We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Sage recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
I had just got back from my three weeks of training to learn how to operate my new business and was out making sales calls my first week back. It had literally rained the entire time I had been gone and was still raining when I got back, Because I was so new to this business I didn’t think a thing about it, but in the restoration industry what often occurs when there is heavy rain for several weeks and the ground starts building up with water, homeowners start experience water back up in their basements thus dealing with water damage. Well long story short I woke up one morning that week to my phone ringing off the hook and being inundated with people with flooded basements! So my first client/s were homeowners who woke up that morning to water in their basements! I really had to amp up my learning curve in this new business to say the least to help out the many homeowners calling me in need! I have to say I experienced excitement at the prospect of having so many new clients my first week in business but a little nervous to with being so new in business. It was a great learning experience for me in the long run and I also managed to have some happy clients too!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
With Sage being a local, independent full service restoration company in the beginning we did not have the advantage of being on the national insurance programs nor have relationships with adjustors. The majority of our big competition is backed by major corporate/franchisees that have well established footholds due to national contracts with the major insurance carriers, claims offices and adjustors, that we didn’t have. We have continually worked to build our individual brand, footprint and reputation that we have in the KC Metro area. In addition to insurance program challenges, in general the restoration industry faces environmental challenges as our business is also largely dependent on the weather, especially in the services of water and fire damage clean up work. These services are highly competitive and profitable work and mostly come from insurance referrals. We have worked hard on building relationships with insurance adjustors and agents as well as being successful in getting on some insurance programs as well as on some Third Party Administrative Programs so that we can build our overall revenues and profitability in securing more market share of the fire, content, textiles and water damage work. It takes time as an independent to establish yourself to build the rapport it takes to get direct referrals from insurance adjustors, get on insurance programs and also obtain commercial work from big property management companies. The restoration industry is all about building relationships while at the same time providing quality work and service to maintain the business from the referrals you worked so hard to get. To be successful in this industry takes perseverance and resilience to prove yourself worthy of earning the business.
Any advice for managing a team?
At Sage, we take onboarding and continual training seriously, so all new employees will spend their first day with Stephanie to view a customized Welcome Aboard To Sage training class. We want all employees to be well prepared from day one! We believe it’s important to know The Sage Story and learn about our company culture so you can become familiar with the company and our mission. We also have new team members watch various videos so they can get a feel for the wide variety of work our crews do every day to help our customers get their lives back on track. This will give them an idea of the types of jobs they will be working on. We also cover safety training and teach them how to work The Sage Way. We want our employees to be clear on working expectations for working with Sage.
It’s important that our new team members feel welcomes and have a better understanding of what it’s like to be a Sage Team Member. We strive to offer a friendly team environment where everyone is treated with respect and is appreciated for what they do to help the team.
We do regular reviews and go over things they are doing great on and also offer advice on how they can improve. It’s important to us that we communicate with our employees to set them up for success. We also do team builders every couple of months doing fun activities outside of our office to encourage an atmosphere where we can get to know each other outside of our daily work activities and to also show appreciation for their contribution to Sage and their clients.
We also encourage our leadership/management to take on an independent role of managing our jobs in the field and try not to micromanage. This doesn’t mean that we don’t oversee what’s going on in the field but want everyone to be accountable to their role in the company which we feel leads to building strong and capable leaders.
Although there is always room for improvement we have found the above methods to be adequate for building confidence and leadership qualities for those who want to pursue those paths while also being successful in building morale for all employees which we feel leads to not only improvement in hiring and onboarding but also retaining quality employees.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sagerestorationkc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sagerestoration/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SageRestorationLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagestephanie/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Z5bSu33bYfrM7BPgCuHww