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HUMAN RESOURCES OPTIMIZATION

Are the right people in the right positions?

In an earlier post I talked about hiring well. In this chapter, we continue looking at employees. One area that I’ve seen neglected in all but the largest companies is that of re-evaluating employees and moving them around to the most efficient utilization within the organization. So how does a company go about doing that?

I talk frequently about the evolution of employees both from a business need and from an employee perspective. An early-stage startup business needs flexible people who are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. The need to ‘jump in and help’ is much greater in an early startup than in a billion-dollar corporation. That ability to jump in and help becomes a liability as the company grows large enough to have managers and specialists. Specialization in departments is the key to growing a business from $10 million to $100 million and beyond. So does that mean that most businesses start replacing their founding employees as soon as they reach $10 million? On the contrary, most businesses simply promote their generalists, jacks-of-all-trades to senior management positions as the company grows. Do these people grow with the company’s needs, specialize in some departments, and become experts? Sometimes, but mostly not.

Many large companies are filled with managers who know less about their departments than both their boss and their employees. These generalists are quick to offer to help and jump in – that is why they were hired in the first place, remember? But this ability is rarely a good thing for a manager. They are loved by their employees because they act just like one of the guys, always covering for their team and throwing themselves on any failures, knowing that their long service to the company and their ability in the early years to do what was needed will ensure that their departmental failures are overlooked. This behavior is not good for the business.

So am I saying that an HR optimization is simply the elimination of all tenured employees from a company? No, of course not. Some employees do indeed find a specialization and end up focusing on it as the company itself grows. These people represent truly the only group of employees that it pays to hang on to for extended periods of time. They grew with the company, grew into specialists, and yet hold a lot of wisdom – knowledge, and experience about failures in the early days. These are the employees who have been with Apple and Microsoft for 25+ years. The people at Google and Amazon have been there for over 15 years. There are very few of them, and they have shown upward progress within the companies, not simply because of tenure, but rather because they have changed as the needs of the company have changed.

So the real question is how do you separate the people who have changed with the needs of the company from the people who have merely hung on? After all, the latter group may very well be more liked by their staff, and their willingness to always say “yes” to helping others is seen as an asset. It is very challenging for most business owners, and even nonowner executives, to admit that these employees are replaceable.

However, for the betterment of the company, the trees need to be pruned on a regular basis. The only way that I’ve experienced this happening is by having an outsider come in to observe and evaluate management. Generally, this will be a management consultant or some similar outsider. Their job is to figure out if the people in the roles within the organization are the ideal people who would be hired if that position were open today, or if they are simply filling that role by default, or as a reward for being with the company a long time, or perhaps for being the only person who didn’t take a step back when the role needed to be filled during a busy growth phase in the past. A business consultant will be able to figure out who is accelerating the growth of the company, and who is slowing it down.

The one exception that I’ve experienced was in a Fortune 500 company years ago. I had been closely working with a senior employee who had been with the company for nearly 20 years. One of my jobs was to evaluate his performance and report back to management. As I got to know this person I started to recognize him as a very dedicated employee who had a bit too much generalist in him. I didn’t think he would be climbing the management ladder but felt that he would be a great asset to any quick response team in the company – essentially a “jump into the fire” team inside the organization.

I was surprised when I found out he had in fact years earlier been promoted to a large department manager. I was wondering if he had failed to be demoted back to a senior non-management employee. As it turned out he had not! He realized after a few years that he hated running a team of 40 people. He much preferred to be the guy in the trenches that others could turn to for help, rather than planning staff reviews and working with project managers and business analysts. He actually saw his own strengths and weaknesses and made the proactive decision to leave management. This was a big benefit to the company because he was able to do what he was good at, rather than be a shitty manager.

Unfortunately, after I was done with that client, I found out they had laid him off anyway. I didn’t hesitate one moment and recommended him to be brought onto a project I was now running for another Fortune 500 company. This new team needed precisely this kind of experience and energy. He was much more valuable as the lead triage guy than as a director or group manager. Of course, his experience level would pay at the level of a director!

This was not the only instance I’ve found someone a position after they were let go from a company I was consulting. If you read my earlier book I’m sure you will remember a few of those stories.

To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.

In your city today, people are looking for a solution to the exact problem your company solves. They are looking for someone who does what you do, but they don’t know you.

Typing their problem into Google produces a list of you and all your competitors.

They want someone they can believe in, someone they can trust. Someone just like you. But since they don’t know you, they don’t choose you.

Thousands of 5-star ratings help make you a little more attractive, but an unknown name on a list is just an unknown name on a list.

Of course, Google will let you bid to be at the top of the list, but you’re still just an unknown name on a list. Plus, there’s no guarantee the expensive clicks you are paying for will become actual customers. In fact, there’s no guarantee the clicks are even real people.

A better way

But what if your name was known? What if a lot of people you’ve never met not only recognized your name but already liked and trusted you?

Well, for one thing, you wouldn’t need to bid away your profits to be at the top of a list. When someone needs what you do, they already know who to contact.

And once your company is the recognized solution, you will be less likely to have to compete on estimates. Instead of being one of many, yours will be the only company most people will trust.

Do you think if more people knew about your company and how you care for customers, they would want to work with you? You’re damn right they would!

Your name + your story = your brand

When you’re the company people think of first and the one they feel best about, the rest of the list becomes irrelevant.

Google exists for companies that don’t have a good name or don’t know how to tell their story effectively.

You need to start sharing brand stories that people fall in love with. Craft messaging (ads) that engage and delight. Tell your story in a way that makes people want to do business with you before they ever meet you. Then share your engaging and delightful story with incredible efficiency and effectiveness.

We can help. But there’s a catch. We only work with honorable people who truly care for the welfare of their customers.

If you are tired of bidding for clicks, hoping there are customers attached, and you want to be the company people know they want to work with, let’s talk.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.

Two critical factors are pivotal in driving business growth and security when customers worry about a troubled economy:

1. word-of-mouth referrals;
2. and repeat customers.

The  industry grapples with challenges such as potential recessions, labor shortages, and reduced access to working capital. That is why the importance of cultivating lasting customer relationships has never been greater. ServiceTitan’s recent Residential Contractor Report market report reveals  that a staggering 71% of business volume last year was attributed to word-of-mouth referrals, while repeat customers accounted for 39% of annual revenue. Word of mouth includes, reviews, posts on social media, referral in local neighborhood groups as well as neighbor to neighbor recommendations.

The Most Common Mistake

This is where we see the most common mistake; companies send out the least trained and experienced technician.

• Are they truly ready to represent the value of your people and your brand?
• Do they carry themselves with the confidence that your customers need to know you are the best solution for them in the future?
• Have you wowed your customer, and delivered an over the top experience in this simple transaction?
• Does the customer realize there is no reason to ever call anyone else?

Please invest the time and effort in thinking through why this is so important.

Understanding Transactional vs. Relational Customers

Let’s delve into the importance of transforming one-time deal seeking, transactional customers into brand loyal relational ones, and the profound impact this shift can have on the residential service contracting business.

Wizard of Ads Partner, Ryan Chute breaks down the difference between transactional and relational customers. Transactional customers are primarily driven by price and deals. They are the bargain hunters, often lacking loyalty and prone to switch brands for better deals. On the contrary, relational customers look beyond price, valuing aspects like quality, trust, and the overall experience. They are the ones who form emotional attachments with brands, often turning into advocates and repeat buyers.

The Shift from Transactional to Relational

Transforming a transactional customer into a relational one is not just beneficial but essential for sustained growth in the home services market. The process begins with exceptional service, that is BETTER than they expect, you must exceed the basic expectations of a customer. When a contractor goes the extra mile, it creates a lasting impression, laying the foundation for a long-term relationship.

Engaging customers on a human level helps in understanding their unique needs and preferences, allowing for tailored services that are relevant to them. Educating customers about the value offered, beyond just the cost, also plays a crucial role in this transformation. This value-centric approach can shift the focus from price to the overall benefits and satisfaction derived from the service and the overall business.

Leveraging Word-of-Mouth and Repeat Business

The power of word-of-mouth in this sector, as indicated by the 71% business volume it drives, is monumental. Satisfied customers not only return but also become brand ambassadors, recommending services to others. This organic form of marketing is cost-effective and highly impactful. Repeat customers, contributing to 39% of the annual revenue, are indicative of the trust and loyalty earned by businesses. They represent a stable revenue stream and are less price-sensitive, often willing to pay a premium for trusted services.

The initial interaction with a customer sets the tone for the future relationship. Investing in this initial experience is critical. It’s not just about making a sale; it’s about starting a journey with the customer. This includes understanding their requirements, offering customized solutions, and ensuring they feel valued and heard. Such investment in the early stages of customer interaction can significantly elevate the chances of converting them into long-term, loyal clients.

The Role of Brand Values and Community Involvement

Aligning customers with a brand’s values can transform their perception from seeing a service as a mere transaction to being part of a larger community. Involving customers in brand-related activities, sharing stories of the brand’s mission and values, and consistently delivering on promises strengthens this bond.

The Way Forward: Focusing on Relationships

The path to success in the home service contractor market is intricately linked to the ability to build and nurture customer relationships. By transitioning from a transactional to a relational approach, businesses can not only enhance their immediate revenue but also pave the way for long-term growth and sustainability.

The emphasis should be on creating memorable customer experiences, leveraging word-of-mouth, valuing repeat business, and marketing to both relational and transactional customers effectively. As the industry continues to evolve, those who master the art of relationship building will undoubtedly emerge as leaders, charting a course of profitability and resilience in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and we’ll hook you up.

You may think of your Customer Service Reps in terms of how many calls they can handle in an hour.

Or by how much you pay them per hour.

But here’s how you should really think of them:

By the amount of money that flows through them every shift.

If you’re a Home Service Company then understand that ALL of your mass media budget ultimately flows through your CSR reps before it can add to your top-line sales.

That may be hard to hear, but it’s true.

And that means months and years worth of effective mass media branding can be undone in a single phone call.

If the goal of your branding ads was to get the customer to think of you first and feel the best about you when they finally need what you sell…

And if the ads achieved that goal, garnering you the prospective customer’s phone call during their moment of need…

Then you’d darn sure better make sure that:

1) You answer the phone with a real human who can help promptly.

And that doesn’t mean after putting the customer through a seven-stage phone tree or putting them on hold for five minutes or having them talk to an answering service run out of India, etc.

2) You “Show Up” on the Phone as the Same Company that Appears In Your Ads

Your CSR Reps should:

• use your brandable chunks,
• show empathy,
• be personable,
• be aware of your advertising & current offers, etc.

If the employees speaking to customers are mere “Order Takers” with no personality or empathy, you’ll damage your brand.

That makes your CSR reps some of the most important people in your company.

You are used to thinking of your working techs, plumbers, or electricians in terms of how much money they earn the business in a year.

For example, a tech in a truck should be bringing in roughly $500K to the business through his work.

But do you ever think of customer service reps in the same light?

Well, you should.

Because every job that tech went on had to pass through CSR first.

If the job doesn’t get booked through CSR, it doesn’t get run.

And, yet, while tech turnover is a major concern for managers, CSR turnover is often considered ordinary and expected.

So go ahead and calculate how much money flows through your CSR employees.

Now that you have that number,

• Do you think it’s worth paying them better and offering performance bonuses to keep them on board?

• Do you think it’s worth your personal time and attention to the CSR department to ensure they feel like valued team members?

• Do you think calls might be answered differently if the reps knew you personally sampled calls every week and rewarded great calls while addressing bad calls?

In a world where leads are fewer and more expensive to get, investing time and money to ensure every lead is handled properly on the phones is simply smart business.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.

So there’s a meme making the rounds about Gen-Z / texting slang that’s worth some study if you want to create powerfully persuasive advertising. Check it:

As you know “stuff” is inevitably lost in translation.

But in a great translation, important “stuff” is also added to the mix.

So what’s lost in translating from adult / corporate speak to teenage?

And, most importantly, what’s added?

What’s lost is formality. And not the good kind.

We’re not talking about the high formality of solemn occasions and deep rituals.

We’re talking about the bullshit formality of corporate speak. That’s totally ditched in the translation to teenager.

So what’s gained?

• Personality.
• Attitude.
• Emotion.
• Vulnerability, and
• Real Perspective.

In other words, EVERYTHING that matters when it comes to distinguishing your ads and brand from the background clutter.

Look past the slang to see the attitude, emotion, and perspective embodied in this way of speaking.

The lack of caps and opening “sup?” are meant to convey the casual, friendly familiarity of equals. The person writing this doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Moreover, she implicitly recognizes that she’s asking the reader for a favor with her plea to “Hook Me Up at [phone number] by pointing out anything that’s “sus.”

A sentiment that’s echoed with the admission of “need your help fam” as the sign-off. Note the no-BS vulnerability of this phrasing.

Now compare this to the rather distant and bland “Please don’t hesitate…” opening of the adult sign, which automatically puts the reader at a remove, and then pretends that the writer is offering to do the reader a favor should the reader be responsible enough to report “anything that needs our attention.”

Note also how the teenage translation provides concrete examples: “like IDK a toilet that got REKT or something.”

Most important is the unabashed, vulnerable willingness to admit to big goals.

Contrast “We want to make this campground as relaxing and comfortable as possible” with “TBH we high-key tryna glow-up this campground. can’t stop, won’t stop until this place straight up slays.”

What Kind of Language Is In Your Ads?

Are your ads using language that conveys personality, attitude, vulnerability, and perspective?

Are you presuming an intimate familiarity with the audience?

Or are you insisting on an awkward formality?

[Hint, if you introduce yourself in every ad, you’re inadvertently insisting on an awkward formality]

Do you use the casual language of close friends?

Or do you use the artificial language of corporate-speak?

Do you have a recognizable attitude towards your profession and your customers?

Do you have an articulable “advocated position”?

Do your ads have personality? And recognizable branded chunks?

In other words, are your ads closer to the teenager version of the sign?

Or are your ads imitating the blah-blah-blah of the adult sign?

If you need new branding guidance, book a call with no other than Wizard of Ads®. We'll help you figure out what new perspective on branding can work for your business.  

My colleague, Johnny “FM” Molson, recently wrote that “most people don’t know most businesses.”

For example, how many brands of hearing aids can you name?

You and I are happily oblivious to almost all the so-called “brands” in any category that we don’t routinely shop.

And that goes double for what I’d call Ugly Ducking Businesses.

Yet there are exceptions. Take insurance.

You’ve likely only shopped insurance a few times in your life, yet you can easily name a half-dozen insurance brands. Why?

Advertising.

Every major insurance firm runs a heavy-duty, well-crafted, TV branding campaign. To include:

• The GEICO Gecko (and Caveman)
• Allstate’s Mayhem
• Progressive’s Flo
• Jake From State Farm
• Liberty Mutual’s Limu Emu
• The “We Are Farmer’s” campaign with J.K. Simmons

So what can we learn from that?

To Compete with Great Advertising You Need Your Own Great Advertising

The major insurance houses brand with passion ‘cause they can’t afford not to.

If they sat on the sidelines while their competition dominated the Mental Availability and Top of Mind Awareness game, they’d go out of business.

So, if you don’t have any competition running great branding ads, you could wait until they do and then be forced to respond…

Or you could launch your campaign before the competition.

I recommend the latter, ‘cause branding into a messaging “blue ocean” is far easier than having to fight it out in a red ocean of persuasive advertising.

That said, if you are forced to enter that red ocean, it’s better to do so sooner rather than later — and with the highest impact ads you can muster.

Long Buying Cycles Greatly Benefit From Great Branding

Most people associate heavy-duty branding with what the industry calls “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” (FMCG)

Think soft drinks, chips, soaps, fast food, beer, detergents — stuff people buy every week or several times a week.

Coca-Cola certainly does spend a lot on advertising.

Yet branding is even MORE important for products and services with longer buying cycles, bought far less frequently.

Lose a burger sale to a competitor, and you’ll have another chance at selling to that customer later that week.

Lose a roof or AC sale to a competitor, and you won’t have another chance with that customer for fifteen years.

Lose a barn sale, and it’ll be fifty years.

So for long buying cycles, it pays to pre-convince customers before they ever need what you sell, as the cost for reaching them too late is so high.

Conversely, successfully boxing the competition out of consideration hurts them dearly — and profits you even more.

For these reasons, insurance companies know that they have to be on your shortlist, or they’ll lose you as a customer, perhaps for decades. That makes a strong branding campaign a must-have.

If you also have a business with a long buying cycle, it’ll pay to follow suit.

Interesting Characters Make For The Strongest Messaging

Pretty much all of the insurance branding campaigns star and spotlight strong, identifiable characters.

Think of the GEICO Gecko (or caveman), Flo, Mayhem, Jake From State Farm, and the Limu Emu.

Heck, even Farmers has the recognizable spokesperson of J.K. Simmons

There are multiple reasons for this, but the top two are:

1. Interesting characters are dynamite entertainment and ensure better audience engagement.
2. People bond with people faster and more easily than with faceless corporations.

Since 95% to 99% of your ads’ audience won’t be in the market for what you sell, your ads will need to offer entertainment to capture and keep their attention.

Fortunately, characters and character-driven storytelling is the best and most surefire way to provide that entertainment.

And this is especially the case for an episodic or serialized content, such as a TV campaign.

Look at any movie franchise or novel series and you’ll see: people may come for the plot, but they stay for the characters.

You go to a James Bond film to watch James Bond, after all; the plot is secondary. Works the same for branding ads with strong characters.

And not only do the characters engage the audience, they help foster trust in the company.

This works fine with fictional characters, as the insurance campaigns demonstrate, but it works even better for business owners as spokesman, such as Frank Perdue and Gert Boyle.

So if you’ve got a strong Origin Story, you really ought to be telling it — through your mass media advertising.

What’s Your Buying Cycle? And What’s Your Plan for Winning It?

Whether you’re selling burgers or bookkeeping, you’ll want a plan for winning over prospective customers whenever they DO need what you sell.

And it boils down to this:

• If they’re not aware of you…
• If they don’t think of you when they need what you sell…
• If they don’t think well of you…
• If you’re not easy & pleasant to do business with, and…
• If you don’t make & close the sale when the customer calls or shows up, then…

… you’ll lose the sale.

If you wish to win the sale, you’ll need to make sure each step is in good working order.

And nothing on Earth is so effective at improving the first three steps as a character and story-driven, long-term branding campaign.

If you’d like to launch or reboot your business’s story-driven branding campaign, I’d be happy to help.

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