Latest / The Scene Projects / Jeffrey Umberger on Leadership, Community, and Excellence in the Wedding Industry

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Jeffrey Umberger on Leadership, Community, and Excellence in the Wedding Industry · The Scene Projects

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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Sartz, and with me today is Jeffrey Umberger.
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  He's the director of client experiences at Complete Wedding and Events in Sioux Falls,
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  South Dakota.
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  Welcome to the show, Jeffrey.
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  Thank you.
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  It's good to be here.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, we were just talking off camera.
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  I had to cut you off.
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  I was like, nope.
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  This is too good.
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  We gotta we gotta get the whole story.
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  You're new in this position, the directorship.
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  So but you've been with Complete for, I think you said, eight years now.
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  Why don't you take us back to the beginning and how it started, and then we'll bring us all the
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  way to to now.
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  Yeah.
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  So it all started.
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  I was working for Caribou.
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  I had just gotten promoted to a district manager, and I was looking for something more.
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  And I'd always done two jobs, so there was nothing new to me.
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  And so I just kinda started looking.
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  And I found an ad that asked me specifically, are you the life of the party?
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  When you go to the party, does everybody look at you to play music?
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  And do you have a magnetic personality?
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  And as I'm going through it, I'm mentally check like, check, check.
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  Yep.
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  Like, that's hands down, that is who I am.
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  And so I gave it a shot, and I applied for it and with no experience whatsoever, and I got an
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  interview, and they offered me the job right on the spot.
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  And it's just kinda taken off from there.
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  My I have a huge passion for people and just spoiling people.
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  I feel like everybody deserves at the bare minimum one day to be treated like kings and
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  queens.
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  And so why not have that day be the day of your wedding?
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  And so that's just kind of where it's gone from there.
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  I've done with Complete, I've done everything from DJing to photography, videography, photo
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  booth.
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  I've done wedding planning.
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  In 02/2018, I actually owned my own Complete wedding and events in Virginia Beach.
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  And then COVID happened.
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  And once COVID happened, I had to the state actually was one of the stricter ones.
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  I had shut down for about four months.
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  So I had to close the business down, and we ended up moving back to Sioux Falls.
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  But I I kept my career with Complete, and I moved back, and started, you know, kinda
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  working with the Complete here in Sioux Falls and and building that up and continuing to DJ.
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  And yeah.
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  Then they called me up, and they told me that they have expanded some and that they need some
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  help with fixing some perceptions.
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  You know, it's in in our world, Complete is very unique in the fact that we were a
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  nationwide franchise.
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  We're the largest wedding nationwide franchise.
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  We are in, I believe it's 28 or 29 states now.
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  But everyone is different.
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  And each one so franchise mainly helps with name and then the marketing piece.
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  It's up to the owners to kinda do everything else.
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  And the perception we have in Sioux Falls, because we have 22 DJs, because we do a
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  thousand events a year, the perception is is that the DJs that we get aren't always
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  consistent.
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  And the other perception is you never know what you're gonna get when you have complete.
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  And that perception couldn't be any further from the truth.
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  And so I wanted they want me to kinda come in and help fix that, ultimately.
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  My passion in it, you know, as I mentioned, is people, but I love to build businesses.
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  I love to have businesses work together.
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  Networking is is I think some people dread it, and it's one of the things that I just do so
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  naturally.
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  It's my whole life, Jeffrey.
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  I don't
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  and so it's yeah.
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  It and so like that's that's my game plan.
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  I mean going forward is is to quite literally help fix that perception and help people see
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  that, that what Complete offers is quite literally an opportunity to be able to spoil
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  every couple that we work with.
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  Right.
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  Well, and that's kind of how we connected.
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  As I saw I mean, you've been in the the restaurant, you know, from chains, district
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  manager, obviously, with Caribou.
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  You were managing another local restaurant I know.
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  You have a passion for customer service.
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  Right?
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  You don't elevate to those manager levels in those in those retail spaces, right, retail
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  food especially without being about the people, about the customers that you're serving.
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  So obviously, it serves you very well.
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  And now, like you said, you get to spoil them on their biggest day of their lives.
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  Know as being married, how much it meant to my wife, and I, I do events as well.
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  I'm sure you know.
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  So we kind of set up our own and did our own thing.
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  And, but I understood what it meant because while I get to step on stage, you know, 25, 30,
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  40 times a year and to be the center of attention, my wife doesn't get that.
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  Right?
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  And most normal people don't get that except for this one day of the year.
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  And it really is something that came to me not only on my own wedding day, but I played the
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  Saloon Number 10 in Deadwood the last summer.
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  And during the course of the week, we were there for a five, six day residency.
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  And, I mean, I I saw 30 wedding parties.
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  And whether they were there for the bachelor, bachelorette parties, or whether they were
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  coming in on their wedding night and I was playing their first dance now.
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  Right?
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  I became your wedding band just because we happen to be here at the same time.
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  And was it was this is your day.
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  Even though I'm here and it's my show, honey, I wanna make this all about you.
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  This is your big day.
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  What can what song can I play you?
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  So I feel that.
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  Right?
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  I feel I want you to feel special.
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  I want you to feel the specialness that I feel up here on this stage sharing this with you.
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  So thank you for sharing your day with me, and I'm sure a lot of that has to be, you know,
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  kind of ingrained in you.
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  I don't know.
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  It must be since birth.
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  Guys like us that love to network and just love being about other people, were definitely a
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  rarity in this world, I I feel like you couldn't have fallen into a better position now
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  with Complete in this directorship.
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  Right?
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  In this revamping of the outward reputation of Complete.
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  Because unfortunately for you, the only time that people see you really is at that wedding.
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  Well, you're not in a necessarily a public space.
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  Right?
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  You're doing these very private events, and every experience is going to be different.
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  And you have 22 DJs, and it sounds like what you're trying to do is to get a little bit more
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  consistency within the organization and then showing that consistency out into the public
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  facing world.
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  Right?
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  Because it only takes one it only takes one bad experience for and especially if it happens to
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  someone who is loud, right, or has a little bit of a following or just, you know, likes to
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  complain a lot.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  And they can completely ruin a reputation for a company that's done thousands of weddings a
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  year for I mean, I don't know how long Complete's been in Sioux Falls, but the entire
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  time I've been living here, that's five years at least.
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  Right?
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  You worked for eight years.
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  So, you know, a decade invested or more into this reputation.
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  And because of the the private facing nature of your business, you don't necessarily have, that
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  public image out all the time.
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  It's not like me where I can just go to the next show and everybody's gonna see it again,
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  and I'm gonna tell everybody about it, and I can restore that reputation in a day.
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  It's gonna take a little bit of time and maybe some different avenues to get you into that
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  position.
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  So what, what are some of your plans for, accomplishing this?
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  Yeah.
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  So, my my biggest plans or my biggest focuses right now are how we do our training.
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  So I've started to streamline and rewrite our training, our training process.
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  So I've set it up now to where, the way we have it is that every DJ will DJ a minimum of five
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  weddings before they do anything on their own.
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  And they do that with an experienced DJ.
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  The training process is is now gonna be streamlined to where day one, everybody does
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  the same thing.
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  Day two, everybody does the same thing.
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  And so it kinda goes through.
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  So then that way, you have multiple trainers that can provide the different styles and the
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  different experiences when it comes to actually DJing, but the training process is the exact
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  same no matter who you go to.
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  And so if you go to if Jeff is your trainer on day three, he knows exactly what needs to be
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  covered even though he wasn't training day one or day two.
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  And so then in addition to that, then it's it's the networking piece.
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  It's going around to all of my venues, working with all the vendors and just reminding them
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  who we are and letting them know what that game plan is, and communicating with them the
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  changes that we're making within our organization to kind of fix some of those
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  perceptions.
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  It's also getting back out into the community.
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  Getting back out and and just giving back and showing people and reminding people that, yes,
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  we are a business.
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  We are a business that, does a thousand events a year, but we're also people.
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  And people make mistakes at times, but ultimately, our focus, even through all the
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  mistakes, our focus is still to make sure that we can spoil you in any and every way.
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  And I think that once people once people understand that we're not just quote unquote
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  equipment being hired to do a job, but they understand that we're people and people make
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  mistakes, that's where the perception's gonna get fixed.
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  That's where it's gonna happen, but it has to start with the conversations that they have
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  with me or with Sarah, the owner, in the very beginning, and then go all the way through
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  their entire experience.
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  Then with their DJs or their photographers or videographers or whatever that is, with us,
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  everybody has to be on the same page, and everyone has to realize that customer service
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  for us is quite literally treating them like kings and queens.
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  And it's paramount to your job because it only takes one bridezilla to out there and to be
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  loud and to just smear your name to to destroy that, you know, those ten years of reputation
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  that you built.
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  It's very easy now for one person in the social media age to put some tarnish on that.
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  Right?
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  It's not gonna destroy you, but it's gonna tarnish that.
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  And, you know, I don't know.
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  Now you said Sarah, the owner, but have they ever had someone kind of in your position that
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  is that I like, the public relations person, the, you know, the not just sales.
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  Right?
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  Sales can get very touch and go, but the customer representative.
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  Right?
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  Is there anyone been anyone in your position that's kind of the go to person, the guy that's
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  gonna put a smile and to smooth everything over with any of the clients, or is this a brand new
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  position that they kind of created to have you in?
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  This is a brand new position that has been created specifically for me and to help this
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  business grow.
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  That's fantastic.
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  And it sounds like it was needed.
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  I mean, obviously, with Complete here in Sioux Falls doing a thousand event, that's a massive
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  operation.
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  Right?
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  That is I don't even do 50 shows a year anymore.
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  I used to play every weekend, but I don't it it's a lot.
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  Right?
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  Setting up the speakers and and doing all the stuff, and then you have to get up and perform.
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  And I think a lot of people will look at DJing and be like, oh, well, you're just playing
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  music.
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  Well, at a wedding, it's a lot different.
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  You're gonna have a massive demographic that you're pulling from.
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  You have people from newborns to 90 years old.
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  You have to be able to fit into that.
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  You're not playing clubbangers all night for a 20 crowd where you can just hit the top 40 and
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  call it good.
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  You have to have experience.
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  You have to have a knowledge of popular music over the course of now, I'd say, about sixty
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  years.
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  Right?
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  It's 2020.
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  So you have to be able to dig songs out from the sixties, but also be able to play some
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  current stuff so that the teenagers at the party can vibe too.
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  Right?
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  And that's that's a massive part of it.
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  You don't just want the bride and the groom to have their best day ever.
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  You want everyone in that room to have their best day ever.
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  Right?
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  And it seems like you're very aware of that, but maybe some DJs and some even patrons or
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  clients don't necessarily understand the scope of that whole thing as well.
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  And it's easy to look, I think, at production because of the cost associated with it.
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  It's not cheap to hire a a complete or or anyone.
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  Right?
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  Like, my band to go perform for a few hours is not cheap, and it becomes the easiest thing to
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  kinda nitpick on too.
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  Oh, well, that DJ just wasn't you know, who who cares what the excuses are, right, or the
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  reasons, but it it's a very easy thing to go, god.
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  We spent thousands of dollars on this, and this little thing was wrong, and this little thing
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  was wrong.
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  And it seems like just having you there from the short conversation we've had today, just
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  having you is going to smooth out a lot of that stuff because performers, DJs included, don't
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  necessarily always have great social skills or Yeah.
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  Customer service skills.
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  Right?
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  So it seems like you can take a little bit of that away from your DJs, train them to go out
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  and to be the show, be the performer that you are, and let me handle some of this customer
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  service side of it and solve that problem.
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  Yes.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  It's what it is.
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  And it's it's defining customer service and and because the definition of that just that simple
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  thought in itself is different for everybody.
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  Everybody has a different definition for what customer service means to them.
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  And so it's making sure that we we explain that customer service has different point of views
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  and that we explain that just because what happened with one couple isn't gonna happen
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  with the next couple.
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  And so when we do our consultations, it's it's really getting to know the couples that we're
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  dealing with and that we're working with and the dynamics between their families and their
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  friends and and just everything.
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  It it's gotta start there and then go through.
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  And you're absolutely right.
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  My with all the experience, the twenty years that I have in the hospitality world, I am I am
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  definitely not short in dealing with tough situations or frustrated clients.
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  I mean, I yeah.
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  I'm sure
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  anyway it all, buddy.
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  I I've done hospital I mean, I grew up in Deadwood, so your your first your first job was
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  always kind of as a, as a dishwasher in one of the casinos or something and and working
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  around.
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  So, yeah, I I understand completely, that you are the perfect man for this job.
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  I love that you've been able to elevate through the company and start with no experience as a
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  DJ and to now be the one who's kind of developing SOPs for these developing trainings
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  for these DJs, and we hate to see it go away.
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  It's so easy in the world of AI now, and and everybody feels like you can just kind of
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  automate a lot of this stuff.
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  But the human element is what has always made events, especially memorable.
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  Right?
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  So it's great to know that Complete has found you and you guys have found this new position
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  that don't know I don't know if there's anyone on the planet that's more qualified to do this
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  than you, Jeffrey.
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  So congratulations to you.
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  A big congratulations is a complete and continued success to all of you guys.
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  And I'm sorry.
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  I'm already married, so I won't be a client anytime soon, but maybe we'll, maybe we'll talk
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  about renewing the vows at some point, and we can get ahold of you then.
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  Absolutely.
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  We love it.
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  Jeffrey, how can people find complete, wedding and DJ services, and how can they get ahold of
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  you?
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  So they can go through our Facebook, Complete We Do Sioux Falls.
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  They can also go through our website at completewedo.com in Sioux Falls.
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  And they can reach out to us there.
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  We offer DJ photography, videography, photo booth, uplighting day of coronation.
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  We're there for all of it.
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  That's awesome, man.
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  Well, Jeffrey Umberger, thanks so much for being part of the scene.
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  It's a pleasure, bubba.
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  I appreciate it, sir.