How Do I Stand Out With My Service Based Business?

Feeling invisible in a crowded market can be frustrating. You know you do great work, but somehow leads go quiet, competitors seem interchangeable, and it feels harder than it should be to get noticed. The good news is that standing out is often less about doing something revolutionary and more about recognizing the opportunities most service businesses completely overlook.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:45Speaker 00

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bull spend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bull spend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. Today's Q and A Wednesday's question comes from Raj, and he asks, how do I stand out with my service-based business? Raj, you are in luck, because you're going to hear a reoccurring theme from Nicole and I today, and that is, when it comes to standing out in services, the bar is very low.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  So that means this is going to be easier than you think. Nicole, why is the bar so low when it comes to service-based businesses?

• 1:36Speaker 01

  We say it all the time, and it's actually really good news for people, because the bar being so low, it's easy to make a few tweaks and a few changes to stand out. And I've seen it over and over again, where people have let us down in services with really what I think are very small things.

• 1:57Speaker 00

  Simple things, easy things to do.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  Yes, like replying on time.

• 2:02Speaker 00

  We're going to get into all that. Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business. I do want to say, and give a little context, Nicole and I both ran service-based businesses for a very long time. I ran a website development firm where I would build websites for people. Nicole was a videographer freelancer for a very long time.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  That's where I got my start, really.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  Yep, and that's how you're in the services, delivering that service to people. We continue to do some services here and there, if you want to call it an event, a service, but it's more of an experience. But what we have found is, in our experience, in the businesses that we ran, those service-based businesses, is that we got clients simply because we did some of these small, simple moves that you're going to mention in a moment, that are going to make all the difference. It doesn't take much to stand out, because most people are phoning it in. Most people don't have systems. They don't have a way to consistently deliver good service. They don't have a way to stand out, because they don't even know what standing out means. So let's get into that.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  I'm excited. These are, I think, to us, they feel obvious, and not in a condescending way, because I do think, as a business owner, you can overlook some, some things, and they can just be very simple things and tweaks that you can make in your business and how you operate, that will help you stand out. And the lead that is coming and is approaching, maybe say, three service providers, it's so easy for you to get that lead and nail that client, just by doing a couple of things that we're going to be sharing.

• 3:46Speaker 00

  So let's start with that, because I think that this is the easiest takeaway, if you're going to take anything from today's episode, is that when you are talking to a potential customer, right, when you get a lead in your inbox, if somebody done an introduction, if you're getting a phone call, a message, whatever it might be, this is like, super critical. Like, this is where you need to use all your energy, all your skills, all your systems, to make sure that you make a great first impression. This is where they're shopping around, they're making a decision, should I spend money with this person? So this means you should have a system to make sure that you respond to them as fast as humanly possible. So for example, if they send you an email at 9:00 AM, if you get back to them by 9:15, I know that sounds really fast, but if you get back to them at 9:15, you have an incredibly

• 4:31Speaker 00

  high likelihood of securing that business. Why? Because that person's probably emailing a million people, not a million, but a dozen people, to get something done. And the first person to reply to them is basically going to get the job, because they just want to get this thing done.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  We've had this, like, experience happen recently. Literally, it's like, and this is where sometimes this question comes from. How do I stand out? There's so many people who are offering what I do, and oftentimes, it literally is the first person that responds to you, that you're happy to go with, because it's true. A lot of people will offer the same service. There'll be very negligible differences between the offerings. And so if you can be that first, the person that responds the quickest, books that call, and we're going to talk about a simple way to make sure you get that call booked, that's it. You've probably secured that person, without that person having to continue and go shopping around.

• 5:23Speaker 00

  Very simple example I want to give. Let's say you have a leaky faucet in your kitchen, okay? What would you do to fix this problem? You're probably going to Google, you know, local plumbers, and you're going to call the first one that has pretty good reviews. That's pretty much what's going to happen, right? You're going to call them. Let's say, for example, that person doesn't pick up. You're just going to go to the next person, and the next person. You're going to go to the person that's going to pick up, or the person's going to get back to you. This is why, if for any reason, you can't pick up a call, there should be some sort of automation that follows up with them, sends an email, sends a message, sends a text message, and says, hey, sorry, Mr. Call, I'm at a job right now. Let me know what your troubles are. Let me know what you need, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

• 6:03Speaker 00

  That little automation is going to save you a chance to help this customer and get some business. But a lot of people just let their customers leak out of their leaky bucket. They just have no system of securing leads and securing customers.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Right. And so one way, of course, if people call, I've got an example where, when we were shopping around for fitting out this studio, I went to a couple of sites for panels and sound panels, and a lot of sites have a contact form. And so I filled out about three.

• 6:34Speaker 00

  Most people won't do this even, but you're nice enough to fill out a contact form.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  I think I first called, and then when no one answered, I filled out the contact form. And I was absolutely amazed at how many people, like, didn't respond.

• 6:46Speaker 00

  Ghost you, ghost.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Ghosted, yeah. And so literally.

• 6:49Speaker 00

  You're throwing money at them, and they don't want it.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. So I think, having that system if someone calls, having that system if someone sends a text message, having a system if someone fills in a contact form, like, make sure those, you have a way to get back to those people right away. I think that's number one.

• 7:06Speaker 00

  This is what we mean by the bar is low. Like, this is so like, table stakes. You have to respond to people that want to give you money. If you have no system to do that, then you don't belong in business. I'm sorry, you just don't. You're expecting that people are just going to insist on giving you money and continue to call you back. No, that's your job. Your job is to chase the money, right? So when it's at your doorstep, answer the door, right? So if you can't answer the phone, the automation really helps. A simple automation is, hey, I got your call, here's my calendar, let's book a call. And you have a set calendar, and Google allows you to do this now, where you can, you don't need even Calendly or any kind of tool, where you can just, somebody could choose a time that suits them, and then you go ahead, and they book that call, and then that call's

• 7:51Speaker 00

  on your calendar, and you can just set up that call and secure that customer. Because in that moment, the customer will be like, okay, at least that's taken care of now. I have a call on the calendar, I have somebody that is lined up.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Right. One of my pet peeves, I love that you bring this up, because one of the friction points is when somebody gets back to you and doesn't have a system of a calendar tool or using Google Calendar to make a booking, is to send me some times that work for you. That back and forth, that friction of, now, I've got to do the work to look at my calendar, think ahead, give some options, rather than just picking the first option that works for me on a calendar booking.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  Don't make it hard. Don't make it hard for me to do business with you. You've got to make it as easy as possible.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  I love it, because I feel what is coming out here, because I feel like we deal with a lot of service providers, a lot of professional services. It's interesting that the business owner's side is like, oh, I've got to get more customers, this, constantly thinking about trying to get more customers. And the customer side is like, how frustrating it is when you're making so much effort, and you feel like you're not getting anywhere, or people are taking a long time to get back to you. And like you're saying, I'm offering to pay you, I'm offering to work with you, and when it feels like there's this friction, it's frustrating.

• 9:09Speaker 00

  What I'm saying is, as a service provider, there is zero excuse, zero, to drop the ball, okay? Like, the rare exception where, even if you have an emergency, you should have a system to back you up, to inform them that you're going to be late, inform you. You should always be on time. So for example, you have a call booked for 5:30, you got to make sure you show up 5:28 on that call.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. How you conduct yourself is, I think, I've got a lot to say on that too, because I think you can be quite inexperienced, have, you know, be very new to your service-based business or professional service, and those professional etiquette points and ways to stand out are really, really simple as well. And again, surprising how many people drop the ball on that. But I think that, one of the first things you've got to nail, if this is your business, then is that follow-up procedure. That's like, the first thing you've got to get right.

• 10:03Speaker 02

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• 11:36Speaker 00

  A lot of this we've learned in our teaching days. As an educator, as a teacher, there are no excuses. You must show up on time. You have to be there before the students in the classroom. You know, we would go to different classrooms for each lesson that we have to teach. You have to be on time. You have to make sure that you're taking control of the classroom and leading by example. You have to be professional. Like, there is no excuse. You have to pull that off. I want you to share that story where you got your first few gigs in your videography experience, because it shows a little bit of what we're talking about.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it shows how the bar is low and it shows how easy it was to secure my first clients with relatively very minimal experience in the field. And it goes back to that teaching. So when I was fresh out of film school, I got approached by someone who had a whole bunch of footage that had been taken, and he was working with an editor, but that editor left them high and dry.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  This is CFP, right?

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Yes, so this is someone who was desperate to hand over this footage and get-

• 12:40Speaker 00

  They're in the banking industry, they run conferences for banks.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, and you had this footage that you needed to edit, right?

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had to edit. And he asked, and because it was my first gig, I didn't have a lot of experience. And he was quite desperate. He lowballed me.

• 12:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  And I had to produce something like 12 videos.

• 12:57Speaker 00

  For 500 bucks or something, right?

• 12:58Speaker 01

  It was, yeah, something ridiculous. But for me, it was experience that I needed. So I took the job. And I remember being very diligent about wanting to do a really good job. This was my first gig. And so I did, I delivered on time. I over-delivered. I did the best that I possibly could. And I think he'd been disappointed before. So even just me going a little bit of that extra mile went a long way without my knowing that. And so he was happy. And I, you know, I got that 500 bucks, whatever it was. I worked super hard on those 12 videos. I remember it was 12 videos. And when he was back, and this was when we were in New York, he was back in New York running a three-day event. He knew that I could film the event as well. And so he reached back out to me.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  And I got my first three-day gig for this massive event, filming it all day. You were with me. And again, I was super fresh. There would have been thousands of other videographers that he could have gone with. And I really attribute that in hindsight to the simple things of just being responsive. Like, I would take his calls, I would answer his emails, I delivered on time.

• 14:01Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  I was polite, I was professional, I was very nervous because I wanted to do a good job. And I honestly feel like it was those simple things that got me return, his return work.

• 14:12Speaker 00

  And you remind me of a secret that we talk about, the secret to success of all success in life. Okay? I want you to listen up, okay? Because this is like the secret. Just do what you said you're gonna do. That's it. If you say you're gonna do something, do it. And that's why you were able to get that gig, because he gave you those 12, you know, videos he needed. You edited them, you delivered them early, not even on time. You did what you're supposed to do.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  And this is why the bar's so low. Most people do not do this. And by just doing what you said you're going to do, you rise above the competition. Now-

• 14:47Speaker 01

  That's a great one.

• 14:47Speaker 00

  You ran the event for him, you shot the event and all that kind of stuff. And then what you also did is that he had these sponsors at the event, and you shot these little mini videos for the sponsors. And then you got their cards, their email, because they have, you know, they got their swags and their cards at the sponsored booth. And you emailed these people, these other sponsors, "Hey, I shot this little video of you while you're in your sponsor booth. If you're wanting my services, here's my contact."

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Yes. Basically, I gave them a free sample.

• 15:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  I remember getting my next client from that event, which kind of pigeonholed me in that Wall Street finance end of New York. But that was great. It's okay, paid the bills. And I remember working, filming that CEO at that booth, that sponsor booth that they had. And again, I don't think anybody else sent them a sample video. And he was with his marketing person. And she's like, "Well, this is easy. I've already got someone." She was able to impress her boss because she gave him that-

• 15:42Speaker 00

  Mission accomplished.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  -clip. And it was literally just a very mediocre, I'd have to say, but it did the job. And it got me the next job.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  And got us more gigs through that, you know?

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Well, yes, because then I had a portfolio, and then there was word-of-mouth referrals, which we'll get to. But giving something away for free and not feeling entitled to like, "Oh, I've got this clip," and watermarking it and saying, "Well, I'll give you the clip if you, you know, if you, if you pay me." I mean, again, I was fresh, but I think even if you're someone who's seasoned, if you've been around for a long time-

• 16:14Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 16:14Speaker 01

  -it can go a long way to provide like a free sample of your work.

• 16:18Speaker 00

  You said a word, entitlement. Yeah, I didn't feel entitled. And I think, I don't even know if we could teach this, but like, both you and I, our parents were immigrants. They migrated to a new country. Your parents immigrated from Italy to Australia, my parents from Egypt to the US. There's a sense of like, you have to earn everything. You don't get anything for free. You have to, there's no handouts. You have to like, chase after what you want.

• 16:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:43Speaker 00

  And I think when we started our full-time entrepreneurial career, we really felt that need to like, prove ourselves and to try to impress our clients and really go the extra mile and not really feel a sense of like, "Well, you know, this is really hindering my creative expression." No, we have to make a mark and we have to try to, lack of a better term, please our customers. Make sure that they get a good impression of the experience that they had with us.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  I think as a service-based business or as a professional service business owner, you can't take for granted that there's always gonna be, you know, work. And I think that's part of the mindset too. It's like, if you've got an opportunity to work, I think, take it.

• 17:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. I think another thing that one can do to stand out is to just be fun to work with. We talk about this a lot. One of the gigs that you had early on, it was your first gig, was with Battlefin. Remember Battlefin?

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 17:37Speaker 00

  And we went into their office, they wanted some sort of like, animation back in the day. This is 2012, 2013, where they want like, a hand moving around, pointing at things.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  I remember the hand that was drawing on the screen, the whiteboard, that was very popular.

• 17:53Speaker 00

  And they wanted that, right? And they're like, "Can you do this for us?" And you were like, looked at me as like, "Yeah, yeah, we could do it." Right? And we had like a month to deliver this project, where you shot so much footage out of focus, but-

• 18:07Speaker 01

  It was so out of focus. And, yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  But it was okay, we dealt with it. We dealt with it, we made it look all Boca effect, it was kind of nice. And we put some filters on it.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Some filters.

• 18:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. But you shot the footage and we had to do this little hand animation drawing on the whiteboard. And I had like, two weeks to learn how to do this in After Effects. I just looked it up on YouTube, found a template. I just said yes, because I could figure it out. You know, it's not rocket science. But I think what they really enjoyed working with us is that like, we weren't hard. We weren't like, pushing against all their demands. We're like, "Yeah, yeah, we'll figure that out, we'll work, work with you." We were also kind of like, not taking ourselves too seriously. They enjoyed, they're like, in these huge buildings in New York and wearing suits every day and super corporate. And they're not used to like, young people having a bit of fun. That gig was 500 bucks, which was crazy, it was our first gig.

• 18:58Speaker 00

  And then they came back for another gig, which was like, there was two other-

• 19:02Speaker 01

  There was two gigs. So we worked with those guys three years in a row. And each time, we upped the price.

• 19:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  The work was more intensive. They, you know, they asked for more, for more work. And so the second gig was 1,500. And then our third year, we charged 6,500, which was, wow, huge.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  We thought, "That's it, we're rich." "That's it, like, I gotta get myself a butler now, and things are looking up." Yeah, it was, it was pretty wild.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  And again, I don't, I mean, I'm not the best, you know, videographer, editor out there, but they liked working with us. I think we were professional, especially when it helped us that we came from the teaching background and they were in the finance space. So I think there's an element where you do have to adapt to the client as well. And so I think we worked well naturally with them being, you know, but the fact that, you know, they were happy each time meant that they didn't shop around.

• 19:58Speaker 00

  Yeah. There's a bit of a twist with the Battlefin story, but before that, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast yet, make sure you subscribe. We have an upcoming episode all about how to sell your business. So even if you're not thinking about selling your business, we all sell at the end. You can't take it with you, right? When you die. So that episode really gives you the playbook that we use to sell our business, whether it's our NIDRO, our software company, which we'll talk about in a second, with that twist of the story. But we really worked on trying to drill exactly what's important and how to prepare for that sale. So even before you get offers, your business has high value and you can demand a good price. So if you're interested in that, episode is coming out very soon. So hit subscribe so you don't miss it.

• 20:40Speaker 00

  So funny story, like this Battlefin gig was between, or the gigs were between 2012 to 2014. We stopped doing the video work because we were focusing on our new businesses, which was the 100 MBA, as well as Webinar Ninja Software Companies, which was launched in 2014. And that company started to grow and we needed to start getting some help. Around 2019, we signed up for Dan Martel's SAS Academy. He becomes our coach. He does these big events twice or three times a year. And he did this big event in San Diego, California. And we go to his event and they have these circle tables into groups. And you kind of do these group activities during the three days of the conference. And on my table is the guy that hired us from Battlefin.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  I know.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  Which was crazy, which was absolutely nuts.

• 21:29Speaker 01

  He'd started a SAS company.

• 21:30Speaker 00

  He started a SAS company and he started to sign, like, I was like, what a small world. The guy that hired us, the first gig that you had when you landed in New York and started your entrepreneurial career. And he was like a beginner in SAS. And like that, in that conference, Dan asked me to speak on stage about selling with webinars. And I was like, what a crazy role reversal. Like, what is happening here, right?

• 21:55Speaker 01

  That speaks to, we had a great relationship with them. And so you never know where.

• 22:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, you gotta treat people, your clients well.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  Clients might show up one day, like literally, what, 10 years later? No, no, not 10 years, sorry, five years later.

• 22:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  Five years later.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  But also like, you know, we had to say no to clients when we started to focus on Webinar Ninja and the podcast. So we had to do that professionally, which was, you know, a gentle goodbye, which was good. I want to get a little practical and talk about how you can have a steady flow of clients and really stand out from the crowd. It's really good to have a warm introduction to your clients. And one of the things that I discovered, it was almost like by accident, was Nicole and I were going to some wine and cheese party in New York when we were living in New York.

• 22:38Speaker 01

  Yes, we went to a few of those.

• 22:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, and then we met this guy named Justin, Justin Belmont, right? Justin Belmont asked me, what do you do? I said, well, I design websites for people. They're on WordPress, dah, dah, dah, dah. He's like, okay, interesting. He says, I run this company called Prose Media, which we write blog posts for people. I was like, okay, great. So you're a writer. He's like, I never thought of anything of it. And he was like, I get a lot of clients that want to start a blog, but don't have a website. And I don't know what to do because I don't create websites. I was like, oh, cool. Could you refer them to me? He's like, yeah, yeah, you'd be doing me a favor. Because if they don't have a website, then they're not going to need a constant flow of blog posts. So I might write them some blog posts, but if they don't have a website to post and they don't have a regular cadence to post it with a website, then my services are kind of not needed.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  So he gave me this pipeline of customers. Anytime they came to him and they said, hey, I want, you know, to start a blog. I want somebody to write these blog posts for me. And they would, he would ask me, do you have a website? He's like, no, okay, great. Omar's your guy. And we see this all the time.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:39Speaker 00

  Where we get introduced to all different services, all in different parts of life. But this is a great synergy. You're not competitive. He's not creating websites. I'm not writing blog posts, but we need each other. And there was like no referral fee or anything like that. He just was happy to refer them to me because I was helping him, you know, fill a need for a client. And even if there is a referral fee, it'd be worth it. And it's a nice way to have steady clients. And I really needed it at the time when I was getting started. So Justin, you saved my ass big time. Belmont, if you're out there, thanks, man. But yeah, that's a good tip that I discovered by accident.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  So having adjacent connections to adjacent businesses. So thinking about like your world, I think this is pretty obvious in the real estate world, right?

• 24:23Speaker 00

  Oh, 100%.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  You deal with a mortgage broker, they, they don't do, you know, they're not a buyer's agent, but they'll have a network of people that they can refer you to. So obviously there's a bit of a world and a flow that happens with, you know, whatever the process is that someone's going through.

• 24:37Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  Interior design, it could be anything.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  100%.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  What are those businesses around that you can connect to other, other businesses that you can then, you know, support each other?

• 24:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, if you run a landscape company, you should reach out to the cleaning companies out there because they're cleaning homes and those homes might have a lawn that need upkeep. And why don't you guys both go do the job at the same time? That way, that person kind of knocks out all their home duties or all the services is done in that day. If you are in a different service, like say if you're the landscaper, you can help out somebody who maybe does car washing, right? People that have a house probably have a car, right? So like, there's, there's all these like adjacent companies and services that you can help each other out. And don't wait for somebody to approach you. Approach somebody else.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:22Speaker 00

  By being generous, you'll find that people are going to feel the need to reciprocate and introduce you to their clients.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's such a creative way to market your business, right? Instead of shouting louder about what you do.

• 25:34Speaker 00

  And throwing magnets in people's, in people's post office box and stuff.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  Magnets. Yeah, work with adjacent companies. I mean, it's, it's, hopefully these tips help. What else? Well, we talked about speed, asking for referrals. I think, and word of mouth, I think one of the things that someone needs to do as soon as they work with their first clients, and I did this too, is to ask for a testimonial right away. I recently worked with someone on, yeah, presentation coaching. And I was her first client in her business. And she asked, immediately she asked me for a testimonial. And in like an hour after I sent it, it was up on her website. And I think if you're not conscious of getting those testimonials.

• 26:17Speaker 00

  Or Google reviews or whatever that might be.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  Whatever system you have.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  TripAdvisor, whatever market you're in.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Yes, to get those right away. Because I found myself, when I was shopping around for other services, I'd go to those testimonials. People think they're all fake. And, you know, I think some people are cynical about, but it's funny, like I definitely read them.

• 26:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I think the number one time you, you look at these reviews is when you're on vacation, when you're traveling and you're looking for a restaurant, looking for a cafe, you're looking for breakfast, you're looking for even a hotel or something like, you know? The first thing is you look at the reviews. And if it's like under 4.5, people start being, oh, I don't know if this is great, you know? But even then you start reading the reviews. You're saying like, well, why is it under 4.5? Oh, that's not a good reason to give a review, blah, blah. So the point is the reviews matter.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  Right, but I'm talking about on someone's website, not Google reviews or.

• 27:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Right?

• 27:09Speaker 00

  But they could pull those off, off Google and put it on their website as well.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  Okay, yes, that's true.

• 27:13Speaker 00

  And make it kind of streamlined. That way, if they find you on Google or find you on other platforms, they can easily see it. Then you can display those on, I, we use a tool called Sendja that does that. So you can use that tool.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  I mean, essentially the, the point here is like ask for those testimonials as soon as you've finished working with, with someone.

• 27:30Speaker 00

  Don't be afraid to ask them in person. Like, one of the things that we do at events is we'll have like a four day event. And on the fourth day, even the day is not over and the event's not over. That morning, we're like, hey, we know we've still got a full day ahead of us. But we all sent you a link in the WhatsApp with a survey, with a way for them to give us a review or give us a testimonial. And we would do that and we just make time for that. Like, okay, we're all going to do it right now. Sit down and I know that sounds strange, or if you're on the bus on the way somewhere or whatever it might be, but you gotta make time for that or later's never going to come. Like, they're just not going to do it.

• 28:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, with this example that I just gave, she asked me during, in the last five minutes of the last session where we worked together.

• 28:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  You don't wait a week or the next day.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  No, that's too late and it's like forgotten. And I really believe in that. And you could do this in anything you do. If you're a coach and you're doing online coaching and you maybe are doing like a mini webinar or a mini three day challenge on the third day or on the last few minutes of that webinar. Hey, if you enjoyed today, click this link, go ahead and do it. I'm going to give some shout outs to people that have submitted a review and give me, you know, five stars or whatever it might be. And make it interactive. Like, you're going to get a better response rather than sending that in a follow up email a day later or even a few hours later.

• 28:49Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  I think if you're a service based business, you really need to see yourself as, you're in the happiness business. You need to delight your customers. You need to go above and beyond. You need to be memorable. You can't just do the job. You have to do the job, do what you said you're going to do, but you have to do it in a way that makes them remember you. Even a small touch, a small little card, a small little chocolate on your bed if you're in the cleaning service or something, you know? That makes a big difference, you know? I love the fact that, you know, you go to some really nice fancy car washes and they give you like a nice pack of tissues. Wow, I need tissues in the car, smart idea. It doesn't cost them much and they probably bake it into the price, but it makes an impression. You want to come back.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, we say the bar is low because we feel like we've been let down on very simple things. But I think you flipped it. And, and I think what our early examples in our career were all centered around just doing the best possible job that you can.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  For that person. And I think it happens quite, you know, a bit more organically if you're really focused on doing the best that you can do.

• 29:56Speaker 00

  My last tip is there are signs of success. They say success leaves clues. Look around the different places you go, restaurants you visit, businesses that you frequent and look out for good service. Disney is a good example of this. If you've gone to Disney World, it's expensive to go to Disney World. I think a ticket's like $190 now or something like that, super expensive. But they are masters of customer service. They're masters at a great experience. They have rules in place, like for example, it's a rule in Disney. If somebody drops their ice cream cone, they replace it automatically for free. They don't ask, they see it on the floor, they go get you another one and they give it to you. Why? Because they don't want you to have a ruined day at Disney.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  They want you to feel like, wow, this place is magical. That ice cream cone that fell on the floor, it's going to cost them, what, 50 cents, a dollar? But it's going to make a hell of a difference for them. So there are clues everywhere. When you, I have like this little file on my phone. When you have a good experience, write it down. Why was that a good experience? Why did that make an impression on me? Why am I telling everybody about this restaurant? Why am I enjoying my experience when I go to this movie theater in particular because of how clean it is and how nice and organized it is or whatever it might be? So make a note when you see things that really kind of catch your attention.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  I love that. That's great.

• 31:17Speaker 00

  Well, thanks, Nicole. I love the fact that we got to dive deep on this and go back in the old days and share some stories. I hope that was helpful for everybody who's listening and watching. If you want to continue learning, we have an incredible, incredible episode with Taki Moore that I don't want you to miss. Just scroll back. We had a, about a 90 minute conversation about how he has created an authentic brand, being himself. And we talk a lot about, because he's in the coaching business, so he's sort of in the service business as well. So this is going to be super applicable, even if you're not a coach. We play some games, we have some fun. But he also shares some of the challenges he's had in life and how he's been able to overcome them. So if you want to build a lifestyle empire, that's what Taki calls it, then check out that episode.

• 31:59Speaker 00

  Just scroll up on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, whatever it might be, and go ahead and enjoy. Thanks so much, Nicole, for being with me today. Thank you for being a part of Q and A Wednesday. If you've got a question you want to ask, just send us a question, just submit it over at 100mba.net slash Q. We'll pick it up and answer it right here on the show. Thanks so much. Check you next time.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 32:20Speaker 00

  If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help start, grow and scale your business, subscribe to the podcast. All you gotta do is hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. I'll check you in the next episode.