Silent Churn Is Costing You More Than You Think | RR372

[00:00:01] Relationships Rule, that's my motto. I'm Janice Porter and I love to share the power of relationship marketing to help grow and impact business. I've grown my business by building and nurturing relationships and I'd like to help you do the same. Welcome to the Relationships Rule podcast where connection means everything. Hi everyone and welcome back to this week's episode of

[00:00:27] Relationships Rule. What if your biggest revenue leak had nothing to do with sales? Well, today I'm talking with Alicia Esmail, a Canadian entrepreneur who built a company called Road Coffee into a national brand grounded in direct trade and social impact and has just launched a new product, Latch AI, a client retention platform designed to catch those quiet signals that a

[00:00:55] client is slipping away before they ever say goodbye. Alicia believes that as AI drives down the cost of services, the only thing that will truly set a business apart is how well it takes care of the people already in its world. And that's a message that fits perfectly here on Relationships Rule. So I want to get started. Welcome to the show, Alicia. Thanks for having me. And this time I don't think

[00:01:21] I said your last name properly, but maybe I did. Esmail? Is that okay? All right. I think I asked you about the etymology of it last time. And then when I was doing some notes on here, I spelled it wrong because I was thinking of Ismail instead of Esmail. So who knows? I don't know. Names are interesting. But welcome to the show. And I was quite impressed with what you had done at an early age. I

[00:01:48] mean, you went around the world and you created this company. Now you have had two very different businesses. Road Coffee, which you built on direct trade with farmers around the world, and now Latch AI built on data and retention systems. What's the thread that connects them for you? That's the golden question right now. For me, believe it or not, it comes back to relationships. So with

[00:02:17] Road, what we were finding is I was in one of the most saturated markets in the world, right? Like you're in a coffee centric city, you know, there's so many options. I don't even drink it, by the way. I think I knew that. Yeah. But it's all about let's go for coffee, right? And yeah, for sure. That's right. And, and so the thing I realized is if I wanted to build a successful company in one of

[00:02:43] the most saturated markets, I needed to become a retention expert and I needed to learn on a whole new level, how to manage client relationships and serve your clients well long term. And I learned that the hard way by actually getting that terrifying email from one of our biggest clients at the time. We were already pretty established, had lots of wins, had already won number of awards and

[00:03:10] was sitting at the dinner table with my family. And I got that email and the subject line was we've decided to go in a different direction. And I was completely blindsided. I didn't see it coming. I had lots of relationships with people at the company too. So it was, it was really shocking. I had to excuse myself from the table and I just kept reading it again and again, scratching my head being like, I thought everything

[00:03:36] was good. Yeah. Yeah. Turns out it wasn't. Wow. And they were silent about it. That's, that's the other thing we're talking about that. Right. Until they weren't right. Um, it's funny. I, uh, before I forget, cause I know I will, um, I get emails from, um, this gentleman that was on my podcast last year, maybe you think the beginning of last year. And he used to work for the Disney corporation and he worked

[00:04:03] for them for many years. And he was in charge of, um, building their new restaurants in all the different theme parks and so on. And wherever you work in the Disney, um, family, you are, you know, ensconced in, ensconced in their culture. And of course they have that, you know, the biggest culture of all for, um, um, customer experience, right. Which leads to customer retention because everyone

[00:04:31] takes their family there and then the kids take their kids there. And if you're a Disney family, you're a Disney family. Well, he writes these customer service newsletters that are really interesting to me because I love the idea of customer service and good and bad. And he just did one the other day about a company. And I don't know how many States are in, in the U S but when we were in Cal it's long story, but not really, but okay. Um, we were in California a couple of years

[00:04:58] ago with my family. Um, and my daughter, one of my daughters said, mom, we have to go get takeout from this company, this fried chicken. Cause it's supposedly the best around. And I said, like, they're all the same, but sure. Let's do it. Right. So it was fried chicken. I mean, but it has a special sauce and this company's name is cane raising cane. C A I N. Have you heard of it? I've heard of it. I have heard it's incredible. Okay. Chicken. Okay. But it's not just the fried

[00:05:27] chicken. So this was the company that Vance, my friend, my past call, um, podcast guest Vance Morris, he was writing about that day. And he said that they chose to be focused on one thing, not, you know, happy meals and burgers and, and all the different things that are offered, but basically it's one thing, the fried chicken and their special sauce. And he said, one of the things

[00:05:57] that's called the fried chicken. And when an order comes up from the kitchen and the person's waiting at the takeout for it, they say, order up for Janice or order up for bill or whatever name you've given them. So the customer hears their name, not just number 65 or whatever. And that one little thing was a huge difference when you're talking about, um, doing things right, you know? So anyway,

[00:06:23] it just made me think of that. Um, the, the article is interesting cause he goes into more details, but, but it's just, um, it's always the little things that count and, um, and relationships are formed based on these things in, in court in, you know, companies, right? So let's just talk about that silent churn. I like that word because I think a lot of people in, in my audience don't even

[00:06:49] realize it's happening to them either. What does it actually look like when a client starts to drift? You can see it if you're paying close attention and you know what to look for, but some of this, what we call silent signals are slower response times. You know, maybe they were responding within 24 hours and now it's 48 hours. Now it's five days. Responding to what? It could be responding to an

[00:07:17] email, responding to deliverables. You know, I, I always say feedback is a gift, even if you don't want to hear it because it's when people start going quiet, you need to be worried. So that's one of them. Another, another couple that I like to throw out there is the depth of engagement. Like, are they pushing back? Are they asking questions? Are they concerned? Again, concern is not necessarily a

[00:07:41] bad thing. It means they care. Yeah. Um, but as soon as they're just like, yep, sounds good. Yeah. Sure. That's when you got to be, you know, yeah. A little more engaged and figure out what's going on. So, um, I think you've said that most businesses are obsessed with top of funnel growth while their existing clients slip away unnoticed. So, um, why do you think that is and what makes acquisition so much more appealing than retention? Cause we all do that. We're always looking for the

[00:08:11] new people, right? Uh, I think it goes back to, uh, the heart of business, heart of entrepreneurship. It's always the new, new, right? That's the sexy thing. We want the next exciting thing. And we've always been, you know, culturally really bad at being consistent, right? Like what's that one thing we do incredibly well? Well, that's boring after time, right? Yeah. For entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, definitely. Right. Cause we're all ADD. Yeah, that's right. For entrepreneurs.

[00:08:37] That's why we have other amazing people around us who can help us be consistent. So I think that's part of it. And then the other part is there's also a business that needs to be built, right? So driving revenue is really important. It's one of the number one things or else you don't have a business, you have a glorified hobby. So it's, it's not a bad thing that we're focused on top of funnel. The challenges were only focused on top of funnel and then delivery and we forget about our

[00:09:07] current clients. Yeah. Things fall away by the wayside. That's true. Um, so you just mentioned, um, off air or no, you mentioned it at the beginning about the email you got at the dinner table. Was this one of your clients that, um, um, had, or no, this is, this happened to one of your clients that you proved you had, they had $650,000 walking out the door in a single quarter

[00:09:34] through neglected follow-up. That's right. Right. It was one of your beta clients. When you showed them that number, what was their reaction? They were shocked that there was that much opportunity on the table. They had no idea. So same thing, right. They were like, how do we get more revenue? How do we grow? And they're spending a fair bit of money on ads and marketing for new when there's so much opportunity sitting right there. And, and we actually ran an analysis recently to see how the

[00:10:03] work's been going together. Uh, and in the first three weeks we were able to help them, uh, capture $6,000 already. Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to come back to that in a minute. I want to know one more thing before we go into latch AI things. When you, when you were building road coffee, you were working, um, not in the Western world, you, uh, so to speak, right. You were working

[00:10:26] in places like Costa Rica, Peru, Nepal, and you had to, well, first of all, I am curious how, how did this, how did you decide to do this? Yeah. Well, my background's in international development. So from a young age, like I've spent my entire career working on an international stage with people in different cultures. And it was when I was leading teams, uh, we'd be gone for three to

[00:10:56] four months at a time. And I was always passionate about coffee. So I naturally found myself on coffee and tea farms in my free time. Oh, get to know farmers and their families and, you know, drink tea with their grandmas, play soccer with their kids. And I started to learn from them how the supply chain worked from their side of the world. And, uh, I just started to see some really big disconnects and some injustices and how, you know, they were often taken advantage of by unnecessary middlemen.

[00:11:23] And then I'd come home to the West, you know, and the first thing I do is what, like everybody else spend five bucks on a coffee in the airport. Yeah. Yeah. And it was that gap that, uh, that just started to bother me over time. And I moved back to Canada and to try and do something about it. That's, that's quite interesting actually, because, uh, to have the first, to have the experience, um, of the importance of relationships, but then to have the, the vision, um, of how you were going to put all

[00:11:51] this together, I'm, I'm pretty impressed. So you found that rate relationships built on real trust, not transactions were the way to go. And I mean, that's exactly it. Yeah. And it, you can usually, I think when, with a first interaction with somebody or a individual or a company, you can sort of see through it when they don't really care about you. It's all about

[00:12:19] them and it's all about the result that they want. Um, so when you were building your company, your first company, did that experience, did you put that into practice right away? How you think about client relationships in a, you know, service business context? I did it first. And then I think I lost my way a bit because I was a young entrepreneur. I was also learning how to build a

[00:12:45] business at the same time, right? So everything was new and everything was hard. So the first thing that started to go, um, once there was way too much on my plate was, uh, some of the reasons that got me there in the first place. And it wasn't until I got that wake up call from our largest client at the time where I had to give my head a shake and be like, wait, wait, I need to bring this all back to

[00:13:12] the values that this company is actually based out of. And not just with the farmers, but then our clients and, and that's when it really hit me. Like clients are the heroes of the journey, you know, not just in my first coffee company, but in every company because without clients, you don't have a business again, glorified hobby. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Um, and, and I remember back when I was first, um,

[00:13:41] dealing with my network marketing business, which is a send out cards and, and I'm still to use it today. It's a tool that I use to stay connected to people in a different way than an email or a text message so that it lands in a tangible, um, card that they receive in the mail, which always takes people from their head to their heart always. Right. And they have. And so I remember this statistic of, and I don't know where it came from to this day. Now I can't remember, but you know, you've heard it

[00:14:10] probably over and over 68% of clients leave because they're, they feel, um, disconnected. They feel unappreciated. Right. And, um, and often quietly, but the world has changed so much that if when they left before they tell a few people and that would trigger that person's trusted friends to say, Oh, I'm not going to that restaurant because Jana said it's horrible or whatever. But now if

[00:14:39] they leave, they tell it's on the internet, it's on social media. And so you're, it's dead right in the water. So, um, it's a different animal now, but, um, it really is. I can actually love to say something to that. So I think the challenge is, is a lot of businesses aren't equipped or paying attention on how to handle things when that happens, because no one's going to knock it out

[00:15:08] of the park a hundred percent of the time, right? Humans are humans and they're going to make mistakes at some point. The challenge is now that everything is so public and on display, what I see a lot of is, is client blaming and client shaming actually. And yeah. And what I mean by that is like, you'll see, uh, you know, let's say a client has a bad experience. They post something on, on Facebook.

[00:15:35] Right. And, uh, and it gets a bunch of traction and other people are commenting. And instead of the business, the business taking a posture, a humble posture of being apologetic, asking for feedback, taking it offline to try to solve it, or maybe putting out a statement and saying, you know what, me made a mistake. They just fight back and they blame the client. Like, well, it's not our fault. And they get defensive and it's, it goes back to the heart of relationships as like, would you do that

[00:16:04] to someone standing in front of you? Right. I mean, but that's the, the point there though, too, is that they should have done that at, in the beginning. Like I can, I've got so many stories where usually in a, in a restaurant that this happened to me in a, in, in Earl's and you probably know Earl's restaurants, which is a family owned business and it's their oodles of them. And I, I love that restaurant chain. My daughter worked there and she learned a lot when she worked there.

[00:16:31] Um, in man early days of management, they taught her a lot. And I remember going into Earl's one time and, um, more recently, like last few years and something didn't go right or something. And the man, the server said to me, well, what would you like me to do about it? In that kind of tone. And I'm like, seriously, you're asking me what I want you to do about it. You know, like the back,

[00:17:00] the, the hairs on the back of my neck go up because of the attitude in his voice. And so, you know, that's when it makes it worse and it can't get better because you go away and you tell the story after they haven't recovered properly. And that's the key is the recovery, right? It's not the mistake. It's the recovery. Anyway, I could talk for hours about customer service, but let's talk about, um, let's tell my audience about your new business, Latch AI. I'll let you, I'll let you,

[00:17:30] I'll let you include, um, give us a little synopsis of it and how it works. So Latch AI is an AI native retention engine. Okay. Now slow down. Cause that, that makes it all too fast for me. It is a AI native retention engine. So when I say AI native, what I mean is not just an AI layer on top of an infrastructure that already existed. Okay.

[00:17:57] That's what most companies are doing right now. They're just adding AI to whatever their company is. The problem with that is, is it, it can't leverage AI in the way AI is meant to be leveraged. And that's when you also end up with a lot of AI schlop or, um, you know, products that maybe aren't as good as, as, you know, you maybe thought they would be. Okay. Yeah. That's what AI native means. It's AI in nature. It's agentic. It's working behind the scenes

[00:18:27] and it's outcome focused. It's not like a chat bot that you just talk to and it helps you things. And the retention side, it's really, um, it's, it's not necessarily the AI that makes it incredibly special. The AI is just takes the solution and elevates it above other solutions. Because at the end of the day, if your solution sucks, AI is not going to make it better. Right.

[00:18:52] Right. So what, what we, what I did is I took the system, I call it my retention ladder system at road that I built for road and figured out, and then I built AI around it. And I actually built it for my first company first to make sure it worked. And it does a number of things. So it detects a client drift, right? Like what we talked about, that's one of the first things. Then it scores each client

[00:19:20] continuously. And that means, are they at risk? Are they slipping? Are they stable or are they expansion ready? And we separate expansion ready from, from stable because just because they're in a good spot and they're stable doesn't mean it's the right time to ask for an upsell and upgrade or a referral ask. So we are keeping an eye on how, how every client of yours is doing. And then we go into

[00:19:47] Can we stop for a second? So, or, or if you want to say this after that's fine, but my thought goes to, well, based on what? Yeah. So based on the data that's already there. So right now, client data typically exists and it's fragmented across a multiple platforms, right? So it could be your CRM. It could be your email,

[00:20:13] your calendar, um, any type of ticketing system and invoice system. We, uh, we're working with a number of integrations right now. I can sit here and probably name, name a hundred, but, uh, that would bore your audience. Um, so we, we connect these tools that you're already using. Okay. We pull the data, we run it through our latch system. That's looking for all these things. Um, and it's, it's, it's multi

[00:20:40] layered, right? So it's like the best practices across the board in any business. Then the second layer is vertical specific, right? Cause our clinic clients need to be focused on different things than the agencies and coaches we work with. And then the third layer is specific to that company. So when we onboard a company, there's special things that make them special. And we want latch to include that in

[00:21:07] its operating system for them. Okay. That makes sense. So, um, so, uh, okay. I was talking to a friend about this before, um, earlier this afternoon about, um, I guess, see how, how to phrase this because, okay. I'm always talking about, it's important to build relationships that people know, like, and trust

[00:21:32] you and through those relationships, which take time to build and to maintain, which is where that your system comes in to keep on top of, you know, where are they with the, with their clients and, and what, um, what should I be offering them now based on the information that they have? So, um,

[00:21:56] I think in terms of finding out more about them, I think of, um, uh, talking to them more regularly, sending them appreciation notes, showing them that not asking for anything, but just showing that just showing up in their mailbox or wherever. Okay. So that my name is top of mind so that they remember me

[00:22:25] if, you know, whatever, but when I think of your system like other systems, excuse me, I think of it being, what shall I create to send them in an email. And when I'm thinking about more and more emails going out, I feel like it's not customer centric. It's, it's, it's out, it's the, the, the vendor centric.

[00:22:54] We've got this to offer you where we've got that to offer you. So I don't know if I'm making sense, but, um, how much does it take into consideration? Cause you build messages and things like that, right. Um, within the system. So how much does it take into consideration that you're showing that you appreciate them and that you care, or is it just, Hey, you might be ready for this next thing. Yeah, that's a great question. And not really, it was around and about, but I just needed to get the

[00:23:22] sense of it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's a, it's a good question and it's important and it's actually the next stage of, of the, of the ladder, which are the safe place. And so when we do write a safe play, it's, it's not actually to get something out of them. I would, I would say our system is customer centric, client centric, because clients are the heroes of the journey and it's about what the

[00:23:47] client needs and serving them. So the message might be, if they're at risk, the message might be something, um, to, to help me a need that wasn't met or a deliverable that maybe they're not happy about if they're quiet, right. It's, it's to engage them, not to necessarily sell them something. Okay. And then, um, you know, if it's an, even if it's like an overdue invoice, um, a lot of times

[00:24:14] people, they don't disengage just when something's wrong, they disengage because they're busy or something came up or, you know, like a lot of times if I didn't book back in with my dentist, it's cause I didn't get that reminder text or email. Yeah. Because I hate going to the dentist. So it's up to them. Yeah. But if they, you know, message you, you're like, oh yeah, okay. I should book in. Right. Yeah. So it's kind of something, it's very similar to that. Um, and on the, on the

[00:24:42] expansion ready, um, I think there's actually a myth around and a fear around being scared to ask people because nine out of 10 times when you ask someone to refer you, they're going to give you a referral. If they like working with you, they want to see you win. They want to be in, you want to be in business so that they can keep working with you. And it, it's okay to ask them for a referral.

[00:25:09] That's something I had to learn and get over my own fear around. Um, and I think a lot of times we're just scared to do that, but it's actually, it's, it's a fun way to include them in your business too. And you can even make it so that they win as well. A lot of times when I, I get referrals through people, I will buy them a gift. Or if I know they like a certain bottle of wine or a restaurant, I'll get them a gift card because they're part of the journey too. Of course. But let's talk about that for a minute, because I don't think I feel the same way.

[00:25:39] I, I, I once interviewed this woman and this is all she teaches, um, is, um, um, I forget what she calls it, but it's her referral, um, philosophy, I guess. And that is that you don't ask for referrals, you earn them. And if you have a, a good relationship with somebody

[00:26:02] that, that totally knows likes and trusts you, they will refer you anytime, all the time, as long as you, as it's a good fit for that, right? Like that they are the right, um, they come across the right people that, um, need your services, right? Cause not all, um, relationships are reciprocal that

[00:26:26] way. Sometimes you have to let the law of reciprocity do its job. Like, um, uh, you may come across people in your business that, um, uh, need a new LinkedIn profile and you've, you, you've done some work with me. So you kindly send them my way because you trust that I will do a, you know, I'll look after them. And if I come across not as likely because I, I may be, because I forget you don't just work

[00:26:53] with big companies, you work with smaller and health and wellness. You mentioned the dentist companies that maybe could take a look at what you're doing. I'd be happy to, but, um, but the point is, I don't know about asking. I think it's very important to look after the people that refer you, right? Usually the people that refer don't expect anything in return because that's just who they

[00:27:19] are. But, you know, some people have referral programs and those kinds of things, but I, I, and once in a while, don't get me wrong, it's okay to ask if it feels appropriate, but generally speaking, I think you have to show up in people's lives and you have to earn that trust so that they will refer you. And that's exactly why we only ask when they're in the purple. That's why we don't ask in the green and the yellow or the red, they have to be in a very specific space in their customer

[00:27:47] journey. But I, I would, I think this is something we definitely see differently. I think the ask is really important. You don't ask for what you don't get. You don't get in life what you don't ask for. And I generally agree with that. I've said that many times. If you don't ask, you don't get. So yes, I guess I won't completely say we're completely on opposite sides because I think there are times, as I said, that I, that I will ask if it seems appropriate, but not gen,

[00:28:13] not all the time. Sometimes it just, you know, the right people, um, come, you know, it comes your way. I don't know, but it's good. It's good to have differences as well. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay. So what should a service business owner be paying attention to right now

[00:28:39] without any technology at all that would tell them that a client relationship is starting to cool? A service business. Yeah. Or can they? Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course they can do it manually. It's just more work. Right. So, um, a service business should be looking at frequency of purchases, like how, when's the last time someone booked in, um, you know, like we just finished accounting season.

[00:29:08] Right. So I'm sure a lot of accountants lost 10, 20% of their business book just because they weren't paying attention. Right. And then they're like, wait, um, you know, Joe Smith never ended up sending us his stuff. Right. So if he's paying attention to that ahead of time, and I've already talked to a number of accountants, um, in this season who have shared their information. Oh, that's great. So that's good market for you right now. That's excellent. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:33] Um, so it's a frequency of purchasing, um, engagement again, like, are they getting back to you? Um, another one is, um, and this is a sneaky one, but the, uh, like, do they engage with your, your content online in another way? So like now we do live in a digital age, like you said,

[00:29:57] and if your company is putting out any type of, um, posts, uh, and if someone used to like comment on your stuff and like be pretty engaged online and like now isn't anymore, that's like another really interesting sign. That's a little more subtle though. Yes. Because probably you're not sitting on the internet or on social media all the time. And so you miss it for until, until you say, Oh wait, I haven't heard from so-and-so or I miss them. Yeah. Um,

[00:30:26] so as an entrepreneur, would you see that, um, solopreneurs or small, you know, two to five company business com, you know what I mean? Company people, companies, um, would be able to use your service? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So some of our current clients are small teams that are starting to

[00:30:53] scale and they like, we're in the age now in the age of AI, you don't need large teams to scale a company necessarily. Like that's starting, that's going to become a way of the past. I think, I think we're going to see a lot of, instead of, instead of like extra large enterprise companies, we're going to see a lot more small, medium businesses. Yeah. Because you're going to use AI employees as well

[00:31:17] as real humans. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so I think there's going to create more space for, um, you know, different jobs to pop up as well. Um, but I, I am a big believer in supporting small, medium businesses. Great. Yeah, that's, that's good. Um, I think that's what we were just talking about. I'm looking at my next question. Um, you've described your tension as the only sustainable differentiator

[00:31:44] as AI makes services cheaper and cheaper. That's a bold claim. Make the case for it. Yeah, absolutely. Happy to, uh, I believe we're in a war on clients, just like we've been in a war on talent for a number of years, right? It's, it's getting harder and harder to find really good employees, skilled employees. And, uh, and we're, we're entering a war on clients and I'm starting to

[00:32:08] see it pop up already. Right now you can spin up a solution, um, overnight from like a software product that you love. You know, a lot of people are making their own CRMs. They're making their own version of the app they're already using so they can cut down on costs. Um, the challenge is that's not always good because it doesn't work as good as the way people actually designed it. Cause AI

[00:32:34] doesn't solve the problem. You still need to solve the problem properly and then use AI to accelerate it. The, the trick with this though, is because people are going to go into different industries because a lot of industries are about to get decimated. The competition is going to go up across every industry, not just the ones with technicality, even healthcare and the human competition. Yeah, absolutely. As if it isn't bad enough now. Yeah.

[00:33:04] So why should someone stay with you instead of going with someone else? That's already hard and competitive. It's about to 10 X. And so being able to keep your clients is one of the best strategies as we enter this phase of AI. Yeah. It's really interesting, isn't it? It's scary though, too. And, um, if you're like, think about it, right? Like people buy from people

[00:33:27] and their relationship based. I know. So it makes sense. I know. So in this new world that we're in, and if you're expanding your company, are you, have you experienced lately hiring people and, and when you hire them, uh, or go to hire them, do you ask them about their comfort zone with AI? I mean, is that become like a number one question or? Oh yeah, absolutely. Before, before we even

[00:33:57] interview, um, they have to do a test project, uh, with, as part of their application and part of that test project is working with AI to see how comfortable they are. Um, their appetite is for it, you know, like it's, it's, well, it's hard because we're also an AI company. Um, but I think what I'm, as I'm talking to my peers and a lot of other people, even in service-based industries that use very little tech, it's starting to become a very common question in the interview process.

[00:34:27] Yeah, I'm sure. So I just want to clarify something. So your, your system does not hook up to LinkedIn, does it? No. And there's a reason for that actually. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, LinkedIn, uh, amongst a couple other, the social media platforms are very, um, tight when it comes to,

[00:34:50] uh, AI and, uh, bots specifically. Uh, now latch isn't a bot. It's, it's an agentic system, right? It's different, but you called, you called it when I first asked you, you called it a, um, uh, um, dashboard. Yeah. Yeah. We have a dashboard. Okay. We do have a dashboard, but yeah, LinkedIn has pretty tight guidelines. Well, we don't connect to LinkedIn. We're also not

[00:35:15] like, uh, outreach sales tool, right? Like our focus is internal and helping keep the clients you already have. Um, so it's, and do you work with a lot of, um, like medical practices? Is that one of your target markets? Is that what you said? Yeah. We work with a number of clinics across the country already. Oh, that's good. The thing is clinics as well. Okay. I want to pitch in there for that

[00:35:41] because you mentioned the dentist and I, and it seems as though a lot of dentists, they must get pitched all the time with different, you know, um, programs to use and everything seems to be quite automated today when it comes to the dentist, but it's all around my experience with my dentist is it's all around them. It's like, you know, if you don't tell us, you're not coming, you can pay

[00:36:09] a hundred dollars. If you don't tell us the day before. And then when you book your appointment, you get six, God knows how many, um, reminders, you know, and that drives me crazy. I would much rather see, um, a dental office, for example, of family dentistry or, you know, where they've got everybody in the family coming and all of that, that they send you a birthday card or they send you your kids

[00:36:37] something when it's their birthday, or you do something to show that you care about your patients. Absolutely. I call those ice cream moments. There you go. I love that ice cream moments, but they don't do that in all these programs. It's all about them. It's all about the dentist's office, right? That's why Lash has a real opportunity here. Yeah. So, so do you see

[00:37:00] your company, um, having the, uh, having the, um, uh, a piece of it, giving them ideas of showing them, showing appreciation? Yeah, you bet. So what we're already doing is, uh, you know, if someone gets married or they have a life event, like a kid or, you know, something that is a noteworthy, noteworthy event, we call it life events. Uh, we want to make sure

[00:37:26] Latch captures that and helps action, um, something for them. So even if it's like, you know, like a $20 online gift, um, Oh yeah, it doesn't matter so much what it is. It's not the dollar amount, but no, it's what connects to the people around your business, right? Around the service that you're providing. Yeah, that's good. I, I spoke to a fellow in Vancouver who has a very successful business. Um, I think he does, uh, like executive coaching or something like that,

[00:37:56] but he told me that, and he's all about retention and, uh, appreciation. And he told me that, um, he, his team members are allowed to spend up to $300 per client or whatever it is that they're allowed to do when something happens, they have that, that needs to be looked, you know, they've heard that somebody's mom died or that so-and-so had a baby or whatever. They need to

[00:38:23] do something about it immediately and they don't have to ask. I love that. That's fantastic. Yeah. So I thought that was really cool. And they try to make it something special, right? Like if you heard that this woman, that he told me the story about this woman that talked about loving, um, orchids and he made sure that he went and found a beautiful orchid to send to her. So it's not just the gift, it's the thought that's right behind it. That's like amazing. Anyway, this is fun. I could talk

[00:38:51] about this stuff all day. So, um, one last question. If someone listening today runs a small business service business and they want to start, uh, treating retention as a real strategy, not just a nice idea, where do you ask them to tell them to begin? I start at watching the signals because each step builds on top of each other. So if you're at like, like you pointed out, it's not always the right time to ask for a referral or an upsell. If you're

[00:39:18] doing that, but you're not doing the other three, it's going to fall on deaf ears and you're just going to end up frustrating your customers. So you got to start with the drift detection, understanding where your clients are at with the health scoring. If you can get that locked in, everything else becomes easier and is going to move your business forward. Lots to think about. That's great. Thank you for being here, Alicia.

[00:39:43] Um, the idea that your next best client might already be in your world and that the relationship just needs a little more attention is something I think we can all act on whether or not we ever use a single piece of technology. However, I encourage you to check out, um, it's called your latch. Your latch.com. Right. And, um, check out Alicia's, um, um, product and see, see what you think. Um,

[00:40:13] I, I really appreciated your story. I really was in awe of someone who so young was able to bring that all together and, um, and bring it to my family at relationships rule. So thank you to everyone for listening. If this conversation is something that sparked you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And until next time, keep nurturing those relationships because that's where the real

[00:40:36] business gets done. So thank you so much. Thanks for joining us. If today's show inspired you to make a new connection, why not start with me head over to LinkedIn and connect with me. Be sure to let me know you're a podcast listener because I select one listener each month who connects with me on LinkedIn for a complimentary profile audit. And you know, I love to meet new people. So I hope you take me up

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