The Home Service Expert Podcast
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.
00:33:34 · Tommy Mello, Kyle Erdmann, Becca Erdmann
[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. [00:33:42] S2: No. But that's where a good visionary for a company, you know, like yourself or, that's what I try to do, is it's continuously talking to those people that have to work those shifts and reminding them what the vision of the company is and how they fit into Yeah, [00:33:55] S0: how they fit. Yeah, what's in it for them. [00:33:57] S2: And the one big thing is right now we're doing a book club with our leadership team. We're reading 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It's constantly reselling the vision to everybody to make sure that the passion never wanes. And I think that that's how you can keep people around for so long and keep dynamic growth going. [00:34:13] S1: And now that this is new to us having a leadership team that's like a wall kind of in between us and the employees, which is brand new, because I'm so used to going to talk to every employee, and we're great at selling the vision, and they've all bought into us, but now we have to get them to buy into our leaders. So we started the book club this year, and we're trying to get the leaders to make sure that they're expressing the vision as well to their... To all their departments below because it's just not the same as it was. So I mean, growing and scaling and and growing as fast as we are, it's just it's all new. It's like we've never been here before, right? So everything's, we're learning as we're going, Now, you
00:34:49 · Tommy Mello
[00:34:49] S0: it's good to have mentors. I'll tell you this, it's why reinvent the wheel. Always say, look, we'll keep, we're not gonna reinvent the wheel. We might throw new hubcaps on That's about it. And that's, you know, I've had Brian Gottlieb come speak at my events. He's worked with us as a team. And there are so many things you can do to really enhance the culture. And when you do it correctly, you know, home improvement, although it's very like home service, is so much different because you're using dollars that people want to spend. I'm using dollars that they have to spend. When Correct, the pipe breaks, when the roof goes bad and it's leaking. So like, I'm an immediate need, need to service it, I need to be right out there. You're more like, well, what do you like better? You know what I mean? And it's fun, when the economy is not doing good, it's a lot harder. Like, your garage door is stuck closed and your car is in there, you're gonna pay us to fix it. You might not replace it. What do you guys think about the home improvement space that you guys are in? Because garage doors could fall into that.
00:35:46 · Becca Erdmann, Kyle Erdmann, Tommy Mello
[00:35:46] S1: I mean, really quick before you go, I just wanna say decking is a need. So, like, people's decks fall apart all the time, and they do need to replace their deck. So that part of the business, I would say, is a need. Not And understand. Not necessarily want. And if you are gonna replace your deck, you know, we can go over all the reasons why not to get wood and why to get PVC. But it makes sense. And you can sell it as an investment on your home and for resale value. So to me, that portion of the business is a... It still is a need for a lot of people. It's just a matter of, are you gonna try to do it the cheap way and just get wood really fast and replace it immediately? Or do you wanna have an investment on your house for better resell value down the road? So it's about, I'd say, how you sell it. [00:36:27] S2: And then to to answer your question, if there was ever, an economic downturn with us being in a wants business, how we deal with it? Well, most of our clients would fall into high high net worth individuals. High net worth individuals tend to double down during economic crisis, and they'll take advantage of dips in pricing, because they're smart with money. Mhmm. But also, I mean, affordability, offering financing to every customer, and selling financing, which I think there's a massive difference between telling a customer you have it and actively selling it to them to make it affordable for them. [00:36:57] S1: Definitely. [00:36:59] S0: Yeah. It's a promotion.