The Home Service Expert Podcast
00:27:45 · Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:27:45] S2: We will never not... Communication is the big rule we never break, is we'll never let a lack of communication bring anything down. So, she's a lot better at it than me. She's a very good communicator, and she won't let me... A lot of times, I wanna sleep it off, and she won't let me go to bed until I communicate it through with her. So, some of it's a little bit on her end, really making sure that I communicate everything out. But it ends up being a very helpful thing to keep our relationship healthy inside and outside of the workplace. [00:28:14] S0: So how'd you figure this out? [00:28:18] S2: Because she's a great communicator. But I mean, it's not... We've always had great communication between us, and that's always been kinda what I would say has been the backbone of our relationship.
00:28:18 · Kyle Erdmann, Becca Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:28:18] S2: Because she's a great communicator. But I mean, it's not... We've always had great communication between us, and that's always been kinda what I would say has been the backbone of our relationship. [00:28:30] S1: It's I feel like I've seen so many relationships where one of the people are angry and they hold on to resentment, and then they'll go talking to their friends, and they'll be complaining. But they'll never directly just talk about the problem to the person that caused the problem and talk through it and find a solution. And I am extremely solution oriented. I don't really see problems. I only see solutions. It's kind of like, this is what's going on. Okay. What are we going do about it? And it's not bad or good. It's not positive or negative. It just is. But I want the solution. I don't want it to happen again. I'm very just, what's going on? You did something that bothered me. What happened? Let's talk about it. I don't want this to happen again. Move on. Like it's not negative or positive. That's what we... We're just always very open communication with everything. [00:29:14] S0: I've always heard the best thing to say to a significant other, even at work, if it's not even a significant other, could be a partner or whatever is, this is how this made me feel. Not that you're this type of person because that's an absolute. Yep. Like if I said, Becca, you always do this. You're always like this. Instead of saying, Becca, you know, when you do things like that, this is the way it makes me feel. [00:29:36] S1: Yeah, right.
00:29:36 · Becca Erdmann, Tommy Mello, Kyle Erdmann
[00:29:36] S1: Yeah, right. [00:29:36] S0: Because you can never get upset about how I feel. You can never say, That's not true. You don't feel like that. Yeah. So, you know, I think there's certain things I've learned. And by the way, they never come into my head at the right time. Always say something stupid. [00:29:49] S2: No, and being really good with communication, it allows for openness and feedback. So, when we do hold meetings with leadership or with team members, one of the first things we ask each other is how'd we do? And we're always just open to feedback on how we did, how can we get better, how can we make it better the next time, just to ensure that it just always keeps getting better. [00:30:07] S0: When you are getting feedback, do you feel like feedback is easy to get or do you feel like, hey, my direct supervisor's in here. If I say anything, I'm not going to say it in front of them. So, it one on one? Is it in a group? How do you guys like to get feedback? [00:30:21] S2: I like getting feedback one on one. [00:30:24] S1: Yeah. Mean, we've never really had too much feedback from a group setting. [00:30:27] S0: Because there's always those few guys that will be like, this sucks and this sucks and it's like, let's talk about that on the side. That's just you. [00:30:34] S2: Yeah. I mean, that's the sales team that does that. Yeah. They like they like to gang up and talk about how everything sucks for them. Yeah. [00:30:41] S1: Badly.
00:30:41 · Becca Erdmann, Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:30:41] S1: Badly. [00:30:41] S2: And then... Yeah. Seriously. And then you just get them one on one and everything sunshine and rainbows know the happiest salespeople ever. So [00:30:47] S0: that's interesting. Yeah, one on ones. Are you guys a fan of one on ones? [00:30:51] S2: She did the first round of stay interviews with our team, which was a really nice way to get feedback from the team in controlled setting. [00:30:58] S1: Well, now, so we just, I mean, we just got the leadership team started about a year ago. So before that, it was just us. We didn't have any leaders. So we've hired them all since September... Or July [00:31:10] S2: of last year.
00:31:10 · Kyle Erdmann, Becca Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:31:10] S2: of last year. [00:31:11] S1: Whatever. So about a year ago. And so, I try to make the time to have one on ones with each leader so then we can discuss their department because now that it's growing so much, I don't have the time to have one on ones with everyone in the company anymore. I've hired every single person in the company. We have hired every person. And so, now we're at the point where now we're letting our leaders hire the people. Don't have the time, but I do try to make time to have one on ones with the leaders to check-in and see what they need because not everyone is going to tell you when there is a problem. So, they're not going to just be even though we have our Tuesday, our leadership meetings every week, they're not going to just say I have an issue or in a group setting. But if I have to actively reach out to say, hey, what do you need? How can I help you? What's going on? Then they'll say what they need. I think that works best more one on one. Think most people don't like group settings. Yeah. [00:32:01] S0: 100%. So talk to me. I know what stay interviews are, but for the audience. [00:32:07] S2: You conducted them. [00:32:08] S1: Yeah. So that was the four questions. It was, what do you need from a manager that you're not getting now? What makes you come to work every day? [00:32:20] S2: What would make you leave? [00:32:21] S1: What would make you or what would cause you to leave? And this a few years ago. [00:32:28] S0: Yeah. No. That's very smart. I mean, listen. Have you guys had anybody great ex leave without voluntarily?
00:32:28 · Tommy Mello, Becca Erdmann, Kyle Erdmann
[00:32:28] S0: Yeah. No. That's very smart. I mean, listen. Have you guys had anybody great ex leave without voluntarily? [00:32:36] S1: I have... I don't think we've had anybody quit since we've hired everybody. [00:32:40] S2: No. We... [00:32:41] S1: We fired some people, but I don't think anyone's quit. [00:32:44] S0: Because when it's voluntary, you kinda wanna have a exit interview and you wanna almost pay for that to get the feedback. [00:32:49] S2: Yes. I think the only person that quit was... It a drive time thing and we did an exit interview with them just to [00:32:56] S1: make sure that [00:32:57] S2: it was purely a drive time thing. [00:32:58] S1: So yes, since we've hired everyone since 2021, only one person has quit. [00:33:04] S2: Yeah. [00:33:05] S0: Yeah. That's insane. I mean, it's great because you're at a point now where you could grow and that steady growth is absolutely phenomenal. The hardest thing about, I think, home service, home improvement is capacity planning. Having the right technicians for the right jobs to be able to meet the customer where they're at. So like your garage door breaks at nine and you still got stuff to do or you got to be out at 04:30 in the morning. We need to be able to serve you. We pick this industry. We don't get to pick when the garage doors break. [00:33:34] S1: Yeah. [00:33:34] S0: So, like, you know, now we service from 6AM to 10PM. And it's hard. It's hard because not a lot of people like those shifts. Right.