In this week’s podcast, we are talking about the current influx of clients and how to properly handle taking care of our clients so that we can continue to expand.
You probably want an office manager so your business can be taken care of and you can maintain the balance of work and life. Are we right?
Today’s podcast will cover topics such as managing client expectations, using technology, communication flow, and more!
Biggest Takeaways:
- Balancing Your Business During Expansion
- Communication Processes and Proper Client Love
- How to Stand Out with Current Conditions
Show Highlights
- Being Aware of Your Sales Process and How the Influx of Clients Effects You (11.30)
- Do You Have a Good Communication Flow? (16.40)
- When to Show Your Clients Love (18.30)
- What are You Doing to Stand Out? (24.00)
Links
- Bella’s email [email protected]
- Mastermind
Share The Show
Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!
- Click this link – Bella In Your Business
- Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork
- Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section
- Click on ‘Write a Review’
Transcript:
This is episode 248 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.
So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and today I start them all out like that, right? First, I got to give a shout out. I got to give a couple of shout outs. First, I want to shout out to Catherine. What’s up, girl? Thank you so much for listening and always reposting this stuff on Instagram. I love that you get the word out there. Thank you also to Michelle, which just so happens to be Catherine’s accountability partner in the mastermind. She too is always commenting and sharing this podcast. Thank you so, so much, ladies. I appreciate that. And then Tiffany, Tiffany Lewis, thank you so much for also listening. I got a lot of emails from you guys recently. I think it’s probably because I’ve been asking you to let me know when you’re listening, but nonetheless, I absolutely love to hear from you. So you keep it coming. [email protected]. Let’s get into this week’s show.
Guys, this is a big one and I’m actually putting aside all of the hiring talk that we’ve been doing for the past, I don’t know, two months, right? If you don’t remember or you’re a new time listener to the show, you might have realized or remembered that in the past, I actually made a prediction and the prediction has come true. That often happens, not to toot my own horn, but toot toot. I have been making a lot of predictions in this industry six months out or so, and it absolutely has come true if you just kind of look on a bigger scale. I really try to surround myself by people that are smarter than me and really listen to kind of what they say and then kind of see what’s happening in our industry. And sure enough, a lot of people that spent the time in 2020 perfecting all of their systems and processes, I mean, new client systems, I mean, new employee systems, onboarding, client love, 100 days, we’re going to talk more about that today, have really been reaping the benefits. There’s two different things that you really want to be aware of right now.
If you’re listening and you are saying, but Bella, my business is back and it’s just amazing and look at what happened. And it just kind of feels like it’s falling out of the sky. Guess what? It is. It totally is. But right now you have an incredible moment to either celebrate and grab it on and make it long term or it could be a flash in the pan because guys, like everything in life, everything’s about balance. The whole entire universe is on balance and everything is always going like a pendulum, going from one end of extreme to the other end of the extreme. And it’s just a matter of time. And when we feel like everything’s balanced, it’s just a matter of time before things get unbalanced. Generally speaking, at least that is my take on it. And so right now what is happening is we are experiencing the big, great revenge spending, I’ve been calling it. It’s where everyone’s been holding back and now it is the summer. People are excited. They are traveling. They are getting out. They are doing stuff.
Most of the travel is domestic or down to Mexico, of course, because our friends to the north in Canada are still locked down and our friends in the UK, although we can go there, they can’t come here. So travel has shifted just a little bit, but nonetheless, it is very much out there. Last week, I myself was in Chicago doing two all-day intensives with a couple of amazing clients and it was so fantastic. And I just, I love being on airplanes, coming and visiting you guys. But while that was all happening, something really interesting happened and I’m going to actually read these to you. The very first one, these are my clients. They’re posting things saying, hi, Bella, just wanted to share with you this huge win. We broke $17,000 in June with me taking two weekends off. That’s my highest revenue in 10 years. Guys, I want to be really clear. What I’m about to read you, this one and a couple of others is not just, hey, let’s compare it to last year and then say, oh, we’re doing great because obviously, you’re probably doing better than you were last year, right? But she says, this is my highest revenue in 10 years. April and May were also record breakers. Look at that growth. And she actually included a chart. It’s so beautiful looking. It just goes like straight up like you’re climbing Mount Everest. And it says, look at that growth. It’s scary. I could cry of happiness though. Thank you for all your support and expertise. Now I can be out of the field and put time into doubling that. LOL, I need to hire two more employees after she’s already actually just done it. She took two weekends off in June, which just goes to show all of you who are in the daily grind for 14, 15, 16 hours a day saying that you have no time to breathe, let alone hang out with your family or do anything else. You guys, taking time off actually will help grow your business.
And you know what? There was a reply to that and it said, guess what? I was able to hire, onboard, and train a new employee in under two weeks. Today, she is doing visits on her own and I also had her get involved with the videos and stories. Definitely would not have been able to do it without the mastermind. Something really important is happening here and I want to draw attention to it. There’s another one I want to share with you. This person actually posted right underneath that one and said, my God, can I just brag a little here? We had our highest month in sales ever and we’re not even finished with June. Holy cow, Bella. I give you much credit to you and this amazing group. Let me tell you, I do not take any of the credit for this, but the support of the group and the challenges and the push to get things done is all of what helped people do this, okay? Right now, we are experiencing a tidal wave of clients. We don’t even know where they’re coming from. Hold on. This week, I had another client post, holy cow, we’ve gotten 56 new clients since April 1st. Woohoo! And then right underneath that, awesome, congrats. I was working on a post just like this, except ours were 44 since January. Or, and I love these numbers, you guys, listen up closely, except an average of 1.83 new clients per week since the beginning of the year. Our previous average was 0.8 per month. What? 0.8 per month. And they are now getting almost two new clients a week steadily. I just had a few moments to recollect and take a break. So there it is.
Guys, this is happening everywhere. Everywhere it’s happening where we are getting an influx of clients. And I want you to be aware right now. I want you to be, not just sit here and rejoice because there is an incredible opportunity that if you don’t seize it right now and you don’t listen to what I’m about to say, it could all come crashing down. Now I’m not trying to sit here and be doom and gloom and stuff, but I’m really trying to get you to see the big picture, to get out from underneath this, yes, yes, yes, it’s happening, yes, more clients, more clients, more clients, yay, it’s back, look, we didn’t even have to do anything for it, because it can be taken away from you just as easily as it was given to you, all right? No, yes, there are so many people traveling right now, which makes it really easy. And if you have been doing the things that we’ve been talking about for the past year, like getting everything in order, then you’re going to be in tip-top shape. And this podcast is probably going to be pretty boring for you. But it is not enough to just be getting these new clients right now. It’s not. And I want you to really, really hear me when I say this. There are so many more things that you need to be looking at.
Okay, great. You got, like, let’s say, 20 new clients this month. Okay. And for some of you, I know you’re just like hoping to get two, but let’s put it this way. You have 20 new clients this month. What is your close rate? How many of those clients did you miss out on? How many of your clients went to your website, went to your contact form and then did not fill it out? Do you have those numbers? Do you know? Do you know what your conversion rate is? Are you aware of your sales process? Does it take them just to sign up or does it take them to, they have to call you and talk to you first? I’m telling you right now, the people that you have to actually talk to before they sign up, you’re going to miss them and you’re missing out on opportunities.
I know I’ve duked it out with you guys face to face, like toe to toe, and I know that you hate it and I make you uncomfortable when I say this, but Rover and Wag are going to beat you every single time. I don’t care how good of a pet sitter you are. I don’t care how good of a dog walker you are. And guess what? They are never going to get to see that if you keep stopping the sales process. So this is all fine and dandy and this is amazing. But right now, while you actually have the volume coming in, why not start doing two things? One, A/B testing how you do the whole sales process, how people come into you. What does it look like? Can they just go straight on your website, sign up, give you a credit card book, and then wait for the confirmation? Or do they have to sign up a form, wait to see when you’re going to call them back, which God knows when because guess what? You’re so busy right now, right? Or are they going to be available? Are they going to want to talk on the, God forbid, a phone? How is that all going to work? Are we stopping the sales process? And if you don’t believe me and you want to prove me wrong, I guarantee, I dare you, do this. Make it so that people can just sign up with you online.
But what if they sign up with you online and they’re not in your territory? Well, number one, your software should already bump them out. And if it doesn’t, you might want to think about different softwares. Maybe not just for that one thing, but that’s like your system’s working against you. Two, they can 100% give you their credit card and they can book with you. And if your system is to email them back and say, thanks so much, can’t wait. The next step is actually a meet and greet. And then we will officially confirm your booking and you will be in our schedule. That’s all you got to say to people, you guys. That’s it. It’s quite all right to get them through that whole entire thing if you manage people’s expectations. So I want you to really consider how you’re doing that because that’s going to really, especially if your volume is up right now, this is something that you can play around with and you can see how can you get the most amount of sales with the least amount of friction.
And then the other thing is you need to be keeping track of all this. Do you have a tracking system? We have an awesome spreadsheet in the mastermind where you can track all of your sales. Then I red, yellow, and green light them all. Like, no, red, no, we didn’t get it. Yellow and green, yes. Why is this important? You need to establish a baseline for when you do actually have someone help you in the office and take over your phones. You’re going to want to be able to figure out if their close rate is better than yours or worse than yours.
Okay, fun little thing, I just switched my microphone settings, so tell me if you can tell the difference. I would love to find out the first person who emails me and tells me that. I’m going to give you a free download off of my website. Yep, [email protected]. It just wasn’t sounding right to me. Anyhow, let’s get back on this. We were talking about how fast can they sign up and then your close rate. Those are all really, really important things that I want you to really take care of. And you got to know that. And right now when you have this volume, this is something that you can really take a good look at the numbers. Close rate is basically 10 people called and how many of them actually signed up with you. All right, that’s your close rate. If four out of 10 people signed up with you, then guess what? Your close rate is 40%. So if you hand those phones off to someone and they start closing people at 60%, guess what? They are all that and a bag of chips and you should never be on the phones again. And when I say phones, I mean that very lightly and loosely, you guys. I mean that like emails or however it is that you’re closing people, okay? That could mean they just go straight to your website and they sign up.
The communication flow too. I’m going to tell you a really quick story here. And this is something that could easily put people straight off. If they don’t know their expectations and they don’t know when they’re supposed to be talking to you or who they’re supposed to be talking to, it’s going to get really, really hard for them to understand. So today I had an experience with my pool company. I have someone come and clean my pool because hello, it’s 115 degrees out and I don’t want to scrape it, okay? I just don’t. And so I have these people that come, but unfortunately, Rocco loves to run out there through the doggy door and start barking really loud at them to the point that they actually get a little scared. But what he’s really saying is, my God, I’m so excited you’re here. And to the non-dog lover, they could get a little scared by it. So I always have to close the doggy door and they text me when they’re on their way. Well, someone showed up today and usually my day is Friday and it was a Monday. When I’m recording it, they came and the owner of the company told me that someone would be here in an hour. Well, the guy that usually comes tells me he’d be here in a half hour. And then I look out my front window and there are trucks out front and I’m like, they’re here. Okay. This is all concerning to me because I have to put the dog away when that happens. And I come in the back and some guy is like taking my filters apart. And I’m like, who are you? What are you doing? I don’t understand. Like, I don’t have an email about this. I don’t understand. They’re like, oh, well, yeah, we should do it every six months. I don’t know what was on my schedule. I was like, well, is it free? Because no one asked me.
So I call in and I text because that’s what we do. I text the guy who I thought was the owner, Matt, and Matt tells me, oh, well, we have to do it every six months. No exceptions. I’m like, well, if you have to do every six months, where was it six months ago? Because we didn’t do this six months ago. And I’m just getting really like annoyed. And I’m also like, so is Matt still coming or is it just this Rick guy? And it was just a big confusion. The whole thing was so confusing so Matt stops texting with me. Rick knocks on my door again, which makes the dog bark, and Rick’s like okay, I was just told that it’s $100 to do this like do you want to still do it? I’m like well, you got the whole thing like pulled apart might as well keep going. So Rick keeps doing it and then I get another call from Brandon and Brandon just starts talking like he knows me. And I’m like who are you and he’s like I’m the owner of the company. I’m like I thought Matt was and he was like we’re co-owners. I was like okay, man, I’ve never talked to you before. He starts on this tirade with me all about how the filters need to be changed every six months. And I said, Brandon, I said, I really don’t care. Like, that’s cool. He’s doing it every six months. No problem. I’m like, what the real problem for me here is the communication breakdown. I have now had contact with four people from your company in 20 minutes, all telling me a different story. I’m really, really confused.
And they’re like, oh yeah, well, we shouldn’t be text messaging anymore. We should be calling the office. And I was like, yeah, speaking of which, the office called me last week and told me that I don’t have any more chlorine tabs and that they need to start using yours. That’s been happening for six months. So again, I’m really confused. If you’re following this story, because I know it gets very confusing and I probably didn’t tell it the most eloquent way. The biggest problem, the biggest deal with that is basically that there was no flow of communication. No one was talking to each other and me, the client, was getting a whole bunch of different scenarios and a whole bunch of different ways via email, via face-to-face, via text message, via phone call, and via four or five different people. It was absolute insanity. And it was showing me that while I’m really happy for this small business that they’re growing and they’re getting more trucks and everything, their system and communication has broken down. So how does this pertain to you? Well, this also is another way and reason why your operations need to be streamlined.
And so while you’re getting all of these new clients, are they getting their socks knocked off and being like so wow and amazed? Is the office or you, if you’re the office, are you guys the central nucleus handling all of the communication? Does the client understand when they need to talk to their pet sitter and when they need to talk to you? This kind of thing could take someone away from your company so fast and they could instantly fall out of love with you and start looking for other providers. And guess what? There’s a lot of other providers out there right now. Maybe not as many before because some of them went under, but nonetheless, you have to know that you’re not the only cat in town. And so right now, your communication flow and the way that you’re talking to your customers really, really, really is gonna be put to the test. And so not just your customers, but your employees, okay? So guys, think about what is happening. Where do we have opportunities right now during this influx of clients? Where can we test things? Where can we smooth things out? Where can we make your life better so that you’re not running around like a chicken with your head cut off?
Now, one of the last things that I’m gonna, well, there’s two things, I guess, that I want to bring up. With this communication flow, this is really, really important. Are you thanking your customers? Now, I don’t mean just a thank you email. I mean a full-blown never-lose-a-customer, Joey Coleman-style, 100-days client love. If you’re one of the jumpers, you know what I mean by that. If you don’t, go ahead and search my website for it. Go to jumpconsulting.net and type in Joey Coleman in the top right corner. He’s actually also been on this podcast too. So you can find the podcast on that, but it’s basically talking all about how your customer journey goes from like, they’re so excited. They got a pet sitter to, “My God, did I make the right decision?” to “My God, that was such a great interaction,” to “But do they really still care? Do they care that I just gave them a ton of money?” to “My God, but I need another pet sitter again.” So the emotions are going up and down, up and down, up and down. And what you do in those downs can drastically depend on how long you keep clients for, right? Or if they can be courted by another company or they could go back to their previous company or their previous solution they had before they actually went to you. So make sure that your customer retention and the way that we’re talking to them and staying in touch with them, even after the sale, is on point because I’m telling you, more people are putting a focus on customer experience and what happens after the client comes home from their Mexican vacation.
It’s what happens when you’re not on the books, when you’re not actually collecting money from them. How are you keeping them involved in your company and your culture? I want you to consider that. I want you to ask yourself that. And of course, I’ve got a ton of examples of how to do that. But this podcast is only so long.
Okay, so what are you gonna do to stand out with all of this? There’s bad customer service everywhere. So as I take you home, I want to remind you guys, and I’ve said this before, that this is a service industry revolution right now. That’s what’s happening. Major financial indicators predict that 25% of the workforce is actually gonna be shifted around, that people are realizing what they really want to do for jobs, what they really want to spend their money on. And their quality of life is kind of focused. 2020, I don’t want to say it was a reset, but it was a redirection where people actually either amplified the problems in their life or they were able to refocus on what they wanted and what they desired. And through that, some of it might be travel. So you might have a lot more clients that are like that. A lot of people got the dogs and cats, right? But right now, it is almost expected to have bad customer service.
Can you believe that? It is like, at least that’s my expectation. I go out and the other day I had such an amazing experience at this restaurant in O’Hare that I like literally told the guy, “You are amazing. Thank you so much.” And all he was doing was bringing me lunch because my expectations have gone so far down. And can I get an amen out there? Like, you guys listening? Do you guys also feel this way as well? Like you go out to a restaurant now and you normally could get to a restaurant like maybe 45 minutes before you go see a movie and you’re like, hey, like gonna do this fast. Not anymore. And even now you’re even wondering if you need a reservation, not because of social distancing, but because a lot of places are either A, closed or B, operating on like half staff. So they’re not even seating all their tables because they just don’t have the manpower for it.
You guys, it is crazy out there and you before just needed to do a little bit to stand out and be amazing. Can you imagine what you would do now for your employees like we’ve talked about and there’s a client love 100-day kind of thing you can do for employees. But also if you did that for customers, I want you to consider that. I want to ask you, what are you doing right now? Are you just reacting? Are you just saying, yes, thank you. I’ll take your money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Or are you laying the groundwork and the seeds to have lasting customers for a really long time? You have such an opportunity right now. It’s handed to you on a silver plate right now. People are excited to spend money. People are excited to go away. What are you doing with it? Please, please, please, please be asking yourself these questions. Do not just be going through the regular rigmarole and the regular processes and just saying, “Thank you for your business. Okay, call us next time.” Like, what are you doing?
How are you marketing? How are you making them a part of your family? What are you doing? Don’t miss out. Don’t miss out. And start realizing how many people that you haven’t seen. What are you going to do for the people that you haven’t seen for two months, for three months, for four months, for six months, for nine months? What are you doing for them right now? What’s your system? What’s your process? I don’t know, Bella. I’m overwhelmed and overworked. I get it, guys.
And if you’re overwhelmed and overworked, something that I had a conversation with a gal, I’ll call her Katie for namesake. I don’t want to blast her. She said, “Bella, I want to join the mastermind, but I have no time.” Well then that’s why you need the mastermind. That’s why I’m going to tell you guys right now. If you feel like you have no time out there, that is why you need the mastermind. The mastermind is like a Thanksgiving buffet and you cannot possibly eat all of it, okay? You can have a piece of turkey and you can have a glass of wine. And if that’s all you get, that’s cool because I’ll guarantee you that that turkey and wine is going to make your belly feel good. And there’s some people that just show up for our guest speakers. There’s some people that go deep dive and they show up for every single thing. There’s other people that use it for the accountability and for the goals. There’s some people that use it for all the extra bellaisms that you get in there and like all the impromptu stuff that I do and the private coaching that I do. You do not have to access everything in the mastermind, but it is there for you when you want it. It’s also a very good indicator of you are who you hang out with. And I don’t know who you’re hanging out with, and I don’t know what kind of groups you’re in, I don’t know what kind of pasta you’re in, I don’t know who’s asking you how your business is doing and what you’re doing to make it better, but I’ll tell you in the mastermind, that’s what’s happening. We’re not leaving people behind, we’re not letting people have some stinking thinking, we’re working through problems together. People are in there sharing their JazzHR processes and tweaking them together and seeing as a group think what works. And because of that, they are hiring in multiple people. And because they’re hiring in multiple people, they’re able to accept all of this extra work. And because they’re able to accept all of this extra work, they’re able to also have that money to reinvest in their business and also not themselves be out there in the field. And they’re able to work on this customer service and stuff. It’s a big vicious cycle that does not have to be vicious, guys. It can be vicious or it can be fruitful. It could be vicious or could be plentiful.
What are you gonna let it be in your life? You have to just stand up and you have to start a little by little by little. The best way to create a new habit according to Atomic Habits, if you guys haven’t read it or listened to it, it’s amazing, is attach your new habit onto an existing habit you have. Maybe that’s just brushing your teeth and maybe while you’re brushing your teeth, you’re going to listen to 30 seconds of meditation online on YouTube. Maybe it’s that small. But I tell you, it starts with little things and little things become big things. That’s the only way it happens. Do not ever compare your first chapter to someone else’s 200th chapter. Don’t do that to yourself. You’re going to lose every time. The only person that you need to be in competition with is yourself, and you need things like the mastermind around you. So I’m going to close there, but I want to say congratulations to all of you whose business is coming back. I told you it would come back. I told you it would come back with a vengeance and like crazy and like gangbusters and like a tidal wave. But how are you going to surf through this tidal wave? How are you going to make sure that this tidal wave doesn’t wipe you out and leave you in ruins? Because there are very critical decisions that you have the privilege to make right now. And I just hope that you are making those decisions. You guys, I pour my heart and soul out to you every single week. I hope that you’ve loved this podcast. There’s no better way to show me that you have enjoyed this podcast by leaving a review or sharing it with your friends or into groups or on your newsfeed. I would love that. Or on your IG story or wherever it is that you do social media. You guys, I hope that you have enjoyed this. I hope that this has inspired you to start thinking a little bit differently to kind of look at the bird’s eye view instead of the forest view. And with that ado, I hope that you have a wonderful day and remember to always keep jumping. Bye now.
So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you. The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and go ahead and leave a review. I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.