What Top Handyman Businesses Do the Second They Show Up

Most handyman businesses obsess over marketing and miss the easiest 
trust-builder there is: the first 30 seconds at the front door.

In this episode, Jason Call and Coby McManaman break down the 
specific things they do (and what they've seen the best handyman 
businesses do) the moment they show up to a client's home. Quote 
visits, job starts, doesn't matter. These are the tiny details 
that turn a one-time job into a referral, a five-star review, 
and a repeat client.

What we cover:

→ The two-step-back rule when you knock on a door (and why it 
  makes homeowners actually answer)
→ "Is it okay if I park there?" The five-second question that 
  separates pros from everyone else
→ What to wear, what to carry, and what to hand them
→ Boot covers (and the one mistake guys make putting them on)
→ Why a notepad beats your phone every single time
→ The Ram board move that became Coby's best-performing 
  Facebook post
→ The text message every tech should send before showing up
→ How to reframe "sorry I'm late" into something that 
  builds trust instead of breaking it

If you're charging premium rates, you have to deliver a 
premium experience. It starts at the door.

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📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- Previous episode with J.R. Crowl, Steady Home Maintenance 
  (on AI in the field)
- Steven Capps, Texas Gates (Marshall, TX) for the parking tip

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🎙️ ABOUT THE HOME HERO PODCAST
Real stories and tactics to grow a profitable home service 
business. Hosted by Jason Call and Coby McManaman. New episodes 
weekly.

Subscribe and leave a review if you're getting value from the show.

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💼 ABOUT HANDYMAN MARKETING PROS
We've helped 400+ family-owned handyman businesses across the 
USA and Canada grow with websites and SEO that actually bring 
in calls. No sales pressure, no hype.

See if we're a good fit: go.handymanmarketingpros.com
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👉Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com

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New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the homeowner perspective, especially if it's a busy house, to be five minutes early, then they might not even be ready for you. They're doing some last-minute shuffling, they're wrapping up a meeting with the work from home stuff. And so that text message letting them know uh like that you're on your way just sends that signal. Uh really powerful. And when you combine it with all these other things we discussed today. Welcome to another episode of the Home Hero Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about what you do at the door. So this is at the door to give a quote to a prospect. It's at the door when you're showing up to do the job. At the end of the day, it seems trivial and you do it multiple times in a in a day, but you're there's an experience there. There's branding there. Um there is an engagement you're having with a human being that will hopefully hire you if they're a good customer and then keep hiring you again, refer you, leave you a review. So really paying attention to all these little um experiences that are happening in your business is super important. So we're gonna be diving into um tactics and things to do right at the door when you're showing up. Um, Kobe, I'll let you kick this off, man. Um, what um was your process with Rust Belt um when you guys show up to the door, whether it's a quote, show up to the job, I'm sure there's a different. I'd love to hear your thoughts and um how you guys approach that.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, so so so what we're doing when we when we show up to the door, um, like you said, whether it's to to give a quote or an estimate um or you're you're showing up to actually do the work, um you're you're setting the stage to create a a repeat client, um, somebody who's going to refer you to their friends and family, um, somebody who's gonna be more trusting in you, more willing to you know, write you a check, actually hire you, um, depending on what stage you're at, you know, if it's if it's a quote or you're starting the project. You're really set setting the stage of demonstrating what this person can expect from you. And you're making you know your your future life easier while you're doing the project in the sales process, um, in your marketing, um, you know, building trust with the client. So um tons of strategies and you know, little tips and tricks. Um at the root of it, it's you know, be a presentable, respectful, you know, kind person, um, which I think if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are. So you're probably already doing a lot of this stuff. Um, little stuff like you know, smile, say shake the person's hand, um, and then all the way down to some some of the tactics. But the the most important thing, again, is just you know showing the person respect, putting on a smiling face, and you know, looking like somebody that that they would trust to to work in their home. That's kind of the the the root of of what we're talking about here.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, when you say that it um brings to mind too of like answering the phone, like how is someone answering the phone? Uh like thanks for calling Jason's handyman. No, like when you come with that positive energy and that excitement, it makes an impact. Like, thanks you so much for calling Jason's awesome handyman services. How can I help you today? And you can bring that same positive, um, good branded experience right to someone's door. So um I'd love to dig into some tactics and real tangible things that um people can um consider doing and implementing themselves. Um, I'll kick us off here with a couple of my favorites. And Kobe, I know you've heard me talk about this quite a few times at this point, but shout out to Stephen Caps uh out in Marshall, Texas, um with Texas Gates. Um he's the one that that shared this one on our handyman success podcast years back. Right when they they knock on the door, the first after they kind of greet the customer, they they ask them, is it okay if I park there? What a respectful, great way to just kick off. Like even if most of the time they're like, oh yeah, that's totally fine. But it just kind of catches them off guard of like, wow, that's next level of respect. And you don't know if someone's expecting somebody, a delivery, if you're parked, you know, in a bad spot for them, their kids about to go to school, whatever it is. So I love that one. And it takes all of five seconds and it it creates this professional, respectful brand right out of the gate. And it's processable. Anyone you hire, if you've got multiple techs out there, you can have that as part of the process. Um, second one is um having something to hand somebody, a flyer. Uh, you know, I think business card's the most basic. Uh, you know, I'm a big advocate of the flyer that's got, you know, a nice headshot or a family photo, your focus services, service areas, your contact information, a QR code to your website, uh, five-star review, like a nice five-star review snippet of someone, you know, what they said about your business. Um, above and beyond is kind of a bigger pamphlet with the flyer, proof of insurance, all the, all the everything basically to reinforce trust and professionality. So having like a flyer to hand somebody is nice. And there's also some kind of, there's this like relational kind of behavioral thing. When you've got something in your hand, you feel a little bit more comfortable. Uh, like you don't have to worry about where you're putting your hands. Some people are like, who thinks about that? A lot of people do. So when you have something in your hand, hand it to somebody, um, there's kind of this grease to the relational conversational wheel there. Um, so those are kind of the two big ones that I wanted to highlight. Um, what are some other thoughts, tactics uh that you you've done yourself, Kobe, or just things that you've heard through conversations?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah. The so the the first one, probably the most important before you even get to the door or when you get to the door, is on time or a few minutes early. You don't want to be there 30 minutes early and they're like, oh, I had a phone call appointment and now you're interrupting me. Um but being on time and early, you wouldn't believe, you probably would believe um, you know, how many times a client would be like, Wow, right on time. Um, you know, because you gotta think about who your potential competitors are and how easy it is to beat them when you're the guy that shows up when he says he's going to. So that's thing number one. Again, smiling face, what you said about asking if it's okay to park there, that's something we always did. Even if you know a hundred percent without a shadow of a doubt, like that's obviously where you're supposed to park and it's obviously okay to park there, you ask anyways. It's a it's a great way to just be like, oh, he's actually, you know, he's thinking about you know being respectful. Um that's a that's a great, great, great one. Um having something in your hand um to to hand them, that's awesome. And those things, you know, tend to stick around to you. They might stick it in the refrigerator or on you know, sit on the countertop for a few months. Um those things are those things are great. They might you know pass it to the neighbor if the neighbor you know comes over and say, Oh, who is who is that? We might need some work done. They can, you know, they can hand them the flyer, um, whatever that looks like. So those are great tactics. Once you show up on time, you ask where to park and you shake your hand, you get a smiling face on. Actually, let me take a step back. Super small thing, but when we would knock on the door, ring the doorbell, whatever it is, we always take a couple steps back away from the door. We're not like peering in the give them space to feel like they can come to the door, answer the door, and you're not like all up in in their business. Um, so you know, if there's a stoop or you know, a couple of steps, I always take, you know, some you know, step down and and step away from the door a little bit so they can see you when they're looking at their little side lights or whatever. Um, and just giving them a a little bit of space. Again, a super small thing, but I I I think it makes people feel more comfortable and they've got somebody they don't know coming to the door.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Um you know, and then what you know, what are you wearing? Do you look like you just crawled out of you know somebody's septic tank? Like are you just covered in in grime and and and in paint? Like, oh, am I gonna let this guy my house and he's gonna get dirt all over the place just from just from walking around? Um so you know, little strategy. I didn't do this because I wasn't working on the job site all that much, uh, you know, kind of after we got rocking and rolling, but keeping a a spare set of clothes in the truck. Like if you're coming from a job site or you're doing a painting job or something, keep a nice set of of clean clothes in the in the truck um that you can that you can switch into um so you you look presentable. Um so those are a few things. And then once you get in the door, this this might be the single most important thing, but put on some boot covers or shoe covers. People don't even if they're like, oh, it's fine, you don't have to do that, or you know, you you don't have to take your shoes off. Whatever, whatever they say, you put your boot covers on. Nobody wants your dirty boots, you know, stopping around their house. Nobody nobody wants that. Put boot covers on.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

One thing I'd say there too is don't even ask. Because when you ask, I'm I'm blessed in this conversation that I've been on the other end of the I've been on the customer side more than the contractor side. And you know, that even asking, like, do you want me to put some booties on? Like, there's this natural like response of like, oh, I don't want them to be inconvenient. So, you know, no, no, it's okay. But they want you to put the booties on. So just do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah, yeah. You got them in your hand already. And another thing, and this was, I don't know if this was just me being hyper particular or something, but um, I hired a guy and uh, you know, I was taking him with me on an estimate, and um I handed him a pair of boot covers, and we um are getting out of the truck, and he starts putting his boot covers on while he's sitting in the pastor seat of the truck, and I'm like, I'm like, dude, what are you what are you doing? And he's like, I'm putting the boot covers on. I was like, You're gonna get them dirty walking up to the door. So you you know, you you step in, or if they got a rug on the front porch, right? You can, you know, put you welcome that or whatever. Yeah, you put them on when you're at the door, right inside the front door, not when you're in the truck.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I know that that should go without saying, but good tip there, uh, to our listeners. Put the boot covers, like have them in your hands so they know they're clean.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah. Crazy, crazy. And if you forget boot covers, you like I guess you're taking your your boots off and they're gonna smell your stinky feet. And so that's a good reminder. That'll remind you if you ever have that happen where you forget your boot covers, you go to take your boots off, you've been working all day, and you're like, Man, can they can they smell my feet? This sounds horrible, but it's like you'll you won't forget your boot covers anymore, because that I think that's that's much worse is when you're worried about the bike. Yeah, then stinky you're smelling your stinky boot feet. Um that's kind that's kind of thing number one. Um, and you know, and then once you're once you're in the house, you know, you're letting the homeowner lead the way, you're not stomping around and you know, just be like, oh, is the bathroom this way, you know, then I'm looking at and you start walking, let the homeowner lead the way. Um, you're in their house. Um, and so again, just the the key point is you want to be respectful and graceful um, you know, when when you're in their house. So those are those are the kind of kind of the main things. Um I'm I'm sure there's probably something I'm missing. Anything else you can think of, Jason?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Um, I'd I'd like to emphasize to you just being clean, well put together, positive. Um, even if you're not having the best day, that's okay. Not every day can be the best day. Not every day can be a good day. You can certainly make it better. Um, so there's lots of, you know, we're not going to go in the weeds, but there's lots of little things you could do right before you go up to the house if, you know, you kind of just need to center yourself, take some really deep big inhales and exhales, get like calm, get ready to kind of show up and have have a smile on your face. Um, because for the client, you know, there's this other side too where they might not, they're like, they're they're busy. So it's like, oh gosh, we got the we got the handyman coming over today, like, oh, we got to shuffle the kids or the dogs, like for us it's dogs. Um, so you know, really coming to the door and being ready to have that engagement in a positive manner. Um, so collecting yourself a little bit, whatever that looks for you. Um, if you're, you know, uh like just taking that quiet time to yourself and really acknowledging you get to make an impact on this person right now and also represent your business in a positive way. So showing up to the door with like a positive attitude and calm, I think is really important. People can tell stress. You can sense like that stress and that that energy there. So um come to the door, calm, collected, positive. Also, I'm a big advocate of the polo. Like it's just that step above uh that is is that professional. Maybe that'll fade with culture and time. I don't know. But something about that collared shirt, especially for estimates, um, big advocate of. Even if I were on the job site, like if I start a handyman business down the road, I've always thought about it, um, is I'd I'd probably just wear a polo all the time. I just have a bunch of them, you know. Um, it's just something professional that um sets you apart from most other people out there. So, you know, come to the door looking nice, fresh, positive, well, you know, gotta take care of yourself being well rested, looking clean, um, and be excited for the opportunity to serve that person or or have that engagement with them.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yeah, yeah. As you were saying that, thought of a couple more things that I think are important. One is have a notebook with you. A little notepad, something to write on to take notes. Um, one, you know, for your own benefit so you don't forget stuff. And so the client's at ease that you're not gonna forget things. You're writing stuff down, you're writing measurements down, have a tape measure with you. Okay, no matter what you're doing, just have a tape measure clip on your belt. Um, but the notepad I think is is super important. Again, for your own sake to remember stuff, um, and to again to put the client at ease, like, okay, he's he's being diligent about this, he's not just nodding to something be like, oh, got it, got it, got it, yeah, I'll remember that stuff. Um and I'm even if it's more convenient, I'm anti you know, pulling your phone out and taking taking notes in your in in your phone, like in the note app. Um you're taking notes, functionally the same, arguably more conven convenient than you know, remembering your notebook and and and writing it down with a pen and paper. Um, but just something about you being on your phone and the and the client's in there talking to you and you're taking notes that like looks like you're texting even though you're not, it just it I think it kind of signals like okay, this guy's not you know all the way present right now. Um that's kind of just an an opinion thing. Um but I I think a notebook's important, having a tape measure is important, and this is hyper embarrassing, but there's been more than more than once I've forgot a tape measure and I'm doing like remodeling quotes. I have to measure cabinets and and everything. And I'm like, hey, uh any chance that you have a tape measure, that's that's brutal. And then another time I realized I you know I left it on the previous job, said whoever didn't have it on the truck, and I I I called the homers like, hey, I'm you know, I'm gonna be five minutes behind, and I stopped at a hardware store and I bought a new new tape measure. Um, so have your tape measure with you. That's that's also super important. Yeah, yeah. And then the last thing I want to say is once you're and I'm saying this because this ended up being a super powerful um sort of marketing thing. Um, when we would start a job, and again, we were doing mostly remodels, um, day one of the project, we're walking up to the door with drop cloths in our hands and ram board in our hands. So ramboards like that thick, you know, construction cardstock paper floor protection. We're rolling up to the door with this stuff, and immediately we're creating a pathway of this ramboard or drop cloths from the front door to wherever we're gonna be working, and we're covering the entire area wherever we're gonna be working. Um, if we're doing demo, a bigger project, we're putting up zip walls. So we've got, you know, we're put we're putting up plastic basically, creating a containment zone um for dust to be respectful in their home. Um and there was a couple times I took pictures on day one of the guys kind of laying out this this RAM board. Um, and another time I made a video kind of explaining how we protect job sites. And those ended up being, you know, the most popular um pictures and videos, posts we made on Facebook. And we decided to be like, oh, these people are actually gonna take care of my home. It's it's stressful having somebody with you know tools banging around in your house and you're worried, like, are they breaking stuff? I got dust all over the place. So um, you know, showing you care and protecting their their home, leaving it in a better spot than you found it, um, is is is super important. So that's after you get past the front door, but thought it was worth mentioning.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah, that's gold, man. Um, and you know, if you get one legal uh Facebook post in the groups per week, that's a great one to really highlight like that next level of service. Like when you work with our company, we're gonna be treat your home like it's our own. I love that. Um, a couple comments or thoughts I had. Um, one is the phone. I absolutely agree. There's even if you get that permission of like, hey, is it okay if I have my phone out, I'm just gonna be taking notes. I personally think that's fine. I I know I've done that before for various things, but there is some kind of strange response, right, when someone's on their phone, even if they expressly ask you, right? It's just that when you see people on their phone, they're just not paying attention. Um, so having like a work iPad. Um, and I also want to shout out if you haven't listened to our previous episode with J.R. Crow, Steady Home Maintenance, we talked a lot about AI usage that he does in his business. He wears uh like these devices, uh, his team does. So for estimates, when they go in, um they get the client permission to record, but it helps them capture everything and not leave any details unturned or stone unturned. And so that allows them to, where they've been able to uncover some little things, they get to go above and beyond because they didn't forget those tiny little details. So with technology now, there's all kinds of ways to, you know, productively capture an estimate uh without necessarily have being on your phone or even taking manual notes. I do think there's value in a notepad and that attentiveness, that on the ball kind of appearance. Um, and the last thing as an untried, untested environment that I've been seeing on Facebook uh is the like smart glasses that you can record. Um, I've seen some really there's a video I saw, it was like a month ago of them uh pulling up a video that he sent his estimator or something like uh a recording of like a deck repair job. And he was like pointing stuff out and just you know, kind of collecting the details of what's gonna go into that project. I thought that was really sharp. So overall, there's quite a few different ways now to be on the ball, be professional uh when as far as collecting the details.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Last thing I want to say, um, you know, I it's more more things keep coming up as we're talking about this. That's good stuff, man. Yeah, last thing I want to say is when you're on your way, whether it's an estimate or you're starting the project or you know, your your field tech is, you shoot a quick text message. Hey, just heads up, I'm I'm headed your way, I'll be there, you know, about this time. Um certainly if you're gonna be late, that's a must. Must must is give them a heads up that you're a few minutes behind. Um but giving them a just a simple heads up that you know you're coming. Um just hey, just a heads up, Mary. Um I'm I'm I'm on my way, I'll be there in about about 15 minutes. Um and last thing I I I keep saying last thing, and then I keep thinking of more stuff. If you are late, you're gonna be running behind, give them a heads up. If you're not sure if you're gonna be late, you're gonna be right on time. Shoot him a text anyways, hey, I'm I'm gonna be five minutes behind. And then if you're you know right on time, great. Everybody's everybody's pumped. Um and this this came from I think this came from um Chris. What's it what's his name? The book's called Never Split the Difference. He was like a FBI hostage negotiator when he talks about um you know negotiating and um you know sending subtle verbal cues and and and things like that. But when you show up to to somebody's door, if you are late, super small thing, but instead of saying I'm sorry I'm late, you want to tell the homeowner, I appreciate you being patient with me. Turn it into a turn it into a positive thing. Little stuff, does it make a huge difference? Probably not. But anything you can do to be a little bit better, you know, just appreciating the homeowner for being patient with you instead of being like I'm sorry that I that I I screwed up and kind of highlighting it, it's it's a little bit of a different dynamic.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Yeah, no, I'm I'm actually really big into that uh as far as like saying no problem, like it's all good, like no worries, too negatives. Is it minor? Yes. Is it like a big deal to say no worries or no problem? Absolutely not. Uh, but I do agree that those tiny little uh communication shifts are really nice. And there's also some positive that you're tossing to the homeowner of thank you for your flexibility. Uh my schedule just got out of whack this morning, so I just really appreciate that. Um, I'm glad you brought up the text though. Um, there's a lot of CRMs that will automate that when you click, you know, go into the job site and it'll text, um, save you all of you know 20 seconds. You can templatize that text and make it 10 seconds, but huge um big point there. Always send a text message, uh, whether you're gonna be early, on time, late, just let them know you're coming. Um, there is, you know, you mentioned showing up five minutes early. From the homeowner perspective, especially if it's a busy house, to be five minutes early, they might not even be ready for you. They're doing some last minute shuffling, they're wrapping up a meeting with the work from home stuff. And so that text message, letting them know uh like that you're on your way, just sends that signal uh really powerful. And when you combine it with all these other things we discussed today, um hopefully, guys, this has been helpful to reinforce these tiny little. Details, like everything we discussed here, most of the things, they're not going to add an incredible expense or time to how you're already running your business. But what they are going to add is incredible branding, this kind of professional, respectful, positive experience that your clients, your leads, they're having that with you. And it's sticking in their brain. You're making an impression on them. And you want to make the impression with every single person that you're going to show up on time, do great work. It's going to justify your above-average market rates. You know, we kind of what we preach is you need to appeal to premium clients that want to pay premium rates for a premium service. And so, you know, doing all these things really reinforces that premium service experience. So any other thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Send us uh send us a message, support at handymanmarketingpros.com. Um, we'd love to hear them. Any topic ideas that me and Kobe like to discuss, if you think that you'd like to come on and and share your expertise about any certain thing that you do in the handyman business, we're open to conversation. Thank you guys so much for joining, and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Home Bureau Podcast, brought to you by Handyman Marketing Pros.