Latest / Cleaning Business Life / EP. 227 | The Customer Is Not Always Right: Setting Boundaries Without Losing Your Professionalism

Transcript

EP. 227 | The Customer Is Not Always Right: Setting Boundaries Without Losing Your Professionalism · Cleaning Business Life

• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, or wherever you are at in the world right now, whatever time it is for you guys.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am your co-host, Jamie Runko, with above all cleaning services.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In Northern California, you are listening to the Cleaning Business Live podcast, and we are with Shannon Miller.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: But we're gonna talk a little bit today about how the customer isn't always right.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: There is a premise for a long time when we actually still had customer service that the customer was right.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do whatever it took to make the customer happy.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: There, that is actually no longer the case.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think that society has changed a lot.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of, and I know we've mentioned and we touched, we touched on this a lot with in other episodes.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: There is a social construct of people in our society who are just I'm gonna just say it, they're just miserable, and they have to make everybody else miserable with them.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's like crabs in the bucket, and it it seems to be contagious.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I try to avoid those situations because it's just the customer isn't always right in a lot of cases nowadays.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, they are not.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: They try to be right so that they can get a discount.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's the that's the end goal.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, if you are not prepared and you don't have structure in your systems that you are operating from, they can slide underneath the door and it could cost you several hundred, if not thousands of dollars.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: And and we have heard, I mean, how many times have you heard it, Jamie?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard it thousands.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: The customer's always right.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: The customer's always right.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, that's the society that we we always lived in.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And no, the customer is not.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Most definitely not ever always right.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say they're not ever right.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're yeah, and I I think that's very true.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: My mom was in Europe several years ago, and my aunt, who was with her at the time, they um they were in the military, and she bought a shirt and then decided at the last minute that she didn't want the shirt and wanted to return the shirt.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they have very generous return policies here in the States, not in other countries.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: I forget what country they were in.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And she goes, I would like to return this.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the lady said, No, I already shot the register.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: That was the customer service exchange, and I still hear about that story all these years later.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So these are these are experiences that leave imprints in your mind.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: So you every time you get one of those, it changes your bias over what's going to be right versus what's gonna be wrong.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I brought it up.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Good customer service doesn't mean giving customers everything they ask for.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: And remember, Jamie and I tell you guys to say no.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you were, if you belong to people, people people pleasers anonymous, practice in the mirror.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I promise you you can do it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I it took me a long time to learn that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think I even brought up something about it maybe in the last podcast that we had about the customer not always being right.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it causes you to have some hard conversations sometimes, even when they're right here in front of you in the office, and there is no, there's no, there is no backpedaling, there's no you know, the thoughts have to come.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's no asking chat GPT, like, how do I you literally you're you're on the spot.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they are higher.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I believe.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, definitely, definitely.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I stood my ground.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I granted, I had this person literally angry writing me the rest of an 11, uh, a$2,200 clean.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: She was writing an$1,100 check as mad as could be.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: So they're hiring your company, but they aren't running your company.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's the the difference of what they're getting.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're hiring you, they're not running you.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And what happens is people try with the Jamie's experience, as we were talking before we got on here in the pre-show, they were trying to run her.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: They they felt because they had paid her a certain amount of money, they were gonna run her in the direction they wanted to see her going.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: And her poor cleaning techs were just like it was like a washer, you know, it's just agitated all around.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a difference between being unaccommodating and having no boundaries.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's there's a huge difference between that and you can absolutely disagree with a a customer and still treat them.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: We match.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I went up and you went down.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Shannon, how do you know?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: For those of you who are watching, we've been trying to mess with my chair for two episodes.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, that's awesome.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad it finally worked.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: How tall are you?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm five foot seven.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, you are I'm five three and shrinking.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm probably starting to shrink.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: My son tells me my adult son tells me all the time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: There's been several people that I've met in person and they're super duplicated.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Angie is super tall.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Angie's like five foot ten.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Angie.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Angie, hey! Hey baby, baby number three.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're baby Leo, he's such a cutie patootie.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted I want to get back to the customer, not always.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can definitely disagree with a client, customer, whatever, and you could treat them professionally.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what I did.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I killed them with professionalism.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: To the point of the man had to hire uh stand behind his wife for protection.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But he even asked me, so what are you like a Burger King?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was trying to think of what he was even talking.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh, you mean like a franchise?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it dawned on me that he was saying I professionally came and put up boundaries, you know, and there's things that my company won't do.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me you can definitely tell them in such a professional way that you you know you're wrong.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are wrong.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, that clean was definitely$2,200.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably was undercharged a little bit.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was definitely, but anyways.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: And this is where business owners can get in trouble, and we hear this a lot.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: They don't want to lose a client.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: That we this is always the conversation in the beginning of the year.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna raise rates, but I don't want to lose my client.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: I've had them for 17 years, they've had a boat delivered, a Ferrari every year, they've gone on exotic vacations, but they it, you know, the$10 increment is just like so it's the fear of losing a client, the fear of a bad review, the retaliatoriness of how far people will go.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's why when you if you have to give a refund, you need to get them to sign.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: It says, I will not disparage your business or you on social any social media or internet website, just to make a mental note.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Disparage is the word I just used.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Fear of confrontation, a lot of people will just keep on saying yes because they just don't want to deal with you in in their face.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: And again, people please are anonymous.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're groomed and conditioned, especially because most of us are women, to be the support system.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And in actuality, we are the support system.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's just different because we have employees.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: They've been with me forever.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: How many times?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard that thousands of times.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: What about you?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh my gosh.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the everything that we're the these are all fears that I've dealt with.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and recently, this isn't just, you know, for newbies.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: This has been recently.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I there is that fear of a bad review.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I get to dictate if it if it were to happen, I get to dictate what my future clients see of how I respond it professionally and how how I went above and beyond to make the situation right.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have fear of confrontation.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how nerve-wracking that is to have somebody in the you can't hide behind texting, you can't hide behind the phone call and just hang up and then block the nut.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is none of that.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was literally dealing with it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I it was not enough fear, but I was so proud of myself of I knew what I was talking about.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew I knew I was right.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for once, I I'd really been doing it long enough.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I felt confident.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: That was the most, that was probably she had all these boundaries in place.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: If she did not have that, it could have gone way worse.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: And she would have maybe caved and said, okay, oh, just eleven hundred dollars.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to the point where he's asking if I'm like a Burger King.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:05
  unknown: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Stick it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Stick it when the sun doesn't shine by.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, we we we definitely uh I have my own systems.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We don't use scaffold teams.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have my employees move just move heavy refrigerators just out to the back porch real quick.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, can you move those boxes out of the basement too, please?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't care who you are, no matter what, unless you're doing hands and knees.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I see some of your you solo cleaners doing this.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never pass a paper towel test.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not a hospital.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't, I I just I won't.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I really need the revenue.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that in the beginning, it probably took me about two to three years to start feeling like I'm okay with losing this client because I know now that they will fill that spot.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: That spot will get filled by better paying clients, by people that you are, you know, they they've had sc scope creep on you, you know, you've had them forever, and it's like I'm okay with losing this legacy client because they've been here this long, you know.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So learning learning that those spots do get filled.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, they're they're losing that revenue, you're gonna get that revenue back by higher client and respectful c clients.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Making one exception that becomes the expectation giving away little extras that eventually cost money.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: We were just talking uh about this.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh scope creep.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Training c training customers that your policies are negotiable.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the worst one.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: It opens a whole can of worms.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Making decision from fear instead of what is best for the company.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your numbers.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be tracking your number.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your numbers should be what is speaking for your decisions.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your numbers should be then it it takes the emotion out of it, and your business basically is talking to you and telling you this is how this needs to be.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about Scope Creek.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: My gosh, that's it's easy to do.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: You, you know, people pleasers anonymous, you get out there, you're cleaning text like, well, I saw her talk about it, so maybe Mrs.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Smith is right, and maybe we should do this.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, hey, can you move the refrigerator for me?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, she's like 92, and you know, and it's a linoleum 1984 linoleum floor, and that refrigerator has been sitting there for 40 years, and you decide, or your cleaning tech decides, that Mrs.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Smith has that sad little pouty face on, and she's gonna say, Hey, Chris, can you move that refrigerator for me and get behind her?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: And Chris is gonna say, Yeah, sure, no problem.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: And as he's pulling the refrigerator from the wall, guess what?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: It tears the linoleum floor with it.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's flaking.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get the 1984 linoleum anymore, so now you have to pay to redo the whole kitchen floor or have an insurance claim.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's scope creep.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Scope creep is very high.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And Chris, if you're listening, I'd love you.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: He did, he took me off to the side, he goes, Thank you.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I love you, Jimmy, and just started laughing.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: We were laughing, and then, anyways, uh, it does become a thing whenever you have employees.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for the employees to get that scope creep.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is laid on to them without clear expectation and boundaries.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about checklists and absolutely just a lot of communication.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we see it too with the solos as well.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Though they're like, I do extras for my clients all the time, and you should be ashamed that you're not doing it too.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm like, I think it's great, but it's not when you start to scale, there's no way.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because all those minutes add up.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whenever those are your clients, and that's as far as you want to go, that's great.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't like it whenever I see sometimes in the groups commenting, you know, is it really clean then?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, yes, it's just, you know, we we learn how to do, we've learned and trained a lot for like speed cleaning, what techniques work, trial and error, too.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then you also get clients that will want extra laundry, dishes, clutter, refrigerators, ovens, windows.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Can you pick up my dog's poop?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't make it, it's outside.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: I left it for two weeks for you.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Hope you don't mind.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've lost a client over that and was a great, uh it was a great weekly client, but it was several times that finally I sent the picture of they had another accident, and such and such is there right now.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just, yeah, we we ended up losing that client, and that's okay too.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was okay.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't they were starting to treat us very horribly.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Multiply that across every house, every cleaner, every week.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: How much revenue are you losing from that?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: 15 minutes here, 10 minutes here, several times a day.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right now, my gosh, I I I think we have eight, nine jobs right at this very moment open.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just for this first shift, and then there's the next shift, the the afternoon shift.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine if I didn't have that those structures in place right now, and they're just getting lost of cleaning?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: So even if you if you gave them an extra 15 minutes and you had 30 cleaning texts, that's 4.5 hours a day times five days a week.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's 22.5 hours a week times 52 weeks.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's 1,170 extra hours of payroll that you are gonna shovel out for the extra 15 minutes.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: So all those minutes compound.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it does.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Scope creep effects, payroll, scheduling, arrival times, profitability.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Extra work isn't necessarily a problem.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Unpaid extra work is though, you guys.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: If they want something additionally, great, but charge for it.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You absolutely charge for it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning because I'm really trying to get out of walkthroughs.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we really have a floodgate open in our lead funnel right now, which is great.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're it's working.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: However, I'm the bottleneck right now.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, wait, I can't, there's absolutely no way that I can do every walkthrough.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm learning if this house takes this long for this cleaner, how many square foot production rate, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm learning right now.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Production rate on a standard, production rate on a deep clean, production on a move in, move out, production rate on commercial, which is totally different because I'm this is a that's not even a thought in this part.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: But customers don't always get to rewrite your policies.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, they never get to rewrite your policies unless you feel that it needs to be a policy change.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because then you'll think, oh, I bet you that'll never happen again.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then that goes into your policy.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Cancellations and rescheduling policies, deposits, payment requirements, arrival windows, what is and isn't included.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, property access requirements.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: How many people have been locked out because they forgot to tell you the new code or they had the locks changed?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And didn't say anything.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I gotta charge you the whole the whole cleaning price.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not because I want to stick it to anybody, it's because my cleaning techs built out that spot in their schedule to come and and clean your home or your property.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to say my employees deserve to be paid.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is how you can spend that.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's true because they do, especially if you you they're our number one client.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, man, keep those babies happy.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to a certain point, but make sure that, you know, again, you gotta put all these things in place.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Utilities being available when required, your policies shouldn't de change depending on which customer complains about them.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: A policy that is never enforced isn't really a policy.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's a glimmer in my eye.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't refund me, I'll leave a bad review.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: I can't tell you, I see this a lot in the short-term rental rental industry.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: We see it, we're starting to see it more and more in the residential cleaning industry.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, I think that there are just not nice individuals and it's crabs in the bucket, right?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: The crabs always pull the other crab down.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: No one ends up getting out of the bucket, and they all end up dying.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't come back and redo everything, I'll post about you.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Again, the word was disparage.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Do you, you know, by agreeing to this whatever refund or coming back, or if it's out of the 48 hours or 24 hours or 72 hours, whatever it is you're doing, and they threaten you, then you need to make sure they sign it, either digitally or on paper.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: I will not disparage you on social media or any internet websites, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: If you charge the cancellation fee, I'll tell everyone not to use you.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: You're more than welcome to do that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really sorry you felt you had a bad experience.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Best best of luck next time, right?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then make sure that they're 86 for life when they call.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Says 86.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I learned that in the very first months of working with Shannon.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I've I got several.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: A threat is not a negotiation.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: But the US has a policy about You know, hostages, they they don't negotiate over hostages.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: You don't negotiate over a threat.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: It tells you right where they want to go and the reason why they're there, and they slipped underneath the door.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, there's a lot of them.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Don't make business decisions because someone is trying to intimidate you, especially in person.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: That it's it can be intimidating because you're just like, I got two other humans in my face.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: What do I how do I professionally tell them to screw off, right?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was great.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great moment for me because it was it felt grown up in my business.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I knew that it's just these things are going to happen.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they weren't the only one.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've had this happen before, too, where they tried to intimidate you through emails.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness I saved all the emails, and we got a whole folder on this particular person.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: They tried to intimidate me into making business decisions that I'm not going, uh, feel comfortable with.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm talking about two different episodes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I the one where they were in here, and then there's one in an email thread.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have to tell you about that.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to go back to the circle.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: The Jamie did an excellent job yesterday.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: She circled back to the facts, what they purchased, what she promised, what did the agreement say?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is why, and for who was it that we were just interviewing and said that they wouldn't take on a job unless they signed the quote.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Signing the quote holds everybody accountable.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's a final step.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And is it a pain in the butt?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, you have like a random pet hair.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: But that's the reality.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't, if you can say, you know, this is this not your signature on this document, here is all the bells and whistles.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then what actually happened?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you will find, and this is shocking when it happens to you the first time is your cleaning tech, first of all, your cleaning tech should not be in the middle of any argument.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: You, it's your responsibility to defend them.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then if they need to make correction, you do it privately, never in front of the customer.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: But customers can stretch the truth, they flat out will lie, and they'll make up stuff.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, what?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: We never agreed to that.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Did the company fulfill its obligation with Jamie gave the example of the the the$2,200?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: She she actually went beyond what she was supposed to do, but they were they wanted more because they had a problem with the price.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Once the threats start, document everything, like screenshots, what was said, a voice note, whatever, move important communication into writing and don't get sucked into an emotional back and forth.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: Some people love, love, love, love to argue.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: And once they've pissed you off and they realize you're in that corner, they'll just keep going at it because it's entertainment for them.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: So once you disengage, then they get bored and they're like, oh, I guess I need to go bother somebody else, right?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: If your company's screwed up, own it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Own it, own it, own it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: I can't tell you how many times I've been on the phone with a business owner who is like, this isn't my fault.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna do it.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, are you sure it wasn't your fault?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: Was did you, you know, was it the cleaning tech?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: What did the cleaning tech say?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: What did the customer say?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to look at all of the elements of what is being said.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if it is, you almost have to do an investigation and get everybody's uh and and don't uh this is another uh example.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I had somebody else in an email thread that tried to uh intimidate and and get me alone into their house to show that like they just she wanted me to just come and look at something so that I could agree that what she which is in her head her own reality, so that I can look at this thing that she knew she was right.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I was like, I am following my process.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let me, once I do my investigation, I will come back at you.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: I will come back to you.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you're allowed to say that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: You you absolutely positively can say, you know, I need 24 hours to look to, you know, talk to everybody.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'll get back with you first thing to on, you know, on Tuesday morning.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you will have people who call you at 7:01 a.m., even though you don't open till nine, wanting to know what you've decided.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to answer the phone.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you choose to answer the phone, you say, I'm really still working on this.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: I told you I would call you back at nine.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: And if they continue to say, I'm happy to talk to you, then click.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just because they they're trying to control the narrative.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: You have to remember that.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bullying, it's a form of bullying.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you yeah, if you have fulfilled the agreement, don't automatically cave because somebody threatens a bad review, you guys.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I this was a I felt threatened that they were gonna remember that is their reality.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let them live in it right then and there.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: You get to respond to your future clients.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: You get to respond to that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Bad reviews are not the end of the world.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're gonna threaten it, I I you know, I even had my uh a coach tell me, a little nervous that they might give you a bad review.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I get to respond.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right for professionally future, yeah, professionally for other peoples that are reading that, because that's usually right where they'll go, is to the bad review.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how many bad reviews do they got?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're looking.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the response and how you handle the situation that gets the attention of your future clients.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the loudest customer doesn't always get to set the company policy.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Very true.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and there is a gray area on your threshold of what you're comfortable with.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Not everyone is comfortable dealing with someone who has spit coming out of their mouth and they're trying to stand over you with their fist clump.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's not a good person to even try to settle down and don't tell them to calm down.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's the worst thing ever.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think you need to calm down.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, dude, you just need to go.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna go.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to leave.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, never tell anyone to calm down.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: What did I I quipped one time?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, when you're ready to talk like an adult, let me know.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I hung up the phone because I was just mad.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that's not the thing to say.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Don't do, don't follow Shannon's example.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: Don't do that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, you guys.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was a long time ago.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Myself in some whenever it was just me in the beginning, I put myself in some situations that I would never put my employees.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I protect it's different than with me as a solo cleaner.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: And oh boy.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: And protect your employees.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Employees shouldn't have to negotiate with customers.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just do this for me?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Put your cleaner in an uncomfortable position.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Give employees a a standard response.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have the I'll have you contact the office to get at it.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Don't allow customers to bypass the company by negotiating directly with the comp the cleaners.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Project employees from disrespect or inappropriate behavior.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: A customer who is wonderful to the owner but horrible to employees is still a problem customer.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: They're awful.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: It just makes it awful.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I've had customers over the years that have made cleaning techs cry.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like every single one of them.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, you know what?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's time for you to go.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't have even made that one cry.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: You've made 17 different people cry.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: You are not worth the emotional toll.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's just some people out there that are like that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your employees need to know management will back them up when they're following company policy.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: My employees know that I will I will go up to bat for them.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will ask.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I will document what was said.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I will ask.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, if I've put myself in a situation, that's me, that's different.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: But my employees will, I will not, I won't do that to them.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just won't put them in that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Business owners sometimes allow the possibility of a bad review to hold them hostage.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot build a business where the goal is making sure nobody is ever ever unhappy.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is true, because there are not everybody is happy.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: You can do your best to provide the service that you have promised, but not everybody's gonna be happy, regardless.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Follow your policies.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're there for a reason.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: It takes the emotional boy, and it's so relieving whenever you have a policy.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's so it takes that emotional thought process out of it.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it this is it's like, well, who wrote these policies?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you did write those policies, but it's so great because it's like here, I get follow them.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: I get to follow them.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, there's things that happened in this while growing this business.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I also said, you know what, that'll never happen again.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: These are things that'll never happen to me again because I put that policy in place.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I always document what happened.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I you get to respond professionally, resolve legitimate complaints.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you're not gonna give away hundreds of dollars because someone threatens you with one star, you guys.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're just don't do it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think in my 16 years, I've given one refund to an individual who this is how I learned about the disparaging thing.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: And she and I gave her a full, she was just a difficult person.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think on call number 72, I was just like, I can't deal with this person.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: She's sucking me dry.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I just gave her a refund, and then I didn't have her sign the paperwork.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then she continued to call me after because she wanted like a free cleaning on top of the refund.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, no, not happening.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: But don't ever call or write again.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: You are 86.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you then you you you will get them, but I think out of all the thousands, tens of thousands of customers, she's she was the only one.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're gonna do everything correctly, and someone will still be unhappy.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can respond correctly, you can adhere to your own policies.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be, they're still gonna be unhappy.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I it's just they're not, it's just in their, it's in their DNA at sometimes.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the customer is right, though, you guys.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't an excuse to dismiss every complaint that comes across our table.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, investigate.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you get a legitimate complaint, investigate to see what's going on.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of customer service, right?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Clean or miss something.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to happen.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're in so many people's homes.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I we me and Shannon talk about this all the time.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: They are not seeing the same thing that they saw at nine o'clock in the morning at three o'clock in the afternoon.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're not.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And all the checklists in the world sometimes, it's like they're just sometimes they're gonna miss things.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: The office made a mistake.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of that.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: My oops.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: The quote wasn't clear.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: We've both gotten better with that, definitely.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely made sure to, you know, how am I going to convey that over to them?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Expectations weren't communicated properly.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Something was damaged.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is whenever you definitely want to make sure that you do an investigation.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just because a customer says that a something was damaged doesn't make it you nine times out of ten, it will always be the cleaner's fault, and they're trying to get something out of you.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Investigate that.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes somebody went off of the protocol.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: One of your employees went off of off the script and they they did break something or damaged something.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Normally it's shower doors or stovetops.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's always the shower doors for us.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Own the mistake and fix it.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Apologize when an apology is a warranted.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out how to prevent it from happening again.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's whenever these policies, that's whenever you start getting this, whatever happened outside of your head, documenting it, writing up a new policy, just making sure it's good.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out how to prevent it.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, boundaries aren't an excuse for crappy customer services.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's true.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because the, you know, it's a gray area.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's almost a Hail Mary.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: Having the boundaries is to keep you in the container so that you don't have poor customer service.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think the most annoying thing, and talking about customer service, the new customer service now, especially with corporates, is you have a bad experience, you tell the manager, and the manager goes, or they say, What do you want me to do about it?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what's the point of having a manager if you're gonna ask me what you want me to do about it?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like a dinner at Red Lobster, how about that?
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's not has nothing to do with anything.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's just you're you're leaving yourself wide open.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: So the the new customer service now is you write a bad review and then then they say, Well, can you call the corporate office?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, dude, I called the corporate office.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I gonna spend more time calling the corporate office again?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: When in actuality, if your manager on site or whoever was in charge had apologized, had acknowledged and fixed it, this wouldn't have got that far, but they don't do that anymore because they don't have the training.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: They just there is no point to it, and it can be very frustrating.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: So before labeling someone a difficult customer, look at the whole situation.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: One customer misunderstanding something can might be a customer issue.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: Five customers misunderstanding the same situation is probably a company issue.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: It means it means that something needs to be tweaked in one of your systems.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: So look at the quote, the contract, some of the policies or all of the policies.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a glitch in your website when your website person updated, they missed the one word.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then you go to look and you're like, it does say that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have to own it and say, this is not what it's supposed to say, but I'll give it to you this time.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your confirmation messages.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your employee training, look at how expectations are communicated before service, after service, during service.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Repeated complaints are data.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: Data is great.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: You get data from everything, and it will help you make really good decisions on whether 50 people had the same experience, but this one person didn't, right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes a complaint exposes a hole in your operation that needs to be fixed or tweaked.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about when it's okay to fire a customer.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's constant scope create, constant complaints, last minute cancellations.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if they're gonna continue to pay those fees, fine.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's the full price.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: And some people are okay with that.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh they they understand and they respect that.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Chronic rescheduling, late or non-payments, repeated payment duties, uh disputes, threatening reviews to get their way, disrespect towards employees, excessive administration time.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh my gosh.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that becomes a nightmare sometimes.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Expectations your company simply cannot meet.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not every dollar is profitable revenue, you guys.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some customers cost more to service than they're worth.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if your employees are crying almost to the point of they don't, they do not want to do this client, that's speaking volumes to me.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes nobody is necessarily wrong.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're just simply just not a good fit.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: I did my first professionally.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I guess we're not the company for I said it very professionally, and they got really upset.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just not, we were weren't the right company, and they wrote back, what?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't you don't want to have me monthly.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um every three months, and you just want my money.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that was her reality, and it was had nothing to do with what I was trying to say.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then she blocked me before I could respond.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: I and and that's okay.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not every person's gonna be a good fit.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can just professionally say we're not the right company for you, or we're no longer the company for you.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: The main takeaway here, the customer isn't always right, you guys.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: The customer should always be treated professionally.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Always, always you do it with your head up high.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes I'm let me tell you, the ghetto wants to come out of me sometime, and I just want to get to going with my head circling, but I don't.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I've learned to back that up, and you can say no professionally, right?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: I gave you some examples of how I did.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can enforce a policy professionally, blame it on the policy.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, I love that.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: That guy asked me, are you like a Burger King or something?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, but we got policies in place.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Blame it on your policies.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can charge for additional work professionally.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're allowed to renegotiate.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just seen Angie talk about how she's gonna renegotiate.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I'm excited for that.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: She put it in.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we get to renegotiate this after two weeks of doing it.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll let you, we'll get back to you to be continued on that.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can stand behind your employees professionally.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're my babies, they're like my children.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you cre you can correct your own mistakes professionally.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can end a customer's relationship professionally.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Being professional does not require being a pushover.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Clear expectations, boundaries, consistency equals healthier client relationships and a healthier business.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Chaos is expensive, and customers shouldn't be allowed to create it inside your company.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: So boundaries are much easier to enforce when you've communicated them beforehand.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: Believe it or not, people don't read what they sign.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: So you could tell them over the phone, then they can read it and sign for it in Jobber or whatever you're using, and then you can tell them again, and still they'll be like, I didn't know that policy.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: So just make sure that you're keeping notes and you're keeping tracks.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: Get all of the expectations in writing or document it.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: Define what is and is not included.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's sometimes it's hard to squeeze all that in there on Jobber.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: Define what your cancellation policy each and every time is so that you don't have any shenanigans, unless, of course, it's a really good paying client and they don't mind paying.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: And if by all means, hallelujah.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: Stop trying to create rules in the middle of a disagreement.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Don't change and pivot because so-and-so has convinced you that this is better for them.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: This is not about them, this is your business.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: Clarity before the service prevents arguments after the service.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that is why we always think that the customer is not right.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for tuning in.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: We love each and every one of you so much.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: Give us a review, it tells the algorithm gods that we are worthy.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: See you later.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Bye, you guys.