Steffney Jones - Retooling Your Revenue: The Power of Customer Communication for Service Businesses - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Steffney Jones of Ruby. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Speaker 1:
Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Hello and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. This is Heidi Ellsworth, and today I am really looking forward to this conversation. I am with Steffney Jones, who is the partner development manager with Ruby. Now you probably have all been hearing the Ruby commercials out there. I've been hearing him. They just have such an amazing presence, really bringing that virtual receptionist, that virtual call center, everything you need to build your revenue, to the roofing market. And so we're going to hear all about that today. Steffney, welcome.

Steffney Jones:
Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I am so excited about this. You are all doing such amazing things out there in the market, really next generation types of thinking and helping businesses to grow their revenue, so I really want to hear what you guys have going and how we can share that with contractors. But first of all, I would love it if you would introduce yourself and tell everybody a little bit about Ruby and about you and your career.

Steffney Jones:
Yeah, absolutely. So again, my name is Steffney. I have been working with the home service industry for going on six years now, which absolutely sounds bonkers to me. I began as the company's very first chat specialist. A lot of our initial chat customers will probably recognize me from having me chat with customers on their website.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love it.

Steffney Jones:
It was a great way to start and it really helped me get a really great grasp on the industry right from the get go. And from there, I worked my way up the ranks, from a management role to sales, and now I work in partnerships. I'm based out of the Kansas City, Missouri area. And I have to say probably the best part about working with the home service industry in particular, it's the people, bar none.

Steffney Jones:
The business owners in this industry are always eager to learn, always aiming for growth, and it has been inspiring to be a part of that growth, and now helping those businesses reach those revenue goals since day one, really, of my professional career. My background isn't in home service. It isn't in tech. It isn't in anything relative to Ruby. I actually have my degree in biology and I was in veterinary school seven years ago and I landed in this small business and have grown my wings here since. A little background information on Ruby, June 2nd, which today when we're recording this podcast, is Ruby's 19th birthday.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. That's awesome.

Steffney Jones:
We're all celebrating today, baking cakes and sending each other happy birthday messages. We started off as a small business based out of Portland, Oregon. The entire vision was that we wanted to provide small businesses with a receptionist service that would help them look bigger than what they are and help them outsource a typically hefty and expensive service to a company who really knew what they needed and can support them in the ways that they need without adding more work to their day.

Steffney Jones:
It's really not easy to trust another business to handle your calls, but we've spent all of those years curating our receptionists to be the best in the business. And that quality of service is what we're known for. And in 2019, Ruby acquired the small business that I was working for, Professional Chats, based out of Kansas City. It was a great addition because we were able to bring that level of care that Ruby customers had come to expect from their receptionists to their website via live chat. So today we're able to offer both live virtual receptionists and chat services to our customers, 24/7, 365, all in house, all US folks. I always say the best way for me to describe it is that we are your virtual CSR. We help you convert leads over the phone and generate leads off your site, when and how you need us. We're completely customizable, flexible, and truly made to fit your business seamlessly.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That is so cool. And so many things there, Steffney, that I look at and I think, first of all, I love startups too. And then the fact that you were in the startup and then going through a merger and growing, seeing the growth. I mean, 19 years is huge. That's awesome. And it's an Oregon company. I'm always a little partial there. I love that. I know you've been talking, like you said, with a lot of contractors. You recently presented at the CEO Warrior event, correct?

Steffney Jones:
Yes, I did.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes. On retool your revenue. I found this really interesting and I'd love it for you to share a little bit about that, about your presentation, but also just this concept.

Steffney Jones:
Yeah, absolutely. I presented on retooling your revenue with a focus on the power of customer communication for service businesses. And I got to go on a deep dive onto growth strategies, starting with learning how to create sustained, long-term growth. You don't want to focus on too many goals at once. You need to choose how you want to grow first. You want to establish those smart goals, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with, your specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time specific goals. That could be buying additional trucks or hiring different roles, expanding your service area, increasing the price of your average ticket or taking on more customers, just a couple of examples for you. And then preparing for growth by understanding your target market, knowing how leads are finding you, outsourcing specific tasks and focusing on excellent customer service.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Excellent. So much of that is, contractors need the time. They need the time to be able to focus on the business and what you hear all the time, focus on the business, not working in the business. And a lot of that goes around outsourcing. I mean, because especially with the labor issues we're having today and finding labor and getting the right people. So how can contractors use outsourcing like receptionists, chat, all those things, how can they use that to, not only grow their business, but free up their own time?

Steffney Jones:
You hit the nail on the head. One of the harder topics that we have whenever we speak to business owners who love to actively be a part of every bit of their business is knowing when to take off a few of their many hats. I mean, you don't need to be taking calls, trying to balance the books, manage your marketing campaigns. Running a business is a full time job before you even pick up your tools and head out on a call out to the field. Outsourcing those sorts of tasks to trusted team members, or even freelancers, can give you time back in the day to meet your customer's needs. And I think if you want to successfully run a business, you need to have that 10,000 foot view of your business. And if you're down in the trenches, you don't really get that view.

Steffney Jones:
So when you're looking for growth, when you're able to outsource those tasks or to hand off those tasks to trusted team members, that allows you a bit of freedom. So you're no longer down in those trenches really unable to see what areas of growth are really at your fingertips that you should be prioritizing. At the event I went to, a lot of folks that I spoke with, they were owners, they were family members like wives and kids and service managers alike. And they mentioned how they'd love to be able to put the phone away, to focus on time with their family or to just focus on their task at hand. And I would tell them that when you look at successful businesses, they don't manage it all on their own. If you ask them what their daily lives look like, they're not going to be doing all of the work that you're putting in day in and day out, because they've learned how to allocate resources. They've learned how to delegate, and they've learned how to outsource appropriately. They have help from services like Ruby.

Steffney Jones:
We were created to give you time back in your day. It's our sole purpose to know how to train our receptionists and chat specialists to sound like we're a part of your team. And to ensure that extra level of excellent customer service is a part of the entire customer journey from when they land on your website to making that first call. And you don't have to wonder if you're going to miss it because you're at your kid's ball game or on vacation. And you don't have to worry about how the call is handled because you know it's by our professional team of Ruby's. Your web traffic and phone calls are important, and we know that.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. See, I think that's so good. And you help so much with making sure the quality of the people are there. That's a lot of time too, just in training and the quality. And I mean, I know there's always going to be some onboarding. I know that's always the case. But I think really, as an owner, I'm in the same position, being able to focus that way makes such a difference.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I also want to kind of talk about, in today's marketing, we are so virtual and we are so technology, but there's still a lot of people who just want to pick up the phone. They just want to pick up the phone and how frustrating it is when you go someplace and you can't find a phone number. What are you seeing with the importance and kind of some of the studies. I know you guys are doing that all the time and trending. What are some of the most with phone calls in today's market?

Steffney Jones:
Oh yeah. We have lots of fun statistics. I will be sure to share those with you. You're exactly right. This is a very digital business world, but phone calls are still a very dominant channel for customer service. Nearly two thirds, that's 65% of people, say that they prefer to contact a business by phone. For reference, just 24% of customers would rather fill out and submit an online form. So phone calls are still popular because they connect people to your business in real time.

Steffney Jones:
And these days, customers do expect fast, personal service. They want help as soon as they reach out to a business. And what we've found is that three quarters of customers want help within five minutes, regardless of when they reach out. That may sound rather unfair to a business owner. It's after hours and I'm expected to reach back out in five minutes. Well, don't stress. That's why we're here. And you understand, I mean that it's imperative no call goes unanswered. Customers aren't going to try your number multiple times or leave a voicemail and hope that you'll call back. If you don't respond, if you don't reach out, that person will probably move on and contact one of your competitors. And it's extremely easy for them to do that nowadays, especially if your competitor is offering multiple channels for that customer to reach out to their business.

Steffney Jones:
But on the flip side, if you are able to answer every single call, you can supercharge your growth. You'll get a ton of new leads and more work from existing customers. And on top of all that, an improved reputation for how easy it is to communicate with your business. And with-

Heidi Ellsworth:
No, I was going to say, no. What I'm hearing you say, I didn't mean to interrupt, I'm all excited talking about this, is that when you're really looking at the phone calls, but then also, like you said, they want it immediately. They're online looking for this information, so the chat is super important, too.

Steffney Jones:
Yeah, exactly. The chat feature is available 24/7, 365. And it's such an easy tool for customers to utilize. They hop on the website and they may not immediately be ready to call the business. The way that I like to think of your website is, it is your new front door to your business. If you had a front door type business service, imagine you are doing work to generate leads, so you're digital marketing. You're doing all the work to generate leads, to get people to come to your virtual front door.

Steffney Jones:
Now when they get into your business or onto your website, they may still have some lingering questions. And if their two options are to place a call or to fill out a form, the only customer that's going to do that is a customer who feels ready to take the next step with your business. If they have additional questions, they can hit that backspace button, and in this virtual world, your competitor has set up shop right next to you. So it's really easy for them to just hit that back button, go to the next on the list, which will likely be your top competitor, and reach out to that business. And if that business does have a chat feature available where the customer is able to get their questions answered, they will be more likely to provide their contact information and more likely to convert for that business. What we found is that our customers saw about a 40% increase in lead generation by adding chat to the website. 40% increase.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. 40%. That's awesome. Excellent. And you're taking care of all the different types of people, right? You're talking about the people who just want to pick up the phone, talking the people who just want to chat. I talked to a lot of people today now who are just like, can I just chat? That's all I want to do. Because I can be doing other things. I can chat with them and get business going instead of taking the time to make a phone call. So to have both options, I think is so important.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I do want to talk about, and you kind of hit on it earlier, but how important customer service is. Because when you're getting somebody on the line, and as an owner, and if I have this person representing me, or if I have this person on chat representing me, that level, highest level of customer service is so important. How do you... And I loved earlier, you said too, all of the receptionists, chat, US based. How do you bring all that, such a high level customer service on to the services with Ruby?

Steffney Jones:
I have to attribute that to our team that does all of our training with our specialists. When we went virtual... so pre COVID, every single one of our employees would come into our offices to do their work, no matter what shift that they were covering. Then COVID happened, and we had to shut down our offices and we had to quickly learn how to adapt our training strategies to train folks from home and allow folks to work from home. And our quality of service has not diminished since then. And that again, I just have to give a huge shout out to our team who does the training and who manages our specialists because they do a phenomenal job.

Steffney Jones:
And honestly, when it comes to customer service, people don't typically think of that. I joked at the event that I went to and I'm like, I understand you hear customer service, that's not a sexy term. If you go to another speaking event and it's learning how to master your service area or to build out your empire, those sound more enticing, but the fact of the matter is that customer service is the most successful strategy in growing your business. Because when you think about, in particular, setting up your business for a reputation to get referrals, people who've been recommended to your business, they've already been qualified, they're likely in your target audience and they have a 71% higher conversion rate compared to other leads.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow.

Steffney Jones:
And that's done by providing topnotch customer service to all of your customers.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That is so true. And there's just something about with this too. I love how you're talking about working remote. Roofers Coffee Shop, we are all remote. We have an office, but people just kind of come in and out. I think I'm the only one here. So as we're looking at the culture right now, it is so important in the roofing industry. When you have retainment, recruitment, the culture matters. And so as contractors are outsourcing and they're bringing in this excellent customer service and the culture of Ruby, how are they bringing both cultures together in this for success? Because it seems, to me, like it would just be an uplift all the way around.

Steffney Jones:
And it can be if you're not prepared for that. What I like to think of, most business owners in the industry, you're used to turnover and it is a very hard time to hire and maintain staff more than ever before, because this is, as they are calling it, the great resignation era. However, when you are looking to outsource and you are looking to utilize a service like Ruby, there are ways to prepare. And you can prepare by having a flow ready for Ruby. So when you are hiring, we want to sound as if we are a part of your team. We want to sound like we're a CSR.

Steffney Jones:
One of my favorite things that I heard whenever we went to the event recently was that folks would get questions from customers and say, "Hey, I didn't talk to Crystal, your normal girl. Talked to another person. They were phenomenal, but did y'all grow? Are you all hiring new people?" And that's what we love. we love for your callers to think that they are talking with someone else and it creates that consistent experience. So there's no breach in that sense of culture because we are following exactly the scripting that you would have your own CSR or service manager follow when they're talking with your customers. We want to make that consistent so that your business can grow and scale without you feeling that you need to constantly be hiring CSRs to grow your business. That's not necessarily the case.

Steffney Jones:
And even with COVID going around or other illnesses going around and a lot of folks are having to take off additional time, not only because they might be ill, but their children might be ill, Ruby can really help pick up the slack for businesses there. We're flexible, like I mentioned. So you can utilize us however you need. Let's say your one and only CSR gets sick, we can do full-time coverage during that time. Or if you are in the process of hiring and you still need help with overflow, if your phone rings three times and no one in the business answers, it'll ring over to Ruby and we can pick up for you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Nice.

Steffney Jones:
Or you can use us after hours and on weekends. But again, even if it is midnight and someone calls with a prospective emergency, they're going to get that consistent level of service. And there's going to be no break in that sense of culture that you've started to establish with your business.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love that. I think that is so cool. There are people who call it midnight. There are people who work night shifts. There's a lot out there that really opens your business up. And also I like how you, on the flexibility. I think that is really important for the contractors. How do contractors get ahold of you, Steffney? How do people get ahold? How do they start with Ruby?

Steffney Jones:
Yeah, it's very easy. Our direct line is 844-311-Ruby, or 7829, to reach out to our team. Or they can shoot us an email at hello@ruby.com. And I also like to throw out there that if you do want more information, we are more than happy to do a needs analysis with your business to really figure out how you can utilize Ruby to its fullest, utilizing us after hours, utilizing us on your website, or even utilizing us to place outbound calls on behalf of your business.

Steffney Jones:
Something that we've been really researching recently is what our impact has looked like to the roofer community in particular. And what we found is that a typical roofer could make $17,989 more per year, all by focusing on customer communication with Ruby.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow.

Steffney Jones:
And this number is based on the average number of leads we capture for roofing customers combined with labor data from HomeAdvisor, but that's real data and real revenue that we've seen. So if you have questions about growth and how Ruby can be a part of that, please reach out to us. Again, that number is 844-311-7829. Our website is ruby.com, really easy, or email us at hello@ruby.com and be sure to mention Roofer's Coffee Shop when doing so.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes, please mention. And as you all know, you can find Ruby on Roofer's Coffee Shop, full directory, some amazing articles, some great education. We're just growing as we're going on. They're providing such amazing content. Please visit the Ruby directory on Roofers Coffee Shop and in case you're listening and you can't remember, you can go right on there and find everything that Steffney was just talking about. So Steffney, thank you so much for being here today. What a great podcast I've learned so much. Thank you.

Steffney Jones:
Oh, we really appreciate it. It is always a pleasure.

Heidi Ellsworth:
So much fun. And thank all of you for listening. Thank you for being a part of Roofing Road Trips. You can find all the Roofing Road Trips under the read, listen, watch initiative on rooferscoffeeshop.com or, and of course on your favorite podcast channel, you'll find us. Be sure to subscribe and get notifications so you don't miss a single episode. Thank you so much. And we will see you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1:
Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the RoofersCoffeeShop.com.