From Stress to Success: Michelle Myers Talks Remote CSRs and Work-Life Balance
Send us a textUnlock the secrets to elevating your customer service game with insights from Michelle Myers, founder of Pink Callers. Michelle joins us to discuss her innovative approach to providing remote Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), dispatchers, and call center managers. By offering specialized training and robust community support, Michelle's team ensures that CSRs are well-prepared to improve customer experiences, ultimately allowing business owners to focus on what they do be...
Unlock the secrets to elevating your customer service game with insights from Michelle Myers, founder of Pink Callers. Michelle joins us to discuss her innovative approach to providing remote Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), dispatchers, and call center managers. By offering specialized training and robust community support, Michelle's team ensures that CSRs are well-prepared to improve customer experiences, ultimately allowing business owners to focus on what they do best.
Relinquishing control can be a significant stress reliever, both personally and professionally. In this episode, we explore the importance of establishing effective business processes and share personal stories of overcoming challenges, including my journey to recovery from alcoholism. Michelle and I delve into how aligning employees' strengths with their roles and embracing personal hobbies, like gardening, can lead to substantial growth and well-being in both business and life.
From organizing the largest Christmas parade on the East Coast to navigating the complexities of starting a business during an economic downturn, this episode is packed with valuable lessons on leadership, resilience, and adaptability. Listen as we discuss the entrepreneurial balancing act, the nuances of managing remote CSRs, and the importance of maintaining a strong virtual culture. Don't miss out on these actionable insights for transforming your customer service and leading your business to success.
00:00:02.383 --> 00:00:04.166 Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
00:00:04.166 --> 00:00:07.753 I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with Michelle Myers.
00:00:07.753 --> 00:00:10.740 Hey, michelle, hey there, corey, how are you Good?
00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:12.025 Good to see you Good.
00:00:12.066 --> 00:00:12.667 Nice to be seen.
00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:20.274 So, Michelle, for those folks that may not know anything about you or the business, could you just give us a quick overview?
00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:21.621 Sure, absolutely.
00:00:21.621 --> 00:00:22.524 I'm Michelle Myers.
00:00:22.524 --> 00:00:24.187 We are located.
00:00:24.187 --> 00:00:28.065 Our headquarters are in Virginia, northern Virginia, just outside of Washington DC.
00:00:28.065 --> 00:00:46.188 I've got a distributed team all over the nation in every time zone, and Pink Collars is my main Monday through Friday gig and it keeps me busy, and we set up companies for success by providing CSRs, dispatchers and call center managers into their business remotely.
00:00:46.188 --> 00:00:58.152 We work on several CRMs, but Service Titan is the main one that we focus on and we are excited to be here and share a little bit about what we do and how WhoHire may have helped get us on top.
00:00:58.152 --> 00:00:59.414 I'm just saying I love it.
00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:20.706 So I mean, this is you know, the CSR role, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked, underpaid roles in the industry as it pertains to in-house CSRs.
00:01:20.706 --> 00:01:56.234 It drives me insane because you spend thousands, tens of thousands of dollars driving people to the phones and then you have the arguably the lowest person on the totem pole fielding those calls and driving them to the right direction, Whether that be if you've got multiple, if you've got, you know, plumbing or heating or electrical or whatever that might be, and not asking the right questions, which is just mind boggling to me why they would.
00:01:56.234 --> 00:01:59.102 People would make that decision, but they do all the time.
00:01:59.483 --> 00:02:03.332 Every day and I wouldn't say, if I can correct you, I'm sorry.
00:02:03.332 --> 00:02:14.248 First sentence out, I would say it's the least supported person in the business, right, it's got the least amount of training, it's got the least amount of community, it's got the least amount of support.
00:02:14.248 --> 00:02:18.872 And, to be fair, business owners go into business because they're one of two people.
00:02:18.872 --> 00:02:21.468 They're either a visionary right, they see the future.
00:02:21.468 --> 00:02:22.945 They're like I'm going to do it my way.
00:02:22.945 --> 00:02:23.747 They do like I'm going to do it my way.
00:02:23.747 --> 00:02:23.967 They do it.
00:02:23.967 --> 00:02:26.650 Then they get out there and they kill it, right, they're out there doing the thing.
00:02:26.650 --> 00:02:29.454 Or they're tactical and they're technicians.
00:02:29.454 --> 00:02:34.007 They've worked for somebody their whole life and they're like I'm doing it a different way, I'm going to start my own thing.
00:02:34.007 --> 00:02:35.539 And they're on the tools from the beginning.
00:02:36.121 --> 00:02:46.254 So, whether you're a visionary or an integrator, a guy that's on the tools, likely the CSR in your business is a complete different than either of those humans.
00:02:46.816 --> 00:02:59.582 Right, they're box checkers, they're list takers, they're active listeners, they've got a really good level of kindness and concern about the customer and so oftentimes, as a business owner, they're almost like a.
00:02:59.582 --> 00:03:11.424 It's like you two are speaking two different languages you and that customer service person, and so that's where I think a lot of disconnect happens is that we as owners don't really speak that customer service language.
00:03:11.424 --> 00:03:20.442 We're either, like I said, living in the future or we're out there doing the thing, and so the customer service really falls in a lane that some of us aren't really familiar with.
00:03:20.442 --> 00:03:31.246 And that's where I think a company like ours can come in and serve, because we know that and we can provide that support and that culture and that training piece that you as a business owner may not have time to do.
00:03:31.246 --> 00:03:39.662 And that's, I think, where they fall through the cracks, and I don't think it's anybody's fault, I just think it's a function that some people just don't understand to be honest.
00:03:39.741 --> 00:03:41.567 You know you don't know what you don't know.
00:03:41.567 --> 00:03:55.923 Yeah, and you're right, it's, you know there it does.
00:03:55.923 --> 00:04:00.731 It for sure falls in one of those two categories a visionary or the guy getting out of the truck starting his own business.
00:04:00.731 --> 00:04:06.302 But either one, people, if you're CSRs and here's what I love about your business is you take that.
00:04:06.302 --> 00:04:10.293 You take that all of the guesswork out of that, right, you don't?
00:04:10.293 --> 00:04:15.501 They don't have to worry about if they're being nice to the CSRs or if the CSRs are doing their job.
00:04:15.501 --> 00:04:16.182 That's your job.
00:04:16.622 --> 00:04:25.882 Exactly, and we stand in the gap and you know we kind of speak their language right and we do that support and we do that additional training and we do that.
00:04:25.882 --> 00:04:28.930 You know leadership development and that professional development.
00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:33.795 We want our people to be better after working with us, just like our clients are better.
00:04:33.795 --> 00:04:36.884 We want our individuals that work on our team to be better.
00:04:36.884 --> 00:04:47.430 So we do certifications and webinars and you know a career path and a career ladder and we have a lot of different implemented tools in our toolbox that we can utilize.
00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:54.009 And don't forget, the cool thing about working with a team of a lot of the same people is that you can learn from one another.
00:04:54.009 --> 00:04:56.824 So there's a lot of cross-functionality in.
00:04:56.824 --> 00:05:03.324 Okay, I'm working for this plumbing company in Frisco, but those cats in California did something very similar.
00:05:03.324 --> 00:05:19.615 I'm going to talk to her so I understand how to do that thing, and so you speed up the sort of runway to getting an effective CSR on the phone, because you kind of have that hive mind mentality of the whole group of people working with you on your business, which I just think is really cool.
00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:23.762 Well, and it's your lane and you're only in your lane.
00:05:23.762 --> 00:05:33.067 It's like it's hard to juggle 14 different things a day, and you certainly can't juggle 14 different things effectively.
00:05:33.067 --> 00:05:34.168 I don't care who you are.
00:05:34.728 --> 00:05:39.632 And I like to tell business owners we don't have any issue outsourcing our bookkeeping.
00:05:39.851 --> 00:05:45.095 Right, none of us are accountants and we have zero problem outsourcing our marketing.
00:05:45.095 --> 00:05:47.175 I'm like I don't know how to market right.
00:05:47.536 --> 00:06:05.632 So we do that in other lanes of our business, and I think what I'm really attempting to do with Pink Collars is make customer care feel like a bolt-on service, just like those other two I just mentioned, because if we can get that idea across to business owners that wow, I don't actually have to do this.
00:06:05.632 --> 00:06:15.867 It can bring a ton of relief to everybody, and then it really does help support the CSR at the end of the day, which is one of my missions as a business owner.
00:06:15.867 --> 00:06:35.836 I answered the phones, so I know what the role is, I did the work, and so I want that professionalism brought to that group of people, I want support brought to that group of individuals, and so that's really part of my passion is to get that role to be seen as as important as marketing and bookkeeping are.
00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:46.834 So would you say, the biggest obstacle is the owner letting go of control of that particular thing.
00:06:47.321 --> 00:06:48.420 You know it's possible.
00:06:48.420 --> 00:07:02.091 The messaging that that CSR gives to the consumer is incredibly important, right, the tone is important, the accent is important, the delivery, the speed of calling or talking, all of those things are important.
00:07:02.091 --> 00:07:14.550 The technical knowledge that the CSR has, can they get in and out of the software effectively, maybe even a technical language that they use about the component parts of whatever issue they're having?
00:07:14.550 --> 00:07:23.043 Can they write and spell some of the HVAC parts effectively, right, can they put them in the CRM effectively so that technician understands?
00:07:23.043 --> 00:07:33.127 Really, they're a translator between the homeowner and the technician, right, they kind of stand in the middle and make sure the two people that neither one really knows what the other one does.
00:07:33.127 --> 00:07:38.307 We stand in the middle and try to do that, you know, effectively.
00:07:38.809 --> 00:07:46.384 And so for me, the business owner often does have control over that, because that'll be the first place he or she will start their business.
00:07:46.384 --> 00:07:53.428 Right, they'll be on the tools themselves and they'll answer the phones themselves, right, that's generally how a home service business gets going.
00:07:53.428 --> 00:07:59.810 And so when they do that and they become the face of their own business, it's really hard to separate.
00:07:59.810 --> 00:08:03.990 Okay, I am not Joe's plumbing, I am actually Joe.
00:08:05.815 --> 00:08:07.321 It's a hard emotional battle.
00:08:07.321 --> 00:08:09.408 I mean I've struggled with it myself.
00:08:09.408 --> 00:08:19.005 In a lot of ways I am the face of pink collars and over the last year and a half I've really had to kind of step back and say that isn't effective, nor is it sustainable.
00:08:19.005 --> 00:08:22.392 And I think that CSR role can feel like that.
00:08:22.392 --> 00:08:27.254 It can feel kind of scary to business owners for sure, and I think that CSR role can feel like that.
00:08:27.274 --> 00:08:29.019 It can feel kind of scary to business owners for sure.
00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:40.365 Yeah, so when you got this thing started I mean nothing that's successful, starts easy and certainly doesn't become you know, it's hard to get into a business and everything just work Right, right.
00:08:40.365 --> 00:08:52.495 So what are some of the things that you found were maybe obstacles in the beginning, or maybe even now that you've either overcome or yeah, ok.
00:08:52.596 --> 00:08:54.817 Well, I'm a fully people based business.
00:08:54.817 --> 00:09:33.404 Right, I have no tools, I have no trucks, I have no warehouse, I have no bards, I have people, and so, as in every business, I'm a people focused company, and so the challenge for me was how to effectively cast the vision, lead the people, give them the tools to succeed, and then step back and watch them, maybe drop the baby a couple of times, because that's what happens in all of our businesses, right, the baby gets dropped, the car gets crashed, I mean, something happens, and so that was a really hard thing for me.
00:09:33.404 --> 00:09:39.486 I struggled in my childhood and young adulthood with perfectionism, and some people that know me, even recently, know that that can still be an issue for me.
00:09:39.486 --> 00:09:51.191 I really want things to be like ding, ding, ding right, like really good and perfect and dialed in, and that's an incredible skill, but it does not translate well in leadership.
00:09:52.240 --> 00:10:00.147 It's great if you're a technician and doing the thing, but the minute you start to lead and cast the vision for others, that perfectionism just kills you.
00:10:00.147 --> 00:10:22.624 It rips your guts out at night and it makes you feel like you're not being heard, and it really disempowers the people around you and it makes them feel like they're not being heard, and so that was probably the biggest struggle for business ownership for me was starting to let go of that perfectionism, starting to know that people weren't going to do it exactly like me and that that was okay.
00:10:22.624 --> 00:10:34.368 And then I got really dialed into the empathy that I felt for my clients now right, because now they, and now I know exactly how they feel because I'm trying to build something with others, just like they're trying to do with me.
00:10:34.488 --> 00:10:52.009 So I think that led to some real neat aha moments in our team and I'm grateful to say that traction and Gina Wickman's process EOS has really helped me unwind a lot of that, that bad mental stuff that I was struggling with.
00:10:52.760 --> 00:11:01.726 How much stress would you say has been lifted from you now that you and I can identify with it, being able to try to control everything?
00:11:01.726 --> 00:11:06.779 I'm a recovering alcoholic and we're too long for, you know, trying to control everything in our lives.
00:11:06.779 --> 00:11:20.514 If we're not working a program, we're not sober, sure, and so that's very frustrating and it's very draining and hard to deal with for not only ourselves but the people around us.
00:11:21.014 --> 00:11:24.168 Yeah, Well, I get on stage and talk about process.
00:11:24.168 --> 00:11:28.027 It's one of my kind of key talking points, and so I talk about processes.
00:11:28.027 --> 00:11:31.782 We as a company wouldn't exist if there weren't processes in place.
00:11:31.782 --> 00:11:40.147 Right, I have to have the client be able to see fully visibility through the processes that my team is performing on their behalf.
00:11:40.147 --> 00:11:42.801 They need to have comfort that we know we've got the ball right.
00:11:42.801 --> 00:11:48.312 And then I have to have processes to learn and teach these people to grow and scale the company.
00:11:48.312 --> 00:11:55.049 So process is my gig and process can be a perfectionist like best friend.
00:11:55.049 --> 00:12:02.673 Right, you can write it with a period and a comma and an extra thing and check a box and underline and bold.
00:12:02.673 --> 00:12:04.827 I mean you can just get wild with that stuff.
00:12:04.827 --> 00:12:06.474 And check a box and underline and bold.
00:12:06.474 --> 00:12:08.200 I mean you can just get wild with that stuff.
00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:23.547 And what I realized was I was trying to turn a certain group of people into more than they needed or wanted for themselves, and so I needed to revisit who was on my team and what seats they sat in and what longevity they were going to have for my company.
00:12:23.547 --> 00:12:30.265 And that light going off and saying, wow, I'm trying to force a square peg in a round hole here.
00:12:30.265 --> 00:12:44.011 It was painful for both of us, but I was able to have those types of conversations with a lot of my team and say you know, you are great on the phones, but if I put you in charge of a team it seems to kind of crumble.
00:12:44.011 --> 00:12:45.234 Are you feeling that way?
00:12:45.234 --> 00:12:51.225 And instead of it feeling like an indictment for them, they were like relieved oh, thank God, you see it.
00:12:51.225 --> 00:12:51.988 Ok, right.
00:12:52.504 --> 00:13:12.261 And then I was able to pivot and now, with the help of WhoHire, I go in the marketplace now and look for people who are preloaded with some of those skills but then also just have that sort of personal, functional like approach to who they are in their career path and I don't have to second guess are they going to be the right fit or not?
00:13:12.261 --> 00:13:14.807 Because it's more attitude than anything.
00:13:14.807 --> 00:13:19.522 It's more attitude and ability to be open and be coached.
00:13:19.522 --> 00:13:22.609 So I'm not trying to shove stuff in anymore.
00:13:22.609 --> 00:13:30.731 It's just much less painful for everybody Because we can say man, this really does work and your ideas are as important as mine.
00:13:30.731 --> 00:13:39.145 And that's just a result, I think, of up leveling myself, to be honest, and I hate to say that because everybody goes oh yeah, you're the owner.
00:13:39.145 --> 00:13:39.707 Blah, blah blah.
00:13:39.707 --> 00:13:45.932 But it's really true the more you work on yourself, the better your business becomes, you know for sure.
00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:49.931 So what are some of the ways that you do outside of you know work?
00:13:49.931 --> 00:13:52.927 What are some ways that you grow personally?
00:13:53.429 --> 00:13:53.831 personally.
00:13:53.831 --> 00:13:55.243 Well, I'm a gardener.
00:13:55.243 --> 00:13:59.533 I'm an avid gardener and I went for many, many years without a garden.
00:13:59.533 --> 00:14:11.083 I moved homes and so I used the excuse that I didn't have time and I didn't have this, I didn't have that, and I made all kinds of excuses and over the last two years I've been able to get back into the garden.
00:14:11.083 --> 00:14:20.370 I am a recovering interior designer, so I worked in art and fashion and architecture for many years, so I'm highly creative.
00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:40.469 And so the process of growing, caring for and nurturing something I was giving all of that to my team, I was giving all of that to my business and then all of that to my family, of course, and it's been really fun to spend that time with plants and in nature and being outside and watching.
00:14:40.469 --> 00:14:49.386 The same feelings of I don't know the same winds come across when there's a really great tomato as when there's a really great five-star review.
00:14:49.386 --> 00:14:53.241 Right, and I don't have to always be in business mode.
00:14:53.241 --> 00:15:03.049 I think being a woman, business owner and leader is also has its own complexity, and so gardening is one of the things that I do that I absolutely love.
00:15:03.049 --> 00:15:09.243 And then in our local area, my husband and I own a nonprofit that puts on the largest Christmas parade on the.
00:15:09.323 --> 00:15:12.150 East Coast other than the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day Parade.
00:15:12.150 --> 00:15:22.750 But we're in charge of that and we have about 15,000 people come to our town for a party once a year and that is my favorite, because when I go, to the coffee shop I get to talk to people about the parade.
00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:37.293 When I go to the coffee shop, I get to talk to people about the parade and I get to kind of be that fun, exciting, let's do it planner for my community's event that is so held, so near and dear to their hearts.
00:15:37.293 --> 00:15:37.714 So that helps me too.
00:15:37.714 --> 00:15:38.176 And where is that held?
00:15:38.176 --> 00:15:38.738 It's in Middleburg, Virginia.
00:15:38.738 --> 00:15:39.500 It's called Christmas in Middleburg.
00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:42.283 Wow, yeah, how long have you been doing that?
00:15:42.283 --> 00:15:44.126 We've been doing that for three.
00:15:44.126 --> 00:15:45.769 I think this is our fourth year.
00:15:45.769 --> 00:15:46.851 This will be our fourth year.
00:15:46.851 --> 00:16:01.743 Yeah, we took it over right as COVID came along and we were helping as volunteers for a couple of years and then the gentleman who was the organizer said you know, it's time to send it down the road to the next people, and he chose my husband and I to take it over.
00:16:02.705 --> 00:16:06.013 Wow, that must be a lot one, a lot of work.
00:16:08.663 --> 00:16:08.845 It is.
00:16:08.845 --> 00:16:09.706 It is super fun.
00:16:09.706 --> 00:16:24.850 It's super fun and that working in the remote and digital world right, and the virtual world, those things that are tactile and human and feel really real in my real life actually bring me back down to earth in my business world.
00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:25.793 So it's helpful.
00:16:26.900 --> 00:16:28.846 You know I think going.
00:16:28.846 --> 00:16:30.312 You know you mentioned COVID.
00:16:30.312 --> 00:16:35.927 I think that COVID was harder on people because of the lack of human interaction.
00:16:35.927 --> 00:16:41.945 Even though we could talk on Zoom, it's just it's not the same thing and I want you know.
00:16:41.945 --> 00:16:48.774 I wonder how our kids are gonna wind up because of the ones that went through that and they were virtual and not the human connection.
00:16:48.774 --> 00:16:53.990 I just have to believe that that's not going to turn out, right, yeah.
00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:56.134 I'm not sure, I don't know.
00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:06.614 It's interesting because the tools like Zoom, like what we're on right now, have helped in that regard be able to have more options for business owners, right.
00:17:06.693 --> 00:17:13.623 So in our case, if there wasn't a Zoom or there wasn't that ability to be remote, the business that I actually have wouldn't exist.
00:17:13.623 --> 00:17:16.528 So there are some good things to it.
00:17:16.528 --> 00:17:27.269 I just spoke to a guy yesterday, did a discovery call with him, and they're at the point in their town where they can't afford any more real estate and they physically don't have any more space for CSRs.
00:17:27.269 --> 00:17:28.853 They don't have any more space for office.
00:17:28.853 --> 00:17:30.784 They are maxed on, maxed.
00:17:30.784 --> 00:17:49.470 They need to keep all the room they have for parts and pieces and stuff that generates revenue, and so in that regard, it actually the being remote does help some companies as they kind of look down the barrel of are we going to have some financial challenges in the forefront or are we going to have any recession of any kind?
00:17:49.470 --> 00:17:58.884 So in looking at, you know, hard brick and mortar buildings, it's really nice to have a little bit of an option that's not just a call center.
00:17:58.884 --> 00:18:00.829 So there's that.
00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:02.012 That's a good thing, I think.
00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:03.922 No, I agree with you.
00:18:03.922 --> 00:18:11.727 I mean, business looks very different than it did four or five years ago, and you know there are companies exist.
00:18:11.727 --> 00:18:13.511 This podcast wouldn't exist.
00:18:13.511 --> 00:18:17.489 I wouldn't have the time or the try to get people like.
00:18:17.489 --> 00:18:19.032 That would be impossible.
00:18:19.032 --> 00:18:20.603 I think it'd be impossible.
00:18:20.603 --> 00:18:24.152 It would be good things for sure.
00:18:24.152 --> 00:18:25.667 I totally agree.
00:18:25.667 --> 00:18:31.490 But there is part of that human connection that we desire and I think it's something that we've got.
00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:32.692 I, I have to have it.
00:18:32.692 --> 00:18:40.425 I have to have it to a degree, um, otherwise I just am not the same person yeah, me too.
00:18:40.746 --> 00:18:41.186 I'm with you.
00:18:41.606 --> 00:18:53.457 Yeah, so you mentioned that you've got people all over the country or all over the world.
00:18:53.717 --> 00:18:54.497 Just in the country?
00:18:54.497 --> 00:18:54.798 Yeah.
00:18:54.798 --> 00:18:56.646 Just US based on the phones yeah.
00:18:57.082 --> 00:18:58.827 So what made you start this?
00:19:01.022 --> 00:19:03.428 Well, I started originally.
00:19:03.428 --> 00:19:06.534 It was renamed something else and it was called my Virtual Page.
00:19:06.534 --> 00:19:09.666 I had made a mess of my personal life.
00:19:09.666 --> 00:19:12.573 I was in the middle of a divorce and a custody dispute.
00:19:12.573 --> 00:19:20.265 I had to move out of my home quickly and I lost my job, kind of all in the same round robin fashion.
00:19:20.265 --> 00:19:27.242 Everything happened at once and I realized that if I was going to get my, everything happened at once.
00:19:27.242 --> 00:19:29.914 And I realized that if I was going to get my head out of my backside, I was going to need to build a business for my daughter.
00:19:29.914 --> 00:19:34.909 So I named it after her and it was called my Virtual Page and we just did office work.
00:19:35.068 --> 00:19:40.288 Like I said, I was a designer and that work was all but dried up in 2008, 2009.
00:19:40.288 --> 00:19:48.987 So I went out into the marketplace and found people that needed work from home stuff done, filing done, garage organizing.
00:19:48.987 --> 00:19:49.888 I did a little bit.
00:19:49.888 --> 00:19:51.132 I just did a little bit of everything.
00:19:51.132 --> 00:19:53.226 Just a hustle to try to keep food on the table.
00:19:54.589 --> 00:20:01.327 And in 2010, I had a tree service that answered an ad of mine and they said you know, we're a husband and wife.
00:20:01.327 --> 00:20:04.083 I want to be in the tree as much as he is.
00:20:04.083 --> 00:20:06.369 I don't want to sit in the truck and answer the phone.
00:20:06.369 --> 00:20:13.266 Here's a clamshell phone and here's a laptop and here's a Google calendar Can you help us run our business?
00:20:13.266 --> 00:20:16.148 And so that's how this whole idea started.
00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:17.598 It was far before the cloud.
00:20:17.598 --> 00:20:20.189 It was far before CRMs on the cloud.
00:20:20.189 --> 00:20:21.742 It was way before any of that.
00:20:21.742 --> 00:20:22.625 It was way before any of that.
00:20:22.625 --> 00:20:25.151 It was a phone number and a Google calendar and an idea.
00:20:25.151 --> 00:20:36.094 And we fast forward to 2013, when I met and married my husband and he said this isn't just a side job, this is like a business, this could be something.
00:20:36.094 --> 00:20:49.065 And so at that time, we rebranded, we started serving the home service businesses, not just the green industry, and we came out of the shadows of some of the other folks and said we could do this a different way.
00:20:49.065 --> 00:20:54.869 It doesn't just have to be an offshore call center, it doesn't just have to be a call center, it doesn't just have to be someone in your office.
00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:57.086 There could be some hybrid of both.
00:20:57.086 --> 00:20:58.891 And so that's how we started.
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:09.298 But that's fascinating, and so you've been rocking and rolling under this brand since 2013.
00:21:09.317 --> 00:21:13.339 Yeah, yeah, we rebranded and did that in 2017.
00:21:13.339 --> 00:21:15.787 So it's a couple more years before we did that.
00:21:15.787 --> 00:21:19.796 Yeah, wow, that's pretty fast, but I've been doing it for a while.
00:21:19.796 --> 00:21:20.471 Does your?
00:21:20.510 --> 00:21:22.439 husband also work in the business or no?
00:21:22.891 --> 00:21:23.652 He does not.
00:21:23.652 --> 00:21:24.674 He's in the trades.
00:21:24.674 --> 00:21:29.733 He has a floor coatings company so he does polyaspartic floor coatings during the day.
00:21:29.733 --> 00:21:49.180 He worked at Pink Collars at the beginning and he was our salesperson, did a lot of the infrastructure of the business from the beginning and once it got up on its feet he's like I'm off to better pastures, greener pastures, different pastures, and he wanted to run his own business and I was like well, we know a lot about the trades, why don't you get into something service related?
00:21:49.180 --> 00:21:50.954 And he really liked coatings.
00:21:50.954 --> 00:21:55.175 It was fun, it's creative, it's fast and he's enjoying that.
00:21:55.175 --> 00:21:56.413 So that's what he does all the time.
00:21:56.413 --> 00:21:57.538 That's amazing.
00:21:59.259 --> 00:22:07.606 Yeah, out of just, can you ballpark about how many companies, which I guess would equal how many CSRs, because one CSR per company, right.
00:22:08.111 --> 00:22:09.175 It typically is.
00:22:09.175 --> 00:22:12.009 Now sometimes it's fractional because of volume, right.
00:22:12.009 --> 00:22:21.738 So if you've got a smaller plumbing shop or a smaller HVAC shop that has a CSR dispatcher, that's just on a red line, right, they just need help.
00:22:21.738 --> 00:22:28.601 We will come in and do fractional services for them, meaning we will do all the incoming traffic, all the lead traffic.
00:22:28.601 --> 00:22:33.800 We won't do the dispatch, we'll hand that over to their in-house person.
00:22:33.800 --> 00:22:40.340 But if the volume is low enough, I can utilize that CSR's time for another small business.
00:22:40.340 --> 00:22:48.131 So I can make it affordable to the smaller guy and I can make it effective for the CSR to keep them fully busy and engaged throughout the day.
00:22:49.455 --> 00:22:58.861 Angie Snow, a friend of mine and a business partner, says that if a CSR is doing between zero and 80 calls per day, that's really about the max that they can accomplish.
00:22:58.861 --> 00:23:03.616 So an eight hour shift the most you want to give them is about 10 calls per hour.
00:23:03.616 --> 00:23:10.803 And so we find that there are a lot of companies that fall well below that threshold and we still want to serve them.
00:23:10.803 --> 00:23:29.096 So we say, okay, this hourly rate will cover you for those 40 hours, but your CSR is going to work for you and Joe's plumbing shop up in Milwaukee, and usually everybody's like, okay, great, that makes sense to me, and so that's what we discover when we talk on the phone what kind of level of service your company needs, and we customize it for you.
00:23:30.050 --> 00:23:41.457 Okay, so just for those that may not know exactly what fractional means, so fractional you know in an hour, like how many hours would a fractional person work and how many hours would you have a full-time person?
00:23:41.457 --> 00:23:42.921 If I'm looking to hire one, Sure?
00:23:43.529 --> 00:23:45.615 Well, it's fractional, but it's actually.
00:23:45.615 --> 00:23:52.761 They're available all eight hours of the day, so it's actually fractionally priced, but they're still working all 40 hours of the week.
00:23:52.761 --> 00:23:57.642 Well, the last thing we want to do is have you know, mary on my team, come in from eight to noon.
00:23:57.642 --> 00:24:03.945 Nothing really happens, and then all of a sudden, at 1.30, the phones just blow up and you just feel like we haven't done our jobs right.
00:24:03.945 --> 00:24:05.971 And that's the way of customer service.
00:24:05.971 --> 00:24:07.915 You never know when the phone's going to ring.
00:24:07.915 --> 00:24:10.643 It rings in waves or it's really quiet.
00:24:10.643 --> 00:24:16.742 It's very unpredictable, and so to be available all eight hours is really the key to our success.
00:24:16.742 --> 00:24:23.852 But then to charge you for a lesser amount so that you feel like you can afford it, is better for everybody.
00:24:23.852 --> 00:24:25.414 So it works out for both people.
00:24:26.036 --> 00:24:29.523 Okay, so then if you wanted someone for.
00:24:29.523 --> 00:24:31.034 So it's really based on volume.
00:24:31.374 --> 00:24:41.335 It's based on volume, a hundred percent, and if you fully eat up all that volume and you're at those, you know, 50 to 80 tasks per day, then we call that person a dedicated CSR.
00:24:41.335 --> 00:24:43.171 So it's either fractional or dedicated.
00:24:43.171 --> 00:24:45.455 Okay, both of them are 40 hours.
00:24:45.997 --> 00:24:47.661 So where do most folks fall into?
00:24:48.402 --> 00:25:06.604 It's interesting, almost to a fault, everybody starts out fractionally and they either start out fractionally at kind of our entry level, low level or level two, and then they very quickly build trust and rapport with our team members and then they say, man, we could have your help doing this, let's add email or let's add texting or let's add this in.
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