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NCA 13
If you forgot to send me an email with your questions we’ll do a little bit of Q & A this morning but I have a lot of material to cover so we’re not going to do two hours of Q & A. I really don’t want to do an hour of Q & A because the workshop I’m about to do will probably answer some of the questions. But I did happen to think…
Caller: Debbie what were the questions we were supposed to send you?
D: Just some random questions that relate to the last couple of weeks.
Caller: Oh, I missed that.
Yeah setting up your model or pay scale. I did get some really good questions so I’m going to read them and address them. So we’re going to get started and you can of course remain unmuted right now and then I’ll have you mute out in just a little bit because I want you to be able to ask questions and I’d really like to try and stop the questions in 30-40 minutes so we don’t get way off track and lose sight of today’s workshop. Before I start with the Q & A I want to tell you about a group that I’ll be starting. I do group coaching which helps people to be able to afford my services because I understand that private one on one coaching is very expensive. If you’ve ever hired a private coach, generally private coaches are upwards of $200/hour and that’s what I charge if somebody is a pay as you go coach for an hour here, coach for an hour there. But $200 an hour and I realized that can get kind of expensive and then what happens is the only people who can afford that are the large companies and they seem to need the least amount of help so I do coaching groups and I do those virtual institutes which provides a ton of information to people for a lot less money. What I decided to do is to add a coaching group for NCA Univ. and I really think this will help you answer more specific questions that we couldn’t possibly cover in 16 weeks of training; that we probably couldn’t cover in 2 years of training. And everybody has their own specific issues that they would like help on and you’ll probably want some ongoing help. Of course as an alumni, if you feel you are not ready to fly solo and you want to retake this course, you get to retake it for free next time. It will be starting back up in August. I think most of you are going to want a break on your Saturday mornings but if you are not ready to fly solo and you want to sign up for the next NCA you get to do that for free…no charge at all. If you would like to get into the first NCA group that I form, I’m going to have a group of 8, so you’ll need to contact me right away if you definitely want to be in the 8. If I have to form 2 groups I will. So if everybody in NCA wants to be in a group, we’ll form 2 groups but I want the groups small enough to where there is plenty of time to ask questions and get your burning issues answered. A group of 8 will be a 6 month coaching group and that will start Aug. 6 so it will be right after NCA ends and we graduate on July 25 and it will start on Thursday evening from 5-6 my time, central time, so for some of you that will be 7 maybe even 8 and for some of you 4:00. So central time-5 p.m. on Thursday nights and it will be the first and third Thursday of the month. So we’ll have 2 coaching calls every single month for 6 months and they’ll be an hour a piece. I will talk for a little while, probably 20 minutes, but then we will open it up for Q & A and dialogue time and you can keep us apprised of your progress and it is an accountability group. It is an implementation group and it is a progress group so it is completely different from just listening to me talk about all these topics for 2 hours on a Saturday. It’s basically having somebody there to answer all the questions that will continue to come up over the next year or two. If you join the group for 6 months, you pay the lowest coaching fee that I offer in group coaching and it’s basically $100 a month and you have 2 calls a month. So it’s very affordable; 2 calls a month, $100 a month, you have to pay 6 months in advance…you have to pay 6 months at a time. So for $600 you’ll be in the 6 month coaching group and the way I’m making it a little bit easier financially is you would pay it in 3 different installments at $200. So for instance if you know for sure you want to be in the August 6 group and you don’t want to cough up $600 in August or run the risk that the group is closed because you’re number 9 or 10, then you would sign up now, you would make your first installment of $200 and then in July you would make your next installment of $200 and then on August 1st you would make your last installment of $200. So you’ll have it completely paid, you’ll have 2 calls a month basically one on one time with the 8 of us and that will take us from August for 6 months. So give that some thought and I have something else for somebody who really knows they want to have some help for a whole year and I’ll explain that at the end but I don’t want to keep going on that. But keep that in mind. You do need to send me an email if you definitely want to be one of the first 8 that will start in August; if you want a little more private help but you don’t want the more expensive one on one help. It will start August 6th, Thursday nights, twice a month, the first and the third Thursday of every month.
Ok I got some great questions that came through. I’m going to answer a couple of the easy ones first and then I’ll get to a lengthy one.
Where do you get your background checks?
I have a service that I use called Quicksearch. They’re out of Dallas and you can call my office on Monday and speak to Megan and ask her for the telephone number and the contact information. Please make sure you tell them that you work with Debbie Sardone and hopefully they’ll give you the best rate. It’s very reasonable. The other place that you can go for background checks; I strongly recommend that you call both of them, get pricing and find out what they have to offer. The other place would be go to ARCSI.org. If you’re not a member, you need to join. We were talking about that earlier. It is the only trade association, the nonprofit trade association, for the residential cleaning industry and you should be a member. It’s not expensive to be a member and the benefits are fantastic and of course you’ll get some free help and advice and you’ll be able to participate in message boards. You have to be careful with message boards because generally most of the people who are answering questions on message boards are people who really have not gotten to the place in their business that you want to be. So you have to be careful but it’s still very valuable to be able to toss out questions and concerns. But ASCI is a great source of information and they work with a background service and they do national background checks at a discount for ACSI members and I think they’re only like $15-$25. They’re really very inexpensive so please check both services. My office is 972-219-0400 if you want to call on Monday and ask Megan for the source for Quicksearch. So good question. Got to have background checks. Don’t hire people without doing background checks. I am absolutely adamant about that. And if you’re in C4R as a partner for your protection and the cancer patients and the integrity of the program, you have to sign a statement that says you do perform criminal background checks on the people that work for you. Of course that’s not relevant until you start hiring.
Where should somebody go for credit card transacting?
I do think you’re going to have to add this service. That doesn’t mean that you announce to all of your existing customers who are paying you by check and who are paying you on time that you off credit cards. You don’t have to announce that because all of a sudden you’ve just given up 3% of your income or more if you don’t get a great rate when there wasn’t a problem. So if you do add credit cards don’t send a notice to your existing customers and give them the option. Just deal with it as they bring up the subject or if they start bouncing checks or getting behind on payments. Then you say by the way can I get your credit card? But if you do add credit card service, it’s fantastic for booking jobs over the phone, taking on new clients who might not have used you because you don’t offer credit cards and your competition does, and of course for booking one time cleans over the phone. Your bank is probably the best source for you to get credit card merchant services. So go to your bank first. Just say what is the best rate you can give me? Unfortunately the answers they give you are convoluted and you have to figure out what it will cost you. They’ll say oh we’ve got a rate of 1.9, we’ve got a rate of 1.7, but then it’s 1.7 percentage of the sale and then it’s 25 cents right off the top for each transaction and then it’s $5 a month period, just because. It’s…so there’s all kinds of numbers they throw in that are all broken out and separate, but at the end of the day, most of us pay about 3%, 2.9%. $100 house is going to cost me $3 to run that credit card. $3 that never goes into my pocket and so now it’s $97 that I get and my employees get their percentage on the $100. So something to remember. It’s very easy. Contact your bank.
Do you call your customers every time there is a change made? For example do you call when you send a different cleaning tech?
Yes, we do. When there is a change that will affect the client’s experience or will affect what they are used to, we call them. If you have a client who travels and you guys always go whenever on a certain day. Let’s say you’re always on Tuesdays but he travels, he’s out of town, you have the key and he’s never there and you never know when you’re going. You just squeeze this guy in wherever. Sometimes he’s in the morning, sometimes he’s in the afternoon. Well I wouldn’t call him if it’s a time change because it’s not a change. But when you have clients that when you have said we have the solo cleaning concept so you can be the morning spot or the afternoon spot. Which is your preference? And you note that in the computer or in their file well she likes mornings because the baby sleeps in the afternoons, then there’s a change, you have to call her because you have created an experience that you’re supposed to deliver on all the time. So when there is a change you have to call. If she says well I don’t care when you come, I’m at work all day. Here’s my key, I don’t care. Then she doesn’t even want to be called when there’s a change and you don’t have to. But if you have noted her preferences and you have given her Mary Lou every Monday morning between 8-8:30 for the last 5-6 cleanings then if Mary Lou is sick today and you bumped her to Sandra who can’t get there until between 12-1 then you have to call her or she’ll be furious. And even if the computer says she’s flexible and does not care, if she’s had Mary Lou in the mornings on Mondays for months, don’t just trust the computer that says she’s flexible, she’s at work, she doesn’t care. Maybe something changed 4 months ago and you didn’t know it, but she quit work and now she’s at home with a baby and nobody told you that. So maybe now she’s really not as flexible as she used to be. So you don’t just surprise her and show up at 1 and go well the computer said you don’t care what time. Yeah, well that was back 6 months ago when I used to be working. So if there is a change then you call them. If it’s really not a change you don’t have to call them. If you’ve always jumped around what time you go. Same thing with the technician change. If she has had Mary Lou for months and Mary Lou quits, then you call her up and say hey, Mary Lou is no longer with us but I have got Rhonda coming, starting next week and that’s it. Or hey Mary Lou is sick today but I’ve got Rhonda coming this afternoon. Did you have a question about that?
Caller: Yeah, kind of. I send a newsletter out, Debbie, and when there’s a change of a staff member, I put that in the newsletter and all my clients get the monthly newsletter. Is that sufficient?
It’s sufficient if it’s not causing you any problems because what happens is you begin to train your customers to follow your program. If you are not getting calls of people saying Jim, why didn’t you call me? You sent me Larry today. I wasn’t ready. Then you’ll know ok the newsletter evidently is not working. But if that is addressing the issue I wouldn’t change it. Couple of problems is could cause is if you have a tendency to have high turnover then you’re kind of letting all of your customers know who’s turning over and if you are in a growth spurt you’re always going to have more names. So it kind of lets people know more about your business than I think is their business. If the newsletters are always saying who’s turning over, it lets them know how big you are and how small you are. Maybe you want to create an image that’s a lot bigger than you are. So it’s something to rethink. Also are newsletters once a week? Once a month? Or once a quarter? How often are you…?
Caller: Once a month. I couldn’t do them once a week.
Yeah and see that could be the other problem is the newsletter could have just hit and next week Mrs. Jones is getting a new tech because Mary Lou quit today.
Caller: Mrs. Jones don’t clean in this house Debbie. My wife don’t clean at all.
You’re right. It could be Mrs. Smith. We know Mrs. Jones is not going to have it. So that’s the problem with a newsletter. If the newsletter is your system for notifying then the newsletter system fell apart a week after it went out and now what’s your system for notifying people of change? So now you don’t even have one so you get in trouble. I’d say it isn’t frequent enough for it to be effective because someday you’re not going to be the one who is sitting at the computer going oh this employee quit after the newsletters went out. I’d better call Mrs.