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(Cont.) Tighten Your Process And Stop Paying For Small Misses

Ty Cobb Backer 0:00

Episode 327. How to tighten your process, raise the standard, and stop paying for small misses. We have a kind of a belief system that either we're gonna push you up or gonna push you out. I don't wanna be around five other people that aren't pushing themselves to succeed. Success isn't about taking, but giving value first. Compensation follows contribution always. This is true. Authenticity. That's the truth. Every week, this is our story. We share with you our journey, we share with you our scars. Please welcome your host, Ty Cobb Backer. We are live. I apologize for that. For some reason, I can't hear myself on the playback. Anyhow, welcome back. Episode 327. How to tighten your process, raise the standard, and stop paying for small missus. Thank you for joining us on this amazing frickin' Wednesday. I think they were calling for rain earlier, but from what I can tell from looking out the window here, don't see any rain yet. Looks like the sun's out, sun's out, guns out. Anywho, last episode we talked about the cost of almost right and how little misses, the vague handoffs, the half-assed clear communication, and the small breakdowns quietly steal trust, profit, and momentum. And based on how many people reached out to me after that episode, I know a lot of people felt that. So because almost right is one of those things that everybody has lived through. You've seen it on the job sites, you've seen it in poor communication. I've seen it in myself, I've seen it in leadership, and I've seen it in our team. So today I want to go wanna go a step further. Not not just the cost of almost right, but the fixed. The fix. The fix of almost right. So if the the first episode was about the pain, this one will be about the path. So a lot of companies uh recognize the problems. And we're recently going through some stuff, some changes, and we're picking up winter, I feel, is a knock on wood is over, and uh we're experiencing some things because I feel like you know, teams get complacent, at least us up here up north, where you know things tend to slow down a little bit, and uh it's been super freaking cold. And um, I think we get a little comfortable, you know, and then all of a sudden, 80 degrees one day, and the phone starts ringing, things start popping off, and that's where we start to see things not so right, almost right. So a lot of companies I think recognize the problems, okay, but they never actually solve it, okay. And for us in the past, we'll have a meeting about it, everyone agrees, everyone says, Yep, we need to tighten that up, but then nothing changes, nothing happens. I ask myself the question, why does that happen? Why does that happen? Right? Well, from my experience, I try to throw too much out there, I try to fix too much at one time. Um for me, that has created um frustration, um, confusion. Um I think people would then get confused with frustration with action. They assume good people will just be better. Um we rely on memory instead of process. We call something a one-off when when it is really a pattern, or now it just becomes normal behavior. Awareness without a standard is just temporary emotion, okay, from from what I'm experiencing or have experienced. And a lot of leaders are are not managing a performance problem. We we are managing a clarity problem. We're not clear enough, we're not defining a solution, we're not defining what is the root cause of the problem. I think we're too busy putting fires out and and throwing band-aids on stuff. So let's talk about how to actually fix it in in real time. So, um what I recently have done is I've found I found one pain point, okay, because I'm not trying to fix the entire world. I'm not trying to revamp and reinvent the entire company. I just I found one thing, and that's what I've been doing actually all winter. It's what I we started. We started probably back in Q3 of last year and have been identifying pain points, friction, all sorts of things. And we've been tackling one at a time, and sometimes things come up that that seem to be more important that we didn't quite identify yet. So we'll put certain things on the back burner and deal with the most immediate things as they come up. But again, we're not trying to, you know, throw the fishnet out there and reel everything in at one time and fix everything because then it just creates confusion and frustration and burnout and all that stuff. So we don't have to fix the entire company at once, okay. This is where I think for me, I've lost momentum, okay, which then creates momentum. They get inspired, they see 10 different things broke, and then they change nothing because it just feels so overwhelming and so big. Okay. So what I've done is I've picked one issue that keeps coming back, right? And and for example, for us, and I I reviewed some of these last week was you know, um job sold. Um, you know, the the handoff to from sales to operations is poorly. Homeowners are confused about the schedule. Uh crews are missing uh critical details or special instructions, supplement stalling because nobody owns the follow-up process. Um, nobody, you know, we stop asking for reviews, we stop getting referrals because no one's being consistent with asking for reviews, no one's asking for referrals, and we wonder why the phone stopped ringing over the slower months. Um, so do not start by fixing everything. Start by stopping one bleed, stop by by stopping that one, plugging that one hole. Okay. And the questions I've had to ask myself before in the past is where does the confusion start? Where does it happen most? Okay, where does blame show up most? Okay, where are customers most likely to feel uncertainty? What problem have we normalized because it happens so often, it just becomes natural. It becomes a part of the process. And this thing whether you have a process or not, or have it documented, okay? If you don't have it documented and you're not talking about it, there's a process that happens by default. Okay. So if you're if you're not taking the time to sit down and find these pain points, that is your process. These pain points become your process. Reoccurring frustration is not just bad luck. It's it's a it's the system by default exposing itself. And again, all my experience, everything that I've experienced, some of the things we're actually experiencing right now. And once you pick that one pain point, okay, the next step is defining what right, what, what, what is actually, what does actually um what does right actually look like? Okay, and that's the thing. We need to help as leaders, we need to step in and we need to define sometimes and make it super simple that a four-year-old can understand and create the framework of what right might look like. Most teams are not underperforming because they're lazy, they are underperforming because done right is too vague. And again, if I'm pointing one finger, I got three pointing back at me. All right. I'll walk into a room and I'll say, communicate better, tighten up the handoff, be more professional, set expectations better. Okay, that all sounds great, but none of it is is is very specific. Okay, it's not specific enough to actually execute consistency. Okay. So instead, we have to define the standard. Okay, and for example, if the problem is is at the handoff, then done right might mean every job sold has full photos. Every job sold includes a full scope. Every job sold includes colors, material confirmation, um, uh specific customer requests or concerns, uh, timeline expectations. Uh, is it an insurance job? How are they paying? Is it half up front? Is it is it, you know, some of it being financed? Is some of it going to be on a credit card? So on and so forth. Okay. Now people know what right is. Okay. Progress is not a vibe, it's a standard. Okay. I'm not shooting for perfection here, never have. Okay. But what I'm shooting for is progress. Progress rather than perfection. Okay. Vague expectations, okay, create expensive freedom. Okay. If your team cannot clearly repeat the standard, the standard is not real yet. Okay. Once right is clearly defined, now you have, now you have to protect the handoff. Okay. So gotta fix the handoff. That's usually where that's usually where buyers begin, is in between the handoffs. So a lot of the pain in a in a company does not happen in like the actual task itself. It happens in the transfer, okay? Sales to office, sales to production, um, office to homeowner, production to crew, project manager to customer, job completion, um to collections, reviews, referrals, right? So we have to we have to help create a framework. Every handoff should answer three questions. Okay. What just happened? What happens next? Who owns the next move? It's clearly that simple. And with one framework alone, it could clean up so much mess, so much freaking mess. We just had a great meeting yesterday or Monday, Monday morning. We had a great meeting and we talked about this. One little system documented, okay, to create a standard is going to clean up so much stuff. Man hours, you know, um uh man hours, uh, job completions, things getting done on time, takeoffs, homeowner, lack, lack of homeowners, um, concern. So many different things. One little thing. Okay. So salesperson closes a job. Okay. Bad handoff sounds like. Okay. Uh, customer signed and um should be ready soon. Good hot, good handoff sounds like customer signed yesterday, color selection sheets, cart charcoal, detached garages included, homeowner works nights, do not call before 10 o'clock. Like actually taking notes and putting stuff in there. Listening to what the homeowner's requests are and putting them in there. They are nervous about their landscaping on the west side of the building. Be specific. Okay. Insurance check is partial, supplement likely. Okay. I know the job, I know that the insurance check doesn't look like it's enough, but however, there is uh could gonna be code upgrades. There's going to be uh manufacturer specs upgrades, you know, things things of that nature. Like put the notes in there. Don't assume that it's trivial, and everyone's gonna understand it can read your mind three days later after they look at the the half-ass written scope that you may have put in there. Okay, figure out what the next step is gonna be and who is gonna do it. And essentially, at the end of the day, that becomes your handoff, but you got to document it and you got to repeat the process and you got to re- continue to keep repeating yourself. Okay, most fires do not start in the actual work that we're doing, okay? They start in the gap between the people office to production, sales to operation, it's in between there. It's the lack of communication, it's the lack of clarity, it's the lack of details. Okay. So great companies do not just do the job well, they transfer the job well. The handoff is done well. Now, let's talk about the customer side of this because almost right gets expensive fast. Okay, I watch it, I see it, I still see it, it drives me freaking crazy when the communication is weak. Okay, communicate before the customer has to ask. All right, customers don't panic just because something changes, they panic when something changes and nobody explains it. Okay, you can do a good roof and still create a bad experience for a customer, can you know, because they're feeling um unsure the entire time. They have no idea what's going on, they have no idea what time the shingles will be there, they have no idea where the trash pile is going to be, they have no idea, they don't know. And we think it's trivial. I and I get it because I do this all the time. I've done it for decades. Okay, and I think that they should know what's up because I think they do it all the time, but they don't. Usually a roof or something is like once in a lifetime type of thing. Okay, so they need clarity around like when things are gonna start. What happens next? Okay. You know, now that you sign the contract, Sam is gonna hit you up, she's gonna send in a pay per click, get a deposit, then we'll order the materials, then we'll find out how long it's gonna take to give the materials, and then I'll give you a call and let you know that's gonna be six to eight weeks or whatever the case might be. Okay. What they should expect the day of the build, okay? Where the materials will go, what cleanup looks like. It's gonna look like a freaking bomb went off. It's one of these situations where it's gonna look worse before it gets better. That's one of my famous lines. It's what I used to love to use all the time. It's like, listen, you might not want to be here for this because it's gonna look like a freaking bomb went off in your front yard here. You might want to just go to work, but some honors want to stay home. And if and that's fine. But we got to let them know hey, if you plan on going, if you're gonna be home and if you plan on being here, you might want to pull your car out of the garage the night before because once the shingle truck gets in the driveway, as soon as the shingle truck leaves, the dump trailer's pulling in, then the equipped there's gonna be driving around. And then ask them, is there any particular part of the house that you want us to stay away from? Is there something that you want us to pay extra attention to and cover up and take care of? Is that is that your great-great-great-great great great grandmother's bird bath out in the backyard? And that's a true story. I'll talk about that later. You know, like we have to ask these questions or tell them, like, look, get your pictures off the wall, move your your uh patio furniture off the back of the deck. If you don't want it to get messed up, you're gonna have to move it because our tarps won't lay over it nicely, or or whatever the case might be. Like we're professionals, we have to treat them as such. Okay. So silence always creates a story. And the stories customers create on their own are usually worse than reality. So we have to give them the story. We have to paint a picture of like how ugly this might be for about two hours, but how it's gonna look at the end when we are done with it. We're gonna get up as many nails as we possibly can. I never promised the fact that we'll be able to clean up every single nail out of the freaking yard. It's impossible. I sometimes tell them too, you may find nails years later in areas that you didn't even see us working in. How it happens, I have no idea. I still find nails in my yard in areas of the I know we didn't throw any product. I don't know if like birds pick them up out of the gutters and then carry it 50 yards away and like drop it. I don't know, dude, but nails, it's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of nails are gonna be every freaking where we do our best to tarp the yards. We do our best to run the magnet dozens of times around your house. However, if a problem comes up, give us a shout. I'll come out and rerun the magnet. There might be a spot that we missed. We're not perfect. We'll do the best we can to leave your property in better shape than it was when we got there. Set that expectation right away, okay? A calm customer is usually an informed customer. Paint the picture. Give them the good and the bad and the ugly, man. Don't be scared. It's gonna look like a freaking bomb went up. But I promise you, when we're done, it's gonna look beautiful. You're gonna have the hottest house on the block, I swear to you. I swear to you. And you're gonna want to tell everybody about who did it and why, why you went with us and why you chose us. Okay. The customer experience is not what you meant, it's what they feel, it's what they felt. Okay. They're they're they're spending their hard-earned money. That shit's not cheap. Okay. So, practical example would be of communication would be the day before confirmation text. Yep, we'll we're gonna be there at 7 a.m. Um, and and everything's gonna happen that we've already discussed in that last email that I sent you. Okay. Um, morning of arrival message. Hey, we're here. Just want to let you know, or hey, we're on our way. Okay. Or how about this? And and I we still get calls about this. Quick update if weather shifts the job. We can't assume that homeowners are gonna know that we're not coming if it's calling for rain tomorrow. I'm sorry, kids. They can't read your freaking mind. And they're not a meteorologist, they don't watch the weather like we do. We have to call them and let them know listen, they're calling for a 70% chance of rain in the afternoon, and I just don't feel comfortable coming out and cracking your freaking roof open today. Okay, I'm sorry, but we will be there on Thursday. Does that work for you? I'm sorry, you might have to rearrange your plans, but we've been watching the weather closely, and it just seems like it's shifting to a higher percentage than it was on Monday. Are you okay with that? Okay, cool. Good. That's it. Pick the phone up, communicate, right? They they then half the time we don't even show up the following day. Anyhow, send them a quick text message if they're not home, if they went to work at the end of the completion. Give them a recap. Things went great, guys are cleaning up right now. We're getting the nails out of your yard. We had to replace three pieces, like I had mentioned to you before, three pieces of OSB. All right, do not make the customer chase clarity. Do not paint the picture for them. I can't, I can't emphasize, I can't express enough. Okay, do not make them chase clarity. Do not okay. So now you have a clear standard, cleaner hand offs, and better communication. The next question is how do we keep it from slipping? I've watched it, I've seen it slip. Okay. Inspect what you expect. A process is not fixed because you talked about it once. It's not because you had one meeting and everybody, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, we suck, we're gonna fix it. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, done it. Okay, it is fixed when you when it gets inspected. Okay. A lot of people, including myself, say they want consistency, but they only notice process when something goes wrong. Okay, and that's why we're having this conversation right now, right? So, what we got it, what do we gotta do? We're gonna have to spot check handoffs, review. The notes, listen to customer calls, which I do. Inspect photos. Okay. Check whether updated text messages were sent. Review whether the standards were followed. Okay. If you're anything like we are, you can follow the matrix metrics. Okay. Callbacks, missed details, uh, surprise customer complaints, um, internal confusion, review uh request um consistently, okay. Um, referral rate, uh, cash collection delays. Like, what happened? Why are why is there such a hiccup? Well, we had a string of unhappy homeowners. Why? Because nobody followed the frickin' process. Why didn't they? Because I never followed up. I never inspected it. They fell back into their old ways. It takes work. It's called work. You have to follow up, follow up, follow up, follow up until it becomes the new norm. Just because it's broke doesn't mean it can't be fixed. It can be fixed, and it will be if you follow up. So, what gets inspected gets respected. All right. If nobody's checking, the team eventually decides it's optional, then. Okay, I've seen it, I've done it, I am freaking guilty of it on both sides of the coin. Okay. So accountability. This does not need to be emotional, it doesn't need to be stressful, it doesn't need to be dramatic, it just needs to be consistent. Okay. Accountability works best when it's boring. When it's freaking boring. That's when it works best. The goal is not to create more pressure. It's not at all what I'm trying to do. All right. The goal is to create more clarity. My bad, I wasn't clear enough. My bad. I gotta own that shit. I have to own it. We got to train it, we got to repeat it, we got to protect it. Okay, the standard has to live past the meeting. Okay. A lot of people explain something once and think the team has it. Guilty. Guilty is charged. Okay. They don't. Not because they're dumb, not because they're incompetent. It's because they're busy and no one's staying on their ass, unfortunately. Okay. People need repetition, they need examples. Okay. They need simple checklists. They need reminders under pressure. Okay. Because we're moving fast here, right? It can be as simple as a one-page process. It could be a short script. It could be a checklist. It could be role-playing, a quick huddle reminder, correction in real time. Don't let it keep sliding. Correct it in real time. Praise when someone nails the standard. You guys are doing a great job. You freaking crushed it this week. Okay. The standard is not real until it survives a busy week. And that's what we're working on right now. Training is not saying it once. Training is repeating it until it becomes normal. Protect the standard. Protect it early and often before the old habits come back. Because once the team feels like the standard is optional, they will drift right back almost right away. Guaranteed. I've watched it, I've seen it, I've done it, I've drifted right back into my old ways. So how do we make this practical starting this week? Okay. How did we do it? Okay. This is your practical. Okay. This is your practical uh closure before before we wrap this up. Okay. We'll do uh like a seven-day reset. We started ours on Monday. Just so everybody knows. Okay. So first thing was I picked one reoccurring problem. Not ten. I'm known for that. We're gonna fix everything right now. No one's going home until we're done. Okay, just pick one thing. Define what done right looks like. We reviewed it, we created a new SOP. Write it down. We wrote it down. I made sure everybody understood it. Okay. Write it down in plain language. Okay. Then we assigned ownership. Who does what when? Who's responsible for this? All right. Who owns it from start to finish? All right. All we did was create one simple tool: checklist, a script, a template, an SOP, handoff note. Okay. Then inspect the next 10 jobs. That's what I'm in the process of doing right now. Not forever, just the next 10. Look for compliance and friction. It may have created some other friction points. I don't know. We'll find out. Fix it when it breaks, right? Fix what still feels clunky. I hate clunky. Okay. I like the speed of lightning. Let's go. I like smooth. I like systems. I like process. I like it. Smooth, not clunky, right? I find something clunky, we're gonna have to tighten it up again. So maybe someone's slipping. Okay. Process or incompetency. Without the process, we won't know either one. Okay. We're not looking to reinvent the entire freaking company. All we're doing is looking to clean up one standard, okay? And then we'll multiply it consistently after that. But usually the one pain point that sticks out to you the loudest probably will end up fixing a lot of other issues that you have. So, all right. Over the next 30 days, I'm going to review a lot of these things. I'm going to ask questions. Okay. Are customers less confused? Is our team calmer? Our callbacks down. Are handoffs cleaner? Are jobs moving faster? I'll know. I'll know before 30 days. Is our leadership spending less time cleaning up messes? Or how are we avoiding the messes? Right? So that is how you know if we're moving forward or not. If we're moving from almost right to done right. But I'll never know if I'm not inspecting. They won't know what to expect. Okay. Until I assign someone else to do that. Or it becomes the new norm. So, anyhow, last episode, we talked about the cost of almost right. This episode is the reminder that almost right is not permanent. It is flexible. Okay. But it does not get fixed with more pressure. Okay. I know that from experience. It gets fixed with more clarity, with more cleaner and clearer standards. Okay. Cleaner handoffs, cleaner communication, cleaner accountability. The companies that scale well are not always the loudest and screaming and bickering and da da da da. They're not always the ones that are the flashiest. Okay. But they're the ones that are the clearest. I need to get better with my leadership. I understand. One of the things that I can do is be more clear on the vision. What direction are we going in? Help write the SOPs, help create the frameworks, identify the pain points that may have become normal for people. That is my job today. That is anyone's job within an organization. Instead of just being more comfortable in the sucky stuff. Because I think sometimes it's more comfortable staying stuck than it is to actually change something. Right? Does that make sense? It makes sense to me. Anyhow, get them defined, train them, then inspect them. And over time, that clarity turns into trust. The margins go up, momentum gets created, and then there's peace. Okay? So here's the challenge. Find one place in your company where almost right has become normal. I know we have, and fix it. Because every time you remove one small point of confusion, you make the whole business stronger. I know I feel stronger today. That is the fix for almost right. So thank you for joining us. I hope you got as much out of this as I did. Okay. Don't forget to like us, follow us, and share this with someone that you think might need this. Okay. Have a great week, and we will see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

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