How to Double Your Profits, Cut Customer Dropout by 70%, Find Hidden Revenue While Loving Your Business ft. Natalie Skinner

[00:00:00] You're trying to onboard clients, you're trying to deliver the work, get back to people.

[00:00:04] You're stressed, so you left your corporate job because you didn't want to be stressed anymore.

[00:00:08] And now you're stressed and you've got nobody to bail you out with shares.

[00:00:11] Maybe a lot of people are like, well I don't want my customer to kind of see that we're developing this as we go for example, especially like for newer businesses.

[00:00:18] Feedback's a gift, right? You've got to make sure that you constantly communicate with your client.

[00:00:22] I always say to the people that work in my team, if a customer has to come to us and ask a question, we haven't done our jobs properly.

[00:00:27] How can you ever onboard staff when you're really busy if you haven't got a simple process in place?

[00:00:32] There is so much offside in having a good guest experience, right? That guest journey.

[00:00:39] Building report isn't just important for those things, it's important for the conversation that you're having on the podcast.

[00:00:44] If you want to have a conversation that flows and is interesting, then you need the person that you're talking to be comfortable.

[00:00:50] And that's done by building report, that's part of your customer journey.

[00:00:54] Yeah.

[00:00:55] You've got a good job by the way.

[00:00:56] Oh, thank you.

[00:00:57] Hey, I'm Luis.

[00:00:58] And this is Luis.

[00:00:59] And welcome to the Content is Profit podcast.

[00:01:02] In here you're going to get the insights, accountability and drive to create consistently and increase revenue.

[00:01:08] You'll hear from top entrepreneurs, creators and anything and everything you need to know about content by having a great time.

[00:01:14] The goal of this podcast is simple, entertain, educate and turn your content into profit.

[00:01:20] And my brother said, you're going to have a good time.

[00:01:24] But you know, you might have a great time.

[00:01:25] You might have not believe it in his voice, you know, but he truly means it.

[00:01:29] He actually likes to have fun here on the show.

[00:01:31] Are you angry today? Why are you keep throwing me under the bus?

[00:01:36] My goodness. I even brought you a great business idea this morning, but enough.

[00:01:40] We'll talk about that later.

[00:01:42] Guys, today this person or superpower is getting shit done.

[00:01:48] Getting shit all done.

[00:01:50] Getting shit all done.

[00:01:51] You can use profanity here is totally OK.

[00:01:55] She's led a team to consistently deliver millions of pounds.

[00:02:02] And that is a clue where she from worth of customer orders annually with very little staff or overheads.

[00:02:11] And that's actually some of the stuff that we're going to, you know, dive into today with the one and only the automation queen, Natalie Skinner.

[00:02:25] What's up, Natalie?

[00:02:26] Fuzzy, you're not good at improvising interest, man.

[00:02:28] I had everything ready.

[00:02:29] I know you threw it under the bus.

[00:02:32] I think that has to be the best intro I've ever had.

[00:02:34] Oh my gosh, Natalie.

[00:02:36] Thank you, Natalie. Thank you.

[00:02:37] I love that.

[00:02:38] I love the contrast between those two opinions.

[00:02:41] You're not good.

[00:02:42] And then you're like, but that's the best I've heard.

[00:02:44] It is what it is.

[00:02:46] Lesson for the consumers or the listeners, right?

[00:02:48] Like, you know, perspective.

[00:02:50] It's OK. Sometimes you may think that is not the best thing, but somebody out time might do and it's good.

[00:02:54] Put it out there anyways.

[00:02:55] Or build rapport with your guests, right?

[00:02:57] They're from England.

[00:02:58] Bring your England jersey out here.

[00:03:00] I love it.

[00:03:01] Natalie, how are you doing today?

[00:03:02] We're excited to have you on Contents Profit.

[00:03:05] Yeah, I'm great, guys.

[00:03:06] I'm a lot better now that I've heard that introduction.

[00:03:10] I hope it's better than the TV and chips that you were eating, right?

[00:03:15] It definitely was.

[00:03:16] I don't think anybody's ever built me up quite so much.

[00:03:20] Natalie, the queen of automations and customer journeys, right?

[00:03:24] Like, I'm so excited to kind of dive into that.

[00:03:27] You know, as content creators or business owners sometimes, that might be one of the things that are in the back, right?

[00:03:33] I think a lot of people think the content is what makes it.

[00:03:35] And then all of a sudden, when it starts to work, then they discover there's this whole thing on the other end that is like, whoa, hidden revenue or wait?

[00:03:44] Wow, now you got customers?

[00:03:45] Now I have customers.

[00:03:46] Like, what do we do now, right?

[00:03:48] So I'm excited to dive into that.

[00:03:51] What are maybe some of the bigger problems that you see in the industry and that you help solve, for example, in that specific area?

[00:03:59] It's a big question because they're quite varied depending on...

[00:04:02] So I cover like most areas of business.

[00:04:05] I work with the solopreneur, the entrepreneur, but I also work with the medium sized business and the larger corporations.

[00:04:12] I mean, fundamentally when you break it down, the problems are all really the same.

[00:04:17] But the way in which people view them is quite often different.

[00:04:21] I guess if we start with the solopreneur, then you've pretty much just touched on it there, really.

[00:04:28] We spend all our time, don't we, when we start in a business just wanting to get the leads in.

[00:04:32] And then all of a sudden you get the leads in and you've grown quicker than you thought you was going to grow.

[00:04:37] I know you're trying to do all of the things.

[00:04:39] You haven't got any processes in place.

[00:04:41] You know, you're trying to onboard clients.

[00:04:43] You're trying to deliver the work, get back to people.

[00:04:46] You spin in all these places.

[00:04:47] You're stressed.

[00:04:48] So you left your corporate job because you didn't want to be stressed anymore.

[00:04:51] I know you're stressed and you've got nobody to bail you out the show.

[00:04:55] And you've got no systems in place.

[00:04:58] And that's the biggest frustration for me, I think, is there's quite a lot of coaches and people out there now in the coaching world that, you know,

[00:05:08] that are talking about business not having to be perfect.

[00:05:11] And it doesn't have to be perfect.

[00:05:12] They're right.

[00:05:13] You do just have to take action.

[00:05:14] But processes and all those fundamental pieces of business haven't gone away.

[00:05:20] It's how small businesses become really big businesses.

[00:05:24] And so for me, like, just getting that message out there is still really important.

[00:05:29] I think you need to have processes and things in place.

[00:05:32] How can you ever onboard staff when you're really busy if you haven't got a simple process in place?

[00:05:39] So, yeah, so that's that is the biggest one of the biggest problems I see.

[00:05:43] And then the other is everybody always wants the fanciest tools, you know,

[00:05:47] the biggest thing that does the most things that costs the most money.

[00:05:51] And before you know it, you've got 10 subscriptions to 10 different platforms and you're only half using all of them.

[00:05:57] Like, just stop.

[00:06:00] Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:06:03] I really I want to dive in very specific parts of this conversation, right?

[00:06:08] Like potentially, you know, talk about creating systems for content creation on the back end, customer journey, obviously.

[00:06:18] What comes to mind is it is way better and probably easier to keep a client that rather than going and chasing, you know, always trying to get new clients.

[00:06:29] And you have more experience in this based on Orange Theory when you're working in the in the fitness industry, right?

[00:06:36] Which you guys had churned and you guys were like consistently chasing leads and all these people.

[00:06:41] So what are maybe some foundational things that people need to know when it comes to customer service?

[00:06:47] Let's say they've been creating content customer journey.

[00:06:50] My apologies.

[00:06:52] So what are some of those foundational things that they need to understand to increase the lifetime value of a customer?

[00:07:02] Because, you know, again, they're putting their energy into the marketing side of things or bringing people into their world.

[00:07:07] But then they're not staying longer, right?

[00:07:09] They're not staying long with them.

[00:07:11] And you, you know, go into that cycle of feast and famine.

[00:07:16] Right? It's very, very challenging emotionally, obviously on the business.

[00:07:21] So what are some foundational things that people can start saying?

[00:07:24] All right, I need to start paying attention to this.

[00:07:27] And these ones are going to increase that lifetime value of my customer and improve my customer journey.

[00:07:36] OK, so the first place that I always start with people's customer journey is with the business owner and whoever's running the business.

[00:07:44] So when I have a consultation with somebody, my first question is always let's start with why?

[00:07:50] Like if you close your eyes and tell me about the moment that you created your business in your mind and what you dreamt it looked like,

[00:07:59] and then I get them to write that down because quite often you and there's a reason we all started our businesses, right?

[00:08:06] It's usually to help somebody or to create something in your mind when you first start with it.

[00:08:10] It's the best thing and your customers are giving you five stars reviews and doing these magazines.

[00:08:15] And yeah, you know, it's out of this world.

[00:08:18] Crazy some of the stuff that people dream up in their head.

[00:08:21] And then the reality of running a business is very different.

[00:08:24] And you get to a place where you're busy and I said, you can't do all of the things.

[00:08:28] And so naturally you start to compromise on certain things.

[00:08:32] Yeah.

[00:08:33] So we always start there with my clients so that I can understand what it is that they were trying to achieve in their businesses with the best version of their businesses, if you like.

[00:08:45] And then the second thing that I do with business owners is then we go back through the back end of their business and review their business processes,

[00:08:53] because when the back end of your business is a mess, then your customer journey is a mess.

[00:09:00] Because, you know, if you come off it, if I hadn't been sat on the sofa eating chips before we had this call,

[00:09:09] and I'd have, you know, I'd had a really shitty day and I'd brought a really shitty energy to this conversation.

[00:09:15] And I wonder how many times we can get the word shitty into this.

[00:09:19] We need a counter.

[00:09:24] Like I just shown up like if you was one of my customers, I just shown up in a completely different way, you know,

[00:09:30] and the same way that if a business owner is rushing around and they're jumping from one meeting to the next and they're not prepared,

[00:09:36] you're not giving the customer the best of you.

[00:09:39] And that shows up through everything that you do.

[00:09:41] So I tell people to review the back end of the processes, put systems in place, automate.

[00:09:47] And for me, this whole thing links back around to answer your questions.

[00:09:51] So bear with me.

[00:09:53] And then once you've done that and your business runs smoothly and you can step back and you're less stressed

[00:09:59] and you've got the time and you can really start looking at your business from above it rather than being in the weeds a bit,

[00:10:06] then you can start saying, right, OK, so where are my customers paying points?

[00:10:11] Where are the places that I'm really dropping a ball when my customers are suffering?

[00:10:15] And then that's then how you can start to tease out those customer paying points.

[00:10:20] And typically it's things like, you know, I went to a retreat the other week and we were talking,

[00:10:26] I was doing a presentation on customer journey and there was a lady that said to me about, she said, well, I've got mine sorted.

[00:10:36] She said, I've got every message that somebody sends me.

[00:10:39] They get a response that says I'll reply to them within 24 hours.

[00:10:42] I said, that's great. So do you reply within 24 hours?

[00:10:45] She was like most of the time. OK.

[00:10:49] OK. So, you know, the other thing then with customer journey is you have to do what you say you're going to do.

[00:10:56] Yeah. You have to communicate, be clear and follow through.

[00:11:02] Yeah. I have a quick question that just arised, right?

[00:11:06] Because earlier I made the mistake of saying customer service, right?

[00:11:10] When we were talking of customer journey.

[00:11:12] But now, generally I have this question, what is the difference between customer service, right?

[00:11:20] When you're giving me the example of somebody saying they're going to answer within 24 hours and customer journey.

[00:11:27] Is there a significant difference in there? Right.

[00:11:29] And I think I see it in a very specific way in my mind.

[00:11:32] Obviously you are the expert in this. I would love to hear your opinion.

[00:11:37] But I think that could help differentiate, define what it actually is for the person listening so they can get a better idea on how they can implement it in their business.

[00:11:47] Yeah. So customer service is something that you provide to your customer.

[00:11:51] A customer journey is the experience and the process that your customer goes through when they're with you.

[00:11:59] So one is you and one is them.

[00:12:02] Got it.

[00:12:03] The way I see it is you have your lead acquisition processes, right?

[00:12:08] Where you're bringing just new customers in.

[00:12:10] It's like that's the water that gets in the bucket, right?

[00:12:12] And then inside of the bucket you have these paths, right?

[00:12:15] That hopefully helps them stay in that bucket or move to maybe a different bucket, a better bucket.

[00:12:21] But all of a sudden we have these holes at the bottom.

[00:12:24] These people continue to drop.

[00:12:26] So to me that customer journey helps plug those holes at the bottom of your bucket.

[00:12:32] Like Fonsi said, my background is in the fitness studio.

[00:12:36] We manage studios with a thousand members, six hundred members.

[00:12:39] And I remember the conversation every single week.

[00:12:41] It's like how many new members are we going to get?

[00:12:43] And we ignore completely for a long time that we were dropping nine to ten percent of the members that we had at the time every single month.

[00:12:51] And it's like, well, we're going to be able to get to our revenue goals a lot faster if we actually focus our attention into intentionality with the customer journey.

[00:13:00] Like what are the coaches doing to solve the problems of the current members that we have?

[00:13:04] How can we provide a better class experience?

[00:13:06] How can we add value to the customer that it's already paying us?

[00:13:09] Right?

[00:13:10] And we drop that from ten percent to about three percent.

[00:13:14] And it was incredible.

[00:13:15] Like it felt like really good.

[00:13:17] A lot less pressure.

[00:13:18] What did you do to achieve that?

[00:13:20] Yeah, I mean, there were a few elements.

[00:13:22] Right.

[00:13:23] You know, we retrain a lot of the staff like we put in a lot of processes around the customer journey.

[00:13:29] Like about what do we do when people walk into the door in the studio, for example?

[00:13:33] Like what do we do when they have questions at the front desk?

[00:13:37] You know, how do we really communicate through them through text?

[00:13:40] Like do we allow them to, you know, reboot classes through text?

[00:13:43] Are we are we going the extra mile?

[00:13:46] So there was like a lot of micro processes that were not there.

[00:13:50] Right?

[00:13:51] We will say them all the time, but they were not documented.

[00:13:53] Right?

[00:13:54] So then, you know, we had about 14 staff members, you know, half coaches, half from the staff.

[00:14:00] But if we're not acting as a team, it will be like really, really difficult.

[00:14:03] Right?

[00:14:04] So similar thing now with the studio and the content agency, the studio when we acquired it in July, like probably no processes at all.

[00:14:11] Right?

[00:14:12] So we're continuing the process.

[00:14:13] OK, well, if this situation happens, what do we do?

[00:14:16] Definitely could do a better job.

[00:14:18] And I think it's because we're so in it still in it.

[00:14:21] And it's just a studio on the agency side.

[00:14:23] I think on the agency side, it's pretty well documented on the execution side of the process.

[00:14:29] Yeah, I think we're stuck in step one and two here on the studio, which is, you know, start with the why and the backing of the business and review the processes that we currently have.

[00:14:39] When we came in, we started seeing some processes.

[00:14:42] We put some production processes in place, but not quite also dove into our or why.

[00:14:48] Now, how important is that communication with a customer while you let's say develop these things?

[00:14:54] Right? Or transparency.

[00:14:55] Because, you know, what I see is maybe a lot of people are like, well, I don't want my customer to kind of see that we're developing this as we go, for example, especially like for newer businesses.

[00:15:03] And I recently listened to an episode.

[00:15:05] I don't know if you're familiar with Lila Hormozi, but she put out an episode on actually the customer journey.

[00:15:12] Right. And she was talking about like we put all this effort on the front end.

[00:15:15] But then once a customer pays, there's no communication at all.

[00:15:18] Right. And it's like about like almost like flip that communication back when they're a customer and like create those points of contact or communication, whether like if the job is going to take a month to do, how are we communicating along the way to make sure that that experience is possible?

[00:15:32] For them and so on.

[00:15:34] So what do you think like people fall off there?

[00:15:38] And how what are some simple things that they can start doing maybe tomorrow to be that way?

[00:15:43] This is my first step after I figure out my why.

[00:15:46] What is the first thing that I want to go see and tackle?

[00:15:49] OK, so she's absolutely right.

[00:15:52] Just to go back to your point when you talk about the customer journey and how it stops after the service, like feedback's a gift.

[00:15:58] Right.

[00:15:59] You've got to make sure that you constantly communicating with the client.

[00:16:02] I always say to the people that work in my team, if a customer has to come to us and ask a question, we haven't done our jobs properly.

[00:16:08] We should be ahead of that all of the time.

[00:16:11] I mean, and of course, it happens every now and again.

[00:16:13] You know, they've misplaced an email or whatever.

[00:16:15] But for the most part, you should be ahead of those questions all of the time, even through your delivery phase.

[00:16:22] Like you should be anticipating what your cost if you're thinking about your customer and whether you should be giving an update, you should have already given the update.

[00:16:30] If it's on your mind, it's been on their mind for at least a week before it's been on yours.

[00:16:35] But back to your question about what comes next after the why and the why and the processes.

[00:16:46] I was like, Jesus, what's the word?

[00:16:51] It's Friday afternoon.

[00:16:52] We get it.

[00:16:53] Yeah, we understand.

[00:16:55] Friday evening for me.

[00:16:57] You look at you copy before the wine.

[00:17:01] But yeah, so the next thing that I always say is onboarding.

[00:17:05] Like, so your onboarding process should be as smooth as possible.

[00:17:09] You've got to maintain excitement the whole way throughout the process for a customer right from awareness straight through to advocacy.

[00:17:17] You have to keep your clients attention.

[00:17:18] So onboarding quite often I see, you know, lots of companies, particularly entrepreneurs that get off a great discovery call with some of their say, well, I'll send you your proposal and then we'll get started.

[00:17:31] And then it takes a night.

[00:17:32] It might take them two days to pull that proposal together because the copying and pasting off Google Docs and they're busy doing other things.

[00:17:38] And you've lost your client in that time because they finished with the excitement.

[00:17:42] They've got over it and they found somebody else.

[00:17:44] Yeah, you know, so having your templates and all of those, then this is why I come back to the back end of your business all the time, because having those things there creates makes your life easier and creates a smooth process for your client.

[00:17:56] So when my proposals go out, I come off the back of a call that that clients already in my system because they've already given me the details for them to be in the system.

[00:18:06] I come off the call.

[00:18:07] I click a button and approve button and it pings on my proposal because everything's auto populated.

[00:18:12] You know, I'm sure that based on a bespoke proposal, there might be the odd field that I have to change.

[00:18:17] But it's off. It's approved.

[00:18:19] It's gone. They've got it.

[00:18:21] They haven't had time to, you know, they probably have time to go down to the husband or come off hopefully and say, I've been on this amazing call.

[00:18:27] I'm really excited about this service.

[00:18:30] And it's already there, you know, which is the exact moment that you want to capture clients in and off the bat attached to the back of my proposal and invoice proposal is a contract and invoice.

[00:18:41] So they're not accepting a proposal and then waiting another day or two for me to get around to sending a contract and invoice again.

[00:18:47] They haven't got that time.

[00:18:48] We evaluate and change the mind.

[00:18:50] I mean, all right.

[00:18:51] OK, everybody's subject to a 14 day cooling off period.

[00:18:53] But, you know, in terms of like keeping that momentum for your customer journey going.

[00:18:59] Yeah, it's that bum bum bum very smooth.

[00:19:02] They've got everything they need off the back of that.

[00:19:04] They get a welcome booklet which tells them what the next steps are.

[00:19:07] You know, so again, two days after that, they'll receive a welcome gift, not a generic welcome gift.

[00:19:13] Doesn't have to be expensive, but one that's specific to the service and their particular requirements.

[00:19:18] Yeah.

[00:19:19] You know, it keeps that level of engagement highlighted.

[00:19:22] I note down birthdays and anniversaries and, you know, things that I can do above and beyond.

[00:19:29] Like you think I do customer journey and systems strategies.

[00:19:32] So yeah, there's so many different things within that bracket that I can send somebody that's relevant to their business to let them know that they're still front and centre.

[00:19:41] My thought process, which leads back to that advocacy piece at the end when you talk about plugging the bucket.

[00:19:46] Yeah.

[00:19:48] And the same with the sales process.

[00:19:50] I wonder what again when when you're selling somebody, you have to maintain that level of excitement.

[00:19:55] I used to work with a guy in real estate and he after he'd finished with his clients and, you know, they'd signed and they were in escrow.

[00:20:06] I think that's what you guys call it over there.

[00:20:08] I always have to think of the translation.

[00:20:13] It's he sends them a Rolodex of all of the people that they can use then to book movers and decorators and all of the, you know, so that it's one less thing for them to think about.

[00:20:28] And then the icing on the cake is on the day that they move in, he sends them pizza so they don't even have to worry about dinner.

[00:20:34] Wow.

[00:20:35] That's cool.

[00:20:36] Yeah, we got to start sending pizza to our podcast guest.

[00:20:41] And we can actually I would love to dive a little bit into this here in a little bit about the content is profit, right?

[00:20:49] The podcast customer journey in a sense, right?

[00:20:52] Guest journey, if you want to put it away because I think it's very valuable.

[00:20:56] But to what you just said, it reminded me of a very early lesson in our marketing career, which was how people tend to make decisions.

[00:21:06] Right?

[00:21:07] First they evaluate the vehicle.

[00:21:09] Right?

[00:21:10] Is this product right for me if they see it and they're like, oh yeah, I think it could work for, you know, for my purposes.

[00:21:16] Then they go into internally write the emotions, right?

[00:21:20] I guess this does this feels good.

[00:21:22] Do I want to do it?

[00:21:23] And then after they make that decision, they rationally write.

[00:21:26] They kind of like they judge their decision, but also they have the external factors, right?

[00:21:32] Which is like time money usually.

[00:21:35] And I see this when you were talking, I see it as well in the customer journey.

[00:21:40] Right?

[00:21:41] They have the vehicle front and center, right?

[00:21:43] The product they already invested in it.

[00:21:45] They're already into it.

[00:21:46] So they believe in it.

[00:21:47] But I feel like the job as the customer journey, as you're developing it is to keep them on a high emotional attachment to the product, to the company.

[00:22:00] Right?

[00:22:01] That they're doing and to do that.

[00:22:02] And you need a lot of intention.

[00:22:04] Right?

[00:22:05] Like what you said, that example that you gave us perfect.

[00:22:07] All right.

[00:22:08] Their next problem after they do this is going to have to talk to X, Y, and Z person.

[00:22:12] So let me send them a Rolodex with all those things already done.

[00:22:16] And when they're moving, they're going to have to get dinner.

[00:22:20] So I'm going to do this.

[00:22:22] You're creating those micro experiences that each one of them is attached to a feeling.

[00:22:27] Right?

[00:22:28] And it's going to feel like it's going to keep them on a high and thinking about, wow, this is absolutely amazing.

[00:22:34] And you're just building trust with all of them.

[00:22:37] Yeah.

[00:22:38] And not only that, right?

[00:22:39] Like that service hasn't as only just finished.

[00:22:42] And so he's you know, anybody, anybody within your circle that you might hear is moving or whatever or wants to sell their house all of a sudden your front and centre.

[00:22:53] Oh, I know this amazing guy.

[00:22:54] He's you know, he's got he's really helpful.

[00:22:56] He's got this Rolodex and he'll send me so you don't have to worry about any of that stuff.

[00:23:01] And he'll even send you pizza on the day that you went.

[00:23:03] Yeah.

[00:23:04] You know, when it comes to advocacy and retention.

[00:23:07] It's right there.

[00:23:08] And it's two very simple things that he's doing.

[00:23:11] Yeah, I remember listening to I think it was a story.

[00:23:15] Maybe it's fake one.

[00:23:16] I don't know.

[00:23:17] But it was like this this guy that had a church to marry people and then they had a law practice to help divorce people.

[00:23:27] And then they had a funeral home.

[00:23:29] So like the whole thing was like that company was along the whole ride of like the whole family, you know, from they get married if they get divorced and then the funeral home after that.

[00:23:39] And they're like in this very, very long customer journey with these people.

[00:23:44] Right. It's something to illustrate something like that.

[00:23:46] So, you know, I think this is something that a lot of people when they start a business overlook even, you know, if if if you want to start something.

[00:23:56] And just this morning we're talking to a friend that he lives in Bogota, Colombia.

[00:23:59] He's here visiting and he's been working on startups and he was like, well, what's next?

[00:24:04] I'm like, and he's like, I'm done with the startup.

[00:24:07] I am it was a mess.

[00:24:08] There's no processes.

[00:24:09] I am going to go corporate right now.

[00:24:11] And I just want a peace of mind where like there's processes and things that I can just follow.

[00:24:16] Right.

[00:24:17] And I think also if we're, you know, inspiring people to work with us.

[00:24:23] Yes, there's going to be people are going to be like super proactive and they want to like maybe be in that environment of excitement of like something new, maybe developing those processes.

[00:24:31] But also they're going to be a players that when they come to work, they're probably going to work better if all those processes are already in place.

[00:24:38] So it's something that, you know, I encourage everybody listening to start paying attention to.

[00:24:42] Right.

[00:24:43] Don't leave it to last minute like we did for a long time.

[00:24:46] And and go from there.

[00:24:48] And I think that would help at the bottom line.

[00:24:53] Right. What has been have you have you do you have like some tangible examples of like that customer journey?

[00:25:00] It was a mess.

[00:25:01] You guys came in, fixed it and did it translate directly into revenue for the business?

[00:25:07] Right.

[00:25:08] Do you have an example like that case study that you can share with people to maybe illustrate it?

[00:25:12] Yeah, I mean, there's so many.

[00:25:14] But one of my favorites probably was work and maybe this is partly to do with some of my background is I did some work last year, maybe the year before with a company about an events company.

[00:25:31] They do weddings and things and set up and stuff like that.

[00:25:36] And so just a couple of girls that had started out just before Covid obviously the Covid happened and then they grew exponentially after Covid.

[00:25:47] Everybody's back and wants weddings and all the rest of it.

[00:25:51] And so they were in that process that I very much described to you like it were very highly sought after but nobody could get hold of them.

[00:26:01] Because they had no processes or anything in place and two sisters.

[00:26:05] And so one of them thinks the others picked up the messages and responded to clients and they're not inviting and they're not.

[00:26:11] And everything's just crazy.

[00:26:13] And so eventually I went in and put just some simple systems in place.

[00:26:19] It wasn't anything fancy CRM, you know, auto responses, just a few bits and pieces, proper proposals and just streamlined the website a little bit.

[00:26:29] Nothing major. Well, to me it was nothing major.

[00:26:32] And then I went to one of the event shows to show them how they can use all of these online forms and things so they're not taking down details manually at wedding fairs anymore.

[00:26:41] And then going home and putting them on a desk and losing them like they're following up the clients straight away.

[00:26:47] And I had a review with them probably about eight weeks ago now actually.

[00:26:55] And I think their business is I think we worked out was about 30 percent.

[00:27:01] Wow. Yeah, that's huge. Yeah. Oh, so good. OK.

[00:27:08] And just to clarify, some of that was two problems.

[00:27:11] Some of that is an increase in clients because their reputation has improved because they are getting back to people and responded.

[00:27:20] And the other part of that, because this was very much built into the automations and the systems that were in place, the following up on invoices and making sure they're getting paid.

[00:27:30] Yeah, I had a say. So that's on my will.

[00:27:33] That's that's my homework. I look at Fonzie because he's like, hey, can you talk to this person?

[00:27:40] Now, this is probably like very tactical and also like maybe what a lot of people like.

[00:27:46] You mentioned tools at the beginning of your of your talk, right?

[00:27:49] You're like people are starting investing and paying all these tools and things and connecting and zapping here and there.

[00:27:55] What do you recommend? Like what's for context right now, we're using Go High Level, right?

[00:28:01] In our in our agency and I the studio is a Frankenstein of applications that, you know, our other our previous owner left us.

[00:28:09] So I want to move everything to one platform if possible.

[00:28:13] What are some things that you recommend? Minimal friction to execute.

[00:28:18] Like what do you work with? Like what are some of the things that you that you hope them?

[00:28:22] There's very few things I don't work with because I cover everything from entrepreneurship to the corporate business.

[00:28:28] And not I don't do everything myself.

[00:28:30] Some of it I outsource, some of it I have a team that works with it especially.

[00:28:34] And then I have the bits that I specialize in myself.

[00:28:37] So small business. I use Dubsado a lot.

[00:28:40] That's a really great inexpensive platform. What's it called? Dubsado.

[00:28:46] Oh yes. OK. Yeah.

[00:28:48] I use that quite a lot for I said for small business.

[00:28:52] That's it's a really great one all in one business solutions management to go high level.

[00:28:58] I use a lot that probably will be where I point you in all honesty because there's so many things you can do with it and the way you can personalize it and white label it and all of the rest of it.

[00:29:09] Like it's you know, and the few bits that it doesn't do you usually can use this app somewhere to sort it out.

[00:29:15] Absolutely. Yeah. And then I use Monday.com. I use HubSpot. I use Salesforce.

[00:29:22] Yeah, a little bit of everything. So Microsoft, Power BI, you name it.

[00:29:27] So if you're listening and you need some help and support here, please go scroll down and click on Natalie's link right there.

[00:29:33] Connect with her and have that conversation with her.

[00:29:37] And you know, we've on our side, I think like when we were in Orange Theory, they developed their own CRM.

[00:29:42] Right. And then we had Rinse Central for like text messaging and phones and all these things that you don't even think about.

[00:29:48] Like, oh, I'm just communicating through DMs. Right. And then there's Slack and all this thing.

[00:29:52] So all of the rest of it is Slack. There's bots.

[00:29:56] This I mean, there's so many chat bots now. So many AI tools out there.

[00:30:01] I'm very lucky because through I'm part of Steve Stinn's master, well, the distillery.

[00:30:06] Yeah. And so I know Manjhi and he's one of the best when it comes to AI.

[00:30:12] And so, you know, for any of my businesses that need that kind of thing, I can point them in his direction.

[00:30:18] Like it's cool. You know, so yeah, makes sense.

[00:30:22] Power of relationships too. Very important.

[00:30:24] OK, I think like this probably my last question. I know Fancy has something else, but let's talk budget on these things.

[00:30:31] Because obviously, let's say if we go into a tool or like hiring somebody, like do you have a number or percentage of, you know,

[00:30:40] monthly budget that a small business, you know, let's say a solopreneur or maybe somebody with a few employees, right,

[00:30:47] have to keep accountable to be able to build this journey, right?

[00:30:52] Like when I was thinking budget back in the day, I was customer journey was not even an option there.

[00:30:58] I was like marketing marketing or like paying ourselves or like the, you know, whatever comes expense, you know, coffee.

[00:31:05] Right. But then customer journey is like not even in the list.

[00:31:08] Right. It's like so do you recommend people to kind of set something apart to invest in these systems and these processes?

[00:31:14] Right. What does that look like for people to start maybe thinking about, you know, implementing this?

[00:31:22] It can look like anything. I mean, it depends where you are in your business as to how much money you've got to invest.

[00:31:27] Because you can spend anything from thirty nine dollars a month straight through to, you know, fifty, sixty thousand pounds.

[00:31:33] It just depends where you are in business. If you really need the business and you've got no money,

[00:31:38] I would start with a series of post-its and a pen and map out your just your customer journey.

[00:31:46] I always like call it the paper test. You put in a piece of paper through your process and working out where it gets stuck.

[00:31:52] And when you think you've got it right and you think this is a perfect process, put it out there.

[00:31:56] Go and speak to your friends and your family and or, you know, your potential customers and say, what do you think of this?

[00:32:03] Would this work as a process for you? Is there anything that would really piss you off?

[00:32:06] Like, is there anything I can do better? Said feedback's a gift.

[00:32:09] Because, you know, the problem with the customer journey when you're doing it for yourself within your own business is that you're designing the perfect service for you.

[00:32:19] But I think we were talking about I don't remember if we were talking about it before the podcast started actually.

[00:32:24] But perspective, right? You know, the perfect customer journey for me isn't necessarily the perfect customer journey for you.

[00:32:30] Absolutely.

[00:32:31] And so you need to get that feedback to work out what's working and what isn't all the time consistently.

[00:32:39] So, yeah, if you're starting out and you've got no money, start there.

[00:32:43] If you've got a bit of money to spend, then a CRM might have said you can do that for as little as thirty nine dollars a month.

[00:32:51] And again, Dubsido not to be put. I'm hoping the plug will work.

[00:32:57] I'm not an affiliate, I promise.

[00:33:00] Well, the training suite is amazing.

[00:33:04] So, you know, if you've got the time to train yourself, it's thirty nine dollars a month and you can do it that way.

[00:33:09] Or you can come to something like a half day customer journey workshop, which will cost you around five hundred seven hundred dollars.

[00:33:16] Cool.

[00:33:17] And then the cost goes on from there. It just depends how much you want to spend.

[00:33:21] Absolutely.

[00:33:23] I think this is something that's super important.

[00:33:25] Education and action.

[00:33:27] I think in the long run is one of those things that you invest maybe at the front,

[00:33:32] but it's going to help you keep a lot more money of that effort that the content creators are putting up front to acquire those customers.

[00:33:40] I mean, just think about it. If you have a customer that just spends a thousand dollars with you on the usual stay six months with you,

[00:33:47] if you increase their lifetime value, you know, by two months, right. But 30 percent, right. Two months.

[00:33:54] Yeah.

[00:33:55] You're making an extra two thousand dollars every single client that comes in.

[00:33:59] You know, I'm sure doing one of Natalie's workshops, right, like it is going to pay off.

[00:34:05] You know, with one more client that extends their lifetime for again, 30 percent.

[00:34:09] Let's say they only extend it for one, you know, one more month.

[00:34:12] Like you're already making that money back is it's a no brainer.

[00:34:17] I love it. Go ahead, Saira.

[00:34:19] No, no, I was just going to say it's incredible.

[00:34:21] It's incredible the difference that it makes just paying that attention to certain pieces within your customer journey.

[00:34:27] Yeah.

[00:34:28] It doesn't take a lot.

[00:34:29] Absolutely. You know, as we wrap up on our side, obviously with content, there's something that I think we feel very proud,

[00:34:37] which is, you know, our podcast process with our guests.

[00:34:39] And, you know, we try to bring at least two or three a week and a lot of people ask us like how do we do it?

[00:34:45] And I think my subconscious when we started building this thing, it was almost like let's create a journey for our guests.

[00:34:52] Right. So now we're working on the on the after interview part.

[00:34:56] Like how do we, you know, we're notifying them that the episode goes out.

[00:34:59] We're notifying that the content goes out. We're tagging them out there, right.

[00:35:02] Especially with collaboration, because our message is like that relationship that we build with the people that come to the show are opportunities down the road.

[00:35:08] Whatever. Right.

[00:35:09] And for us, it has meant like customers referrals, speaking engagements, like friends, right.

[00:35:14] Like all these amazing now we can go see a Manchester United game over there and when they crush Arsenal.

[00:35:21] But there's a lot of advantages. Right.

[00:35:25] So I encourage every single person, not only in your business, obviously yes on your business.

[00:35:29] Like that's a given. But also if you're collaborating with somebody on the content, don't miss on that content journey with that person because it will translate into the business.

[00:35:39] Yeah. I mean, me putting the points together here is I wrote here customer journey builds advocacy and retention.

[00:35:46] Right. But it also builds rapport in a way.

[00:35:50] Right. And for a process like the podcast, right.

[00:35:56] Which is more like a guest journey building rapport is going to help you with getting the guests to refer you all their potential people that you can bring onto the podcast.

[00:36:08] Relationships that you can develop further into opportunities, right.

[00:36:12] Or relationships that you can further develop into referrals.

[00:36:16] Right. So there is so much upside in having a good guest experience.

[00:36:22] Right. That guest journey that you can guide them on.

[00:36:27] But building rapport isn't just like from your perspective when you're talking about a guest journey on a podcast.

[00:36:33] Building rapport isn't just important for those things.

[00:36:36] It's important because for the conversation that you're having on the podcast, if you want to have a conversation that flows and is interesting, then you need the person that you're talking to to be comfortable.

[00:36:46] And that's done by building rapport.

[00:36:48] That's part of your customer journey.

[00:36:50] Yeah.

[00:36:51] By the way, I was going to say that's why usually when people talk to my brother, they're like awkward.

[00:36:57] But when they send the comments to me, it's like we're like homies and being friends forever.

[00:37:03] Natalie, you know, we're besties.

[00:37:05] We've been texting, you know, for a month or so to get this on.

[00:37:08] So just saying.

[00:37:11] I love it.

[00:37:12] So let's wrap it up with like a quick fire guest journey here.

[00:37:18] You can brainstorm with us.

[00:37:19] I'm going to put out there a little bit of a dream that we'd had or maybe my dream that I have with content is profit, which you know, since the beginning, we've called it a show, not a podcast.

[00:37:31] We call it a show because, you know, we got the little intro, the banter going on.

[00:37:35] But we want to we've thought about putting some sort of games kind of like a talk show.

[00:37:40] Right. It's like let's have some sort of games in here, create this whole experience.

[00:37:45] Can we we've gone into, you know, let's put these boxes together when we book the guest, send them the box and then they have to open it live.

[00:37:52] And, you know, they have like a will.

[00:37:55] I don't know a whole bunch of things that again, this is all in our imagination.

[00:38:00] But I'm curious.

[00:38:01] Based on that information, this can be quick fire.

[00:38:03] It can take you like a minute to just be like, all right, these are some cool ideas you can potentially do.

[00:38:08] What would be a cool guest journey?

[00:38:13] Oh, God, you're asking me something that OK, so I'm going to throw this back at you guys.

[00:38:17] So to me, it sounds amazing.

[00:38:19] Like, I'd love that because it's something different.

[00:38:21] But why?

[00:38:22] What is the why?

[00:38:25] First of all, because a lot of the podcasts, sure, their audio.

[00:38:29] But obviously they're going on.

[00:38:31] There's a lot of visuals now with the videos going on YouTube and stuff like that.

[00:38:34] But most of them are pretty boring, especially interview interview based podcasts.

[00:38:39] It's like, dude, they're so boring.

[00:38:41] Same information.

[00:38:42] If you go from one guest to the you know, from one guest on different shows and you listen to their interviews, it's like I'm getting the same exact thing.

[00:38:50] Like it is just the same exact conversation across multiple different platforms.

[00:38:55] So for us, it's like how do we make it fun?

[00:38:57] And the other side of it is we love making friends.

[00:39:01] We love building relationships with I mean, the business that we have today has been thanks to the relationships was built.

[00:39:08] We have built on the podcast.

[00:39:10] So we're like, we want to put more intention into these relationships, right?

[00:39:13] Not only provide value to the listener, but have fun and build great friendships with the people that come to the show.

[00:39:21] Yeah, I think that's really cool.

[00:39:23] So then my next question would be where do most people listen to your podcast?

[00:39:27] Did they view it on YouTube or did they listen to it in the car?

[00:39:29] Audio, audio is a main platform and then video has been growing.

[00:39:33] OK, so then you need to find a game that don't you that people can still enjoy via audio because you don't want to switch them off.

[00:39:41] Correct, correct, correct.

[00:39:42] We do a lot of clips to write.

[00:39:44] Obviously, that's part of how we promote the podcast.

[00:39:46] We grab a lot of clips.

[00:39:47] So I think there's an aspect, a marketable aspect in there where people, you know, maybe come across the clips and they're different than the regular podcast.

[00:39:56] You know, half screen one person, the other screen one person talking.

[00:40:01] But now you have, you know, the will of death spinning with challenges like eat the spicy sauce that's on the box we send you.

[00:40:09] So I think a whole bunch of things like that, I think would be a little bit marketable to it.

[00:40:13] We might have to launch a new show for that.

[00:40:18] It might be.

[00:40:19] It might be.

[00:40:21] Yeah, maybe it's a whole different show.

[00:40:23] Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:25] I think you've got it.

[00:40:26] I think it sounds like a really good idea.

[00:40:27] I think just be mindful of who you're doing it for.

[00:40:30] Be mindful of where your guests are listening.

[00:40:33] And yeah, just make sure that you're doing it for your end user.

[00:40:38] Not necessarily just for the person you're interviewing on the podcast.

[00:40:41] I think that's a good thing having both people in there.

[00:40:46] Yeah.

[00:40:47] Don't get carried away.

[00:40:48] You got a care away there.

[00:40:50] I know.

[00:40:51] I'm so excited.

[00:40:52] I just love that idea.

[00:40:53] I think it's such a unique thing.

[00:40:55] I believe operationally.

[00:40:57] It might be what sells you to.

[00:40:59] I think operationally, yes, it would be very challenging to pull it off.

[00:41:04] Imagine getting...

[00:41:05] We do three interviews a week.

[00:41:07] That's a lot.

[00:41:08] Imagine getting all these boxes, putting together, shipping them.

[00:41:11] There's going to be definitely...

[00:41:12] There's companies that do that.

[00:41:13] I know, but there's going to be a cost to that.

[00:41:15] All these things.

[00:41:16] We actually interview the guy that puts the boxes together.

[00:41:18] Mmm.

[00:41:19] Coyser as much.

[00:41:20] Maybe we can talk to him.

[00:41:22] But operationally would be definitely a challenge.

[00:41:26] But I think it would be so different and so fun to do something like that.

[00:41:30] I think we're on the good path.

[00:41:33] Maybe once a month.

[00:41:34] What is it?

[00:41:35] Maybe once a month.

[00:41:37] Maybe it doesn't have to be every guest.

[00:41:39] It's a special episode.

[00:41:40] Maybe it's like a web.

[00:41:41] Yeah, like a wildcard.

[00:41:42] We just pick a random...

[00:41:45] Maybe that's how you get to the floor when you talk to them.

[00:41:47] Yeah.

[00:41:48] We pick it out of the bag of Contest Profit Hall Famers.

[00:41:51] Yeah, that could be a good idea.

[00:41:52] Audience favorites.

[00:41:54] We can start by one.

[00:41:55] That's the thing.

[00:41:56] That's the other problem.

[00:41:57] We like to just go off the hook with every idea we got.

[00:42:02] We're like, nah, we're starting at 100.

[00:42:04] Today at the coffee shop, my brother mentioned about a new idea.

[00:42:07] He's like, we've talked about it before, about having a hot dog stand.

[00:42:13] It's called Hot Duggies.

[00:42:15] And it's like we put a show.

[00:42:17] It's like an entertaining show while we're making hot dogs and things like that.

[00:42:20] Are you familiar with the Savannah Bananas by any chance?

[00:42:23] Yeah.

[00:42:24] It will be the Savannah Bananas of the hot dog stand world.

[00:42:28] Just saying, that was my pitch.

[00:42:30] Yeah, pretty much.

[00:42:31] So today...

[00:42:32] We have different dog hats and different shirts.

[00:42:34] And the kid can bark for a discount.

[00:42:37] And we have music and we have a party going on.

[00:42:39] We're dreamers out here.

[00:42:40] That's the challenge.

[00:42:41] We're dreaming.

[00:42:42] So this whole experience is like, dude, first we need to make sure we know how to cook a hot dog.

[00:42:47] I know how to cook a hot dog.

[00:42:48] Yeah.

[00:42:49] Especially when you're living in the States, you'll get sued.

[00:42:52] Yeah.

[00:42:53] But good tangent alert.

[00:42:55] I like that.

[00:42:56] I think this is a great place to stop the show.

[00:42:58] Is there anything else that you want to add before you continue with your amazing evening?

[00:43:03] I don't think so.

[00:43:04] I think even if you remember to communicate and be authentic, which you've got it.

[00:43:09] You're so fine.

[00:43:11] I love it.

[00:43:12] We accomplished our mission.

[00:43:14] The goal of the podcast is simple.

[00:43:16] Entertain, educate and turn your content into profit.

[00:43:19] Let's go.

[00:43:22] All right.

[00:43:23] Fancy.

[00:43:24] Is there anything else you want to add?

[00:43:25] Natalie, thank you so much.

[00:43:27] I feel illuminated.

[00:43:29] I don't know if that's even the word, the right word, right?

[00:43:31] But enlightened.

[00:43:32] That's the word.

[00:43:33] I feel enlightened about customer journeys and my mind is running well, right?

[00:43:38] Like as you were talking, I was literally thinking about our own process.

[00:43:42] And I'm like, we got some holes in here.

[00:43:44] We recently brought a new customer in.

[00:43:48] And as the process is going on, maybe we can definitely do a little bit better here and there.

[00:43:52] So I really appreciate that.

[00:43:54] Thank you.

[00:43:55] Absolutely.

[00:43:56] No worries guys.

[00:43:57] Thank you.

[00:43:58] Sweet.

[00:43:59] With that said guys.

[00:44:00] One last thing.

[00:44:01] Wow.

[00:44:02] Fancy.

[00:44:03] One last thing.

[00:44:04] Come on Arsenal.

[00:44:05] Come on Arsenal.

[00:44:06] Wow.

[00:44:07] Real quick.

[00:44:08] Yeah.

[00:44:09] Real quick.

[00:44:10] Cut that up man.

[00:44:11] Okay.

[00:44:12] With that said guys, thank you so much for tuning into A Crunty In's Profit Podcast.

[00:44:13] Go ahead and follow the show in your favorite podcasting platform and on social media

[00:44:17] at Vizvoss Co.

[00:44:19] That is Ranif Natalie here, help you improve your customer journey and increase the lifetime

[00:44:24] value of your customers.

[00:44:25] Please don't forget to share this episode.

[00:44:27] And of course, don't forget to leave a five star review.

[00:44:29] See you.

[00:44:30] Bye guys.