
Dr. Robert: Auto auction
Clay: In auto auction, how many cars were you– what’s the maximum number of cars you’ve ever sold on a Friday?
Dr. Robert: Almost 1400.
Clay: One thousand four hundred cars.
Dr. Robert: Yes, sir.
Clay: In how many hours?
Dr. Robert: About three.
Clay: Okay, I’m just going to do some math.
Dr. Robert: Three and a half on that day.
Clay: So it’s like, four hundred and fifty cars an hour.
Dr. Robert: Use the math again.
Clay: That’s like seven cars a minute.
Dr. Robert: Yes, we have seven lanes.
Clay: The profundity of the level of details in the repeatable systems and then you invested in a bank and served on the board.
Dr. Robert: Yes. Boring, boring.
Clay: Bored.
Dr. Robert: I figured out “I’m not–” bankers want to say no and I’m like, “Say yes”. It was fine. No, it was good. They liked me because I was a balance.
Clay: Bank board is basically a bunch of guys that meet at a cigar shop and —
Dr. Robert: Say no. They practice how to say no. “Nooo”.
Clay: “Based upon this guy’s business plan, we say no”.
Dr. Robert: No.
Clay: Let me ask you this. What is the key to make– once you have a system that wows, what is the key to making it repeatable. Where do people screw it up?
Dr. Robert: Well people screw it up because what they do is they play the game we played back in kindergarten. The game in kindergarten is, the teachers got all the kindergarteners, because we’re in kindergarten, in a circle. Maybe first graders, maybe second graders. Pick an age, pick an age. Then what they did is, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to tell little Billy up front here, I’m going to tell him a secret.
Clay: [whispering] What is it? Tell me a secret.
Dr. Robert: Little Billy, what you’re going to do is you’re going to whisper in little Mary’s ear the same secret. But nobody listen. Then Mary, you’re going to whisper in Nancy’s ear the same secret. We’re going to go all the way around. It’s going to be a fun game.
Clay: That’s sounds great.
Dr. Robert: What happens is, Billy hears it’s, “Jack and Jill went up the hill” a little something right. By the time it gets back around it’s, “Bill and Sally were on a submarine and fired a nuke in Russia”. I mean it’s like, “What?”
Clay: Yes, what?
Dr. Robert: That’s not even a thing. The point I’m trying to make- the silly point I’m trying to make is, you got to write it down.
Clay: You got to write it down?
Dr. Robert: Yes, because otherwise what you do is just say, “I’m going to tell you Billy and now you teach everybody else because I’m going to tell you what to do.” And now you tell them what to do and then they’re going to tell somebody else what to do and pretty soon, it’s all going to happen just organically and it’ll all be perfect and everybody will remember the same.
Clay: I want to give an opportunity for Will because this is real time mentorship. Will has built a successful company. He’s done what many people want to do. He started a business, he’s grown the business.
Dr. Robert: Grown the business.
Clay: Word of mouth is coming in. The business is beginning to scale. Quality is high. Customer service is great. Will, what questions do you have for Z about how to build a repeatable system?
Will: Oh my. I would say in business as a young entrepreneur starting out
probably the biggest question of the unknown I had was how to systemize accounting. I fell asleep in those classes in college. Let me take you beyond that. Well, stock have systems for payroll taxes, work comp, state taxes, health insurance, payables, receivables, and keep your staff accountable.
Dr. Robert: Excellent question young man. Here is what I have found out as a young entrepreneur in the early days. That question nobody cares as much about that question as you do.
One thing I have learned is that everybody really likes to spend my money. Unless you hold them accountable for it, they’ll go out there and think they are doing me a lot of favors by spending my money. The easy question is that I’m telling out there folks. There’s a lot of companies that will segment this out for you. One that I have found, I’ll give them a shout out right now is called Paycom.
Clay: Paycom?
Dr. Robert: Paycom.com. They are a great source. You can source out the things that you need from them payroll, payroll taxes. For very reasonable rates they can do all these for you. Until you reach a critical mastery you bring somebody in. For years I would [unintelligible 01:21:09] for companies like that. There’s ADP, there’s other companies out there that perform in that space. They are held accountable and if they find something wrong and it comes back to you then they’ll stand by it and make it right.
You are not on an island. A lot of people think they start this business they go, “I’m on an island.” There are a lot of great companies out there that are actually looking and waiting to be your support staff. As you grow Will, as you get critical mass you can bring more people on staff and then you can hold them accountable. You say, “Hey I need my payroll numbers here, I need you to cover this, I want to have a monthly meeting with you on PNL statements.”
Clay: Will’s not asked so I’m going to ask this on behalf of people out there. Somebody’s saying, “You don’t understand. I work like 45 hours a week just to maintain. How can I find the time to ever make the system? When did you find the time? As you were growing all the pressure, all the customer service? How did you ever find the time?”
Dr. Robert: I’ll tell you what, this is going to be crazy but, I would go home – I know it’s crazy – I would eat dinner with my family – crazy again – put my young children to bed. I had a choice right then. For me it was my choice. That was my time and had a choice, I could go in there and turn on Monday night football. Who doesn’t like a little Monday night football on Monday night?
Clay: Yes, it was good.
Dr. Robert: The cowboys were playing, my favorite team and I said to myself, “Keep the TV off, turn the computers off, put the book I’m reading away, and I’m going to sit down and work on my business.” You can’t work on your business while you are in working in your business.
Clay: Come on now.
Dr. Robert: You’ve got to do it when you are not in your business. When I’m in there seeing a patient, I can’t sit there and say, “Okay that checklist for contact lens distribution is going to go,” because I’ve got to give them my full attention. When you are in your business you have got to do your business.
Clay: So during the day when you had problems would you write it down like a poster note or something?
Dr. Robert: That was my move actually a poster note. That’s the thing that’s sticky on one side and—
[crosstalk]
Clay: So you would write a note to come back to later?
Dr. Robert: I would have multiple ones in my jacket. I would just make notes throughout the day and at the end of the day I would formalize those notes. Then I would say, “Okay that’s a problem I need to fix it, I need to change.” Then a lot of times I would go to my system and thought, “You know when I wrote that I thought that was going to work but you know what? Step three is not.”
Clay: How maniacal were you to build the systems because now the optometry clinic– my wife started working with you when she was 19 years old, 20 years old, the Oral Roberts University student at the time. You had that thing so dialed and I’m sure you made more improvements since then. How detailed were you back in the day?
Dr. Robert: Some days it was almost scary. Some people will cringe when I’d come around. I hate to say that but it was kind of like nobody cared as much as I did. I wanted to get it perfect and I wanted to have as few customers – I’ll tell you, your first customer complaint just strikes you like a hot knife in your kidney, “Oh, oh, I’m going to quit. I will stop doing—”
Clay: “Oh, boy, God”
Dr. Robert: I tell you what, you don’t want those and so you will work as hard as you have to just to try to limit those. Because you are going to have them folks, it’s going to happen, trust me nobody is 100% perfect, it’s going to happen.
Clay: When did you put away the posted notes? When did you put away the to-do list? When did you switch over into the man that could now manage other men who run around and carry to-do lists? When did that switch happen?
Dr. Robert: Probably ten years into it, probably I would say. I guess maybe 10 years into it.
Clay: But you were intense?
Dr. Robert: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my lord! Yes, I was [unintelligible 01:24:34]. I would say too intense but now look at the fruit of it. I mean, you could say that but look at the fruit.
Clay: Did people ever say that you were anal?
Dr. Robert: They said a lot of things.
Clay: Did people ever say that you were unsurly or hard to be around?
Dr. Robert: Yes, sometimes when I had to fix something [laughs]. Because it wasn’t—
[crosstalk]
Clay: Did people ever accuse you of getting a little too intense?
Dr. Robert: Yes, sometimes.
Clay: Being myopic, focused?
Dr. Robert: I’m like, “If I’m not who’s going to be?”
Clay: The thrivers if you are listening right now. I want to encourage you. You can be two, three, four different faces of business right now. One, you could be somebody who wants to start a business.
Two, you could be somebody like Will who started a business and grown it and it’s growing. It’s starting to really thrive. Three, you can be like a guy like Doctor Zoellner who has multiple businesses but for everybody we built the world best business school and it’s thrive15.com. It’s where you go to learn to start and grow a business. We have access to thousands of videos and it’s all how much per month?
Dr. Robert: $19 a month. There’s downloadables, there’s templates, there’s in-person workshops, and it’s just a little slice of America.
Clay: It is thrive15.com the world’s best business school.
[END OF AUDIO] [01:25:35]
