KickStart: “Actively recruit” high-performing (and under-appreciated) employees you encounter working in service jobs.
Are you desperately advertising for quality production employees to actually do the jobs that keep rolling in? WRONG! This is your first mistake! You won’t find great service workers with “help wanted” ads! Here’s why…
KickStart: Smooth the way for new service employees and your “keep ratio” will soar!
Think back to your first day of school.🤔 How did you feel? Nervous? Confused? Scared? Did’ya pee your pants? (Come on… they say confession is good for the soul!)
Guess what? Your brand new techs face these same traumatic emotions as they timidly work on-site in your client’s homes! Who cares how they feel?🤷🏼♂️
You should! Repeated studies prove that a consistent, structured “onboarding routine” will dramatically decrease new employees quitting quickly and often with no notice. In fact…
KickStart: Anticipate “New Hire Remorse” by investing time in a new service employee immediately after hiring.
As a Home Services entrepreneur you deal with “Buyer’s Remorse” daily. And I really do feel your pain!😥 After all, the “I talked with my husband, and he says…” last minute cancellations I got were incredibly frustrating!
And yet you face a “remorse” that is MUCH more dangerous to the growth of your residential services business than a “remorseful prospect” bailing out! Think about this…
KickStart: Don’t waste precious business time on non-important busy work.
Maybe Fyodor Dostoevsky said it best 143 years ago, “Above all, don’t lie to yourself.” And yes, our Home Services industry is full of hard-working entrepreneurs who are lying to themselves.😥
“Say what, Steve?” Here’s the deal. Everyone “fritters away” time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing- we all need down time to relax and recharge.😎 But when we fool (lie to) ourselves we may fall into what I call…
KickSTART: Program a brief but enthusiastic welcome reception for a new service employee when they arrive for their first day of work.
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve recruited, verified, interviewed and hired a Very Best Person.👍 (Hopefully you’ve also performed a ‘Working Interview’ to make sure ‘Charlie’ won’t hate doing the work you’re offering!)
Even better, immediately after hiring Charlie you gave him a tour of your company. You also warmly introduced Charlie to your office staff.
Your goal? To foster an immediate sense of belonging and commitment to help Charlie fight the inevitable ‘New Hire Remorse’! (Too often my ‘New Hire’ would bail on me even before his or her first day on the job!)😲
KickStart: Tie your new employee to your company emotionally when you ‘stage manage their hiring’.
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve hired a great new employee! Charlie is pumped about his new career, you’re over-the-moon excited and you can’t wait till Charlie starts on Monday morning! But then…
On Friday afternoon you get the dreaded text: “Steve, I appreciate the opportunity. But I’ve decided to go a different way in my career. Best wishes and I’m very sorry to do this to you. Charlie”
AAAARGH! What happened? Who knows?🤷♂️ Charlie got a better offer, his previous job called him back to work and/or his wife made fun of his new job working for your company! (You and I both know our Home Services industry is wonderful. But come on… we don’t have the greatest public image!)😲
KickStart: Don’t fool yourself with the “Nobody wants to do service work any more?” complaint. Instead, ask the more productive question: “Why doesn’t anyone want to work for… ME?”
Everyone from Fortune 500 CEO’s to your local competitors slamming down boilermakers at lunch are all desperate to hire more home service employees. And they’re all moaning the same complaint…
“Nobody wants to work any more!”😫
Seriously? Nobody? As in, “Not one single person?” Come on, people! As I write this the U.S. has a 3.6% unemployment rate. So a bit of simple math tells us that…
KickStart: Share money, praise and profits to attract and keep the Very Best People!
I learned so much from my residential customers. After all, our clients had to be financially successful even to afford our high prices💲💲 So, I would just 1) ask questions and 2) LISTEN to my client’s answers.
One very wealthy CEO (who I suspect was a bit bored in retirement) often regaled me with his stories. Since I was trying to build a Critical Mass Business that could run without me I focused on Paul’s hiring tips. His first tip was…
KickStart: Avoid ‘Desperation Hiring’ by continually recruiting and interviewing future employees BEFORE you need them!
Why, oh why, did it always happen late on a Friday afternoon?☹ I’d had a good week (defined as 100% delighted residential clients!), was finishing up paperwork on my desk, and looking forward to a fun weekend. Then my employee Charlie appeared…
Charlie: “Uh, Steve, can I talk to you?”
Me: “Sure, Charlie, what’s up?”
Charlie: “Ummmm, Steve, I’m really sorry to do this to you. But I’ve got a new job starting on Monday. I asked them if I could give you more notice but they’re insisting I start immediately…”
And my relaxed weekend came crashing down! Now I was facing double shifts to cover Charlie’s booked-solid schedule! Or even worse being forced into the dreaded Desperation Hiring! AAARGH!😲
KickStart: BEFORE hiring even the best job applicant pay them to work with you for a day.
Have you ever received a text like this from a new hire? (Remember, this applicant interviewed great!)😥
If so, here’s the deal: You LOVE the Home Services industry. (Me too!) But hard as it is to believe…