BSCAI member L. Dana Weaver is perhaps best known in the industry as co-owner of The ABS Companies, where he served for 30 years as president. Currently, he is majority owner of Star Protection, a Houston-based security services firm. He also heads L. Dana Weaver Consulting, offering service-based businesses his expertise.
On Oct. 31, he will be conducting a session titled "Ways to Improve Your Customer Perception of Quality and Enhance Your Relationship with All Customers" at BSCAI's 2018 Contracting Success conference in Dallas. During the session, attendees will learn multiple ways to improve their customers' perception of their cleaning quality and identify things they can do to build better, stronger personal relationships with key customer contracts. We sat down recently with Weaver to discuss such matters.
BSCAI: How important is relationship building for BSCs who are looking to maintain a strong customer base and attract new business?
L. DANA WEAVER: Relationships are the key. In my session, we are going to discuss some of the important techniques that will help BSCs learn how to build strong, personal relationships. If I had to rank them, as far as the contract cleaning industry and their customers are concerned, I would put relationships at the top ahead of quality and price.
BSCAI: You are now working as a consultant?
DW: (laughing) That's the rumor! Yes.
BSCAI: So, now that you are on the consulting side of things, what are some of the most common pitfalls and mistakes you see today?
DW: The biggest thing is they like to focus on retention, but they don't do the things necessary to build strong bonds with their customers. Consequently, they have poor retention rates. Revenues are flat. Then, depending on the size of the company, they may bring on $1 million in new business, working very hard to get it. But they'll lose that same amount due to lack of retention efforts.
BSCAI: What are one or two simple and immediate things a BSC can do to improve customers' perception of their cleaning quality?
DW: The first thing I would recommend is performance reviews, certainly with regards to their largest customers. It's pretty difficult to execute such reviews with all of your customers. So, concentrate on the top 20 percent. In those reviews, you report on your target metrics that you establish with their input. Give the customer objective and measurable feedback regarding how well you have performed. Four times a year, it's sort of like a report card. You establish objective metrics that you have to hit. If you hit those, you're sort of reselling what you do for them every 90 days in those quarterly reviews.
Then at the end of each quarterly review after you've given them your report card, you ask them to give you a grade. It can be on a 1 to 5 scale regarding four or five questions around your performance. You sort of lead the witness because you typically make your metrics. So, when you ask them to rate you, it becomes very unusual for them to give you a poor rating. Then you have four ratings a year on a 1 to 5 scale that says, overall, they're happy with your service. It just reminds them of all the things you do right and not get focused on little things that go wrong like a call from a tenant or an employee regarding a missed trash can or an unlocked door.
BSCAI: As a co-owner of The ABS Companies, what was the biggest lesson you had to learn over the years?
DW: Hiring, and then teaching key managers the importance of building a relationship with their key customer contact. Not everybody is good at it. Not everybody is gifted at it. It can be an acquired skill. But, like anything else, the more you work at it … the better you get at it. But you have to make it a priority. I always tell people, "You have to get out of your comfort zone." Calling and asking a customer to go to lunch with you outside of the work environment where you can get them on a one-on-one basis and talk about things other than contract cleaning services is so important. That's the best way to build relationships. But a lot of managers aren't comfortable doing that. You have to teach them. Probably the more uncomfortable they feel, the more they're going to stretch themselves. Once they survive and realize they enjoyed that lunch with that customer and gotten to know [him or her] better on more of a personal level, you've really laid a better foundation for that relationship.
Most contractors focus on quality and price. They think if they have a low price, they'll get the job. And if they maintain good to excellent quality, they'll keep the contract. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. The relationship piece is just as important.
BSCAI: In your view, is our industry proving appealing to Millennials and Generation Z? Or is there work to be done?
DW: I am a big believer in running blind help wanted ads, meaning the people do not know who they are responding to in the way of a company or industry. I recommend running a generic ad that gives specifics about the job responsibilities. That way, you can reach out to them proactively and sell them on the industry, the company, and the job position. Our industry employs more people worldwide than any other single industry other than government.
BSCAI: Was there a piece of advice given to you earlier in your career that stuck with you throughout?
DW: Yes. An owner has to spend a significant amount of his/her time building relationships, and they have to hold their managers accountable for building theirs.
BSCAI: Finally, you will be a featured speaker at the upcoming 2018 Contracting Success conference in Dallas. What can our readers in attendance expect from your session?
DW: Just what you and I have been talking about—the importance of building relationships. We'll also talk about how if you can't grow your top-line revenue, it's very difficult to attract and retain talent. Talent wants to go to work for winners. Winners are companies that grow their top-line and are profitable. It's a vicious cycle you can get in. I've seen many companies that don't control their retention. Five or six years later, they're still billing the same revenue they were five years ago, because they haven't fixed the retention problem.
L. Dana Weaver will be a co-presenter at the BSCAI Contracting Success Conference, held in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 31-Nov. 2. Join his Ignite Session, “Big Problems and How to Avoid Them” on Friday, Nov. 2. Register today.