Onsite Insight Podcast by RV Housing Group

Willing to Lose: How Building a Culture of Ownership Builds Lasting Success

• RV Housing Group • Episode 9

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We explore how a culture of ownership and exceptional customer service shapes successful businesses and creates lasting customer loyalty.

• Brands like Nordstrom and Chick-fil-A stand out for their extraordinary customer service and willingness to prioritize customer satisfaction
• The younger workforce can excel with proper training, clear values, and accountability as demonstrated by Chick-fil-A
• Social media-focused brands often prioritize quick sales over service quality and long-term customer relationships
• Being "willing to lose" in the short term creates much greater long-term business success
• The philosophy that "just because it's not our fault doesn't mean it's not our problem" creates exceptional customer experiences
• Building a properly staffed team allows businesses to respond quickly and thoroughly to customer needs
• Creating a legacy business requires prioritizing long-term customer relationships over short-term profits
• Exceptional service creates a competitive advantage that remains relevant regardless of market conditions


Speaker 1:

All right. So, brad, I'm going to start off with a curve ball, you ready? Yeah, if you're going to play in the big leagues, you got to hit the curve. That's what they tell me. Okay, all right. What are some businesses or some brands that you follow or you respect because of how they do business or how they represent themselves?

Speaker 2:

of how they do business or how they represent themselves. So recent interaction. So this comes to mind Nordstrom, okay Is one. Their customer service is very, very good Thought I purchased at nordstrom, actually purchased at neiman marcus nordstrom was going to take this thing back that had been used for a while and ship us a new one, only to find out I didn't purchase it there. Go to neiman marcus, which neiman marcus is really probably known more as a more luxury brand. Um and uh. Their response was uh, unfortunately there's nothing we can do. That was very interesting for sure. You know I'm drawn to brands. You know? Look, chick-fil-a man.

Speaker 2:

I mean just Chick-fil-A is not about their chicken. You know what I mean. I've had way better chicken and some people may not like that, but it's the experience. It's dangerous territory there, man.

Speaker 1:

I hear you like that, but um, but it's the experience dangerous territory there, man I hear you. I hear you, but it's true um well, and they employ young people the same types of young people that other businesses employ, except for the culture and how they train them and how you get treated at this places, it's all in training.

Speaker 2:

It's all in training Because it's like, oh, do the Chick-fil-A somehow handpick the chosen children? No, you know, no, they don't. They just do a great job of training them and instilling their values in them and, you know, and making sure that they're doing them, obviously, um, you know. So there's like a there's this thing nowadays where, hey, people kind of talk about the younger generations just not being, you know, not being good employees and things like that. And I'm like, well, you can go to Chick-fil-A and debunk that. Well, what's the well, what's the difference? Well, the difference is they, they, they put time and invest time into them, you know, into into, um, obviously, training them, but but not only training them, but instilling in them their values.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and they have a high standard and there's accountability toward that standard and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you know those two jump off. But I mean there's there's a lot of brands and and things that, uh, you know, I'm not, I'm not into, I'm not into it's funny because I just had this conversation today with somebody. I'm not into the social media, heavy brands at all um, you know the, the companies that uh and I won't name these, but the ones that I could but that basically they're spending all their money on advertising and none of their money on actually giving you any type of decent service. So if you have an issue, you're screwed. So I'm now of the mindset that I will not buy anything from any company that is heavy social media.

Speaker 1:

Interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's definitely a hot take. Well, it speaks to your value and the reason why I'm asking this question is because I wanted to talk to you today about just just a culture of ownership, a culture of like doing whatever it takes to serve people, and even if that means you know you got to take back a article clothing that wasn't yours. I mean whatever you know. I think in that story, the, the nordstrom story is they valued you as a customer more than they valued that article of clothing, because what they understand is that if they treat you well, you know over time they're going to get a lot more money from you as a loyal customer. They'd rather take a loss on that garment, even if it didn't belong to you, even if it wasn't even theirs to own.

Speaker 2:

Here's the thing, man. It was cologne right.

Speaker 1:

It was pretty was cologne.

Speaker 2:

Right, it was okay, it was. It was pretty expensive cologne. And all of a sudden the sprayer stopped working. Well, I tried to change the spray top out with another one. They I take it in because that didn't work. I take it in and they find out that it's actually inside the bottle. So the mechanism up inside, which nobody can get to right um, not my fault, right still had three quarters of the bottle left. They weren't willing to do anything about it and I was. I was dumbfounded, honestly, like I just I couldn't believe it. I ended up getting a manager involved and got you know, got what I felt like I deserved, but does that change?

Speaker 1:

emotionally change how you view those businesses and where you will go and how you'll you know?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, you know the answer to that. Yeah, yeah, well, as a as a as a business owner yourself.

Speaker 1:

I mean, what is, what is this idea of like doing whatever it takes? What does that mean to you as a company owner?

Speaker 2:

You know I see I see so much value in, in and being willing to lose. You know, um, whether it's um, you know whether it's a debate, um, whether you, you know you're looking at, uh, trying to find a solution for something and you feel like you're right. You know, um, you got to be willing to lose. And whether it's or whether it's, uh, a monetary, you know you did everything on your end the right way, um, your team. You know it was a home run. When you look at, you know once, once we look at what we do, right, once we received the claim to all the way through, and I go back and look at every note and I say you know what, we couldn't have done anything differently. Team, great job. Here's what I'm dealing with.

Speaker 2:

And ultimately, even though I know all of those things, man, I still lose sometimes and you know what it's like. You just got to be able to see the forest through the trees. I don't even get bummed out. You know what I'm saying. I've just been in my mid-40s. It's not the first time I've ever seen this happen. I always have been of the mindset that it takes money to make money, and I've been in sales a long time and all that stuff, but ultimately I don't get bummed out about it. It's like yeah, briefly, I'm like you know I should not have to take this hit right.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

For sure, right out of principle, I shouldn't have to take this hit, but you live on principle. That'll cost you, you know, right, and I know that firsthand, unfortunately. But you, just, you know, you take, you take the the bad with the great right, you know, hey, our clients really, you know really appreciate what we do. They, they send us a lot of, you know a lot of business. Obviously it's repeat business because they keep sending us business and and you know, like, why would I even think of you know, arguing for the sake over the sake of principle, when that may potentially, you know, put put this thought in the back of their head? Like you know, brad and his team is not, they're not really flexible, they're not really willing to kind of um, eat crow when we need them to, or whatever you know, and so it just is what it is, man yeah and so many, so many business owners like count pennies, you know, and just aren't willing to lose.

Speaker 2:

And my gosh, it's so short-sighted that it is. It baffles me. It baffles me sometimes. I mean, you know, similar to the neiman market situation. Right, yeah, I was blown away. I was like what? I go into my account and look at what I've bought, you know like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 2:

you know, right now I'm not like I'm not like all neiman markets, don't, don't think that, but I've bought stuff there almost always on clearance, but uh, but yeah, it's like I'm a repeat customer and I'm you know, and you know, uh, who knows who? I know right.

Speaker 2:

That that I'm going to tell, of course, nobody, you know, everybody kind of already should know at this point that a bad experience is what people talk about to everybody. I'm a good one most of the time. Experience is what people talk about to everybody good one most of the time.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, just, it's just always uh, it always, um, it's always been something that that I could never wrap my head around yeah how people are not just not willing to lose, you know why do you think that mindset matters so much, specifically in just the insurance housing world?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think so much of it is due to budget, right, when you look at a particular claim, they have a budget that kind of there's typically an amount that's allotted toward temporary housing and you know it gets eaten up by you know all kinds of different things, right? Maybe they have to stay in a hotel at first, or, you know, or stay with a friend and they're paying the friend. There's a lot of things that can start eating in your budget. And then you know, and then they have almost a total loss and you know maybe they're going to be out eight months or a year or whatever, but they only have a certain amount of budget, right that once that's gone, it's gone. So you know they're our clients who are dealing with them directly, more so before us. You know they're, they're looking out for them and their budget, right.

Speaker 2:

And so, and so I understand that my team understands that, um, and and I think that a lot of times is is why that is the case. You know, just really they're trying to make that money go as far as it can and thinking ahead to potential extensions and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I want to go back to something I've heard you. You know you've already talked about a little bit, but I want you to unpack a little bit more, because I've heard you tell our team before this idea that just because it's not our fault doesn't mean it's not our problem when dealing with insurance reps and people like that. What is what do you mean by that and how do you like lead the team through that kind of cultural mindset?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, it's just uh. I just think you have to understand that issues are gonna arise, right, and they may not be because of anything that we've done right. Um, maybe it's uh. Maybe you know to give you kind of a real life example you know, uh, one of our policyholders clogs the toilet in the in the RV, right, well, that's their fault.

Speaker 2:

You know, we could, we could say, hey, you need to call a plumber and, you know, get them out there to. But listen, it's, it's our issue, because they're our client as well and they're having a problem, right, a problem right. So, um, it wasn't our fault by any means, but it becomes our problem, or?

Speaker 2:

our issue also because they're our client and we want to take care of them. Right, you know, and, and it's really you know, it's just, it's a simple, it's a simple thing. It, you know just, it all goes back to good service. You know I mean hey, we have a client with an issue. Doesn't really matter who caused it, they have an issue and it's a real issue and you know just, it all goes back to good service. You know what I mean. Hey, we have a client with an issue. It doesn't really matter who caused it, they have an issue and it's a real issue and it's unfortunate for them and they don't want to deal with it either. But here it is. So how can we help them fix this?

Speaker 1:

And there's so many variables in this, in this particular space, and the reps that are listening or watching this they know it's like sometimes you're dealing with an insured and you know they're, we've talked about it before. They're going through trauma, they're going through, they've just going through loss. A lot of times maybe it's through a storm or flood or fire, whatever it might be. So they're dysregulated anyway because they're all emotional about what they're going through. No-transcript. And a lot of times we've got to improvise because you know, we've scouted the property, we've done Google Earth, we've done pictures, we've done Google Earth, we've done pictures, we've done videos, we've done everything within our power, anything we can control. And then sometimes you get there and there's just, you know, a wild card that you need to prepare for. You know For sure, and you train the team to like, hey, this is our opportunity to flex, you know, our opportunity to be leaders, our opportunity to to innovators.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's yeah.

Speaker 1:

Or even to keep it off the plate of our reps. You know we don't want them getting calls when we're on on site of hey, this is not like it's a big deal to you to try to handle all that, so that they're not they're not getting blown up with those calls.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, we're always going to try to do whatever we can to mitigate anything like that, to make sure that they're not getting a call, that the reps aren't getting a call, right, that we can. You know, the best case scenario is that, hey, we may run into all kinds of issues, right, I mean, we've had to take chainsaws out and cut trees down and you know trim and dig, you know use shovels, um, but you know, ultimately we don't. We would rather the reps not hear about that on the front end, right, because that that may stress them out. Or, you know, put add, just add another thing to their plate. We'll handle it and then we'll let them know on the back end. Hey, just, you know, we ran into some issues and right, but we got taken care of and all that. I think that's the preferable way to do it.

Speaker 1:

Yep, yep. Well, and it speaks to just this idea of we really want our reps to see us not just as a vendor but really as a partner in this. Like it's a big deal for us, you know, and I hope it's okay that I say this, but you talk about taking loss. Well, I know for fact that you, you staff your team in ways that you wouldn't have to, so that you can better serve the our clients and our reps, and, for example, that is having techs on call, people that they can call to do that. But it's, it's the reason why we do that is because we truly want to be a partner. We don't. We could I mean, if you wanted to, you could, you know, have a really lean team, like most companies do, and just run it. You know, it's like run it yourself and you know a couple of people, whatever, but you choose to build a team for the purpose of when our reps call or a problem come up, that we can respond quickly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure. I mean yeah, we've talked about that before Just the amount of the amount of staff that we have compared to probably most of our competitors, you know, and that's just so we can you know, so we can offer the very best service possible.

Speaker 2:

It's, you know, if it's a one or two or three man show, uh, it's easy when you're busy to like, hey, we, we already have this on our plate. We can't really add this to our plate right now, you know, but with us we have, you know, we have enough people that we can kind of know Nobody's plate is like too too full, to the point Can't do anything else, you know. But but I'll say, too, man, you know, my team is is very much can do and extremely hardworking. Um, and you know, really, really grateful for, for their mental makeup and their willingness to be helpful and to go, you know, go, the extra mile to take care of people and you know.

Speaker 2:

So I don't want that to be lost either. Right, this is not. This is not all about me and what I'm doing and have done and all that stuff. I couldn't do any of this without the team that I have.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Well, last question. I just want to kind of zoom back out more on like a philosophical, just business level. But why do you believe that this mindset will always win, no matter how crowded the competition gets, no matter how crowded the market gets? Philosophically, why do you believe so deeply in this approach to doing business?

Speaker 2:

because I think, I think everybody still desires that. You know, I think that it's it's not found nearly as often as it was. You know I hate to say this, but back in the day you know what is back in the day, I don't know years ago, 30 years ago prior, you know just where service mattered, and it wasn't not that it I think it still matters, but it was. It was just more common, more common practice to to have great service and to take care of people. You know, now we've just become I think social media is certainly a culprit so self-absorbed and you know, hey and and and, really, like D, have devalued the consumer. You know so much Um and and. That's such a uh.

Speaker 2:

It's so short-sighted because the consumer still holds the cards you know um they have the money they're paying and uh, you know, like you said, too.

Speaker 1:

It's not a long-term approach. You mentioned the social media, a lot of these companies. If they can just get the quick buy, the quick buy now, they're not really concerned about keeping a long-term customer and coming back. They just want to, you know, get that dopamine hit in the moment as you're scrolling and getting something, as opposed to thinking how do I cultivate a relationship with this customer for a lifetime?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's crazy because there's some companies that like, have a product, you know, or products or services or whatever that could be purchased multiple times, but that will never happen because they're just trying to get the impulse by and so, yeah, hey, they may make even millions, right, but why? Why, if you know, if it just took, excuse me a little more care and, you know, service and maybe a little more overhead, why not try to be there for the long haul if you have something that people would want to keep buying? But I don't know, we have become such a short-sighted when it comes to business. Man, I keep using that word, I know, but you know, just hard to see the future. And for me, I don't want to be a company that that just that's, just here and does well for a few years, like I want to. I want to create something that I can pass down to my kids.

Speaker 2:

You know, like it's it's, it's continuing to grow and we have a name for our ourselves that, hey, when I'm, you know, dead and gone, that RV housing group is still going and still helping people, you know, because we continue to do what we tell people we're going to do and we continue to care about people and it's proven right. It's proven by our actions and what we do and how we deal with our clients. And I think that that mindset is not so often found anymore. You know, not never, I mean, there's certainly. I talk to people like me that are like-minded like me, but that are like like minded, but uh, that's just so important to me to be able to create a legacy. You know that that continues on um through generations potentially. You know.