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Why it’s better to be a referral business

Recently, as I was preparing for a company holiday speech and reflecting on the year, a great sense of pride came over me. In 2015, we completed over 3,500 jobs, ranging from single item removals to entire home or office clean-outs. The number itself was enough to make me smile, but what I was most proud of was how those jobs came about.

You see, we’re a referral business. I know that’s a cliche statement and I’d assume most businesses are kept alive partially because of referrals. But I belive we’re different. We’ve deliberately chosen to be a referral business, in some cases ALMOST to our own demise. Our stubborn commitment to this corporate value is nearly unmatched and here’s why. 

When you build your strategy (and budget) around growing at the mercy of referrals from others, if forces an unwavering commitment to customer service. Referral business serves as a constant report card on how your doing: if you provide good service, you get referred more often, if you provide poor service you get referred less. The formula couldn’t be simpler. In a sense, you get what you deserve!

So for us, the question is always, how much more did we get referred this year than last year. The net gain is the clearest evidence of how we’re doing. When your leads arent purchased, you simply have a better finger on the pulse of how you’re doing. No gimmicks – just the hard truth.

We’ve been blessed this year more than words can express. We are forever grateful for those people who are responsible for our success! Happy Holidays!

 

123JUNK-Report-Card

123JUNK Scorecard

Nearly a year ago, right before we decided to do a major overhaul on our brand, I asked my employees to grade the company in several areas. These areas included our customer service, our systems and processes, our company culture, our ability to communicate to each other and the general level of happiness each of us had within the company. We all sat down and discussed it in thorough detail. Everybody’s voice was heard and nobody was shy about their feelings. It proved to be one of the most impactful things we’ve ever done as a team because it really helped us identify the things that were preventing us from getting to the “next level.” We lay everything out on the table and each of us made a commitment that we would do our part to ensure that the company would reach its goals.

This week, as I was cleaning out some files on my laptop, I came across the meeting recap, which I blasted out to my team shortly after the meeting was over. I figured I’d share it (the good half, anyways) to the viewers of this blog, because it gives some insight on what we consider to be important characteristics of 123JUNK. As far as the less positive portion of the scorecard… well, I think we’ll just keep that part our little secret.

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