As a professional mover, I’m sure you do everything you can to make sure that your customer is having a great moving experience. As hard as you try to make every customer 100% happy, there will be times when that doesn’t happen. When there is an issue on the move and you are aware of it, you can work to make things right with the customer. But what happens when you weren’t even aware that there was a problem? That’s where having an Awareness Board comes into play.

By creating the Awareness Board for my company it allowed us to keep any customer that was not 100% satisfied with their move on our radar. Instead of being reactive to phone calls and complaints, we identified customers that had an issue on the move and then worked to get it resolved. Each issue was put on the awareness board to make sure that it was not out of sight out of mind.

We started with an Excel spreadsheet (download the awareness board for free) which we kept on a TV on the wall in the office. Then we started using a software called Zendesk to manage any customer service issues. If you go that route, you will need to configure the software to meet your needs, it does not come ready out of the box. You can use a whiteboard or even keep a list of potential issues in the notes of your phone. The idea is that you keep them visible and you are aware of them.

Create an environment that your awareness board can be effective in.

1. Have a meeting with your staff – Let your staff know that you want to know about any customer that is not 100% happy with their move. You need everyone involved in order to discover any unsatisfied customers so that you can work to resolve the issue.
2. Create open lines of communication – Make sure that you have access to any incoming calls or emails where customers can be informing you of their dissatisfaction. Make sure someone in your company is on top of fielding these calls and emails.
3. Get the customer on the awareness board – The idea of the awareness board is to have it visible so that everyone knows that there are issues that need to be resolved. The minute you or someone on your team finds out about a potential problem, get it on the awareness board.
4. Don’t shoot the messenger – You want to create an environment where your staff is not scared to tell you about issues. You have to be very careful not to “shoot the messenger” and get upset with the person bringing the information to you.
5. Resolve the complaints – Work as quickly as possible to resolve the complaints. Just because a customer had a complaint, does not mean you can’t resolve it and turn them into a raving fan. Be responsive and prompt in resolving the issues.

There is nothing worse than thinking everything went well on a move and then you get a negative review. Stay aware of the issues and be proactive in resolving them.

 

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Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, CEO of Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. Today, I wanna talk about awareness. Having awareness of all of your customers and the status of the move and if everything went good, if it didn’t go good, are they happy, are they not happy, is something that’s really important because you don’t wanna be in a situation where all of a sudden you think everything’s fine and you get a negative online review. You think everything’s fine and you get a Better Business Bureau complaint. You wanna have awareness of these problems and there’s some things you could do and set up to make sure that that happens. So, maybe right now you’re a little bit out of touch with customer service and you have somebody in your company that might be dealing with any customer complaints or issues to resolve them, and maybe you only hear about ’em when they get escalated, or maybe you’re dealing with each and every one of ’em as they happen. The idea is that you need to be aware of any customer that is not 100% happy. Don’t look at it as only if it’s a problem, only if they’re complaining am I gonna be worried about it and concerned about it. You should be worried and concerned about any customer that’s not 100% happy. ??????

Number one, you wanna create raving fans. You wanna get repeat referral business and you want five star reviews, period. That’s gonna help grow your business at tremendous levels. What you don’t want is you don’t wanna be in a position where all of a sudden, negative review. And you had no idea that there was even an issue with the job. So, I wanna talk to you about something that I put in place years ago in my business. It’s called an awareness board. An awareness board is basically a way to keep track of any customer that you’ve already moved that’s not 100% satisfied with their move. Anyone that might have an issue, you need to have it up on the wall. You need to have it visible for you and your team to see so that you could work to resolve these issues. Because if you don’t work to resolve them, they’re just gonna come and bite you from behind unexpectedly. You’re either gonna get a… Like we talked about, you’re gonna have a BBB complaint, a negative online review. They’re gonna charge back their credit card.

You have to be aware of ’em so that you could resolve ’em. And for me, when I came up with the awareness board, I had already had a team of people that were handling any customer issues. They knew how to resolve ’em. They knew how to walk ’em through the customer complaint resolution form and just go through the steps, step-by-step on what to do to get their issue handled and make them happy. But I needed to know what was going on. I needed a way to see any issue that could possibly be a problem. To make sure we were resolving it. So what we did at first was created a Excel spreadsheet, and I called it the awareness board. I put it up on the wall on a flat screen TV in the office, and basically it listed every customer that was not 100% happy, what their complaint or issue is, and the status, what we were doing to resolve it.

We later then started using a software called Zendesk. I’ll put the link below, which if you do get, it needs to be configured. It’s not ready to go out of the box. But we basically took the Excel spreadsheet that I’m gonna go ahead and give you, by the way, in the download down below. You’ll be able to download it or if it’s not in the link down below, go to louismassaro.com/awarenessboard and I’ll go ahead and attach it there to where you can download it and use it in your company. Once you download it, you’ll have it. I won’t be able to see anything. But basically, we took that Excel spreadsheet and had Zendesk recreate it so that we had a software to make sure that we were resolving issues quickly.

At the time we were doing 12,000 moves a year and there was customer service issues. I had 10 people in customer service and I needed to make sure that we had a system for staying on top of everything. So, even if you’re doing 20, 30, 40, 50 moves a month, you need to be on top of it. So even if it’s a whiteboard, even if it’s a list that you keep in your phone, if you’re a one-man show, keep a list of customers that aren’t 100% happy because if you don’t, you forget about ’em. If you don’t, you only address them when they call with their complaint or when the review shows up. So by having it in your face, it reminds you. These are issues that need to be resolved.

A lot of times we focus solely on booking moves, booking moves, booking moves, service and moves, service and moves, service and moves. We need to remember that after the move is serviced, you need happy customers. You need raving fans. And a lot of times, there might be a really small issue that if you’re on top of it, you can turn it around and create a raving fan. So, first thing you’re gonna wanna do is create a system and an environment within your company where the complaints make their way to where they can get on the awareness board. And what I mean by that is sometimes, I’ve worked with companies and there’s an environment where the problems get swept under the rug. The owner doesn’t really wanna know about ’em, there’s no real process for walking them through a resolution and it’s more of firefighting. It’s more of as complaints pop up, they’re putting out the fire, the customer seemed somewhat satisfied so they hang up the call, and don’t really do anything with it, again, unless they call back.

You have to create an environment where everything comes to the surface. So the first thing you wanna do is have a meeting with your staff and say, “Listen, I wanna start creating raving fans and I need to know every customer that’s not 100% happy. We’re gonna start using an awareness board how ever you wanna go about using it. But we’re gonna have an awareness board and we’re all gonna be aware of every customer that’s not one 100% happy so that we could work to make sure we get it resolved.” Create open lines of communication. Make sure that any customer that calls on a certain number that has an issue, whoever’s answering those lines knows that it needs to go on the awareness board. So, just having the awareness board doesn’t do anything for you. Your staff needs to know, “Hey, I got a customer that’s not 100% happy, let’s put ’em on the board.” Don’t look at it as a negative thing. Don’t look at it as a bad thing to find these customers because by putting ’em on the board, that’s the first step to getting it resolved.

What you don’t wanna do is you don’t wanna shoot the messenger either. So you wanna create an environment where your employees feel safe to bring this issue to you or to whoever’s gonna be getting things on the awareness board to where, if they speak to somebody, if your sales rep gets a call back from a customer and the customer says, “Hey listen, I just wanna let you know this or that happened on the move. Everything was fine but I’m not really too thrilled about it.” That the sales person feels compelled to bring that information to you so that you can get it on the awareness board. So, the idea is that you just wanna create an environment that will allow the complaints, and the issues, and the customers that are not 100% happy. Don’t just look at it and say, complaint or issue. Customers that are not 100% happy need to go on the awareness board.

Then you need to go through the process of resolving them all. It seems like extra work, but you know what? You need good reviews. Bad reviews are gonna be damaging to your business. So, it’s like one or the other. Why put in all the work to have marketing, to pay for marketing, to set up your sales team, to get everything going, to service the move, to send the truck out to go do the move, and then maybe there’s a little issue that you could fix and they’ll be a really happy customer that then will refer you to people, they’ll use you again, they’ll leave a five star review. Why let something small, let that issue, let that customer not be a raving fan? So, again, an awareness board. You wanna get it up, you wanna make it visible. I’m gonna go ahead and I’m gonna include the Excel spreadsheet. You’re gonna need Excel in order to download it. Go ahead, take a look at that, and it will open your eyes to walking through the complaint resolution process.

And even if you get one complaint every three months, get it up somewhere. Maybe it doesn’t need its own board, but get it up visible for everybody to see so that your team knows we need to work to resolve this. Because otherwise, you’re just waiting for them to call you, and when you do that, you’re putting yourself in a bad position. So, hope this was helpful. Make sure you go out there every single day and profit in business, and thrive in your life. I’ll see you later.

Hopefully, you’re training your movers on how to move furniture! But are you training them in customer service too? Your movers are the face of your company, they are the ones interacting with your customers. It’s crucial that you train your movers in customer service if you want to create raving fans.

What exactly do I mean when I say train your movers in customer service?

For starters, your movers should start each move with the intention of making a great first impression and placing the customer at ease. They can do this by:

• Showing up on time
• Have a clean truck, with the back swept out and neatly folded pads
• Be in company uniform
• Introduce the crew to the customer upon arrival
• Inform the customer of each mover’s role in their move
• Helpers should walk up to the door with pads
• Helpers should start protecting floors, rails, and door jambs
• Make the customer feel comfortable

That will set the tone and let the customer know they have professionals handling their belongings. When a customer hires a professional moving company, they expect more than someone to just move their furniture from point A to point B. They expect to deal with respectful, courteous, professional movers. Make sure they feel that right away!

How is the customer supposed to feel if you show up and open the back up the truck where their furniture is going and it’s a mess? There are pads and boxes everywhere and there is a guy in the back of it smoking a cigarette. Do you think they will feel good about their choice in moving companies?

So as a moving company owner, what do you need to do? 

• Decide how you want each move to be conducted
• How do you want your movers to introduce themselves to the customer?
• What do you want them to do before they leave the pickup?
• What should they do at the end of the move?
• How should they deal with problems that may come up?

If you want to provide a consistent service, which you do. Then you need to think these things through ahead of time and then train your movers on it. After you train them, you also should remind them daily if needed.

This is how you are going to get more repeat and referral customers. This is how you are going to get 5-star reviews.

Your movers and all of your employees are a reflection of you and your company. How do you want to be represented?

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

 

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Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey my friend, it’s Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules Of A Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. Are you training your movers in customer service or are you only training them on how to move furniture? Because rule number seven of the 10 Rules Of A Profitable Moving Company is train your movers in customer service. This is so important. They are the face of your company. They’re the ones that are gonna be interacting with your customer. How is it that you want that interaction to go? You can’t just expect them to know it. Too many times, moving companies are just giving out the contracts, saying, “Do you have enough helpers? Do you have everything you need? Okay, good, go.” But they’re not training the movers in how they want them to interact with the customer and the customers are expecting more than just showing up and moving your furniture from point A to point B. First impression goes a long way. How the movers show up at the house and the first few things they do set the tone for the whole move.

I used to tell my guys this repeatedly, “When you show up and your truck is clean and the pads are folded and it’s swept out, you’re in uniform and you walk up to the customer and you introduce yourself, and you introduce your crew, and you make them feel comfortable, all their worries and anxieties about the move go down.” And they’re like, “Okay, good. I got some good guys here, these guys are gonna do a good job, they’re gonna take care of me.” But when you show up and one guy is out by the truck smoking a cigarette and you just say, “Hey, what’s up? We’re here to move you,” you don’t really start the whole thing off right, you set a bad tone for the move and now the customer could be complaining about stuff that isn’t even relevant, they just don’t feel right about the situation. So you have good crews, you have some crews that don’t do this thing on their own.

But what if you train them? What if you trained every single mover that this is how things need to be done? When you show up to the home, the first thing you need to do is the driver needs to walk up to the house, the helpers need to have some pads on their shoulders or under their arms and walk up with him. The driver should introduce himself and the crew and explain to the customer, “I’m gonna be handling this, he’s gonna be handling that, they’re gonna be handling that,” and explain what’s gonna be going on. Put the customer at ease. Then the helpers could start right away, they can go and pad-wrap some furniture or some rails or protect the doorways and do things to just set a good first tone. So, that’s the start of the move.

How do you want them to end the move? What’s your company’s policy for the end of the move? At the end of the pickup, should they go and get the customer and say, “Can you look around and make sure that we got everything? Is there anything else you want us to do before we leave?” At the drop off, “Is everything where you’d like it to be? Is there anything else we can do?” These things need to be thought out by you and then trained. You need to train your movers on them. You can’t just let them go out and do it how they wanna do it because you know what? Then essentially, your company is gonna be an accumulation of how this driver, this driver, this driver, these movers, these movers and these movers would run their company. No, it’s your company. Have things done in a consistent way by everybody. The consistency is key.

So if you think these things out in advance, it won’t take much to train your staff and your movers to do things how you want them to be done. It also goes for a problem on the job or an unforeseen circumstance. How do they handle that? They need to be trained. Something happens, I don’t know, a piano falls down a whole flight of stairs. It happens. So what do they do? What’s the first thing that they do? The movers need to know, they’re in a tough spot. They’re there face-to-face with the customer. The customer is yelling at them, they’re pissed off. What do they do? You need to decide that. Do they need to never engage with the customer when there’s a problem and always say, “Let me call the office and let you speak to the dispatcher or let you speak to the owner or whoever?” Or are you gonna train them to deal with these situations? That’s for you to decide.

But what you do need to decide and what I’m telling you do need to do is that you need to make those decisions ahead of time and then train your movers on them. It’s something that it’s gonna go a long way for creating raving fans, it’s gonna go a long way for getting more five-star reviews and it’s just gonna create a more, a smoother environment and you’re not gonna have movers that are out just doing whatever they wanna do. It’s about, “You work for this company, you work for my company and this is how we do things here.” And if certain guys don’t wanna get with the program, then maybe they’re not made to work for your company. Maybe they should go open their own company, maybe they should go work for a different company. But at your company, how do you want things done? Because every single employee that you have, every single person that you put in the face of a customer or put on the phone with a customer is a reflection of you and your company. So you need to think about that and you need to think about if you were out on the move, how would you handle it? How would you introduce yourself to the customer? How would you deal with a problem if it came up? So how would you want your men and your movers to do that or women to go out and handle every single interaction on the move?

So rule number seven of 10 Rules Of A Profitable Moving Company, train your movers in customer service. Don’t just train them on how to move furniture, train them on how to interact. So when you’re doing your training, it doesn’t take much extra time to do this. So when you bring on new staff, you train them, obviously. Even if they already know how to move furniture, you’re gonna re-train them so that you make sure that you see that they know what they’re doing. But then also give them the checklist, “There are the things that need to happen. If these problems come up, this is what you need to do.” And every day, remind them of that. Listen, ’til next time, continue to profit in business, thrive in life. I’ll see you later.

What exactly is a raving fan? A raving fan is a customer that is so happy with your service, they go out of their way to tell everyone they know about your company. They will voluntarily leave you 5-star reviews online. They will be more than happy to be a reference or give you a video testimonial. Every time they move they won’t get quotes, they will call you directly. That’s why the goal of every move should be to create raving fans.

Not only does it feel great to provide excellent service and get praise from your customers, it’s also highly profitable. Every customer that you procure through your marketing efforts has a cost associated with it. It’s called your marketing acquisition cost.

That marketing acquisition cost is eating into your profits. So how do you lower your overall marketing acquisition cost for your company? You create raving fans!

Raving fans will turn into repeat and referral customers.  Meaning they will use you again next time they move and also refer you to other people who will move with you. Repeat and referral customers have a marketing acquisition cost of $0.00!

The more repeat and referral customers you have the lower your overall marketing acquisition cost for your company will be. In other words, the percentage of your revenue you spend on marketing will decrease and your profits will go up.

The fastest way to go out of business is to pay for marketing and then go and provide bad service on the move. Not only will you not get a repeat customer or a referral, you will probably get a negative review online for all new prospective customers to see. This is very damaging!

When you sell the move, your job has just begun. You need to deliver a 5-star experience to your customer. That will multiply into more business than you can imagine.

Your goal should be to use every move as an opportunity to create a raving fan that will use your company again, refer you to their friends and post 5-star reviews online!

Complete a survey with your customers after the move…did they have an amazing experience? Would they refer you to friends and family?

Yes? Great, ask them to post a review online! Don’t be afraid to ask.

And if they had a bad experience, then find out what happened and work quickly to make things right. Do not ignore the issue, instead work with them to turn them into a raving fan.

Have a meeting with your staff today. Ask them “What do we need to do to make sure our customers are having a 5-star experience?” Get the feedback, create a plan and go out and earn your referral customers and 5-star reviews.

 

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

 

Follow Louis on Instagram for tons of great quotes.

 

Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. Today, I wanna talk to you about rule number four of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company, which is, the goal of every move is to create a raving fan. So first, let’s talk about what a raving fan is. A raving fan is not just a satisfied customer. If right now, your goal is to have satisfied customers, you need to raise the bar a little bit. You need to create raving fans. A raving fan is someone who when you’re done with their move, they’re gonna tell everybody they know about you. They’re gonna be so excited about the service that they had, that they’re gonna voluntarily say to people, “Hey, if you need a mover, I know somebody that’s great.” They’re gonna go online, they’re gonna post a Yelp review. They’ll also post a Google review or anything else that you ask them to do. If you need a video testimonial, they’ll be more than happy to do it for you. They’ll be on social media telling everybody how great you are. That’s a raving fan.

A raving fan, the next time they need to move is not getting quotes, they’re calling you back directly. A raving fan, anytime they have a family member or a friend that’s talking about moving, they’re quick to offer up the service, because you helped them in such an important time. I don’t think that we think about it enough, as movers, how we impact people’s lives and how we could really make their day. I mean, moving is one of the most stressful things that people do in their life, period, statistically. There’s so much going on and they’re moving for whatever reason and essentially, their whole world is up in the air. So when you come in as the moving company and there is just no hassle with you and everything goes as planned and everything just goes smooth and you go a little above and beyond, you create a raving fan, and that needs to be the goal. That needs to be the goal, not only ’cause it’s the right thing to do and to provide good service, but because it’s profitable.

So how is it profitable? Well, when you spend money on marketing, you spend money and you get a move. Well, if you are spending money constantly and doing a move and then that move never turns into more moves, you’re not gonna be so profitable. But if you’re marketing, you’re getting a move, and you look at each move you get from your marketing as an opportunity to create raving fans, which are then gonna turn into what I call the move multiplier, where essentially they’re referring you, they’re using you again, they’re going online, they’re leaving reviews, the value on these reviews are tens of thousands of dollars per good review. There’s also some negative dollar amounts associated with the bad reviews, but for the good reviews, tens of thousands of dollars. Why? Again, you’re spending money on marketing. As that marketing comes in and you’re talking to people and you’re quoting them and they’re speaking to you and another company and you have really great reviews and the other company doesn’t, well, you’re gonna book more moves, which means that you’re booking percentage is gonna go up, which means you’re gonna make more off the same amount of money that you and the other company are making or spending on marketing.

So when your marketing cost goes down, your profit goes up. I call it the R and R compound effect, which is basically repeat and referral customers compounding. As you move people and as that turns into more repeat and referral business, your profits go through the roof. So, it’s so important and it’s great that you wanna have a satisfied customer. I know everybody watching wants to do the right thing, they want their customer to have a good service. But how could you go a little bit further, how could you take them from being a satisfied or a happy customer to being a raving fan? You don’t have to do anything extravagant, you don’t have to bake them a pie, you don’t have to spend a ton of extra money, but there’s little things that you might be able to put in place that could make them a raving fan. So make that the goal.

You know what that is, have a meeting with your staff, bring everybody in: Movers, office staff, sales people, dispatch, accounting, everybody. And just say, “What could we do to raise our level of service so that we provide every customer with five-star service and make them a raving fan?” Have a brainstorming session, talk to everybody, see what ideas are out there. You’re gonna be able to find things that aren’t gonna cost you anything. It’s just maybe a little something you need to add to your process or something that you need to make sure happens that maybe is not happening right now. And if you’re not doing follow-up surveys and sending out emails to get reviews, find out what the customers are saying. What could we have done better to… Where you could have a better experience? I know you were happy. So even if they say, “Yes, everything was great,” what could we have done to make it even better? What could we have done to make you a raving fan? Find out. You know you need to do a little research and start implementing that stuff in your business. Because long term, that’s what’s gonna make you profitable. Repeat and referral customers all day long.

And when you have great reviews online, your booking percentage on that advertising and the marketing that you’re spending money on is gonna go up. You’re gonna book more of the jobs and more of the leads that you have because they’re gonna go online and they’re gonna see social proof. They’re gonna see other people said, “These guys are fantastic, use them. I had such an amazing experience.” It’s called social proof. When they see that, they want that experience. If they are moving, they wanna have the same experience as the person they saw the review that was raving about you. Not like, “They were great.” You want somebody that’s writing a really good review. So create raving fans, that should be the goal of every move. You should make that the mantra in your company. Raving fans is the goal of every move. So go out there, continue to profit in business, thrive in life. I’ll see you next time.