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you’re listening to the simple growth
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podcast
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the show that helps business owners get
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their life back
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here’s your host mike callahan
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welcome back to the essay weekly talk
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show mike calling here with uh co-host
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cody owen and special guest
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martha woodward uh just before we came
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on live talking about redecorating the
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office standing desks and gaming chairs
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um and supposedly some uh
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some decks of dungeon and dragons new
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releases coming out so uh
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yes absolute chaos here in the sa world
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today
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uh but really excited to have martha on
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talking about company culture employee
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problems
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and managing quality and i know martha
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is the queen of quality so martha thanks
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for uh
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joining us here if people don’t know who
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you are haven’t heard of you if you
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could just give a quick intro of
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how you cut your teeth in the cleaning
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industry and then um
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evolved into uh starting and owning
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quality driven
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measuring what matters um i know myself
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and a lot of the service autopilot users
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are using quality driven in their
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service businesses to get
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real-time results um for fire’s quality
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feedback for their employees amongst a
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whole lot of other things um
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including it sounds like a new hr uh
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feature you released
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recently are about to so yeah or is
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yours martha
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all right well um martha woodward
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i own a maid service in oklahoma
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but i live in kansas so i have to manage
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everything remotely
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um how i got started was
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i watched an infomercial about
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saving money on taxes by opening a
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business
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and at the time i was working for a
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corporate chain hospital
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for 20 plus years in therapy and i
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thought
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i’ll open a maid service i have no idea
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what i was thinking
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but uh i just knew i liked a clean house
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and i was having trouble finding
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somebody
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so there you go it was all about saving
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money on taxes
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and then i found out that
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it was really painful to run a service
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business
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and managing those employees was nothing
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like managing the
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therapists that were in my department at
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the hospital
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so after pain and suffering
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i just tried to come up with some ways
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to solve things and
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one of them was tracking quality
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and having a way to manage it and i
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didn’t have the software that did that
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what i wanted it to do
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so hence quality driven um
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and then through quality driven i’ve
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started
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helping other people get a culture
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where it doesn’t require so much
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thumbs on people all the time that you
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build a culture
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where people just do what they’re
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supposed to do
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which is a wonderful feeling so there
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you go
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so managing physical therapy to looking
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for a tax write-off
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getting into the maid service and then
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actually starting a software company so
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i don’t know if there’s much you haven’t
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done i know i’ve been blessed to know
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you for about five six years
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uh in the service autopilot ecosystem uh
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we were probably the uh
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the two original uh certified advisors
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over at service autopilot uh kind of
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cutting our teeth there and i know we’ve
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kind of come up through the ranks and
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had the pleasure of speaking at uh
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several of your quality driven software
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conferences starting at uh
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humble beginnings in oklahoma all the
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way to san diego and then
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last year being able to be present there
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in uh
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savannah so been really fun to watch the
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progression and the evolution of not
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only your cleaning business but quality
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driven as well and how
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you’re helping service business owners
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not only in home cleaning but
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uh as well as lawn care contr lawn care
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pest control
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um and pretty much any type of service
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business so along a service business uh
03:57
one of the biggest things that i found
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at my lawn care company callahan is that
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as we started to break that million
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markets start to go well beyond
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company culture either fell apart of
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what we thought maybe it was but it
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didn’t really exist
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so i know right now you’re doing a lot
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of content helping a lot of people
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building culture in their service
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business so
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um would you mind kind of diving in what
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i guess first of all what is company
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culture and
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how do we go out and actually evolve
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into it and then reinforce it through
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our workforce um i’m assuming maybe it’s
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some mission vision values or is there
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another approach that you guys are
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taking
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um in the way you actually implement
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culture
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so everybody has a culture it just not
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might not be the one you want and uh
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you know i work with
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maid services lawn care window cleaning
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and even
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even like some va services and
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megan with likes accounting everybody
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has a culture
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everybody has a different approach to it
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and what i see is
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here’s the thing we all might think
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that people should just do their damn
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job
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i mean that’s the bottom line that’s a
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way that’s a way that most of us
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feel but if you actually
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have that kind of culture it doesn’t
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usually work and
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i’ve worked with many people who
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actually say something very similar to
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that and what i say back
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is well how’s that working for you
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probably not
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great and so um
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really when i talk to people about
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culture we
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start with the very beginning and the
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basics on
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you know your policies do you actually
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follow your policies
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and if you don’t why that’s so toxic
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to your culture because nobody can trust
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what you say
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it’s like a parent threatening things
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that never does
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follow through um and then you know we
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we work on quality management we work on
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it’s really a lot about fixing what
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you as owner and management can do
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to get better results with the employees
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you have
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or the employees you want to keep
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because that’s what a lot of people find
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is that
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one of the reasons that things don’t
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work is maybe they’re not
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quite as particular enough
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about who they keep um
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and i know that’s a hard thing because
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it’s hard to find people
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but it’s interesting martha so i guess
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one thing not to cut you about i want to
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hit on it before i forget it is
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yes right now obviously um middle of
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covet are kind of
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as we’re going out the uh what we call
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the 600 a month uh
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unemployment bonus weekly uh it’s pretty
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much been eliminated from what i
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understand or there’s some talks around
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it
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as the video is here so like
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theoretically that labor market is
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opening up we should have an influx of
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people
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wanting to work in our service business
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um
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but there was two things as we’re going
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out hopefully getting these applicants
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there to start coming in
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um you said internally if we already
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have employees we really need to enforce
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the policies and procedures we already
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have so
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i know one of the biggest issues at
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least in my service business definitely
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not at a pedestal
07:30
here uh preaching by any means but a big
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issue that we used to always have was
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no call no and show no call no show
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employees i don’t care if it’s cleaning
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um or a lawn care that that’s gonna
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happen um but a lot of times as business
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owners at least myself in the early days
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i was really
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um i was nervous to really reinforce the
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rules that were around that because what
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if i tell this person to go home the
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next day if you don’t call no show you
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don’t
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you’re not working the next day i don’t
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care um and there may be some
07:55
repercussions as far as bonus or pay
07:57
structure um
07:58
obviously if it’s inside your handbook
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and it’s on the up and up but
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um i guess what would be your advice and
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your thoughts around that like if you’re
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a business owner right now and you’re
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scared like i’ve got
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just enough cleaners to clean or i got
08:09
enough people just to mow the lawns i’ve
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gotta mow
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how can i reinforce that because really
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my employees
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are in the power position right now is
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there a way to tackle that
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well you have to be willing to and
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you’re absolutely taking the risk like
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you say
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i mean i was there too my attendance
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policy i had policies written but the
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true
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policy was roll call oh
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check she showed up check she showed up
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i mean that was my real policy and they
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were absolutely calling the shots
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and at the time like i say i probably
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had the same attendance policy have now
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but i absolutely did
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not enforce it and so
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what happens when you do that is
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everybody knows and again i’ll go back
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to
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kids you know if you threaten kids
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and there are no repercussion then
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they’re gonna keep doing the same thing
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over and over
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and you know it’s just like a vicious
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cycle
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um but it is it’s scary but here’s the
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thing
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that you probably don’t know you’re
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doing if you do that
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is if you get quote good people
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if you get people who really will
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follow the rules follow the policies and
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are there
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to better themselves in the company
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you’re going to run those people off
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because they see you put your head in
09:45
the sand
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and just like have the wild wild west
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and they’re the ones because they’re
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reliable they’re the ones that really
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are the ones suffering and they’ll leave
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you
09:59
you know so it is scary
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and you know i always talk about you’re
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gonna have some sacrificial lambs
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for people to believe you and i remember
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when
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i had that aha moment like you did mike
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where i was like
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you know if i don’t do this this will
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never
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change and so when i first
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started actually enforcing the policies
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it took a few
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for people to be like oh okay
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you know something changed around here
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and uh
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i actually did set them down and tell
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them you know
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that things were changing and i’m sure
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nobody believed me
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but i had drawn the line in the sand and
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i eventually made them believe me so
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that’s
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i mean that’s interesting and if you’re
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watching this um obviously martha and i
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20 plus years in the service industry
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each i mean these are things that
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that are very common i know as an
10:59
entrepreneur you feel lonely on this
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island and you’re the only one going
11:02
through this but you’re not and martha i
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couldn’t agree with you more
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uh very common same thing we kind of sat
11:07
down and we used to let them go and i
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was like why am i losing all my best
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guys and girls on my crew
11:11
they’re leaving and i’m just stuck with
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the mediocre
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c players and they’re sticking around
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and it just started to perpetuate itself
11:18
so
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just like you i mean if you’re
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struggling with this you really in my
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opinion i think martha’s opinion as well
11:24
is
11:24
need to sit down let them know hey
11:25
things are changing start monday
11:27
and the first person you don’t want i
11:29
told you guys like you don’t want to be
11:30
that person that i make an example of
11:32
because if you come in late or you don’t
11:33
show up
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you’re out of here um and i remember we
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were at nine or ten crews at that point
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and at that point i really was not
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anywhere near jumping on a truck or
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anything but
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the people that suffered were the best
11:44
employees and i realized that actually
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when i had that aha moment
11:47
and i actually jumped on the crew that
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day i said you know dave or joe what i
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mean
11:51
right in front of me you’re done no call
11:54
no show
11:55
on friday um and hey to the really good
11:58
crew leader i got i’m gonna jump on the
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truck with you so you don’t have to go
12:00
solo today right
12:01
um but that it started to but you’re
12:03
right it took four or five individuals
12:05
to really hone it in because i thought
12:06
well
12:07
he might be serious this week but um
12:11
you know that that’s you know he’s
12:13
probably not gonna stick through it but
12:14
when you do
12:15
that that culture starts to change um
12:18
and it makes me think about as we talk
12:20
about this martha
12:21
um once you kind of establish that
12:24
culture you’re starting to stick into
12:25
your guns
12:25
how do you handle employee problems um
12:28
and maybe there’s an escalation of type
12:30
2 problems like maybe just something
12:31
minor or something
12:32
um totally unacceptable maybe uh
12:35
somebody in the lawn care crew or the
12:36
cleaning crew actually
12:38
like theft in someone’s home from the
12:40
outside or the inside like
12:41
is there an elevation of certain
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problems and how do we deal with
12:44
problems based on kind of probably a
12:46
sliding scale i’m imagining or if
12:47
there’s a different approach feel free
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to
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you know let us know how you handle it
12:51
so
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we have um we have a few
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non-negotiables in our company
12:58
like non-negotiables as in you will be
13:01
fired on the spot
13:03
one is no call no show if you are a no
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call no show
13:08
i in this day and age don’t tell me you
13:11
cannot get a hold of us
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you know uh the only thing you know
13:16
if you’re on the side of the road and
13:19
you can prove it
13:20
well you know like end up in the
13:22
hospital okay
13:23
but uh you know it’s not we we don’t say
13:27
that
13:27
but there’s no reason to have a no-call
13:30
no-show unless it’s something
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extraordinary yeah and if you are in the
13:35
hospital we’ll come visit you just let
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us know
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yeah and you’ve got three days to get
13:40
back no
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but then theft if we can prove that you
13:45
sold something of course
13:47
you’re out of there and so
13:50
but then everything else we have a
13:53
disciplinary system for and
13:57
it is i actually have it on the wall
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so there’s a big old flow sheet
14:05
you know ceiling to floor that says
14:08
basically first offense is verbal
14:10
warning second offense
14:12
is a written warning and then if they
14:14
have a third offense
14:16
within 30 days they go into probation
14:19
and a new timer starts and
14:21
have this i don’t know it’s complicated
14:24
to explain
14:25
i get it they we get it but uh i
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actually will walk them
14:30
over to there and show them where
14:32
they’re at
14:33
because i while i
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really believe in processes
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and and following
14:43
you know this disciplinary system
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i also very much believe in
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never surprising somebody like
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no one ever should be surprised in my
14:55
company
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when they’re let go and you know
15:00
every step of the way we tell them
15:02
here’s where you’re at
15:03
and if this happens again within this
15:06
amount of time
15:07
this is the next consequence and
15:10
you know it it works pretty smoothly as
15:14
long
15:14
you know what i love about that is
15:17
there’s no
15:17
favoritism i mean i’ve literally said
15:21
those darn policies well then this is
15:24
where you’re at you know and then
15:26
i’ll go oh yeah i wrote the policy but
15:29
i mean i don’t care how much i like you
15:32
that’s where you’re at
15:34
and it takes the subjective part
15:37
away and it’s objective consistent and
15:41
fair
15:41
and you’re setting expectations from the
15:44
outset
15:45
that this is how everybody gets treated
15:47
everybody knows
15:48
going in these are the rules these are
15:50
the consequences
15:51
no one can i mean just like you said no
15:53
one can feel surprised about it
15:55
right right and you know sometimes we
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hire the wrong person and most of the
16:01
time we get rid of them in training
16:03
because we have processes that
16:05
are designed to weed people out but if
16:08
they get through training
16:10
and we we didn’t get them we didn’t get
16:13
that wrong person out
16:15
um then what happens is when they start
16:19
getting in that disciplinary process
16:22
they will leave they self-exit because
16:25
when you have a very transparent process
16:29
like my quality minimums and all these
16:32
things
16:33
when they’re singled out and
16:37
you know it’s very apparent that
16:40
you’re here and the rest of the group’s
16:42
here
16:44
they’ll blame your system and that’s
16:46
fine
16:47
and blame my system and then they they
16:50
don’t show up
16:51
and i’m totally okay with that and i’m
16:54
assuming that
16:55
employee problems and how you handle
16:57
that is actually part of your culture
16:58
it’s transparency we’re gonna be it’s
17:00
visible
17:01
and it’s all right from the beginning of
17:02
the onboarding so that culture it seems
17:04
like that’s
17:04
ingrained right there that this is how
17:06
we do things and it’s very
17:08
it’s cut and dry uh black and white on
17:10
that so that that’s really cool that you
17:11
do that
17:12
and that’s how you you tackle that uh
17:14
one thing i kind of want to hit i don’t
17:15
really wasn’t on the agenda but i i if i
17:17
remember one of the quality driven
17:18
software uh
17:20
talks i think it was actually in san
17:21
diego the first or second year um
17:23
i don’t know if it was you it might have
17:25
been even liz trotter but i know
17:26
uh one of the one of the people talking
17:28
there and man
17:29
is a lineup of the qds conference if you
17:31
haven’t been to one is
17:32
phenomenal i mean i literally was like a
17:34
little kid in the back of my notepad
17:36
uh just jotting down executable things
17:38
that i took away um just little nuggets
17:40
that have changed the way i operate
17:42
uh both my businesses but it was uh one
17:44
of them was a theft test where they kind
17:46
of
17:47
planted a 20 or 50 bill in a room for
17:50
the rookie cleaner
17:51
and the other one was um if we’re
17:53
training on like a top to bottom deluxe
17:55
and
17:55
if you’re not the cleaning industry
17:56
that’s your initial clean before your
17:58
weekly bi-weekly three or four week
18:00
clean
18:00
uh but that’s usually a very detailed
18:02
clean and just as it says it’s from top
18:03
to bottom
18:04
and usually right to left in a
18:05
systematic way but usually that person
18:07
would go in and model that top to bottom
18:09
deluxe
18:09
and then someone the trainer would go
18:11
well uh you know hey susie
18:13
that that area around the tub right
18:15
around the grout line needs to be redone
18:16
and as
18:17
you’re looking at it there’s nothing
18:18
wrong with it but they said they would
18:20
send them back to re-clean something
18:21
that was
18:22
perfect to see what their temperament
18:23
was and how they reacted to criticism
18:26
and hey we need to go fix that did they
18:28
question it or they actually go back and
18:29
figure out like
18:30
they just you know they cleaned it out
18:32
and said hey how can i do this better
18:33
because it looks okay but i know
18:34
if you’re saying it’s not okay there’s
18:36
got to be something i’m missing in this
18:37
cleaning process so
18:38
um those were it obviously stuck to me a
18:41
few years later but it was very
18:42
interesting the the theft thing how
18:43
they’re um
18:45
how they ethically they interacted and
18:47
then b how do they adjust to
18:49
uh constructive criticism in the first
18:51
early days because those i’ll tell you
18:53
our telltale signs that we
18:54
actually implemented in the lawn care
18:56
company in a different way um
18:58
because it was really easy to tell
18:59
within the first week you send the sent
19:00
the guy to the back corner of the lot
19:02
literally behind the shed like hey dave
19:05
i think he missed the edging around the
19:06
back of the shed you know he didn’t like
19:08
if it was like
19:09
oh god i gotta go back there right now
19:12
or i was like okay yeah can i’ll go grab
19:14
it no problem and that was that was a
19:15
big it was a big difference that was one
19:17
of the takeaways that i handled but
19:18
do you have any tips or tricks around
19:20
things like that that um
19:22
could be a telltale sign of employee
19:23
problems before you actually hire him
19:25
full-time
19:26
yeah so uh that that was probably me
19:30
um although i will say i give derek
19:33
christian
19:35
uh credit for that because he was the
19:37
one
19:38
that taught me that little attitude
19:40
thing about
19:41
making them redo something okay um
19:45
and uh so it was probably me that said
19:47
it but
19:48
derek was the first person i heard say
19:50
it
19:51
and i remember just like you i was like
19:53
oh
19:55
i love that and so
19:59
in in training i have
20:02
six principles in training and one of
20:05
those principles i
20:07
teach our trainers is that
20:10
their job is not only to teach you know
20:12
the policies and procedures
20:14
but it’s also to weed out for attitude
20:18
and i really talk to them about
20:20
um i don’t think they’re like as evil as
20:24
i am because they don’t
20:25
like to do that and i’m like listen
20:28
it’s about protecting your culture
20:31
and i’m like do you want to work with
20:34
people like that
20:34
no okay so that’s why this test is in
20:38
here
20:39
and so we absolutely do do that and
20:42
we pick the hardest thing that we’re
20:45
going to train them on
20:47
which is cleaning a shower and because
20:50
you know soap scum and
20:52
it’s in the maid service world so you
20:54
would pick
20:55
something that’s harder or like tedious
20:58
or they don’t
20:59
like particularly then you say
21:03
oh no that there’s problems with that
21:06
however you grade it you would say
21:08
there’s problems with it i need you to
21:10
redo it
21:12
and when you say that though what’s
21:14
really important
21:15
is it really has to be almost perfect
21:17
you know
21:19
it really has to look good because
21:22
obviously if there are problems with it
21:25
you say redo it
21:26
that’s a no-brainer but it needs to be
21:30
good work and then you say nope i need
21:32
you to redo it
21:34
and in my company i
21:37
teach the trainers if there’s an eye
21:39
roll if there’s a
21:42
you know a little bit of disgust
21:45
they’re out and i mean they’re out
21:49
and we may finish the day with them but
21:52
whenever it’s convenient we’re packing
21:54
them up and saying
21:55
uh sorry you didn’t make it kind of
21:58
thing
21:59
um and we’re strict in training we
22:02
here’s the way i look at training is
22:06
i have to set the precedence and i think
22:09
in the service industry
22:11
um you know a lot of people that come to
22:14
us for a job
22:16
think and it’s just a you know lawn care
22:19
job or
22:20
it’s just a house cleaning job and it’s
22:23
my job to change the way they look at it
22:26
this is i we expect a high level
22:29
professionalism
22:30
and i have got to set those expectations
22:33
from
22:34
the ground floor when they start
22:38
and you guys know me i’m very laid back
22:41
and in fact
22:42
i suck at cleaning houses because i am
22:44
not detail
22:45
oriented um but
22:48
am i going to expect a high level during
22:51
training i absolutely do
22:54
and then actually i almost loosen up
22:56
when they get out of training
22:58
because i know people make mistakes but
23:01
when they’re training
23:04
they really have the feeling that
23:07
oh my gosh you know if it’s somebody
23:11
that’s in there and going to do a
23:12
half-assed job
23:13
they’re not going to make it at our
23:15
company because
23:17
they’re going to know from day one no no
23:21
you have to redo that and um
23:24
well then when you’re in training at a
23:27
new job
23:28
you’re definitely working harder than
23:30
you’re going to work when no one’s
23:32
watching
23:32
absolutely 10 during training i know
23:36
i was a waiter for a long time when
23:38
you’re in training and someone’s
23:39
watching your every move
23:40
and you’ve just had the rules given to
23:43
you like you’re much better at following
23:45
them than what you fall into during the
23:47
day-to-day
23:48
right if they’re half-assing what
23:50
they’re doing when someone’s like
23:52
nitpicking them they’re going to be
23:54
quarter-assing it in the real
23:57
real world yep yeah
24:00
and believe me i’ve kept those people in
24:02
the old days
24:04
those people because in the old days
24:07
when i cared about bodies
24:09
not a players then
24:12
what happened is at some point
24:16
one of us got sick of each other you
24:18
know six months down the road or
24:20
whatever one of us got sick of each
24:22
other because we were never a good fit
24:24
in the first place
24:25
and then those employees that i
24:29
let stay because i needed a warm body
24:32
generally
24:33
caused me so much trouble like i had one
24:37
that you know every one of those teaches
24:39
you a lesson and i
24:40
had one and a man i remember her name i
24:42
remember her
24:44
and when i let her go
24:50
she actually what happened is i subbed
24:52
for my office manager
24:54
during her week of vacation and i was
24:56
like who
24:58
the hell is this person that’s working
25:00
at this company and
25:01
they need to be gone and uh so
25:05
anyway and it was before we were
25:06
watching quality scores because
25:08
she would not have made it and
25:11
when i fired her she filed a
25:14
bogus workers comp claim she filed an
25:18
unemployment claim and you know whatever
25:21
else and
25:22
so she you know it was a learning lesson
25:25
it was like
25:26
this is what keeping this person caused
25:30
and if i would have gotten rid of her in
25:33
those first few days
25:34
which with the system now we sure could
25:38
um you know she couldn’t have done those
25:41
things so
25:42
yeah they say a bad hire is is actually
25:44
three to four times their actual salary
25:46
i thought it was nuts but
25:47
just like you said martha all the people
25:49
i didn’t fire and i should have i just
25:51
like for the body
25:52
warm body it was either just like bad
25:54
karma or just they’re being idiots like
25:56
you they got an accident and they
25:57
damaged a house i mean you name it
25:59
like it ended up costing me so much
26:01
money that i’m like i gotta get rid of
26:02
this person now if i
26:03
had done this two weeks before it would
26:05
have saved thousands and thousands of
26:07
dollars
26:08
the pivotal point um is we actually had
26:11
a uh
26:12
assault truck driver in the winter drive
26:14
one of our dump trucks
26:15
through the side of a building we didn’t
26:17
even own
26:18
and we should have let the guy go about
26:20
a month before we just needed a warm
26:21
body to literally
26:22
drive in circles i have no idea how it
26:24
happened but i’m telling you like that
26:26
was like my final learning
26:27
like rip the band-aid off either coach
26:29
up or coach
26:30
it is going to be expensive so that was
26:33
literally within a 24-12 hour period
26:35
my auto insurance went up seventeen
26:37
thousand dollars a year
26:39
like that and i was like wow maybe it’s
26:42
actually more than
26:43
three to four times about you know
26:44
there’s their salary a lot higher
26:46
if you added up all the things this guy
26:48
had broken or you know damaged so
26:50
right that’s absolutely crazy but you
26:52
know we’ve hit on the culture we’ve hit
26:54
on employee problems
26:55
um one final question around employee
26:57
and training and i want to really dive
26:58
in and wrap this up around uh managing
27:00
the quality because i know that’s really
27:01
where your expertise has really evolved
27:03
into is
27:04
um you talked about training the the
27:07
employee or the cleaner
27:08
now a lot of times at least in my
27:11
experience
27:11
in the early years i didn’t have the
27:13
right trainer
27:14
actually in the place so it was like a
27:16
person could execute the skills they
27:18
could model it um
27:20
but they didn’t really know how to train
27:22
yeah so is there anything around i guess
27:24
training the trainer and then once you
27:25
have that
27:26
quote-unquote right trainer there is
27:28
there any feedback from the trainee the
27:30
new employee
27:31
to actually give candid feedback because
27:32
a lot of times in the early years we
27:33
would find that the
27:35
trainer was actually taking advantage of
27:36
the trainee and it really like
27:38
the new hire was probably a good fit but
27:40
they were so put off by the trainer
27:42
that they’d end up quitting before we
27:44
actually got them in a regular rhythm
27:46
there was no accountability for that
27:47
trainer as well
27:48
right right so we have
27:52
um basically a promotion ladder
27:56
and people start out as a
27:59
team member team lead then
28:03
can qualify as a trainer and to qualify
28:06
as a trainer
28:07
you have to have worked for the company
28:09
x amount of time your quality score
28:11
has to be above a certain level and you
28:14
basically have had
28:16
to be able to show that your competent
28:19
team leader
28:20
as well and then
28:23
even once somebody qualifies that
28:26
doesn’t necessarily
28:28
mean that they can train
28:31
and so because we have people who are
28:34
team leads excellent quality been there
28:37
for years
28:39
but they’re not good at training now
28:42
typically those same people don’t want
28:44
to train either
28:46
um but we
28:50
and i will be completely honest we’re
28:52
not as good about it as we should be
28:55
especially with me being remote and uh
28:57
everybody being remote
28:59
in my office now um but a trainer
29:03
will train another like trainer in
29:07
training
29:08
that makes sense yo yeah yeah yeah and
29:10
then um
29:12
yes we you know
29:16
we use our quality scores for a lot of
29:18
things and
29:19
uh one of the things that we use it for
29:22
is
29:23
i can sit from 100 miles away watch
29:26
somebody get out of training
29:28
watch their quality scores and
29:32
you know what what is typical is i’ll
29:35
see their quality scores
29:36
hover a little lower than i would like
29:39
but they’ll hover there for
29:41
a week or two at most and then they
29:44
start climbing
29:45
if you’ve got the right person if you
29:48
don’t have the right person they’re
29:51
gonna
29:52
hover at that part and then probably
29:54
start
29:55
dropping and then i know so
29:58
when that starts happening one of two
30:01
things happened
30:02
either the trainer did not do an
30:05
adequate job and i’ll go back and look
30:07
at the training
30:08
logs and i can tell some things from our
30:10
training logs
30:11
or if it starts dropping it could be
30:15
that we let the person with a poor
30:18
attitude
30:19
get out of training and they just simply
30:22
don’t care
30:23
and uh and so we have to decide what
30:26
that is
30:26
but we have a private group
30:30
where the trainer is in with management
30:33
and the trainer has to give us feedback
30:35
every day on the training and you know
30:38
i can ask questions back and forth and
30:42
then
30:43
our trainers we actually have an
30:45
incentive program
30:47
where they become their mentors when
30:49
they get out of training
30:51
and so we have a thing where they get a
30:54
bonus at three months and six months
30:57
and it’s dependent on their quality
30:59
scores
31:00
it’s dependent on i actually have it
31:03
tied
31:03
to getting them to bring this new
31:06
employee to
31:07
one of our um employee engagement
31:11
activities and and so
31:16
we just really tasked the responsibility
31:19
with that trainer to not only
31:22
teach them in training but then through
31:25
the six months
31:26
and i think that six-month bonus is 200
31:30
but it does include that you know
31:34
like the employee is not in any kind of
31:38
disciplinary
31:39
system their quality scores are above a
31:41
certain amount
31:42
and they’ve attended at least two
31:47
employee engagement activities on the
31:50
off hours because we know that and
31:53
and what that does when you do something
31:55
like that is
31:57
then the trainer is going to be like
32:00
oh no come on ride with me i’ll take you
32:02
know
32:04
ownership in that and uh and i don’t
32:07
care how it happens
32:09
but what i do know is if they develop
32:12
some friendships
32:14
at work they are much more likely to be
32:17
happy
32:18
and stay at the job yeah and martha you
32:21
keep bringing up
32:22
quality scores now kind of an unfair
32:24
advantage so i’m going to play stupid to
32:25
this one but
32:26
um i know it kind of all kind of comes
32:29
out of quality driven software and i
32:30
think it’s really i think it would be
32:31
really
32:32
foolish not to talk about this quickly
32:34
because uh quality scores
32:36
seem to be a major key component of
32:40
tying in the culture and employee
32:41
problems um and actually good deploy
32:43
things as well um and that engagement
32:45
with the actual client for our
32:47
satisfaction there
32:48
so would you mind just breaking down
32:51
what a quality score is how it actually
32:53
is um
32:55
handled through like the surveys and the
32:56
different things you do versus sms
32:58
versus email
32:59
and how is that kind of calculated then
33:01
how do you kind of tie this all in
33:02
together
33:03
um for for a complete process and
33:05
obviously you’ve been doing it for years
33:06
but
33:07
somebody hasn’t ever heard of it like on
33:09
a high level what does that all look
33:10
like coming together then
33:12
yeah well i should say now i did all of
33:15
this
33:16
just not to the level that we do now
33:20
prior to qds so
33:23
we sent out surveys but the difference
33:25
is
33:26
we had to hand pick those scores and put
33:28
them on excel spreadsheets
33:30
it was very painful and uh you know it
33:33
took three to four hours a week
33:35
but i drive all my systems around this
33:39
stuff you know
33:40
my bonuses and everything um
33:43
so with qds i mean really the
33:47
the you know the reason behind qds is
33:52
yeah sure client satisfaction and
33:54
retaining clients
33:56
by surveying but it really is about the
33:58
reports
34:00
and i we get a lot of data
34:03
on employee performance and so
34:07
you know it ranks employees and i don’t
34:10
care about the ranking
34:11
so much i care about their quality
34:14
scores
34:15
i care about response rates um
34:18
people hear me talk about response rates
34:22
response rates tell you if you know your
34:25
norms
34:26
and you have a team that
34:30
is significantly lower on a response
34:33
rate than your norms
34:36
i like dive in and we start picking up
34:39
the phone
34:39
and calling those clients that haven’t
34:42
answered for that team because
34:45
no news is not good news and
34:48
you know when clients aren’t answering
34:51
and you know what your norms are
34:54
that is a really big indicator on
34:58
okay there could be a problem and when
35:00
we did
35:01
in-person checks we would go start
35:03
checking those houses
35:04
as well so um yeah
35:08
so qds is about that and we can track
35:11
hr issues and like you mentioned earlier
35:14
i’m pretty excited because we’re
35:16
building out
35:18
that war that disciplinary process that
35:20
we talked about
35:22
um that is all getting built into qds
35:26
where it will tell you who’s in the
35:28
green warning level who’s in yellow
35:31
who’s in red
35:32
and that report among
35:36
with the quality scores and stuff will
35:37
get delivered to
35:39
all of management and um i love it
35:43
you know i mean that i i always joke
35:46
with my friend megan who’s
35:48
an accountant data is my thing you know
35:52
yours is financials and mine should be
35:54
more financials but my
35:56
data is these numbers these quality
36:00
scores and
36:01
you and i think the reason why is it
36:03
just makes my job so much easier
36:05
you know it’s just a non-subjective way
36:10
to not only manage quality but it’s a
36:13
pretty darn good
36:14
indicator of performance overall
36:18
and because if you get people who don’t
36:20
care their quality scores will show it
36:24
it’s interesting i’ve got to share a
36:25
little story here and i was i wasn’t
36:27
ignoring but i was looking down at my
36:28
phone because i wanted to find it so as
36:29
a consumer
36:31
first time ever i don’t know if you can
36:32
see it here but i actually got
36:34
as a consumer my first qds survey
36:38
um from my from my home cleaner and i
36:40
was jazzed i think i texted you but
36:42
um to see that as a consumer was really
36:46
really cool and
36:47
um it was personalized i had the
36:48
cleaner’s name in it um obviously i did
36:51
the response
36:52
um but i think you hit on something like
36:53
if if
36:55
something was wrong i really liked the
36:57
cleaner i’ve got i’d almost feel
36:58
guilty dinger unless it was really bad
37:01
um
37:03
and to speak uh speak about that kind of
37:04
like your your uh remote
37:07
owner um the cleaning company that
37:09
cleans my house is actually based in
37:11
upstate new york
37:12
but she also has a branch i believe in
37:14
either the carolinas or atlanta georgia
37:16
um so she without mention name she can
37:18
manage i was talking she could manage
37:21
quality drops and different data points
37:23
that are not emotional by looking at
37:25
these
37:25
uh these surveys so really cool i’ve
37:28
never actually
37:29
you know we’ve sent them out as a
37:31
business owner but i’ve never actually
37:32
been on the receiving end to actually
37:33
see that i’m like
37:35
and it was immediate pretty much like
37:36
after the cleaner left within
37:38
15 20 minutes hey how was the uh how was
37:40
the cleaning i’m like all right
37:42
i gotta get home and check this out now
37:43
i gotta get some responses
37:45
so very very awesome cody
37:48
farah is wrapping this up um i know
37:51
obviously you got a very condensed
37:52
schedule martha any questions for martha
37:54
or anything else
37:55
um that you want to hit on before uh we
37:57
kind of bring it you know bring it to a
37:58
closer a few minutes
38:00
hi hi hobie hi jeff if you guys are
38:03
still on
38:06
i’m sorry the sound stop there we go i’m
38:10
just gonna say i don’t that’s not me
38:12
absolutely so did you have any other
38:13
questions for martha before we wrap it
38:15
up martha i did have one question
38:17
about the training process and i feel
38:18
like the question might be a little bit
38:20
irrelevant because of how choosy
38:22
you guys are about who be your trainer
38:25
but is there
38:26
like some kind of system where you’re
38:27
soliciting feedback
38:29
from the trainees about the trainer
38:33
so that is built into our system
38:36
um it is built into our system
38:40
and i didn’t mention it because i gotta
38:43
tell you
38:44
it’s okay
38:48
so i will say that
38:51
the i used to use infusionsoft
38:55
and it was built into infusionsoft and i
38:58
never transferred that part over to
39:00
when i went to service autopilot
39:03
automations
39:04
and when you mentioned it on this thing
39:06
i’m like
39:07
oh yeah we used to do that
39:13
so i gotta admit and i will say too
39:16
though
39:17
i the here’s the way it goes at our
39:21
company
39:21
for the most part either they absolutely
39:25
hate the expectations that we put on
39:27
them
39:28
in training and they self-exit
39:32
in the training program or they tend to
39:35
stay
39:35
a while so you know we don’t
39:39
go through the number of trainees that
39:42
we used to
39:43
thank the lord but uh but
39:46
but yes that was a good reminder because
39:49
i’m building that out in
39:51
bamboo hr right now and um so
39:56
good then good to remember yeah good
39:58
good question cody and i’ll be
39:59
watching maybe wondering what is
40:01
callahan doing with the shades on right
40:02
now
40:03
big big announcement coming out if you
40:06
are a qds member oh my gosh
40:08
i’m looking for a little sun fun
40:11
and education so martha uh rumor has it
40:16
qds2021
40:17
cancun mexico sun fun and education
40:20
february 24th through the 28th if and
40:24
only if you’re a qds member
40:25
so i want to give qds a quick shout out
40:28
because i love in those conferences
40:30
and uh have been to all of them um but i
40:32
believe there’s still some spots uh left
40:34
martha i don’t have my shades
40:38
yeah we as you know we have a good time
40:42
sometimes too good of a good time but
40:44
the content is
40:45
awesome too and uh that’s
40:49
you know where a lot of people have met
40:52
you mike you know jeff mcconaughey megan
40:55
likes you
40:56
it’s i love getting people from
41:00
all different industries we’re talking
41:03
service business we’re not talking how
41:05
to
41:06
mow lawns or clean a toilet
41:09
it’s all higher level employee
41:12
leadership
41:13
financials systems
41:16
so i mean what could be better than
41:20
cancun workshops we’re doing half day
41:23
workshops at
41:24
um this time you know we usually run all
41:28
day
41:28
but because it is cancun we’re gonna do
41:31
half day workshops and then the rest is
41:34
fun
41:35
it’s always five o’clock somewhere
41:36
martha so really appreciate what’s up to
41:38
uh hobie bird i had a great time
41:40
speaking which in savannah georgia
41:41
hanging out
41:42
uh him and his wife jen and really just
41:44
i mean not outside of the business part
41:45
of it it’s just a good relationship
41:47
building networking
41:48
and relationships as far as business and
41:50
friendships that last for a lifetime
41:51
so highly recommend it if you’re qds
41:53
user check it out there’s a few uh spots
41:55
left
41:55
great deal um service autopilot is
41:58
usually always at those events
42:00
scott howard myself um amongst uh a lot
42:03
of time john
42:03
patosnick of the lawn care millionaire
42:05
as well as co-founder service autopilot
42:08
uh i get a feeling if things go down fun
42:10
john caldwell probably would be there as
42:12
well
42:12
um so martha really really want to thank
42:15
you
42:16
uh it’s been way too long i’ve been
42:18
enjoying the fight club i don’t know
42:20
exactly what the rules of your fight
42:21
club are apparently you can talk about
42:23
this nice club
42:24
yeah you can talk about fight club but
42:27
uh with michelle and megan um absolutely
42:29
love those episodes just another great
42:30
thing that you guys are providing
42:32
uh to the service industry and obviously
42:34
all the great things you do in the assay
42:35
ecosystem so
42:37
until next week talk show if uh we don’t
42:40
see you soon we’ll see on the sunny
42:41
beaches of cancun
42:42
baby february 4th 24th to the 28th at
42:46
qds 2021 until then uh we will see you
42:49
next week uh essay weekly talk show 1
42:51
p.m eastern 12 p.m central
42:53
mike callahan and cody owen see you guys
42:57
see ya bye if you like this show you
43:00
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43:04
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43:06
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43:08
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43:09
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43:12
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