Restoration Rewind Delta Development Group Monthly Newsletter
April 2018
Parent Company of Category-Leading Home and Commercial Services Brands to Leverage Proven Franchise Support Infrastructure to Dramatically Scale Concept “NASHVILLE – HRI Holdings, Inc. (HRI), parent company to the Chem-Dry® Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning and N-Hance® Wood Refinishing franchise businesses, announced today the acquisition of Delta Disaster Services – an established and innovative restoration concept. By utilizing the growth strategy and support structures that have built its two home-grown franchise brands into bona fide industry leaders, HRI plans to capitalize on Delta Disaster Services’ strong franchise model and competitive advantages to build the brand into a formidable national competitor in the restoration industry...” https://deltaTo continuing read this extra excited news, please click here. us.com/reconstructionservices-franchise/hriholdings-inc-acquiresdelta-disaster-services1522160268.html
Promaster with Truck mount
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Delta Development Group designed and built a Promaster with a truck mount for those interested. Please take a look at the photographs below. If you’re interested in more information, please call Mike at the Delta office
Marketing Corner Delta Disaster Services has a strong brand and is recognized for it. The basis of this recognition is through trust and reputation. Trust is what all relationships are built on and crucial for the growth of your referral market. As your franchise grows you need to practice what it is to gain and keep your referral sources trust. This article touches on the top five things you can do to build and maintain trust with your relationships with your customers. Enjoy! Jason Kaber
5 Strategies for How to Make Customers Trust Your Brand When your prospects and customers trust you, they are more likely to buy from you. When you have their trust, you can also command a higher price and boost the lifetime value of each customer. But building trust doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You have to remain consistent in your messaging, understand your buyer personas and deliver on your promises over time. Only then will you become the go-to provider in your niche. There is a tremendous upside to building trust in your brand, but it takes time and specific strategies. Here are those strategies: 1. Be accessible. Be available to your customers and allow them to interact with you. Customers often have questions, and if there’s nowhere for them to go to get their queries answered, or you don’t respond in a timely manner, you could begin to lose credibility. James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness has several strategies in place to maintain regular interaction with his prospects and customers. His customer support staff answer questions that come in. His paid membership includes a forum where like-minded entrepreneurs regularly interact; and he also has a yearly event called SuperFastBusiness Live, where business owners can learn how to grow their online ventures.
These are some practical ways you too can use to make yourself available to your customers. Consider how Schramko has provided a point of contact for all inquiries, started an online community and organized an event to bring awareness to his brand. You might try these actions, too. Also consider setting up a proper customer-support infrastructure, using help-desk software like Desk.com, and attending conferences and events. In these ways, you can answer questions in person, which is a great way to increase your likability and accessibility and provide support to your customers. 2. Have a reliable product. People tend to buy on emotion, not logic. The challenge your business faces is that when its product arrives on the customer’s doorstep, those customers be impressed with the quality of the product to justify their purchase. Talking a good game and turning around and selling a lowquality product is sure to draw negative reviews, leading to mistrust and decreased credibility in the market. One simple way to ensure your product's quality is to put it through a rigorous testing process. You can also put together focus groups and ask your target audience what their needs are and what kind of product would solve their challenges. Eric Ries popularized the idea of the minimum viable product (MVP) and lean startup methodology. The idea is to speed up the product-development process and get it into the hands of the customer sooner than later. Too many companies spend hundreds and even thousands of hours on research and development, but when they finally launch their product, customers may not even want it. The MVP approach allows you to go to market sooner, test out the viability of your offering and learn from what your customers liked and didn’t like about it. In this way, you can test your product, improve upon it and then launch it more broadly. 3. Be honest. Being transparent means recognizing and being open about both your strengths and weaknesses. If your product isn’t right for one of your leads, you should be secure enough to guide that lead in the right direction, even if that act means boosting your competitor’s bottom line.
This is one of the ways the Smart Passive Income blog’s Pat Flynn differentiated himself from his competition. When he was first getting started, he didn’t see many entrepreneurs talking openly and honestly about their journey, especially in the money-making niche. So, he decided to be that entrepreneur: Today, Flynn's income reports continue to drive traffic to his website month after month and inspire would-be entrepreneurs to take the same transparent approach to online business. Honesty shows you care about your customers and their needs, and your willingness to help them gets them the results they’re looking to achieve. 4. Bring value to your client. Do you put your customers first, or do you put revenue first? People know when they’re just a dollar sign to you, and while they may still buy from you if they believe your product solves their challenge, this does not build long-term trust or encourage repeat sales. I Will Teach You To Be Rich CEO Ramit Sethi relates in a podcast that he doesn’t make some of his products available to customers who are in debt. Is he missing out on revenue opportunities by doing this? Absolutely. But is he also building trust in the process? Unquestionably. He believes it’s important to take a stand on this issue, and it makes sense that he doesn’t want customers who can’t give his resources the attention they deserve. Delight is in the details. Take the example of Online music story CD Baby. Its legendary CD shipping confirmation email is both humorous and value-adding. It also proves that bringing value to your client need not be complicated. 5. Maintain consistency. Maintaining consistency ensures that your prospects and customers know what to expect. You can set both internal and external goals to maintain the quality of service. As Bo Bothe, Will Cunningham, Elizabeth Tindall and Leslie Rainwater of BrandExtract write in a blog post: “A consistent brand helps increase the overall value of your company by reinforcing your position in the marketplace, attracting
better-quality customers with higher retention rates and raising the perceived value of your products or services.” They go on to explain how consistency can help your employees understand what their role is within your organization. The building blocks of a consistent brand include: •
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Your message. Your brand message should be an extension of your actions and behavior. If it isn’t true to who you are, or you can’t deliver on it, you are being inconsistent. Your brand’s overall tone also factors in to your message -- in other words, how you position yourself in the market. Do you want to be perceived as dependable, aggressive, helpful or some other characteristic? Stay focused on the image you’re developing. Your design. Creating consistent imagery across your logo, website, social networks and print materials is an easy win that can help you build trust with customers. Your delivery. How will you communicate with your target audience, through what channels and how often? Knowing your prospects makes it easy to answer these questions and deliver the expected brand experience.
Final thoughts Trust is a byproduct of a commitment to quality and excellence. If you can deliver the right results to the right people over the long haul, they will come to believe and trust in your product and service offerings.
WORKPLACE THE DELTA LIFE WHO: A space for everyone within the Delta network to connect on a safe platform. Not only connecting different office that are states away but connecting your departments together for a cohesive knowledge base in our industry. WHAT: Think Facebook but for work! Now you don’t have to worry about connecting your personal page to your work environment. Here is a great place to start conversations within the Delta Disaster Services community. WHEN: Releasing to Delta Disaster Services April 18th, 2018. You won’t want to miss that Webinar. WHERE: Anywhere. Need an answer to a question? Use your work phone and post it there! In an admin meeting and come across something helpful? Post it to your admin group to share! Easily accessible at your fingertips. WHY: We all work in the same industry but the only thing that separates an office from another is distance. Now you can connect to any location by the click of a button. Delta Disaster Services is a great community hoping to involve into an even bigger network.
CASH IN THE DOOR Based off February’s royalties…DELTA DISASTER SERVICES OF SOUTHERN COLORADO lead the path. Great job team and Emmis!
Finance Corner Benchmarks and Averages TRACK THE NUMBERS! There is power in the numbers and knowing where you stack up to the averages. Based on what we have seen, read, experienced, discussed, watched, (and any other verb you can add) the following numbers are relevant to our profits and the sustainability of your business. If you are not hitting these averages, we need to talk and do some fine tuning of your business. Delta Development is here to help you. When you bought your franchise, you hired each of us as your consultant. As the first quarter of 2018 reaches its end from a financial prospective, it is time to rethink, and take a hard look at your numbers. Where do you stack up?
SALES AND PRODUCTION MINIMUMS PER THE FDD AND YOUR FRANCHISE AGREEMENT: MINIMUM Sales Year One: MINIMUM Sales Year Two: MINIMUM Sales Year Three: MINIMUM Sales Year Four: MINIMUM Sales Year Five:
$450,000 $850,000 $1,000,000 $1,225,000 $1,350,000
MIX OF BUSINESS (Based on Industry Averages) MITIGATION
33%
CONSTRUCTION
66%
PROFIT MARGINS 60-70% (will be slightly less for program work 30-40% (slightly less for program work)
RECEIVABLES – DAYS OUTSTANDING (DSO). This is your cash! Make it work for you. Industry Average – 45 Days Your target – 35 Days or sooner OVERHEAD
This number will vary based on what you are charging to the “Top Line� or job costing. If everything is being job costed properly, assume your overhead will be in the 20-24% range. It will be higher your first few years in business and decline as the business matures. MARKETING AND SALES CALLS 100 Sales Calls per week Agents, Plumbers, Adjusters, Fire Departments, Property Managers
Are your customers underinsured in the event of a catastrophic loss? United policyholders, has the following information posted on their website
2015 Valley Fire Survey Results 6 Month Survey Results - Valley Fire Our Key Findings Include: • • • •
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65% of survey respondents reported they have not yet settled their claim 53% of survey respondents do not have enough insurance to cover the cost of repairing, replacing or rebuilding their house by an average of $103,000 64% of survey respondents reported they do not have enough insurance to replace their belongings by an average of $87,600 53% of survey respondents reported that their insurance company did not explain depreciation and what they need to do to collect the full replacement value on depreciated items. 31% of survey respondents reported delays in insurance company representative answering questions, phone calls or emails.
2015 Butte Fire Survey Results 6 Month Survey Results - Butte Fire Our Key Findings Include: • • • •
85% of survey respondents reported they have not yet settled their claim 65% of survey respondents reported that they do not have enough insurance to cover the cost of repairing, replacing or rebuilding their house. 69% of survey respondents reported that they do not have enough insurance to replace their belongings. 56% of survey respondents reported that their insurance company did not give them an advance of 4 months of their ALE coverage.
2013 Black Forest Fire Survey Results 12 Month Survey Results - Black Forest Fire Our Key Findings Include: • •
57% of survey respondents reported they have not yet settled their claim 46% of survey respondents do not have enough insurance to cover the cost of repairing, replacing or rebuilding their house
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59% of survey respondents reported they do not have enough insurance to replace their belongings 70% of survey respondents were required to list and describe every single item that was damaged or destroyed
6 Month Survey Results - Black Forest Fire Our Key Findings Include: • • •
78% of survey respondents reported they have not yet settled their insurance claims 38% of survey respondents reported being underinsured on their dwelling by an average of $100,000 20% of survey respondents reported are worried they will run out of temporary living expense benefits
2012 Colorado Wildfire Survey Results 1 Year Survey Results - High Park and Woodland Heights Wildfire Our Key Findings Include: • • • • •
54% of survey respondents reported being underinsured on their dwelling by an average of $101,000 55% of survey respondents reported being underinsured on their contents by an average of $94,000 47% of survey respondents reported their insurance company did not explain to me how they applied depreciation 23% of survey respondents reported delays by the insurance company in answering questions and/or phone calls and/or emails 27.7% of survey respondents reported delays in payment of policy benefits
1 Year Survey Results - Waldo Canyon Wildfire Our key findings include: • • • • •
27.2% of survey respondents reported being underinsured on their dwelling by an average of $77,000 27% of survey respondents reported being underinsured on their contents by an average of $163,000 54% of survey respondents reported their insurance company did not explain to me how they applied depreciation 42% of survey respondents reported delays by the insurance company in answering questions and/or phone calls and/or emails 38% of survey respondents reported the insurance company/adjuster made a "lowball" settlement offer.
Delta Disaster Services of Western Colorado Delta Disaster Services of Western Colorado has had an awesome opportunity to move into a new facility in Grand Junction, Colorado. One of the advantages of their new location has been the space necessary to set up their new contents equipment by Fireline, Ultrasonics, and Esporta. This new system allows for the cleaning of all nearly all contents. The Fireline and Ultrasonic equipment highly detail-cleans houseware, metals, ceramics, and other like items. The Esporta washes soft contents to food-grade, even if they were affected with heavy soot damage, mold, or sewage prior to wash. Delta Disaster Services of Western Colorado is the only company in their region to feature an entire contents cleaning department. Below is a video of Tyler Milyard and Michael Mastous discussing how the systems operate. The team at Delta Disaster Services of Western Colorado is very excited about their new facility and all it has to offer. Having the building space to house all of Western’s departments under the same roof has been a goal of Tyler’s. They had the pleasure of welcoming insurance agents, realtors, plumbers, subcontractors, and the family members of employees to the opening of their new facility.
Tyler Milyard, owner of Western Colorado, and Michael Mastous, founder of Delta Development Group, discussing the new equipment from Fireline.
And we will leave you with this…