In business, there are lessons to be learned from those who create success over the long term. A recent conversation with Danielle Martini highlighted several important lessons for business owners – and many involved consistently adopting, communicating, and enforcing good business practices.
Communicating Expectations for Team Members
If there’s one thing I know about Danielle Martini, it’s that she knows what she wants. The gold in that statement is that her employees know what she wants, too! Her expectations are clearly laid out – from before she hires someone all the way to the guys who have been employees (and happily) for years.
During the hiring process, Danielle looks for attitude, personality, and clues that demonstrate the candidate is focused on providing excellent customer service beyond “just getting the job done.”
Consistency with Clients – aka Setting Expectations
The policies, procedures, and processes are a significant part of what makes 3 Way Plumbing so successful. In the company’s radio commercial on 107.9 The Link, Danielle states, “My technicians will show up on time, in uniform, and give you options. They don’t work on commission, so they have YOUR best interest in mind.”
Danielle says she paid attention when she got poor service, encountered a service professional who wouldn’t listen, or who tried to rip her off. She knew she could provide a better service honestly.
Additionally, part of the 3 Way Plumbing promise to customers is to give options, pricing and warranty information before the technicians ever start working. Their motto is “no surprises.”
Quality through Training
At 3 Way Plumbing, Danielle makes sure that her technicians are skilled professionals. Training is a huge part of how she creates a culture of quality. Sometimes her technicians say, “Why are we training on this product or technique again? I already know this?” The point of training is repetition and consistency – so everyone is providing the same quality service in the same proven “3 Way Plumbing” process.
From the excellent sales training system all the way through the service visit, the point is to give people options and explain the benefits of each. And Danielle wants it to come across easily and naturally. “We role play, train, and retrain,” she says emphatically. “I want sales and service from our technicians to become second nature.”
Tracking Everything for ROI
Ultimately, Danielle makes her decision based on metrics – her “dashboard” that helps her focus on the health of the business. She tracks everything (“Probably too much,” she says with a laugh).
Wanting to know the ROI (return on investment) of everything from sales training to diagnostics to marketing helps her make financial and training decisions that are more than “gut-based.”
Additionally, spending time weekly on customer feedback helps the team come to an agreement about what can be done better or differently for customers in the future.
Knowledge sharing is key!
There’s much to learn from this successful business – and from this focused business owner.
- As you are consistent with your policies, procedures, and expectations for your team, they will deliver on those expectations. If they cannot deliver, they might not be right member for your team.
- As you are consistent with creating a culture within your company (remember that Danielle’s is quality work and excellent customer service), so too will your team adopt that culture.
- And as you set a very high bar with continued training sessions for your team, they will continue to improve their work – or they will clearly show they don’t deserve to be part of the high quality team you have created.
Consistent communication of expectations for team and customers, focus on creating a positive culture, an emphasis on ongoing training, and tracking what works makes for an excellent business indeed.
Congratulations to Danielle Martini and her team at 3 Way Plumbing for providing us with an example of a company that WORKS!
We’ll be interviewing companies through the rest of 2011. If you know of a successful service-based business that we should contact – let us know!