Are You as Good as Disney?

by | Sep 26, 2018 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Are You As Good As Disney?

For many, many years now, the best example of customer service has been the Disney franchise. Their commitment to providing a magical customer experience has been the benchmark for companies to achieve. Recently, I heard Doug Lipp, former trainer at Disney University, speak about how Disney tirelessly trains their employees to provide the level of customer service expected at their theme parks. When listening to Doug, I couldn’t help but realize these same principles apply to the tree care world. So here are Disney’s four keys to great customer service.

Safety – Disney’s top priority is safety. If their customers get injured or do not feel safe inside the park, no amount of magic will get customers to return. The same goes for their employees. They understand that without safe employees, the premises does not stand a chance at being safe for visitors. Isn’t this true with the tree care industry as well? If your employees do not have safety in the forefront of their mind at all times, preventable accidents will happen. Not only do you risk having your employees miss work because of being injured, you also lose out on profit from a job if property damage is done because an employee was careless. Safety should always be the top priority of a tree care company.

Courtesy – Every Disney employee is instructed to be courteous to everyone they meet no matter what. They feel that when their employees treat every interaction with another human being as the most important conversation of their day, the impact on the customer experience is immeasurable. Think about how your crew interacts with your customers. Are they given the freedom to engage with the customer to help them understand what you are doing? Does your crew foreman ensure that all crew members are taking care of the property that they are working on as best as they possibly can. Focusing on courtesy at the jobsite will go a long way in helping ensure that the customer has a great experience with your company.

Show – Because the Disney team performs the first two points really well, their third key to great customer service is what their customers remember, the show. To Disney, the show is when team members provide the unforgettable experience. This can only happen when the effort on safety and courtesy is successfully achieved. They have a mirror on the door of the dressing rooms that all characters look at before they walk into the park. This reminds the team member that as soon as they step out into the park it is show time. How do you put on a show for your customers? Do you have clean looking trucks and equipment being operated by team members all wearing your uniform? When working at a job site, your employees should act in a professional manner no matter if your customer is home. The show that your team puts on starts the minute they get to the job and doesn’t end until they are in the trucks driving away. Even then, your trucks act as a mobile billboard giving a show to other motorists as they drive. Watching true arboricultural professionals at work is a spectacle and one that can tremendously help your company gain more customers if you nail the show.

Efficiency – Disney’s believes that efficiency comes at the very end of their customer experience. They create a better customer experience by focusing on safety, courtesy and show which in turn creates efficiencies throughout their organization. This works so well, that the increase in efficiencies creates additional capacity within their theme parks. In other words, when they succeed at the first three points, they become more profitable as a result. Think about your company. If your team members work safer and do not have many accidents or injuries to deal with, you become more efficient. If your employees are polite to your customers, you as the owner will have less fires to put out. Lastly, if your customers are enjoying the show that you give them, they will talk about your company more, creating free marketing opportunities for your business. The efficiencies a tree service gains from following those key points can make the difference between a thriving organization and one that is struggling to make it.

There are many ways to provide a great customer experience, however, I strongly encourage you to try the Disney model within your company. The more customers that have a fantastic experience with your team, the more likely they are to share their story and recommend your company to others. Isn’t that what we all want? More business from satisfied customers? Take a look at these four principles and find a way to fit them into your culture

Written by: Eric Petersen

Mentorships: Can They Work for Me?

by | Aug 21, 2018 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Mentorships: Can They Work For Me?

Training new employees can be a difficult task, no matter what industry you’re in. In our office, much like many tree care companies, we’ve utilized a mentorship strategy to bring new employees up to speed as soon as possible. A mentorship program typically includes more individual attention than group training or orientation programs. Often times, situations arise that can’t be learned from a text book. The mentor is there to provide real life experience to fast track the learning process. Below is a conversation from when we had Ryan interview Malcolm and I on how we’ve used the mentorship process within our agency.

Ryan: Why did you choose to implement a mentorship strategy?

Eric: With any new hire, we feel it is critical to establish a solid working partnership that benefits everyone. We utilize a one on one approach to help ensure the employee’s career development within our culture. To us, development goes beyond the professional setting to include the creation of a healthy work/life balance.

Ryan: Malcolm, what have the major advantages been for you with your mentor?

Malcolm: The most obvious benefit is being able to find quick solutions as I gain knowledge important to my role. On top of that, it helps to have someone like Eric who is invested in my success that will ultimately push me in the right direction. When I come up with ideas or pain points in my career, Eric is there to give me support, or play a devil’s advocate role.

Eric: From an employer’s perspective, being able to spend time directly with the new hire has helped our organization in a number of ways. As Malcolm mentioned, it allows the new hire to become better at their position in a much shorter amount of time. Outside of boosting efficiency, we are also able to connect on a personal level which ultimately helps build a culture of employee retention and satisfaction.

Ryan: What challenges have you noticed using this process?

Eric: A critical piece to a successful mentorship program is time management. The mentor needs to hold themselves accountable by ensuring that they are available to the new hire, while also staying on top of their own work. Even though I have had a number of new hires under me over the years, this has remained the largest challenge for me.

Malcolm: For me, a big challenge was determining which tasks I needed to take to Eric and which tasks I should have figured out on my own. I felt the mentor should always be there to answer questions, however, sometimes I was nervous to even ask.

Ryan: How can your mentorship experience translate to the tree care world?

Malcolm: When I see my clients using these programs, I get excited because I know what it will do for their business. I had insurance experience prior to joining Eric’s team, and while the mentorship certainly helped with my insurance knowledge, it also gave me a more personal feel for ArboRisk’s values and overall operations. Because company values are so important in the tree care industry, I think this program is a great way to ensure new hires operate under those values.

Eric: There is no comparison to the individualized attention a mentor can give for the safe and productive development of a great team member. With all of the dangers in the tree care world, learning from your own mistakes may not offer a second chance. A mentor can take a new employee under their wing and help them avoid close calls by sharing their personal stories.

The most successful mentorship programs that I’ve seen in the tree care industry, involve upper management that is dedicated to developing their workforce despite the understanding that not all employees will be with their business forever. These employers are satisfied by helping individuals reach their own goals and developing their professionalism.

Lastly, I’ve witnessed firsthand that if no formal mentorship program is in place, unofficial mentors will become the internal voice of the company, ultimately creating the culture they want rather than the one you want to achieve.

Ryan: What steps should a tree care company take to build a mentorship program?

Eric: I feel there are 4 simple steps that can be followed to develop a mentorship program.

Talk to front line managers and crew leaders to see if they would be willing to serve as a mentor to your new employees.

Ask a recent new hire how their training was and what could be improved upon to help them become proficient in their job faster. Also ask directly if an individual mentor would have been helpful for them.

Start small. Pair the mentors up with the new employees and give them both flexibility in developing the program for your company. This means to allow for time, away from production or other tasks, to ask specific questions or get specific equipment training.

Review with both parties every 30 days to ensure that the additional attention is having a positive impact on the employee’s development.

Written by: Eric Petersen

7 Tips for Retaining Great Employees

by | Aug 17, 2018 | Employee Management | 0 comments

7 Tips For Retaining Great Employees

It’s hard to find a good employee and yet it feels like it is even harder to keep them around. Especially in the tree care industry, employee turnover can be the most demoralizing challenge that you as the business owner face. While every organization will have employees leave from time to time, top level tree services make a concerted effort to retain their team members. My list of 7 tips for retaining great employees come from working with and observing these top companies over the years.

Hire for culture fit – Okay this is more of a hiring tip than a retention tip, however, it’s the best way to improve your retention. It is a lot easier to keep your employees when you start with employees that fit the culture of your organization. Skills can be taught, but you will never be able to change the personality of your employees. If you hire to fill a specific skill set and do not pay attention to whether or not that employee will fit the culture you will either have that employee leave sooner than you want or they will push out good employees.

Communication – Everything within your company depends great communication. Knowing what matters to your employees and what motivates them is the key to keeping them happy while working within your organization. Provide a work environment that encourages communication between management and laborers without fear of repercussions and you will dramatically increase your employee retention.

Career development – Supporting and encouraging your team members to pursue additional training lets them know that you are committed to them and their careers first and your profits second. Great employees will produce more profit for the business, so allow each of your team members to grow individually. Also, developing a career path structure that an employee can follow to advance in your company will provide motivation and clarity for all team members.

Provide challenges – The best employees on your team want to be challenged. They want to use their skills and talents to accomplish goals that not everyone can. This helps them feel fulfilled in their work and wanting to stay with your organization. A clear defined career path, provides one way to challenge your employees, but you can also have a number of special projects lined up that an employee can sign up for. Perhaps starting a safety committee, researching the latest equipment, figuring out a way to utilize the latest client management software, or creating small videos for use on social media channels for marketing purposes are all examples of simple challenges that you can provide your employees that would be valuable to your company.
Flexibility – In general, most employees today are looking for a work place that can be flexible with them. Understanding that just earning a paycheck is less attractive now than it was in the past. Employees want to be able to take time with their families and perhaps work from home from time to time if they do sales or office work. When talking about field staff it is a little harder to be flexible, but not impossible. You must have great communication and a solid set of rules for flexible schedule so that everyone knows what to expect of them and their teammates. This eliminates one person from taking advantage of it and creates respect for everyone. Let your employees come up with ideas on how this would work that would be fair for all.

Diversify work opportunities – Providing a varied work day for your employees is nearly impossible within the tree care industry, but what isn’t is creating a rotation where employees get to work in different areas every so often to break up the monotony of their work. This starts by having the roles and duties of each position outlined and written down for everyone. Then create a structure where each employee spends one day out of every two or three weeks in a different area of your business. That could mean that a production arborist may spend one day working with the plant health care crew and one day in the shop with your mechanic each month. Resist the urge to keep pounding production out of your best employees to avoid burnout.

Compensation – I listed this as the last tip, because while important to retaining employees, if you master the points above, compensation takes care of itself. With a flexible work schedule and chance for career development, warranted performance based pay increases become a normal part of your company’s culture. If you have trouble figuring out how much to pay your employees, start by using the TCIA’s Wage Survey.

Written by: Eric Petersen

6 Steps to Building a Better Brand

by | Aug 17, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

6 Steps to Building a Better Brand

In today’s over-commoditized world, building your company’s brand is one of the most important business decisions that you need to make. By formulating a solid brand for your organization, it sets the tone for your entire operation. This is more than just your unique value proposition – it is the way you interact with your customers and team members, it is what people feel and remember about your company. At the 2018 TCIA Winter Management Conference, Bruce Turkel stated, “A good brand makes people feel good. A great brand makes people feel good about themselves.” This brand must be yours and it must be genuine. Here are 6 questions to ask yourself when building a great brand for your business. What are your company’s values? Spend time thinking about your own personal values. What do you believe in? Does your business operate on those basic life principals? Talk to others within your organization and ask them what they value and how the company can emulate those beliefs. For my firm, I used a large list of value words and circled my top 10. Words like trustworthiness and altruism stood out and helped me solidify what I wanted our company to believe in. This helped tremendously in moving our brand forward. What are your company’s strengths? If you haven’t done a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on your business, do so now. This analysis helps in so many ways and is vital in building a better brand. Think about the strengths of your company – What is your team the best at? Where are the opportunities for growth within your organization? Who is your ideal customer? Your company’s values and strengths will highlight who will benefit the most from your services. Get as specific on this as you can. The more laser focused you can be on your target clients the better you can fulfill your promises to them. What can you solve for your customer? For this question, dig deeper and think about the reason that your customers are contacting you to perform a service. It isn’t just about removing the dead branches from the tree in their front yard or making the leaves look greener on the tree that hangs over their porch. It is about eliminating the work on their end. It is about giving them more shade on a hot afternoon when they are enjoying their patio with their friends and family. Think about the real reasons someone wants work done on their trees. How do customers feel about your company? Are your customers raving about your company? Do they tell their coworkers about what a wonderful job your team did? Have you mastered the customer experience by renovating every customer touchpoint so they have only positive things to say about your organization? Understanding how your team and services makes your customers feel is a significant part of your brand. Does your company’s look match what your message is? – Does your logo and color selection match what your values and strengths are? Is your logo sleek, modern and edgy, yet your equipment and uniforms look old and worn down? Does your website convey the same message as all of your written communications with your customers? The look of your company, from every aspect, is the most visual part of a brand and a part that cannot be taken lightly. While this can be expensive to change, it should be your last step in revitalizing your brand. If you are confident in the answers to parts 1 – 5, this step should be easy to implement. After you have figured out what your brand is, you must be consistent with it. Ensure that all of your team members know what it is and why it is important. Common phrases within your organization can help solidify the brand internally so that the external world will start to believe it. Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight, however, with structured concentration on it, you will begin to see how it can dramatically change every aspect of your business.

Written by: Eric Petersen

3 Tips for Redefining Your Customer Experience

by | Aug 17, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

3 Tips For Redefining Your Customer Experience

Everyone wants to provide exceptional customer service, yet unfortunately there are few companies that truly wow their customers. The service and personal touch that you provide to your customers will always be evolving, but here are 3 tips to begin redefining your customer experience.

1. Understand Your Customer – This should go without saying, but it is so critical to know who your customers are and what they care about. Who is your ideal customer and how can your services make them smile? Understand how they communicate and what really matters to them. Remember, it’s not the tree that pays the bill, it’s the owner of the tree that writes the check to you. If you are not connecting with your customers, you are making it easy for them to find another company to help them with their trees.

2. Touch-point Teamwork – Hold a brainstorming session with each department within your company to focus on every customer touch-point within your organization. From your website appearance and functionality, to incoming phone calls and emails, to field staff doing the work, to the invoices and thank you’s that go out after the job is completed, ask yourselves three simple questions for every touch-point:

What do our customers love about it?
What do our customers dislike about it?
What can we do to make that interaction better or more shareable?

3. Training and Integration – After you have defined the ideal customer and what they want from you, everyone in your company must know how important each touch-point is to have the best possible customer experience. This is best accomplished by the department leaders walking their teams through each touch-point and how the customer should be treated. It helps if similar words or phrases are used to solidify the organization and promote the client first culture.

By consciously focusing on your customer’s experience at every touch-point, you will begin to transform your company. Have fun with it, get creative and don’t be afraid to try something new to stand out. Wow your customers so they can’t help but tell others about the great experience they had with your company.

Written by: Eric Petersen