Vic Sun: All right, welcome to One Leg Up, where we discuss how you can deliver the very best customer experience and, of course, how you can achieve zero marketing waste. I’m Vik Sun, the mastermind here at One Leg. And today, I have permanent guests for this limited series, uh, for our video podcast, um, Steven White and KC Urias, and they’re both tech alchemists on our technology team. Um, KC and Steven, how are things going?
Steven: Things are great. Uh, it’s a beautiful, it’s a beautiful day. I’ve finally mastered the process of cooking eggs in an air fryer, souffle style, and, uh, I I just winged it. Like, test, I just test, you fail, you test, you succeed.
Vic Sun: What do you mean, souffle style? How do you make it puffy?
Steven: You know what? I I’ve never looked up any any way how to do this. I just thought, what if I put some eggs into a silicone mold? I did that with a little heavy cream, and gosh darn, they, over the course of those four minutes, it’s, I swear, it’s, it’s fluffy. It was fluffy and soft, almost like a, like a quick, like a hardened custard. I don’t know how that sounds. That sounds gross visualizing wise, but, but I promise you, it’s, let’s call it an egg steak. Solid it up like an egg steak.
Vic Sun: There you go. Sounds good.
KC: Oh, I’m doing great. Um, I’m, I’m just thankful every single day that the temperature, um, where we’re at in California is under 80 degrees. Today is one of those days, and I could not be happier.
Vic Sun: Perfect. Well, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s always good having you guys on this. I mean, we’ve had, we’ve had, um, uh, you know, several people ask us for more. And and we feel, based on the audience and the people are downloading and listening to the podcast, you know, we can continue on with this party. And really, we’re generally technology agnostic, um, but a number of our home improvement clients, remodeling, construction, you know, they use lead perfection and as their CRM. You know, a lot of manufacturers use that as well. And today, we want to discuss some of those features again, right, that our clients often find they’re overlooking them, or, you know, they’re missing some system efficiencies, um, that will help their technology perform even better. And so I think, you know, a lot of people have started to gravitate towards this limited series run of, uh, lead perfection, Five9, and I think we’re at some point, we’ll, we’ll probably add on some, some Leap as well in there, some tips and tricks. Um, and some of our partners have reached out to us saying, hey, this is really very helpful. So today, again, you know, in in the sense of, um, you know, for the series for lead perfection, Five9, Leap, Hatch, what did you guys want to talk about? What is one of those big features, things that have been overlooking that you you feel, um, we could help our audience out there, you know, who are using, who are lead perfection users?
KC: I think one of the features that is, uh, overlooked in lead perfection is the post-sale area. And a lot of people recognize that it exists, and they see that there’s a lot of options in that area, but people just don’t know where to start in terms of trekking that territory. So I wanted to talk about one of the basic overviews of a post-sale, which is keeping everybody on track, which is the milestone grid.
Vic Sun: Okay. And so, so for those people who we don’t even know what that is, you know, because it’s, I mean, we know what that is, we’ve worked on programming, uh, that for some of our clients, and, and, you know, but how, how does one get to a milestone grid? What is the purpose of a milestone grid or a milestone tab?
KC: So the way that you get to the milestone grid is going to be under the production tab. And a lot of these post-sale features that we’re discussing, um, are going to be located under that production tab. The purpose of the milestone grid is it keeps track of all of the things that home improvement industries especially go through when it comes to post-sale. So, for example, you’re looking at, um, release to production, that’s the very first section, then to measure, then to order, then to ship, to receive, start part order, and completion. And so all of those steps, every time one of those things are achieved, you can mark it off on the production tab, uh, under this milestone grid. And it alerts anybody that you want that that part of the section is done. Not only that, but you can also set it up where people are prompted to get ready for the next step. So it keeps that post-sale process where people tend to be asking a lot of questions, like, oh, well, did you get the permit yet? Did you already check with the city that they’re the homeowner? It makes it a lot better for the team to all stay on the same page.
Vic Sun: Okay, so so essentially you’ve got, um, once a sale has taken place, right, all this information is being sent, well, you know, many people don’t send that information, so maybe that’s why they don’t know about the milestone grid, but you can and you should, you send all this data from your digital HIAs, your home improvement agreements, or from Leap, you know, into the back end of the perfection, which is really where you would see the milestone grid populate those and kind of start creating the schedule and figuring out where the actual, uh, sold project is in in terms of a timeline, right? Whether they’re, they’re in the process of, you know, getting their, their project, uh, final measured, or if the materials are going to be ordered. Um, and so what it, what would be one of those reasons you think, um, what’s, what’s, what’s stopping some of many of the elite perfection users from using the the back end, or at least the milestone grid on the protection?
KC: Honestly, um, I think the biggest method or the biggest reason that people are getting stopped from using it at this time is just because they don’t know how to use it. Um, and one of the things that people tend to overlook, or maybe it’s purposeful, I don’t know, is this really keeps everybody honest. So you can run reports to see what sales people, what division is creating your holdups for days, for weeks, for months. And you can see that, you know, John Doe has consistently had a late or a pending status in this area on several jobs. And that’s something that you can keep track of that, you know, it’s not something that you’re going to be able to do as well only using paper and some other post-sale programs. The wonderful thing about the milestone grid is it’s all color-coded. So, you know, it goes from due next week to do this week to, okay, you’re about to be late to, oh, this thing hasn’t been touched for a month. So it’s a very, very efficient system for keeping people honest. And, um, I just think, uh, a lot of places just haven’t gotten to that level yet. A lot of people are still relying on, uh, post-sale paperwork and contract and just tracking people down.
Vic Sun: Yeah, and I think part of that as well is on the production side, uh, many owners, you know, um, nowadays are, depending on your industry, but let’s say in for windows and doors, um, it’s this is, this, uh, the pandemic and and has really created a lot of backlogs and manufacturers. So if you order a, a window or a door, for example, or several of them, you know, uh, where it used to take weeks for you to be able to get this installed, as a customer, you’re probably not waiting months, right? And and a lot of companies are probably not taking that data, they’re not collecting that data, they’re not creating those milestone points to be able to send to their manufacturer and say, hey, look, for this particular product line that we have, you’re almost always delayed, right? You’ve gone from two months, now you’re two and a half months, and it happens to be in this area of our business or this market. So I think it’s just not being able to look past, um, the back end as something that actually helps them with efficiencies. Um, you know, you can create all kinds of efficiencies, right? Like you said, I like that, you know, it sounds like you can keep people honest, you, you can notify them when something’s late, uh, you know, customers and internal staff, you can take a look at your production side, uh, look at your timelines, you know, um, keep that nice and tight, uh, and at the same time, you know, figure out where your, where your backlogs are. Um, but also it’s because a lot of people really have other platforms that they’re using, not knowing that lead perfection’s able to do this for them. Um, or at least, again, you know, they don’t know how to, uh, so they’re, it’s a daunting proposition, and when you don’t know how to, sometimes it just ends there. You just, okay, well, not going to do it because I don’t know how to do it. Um, so thank you, KC. Um, let’s, let’s shift over a little bit now to Steven here. Steven, what about you? What do you think is, uh, another feature, you know, the perfection, Five9, Leap, Hatch, something that’s been overlooked, it you feel that, you know, this is something that you, you know, definitely should be, should be doing or at least looking into?
Steven: Yeah, um, well, thanks, Vic, for, uh, bringing me into the fold here. So one of the things I’ve been noticing is everyone’s reluctance to, or over, maybe it’s over-reliance on the voicemail system. It could just be, I don’t know, they’re, they’re stuck in a rut of, let me leave a voicemail, let me leave a voicemail. Let me, let me ask you this, um, I, I know I’m guilty of this. I have probably two voicemails that have been sitting on my voicemail box for the past month that I’ve never listened to. And I’m sure some of the people listening today probably have something like that. It’s just cumbersome to check. What do you think?
Vic Sun: Yeah, yeah, same thing with me. Yeah, I mean, technically, people who leave me voicemails, um, I don’t get back to for maybe, um, a couple of days. If you text me or you email me, I’ll probably get back to you within the first two hours, right? It’s just the information is locked into a long process that nobody wants to go into.
Steven: So one thing that we’ve done, uh, utilizing the options that, uh, lead perfection has available in in some nifty programming is, uh, using call tags, we can enable the lead perfection system to send out text messages. Text messages that might just be a nudge, like, hey, you know what, I just tried to give you a call, uh, please give us a quick call back. There’s something I want to discuss, something simple that lets the customer know that one, we’re trying to contact them. And this could be for, like, uh, like KC was mentioning, one of these, uh, one of these production items, or it could be for, you know, potentially trying to start the process of your sale process, um, completely reliant on what process you have, what needs augmentation, and what needs improvement.
Vic Sun: Yeah, I think part of the the issues there in Alaska as well as to how you’ve been more creative with these. But, you know, I I know that we’ve, we’ve created opportunities for our clients when they’re using Five9 or lead perfection or both, um, where we can actually go ahead and record a video or the recording itself and send that through a text or an email, right? And and and people will most likely listen to a recording if it’s in the text as opposed to it being on a voicemail simply because, you know, there are more steps to it. And, you know, when somebody calls you, it’s a missed call, and you’re like, you’re going to have to go through your missed call list, figure out who that is, then you go to, if you’re an iPhone user, then you go to the another tab that goes where all your recordings are, press that button, listen to that whole thing. But people like getting texts all the time, and and and you can simply attach this, this recording of yours or the video through a link on your text message, and they can listen it from there. If you’re an iPhone user, you can even just press one of those buttons. And a lot of people have been using that. Uh, and I think this, these are just some of the simple creative ways that I think we have done for some of our clients and that you’ve done. But what about the content? Let me talk about a little bit, how do they make their texts and their emails, you know, um, with some of these video recordings or their the actual voicemails, uh, you know, more palatable for people so that people will go and said, you know, okay, I’ll listen to that, or I’ll delete, I’ll open that.
Steven: Some ways to improve the chance that someone takes time to open up one of your voicemails or emails or text messages is the first few, the first few lines of text, the first few characters, if you will, on the text message. If it’s something that’s going to grab your attention, like, you know, maybe we goofed up, or, uh, something that kind of elicits an emotional response because people are emotional creatures, that’s what’s going to draw in the person on the other side to say, you know what, maybe this is something I need to double check on. Um, and and I know that, uh, as well as, well as the content of the text message being a good attention grabber, uh, what’s within the text messages is just as important, or what’s within the email is just as important. For instance, um, one thing we’ve done before is, uh, create a profile for each one of the salesmen of a company so that every time they are about to go out to a home to demo a product, they have a short 20-second video saying, hi, my name is X, I do this, and I’m really excited to meet with you. We’ll be there at 10 o’clock. That emotional connection where they see the person coming out, they can trust that this person is going to be who they say they are, really does start the process on the right foot. And and I know that usually we have, um, and and what we’ve found is is, uh, statistically, the chances that this person answers the door, allows you into the home, and sits through the entire process is has gone up quite a bit. So just a few little tidbits here and there where we can improve the process for you, for, uh, clients and for the sales people and for the company as a whole.
Vic Sun: Yeah, and I think videos and and again, things like that creatively, um, and even having a conversational AI, you know, chat bots linking, you know, that to sending them a link, right, um, into your text messages, you know, tying me down to KC, we’ll get back to you as well, KC, but, you know, you got a milestone grid, for example, it’s already a sold client, and now they’re, they’re about to complete their job, uh, maybe, you know, and and and it’s after business hours, right? Because the the installer has just left home, they’ve marked this down as a completed project. At this point, your call center is probably not available anymore. Uh, you don’t really want to give a long drawn-out phone call to someone. So you basically send them a text or an email, um, or even an automated message, right, with a link or or something that comes with a text and say, hey, you know, uh, answer these two questions, or at least, you know, have a conversation with our with our AI assistant, right? And and even take you to the next steps, uh, sending them to a landing page, for example, to confirm the next appointment. There’s so many good ways, but it’s, I think what’s, what’s missing is planning out that user journey. So let’s get back to you, KC. You know, with the milestone grid, this allows for planning, and, um, what have you found? I mean, not just aside from just, well, I don’t know how to do it, what is, what is missing with the planning side of things with a lot of companies, um, which is why they’re ignoring or at least they’re not using some of these features?
KC: It’s really difficult to use the milestone grid unless you already have kind of made the commitment to get a lot of your other systems tied into lead perfection. And so let’s say that you say, okay, I want you to access this document to use for this client, and that’s something that has been tasked out as part of a process on the milestone grid. If you don’t have access to that document already, then you’re going to have to go find it on a different program, or you’re going to have to go find a physical copy. So having that whole post-sale process tied into lead perfection is kind of the prerequisite to being able to most effectively use the milestone grid.
Vic Sun: Okay, so so but for our for the audience out there who’s still daunted by this whole thing, and and we know that we can manually input these things, right? You know, you can, it’s, it’s out of the box ready in terms of if you wanted to start leaving your excel spreadsheets, uh, and your other, you know, and and manually writing this down somewhere, you could literally just enter it into the back end, uh, or even upload the documents. So what has been your advice to those companies that, um, you know, maybe you don’t have it as effective and as efficient as it can be, um, but what would you, what would your advice be for them to just to start something so that they can at least get familiar with the back end?
KC: I would say the best place to start is to make sure that your contract is mappable to the system. And for those who are not, uh, actually familiar with the term mappable, it just means that taking all of those fields that are available on your contract, maybe they’re already populated through another system, maybe they’re not, it’s making sure that lead perfection can understand the fields that are on there and automatically have that already available for you in the system. So you’re not sitting there entry, re-entry, re-entry, re-entry. That takes a lot of time, you know? So you want to have everybody enter the information once in one place. Let’s say it’s on an iPad when the sales rep is already with the customer, or maybe it’s, uh, your administrative team taking in that information over the phone. You want them to write it once, and it goes all over the back end of the process. So you type in Jane into the first name, Jane’s name is now on the contract, Jane’s name’s now on the measure, Jane’s name is now on the next, uh, the next work order, uh, that, and Jane’s name is on all of the different work orders that follow, you know? It’s something that you only have to do once, and it goes throughout everything. But getting those initial things, uh, mapped into lead perfection is really not as scary as it sounds. It’s something that, uh, experts like myself and Vic and Steven have had, uh, have had experience doing, and once that’s done, everything else kind of falls into place.
Vic Sun: Yeah, and for those people who have, um, you know, manual, you know, paper documents and contracts, even if you think about, well, you’re going to scan this and put it somewhere, but if you have, most of the companies will probably have some sort of administrative assistant or somebody who is a cleric, you know, on the clerical side of things, they’ll have to enter this manually. I I don’t, I don’t find anything wrong with that. I think it’s, it’s, you know, I, if it’s something that you need to enter into your system because if you lose the paper document, you have it in there. And I think it’s the first step really is, you know, everybody has to start somewhere. And if you have some paper document or your contracts and measures, all of that, and you’re kind of, okay, well, I don’t have this all automated mapping into each of these fields yet, you can start by simply just entering it into the system. And for those who have pricing, job costing, um, you know, sales people’s commissions, those sort of things, you can actually even create those fields and delete perfection, enter them manually, and just start abandoning your excel spreadsheets, right? Um, we have a client who who’s a startup, and, uh, you know, they’re doing like, you know, six, seven million dollars a year, even as a startup in home improvement, and we discovered that everything that they do is on a excel file, a shared excel file. And and really, you know, when when we help them transition into lead perfection from their other CRM, they, you know, the first thing we said was like, you can just stop using excel because you can start entering this information directly into your CRM or ERP, right? Here, the perfection acts as a pseudo ERP in the sense that it has the back end, uh, part of it. Um, and for Steven, you know, with the with the nudges or the things that you’ve, you’ve seen here, um, on lead perfection that can be automated or batched, uh, you know, going back to you, you mentioned some of the content, some links to maybe a chat bot or a landing page, what have you, give some specific advices you’ve seen, like this has created a huge lift in terms of performance or or revenue or efficiency, uh, something very quick, basic, you know, that a specific example, uh, that’s really worked out so far.
Steven: Um, so as far as improving, uh, or I guess reducing the amount of cost needed to process and and create documents and and nudge clients, uh, just simply having a process that automatically notifies clients through, uh, we’ve, we’ve created a few different options. One of them was a chat bot that somebody could ask a question and find out exactly, uh, what the status of their order was. It freed up the time of somebody calling in, freeing up the call center. And I mean, if it’s reducing costs on call center and having an extra agent available to answer these, like, very basic questions that could be done through a quick search, a quick search the system, um, then we’re giving our marketers more time, we’re giving all of our staff members more time to complete projects that are still in the queue. So just having that extra time available, freeing up that remedial question, um, it’s really simple, and and it frees up so much time, and it definitely affects the bottom line for our clients.
Vic Sun: Yeah, and I think it’s because of the happiness it brings to clients. Like, I I know that project obviously that you’re talking about, we have an automation, um, where you can put in the order number, and it tells you exactly where it is. And it’s not necessarily for a home improvement client. We we have one for like a D2C client where you can type in the order, it tells you if it just left the warehouse and when it’s going to get to your door. And and if you want to make changes, you can do all of that from within one place, a text message, you know, that leads you there. It’s so simple. Um, but, you know, companies miss out on that because I think they, they’re kind of forcing the issue. It sounds like you’re suggesting something that in a nice way, you’re saying, well, look, you know, don’t force the issue. They don’t, you don’t just need to call and call and call and leave messages to people. You can actually use other channels because people do like text, people do like emails, right? And and people can receive more than just words on a text. You they, you can send them photos and links and videos. And and I think, uh, again, you know, that is, uh, something that many industries, including home improvement industries, are are missing on, right? They’re, they’re still in the, oh, I’ve just started to text people, but whatever I’m texting them is just all words, it’s all about me, and it’s not entertaining, or it’s not like a video, it’s not a recording, and it’s not fun and exciting. And so they say, well, it’s not effective. And I think that’s one of the episodes we’re going to be talking about with, uh, when we when we get to our Hatch episode, uh, or at least, you know, for texting platforms, you know, how to make that truly effective. So that’s it for us for today. I really appreciate both of you guys, and I’m sure our audience, you know, uh, hopefully they’ve learned something. Um, you know, we’ve, we hope that you’ve enjoyed our chat and learned a couple of things, guys. Uh, as always, we here at One Leg believe that poor marketing, uh, and operations pollute the planet, and that the business is full of tired, outdated, indistinct, and unremarkable underperforming marketing that sucks. But what sucks even more is that many companies have forgotten the most important thing of all, and that’s really the customer, that’s their focus, right? We’re on a mission on behalf of our clients as customers to change that. To learn more, go to zeromarketingwaste.com, again, at zeromarketingwaste.com, where you can subscribe to our blog and to this very podcast series. You can always find us and follow us by looking for Mingo to Flamingo and the One Leg handle every so slightly socialize online. Thank you guys for being part of this series. We will chat soon.
