.png)
The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Overcoming Slumps, Pizza Oven Transformations, and Southern Hospitality
Ever felt like you're at the top of your game but still battling feelings of inadequacy? After a month-long hiatus, I return with a candid reflection on navigating the rocky terrain of business setbacks, personal lows, and the facade of positivity. This episode offers a heartfelt journey through my holiday season slump, where Moana became an unexpected source of comfort, and resilience was the name of the game. Join me as I share insights on overcoming the ebbs and flows of entrepreneurship, reminding us all that sometimes the path back to positivity starts with acknowledging where we stand.
Who knew a pizza oven could change your life? Discover the magical world of the Ooni Karu 16, a Christmas gift that came with not just delicious homemade pizzas, but also an extraordinary customer service experience. Hear the story of how this oven brought unexpected joy and satisfaction, complete with a cracked stone crisis expertly handled by the Ooni team. Their exemplary service, coupled with my newfound pizza-making prowess, reaffirms the impact of genuine customer care and its ability to turn customers into brand advocates, much like the legendary service at Nordstrom.
Southern hospitality shines as we explore the cultural icons of Quick Trip and Waffle House. Learn why these establishments are more than just pit stops—they're experiences that epitomize spotless environments, friendly service, and unwavering efficiency. From the competitive pricing of Quick Trip to the 24/7 charm of Waffle House, these beloved Southern staples show how unique training and incentives create memorable customer interactions. Plus, our recent appearance on the 680 the Fan podcast connects us with the Atlanta community, where we share inspiring stories and invite you to join our continuing journey of growth and improvement.
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
This is a greasy diner where they've been able to figure it out, and people that I know come from Michigan and one of the first places they'll stop is Waffle House. Even before they come see me at my house, I'm like, hey, yeah, we're on our way. You know, we're going to stop in Waffle House up in Tennessee. I said, well, we have them here, so if you just want to keep on trucking, I'll get to their farm freeway exits where there's a Waffle House on either side.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Hey everybody, it's Alan and Chris. Happy 2025.
Speaker 1:You're not supposed to date these podcasts, but in case you want to go back and date a podcast, this is it. We're in 2025. We took a month off. Man, we've been doing this for three solid years and a quarter and Alan's laughing. And we actually said you know what I don't want to guess? Actually, I'm the one who said that. So why know what I don't want to guess? Actually, I'm the one who said that. So why did I say I didn't want to guess?
Speaker 2:Are you going to get into why you didn't want to guess? Because you just told me I did. Are you going to tell everybody?
Speaker 1:I am man. I'm going to tell you what, man. Yeah, I got into a funk, guys. I was down on running my biz. Things didn't go like I'd hoped in 2024. Uh, you know, I look back on my body of work over 16 years and I got myself into a really deep, dark funk and I was not pleasant to be around. And this is the holiday season, which really sucked and you're usually the life of the party.
Speaker 2:The human hummingbird had no sugar uh, so don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:Just like a lot of people who are depressed, I faked it till I got home and crashed, and I crashed hard. I've slept more in the last three or four weeks and I probably did the four months before that and you were like in the basement in your jammies, eating ice cream and watching like chick flicks right so do you know how many hallmark movies were made in 2024? Do you know, alan, because I do do you?
Speaker 2:did you watch them all 32? Oh god, oh god, you were super dark. Why didn't you?
Speaker 1:call me I. I, because because that's what happens. Here's what happens, guys. We just don't know when we're in it what to do. And uh, while I was in it, no, I did not watch 32 Hallmark movies. I will tell you, I binge watched a lot of Disney, I told Alan. I said you're going to laugh when I tell you that I watched Moana.
Speaker 2:And I spit out my bourbon.
Speaker 1:That's right. So can you go through that? Absolutely, man. I mean, we're here to inspire and talk to you guys and great following, and this came on the heels of us going to a holiday party with one of our great guests we've had in the past, steve Beach, and we went to his place. We met a couple of other people who have been on our podcast, met new people who are dying to come on our podcast, met other radio personalities who had heard about our podcast. Nothing but positivity all over the place. And what Alan doesn't know is that day, the next day, I was even a deeper funk, and why.
Speaker 2:It's because Steve gave me a bottle of bourbon and not you, because Steve Beecham gave Alan a bottle of bourbon and not me. For once it was about Alan and not Chris. I was so mad. Wow, the genesis of revenge, oh it was so bad.
Speaker 1:I can't believe that just happened. So, as we get started on this 2025 reinvigorating repositivity, let's make it all happen. We decided let's get back together and just talk for a minute about customer service and things that have gone right. So, yeah, I'm in that deep dark state, you know, but I'm coming out of it and I have um, and I got myself back up on it because it's all biorhythms. Man, we get back in it. You got to readjust things, you got to get things moving. So, hell, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, and when you're a small business owner, you kind of have to do that all by yourself. I mean, you're part of a mastermind group and it could be somebody spotted it and then they pull your funk.
Speaker 1:But and I I'm asking your team is not going to pull you out of your funk your team's not going to pull you out my mastermind group I masked it when I met with them, uh, before and uh, so I went through, you know, basically a holiday season where I had a lot of fun with my family, don't get me wrong. But I, as I told you, alan, I'm not that guy who goes, hey, man, people got a lot worse than me. I got a great life. I do, um, but that does not help me snap out of it. Um, even going to church and celebrating all the great things that Christmas is about with family didn't do it.
Speaker 1:Um, it was a tough run and yeah, it was. I had no idea, yeah, I know. So I thought, um, in fact to the point where I was like you know it, maybe, maybe, uh, maybe I should just stop doing a lot of things. You know, just call it good, you know 54, and maybe I can retire, what? No? So I went, screw that. No, none of that. I got a lot more to give and I'm so excited and I'd love to tell you it was one person or one thing that got me out of it. It wasn't, it was a culmination of things and I will tell you, it all came to a head when Alan came back in here in the studio, aka my basement, where the bourbon is and said, man, we got to get after this, let's go do it. And I'm like, yeah, let's go. I'm excited again.
Speaker 1:So we're here, we're going to talk. Today's episode is just going to be Alan and I, and we're going to get you guys back into it in 2025, riff it up a little bit, but talk about great customer service.
Speaker 2:Well, we are customer service.
Speaker 1:Freaks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Hey-o. So do you have, and if you don't, you can think about it. But do you have any stories to tell where you were just absolutely blown away by something?
Speaker 1:a company did for you. So I don't have one off the top of my head right now, especially in the last couple weeks, because you know last month it would be hard. Uh, because, um, I wasn't looking for it. You're not looking for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've. I've had a couple, you know, you know one of my stories with Nordstrom's and I've got a. I've got a new one that just happened to me over Christmas that I want to tell you about because it makes me think how do, how do these companies have the culture that allows their employees to be this awesome? And especially since people just are at an epic level of sucking all around us right now, I mean, the whole world is just on fire and mad at each other and irritated and offended, and so when you say that what you're talking about is in the service industry, when one person is trying to discern another service to somebody else.
Speaker 1:Is that we're all short, right? We're like you know? Hey snap, snap, snap, I'm on my phone. Hey snap, snap, snap, I've got my earplugs in. So that's how people are sucking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, they're just sucking in so many ways. When you're interacting with a company, it's almost like you've got somebody in a customer service position who's assuming that you're guilty, treats you like a criminal, has no interest in what you have to say. You have to fight for what they promised you in the first place. I mean all those things. It drives me insane. And every once in a while you run across a bright spot, so I want to tell you about one of them. Every once in a while you run across a bright spot, so I want to tell you about one of them.
Speaker 2:So you know, two years ago, a little over two years ago, when my dad died and we were rolling into the Christmas season and I think my wife was feeling like extra, you know, supportive, and I really appreciate it. She's like what do you want for Christmas? And I said and we have this certain budget that we kind of work with mentally We've never actually said it out loud but I said I really want a pizza oven, but I can't find one that I think is good enough within the budget that I think that we normally have for each other. And she goes well, how much is the one that you want, and I said there's. There's one called an uni and I thought it was from, I thought it was italian. It's actually a scottish company, I think, if I'm not mistaken sorry.
Speaker 1:Guess who is thinking about getting an uni and guess who is now cross that off the list not a paisan wait, I'm listening, I listening.
Speaker 2:I'm listening, I'm back, I'm back. Yeah, so she goes. Why don't you get the one that you want, which you know? Wonderful girl. And so I get the Ooni. Which one did you get? I got the Karu 16. Because you don't want the 12? Because it's too small. You can't rotate the pizza properly With the dual fuel. I have both wood and then I can do gas you are my hero and I'm coming over and you're making pizza for me, yeah, okay, the only reason why you should have, because I've been looking at this sucker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not kidding. I actually had it on my wish list and Christmas list, but I didn't put it on there because of the funk I was in, by the way, because I didn't want any of my family to buy it.
Speaker 2:This would make you happy. It would pull you out of a funk, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, continue. I love this, yeah, and I can tell you the difference between the gas and the wood and everything.
Speaker 2:But just for the listeners, I've been making homemade pizzas for well over 20 years and I've been pretty obsessed with it and I felt like, in my regular oven, the New York pizzerias. And then of course, the kind that I was going after was the Neapolitan style and they're doing a wood oven and again they're up at those higher temperatures. But I love that wood fire flavor.
Speaker 1:So I get the Ooni and it shows up and you remember the first time you opened an iPhone box and you were just kind of impressed at how it was packaged. Yeah, I was. I would say that's how I knew Apple had the game figured out. Yeah, you're right, because I was a BlackBerry guy and I had to get my first iPhone and you remember that too. I still remember that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a similar experience and I opened it up and then I opened the manual and on the very first page it says okay, we know that you really want to start making pizza, so here's the 10 things you need to know. But we really want you to read the rest of the brochure because we think it's awesome, that's what it said. It said pretty much exactly that and I'm like I think it might know, alan, yeah, I go. How cool is that? I mean that just sort of gave me kind of a like okay, I like these people. It's not that they just, you know, made this thing in China and sent it to me.
Speaker 2:And there was an issue that I had. I can't remember if it was just trying to register the thing for my warranty or if it was. They have an app and the app is great. So if you want to make a certain amount of pizza balls at a certain amount of weight, this much flour based on your hydration percentage, I mean it's pretty cool. So I remember I had a little trouble figuring that out and I reached out and I got this immediate response and it was really friendly and it was super helpful and I was like, oh, that's kind of impressive.
Speaker 2:And then the Uni itself was better made than I expected and it had a couple just a little touches to it that I thought these guys, I mean they get it. So I get a survey. And the survey is like you know well, what do you think of your uni and would you recommend it to friends? And I said well, I gotta be honest with you, you know, I expected to get a good product. What I didn't expect was I was really kind of impressed at how well it was made. I was even more impressed at these little touches.
Speaker 1:And I'm even more impressed that you filled out the fricking survey.
Speaker 2:No, it was yeah, I like giving feedback where it's due, yeah, and I said and I said and honestly, my pizzas now are otherworldly. And I said, but what I'm really impressed with is this really cool vibe that I'm getting from everybody I've had contact with, and so I just sent the. I sent that in two weeks later, completely forgot about pizza and everything. And there's a FedEx box on my front door and I open it up and inside is this and I've got it here in the studio and I'll show Chris Crappy little white frame and there's a moon and there's an alien and there's an astronaut in a pizza box.
Speaker 1:Allow me. So what is it actually showing us? It is showing us an alien, an astronaut, eating pizza on an otherworldly planet.
Speaker 2:I did not make the connection. Then I turned it over. You can read it. Oh my God, Look at the little note.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God. Look at the little note. I can't believe what I'm about to read. Everybody, I'm going to read this note. We'll post this out. It says welcome to the uni community, alan. We hope your pizzas continue to be otherworldly. Happy uni-ing, so somebody. Happy uniing, so somebody actually flippin. Read it, read it.
Speaker 2:They read my survey and found this incredible thing. It's it's a crappy little clip art in a crappy little frame and they, but they, sent it to me with that note now that is cool if you go to our youtube channel, by the way, everybody, small business safari, don't forget this.
Speaker 1:Right guys, keep us going, keep us going out there. We got some exciting news coming in 2025. I just told you about how dark, deep and dark it was. There's no reason I should be deep and dark, because not only are we on the radio, but we are actually going to go otherworldly when it comes this way. So I got the otherworldly up there. What a great customer service point. So they listened to you, alan.
Speaker 2:Alan and I wasn't complaining, I mean okay. So what they did was they turned me from a fan to a raving apostle.
Speaker 1:You are a raving apostle.
Speaker 2:Raving apostle. So I hang this up and you know where my pizza oven is? It's in the fish shack out back. Yeah, and I've got this redneck-y little fish shack with all my smokehouse and my big green egg and and all my stacks of different kinds of wood and stuff oh my god, you know who's gonna buy a noonie everybody, yeah, I think we all need to buy a noonie.
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to. But here's what I am gonna do. I'm gonna drive five miles up to ellen's house and I'm gonna say, ellen, make me a pizza mom, yeah, yeah, meatloaf, meatloaf.
Speaker 2:That's right, mom, meatloaf. So I hung this up and I took a picture and I sent it and I sent, obviously I sent him a thank you note and I send the picture, and they respond super positively oh, that's so cool and I like great, and she goes. Now I do have to say you should, you know, and all of a sudden she gets all corporate about how far the uni should be house and stuff to not cause a fire hazard.
Speaker 1:But hey, don't worry, baby, I'm a full-on freak when it comes to firing people up, all right so that was.
Speaker 2:This was january 2023. I got it um for christmas. I got it basically in early december 2022, so a few weeks ago. I'm making pizza. They're the best I've ever made. I did a 72-hour slow ferment. I tortured the yeast on the countertop and they were phenomenal.
Speaker 1:By the way, if you're just tuning in. This is not a cooking show, but we'll continue.
Speaker 2:All right, best pizzas I've made, but we are going to have paella with our friends in Spain.
Speaker 2:I think for 2025, we need to start doing some of these live remotes that we talked about. That's the Chris I've been looking for. So I make these amazing pizzas they're the best I've ever made and I've made some really good ones and these are just transformative. And what I do is, you know, at the end of the night I let the fire die down and in the morning I go out and I clean it up and you flip the stone and it actually bakes off the stuff on the other side the next time you cook and all this stuff. So I get it all set up for the next and I look down and the stone is cracked and I'm like I wonder if this is under warranty.
Speaker 2:But pizza stones cracking are a pretty common thing and I can't find any information about the warranty. So I just reach out to Ooni and I sent him a picture and then I sent him my serial number and I sent a nice little note. I wasn't demanding anything, I just said, after a night of baking the best pizzas I've ever made. You can imagine the soul-crushing nature of my discovery. I use the word soul-crushing.
Speaker 2:Nice touch Alan that my pizza stone had split in half and I'm wondering is this a warranty thing, or do I just need to order a new one? I threw out there that I was willing to order a new one that night, in the middle of the night, I get an email response back and it wasn't a thank you. You know what? What do you? What do you normally get when you send in something?
Speaker 1:We'll be back in touch with you after 24 hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And some other shit going on. Right now Nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, yeah, so if you do get a response, it's a very boilerplate. You know, thanks, we're going to look at. You know we'll review this thing. You're going to get some sort of automated corporate answer. You know what I got, alan. Oh no, Exclamation point. I mean not hey, I'm so sorry to hear about this, or thanks for letting us know. It was, oh no, like she totally felt my devastation, the soul sucking nature of seeing that your stone is cracked, and she said you know, i'm'm gonna go ahead and process this and get you a new stone. And she goes. Meanwhile, here's a couple of my favorite recipes no, and it was for stuff you can make in your uni.
Speaker 2:That isn't pizza, like I make a shrimp scampi in there now with the wood fire that's just killed.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on yeah oh my god, uni has on it. We were tagging the hell out of them on this. Yeah, I mean, and actually I just I was writing while you're talking because it's just you and me and I don't have to look like I'm interested I actually appreciate the level of feigning to be interested.
Speaker 2:You've, I did, I've done it uh so that was good and it was.
Speaker 1:And I, I wasn't talking, I was just listening. So that's good. But no, we're going to tag the hell out of uni because I've been looking at it and looking at it, and looking at it and didn't pull the trigger Because, again, where I was at, I was just like, ah, you know, da, da, da. So I went ahead and made pizzas in my cast iron, in my oven. Ah, not the same, are they?
Speaker 2:No, not even close. No, now I will do Detroit pizzas in my oven and you know, every once in a while, if I just don't feel like dealing with the elements outside, you know I'll do it, but it's not even close. I'm actually going to show you a picture here in a minute, but I mean, oh, wow All right.
Speaker 1:So Ooni customer service, showing that personal touch that people are listening to you, that overcomes the suck right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it didn't feel like I had to prove or I had to. I mean, you know they asked for a little bit of basic information, but it was just a oh no. You know, our friend alan's pizza stone is broken. We need to help him, and I mean how much. And so when you think about, like nordstrom, who we've talked about in the past, and I mean they have this amazing customer service reputation and I've heard stories where they take clothes back that they never even sold.
Speaker 2:And back in the day when they were first getting started, you know some guy returned tires. They've never sold tires. You know that kind of thing. That was out in Seattle. Yeah, there's a certain percentage. They obviously know there's a certain percentage of the population who's going to take advantage of them. I mean, you're dealing with that right now in your business. I am Absolutely. And how do you not assume everybody's trying to screw you when they're a customer? And then how do you budget to? I mean, this is what I'm trying to figure out. I mean, I don't know if this is under warranty. Maybe it is under warranty, probably not. They just freaking handled it. Now they're getting a free podcast out of it. Chris is going to buy an uni. My niece is getting married and I already sent her her uni. She's my cooking buddy and I sent her uni for her wedding present.
Speaker 1:But you don't know that, especially as a small business guy. But you do bring up a point and this is what I would tell you anybody small businesses you're growing the first year you're in business and you only made $50,000. Let's say you killed it, man. You did a million in revenue. Way to go, big guy. Awesome for you. Yes, I'm jealous because I didn't do a million, but you had to refund somebody $50, $500, $5,000, it doesn't matter. Here's the deal. You have to, and I heard that early on is like you know what? Sometimes you have to refund people money because you can't make everybody happy. However, if you did this, I'm sorry that this thing went the wrong way, but that is a great picture.
Speaker 2:Is that not an unbelievable looking pizza?
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing the picture. Oh, that's right, but let's talk about this. So, as you build, your budget in 2025,.
Speaker 2:Man, that is a really thick crust too, and it's light as a feather and it just crackled on the outside. It was just a poof.
Speaker 1:It was perfect.
Speaker 1:You know that would have been really good. So my number is 678-429-4857. And that's what I share with everybody on the podcast. You want to call me? Go ahead, you know, don't, because I won't answer, but you can text me and I'll definitely respond to you because if you got a business question I want to help and that's what we've been doing. I actually just got done responding to another email today from another listener.
Speaker 1:But let's go back to this customer service part of this. You don't know if it works and it translates. You just don't. You never will. You are that astronaut up in the moon in an airspace vacuum that you don't know if it's going to happen and you don't know if this guy's taking advantage of you. But you know what you can do. You do know this. He has spidey senses. You know when somebody's trying to take advantage of you. Not everybody is right. I've always said this the customer is not always right, but if you put the customer first, you can do the right thing by them you're right, that's a different mentality and you have to do it super cheerfully.
Speaker 2:And I mean mean, and that's the difference, because when you were talking about, hey, if it's 50 bucks, it's like okay, fine, screw you, here's your $50. Well, what good does that do? You May as well not give them the $50. But the way that they were like oh no, they're like that's terrible. Let me help you.
Speaker 1:I mean, I felt like we're on the same team. It just you know. But let me tell you about the way you responded to them and the way a team responded back to you. And here's the thing Sometimes people will respond to you as a service provider and it sucks. When somebody responds to you in a nice way, you should go above and beyond. They always say you know the old adage the squeaky wheel gets grease. Yeah, you guys should be going. The squeaky wheel gets grease. Yeah, you guys should be going for. The sweet wheel gets grease.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I viewed that line yeah, because the people who get stuff from you are the people who are assholes, and so you just begrudgingly give them stuff. What do we do for the people who are awesome, we pay full retail. I mean, I've always said that I'm like, could we not do something for our good customers that they're just not expecting, like this clip art in a little crappy white frame? That is one of my favorite things. I mean, it did cost them, it was a little bit of time. It cost them the postage. They didn't need to do it. I wasn't complaining about anything, it was just. But suddenly they turned me into this apostle. I mean, what can we do for our customers who are good to turn them into raving apostles?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm coming at it from the wrong side again because of my mentality and what's going on.
Speaker 2:I know you want to slash tires I do especially this one guy.
Speaker 1:He called out and he not only blessed out my dispatcher, my call center, my service manager and my general manager, and I listened to him talking to my general manager. I was about to get in the car and go over there and just absolutely, yeah, absolutely do everything, he just said, because he provided the material. It was a butcher block countertop. We put it together. It is amazing because of the workmanship that we did. But he doesn't like that. The wood is different because he bought this stuff from a big box store.
Speaker 2:The wood is different than what.
Speaker 1:The wood is a butcher block and where it miters up in the corner it's different. It doesn't match up perfectly. The grain doesn't match up Well, of course it doesn't, it would never. But he told us to do it, so my guy did it, and my guy did it. Biscuit joint great, did all the workmanship the way it was going.
Speaker 1:And so you could ask yourself well, chris, why didn't you guys tell him that that was going to look bad? Because I've got now 10 examples online and I have one that I personally did 15 years ago that people loved and they said they want to do it. And I said, boy, I've never seen this done, the first one I ever did. And I did it with one of my guys and I can promise you my craftsmanship compared to this one was not as equal it was. I mean, it was good, it wasn't perfect. And this guy is now suing me. I'm like, really, but and he went right to the mat right off the bat, didn't even give me a chance to hey, let me come out there and see it, because that's what I did. My first email to him is I'd love to come out there and have a conversation with you and talk about it.
Speaker 2:no, no response seeing that goes to the cost of just um having a good customer service reputation. I mean, you're ultimately going to take care of this guy and now you're going to be in court and some people just flat suck. But the key is to not assume everybody else is going to be like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so here's the thing. Yeah, that's exactly right. You can't let my dark mentality permeate to the other 99 people out there who aren't like that no, and your employees can't see you do that either.
Speaker 2:And so then, if you have a culture of, hey, let's look for ways to send this stupid little framed alien to our good customers, whatever the equivalent is in your business, don't you think that that just sort of creates this super positive vibe in the office? And so then that guy stands out even more separately as you are a uniquely qualified asshole on this planet, and it makes the good people look that much better.
Speaker 1:I think so. I think you're right, I mean so. Again, back to customer service Ooni, awesome, that was a great move. You talked about your Nordstrom experience in the past, I think. Now, in today's world, I do think they're getting a little stale. They're still great, but they still don't have that because they were so much better than everybody else. But do you feel like everybody's kind of catching up to them? Is there another one that you would recommend?
Speaker 2:There's two companies just who are outliers, in my opinion, in a world that you wouldn't expect it. But one is Quick Trip Gasoline. And for the parts of the country or the world that don't experience this, I didn't know about quick trip till I moved to Atlanta. They're actually out of Tulsa, oklahoma, but they're mostly across the South and it's a absolutely spotless gas station with a big convenience store. Every kind of fountain drink great coffee, bathrooms are spotless and no matter what time of day or night you walk in, the employees immediately greet you and I know that they pay their people well. I think they have a great management track, I think they have good benefits, but still, you're, you're working in a convenience store gas station and there's a really crappy one across the street that stinks. The bathroom's plugged, it smells like some weird incense. You know, I mean, what's the difference between the two? It kind of goes back to our talk about chick-fil-a versus everybody else. I mean, they're just selling fast food, but it's just.
Speaker 1:It's a completely different experience when you go there and in today's world, that's the, that's the biggest part, that, uh, you know what? Are you willing to go across the street for five cents less and maybe not use the restroom, maybe? However, these guys are competitive in their gas, so their commodity is there when you go in there. Quick Trip is my go-to when I'm here. Racetrack is number two in terms of convenience stores. Why? Because you can get gas. I'll take a chance every once in a while and grab some food there.
Speaker 2:Uh okay, not lying they actually now quick trip? It's not bad.
Speaker 1:I get the turkey wraps, but I get them custom made. Uh, and the bathrooms. You always got to make sure you get up for a multi-seater. But that back to the customer service. What did you just say? You always got to go. You can't go for a one-seater man because you're always waiting for dudes. Yeah, right, and you're not waiting for dudes. If you're going in there, you're trying to get your stuff done and get it over with. I'm not waiting for some guy to drop. You know what I'm saying. Maybe you're not. It's called drop and trow, bro.
Speaker 2:But then you know Waffle House. I mean that company's been around forever. There's 200 of them just in Atlanta. Now we're talking, let's talk Waffle.
Speaker 1:House. So Waffle House is a southeastern US staple, yep, and what are they known for? Cheap food that's open 24-7. In fact, they actually now have a great. Another moniker is that the Weather Channel says it's called the Waffle House Indicator. If they're closing waffle houses, you know it's bad. It's a bad storm if waffle house is closed, all right. So when you walk into waffle house, it is a greasy diner. If you've never been in the southeast and seen a waffle house, to paint the picture, it is a small. Uh, what?
Speaker 2:20 by 60, maybe 30 by 60, yep, maybe 30 by 90 brick building glass on the outside, open open grill with a counter and then a real counter and a few booths uh, usually 10 to 15 booths around it and they're all built the same.
Speaker 1:And you walk in there. Nobody greets you and says, hey, welcome to waffles. They say hey, where you want to sit, and and you get a laminated menu and they wipe off the table and you sit down or you sit at the counter if you want the show to see what's going on behind you.
Speaker 2:Just don't look down on the floor. It's nasty. You'd never look down, but no, they do greet you when you come in Well, to tell you to hang on sugar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do get honey and sugar and all that. Hang on sugar. You sit down. So when you sit down but you know the minute you sit down what happens Lights are up, you are greeted immediately. You are asked what do you want to drink? What are you looking for? Let's go. Are you guys in a hurry? All right, let's go. They know exactly how to work with you and you hear them in the back with the open grill. It's right in front of you. Stuff's flying everywhere.
Speaker 2:And I mean it's such a mix of folks and obviously a lot of times I'm in the country, so it's a lot of country folks. It's people that you know maybe didn't go to school, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it could be 3 in the morning. There's drunks at the counter.
Speaker 2:And they're friendly and the food is consistent and it's become a cultural phenomenon. I mean, I remember the, the waffle house near my dad's place in aiken, south carolina. They actually had a valentine's menu and this is one of these places where I think there's only a total of 10 ingredients. It's just how they combine them, people get married at waffle house.
Speaker 1:So the answer is yes. The reason I know this is because waffle house House was founded here in Atlanta, georgia, and I know the biggest franchisor of these and I got a chance to talk with him about this years ago so long ago that I'm not sure I even know how to get a hold of him to get him around here. But it's amazing the training that they go through. They realize who we're dealing with. A lot of these people you said and I love that you said that they didn't graduate high school. Some of these people perhaps may have been the other side of the bars. Yeah, but they'll do it. But you know what they do. Everybody is incented on every shift for a pool team bonus. They're all there together and they're all going to get the same bonus, based on the tips and everything else that comes through. So, based on the revenue, what's going on? So you go? Well, wait a minute. What about the cash tips? The waitress skip. You're right, those are. You can't get those. But you know what, though? She wants to share it with the cook and the chef, because if she shares with them, then guess who gets her food first? Right, guess who gets a bigger tip, she does. So he put the whole team pool thing in there and that's how they've incented this great behavior.
Speaker 1:I mean, when you go in there, this is not fine dining. This is not the top 10, 100 restaurants in the world. This is a greasy diner where they've been able to figure it out, and people that I know come from Michigan and one of the first places they'll stop is Waffle House, even before they come see me at my house. How about that? Yeah, yeah, think about that for a minute. I have friends come down. I'm like, hey, yeah, oh, we're on our way. Oh, you know, we're gonna stop in Waffle House up in Tennessee. I said what we have them here. So if you just want to keep on trucking, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2:I'll get for people who don't know. Waffle House. I swear to god, this is true. There are some freeway exits where there's a Waffle House on either side of the freeway, but how?
Speaker 1:do they do it. They're a greasy spoon. You can think about the worst diner you've ever been into in your life, and when you go in there it is not much better than that.
Speaker 1:But the hospitality I mean even the cook will turn around as he's doing the smash iron on the bacon, or if he's flipping the eggs, or if he's flipping the eggs, or if he's going over the waffle iron, he's gonna. He's gonna chat you up. What's your order? My order has always been, and I go protein mostly, so I go almost all eggs all the time oh, and I love their salsa.
Speaker 2:So the salsa they took away with covid because I would get a ham cheese, jalapeno omelet grits, grits and raisin. I can tell you that, tells you I want this, I want the salsa, but I've heard in certain certain waffle houses it's back, it's killing me. I did not know that.
Speaker 1:But you know you talk about the customer service at every level. It can happen. And if you train your folks and censure folks, here's the thing inspect what you expect, back to incentivizing what's going on. I just did this with my CSRs. I want them to sell more out of my handyman company, out of the office than we send estimators out to why? Because it's more profitable. If I can send a handyman out, dispatch a guy and we're starting to bill right away, then we're more profitable than having to roll somebody potentially for a free estimate and then pay their gas, pay their car allowance, do all this. That's a more expensive transaction for me.
Speaker 2:Do you have them sell over the phone? Always, always.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's not a whole other thing. Smile, alan. Hey, welcome sugar. Apparently, we're going to have another podcast about that, we do. We talk about this treating our first touch super scars, that they know that they're the first people that you interact with, that you've got to put them first and center and then, as you do that, you've got to put that customer first and center, and if you put them first and center, then you can help them. We can't help everybody, especially as a handyman company who asks us a lot of different stuff and a lot of expectations that are not set, that we need to set, and so that's what they work on. So back to great customer service.
Speaker 1:You talked about your Ooni experience, which is amazing. We just drained an entire episode talking about your Ooni and the Waffle House, two totally diametric things. I'm kind of hungry, I know, and now with that, we've got to keep on drinking, keep on eating. Hey, everybody, if you hung out with this one, you've got to make sure you go out there, promulgate the good word. Here's what's going on in 2025.
Speaker 2:Say promulgate? Is that a big word? I think it's one you just made up. Is that a?
Speaker 1:big word. I think it's one you just made up. No, I think it's a word. I'm using that in Scrabble baby Triple word score promulgate. Just like my family asked me how can we go play Wordle?
Speaker 2:I said because I got plenty of things that can confuse me every day and make me not happy.
Speaker 1:So, hey guys, go check us out. We're out there, apple. We're out there on Spotify. Apple, we're out there on Spotify. We're about to be on the 680 the Fan podcast, because I'm on the radio every week talking about home stuff here in Atlanta on 106.3 and 680 the Fan Look at you. And while we're doing that, we're also talking to great people and great companies here on this podcast. Man, we're just trying to help you get better, because let's just all get better together. You know what? I shared some deep stuff early. Um, I'll share more. Just give me an email, chris at the trusted toolbox dot com. Chris at the trusted toolbox dot com. Hey, alan, we gotta get out of here. That was a great story. Thank you for sharing. Let's go uni it up. Cheers everybody, we're out of here.
%20png.png)
