What separates the market leaders from the also rans? The little things. Lee talks about how you must do the little things to run with the big dogs.
Welcome! Welcome everybody to another episode of Junk Removal Made Simple brought to you by the Junk Removal Authority. This evening we’re talking about the little things. What do I mean by the little things? I mean the things that separate the market leader. The 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and the Junk Doctors in your particular market from everybody else. The also-rans. What separates the market leaders from the also-rans? Your answer is the little things. It’s all the small stuff. This episode right here will probably not get as many reviews as some of them, but those you that are watching. I think you’re going to find a lot of gold in this episode. A lot of information that you can readily and easily apply to your business immediately. Which will start showing immediate returns in the form of better reviews, more reviews, a referral business and repeat business right off the bat.
Our Business Packages
Then also closing more jobs. More people to call you. You can in turn get more jobs scheduled and more work completed. Talking about the little things. Before we roll into that, business packages. Again, we have several different options now. We have a $15,000 basic package, $25,000 medium, and $50,000 which is a great kind of an all-around package. Then $100,000 for you big boys out there ready to jump right in it full time. Make a full-time commitment, $100,000 package as well. Business packages, depending on which level you get. You’ll get access to our operations manuals. It also includes websites. Then depending on which level, you get to determine how much training, assistance, and other assistance you get. How much support services as far as CAM, AdWords and SEO. Customer Acquisition Management you know how much is that included?
Call center fees and access. What’s included? Just depends on which package you get. Email me [email protected]. Go to junkremovalauthority.com or call us at +1 919-466-9322. With any questions about any of our junk removal services or junk removal business packages. So again, we already talked about what differentiates the also-rans in the market leaders is the little things, because if you think about it. Both the market leaders and the also-rans, they both haul junk. So, if a customer calls an also-ran and they call a market leader to hallway couch. That couch is going to get gone regardless. Probably there’s no damage to the property. Likely neither company is going to damage the property. It’s not that hard to move a couch, it happens from time to time damage. Generally, you’re going to call whoever they’re both going to hold that a junk.
Looking Into Junk Doctors
You’re going to get the same end result. In the case of Junk Doctors, why does Junk Doctors do 2 million by end of year 5? Whereas one of our competitors, same time of business does less than $200,000. Why? The little things, it’s the fact that Junk Doctors and other market leaders. Your 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and other leaders in your local market are doing the little things. The also-rans or not. So what kind of a little things are we talking about? Simple as answering the phone and answering it professionally. I’ll talking about this a lot because it’s very important. So, when that phone rings, it needs to get answered. Now, it can be you yourself answered it or you can use the JRA call enter. You could use your mom, sister, or your wife. Somebody that can answer the phone professionally, needs to be answering it.
We won’t go a lot of details on that. You can always work. There’s some previous videos that I did about talking on the phone. Of course, this is one of the things I really suggest people. Do some consulting hours with me, $150 an hour consulting call. We can spend a couple of hours on the phone and just cover how to talk properly on the phone. It will increase your closing percentage tremendously and you’ll pay. I mean that $150 I get paid for by within your next 3 or 4 phone calls because it was probably a job you would have booked after you speak with me and learn from me. That you would not book without my consulting time. So, that amount of time, it’s almost a no-brainer. We’ll just purchased 2 hours of consulting time through me is 300 bucks. We’ll talk for 2 hours, get your phone skills up. It’ll pay for itself almost immediately.
Flexible and quick turnaround. Something else I talk about all the time, same-day services is huge. Those of you book 4 to 5 days out, a week out even 3 days out. That’s too long. You need to be able to get people the same-day. At least the next day. If you can’t get people in the same-day all the time You need to be working towards hiring more people and getting more trucks so that you can. Flexible and quick turnaround is huge. It’s another one of the little things.
Preparing Your Trucks
Clean trucks, notice that I don’t say new trucks. If I’m wrong about Junkluggers somebody correct me, but I was told. We’ve got a guy that is interested in one of our business packages and is also interested in a Junklugger’s franchise. Comparing the two, we’ve been told that Junkluggers requires your vehicles to be five years old or newer. We don’t say that has to happen. We have plenty of trucks that are 12 years old. They look great. It’s amazing. These trunks right here, every couple of years we put a fresh coat of paint on the bed. Maybe update the graphics. All of a sudden it looks like you have a brand-new truck. The average customers like new trucks. At the time you’re back into their house anyway. They’re not seeing what the front of the truck look like. They’re looking at the back of the truck, so keep the back of the truck maintained and clean. Your trucks can be just as old, as long as they run well and all. They can be just as old and no leak on the driveways. You run 20-year-old truck. Your truck doesn’t even need to be cleaned. It’s amazing the number of dirty trucks that I see rolling around throughout the country, in the junk removal industry.
Staff Uniforms and Business Operations
Uniform shirts need to be tucked in. I like Polos. We use polo shirts for all of our guys. It’s very professional. The shirts tucked in, the collared Polo shirts. It’s a little hot to work in, but we have gotten some shirts that aren’t quite as hot as what you might normally find. It looks extremely professional. Again, it’s the little thing. Showing up in a t-shirt might be okay. You’re still going to get stuff loaded it up, but you don’t look your best. You really need to look super clean and professional rolled up from site. Do your guys have a change of clothes too? So, they had one job where they get really dirty and then having another shirt. They can change into another pair of pants. They can change into and then get cleaned up before their next job. You want everybody looking spick and span at each job.
Just politeness and common courtesy. This job is an extremely technical. You need people that are very polite. You need people that customers enjoy talking with them especially the young guys. Young guys can really impress customers if they work hard. They’re very personable and polite. Go Gators or whatever. Get out and get it done. That really impresses customers. Just general politeness and courtesy goes extremely long way. Absolutely do not leave a track of mud. Use boot covers or take shoes off.
This is a Junk Doctors policy. We do not go into somebody’s home without either boot covers on or shoes off. One or the other, no exceptions. Whatsoever in a regular residential home. People are hiring you to come in and get rid of junk. They don’t want you tracking in trash, mud and stuff like that create more work for them later on. For every one customer that calls up and tells you that you track in mud or whatever. So, you can send a carpet cleaner to make it right. There’s going to be at least one or two customers that don’t say anything at all. They cleaned it up. They hire somebody to come clean it up. They do it on their own. They just never use your particular company again. So, always make sure you’re not tracking in mud. Also, appearance matters even if there’s no mud on your shoes and there’s no way you’re tracking mud in. Taking shoes off and putting on boot covers shows a level of care. It really resonates with customers.
The Importance of Appearance
So again, a lot of this is an appearance. The little things, a lot of this appearance. You’re still likely going to be able to haul that couch away, just like the also-rans do. Would you want to be an also-ran or market leader? This video right here, I’m teaching you how to be market leader and you work with JRA. We’re going to teach you right to the market leader in good time. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help out the people that want to become the market leaders. We’re not here for the people that just want to stay the also-rans. We want people that are willing to put in extra effort to do the little things. Which don’t take an extra effort. Just a little bit more, but not a lot more. You do 90% of the job right. It’s the last 10% that customers really remember which likely to cause review, reuse and refer your business. The triple R right there. The triple R’s right there is all from doing the little things.
Here’s another appearance thing. Sometimes, it’s good application but it’s mainly appearance. Padding doors, floors and banisters. I thought about not putting this in here. Those of you that watched my videos where I was talking about what we struggled with is how much free information we’re going to put out. This right here is pretty simple. I’d take about 15 minutes to play in these episodes out before I record. Sometimes, half an hour, but usually 15 minutes. I spent 2 or 3 minutes thinking about do I want to tell people this? It’s simple! It is amazing when we do this. When we pad doors. When we pad floors and banisters. They made a door frame padding. It has spring clips, you just fit it over the door frame and they make nice professional front door covers. It actually the cover slides onto the front door. It takes a minute to put that stuff on and it is amazing. Even if you only knew the doorframe covers. If you just do that front door pad, that front door pad, 30 things to amend to do it. It just impresses the customers right there. By the front door pad as moving supply warehouse or movers warehouse whatever has them. It’s a great deal. I thought I’m not even putting this on here because down right there was a tremendous amount of value. Just that little small stuff.
We’ve got a lot more than that. Business package with consulting or our CAM and everything. There’s a lot of stuff we’re holding back, but at the same time we’re getting a lot of great information. That right there is a big one. Alright, courtesy calls. I’ll do a separate video on them, but when you’re placing a courtesy call it needs to be very professional. It needs to say something like, you know “John, we’ve got you on our schedule for 10 to 12 arrival time today. We’re about 45 minutes or so out. We should be getting there about 11:15. Do you have any questions before we get there?” Something very professional, not just your “Yo bro! We’re headed your way. I don’t know. We ought to be there at 11:45 or 12:00 o’clock.” You got to have some professionalism in here. When you have employees, that’s another thing you really need to work on with the courtesy call. One, making sure they’re doing it. Two, making sure when they do it, they’re professional. To go along with this, being on time. That’s huge. This is not really a little thing almost. I kind of slid this one in here because it’s so important and this is a big thing. This right here is a big thing. Those of you that can’t be on time. You’re going to disappoint a lot of customers and actually you’ll get some customers that are going to cancel with you. They’re going to call +1 919-466-9322. They going to call the Junk Doctors or they’re going to call a partner of Junk Removal Authority to get out there and get it done right. Those of you that cannot be on time, you’re going to get crushed. Now, everybody even Junk Doctors from time to time, something that was scheduled, so it’s not lining up and we might be late for jobs. As soon as you know that, you need to call the phone and you start communicating with that customer. Constant communication will get you out of the issues that you’re going to have with customers.
Being On Time
If you’re late and you don’t communicate then you’re way bad off. If you’re going to be late in 1:00 to 3:00 jobs, a lot of times you know about 11:30. Go, call the customers “Hey, this job right here is taking a long time. At this point it does not look like we’re going to be able to make that 1:00 to 3:00 arrival time. If we run later is that okay? We’ll do our best, but if we are going later, is that okay? If not, what do we need to do?” Just by communicating that early as possible and the customer probably hasn’t left to go home. They haven’t left work to go home. They can extend out shopping trip. They can go shopping and go get lunch.
If you wait until 2:30 and call and tell them that, they going to get a little ticked off. Most customers prepare themselves for you to get there at 1:00 o’clock. So, keep in touch with them, even if it’s going to be we communicate with our customer as soon as we know an ETA. If it’s going to be after like 2:00 o’clock or after the first hour of the arrival window. So, we won’t necessarily contact the customer if we’re going to arrive at 1:00, 1:30 to 1:00 to 3:00 arrival time. If it’s going to be 2:00 o’clock or after, we’re calling them as soon as we know something to give them that update, so they’re not waiting around. They’re not sitting there on go for us to get there when it could be a lot longer when we actually arrived. Communication is huge guys. A good communication is definitely huge, especially on time.
Customer Service and Communication
To add to the whole communication thing, The actual team members that are loading the stuff communicate is also huge. It’s safer when one guy is backwards and the other one tells them counting down the stairs. Three stairs, two stairs and one stair. Are you on the ground floor? When you’re doing that countdown or when you’re coming up and the doors there. You got the back person saying “Oh hold on a second, we need to turn this a little bit.” Just communicating, looking for areas of potential danger. Talking and especially the customers that are watching. Even if you have people that are just so good at working with each other. They don’t have to communicate. They just know what they’re doing. They work well with each other. It’s like the share of mind, they share brain almost. Those are the people that they really need to go ahead and communicate if the customer is watching especially. If the customer sees you communicating, then it seems super professional for them.
A lot of you are going to do this regardless of the customers watching or not, but if they’re watching, be super professional when you communicate. Also make sure you’re not cussing, customers are listening to everything. So, if even one customer slips in there that could ruin their reputation. Listen, “I’ll drop an f-bomb and stuff like that as quick as anybody.” but in front of a customer it’s like Sunday and I’m on the front of the church. The very first pew in the church. There is no custom work so ever going on in front of our customers. You could be fired with that offense at Junk Doctors. You get one warning and the second one your gas might be canned. You’ll out in front of the customer.
Sweeping and tidying up, this is one you’ve always got to get to keep on your team members about doing it. That is huge, take the time. If you remove just a little bit of stuff in the garage, take the time to sweep up the entire garage. Make it to this customer has to do literally nothing after you roll out. If there’s stuff that was good that they left out in kind of the middle. “Where are we going to put this. We’ll move it to the corner for you.” If it adds a bunch of time, maybe you don’t do it. Maybe charge extra for that and you let them know up front. Don’t just do it without letting them know, but if it’s something that takes us a couple minutes, go ahead and do it. Knock it out, and that that will really impress the customer. Always sweep up inside. You can offer to use their vacuum to vacuum up, but if you’re not going to vacuum, don’t ever use your brooms inside. We don’t keep back in some trucks. We’ve thought about it, but we don’t. Then you can always pick up a little trash and if you want to offer this, this is huge. If you want to offer to use their vacuum cleaner, less customers will say no, but some will. That right there, it’s a great way. One, for your team members to get extra tips. Two, it’s a little thing that really impresses the customer which is what we’re all after.
Then pop the question, pop the question. No, you don’t have to get down one knee on this. You don’t have to buy an expensive ring. I asked the customer, “Is there anything else that I can do for you?” That right there is a huge question. It’s going to bring you tremendous amounts of customer satisfaction. Reviews, referrals and repeat business coming right at you because you asked this question. Most of the time the answer is no but making sure that your customer is completely satisfied at the end of the job. It is huge. If they ask something that they want you to move a chair from one room to the next. It’s going to take like 10 minutes or less. Don’t charge them for it. Do it for free. If it’s going to take a little longer than 10 minutes say, “Clarice, we can certainly do that for you. It’s probably going to take us like a half an hour. It will take us that long, so we have to more. You’d be looking at roughly $50 for us to do that. Is that something you’d like us to still do?” Go ahead propose that question to her or give her a question like that. Make sure it was going to take that long, but if it’s something’s squit, just add that customer satisfaction. It also for your team members, that increases their likelihood of getting a tip a tremendously.
Even if you’re on the trunk, follow up. The next day is the best time to follow up, give the customer a call and say “Hey Clarice! This is Lee, I’m over here at Junk Doctors junk removal hauling. We really appreciate your business yesterday. I just want you to call you really quick and make sure that everything went well with your pick up yesterday.” As long as it did. Say “Okay, Clarice we certainly appreciate it. Please let us know if we can ever do anything else for you? Have yourself a wonderful day.” Something like that is what you need to say. If there is a problem, you need to jump on it and fix it immediately, but always follow up. If you’re on the truck still again the next day you call up say, “Hey! It’s Junk Doctors. I just wanted to take the time today. Once again, thank you for that business yesterday. I know everything seemed good when we left yesterday. I just wanted to double check and make sure everything is still good.” That right there is huge. It’s a little thing, but it’s a big thing and that’s the thing.
These little things, I will put this in parentheses. The little things are big things. There’s no little things in business. We’re calling this the little things because it’s only 10% of what you do or maybe 5% or 1%, but it’s huge guys. It’s absolutely much monstrous, humongous and tremendous just to get this little stuff right. The little stuff, if you want to instead of be at 200,000, you want to be rolled with the big boys in the Junk Doctors, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and some of your other market leaders that are doing a million, 2 million, 5 million or 10 million a year. You all got to get the little things right. We’re doing little stuff; Junk Doctors is doing little stuff. It’s the also-rans and heart and that’s the reason you’re the also-ran. You want be a big boy? You start doing little things or big things. The little things are big, so you will be doing those little things to get your business right.
Acknowledgement and Appreciation
Finally, hand written thank you card. Nobody does it anymore, using the old fashion. You all remember how to use the USPS, United States Postal Service. It’s amazing number of people that work for us. That we used to have them actually write thank you cards and then we just started doing it. The amount of people that did not know how to write a proper thank you card or even address an envelope or where the stamp point. Absolutely amaze me this handwritten thank you card and include a little magnet. It’s amazing the amount of customer we go to where a Junk Doctors magnet is on their refrigerator. Right here guys again, this was the little things. These are going to help you believe the pack and join the market leaders. Market leaders were doing this stuff. If you’re not doing it, this is the quickest way for you to expand and grow your business to get more repeat, reviews and referrals business. The triple R, if you are already doing this stuff, then you’re going to have to look at other areas to improve on. JRA can help you with that, $150 an hour consulting fee. Everybody should be able to afford it. If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford not to. You need to be able to find the money. If you’re struggling, you need the consulting more than the guy that’s making a lot of money, so a lot of people look at and they think the one that are making a lot of money is the one that really use that consulting. Yes, you weren’t with us. You’re making a bunch of money. We’re going to be able to improve your business and help you get the levels you haven’t achieved yet. The guy that’s struggling, you need to figure out a way to come up with that $150 to work with us because we’re going to provide so much value to you to move you from struggling, to down here, to up here and keep working with us to up here. Then eventually higher than I can reach. So, that’s what you need to be doing.
I do want to say remember JRA offer call centers. Just use it as much or as little as you want. You can use it for missed calls, after hours or we’ll take all the calls. Open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM eastern time. Eventually this thing will go 24/7. As of right now at 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM eastern time. It is a $250 a month access fee and $20 per book job.
We answer in your name. If you’re Junk Be Gone, Bumblebee Junk Removal, 123 Junk Removal or XYZ Junk Removal, we’re going to answer the phone using your name. The customer is going to believe they are talking with an actual person that’s on your payroll and not a call center. Everything is taken right here at our call center in North Carolina. Our very own call center. All we take right now is junk removal jobs or junk removal professionals. Everybody speaks clear English and very professional. People will think they’re speaking with you and your very own market. This right here, we were so excited personally to be able to open this call center. It’s been a blessing to have people that are able to answer our Junk Doctors’ phone. Junk Doctors is using this call center. That right there, it’s been so nice. I’ve been a slave to this is telephone right here for six years. We’ve had Kirsten answering phones for a couple of years now, but she leaves at 3:00 so Christian answers the calls after 3:00. Then on weekends we would take it and it’s been such a pleasure to have this. I wish we had it sooner. I can 100% tell you if somebody else had a junk removal call center and created it. Shortly after we started, we’d have been doing this especially after we get really busy by about year 3, but it still wasn’t worth us hiring somebody to answer the phone. We’ve been doing this call center, so let us know at +1 919-466-9322 or email me [email protected] if you’re interested in working with us on the call center. You won’t regret it. It’s going to allow you to spend more time with your family. It’s going to allow you to go to business meetings and not have to worry about your phone ringing. If you’re interviewing somebody looking to hire, all the time we’d be giving interviews and it was it embarrassing. We’re having to take this call. Inevitably, you’re going to always get a bunch of calls when you wish you almost did it. You always want calls, but if you’re trying to get something done. You’d rather go at different times. It’s always going to occur when you really can’t afford to take it.
Sales call is going to be easier. If you’re on the truck, it’s going to be easier. After hours you can spend more time, quality time with your family without being interrupted. Happy and ecstatic to be able to bring this product to market. We’re not hugging this on our own. Junk Doctors aren’t things. We’re getting other business owners. We made the investment and put this thing into place. We’re trained the people. We’re providing the support and management of it. We’re allowing you, all junk removal companies to use this for a very reasonable fee. Very happy to bring in everybody. Please let us know 1 919-466-9322 or email at [email protected] if you’re interested in this call center or any other Junk Removal Authority product. I appreciate everybody for watching today. We always have a weekly episode of Junk Removal Made Simple and daily episodes of trash talk. The amount of content that Junk Removal Authority is about to start putting out within the next month. It is about to explode. We’ve got an exciting announcement that we’re going to make soon. No service-based business in the history of social media is going to be putting out as much content as Junk Removal Authority. It is getting ready to be put out. Talk to everybody soon. Again, thanks for watching! Call us at +1 919-466-9322. You’ll have a wonderful week. Let’s make a bunch of money this week. Talk to everybody real soon.