0:00
welcome back to Callahan’s corner where
0:02
you asking questions we had some live
0:04
right here on Facebook well uh I wanted
0:06
to dive in and talk about employee
0:09
training in onboarding uh big big issue
0:12
that we see uh after several of the
0:14
talks I’ve been given lately on the road
0:15
and on some of the Facebook lives and
0:17
that uh we’ve been talking about the
0:19
five stages of business and the growth
0:21
hurdles
0:22
um and one of the biggest issues we find
0:23
in most service business particularly
0:25
lawn care and Landscape is people in
0:27
systems once we break that million
0:29
dollar Mark or probably from about 750
0:31
to a million how do we go out and
0:33
actually train the people that we as
0:35
business owners have hired that we don’t
0:37
know who they are
0:38
and we’ve got to actually train them get
0:40
them to a standardizing operating
0:42
procedure and then actually get them and
0:44
feel in the field with predictable
0:45
systems um in addition if you’re using
0:48
uh many of the software’s out there crms
0:50
how do we go in and get a admin uh that
0:53
may has may have never ever worked in
0:55
the service industry particularly in uh
0:58
your specific Lawn Care landscape
0:59
fertilizing and how do we get them up
1:01
and running within seven to ten days on
1:03
a particular software so what I’m going
1:06
to do is break down what we’ve actually
1:07
done in my lawn care company
1:09
um and now we help hundreds of other
1:11
businesses year after year with the same
1:13
exact process so I’m going to show you a
1:15
training video from my lawn care company
1:17
how he actually went in and trained uh
1:19
crew leaders and trained the trainers
1:22
um one thing to keep in mind is a crew
1:24
leader that has a great skill set is not
1:27
always a great trainer so we need to
1:29
train the trainer and along with
1:30
training the trainer uh we went in and
1:33
actually did a video series with testing
1:35
for all the services in the field I’m
1:37
going to show you how we broke that down
1:39
uh and then I’m going to show you how to
1:41
break down uh in the office training I’m
1:44
going to show an example of service
1:45
autopilot and that’s something of
1:47
interest uh let us know we have the
1:49
ability to actually load this training
1:50
with testing inside your service
1:53
autopilot or an additional learning
1:55
management system so uh without any
1:57
further delay I’m going to pop the
1:58
screen open here and you’ll be able to
1:59
actually see what we’re building out so
2:01
this right here is what we built out for
2:04
Callahan’s Lawn Care
2:05
um if you supply the videos and the
2:07
questions this is something we’ve
2:08
actually built out for a lot of people
2:09
but the idea here is we’ve gone into a
2:11
V2 form and embedded this video so this
2:14
is actually as you can see here service
2:16
autopilot form we’ve got Certification
2:19
testing here uh some of the example
2:21
questions we’ve used so
2:23
um the video itself actually goes over
2:26
this so if you go in and hit play you
2:28
can actually see we’ve got some learning
2:30
objectives that actually come up into
2:32
this it’s a low low level uh video that
2:35
we built but it actually works so learn
2:37
the parsley equipment proper use the
2:39
equipment and the proper technique when
2:40
operating the mower we go in and
2:43
actually talk about the personal
2:45
protection PPE that we should be using
2:48
uh this is what
2:49
literally
2:52
zero churn mowers here
2:54
off to the right there’s kind of a shoot
2:57
of another mower here so we went through
2:58
each type of piece of equipment that we
3:01
did for the mowing so we did this for
3:02
hedge trimming mowing mulch insulation
3:05
fertilization and we literally went
3:08
through and dove in and uh did it so now
3:11
we’re actually talking about the
3:12
controls how to operate it and then in
3:14
addition we actually set up
3:17
um a iPhone on a tripod with a wireless
3:21
mic and actually made this video and
3:23
then eventually uh through that I went
3:25
through and actually
3:28
drove the machine
3:32
and showed the show them how to actually
3:34
use the machine here so the video itself
3:37
um is actually highlighting the ability
3:39
to go in uh go around the property two
3:42
times and then we showed the proper
3:43
technique of turning uh with a zero turn
3:46
mower so we didn’t actually tear up the
3:48
grass so I believe in the next turn here
3:50
as I come around we go in and
3:52
demonstrate a three-point turn uh after
3:54
this part here but I actually go down
3:56
and stop each part of the video break it
3:58
down and make it digestible for the
4:00
person we’re training um and then once
4:02
again we’ve got some true false
4:04
questions here uh in there so that’s how
4:06
we tackle that if you’re looking at the
4:07
stages of business as well I’m going to
4:10
go into the office training here in a
4:11
minute to give you some examples how we
4:12
actually did that uh this is going to be
4:14
applicable for that stage three stage
4:16
four business uh people and systems as
4:18
you get to a million in Revenue here one
4:20
to three million this is where it
4:21
becomes a major issue uh in the lawn
4:24
care landscape industry I’m going to
4:26
suggest that sometimes around that 750
4:28
Mark maybe even a little bit earlier
4:30
some of these people in system things
4:31
creep in because the amount of Labor
4:34
that we need to fulfill those Services
4:36
is a little bit heavier so these are
4:39
things that we I recommend once you get
4:41
to scale that we need to actually start
4:42
building so first thing is we would want
4:44
to tackle
4:46
is in the field all your major services
4:48
and demonstrate it and literally this
4:50
doesn’t have to be high production it
4:52
wasn’t but what we realized is when we
4:53
paid professionals to actually do this
4:55
and video it it actually resonated last
4:58
with the team so literally this is a
5:00
about a thirty dollar tripod 100
5:02
wireless mic and a smartphone on a
5:04
tripod and we just sliced the videos
5:06
together so that’s how we actually did
5:08
this next step is a lot of people using
5:11
service autopilot or any other software
5:12
for that matter are really in disbelief
5:14
how can simple growth go in and train
5:16
somebody in seven to ten days and have
5:18
them up and running so this is actually
5:19
the secret to success so what we’ve done
5:21
is done the same exact thing
5:24
um in here and we’ve created uh five two
5:26
to maybe five minute videos and we’ve
5:27
broken them into six modules so the
5:29
total of 36 videos
5:31
um and really we start from lead
5:33
acquisition all the way to billing and
5:34
fulfillment once again this is a form
5:36
that we’ve built out and these are
5:38
actually available to the general public
5:39
if you don’t want to build them yourself
5:40
but right here literally uh lead
5:43
acquisition from the office and website
5:45
lead source track tracking referral
5:47
tracking commercial versus residential
5:48
priorities billing details the gear icon
5:51
and a skill test review you actually
5:53
have to get 100 on this to go to the
5:55
next level but this is the secret to
5:58
success of training your admin on your
6:00
team or virtual assistant so that is uh
6:03
module number one as we go into module
6:05
number two we’re going into two-way
6:07
texting user writes and roles Services
6:10
custom Fields job estimate templates
6:12
estimate documents pricing grid
6:15
um
6:15
Master packages and custom packages once
6:18
again a test as well module number three
6:21
we go in and actually talk about the
6:22
two-way texting message center what’s
6:24
required what’s not maps Pro the
6:27
appropriate way to use maps Pro and to
6:29
route and measure estimate template
6:31
workflow emailing and printing estimates
6:33
a lot of questions on the user group
6:35
about printing estimates we standardize
6:36
that right across the bat the estimate
6:38
loss process and estimate one process
6:40
seems basic but a lot of people are not
6:42
handling uh the statuses of a lead a
6:45
closed lead a client and a canceled
6:46
client so we’re teaching that literally
6:48
in about a two to three minute video
6:49
once again we’re driving them down and
6:52
having testing here for accountability
6:54
and then we go into module number four
6:56
converting a lead into a client
6:58
scheduling one time reoccurring jobs
7:00
waiting list jobs and package jobs and
7:03
setting up a contract with installments
7:05
other big issue where a lot of people
7:06
are getting wrong we go into what the
7:08
way you do it how you should do it once
7:10
again if you’re building this yourself
7:11
this is your roadmap uh module number
7:13
five we’re going in the route
7:14
optimization overview manual routing
7:18
with groups and show the pins with GPS
7:20
and driving directions changing crew
7:22
assignments on the fly so good data in
7:24
good data out schedules live in the
7:26
mobile or print and the questions again
7:28
and then wrapping it up for module
7:30
number six with video testing for our
7:31
admin
7:33
um we go in and finalize that out so
7:36
comments or questions drop them below
7:37
but I wanted to address the question
7:39
that a lot of people are having here
7:42
um how do we go in and create a
7:43
standardized system
7:45
um and pro plain text for video for
7:47
training for most of our staff is not
7:48
going to be uh sufficient we need text
7:50
with videos
7:52
um and if we have a visual learner this
7:54
is going to be it but a lot of stuff
7:55
it’s going to be hard to actually type
7:57
this out uh and one day I was able to
7:59
make all the mowing videos literally in
8:01
about a half well probably about four or
8:02
five hours with video editing first
8:04
draft is the best draft it doesn’t need
8:06
to be perfect but literally uh take it
8:10
take a note out of this here my wife’s
8:11
in education uh these learning
8:13
objectives and what was in it uh was
8:15
really really important so the parts of
8:17
the equipment proper use proper
8:18
technique when operating the mower these
8:20
are the things you want to highlight and
8:21
then literally if there’s PPE or
8:23
anything else that you need
8:24
um include those in there very very easy
8:27
to do this is literally a Google doc
8:29
that I scrolled and just video did the
8:31
screen recording and I clipped them all
8:32
together but really take it down piece
8:35
by piece little chunks and repeat
8:37
yourself those are going to be the keys
8:39
there but if you’re using your equipment
8:41
with your brand of equipment
8:43
um
8:44
with one of your trucks in the
8:45
background that is probably the way to
8:47
go uh there’s some great companies out
8:49
there doing training videos but
8:50
unfortunately
8:52
um they’re not the exact equipment we’re
8:53
using and when we started making some of
8:55
these low budget videos uh our training
8:58
first versus the generic ones that we
9:00
bought online uh went up exponentially
9:02
at the point where Carlos on our team uh
9:04
literally asked for the links of all
9:06
these training videos especially for his
9:07
mowing crew because we did pay for
9:09
performance or piece rate as we called
9:10
it
9:11
um and Carlos when he was training got
9:12
paid straight time but if they beat the
9:14
budget of time with quality he got paid
9:16
the piece rate so Carlos had these in
9:18
his phone or in the company’s phone that
9:21
was in the truck so after they logged in
9:23
for the uh clock in clock out Carlos
9:26
would hand his new technician these
9:28
videos and he required them for the
9:29
first week to watch the videos and what
9:31
he did is shave two to three days off of
9:32
the learning curve for a mowing Cruise
9:34
uh worked as well for maintenance for
9:36
mulch and things like that now you may
9:38
Wonder Mike what would you be doing for
9:40
mulch but there was a certain technique
9:41
in process that we taught to lay down
9:44
that made our industry production rates
9:46
now that we share with people are very
9:48
very predictable right down to literally
9:50
having a smaller
9:53
um garbage can two of them that we put
9:55
in a wheelbarrow
9:56
that we used to pour the bulk mulch
9:59
around the shrubs to avoid the guys
10:01
holding it with their hands moving
10:03
around or shoveling it twice so there
10:05
were some things that we did to optimize
10:07
productivity that most companies in our
10:09
area did not do so we were able to
10:11
visually show them how to place the the
10:13
cans in the wheelbarrow so they didn’t
10:15
spill all the place how to actually
10:16
handle the cans and lift with their legs
10:20
so they weren’t blowing their backs out
10:21
and then how to actually manage it what
10:23
a proper cleanup looked like so these
10:25
are the things if you’re building out a
10:27
system right now as we’re going into the
10:29
new season that I would highly recommend
10:30
but take some time use your own
10:33
equipment a 30 tripod 100 wireless mic
10:36
you can see it’s lapel mic they’ve got
10:39
some newer ones now that are great
10:41
um that literally go right to your phone
10:43
and then just take different shots with
10:46
the tripod as you kind of station it
10:48
around the property and you can clip
10:50
those together on a Mac or a PC with
10:52
either free or really really cheap
10:54
software it doesn’t have to be high
10:55
production but if it’s showing on your
10:57
equipment you’ve got your uniform on
10:59
um and the guys or girls are watching
11:01
this it’s going to resonate work so
11:02
comments questions drop below go out
11:04
automate your office training as well as
11:07
your
11:08
um
11:09
in the field training with videos and
11:11
testing and if you have any questions or
11:14
are interested in the office training
11:16
from simple growth for service autopilot
11:17
drop me a private message I’ll have to
11:19
show you how you do that but otherwise
11:20
if you’re building yourself this is
11:21
step-by-step Direction with testing how
11:23
to actually build out a onboarding
11:25
system for your office for seven to ten
11:27
days and how to go out and automate your
11:30
field staff and tackle the biggest one
11:33
of the biggest hurdles in this stage
11:34
three to stage four business is people
11:36
and systems how to go out and hire
11:37
people we don’t know and how do we let
11:39
those people we don’t go out and create
11:40
standardized system with quality control
11:42
we do it through video training with
11:44
testing and this is going to be key to
11:46
train your trainers because not all Tech
11:48
all not all crew leaders they can
11:49
perform it are good trainers this would
11:51
be a great vetting system if we’ve made
11:53
a tweak to this to train the trainer as
11:54
well comments questions drop them below
11:56
and let’s see we’ve got a question Mike
11:57
can you do training and bulk email
12:00
marketing uh MSG Lawn Care yes I will
12:04
drop either tomorrow or the next day I
12:06
will get you a video on bulk email
12:08
marketing uh as well as I’ve got another
12:11
video coming up how to do pre-pay
12:12
letters as well so Callahan’s corner you
12:14
ask questions we end some live right
12:15
here on Facebook