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HOW
TO SURVIVE IN A CHANGING ECONOMY
The above are just some of the items the companies I consult with have been attacking.
Most
of the Family Businesses I work with have this problem from one generation
to the other. It is often, at this point in time, the younger generation
wants to make many changes. The problem is that some may be good
and others not. You might want to get input to the decision making
because the wrong decision could be fatal. Those
interested in attending, contact Becky at 1-888-711-3232
WHY ADVERTISE? By Lloyd Merritt Smigel
I don't get it. People spend lots and lots of money to get people to call them and then when they do:
1.
They get a recording Press 1 for this Press 2 for that and hang up 3. They get someone who has no idea what he or she is doing 4. They are told that someone will have to call them back. 5. They are put on hold for 3 hours 6. They get to listen to your on hold advertising and/or elevator music.
What in the world is going on out there?
The other side of this coin is that you are cancelling more accounts than you are getting in.
HOLDING ON to your accounts, in my humble opinion, is just as important as getting new accounts – maybe even more important.
It is also a bit bizarre to see how easy it is to cancel your services. Often some office person takes the call and merely processes it rather than try to save it.
All in all, why are you advertising if #1, you are not professionally handling incoming calls and, #2 have a program to save every account that wants to cancel?
Here's another scenario for you. I call your company to complain to the manager. My expectations is for him or her to ‘make it right' so I don't cancel (or sue).
Me – “Is the Manager in, please?” Operator – “Who's calling?” (Note: She IGNORED my question) ME – “I am a customer and would like to talk to the manager.” Operator – “.. and what is this in reference to?” Me – “It's in reference to a problem I am having with your company.” Operator – “and what is that sir?” Me – HANG UP – CANCEL – CALL MY ATTORNEY
Me – “Hi, I would like to talk to someone about your Pest Services” Operator – “Please hold.” Operator – “Can I help you?” Me – “Yes, I would like to talk to someone about your Pest Serviced.” Operator – “Our sales representative is out right now – can I have him call you back? Me – “How long would that be?” Operator “It would probably be some time today or tomorrow – please hold.” BYE BYE
I see and hear and LIVE this almost daily. We all do. And then we hear how tough business is. Go figure.
The point is that before you decide to advertise clean up your house before the new company calls on you. Implement some policies – get a strategy and make each call count for new business and save as many customers as you can.
Mike Katz, the President of Western Exterminating Company heads up one of the largest Pest Control companies in the U.S. I call his office and ask for Mike Katz.
Me – “I'd like to speak to Mike Katz, please.” Operator – “One moment please.” Mike – This is Mike, how can I help you?”
…and then I call a little company and I get drilled. The owner/manager screens his calls because he is too busy. I believe Mike is just as busy. When I ran a branch or a district or was National Training Director with over 50 offices, I never screened my calls.
If we ARE truly a service business – perhaps we should act like one.
For those of you out there that are on top of this – Great. Keep up the good work.
If you are not in tune to true service – fear not – the customer can always go elsewhere.
THE FIRING SQUAD By Lloyd Merritt Smigel
Firing someone or letting them go or alleviating them from their duties or canning someone usually is a difficult thing for me to do.
Thirty years and it's still difficult. I do know some people who actually enjoy it. To me, that's sad.
After all, when we hire someone we go through an interviewing process where we both feel that we have a match - not just a job offer, but often a career offer. Then it doesn't work out. It's usually THEIR fault but not as often as you think.
Many of us do not really have a formal training program for these people (they ride with Bob for a week or two) and sometimes we don't follow through with the promises or insinuations that we led this person to believe.
In my opinion, it's generally a 50-50 deal. We are not perfect nor are they. If we can make it work where it is profitable to BOTH of us - we both win.
If we squeeze our employees too much, usually quality loses out. They can be VERY profitable by servicing 50 accounts a day. But we all know what the results would be.
It's a two way street and it's difficult to deal with so many of those differences that we all have. Our value systems are different, our behaviors are different, we are not the same in intelligence, gender differences, cultural differences, etc.
Then we are expected to take all of those differences and work with them.
It's not easy.
And, if it doesn't work out - then what? Who's to blame? What can we do about it?
Overall, (for the most part) companies that have the least amount of turnover - show the most profit and grow the fastest.
Could you imagine having ONE year of zero turnovers? What could you do that year? Where would you spend your time?
Some owners/managers tell me that it is a continual 'weeding' process. If you do not ever use a pre-emergence agent on your lawn - you will do more weeding than a neighbor who does use pre-emergence.
Taking care of your present employees and working out problems quickly and offsetting problems BEFORE they occur cuts the weeding down.
We do not life in a perfect world. I understand that. But we can do things to make our own life's and the lives of our employees much better.
We have to learn to nurture our employees and have the proper training and care to keep them around. Employee Assistant Programs (EAP) can be very helpful as well as mentoring programs; ongoing training programs, Sexual Harassment programs and many other employee ongoing informational programs can be very valuable.
The least amount of money that I ever heard it cost for an employee to leave us was $9,000.00.
That would include such things as accounts that cancel ("Not another tech this month.") training someone else which puts you in a position to pay two people to do one job, etc. etc.
What we need to do is to become better at hiring and maintaining our employees and put your firing squad on vacation for a while so that you can go on vacation without wondering whether or not your place will be there when you get back.
After all, unless you work alone - you are probably as dependent upon YOUR employees as my partner and I are.
When we all work together - there's lower turnover and Life is Good.
Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
By Lloyd Merritt Smigel
So many companies in this industry have gotten to where they are because of just plain old hard work, blood, sweat and tears. They started out with a few accounts, made enough, sometimes, to pay the bills and eventually evolved to hiring a few people and make a pretty fair living for themselves and their family. Pretty impressive.
Many grew without any formal plan or strategy and reached a peak. For some reason they just can't or won't grow past that certain dollar mark. They can not get across that invisible wall. That's pretty frustrating, considering that some of these companies have been around for generations and still have about the same amount of routes for years and years.
Yes, they can still make a good living but it is frustrating seeing some ‘new kid on the block' come in to town and in several years they have a much bigger piece of the market share than they have. How did that happen.
Times change. Values change. Technology changes. Everything changes but some of the ‘die hards' in business. “It got us to where we are – why change??” This is very dangerous thinking.
I have seen many companies with Pest Control routes at 5 thousand dollars and now I am seeing them at $15,000 - $20,000. How do they do that?
Changing their services, adding new services, better price structuring, better computer systems, better routing, etc.
The higher routes pay more income to the route personnel and, in turn, there is less turnover and more time to work on higher paying strategies and planning.
“It's too much work and I don't know how to do all of that.” This is where seeking help comes in. No one is expected to just attain knowledge by using the Vulcan Mind Meld. Most of us are humans, not Vulcan's.
So we have to learn new ways, new techniques and new strategies in both dealing with individuals and running our businesses differently.
Recently I met with a company who sort of ‘leveled out' at the $900,000 - $1 Million dollar mark. Up and down year after year just hovering on and around that mark for years. It took us about a year and we are out of the ‘hovering' stage. New Mission Statements, new Job Descriptions, new types of services, rerouting, new goals, new training and new enthusiasm.
When YOUR vision is altered and YOU get excited about your new goals and the new roads you are traveling on – so will your personnel.
When I first arrived at this company, the owner was not sure how to get out of this rut, but he knew if he didn't – people would leave. He did want to grow but wasn't sure just how to do it. His people felt ‘trapped' in their positions with no future. Sure, everyone was making a good living, but they all wanted more.
The fact of the matter is that most people do want to advance. If they don't, you would be stuck where you are. If you can not give them the opportunity to grow – the good ones will leave and find another company to grow with and become your competitor.
The entrepreneur must seek new ways to advance. They must continue to learn and/or give their personnel and/or family members, the opportunity to advance.
This is not an easy task. You are now comfortable and why take any risks? Because if you don't you will be left in the dust and lose people.
Flying by the seat of your pants is actually more difficult than developing a new plan and going for it. Few learn this lesson.
There's an old saying, “you can't steal second base without taking your foot off of first base.”
Invest in the future of your company and learn from others. Hire a consultant (it doesn't have to be me – you can get someone better looking?) but be sure they are FROM this industry and have a track record. Join the Discovery Retreats (Call Becky 1-888-711-3232) where every 4 months non-competitive companies meet to exchange ideas with each other. Talk to people who have broken through that invisible wall. You have to reach OUT of where you are to get the knowledge you need or you will stay on that Carousel going round and round working faster and faster and going, only in circles.
Good luck. |
For more Information call (888) 711-3232
or email Becky