Episode Transcript
Chris Galloway 0:04
The other thing is when it comes to customer service, that is marketing. Customer service is nothing if not marketing and treating them like they're equally valuable to your, your most highly paid customer, I guess you could say like, if a customer has 12 memberships with us, I'm gonna treat them, I'm going to treat the guy who has won the same as the guy who has 12 memberships. And that's what matters. That's what's going to get that word of mouth out, which is without a doubt the most important thing that is your marketing, there's your customer service them talking to the way you treat them. And just making sure that when something needs to be done for them that you get it done.
Monica Pitts 0:51
You're on a mission, and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro. We are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital. I'll share my marketing know how and business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures. I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting, and get moving towards marketing with purpose. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to marketing with purpose. This is Monica Pitts. I'm your host today. And I'm excited because as we have been transitioning on the mayecreate team, and I've moved to Camdenton, we've had to find some new resources and spots to meet as a team. And Stacy and I like to meet halfway in between. And we found this space called Jefferson and High. And I didn't know what to expect, because I've never like experienced working in a co working space. And I called multiple places. left messages. No one called me back, like one person called me back the next week. And I was like, yeah, that doesn't really work. You waited a week to call me back. And Chris Galloway got back to me right away. And then like made the whole process super smooth for Stacey United comm user space. And they thought of like everything, like everything. And we like we were just completely like our expectations were 100% exceeded. And we love it so much that now we go back like what almost once a month or every other month and hang out with
Chris Galloway 2:44
you, Chris. Yeah, you guys, you come by just to hang out and have free snacks.
Monica Pitts 2:48
Yes. Oh, the snacks, you've great snacks. So I brought Chris on today. Because I really believe that the customers journey and the fulfillment process with your customer, the customer service you give them is a really strong cornerstone of your company's marketing. Because your marketing shouldn't stop the relationship with the customer doesn't stop once the sale has taken place, you have to continue to serve the customer. And that's the thing that's going to bring you the referral business and the referral business is way better than any new business that you can get. Right? So I wanted to bring Chris on today to talk about how they thought through every single little thing and all their processes with the thought that you could like learn from this because they do such a good job. And, and even if you think you're doing a great job with servicing your customers, there's always something more that we can do to like help them and help meet their expectations. And that is what good service is all about. So all right, that's my whole spiel about how I think customer service is actually part of your marketing package. I hope everybody can see that. So with that, Chris, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your space and what you do. Well,
Chris Galloway 4:06
I'm Chris Galloway, colleague of mine, Sharon Jones, she actually came to me with the idea and we kind of work together for almost a year putting it together and get things sorted out. And we both work in the Legislative Affairs government affairs area. She is a lobbyist for her full time job. I run gov watch and a new product we launched Scribd live, both of those things allow us to interact with government affairs professionals every day all day. It kind of brought us around to the idea that in Jefferson City specifically, there might be a lot of workspace and office space around here, but it's not necessarily downtown. And it's not necessarily easily affordable. A lot of businesses like lobbying firms or law firms or whatever, they'll buy a floor of a building or an entire building and then they kind of piecemeal the offices out but that's not necessarily a co working space because in the government affairs and buyer meant, you don't necessarily want to walk your clients by all these other meetings with other clients. And so while a co working space may seem like it does that, it also is intended to give those government affairs people a place to walk into a secure environment where they can store things and, and they can talk to other people that are running around the Capitol all day, whether they want to work with them, or we have a couple that just signed up for the sake of using our printer copier scanner thing, which I think is great. I'm debating just doing a membership for that. But we just wanted to find a way to provide that environment where people can get what they want out of an office, and they're not cutting off an arm and a leg to get the deposit to an office space. And you know, get the signage that they need, and change their address on everything. And then give them that environment that lets them work together, but also have their own space to have an environment where they can. I've used the word environment too much. I don't know if you can tell I don't have any notes. You're
Monica Pitts 6:04
great. You're doing great. You saw a need. Yeah. And you felt like a co working space could fit that need. And you felt like it would benefit people monetarily and in a physical location. And so them in a year, our
Chris Galloway 6:20
big thing was, yeah, the big thing was proximity to the Capitol. I mean, I couldn't see it outside the window here and our meeting room. I am in a meeting room, I'm not in a very, I'm not outside where the sun is blaring behind me as it looks. But yeah, like we wanted you to be able to say, Okay, I'm in this committee hearing, it's over. Now I gotta go back and use the Wi Fi. Maybe take a shower after that, after that debate, maybe, you know, eat some Fritos and some sour Twizzlers that I ate for breakfast and, and have have a beer, because it's seven o'clock at night, and they still haven't stopped debating, you know, you could do all of that across the street. And all you got to do is have that membership. And so it kind of gives you free rein of the place. And you know, and Sharon does work out here full time. So that gives us the ability to have some administrative staff there. We have private offices that you can get a membership that way. And, you know, then you have that office space where you could plug in a phone and a computer and and have your own setup there as well. Yes,
Monica Pitts 7:23
Stacy. And I really like it because we had investigated looking at like going to a coffee shop or, you know, going to the library or something like that to have our conversations. But the conversations that we generally have in our management meetings are not conversations that we want to have publicly, we want it to be a concealed conversation, so that we can be extremely candid with one another and make some decisions that we think are going to benefit our business. So we really enjoy the privacy that you have also like in your meeting room, because it's just not as easy to have that same conversation in a coffee shop. Right. But then to, there are so many other needs that are met there. So take me through what your guys's thought process and planning process was to uncover the things that your potential clients would need when they came to your space? Because like, I'm going to give you one example here maybe to one is that like the entry into the building, you get like, is it a key fob a code, either way, like you get something that's going to let you in and out of the building at will, right. But it's still a locked space, so it's secure. But then also, when we go in, they like you sit down and it's like three clicks and you're connected to a huge TV on the wall. It's not complicated. It's not convoluted. It's like boom, suddenly, everything is working. And you're like, Whoa, I would not have this technology at a coffee shop. Like I don't even have this technology in my own office like this is great. So how do you think through all those things? How do you how do you find them
Chris Galloway 9:10
through my job, I do a lot of training and demonstrations through zoom. And so I was really familiar with the need even before COVID to have that ability to have a webinar just on demand and set it up. And then Sharon will do the same thing with numerous calls throughout the day for her clients and and so we said what we want is people to be able to come into the meeting room, and you can rent the meeting room space without a membership, but we want them to come in. We set it up to have some universal wireless connections. The screen turns on with instructions you know, it's it's all stuff you can buy for any office. It's not like it took a lot of knowhow for us to set that up. But we don't want our members to have to have any know how we want them to turn it on and be ready to go. And it was offering that streamlined environment where Once you get that key fob, you could do everything in there without having to have a lot of know how even the copier printer thing. If you're a member, you could stand out on the sidewalk and print something from your phone onto the copier as long as you're connected to the Wi Fi. So the idea was to not make all these professionals have to learn something just so they could copy something, or just so they could set up a Zoom meeting on the TV with their team. Give them that advantage that they need in the modern day. But don't force them to sit down and get familiar with all these different options. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 10:34
it sounds like what you're saying is that if it's easy for you, it's easy for them. Yeah. And so you put yourself in their shoes, and you're like, I want to make this as easy as possible for you. And for them. And that that's powerful. And because I gotta be honest with you, like we we deal in tech. And there are so many days where I'm like, I just don't have any idea why this thing isn't working today. Like it just isn't gonna work.
Chris Galloway 11:00
I work in the I work on the internet every day. Gov watch is an all digital thing. And to this day, I don't understand how the Internet still exists.
Monica Pitts 11:10
I guess you would, when you can't figure out how something works. I liken it to like when you go over to your in laws house and you have to use their microwave, like you've used hundreds of microwaves in your life, right? You know how to use a microwave, but somehow you go over to your in laws house and you're just trying to heat something up for your mother in law. And you can't figure out how to get the thing to make things hot. And you're like, how stupid am I right now, I'm so stupid. And so like, you don't want to make your customers feel stupid. You want them to feel in control. You want them to feel comfortable, you want them to feel supported. And so when you put that technology in place and make it simple for them, then you're doing just that, and you're really serving them. So yeah, yeah. And
Chris Galloway 11:56
it's it's no different than designing a website. How many clicks? Are you going to require for them to do something? And then how can you shorten that even further? Can you get it down to one click? is too too many? is seven acceptable? You know, yeah. How much work do they have to do? If if they have to throw on a Zoom meeting at the last minute, which I have to do on a regular basis? And then they send a link to somebody? How long is it going to take them to turn the TV on and connect their laptop so they can have that meeting on the spot because something went wrong in a committee hearing. And right now it takes about I'd say 60 seconds or less. So I feel like and that's just one thing. Like I said what? We tried to set it up in a way that's like what would we want if we're running around the Capitol all day, and you know, we got all these meetings, but we got to get out of there. You got to get out of that building. It's it gets to you after a while it's an old building lots of mold and dust. There's and I'm not just talking about the lobbyists. There's lots of stuff there that makes you want to get out every now and that's a beautiful building but you get tired of the marble floors after a while. So come here sit on the couch, enjoy some free Wi Fi maybe maybe watch the committee hearing on the TV which we've even set that up so you can stream them all live there and grab a coffee like it's all pre made you're never gonna walk in here and not have a bag of Cheetos which I actually we don't have Cheetos right now I just ate the last one before Oh man.
Monica Pitts 13:27
Way to blow up the customer service train by eating last bag of Cheetos. Yeah, he's the
Chris Galloway 13:32
only thing you have to pay more for with our memberships was the alcohol because there's there's the liquor license, you know, stuff there we insurance reasons. But even that is take a picture of a QR code on the fridge and pay for it and just walk away. Yeah, you know, it's not it's not locked away. There's a bit of an honor system there. But you know, we haven't had anyone violate that and, and that's what people want is they want the ability to just walk around and do their jobs and, and not have a counter they have to walk up to every five minutes to do something. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 14:03
I love that. That's That's simple. And I feel like that's something that people can learn a lot from is could you please call the television companies and explain to them your mentality about how things should work? Because at this point, like if I want to watch a show, I'm like Abilene Ellis. These are my kids. They're nine and 13. I'm like, Come downstairs, get mom on Netflix. I'm like, I don't even know how to find it in this stupid TV. And every TV is different. And I'm like, oh, and then I'll like if I get the remote in my hand. They'll be like Mom Do you know just just pause the show and then one of the kids will be like don't let her touch the remote don't do it. Like take it from her you you pause the show Abilene you know it's like a just it's a funny exchange between the kid well
Chris Galloway 14:53
and that's, you know, that's type of thing is I don't want a learning curve. I don't want there to be a learning curve. I just I want people to walk in and be able to do what they got to do. Like, yeah, we have to tell them, you know, here's, here's where you access the streaming stuff for the TVs and stuff, but you have to give them five minutes, they'll figure it out.
Monica Pitts 15:11
Well, you also have like a walkthrough process that you take people through, did you guys map out, like the process that you were going to take people through to, like onboard them to your facility, or is that something that just kind of naturally happened? Well,
Chris Galloway 15:25
so that was, um, that's a big part of my full time career is like, onboarding people to use it to use our gov watch services and transcription services. And then Sharon deals with a lot of the business control administrative thing, she's very good at that. She's a lawyer. But while I do that, on my career, I also have a big need for marketing and, and onboarding and stuff like that. So we kind of talked a little bit about it, like, you know, what, how do we want to make sure that members are the ones accessing, so you could bring a guest, you got to be here with them, while they're here, you can't drop your kids off and then leave, although that's another industry, you can make millions. And by the way, so if this flops, it may just be a daycare in here. But um, you know, you can't, you can't just drop off a legislator and leave like, we don't allow legislators or the media to be members. And again, we're catering to our, our customers that we're trying to pinpoint. And it's not because they have anything to hide, it's because they need an environment where someone's not constantly listening over their shoulder, as does every employee everywhere. So that's what we're trying to cater to. And we basically said to onboard those people, we need to show them around, if they're interested in seeing it, make sure they get their keys. And then the rest is just emphasizing like, Hey, here's the meeting room, here's all the equipment as it's all it's basically like walking into an office as if you work there. And that's what we wanted to create. But it's a very simple thing. It's basically like, here's your key, don't burn the place down. And don't show up naked either. I guess that's we talked about that being illegal requirements.
Monica Pitts 17:10
You have to wear clothes, in the space, unless you're in the shower. Can you shower naked? Is that okay?
Chris Galloway 17:17
Yeah, I mean, sure we like, just emphasize the only camera we have is on the entrance. Just want to point that out. But we, you know, it's we have all of that stuff set up. So the idea, again, is that the onboarding needs to be minimal. For this type of thing. I don't want them to feel like they have a checklist they have to run through, it's not getting an Airbnb, you're not expected to do the dishes and clean the place when you leave. If you spill coffee on the floor, just tell us like, we're not going to find you for it. Even if it stains, we'll cover it, it's fine. Like that's part of it, you know. And if you keep spilling coffee on the floor, we might have a discussion. But if it's just just just a little bit, that's fine. But yeah, like and we just want it to be easy, fast, get in, get out, spend as much time here as you want 24 hours a day. So
Monica Pitts 18:10
what I'm hearing is that you do need to think about your onboarding process before you just start doing it. And if you have a current onboarding process for your clients, and it's not yielding the results that you want, then you should think back through it and ask yourself, Is this as minimal as possible? Like, is it as simple and streamlined as you can make it because if it's not simple, people love to connect, they do not like they do not like processes, they do not like thinking they do not like figuring it out, like?
Chris Galloway 18:45
Well, like I so thank you for summarizing my five minute answer. And when I should have actually said, so but my my view of onboarding that I was getting at that I that you so eloquently said for me was that, yes, if you can restrict it from ever needing to have an onboarding process, that's ideal. That being said, people will have questions and having a way to show them how to do things is always good. You're gonna have people that are just, you know, they're in a hurry. They can't find the meeting room for some reason, we're not a big place, but they can't find the TV remote. You just want to make sure that they know where things are. But if you can make that as minimal as possible, if not, you know, get rid of the need for onboarding. And that's great. And people don't want to stand in line to be like, Hey, how do I use an office space? Yeah, I don't know how to use it. It's like when on our website for Gatewatch hey, here's our keyword search. I don't need to tell you how Keywords search works. You get it Yeah.
Monica Pitts 19:51
And when it doesn't work the way you think it should you're like What is wrong with this website? What is wrong with this website? Like? Yeah. So one of the The things that I think is imperative in sales and customer service is response time. And I feel like that's something that you guys are really good at is being really fast responders. I honestly don't know how you respond so quickly to things like how? How, like, what is your mentality behind that, like, tell me about how you guys work that between you. So
Chris Galloway 20:23
I handle a lot of the website inquiries, people will run into Sharon and be like, hey, we'd like to have an event there. And then she goes, Great, email me your info, she'll forward it to me like that's part of one of the duties that I sort of take on. But my my view on it, as well as everything I do for my career as I want you to give me money. And if I want you to give me money, I need to talk to you. Yeah, I need to pick up the phone and call you like calling people is not difficult. It's the easiest thing in the world, I, I text all the time, you don't want to get a text from me, we don't want to, we don't want to sell things through text messages, or even emails, I know that when you contact me, it's because you did some research looking for our services. And that no doubt led you to other providers of that service. So I'm trying to get back to you as soon as possible to show you we supply what you want. So you'll stop searching for other things on Google. And to show you that we're the best option. You know, the sooner you reply to them, the better it only makes you look better. Don't hesitate to pick up the phone, if you have five minutes to call and say, This is so and so. What can I help you with? You know, I can send you info or an email. And usually that's all it is, when they give you that initial inquiry. They're not looking for a long conversation. Even if they just want to know the pricing. It's better to call them and show them that there's a real person in Jefferson City, in the United States, for that matter. My my internet service provider hires people in India. And they need jobs too. But it drives me nuts because I gotta get the runaround just figure out why I can't change my password or something. And so, you know, be there for your customers. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not a lot to ask for. When when you run a restaurant, you don't hire someone to answer questions at the door. I mean, well, I mean, I'm sorry, your employees, but you're not contracting that out to a third party.
Monica Pitts 22:22
No, there's not a chat window at the door, actually. Oh my gosh, yeah. So a few years ago, I went to one of my daughters, it was her birthday, she really wanted to go to Taco Bell. We like never eat fast food. So I'm not trained, okay, like, I'm not a trained monkey in the fast food restaurant. I have no idea how this works. I see people going over to the kiosk. But I don't really know why. Like, I mean, I guess I could go to the kiosk, but like, I kind of would rather just order from the person like I normally would. And I stood there for like seven minutes before, maybe longer before somebody came up. And they were like, Hey, if you're trying to place an order, you gotta go over to the kiosk. And I was like, what? So then I placed an order, and I walked in, I have a phone and I placed the order on the kiosk. And it was great, because then the internet blinked. That order didn't get all the way placed, we waited another 15 minutes, then I was like my payment didn't go through. Because the credit card machine was broken because of the internet. I was like, what is happening? What is happening? This is so horrible. So like, actually getting to talk to a real human being, I think, is really powerful. And did you know that? Like there's another co working space in Jefferson City, I'm not going to call them out. But you there's not even a phone number on their website. Then you have to go over to another website, and then find that website's contact page. And then they don't even look like they're related at all. And so I was like, I'm not calling these I'm not, I'm not even submitting an inquiry, right? So the only phone numbers you can get to are for the hotels in town. And they don't answer the phone either. The hotels don't answer the phone. So I called the hotels and I left messages. And then they responded to me, like multiple days after I had placed the inquiry. And I was like, No, I already got somebody. So I guess the moral of that story is friends, go to your website, and try to find your phone number. And if you know where it is ask your husband to do it.
Chris Galloway 24:27
I'm gonna I would like to point out, I don't I agree with you on that. I don't think we have a phone number on our website. And I just want to be open about that. Maybe. But, but I will say that when you submit a request, it goes directly to my personal cell phone and that is what I call you on and that is the number that I gave all of our members. They all have Sharon's number. They all have our email address. We didn't want to set up a phone number specifically for this place yet. That was back when we were just starting a year ago. And we were kind of like, well, let's see if you know how we want to handle that. But so I agree 100% with the phone number on the website, you
Monica Pitts 25:12
can put that on your list of things to do for later on today. Just go put your phone number on your website.
Chris Galloway 25:17
Yeah, well, because we've stuck with our personal numbers we kind of didn't want to do Yeah, but since we're using RingCentral, that's something we're looking at doing, where you can have kind of a secondary number that goes to your cell phone, we have that. And but I agree, like add that personal proof that you are a human being in Jefferson City, Missouri, United States. And you know, if it, don't make it an 800 number, you don't have to do that, you can set it up to me, you know, the local area code, and you could do all of that, you know, make it like, show them that you're here, don't use a Pio box, use like an address, if you can, obviously, if you're working out of your house, you don't necessarily want to put your home address on everything. But you know, try to localize things as much as you as you can show them that if if the toilets clogged, that you're going to get it done, show them that if their key fob isn't working, that you're gonna show up at the door and let them in. So have that local control over everything. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 26:21
and having that local address is actually really positive to show up on Google Maps, which for a lot of businesses will be one of the first thing that gets pulled up in search results are Google Maps. And so if you search for the type of work that you do, when a map shows up, and you want to show up on that map, well, one of the things you're going to have to have is a physical address, because that is that's a powerful indicator to Google that that's where you're located. So yeah.
Chris Galloway 26:49
And that's part of the value of having the membership here is have a physical location. That's not the local coffee shop, where everyone's going to see you and say hi, and interrupt whatever you're doing. So
Monica Pitts 27:01
one question I have for you. And you mentioned this earlier, was it sounds like you guys have boundaries for like the people that you cater to? Right? So you mentioned that, you know, naked people can't come hang out?
Chris Galloway 27:16
But I would like to say that's just the standard of society.
Monica Pitts 27:19
That was that was actually like, you know, not your decision. That was the city.
Chris Galloway 27:24
If you remember Jefferson, you'll never deal with. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 27:28
no. But then you also said like the legislators, they they aren't, like allowed to become members, because you're trying to create like this safe space for the other parts of the government community to come and work. So hot like was that a hard decision to make, because, you know, they could be paying you money to like, you just you cut the part of a target market out, that works in proximity to you, but you did it because you wanted to make sure it was gonna be the best possible experience for the people that you serve. So tell me a little bit about that.
Chris Galloway 28:06
So I don't think it was a hard decision to come to. We both Sharon and I both agreed on it from the beginning, what we wanted to do was, from a PR perspective, make it clear why we are doing that. It's not because we frown on elected officials. It's not because we frown on the media. You know, my both of our other businesses work side by side with those people every day, I have subscribers to go watch newspapers all over the state. I have elected officials all over the state. But the government affairs professional, doesn't necessarily want them to be walking over to them while they're on the laptop, trying to examine a bill doesn't necessarily want someone let me put it this way. If they go to the Capitol, they go to the Capitol to work the lobbyist or government affairs person does. They go there to work, they go there knowing that when people see them, they're going to stop and talk to them. When a legislator season they go, Hey, come into my office, we got to talk about this thing. I just want to make sure I understand whatever. They need a workspace that doesn't require that stuff as well. And so for us, it was like, you're welcome to bring those people in 24/7 all day, every day, as long as you're here with them. They're the same as a guest. We don't care. But we didn't necessarily want everyone walking in and having that agenda where they're trying to spy on each other, if you Yeah, and I hesitate to phrase it that way. Because that's not really how it works. But I don't even want to say safe space. But that's essentially I guess what it is well,
Monica Pitts 29:44
and I think that that's why like if you think about it, like in the fitness industry, they'll have a gym that's just for women. That's the same thing like you're making a strategic decision to just serve a very specific target audience because you feel like there's a need to fulfill that And like in like, I'm an aerial instructor in like my free time. And so one of the things that we decided to do was offer a kids class, because when adults come into class, they don't want to be in the same class as a nine year old, because they want to have this experience. They're, they're paying money to go in and do this thing for themselves. And it doesn't feel the same when there's little kids, like in the gym with you or in class with you, because it's just a different vibe, right. And so I think it's the same thing, I think people just need to really like, think about their audience, think about the people that they're serving, and make sure that even though you're taking out part of a potential audience, that you're doing it for the right reasons, and that it's going to, like come through and benefit for your person. So boundaries
Chris Galloway 30:55
be okay. If you're going to restrict your services from certain parties. You know, I, you could say, like, what about the cake seller that refuses blah, blah, blah, like, well, it's private business. I'm this isn't necessarily that this is just me saying, like, look, we're valuable because of this. We want to be able to provide this environment, if anyone that like an elected official, or a news reporter wants to come in, all they got to do is ask Yeah, and we're happy to open the door and let them in, I got a button on my phone that unlocks the door. So if we have large parties of people that come in, I don't have to keep opening the stupid, like, oh, oh, unlock it and let him in. I have no, like, there's nothing in here that we're trying to hide. We're just trying to create a space that people can focus, work, recharge, and get things done.
Monica Pitts 31:44
That's awesome. That's all. So because we talk a lot about marketing on this podcast, my last question for you is about marketing. So
Chris Galloway 31:55
we're finally gonna talk about Mark. We've been talking about marketing
Monica Pitts 31:58
this whole time, because like, when you have a great experience with someone, other people are going to talk about your business to their friends and family. And when you have a negative experience with someone, they're also going to talk about your business to their friends and family. And what we want is the positive story being pushed forward, not the negative one. And so in order to do that, we have to do things like what you've been talking about anticipating your needs, creating a space that has boundaries that really benefits them. And, you know, just serving them to the best of your ability. So that way, they're like, Wow, I came away from this feeling like this is awesome. But then, so that I'm sure you do get referral business, right, is that so tell me, how else do you get business? What are the ways that you find because you are a physical like location where people have to come in, and be there. And there's a lot of businesses that are service businesses, and they're not the same. So I think that the way you market could be really similar to or what you find successful in marketing could be also successful to like, a coffee shop, or a retail business or even like a restaurant as strange as that sounds? Because you're in a physical spot. Right? So yeah, tell me about that. I want to know, I
Chris Galloway 33:14
would say, work. I would say it's interesting, because we do a lot of digital marketing, we focus on emails primarily. And then we also pick up the phone and call people. When we started doing what we're doing. I, I had a list of people based on my other job and, and Sharon's job, like, we have a whole list of contacts that were like, Let's, let's start calling people, we no need this and kind of whittled down that list. And that's what we did. And it worked really well. And when you start a business, you typically have that list, through some means, if, if you're starting a restaurant, you know, you know how to get people in off the sidewalk, you know, your crowd for that sort of thing. We knew ours. And we know like, here's the maximum members we can have, let's just start calling people. And that was the primary thing to start with. And the emails are a great way to put it in front of them. And, you know, the emails give them a reason to keep it in the back of their mind. So we've we found those markets, and we focused on them, and we got them pinned down. And we knew there was enough groups of people that fit those things that we could call them.
Monica Pitts 34:24
And so I love that you actually gave those two examples because I feel like for people that are starting out in their business, a lot of them are not nearly as realistic as you guys and they just think, Oh, I'm just gonna put some stuff on social media and like everything's gonna happen and like I'm gonna get these people in and I like so I have this free, like mini course it's called Marketing on a Shoestring. And one of the things I talk about are the highest converting marketing tactics and two of them are the ones you use which is like calling people and email and and it's, it's because they're like, high touch like they're there. With the high the like the closer touch it is like, you know, I think of social media as being like far away, right. But like that more personalized, high touch, like marketing activity is going to be the thing that converts the best. And the other thing that you guys did really, really well is you looked at what you had, you looked at the assets that you had, which was a list of people that you knew, and you were like, Hmm, I can convert that into something else, which is members, right. And I think that people need to look at what they've got. So that way, they can do more with it. And you guys are totally doing that. I have an idea for you. Can I tell you my idea? Well, can I tell you my idea? Is
Chris Galloway 35:39
it gonna give someone else?
Monica Pitts 35:41
I just know, I think that you should have like an invite a friend, like a lunch or an like an invite a friend thing, because then you could use the asset that you have, which is members, and you get more people like your members. So maybe try and invite a friend thing. Because you probably have more members to like, Max yourselves out. You want the right people in there too, right? So yeah,
Chris Galloway 36:07
yeah, like that's kind of the thing is, we, we do sort of one or two special events every year. And because we're focused on government affairs, folks, it means building that around the legislative session primarily, which is January through May. And then they do stuff in September for veto session. So we had like, I forget what they called it. It was essentially like, trade a bottle liquor thing. And so everyone brings one, we put them in a bag and you know, you pick them at random, you can't pick your own, but it's like then you get to taste all the different whiskies people brought in bourbon, whatever. And that was really fun. It was a very, it was very fun. And so and people get to go home with that whiskey, you know, and do this and things like that. And you can bring anyone you want. You know, you could bring bad whiskey, you could bring really expensive whiskey most of it was bad to me. Because you don't exactly want to give away your $100 bottle of whiskey. I for one went and got the cheapest blueberry whiskey I could find. And it was phenomenal. Everyone loved
Monica Pitts 37:13
I bet it would make lemonade cocktails.
Chris Galloway 37:17
Yeah, I was like mine is I'll tell you exactly where to find it. And Chinooks. Yeah. So but yeah, we we've done different things like that. And invite a friend thing. I would say for us, that's kind of like an everyday thing. You're welcome to bring anyone you want. If you want to bring your kids, you can bring your kids. You know if they get out of hand, we'll let you in. Yeah. But everyone knows when your kids get out a hand like no. Yeah, like that's kind of giving them that self responsibility. Yeah. But yeah, doing different events here has been something we've done. And that's got people to sign up. If nothing else, they come in and look at it. And they're like, well, we own a whole building down the street, I don't really need it. But I know someone that does. And it's this random guy out of St. Louis County that comes here all the time, I've never met him. And he signed up the next week.
Monica Pitts 38:07
Yeah, but if you hadn't, like, use the asset that you had, which was the members that you have to facilitate these events, then you wouldn't meet the extra people. So you still had to put the energy in to get the energy back. And that was a smart way to use what you had to build more. So that's really fun. Yeah. And
Chris Galloway 38:27
the other thing is, when it comes to customer service, that is marketing, yeah, customer service is nothing if not marketing, and treating them like they're equally valuable to your, your most highly paid customer, I guess you could say like, if a customer has 12 memberships with us, I'm gonna treat them, I'm going to treat the guy who has won the same as the guy who has 12 memberships. And that's what matters. That's what's going to get that word of mouth out, which is without a doubt the most important thing that is your marketing is your customer service them talking to you the way you treat them. And just making sure that when something needs to be done for them that you get it done. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 39:09
I 100% agree. And I could not have said it better. And that's why you're on the marketing with purpose podcast, Chris. So thank you so much for all your time today and sharing your insights and thoughts about this. If people want to come and rent space from you or become a member of Jefferson and High how can they get ahold of you? Well,
Chris Galloway 39:33
first of all, they can talk to you and ask you for my personal cell phone number that I won't say out loud. They can also go to our website. It's a very straightforward form. It has our pricing for membership there. It's 150 a month for a lounge membership. $50 a day for our meeting room. And you get the meeting room for eight hours straight, at least. So we'll give you a key and we'll leave you alone. own. The snacks and stuff are right over there. If you need drinks, yeah, but all that's included. And then we have office space as well, which we have one left, if anyone's looking but you just go to our website, fill out the form. I guarantee I'll call you back within five minutes. What's your web address? jeffersonandhigh.com
Monica Pitts 40:19
There you go. I don't think I'm gonna misspell that either. I think I think that's a straightforward one. That's a good domain. You've got there. Yeah. Well,
Chris Galloway 40:26
we're located at the intersection of Jefferson and High. So we didn't really have a better name than that.
Monica Pitts 40:35
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today. And hopefully, you guys picked up some good customer service tips going through this conversation with Chris. So if you enjoyed this podcast or if you learned a thing or two, feel free to subscribe because we have conversations like this every week, all geared towards helping you solve problems through technology and market with purpose. So until next time, go forth and market with purpose.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
