461 | How To Create Loyal Customers That RAVE About Your Business!

Jun 20

461 Clifton Muckenfuss Full Podcast Sequence
===
No matter how good of a job we do, it's not our customer's job to remember us. It's our job to make sure they can't forget us. What's up everybody. Welcome back to gathering the King's podcast. I'm your host, Chas Wolf. Today. We welcome Clifton muck and foos to the King stage. He's a visionary. He's a business coach, a consultant, and the founder of building raving fans, where of course he teaches owners how to serve their clients.
So well to where they become. You guessed it. Raving fans. This episode is a huge one for any business owner looking to increase their client retention. Here's what we talk about. Number one, what are raving fans? A person that is so obsessive about your product or service that they can't wait to share it.
What anybody that'll listen and what most business owners get wrong. Entrepreneurs are so focused on how can I get people into the machine to then spit out a result, receive compensation, and now let's rinse and repeat that. Number two. Oh, it's fine. Is the worst customer feedback that you could ever get.
There's a four letter word that if a patron says to you, it is alarming. Fine. Fine is really bad. And number three, the problem with digital marketing industry in the digital marketing space. I mean, I work with contractors every day. If I work with 20 of them, 19 of them have had a bad experience. Don't worry.
We still love you guys. Subscribe. If you haven't already, and like this video comment down below, tell me the most thoughtful thing that you do for your clients to go above and beyond. Enjoy the show.
[00:01:34] Chaz Wolfe: Clifton, my brother, welcome to the King stage. How are you today, man?
[00:01:39] Clifton Muckenfuss: Man, Chaz, the same way I start every one of these conversations, I'm somewhere between exceptional.
[00:01:46] Chaz Wolfe: Is, is on that scale. So now you, I use drew me right in with curiosity here, where on the scale is fantastic and exceptional. It was one above the other. How many dots are in between? Come on, give me the scale.
[00:01:59] Clifton Muckenfuss: It's a, it's a very, very narrow,
[00:02:04] Chaz Wolfe: there you
[00:02:05] Clifton Muckenfuss: ~uh, ~and I, and I believe,~ uh,~ exceptional. It just kind of inches above, but there's not a lot of gap. And so I feel like when I, when I answer that question, it forces me to stay in a positive state of mind.
[00:02:19] Chaz Wolfe: a hundred percent.
[00:02:20] Clifton Muckenfuss: And that's how I live my life, man. So somewhere between exceptional and fantastic.
[00:02:24] Chaz Wolfe: What do you think? ~Uh, ~I mean, we're going to get into this. You, you have an incredible business. In fact, let me just offer the opportunity here. Tell us what kind of business or businesses that you have currently now and, and how you help entrepreneurs. And, and then, and then I'll go back to my curiosity.
[00:02:38] Clifton Muckenfuss: Sure, Chaz. I appreciate that. So we were talking a little bit off air, you know, I, I owned, I started co founded a residential construction company in 2010, which was not my first,~ uh,~ venture into entrepreneurship, but it was really the, the one that I think kind of paved the way to where I'm at now, but I exited that company.
[00:02:59] Clifton Muckenfuss: In 2021, and when I was preparing to exit,~ uh,~ I took all of the strategies and the things that we were doing inside our company to grow it to a 60 to 62 percent repeat and referral business. And I said, look, I'm going to create a company that can now take those strategies. And offer it to other small businesses so that they can create raving fans, create those customers for life, create those brand ambassadors.
[00:03:27] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so in June of 21, I launched building raving fans. And along the way,~ uh,~ we'll talk about this too, I'm sure, but one of my core values is my first core value is give, give more than I receive. And in alignment with the core value to give, I was just giving away. value to business owners because I wanted people to win.
[00:03:51] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:03:52] Clifton Muckenfuss: I was actually giving stuff to my competition and people were like, dude, you're crazy. And here's what I found out pretty early on, is that most people don't take action on anything.
[00:04:04] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, literally.
[00:04:05] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so I was giving away stuff and I knew they weren't going to take action, but I started helping people just literally for free. And I had someone tell me that they could pay me. And immediately a light bulb kind of went off. I can get, yeah. Oh, wait a minute. This was before this was before the current day where everybody with a heartbeat is, is a business coach and a guru and a ninja and whatever. Right. But so I was just doing it for free, man.
[00:04:35] Clifton Muckenfuss: Because I wanted people to win. And so through that process, I got hooked up with Mike Claudio. I'm not sure if you know Mike. He founded a company, Winrate Consulting. I became a business coach on his team. And then shortly thereafter, got an opportunity to join the leadership team over there. ~Uh, ~and now I'm the director of coaching at Winrate Consulting.
[00:04:59] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so, ~uh, ~building raving fans is, is something I'm just passionate about. ~Uh, ~business coaching and consulting is really what I believe God put me on this planet.
[00:05:11] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love that. There is, there is a thing of a coach's heart,~ uh,~ probably pretty similar to the father's heart. ~Um, ~and we can kind of get into some of that, but there are, there are things that work inside of a business and someone can even be successful doing those things, but to the, have the ability to teach or to make them clear to others is skillset.
[00:05:34] Chaz Wolfe: And so, ~uh, ~Unfortunately in today's world of, you know, everybody's a guru and business coaches and you know, one guy thinks he does one little thing and he thinks he can, you know, help everybody else, which is true for that one little thing. But I love, I love what you've done,~ um,~ around just the. Holistic approach of going, look like there's a lot of things that can work here, but raving fans, this one particular thing is what I'm most excited about.
[00:05:57] Chaz Wolfe: Cause we can talk business on all the different elements for, for, for weeks, hours, I mean, years. And so, ~um, ~this, this concept of, of building raving fans, even some of the similar language that I've used over the years. And so I love what you're doing and I want to get into it deep. ~Um, ~before we do that, I want to know, like.
[00:06:17] Chaz Wolfe: You were building the construction company. What, what made you want to exit? Was that always the plan? ~Um, ~what were you building inside of it to exit? Was that, was that always the plan?
[00:06:27] Clifton Muckenfuss: I came home one day and my wife. We were building our starter home, our first home together. And I came home and I said, Hey, I'm going to go start this construction company. And she's like, you've never mentioned anything to me about construction. And I said, you're right. I don't know anything about it. She said, hmm, interesting.
[00:06:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: What are you going to do? I said, we're going to do siding, roofing, windows. And she goes, okay, interesting. I said, let's pray, let's pray about it. And she looked at me, Chaz, and this is, this is the statement I want your listeners to really pay attention to. Because if you've ever had this happen to you, you'll know exactly how I feel or I felt when this happened.
[00:07:04] Clifton Muckenfuss: She looked at me and she goes, I don't know, but I believe in you.
[00:07:07] Chaz Wolfe: Ooh.
[00:07:09] Clifton Muckenfuss: Actually gives me chills now, man,
[00:07:11] Chaz Wolfe: Hmm.
[00:07:12] Clifton Muckenfuss: because up until that point, my entire childhood through multiple arrests, I'd never given anybody a reason to really believe in me ever. In fact, I didn't even believe in myself. I mean, we're talking about multiple arrests, all kinds of things,~ uh,~ aggravated assault.
[00:07:33] Clifton Muckenfuss: Only through the grace and love and mercy of God that you and I are talking. I mean, I was facing prison time for aggravated assault. Sold massive amounts of drugs, consumed massive amounts. And,~ uh,~ but anyway, getting back to that moment when she said that, it was at that moment, I said, cool, I don't care what it takes.
[00:07:51] Clifton Muckenfuss: I'm not letting this lady down or that unborn baby inside.
[00:07:54] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. That's cool. There's, there is a special, you know, not only just a feeling of that moment, there's. Real power that got transferred from her to you. And it's actually pretty similar to what we get to do with this show. Right. I said, before we hit the record button that I want to transfer courage, you know, to the listener and that's what, in essence, what you've done, but it's what your wife did for you in that moment.
[00:08:16] Chaz Wolfe: I've had that feeling. And it's so interesting too, because. What we're really talking about is the mastermind principle. ~Um, ~this is Napoleon Hill at, at, at his best talking about two or more minds coming into harmony, working unto the definite chief aim and the achievement of that. And so what your wife did in that moment was to come into harmony and then breathe courage into you and.
[00:08:40] Chaz Wolfe: And I don't think there's anything actually more powerful than that. I have business partners. Obviously I run a mastermind group. I get extreme inspiration and courage from the other people that are doing amazing things, a part of gathering the Kings. But there is nobody that can breathe into me like Julie Wolf, Mrs.
[00:08:58] Chaz Wolfe: Wolf, those moments are powerful. what do you think was the catalyst for that? Like, is that just. How she is. She's just, she was just born amazing. Or had you built a little bit of trust with her? Like what was the pretense of that for her to be able to go, you know what?
[00:09:13] Chaz Wolfe: I don't care, but you is what I care about
[00:09:17] Clifton Muckenfuss: It's, it's interesting because, you know, we had been together for really a short period of time and, and, and the, in the season of my life, we were actually just reflecting on this just the other day,~ uh,~ because she mentioned sidebar. She mentioned that Morgan Walling got arrested for acting a fool. And I said, gosh, think about that.
[00:09:39] Clifton Muckenfuss: She goes, think about what you're doing.
[00:09:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:09:43] Clifton Muckenfuss: In your thirties, I don't want to think
[00:09:46] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:09:46] Clifton Muckenfuss: I didn't, ~ Um, uh, ~and in fact, what took us to Raleigh was I got arrested in, in, in Florida. And so that's what forced us out of, out of Florida is to kind of get away from some of that. I was like, look, I kind of reached this moment that. If I don't get out of here, something, something's bad is going to happen. But, you know, now we're going to be celebrating in July,~ uh,~ 17 years of marriage. And over those 17 years, to answer your question, I think she was born that way. I know that God had her picked out for me and he knew exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it, and he knew who was going to be the person.
[00:10:25] Clifton Muckenfuss: And that's her. She's completely opposite of me. Like there's, there's, there's not enough space in the world. I think for two of me,
[00:10:31] Chaz Wolfe: we, we probably both feel that way with entrepreneurs, you know,
[00:10:35] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so, so she,~ um,~ she's a very selfless, very humble, very giving, very just loving person, and I think that. I don't know if she could just see the pain that I was in or where I was at or what, but I believe it was just who she is.
[00:10:52] Chaz Wolfe: that's cool. And I think just for some encouragement to the listener, whether you're the husband or the wife listening, I think that we each have this power to be able to give You know, to the other spouse. And so whether it's, you know, we've got, you know, Queens that are running the business or Kings that are running the business, it doesn't really matter.
[00:11:09] Chaz Wolfe: But,~ um,~ even for me, like Julie's not necessarily in our businesses every single day, but that same affirmation of, I believe in you, or I'm thankful for you, or I see you, there's a lot of power in that on a regular basis, even with the things that she's doing. And so I just want to encourage the listener.
[00:11:24] Chaz Wolfe: This is, this is, this is real stuff. This is not fluff. This is not just like marriage. Woo. This is like, this stuff actually works.
[00:11:31] Clifton Muckenfuss: Absolutely, and a basic human need is to feel loved and appreciated.
[00:11:36] Chaz Wolfe: Yep.
[00:11:37] Clifton Muckenfuss: There's no better way to do that than to express gratitude. Which is why our company Building Raving Fans exists. So small business owners can express gratitude to satisfy the basic human need to feel loved and appreciated.
[00:11:55] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. I love the transition here. Let's use it. Like, let's talk about what is a raving fan. Let's talk, let's define that. So that way we can work backwards and talk about how you help entrepreneurs build these.
[00:12:05] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah, Chaz, I believe there's, there's internal and external raving fans, but let's first categorize what a raving fan is. A raving fan,~ uh,~ think, think about what fan is. Is short fanatic. So if you imagine running into you're from, I think you say Kansas
[00:12:25] Chaz Wolfe: Yep. That's right.
[00:12:26] Clifton Muckenfuss: So imagine running into Arrowhead
[00:12:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's right.
[00:12:29] Clifton Muckenfuss: what's going on, a
[00:12:30] Chaz Wolfe: A bunch of fanatics.
[00:12:32] Clifton Muckenfuss: bunch of fanatics, right?
[00:12:35] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so a raving fan is a person that is so obsessive about you, your people, your culture. Your product or service or your experience that they can't wait to share it with their friends, their family, their coworkers, their neighbors, or frankly, anybody that'll listen.
[00:12:57] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah,
[00:13:02] Clifton Muckenfuss: business owners create. And it's external meaning your clients, it's internal meaning your employees or your team members.
[00:13:10] Chaz Wolfe: that's right.
[00:13:10] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love how you've attached a gratitude to this end result of this fanatic who wants to talk to you or talk to others about you rather, or the experience, you know, there there's, there's some people that talk about the client journey or raving fans, but I really do feel like this is something that most business owners maybe have tickled their ear on, but they haven't really gone deep, you know, and really drawn out the client journey and really every single touch point and identifying what those things are and how do we move the needle with the client or.
[00:13:39] Chaz Wolfe: The employee in each one of those scenarios, talk about that. How is this, is this a,~ uh,~ a 30 day process or more of a,~ uh,~ lifelong scenario? Give us what the land looks like.
[00:13:50] Clifton Muckenfuss: I think as business changes, it's going to be evergreen. And you said a word that I use often, which is.
[00:13:58] Clifton Muckenfuss: Every single touch point. So what we will do is we will meet with a client and their department leaders, if they have teams, and we're going to identify every single touch point from inbound through fulfillment and before, during, and after, okay. What does it look like? What's currently happening in our business, but then we base it and bump it up against a decision is.
[00:14:27] Clifton Muckenfuss: What do our customers want? Then whatever the gap is, we assign it or we create an initiative to fill the gap. Then we assign it to a member on the team with a deadline and then we roll it out. So to answer your question is typically about a, I think about a 60 to 90 day full implementation.
[00:14:49] Chaz Wolfe: And the tactical there is first off, most likely most business owners that I talked to even rather successful ones. None of this is on paper and, and there's certain companies that I have that are still at what I would call an infancy stage where this is, this is mapped, but not in detail on paper.
[00:15:08] Chaz Wolfe: And so we're still in the process of building those things. I know how to do this. And so even for someone like myself, who knows how to do this, who has done this, who has helped other people with this. It's still a thing where it's like, it's, it's real work to put it down. And so I say that to say out loud that I appreciate the, the value that you bring to entrepreneurs, because there's a lot of things going on in the world of an entrepreneur and sitting down and mapping out their client journey, being detailed enough to create touch points and then identify a gap and then assign it to a team member that may or may not be the right person or may not be even on the team and maybe them.
[00:15:44] Chaz Wolfe: ~Um, ~What's the thing that most entrepreneurs are failing at when it comes to building raving fans before you get ahold of them? What's the number one thing that they're doing wrong?
[00:15:54] Clifton Muckenfuss: I believe that most entrepreneurs Chas are too focused on the next opportunity. I believe that entrepreneurs are so focused on how can I get people into the machine to then spit out a result. Receive compensation and now let's rinse and repeat that. And because that's what most businesses is all about. And so that's one of the biggest objections I get when I'm talking to business owners, because they're so used to meeting with a marketing agency who says, okay, well, based on your market, based on what you do, Based on the population, if you give me 5, 000 a month, we should be able to produce this number of leads.
[00:16:38] Clifton Muckenfuss: So you put something in and you pull something out. That's just the mindset that most business owners have. Whereas I say, let's focus on all of the key relationships. With the people that already know you already like you already trust you and then how can we stay top of mind with them? Because Chaz, I had an interesting experience in my own company.
[00:17:08] Clifton Muckenfuss: We had done some work for for a couple and we had done their roof and their deck and their siding and they gave us a referral of one of their neighbors. So I was gonna run the appointment.
[00:17:21] Clifton Muckenfuss: So I turned down Linfield Court and I look over at that home and something stood out to me, Chaz, and I'm like, something looks different about that house. And so I called them. Hey, I want to thank you for the referral. I'm going to meet with Lucy right down the street. Hey, by the way, did you get your windows replaced? And at that moment it was kind of this, ahem. Oh my gosh, Clifton, do you do windows? And it was at that moment, I said, I failed.
[00:17:47] Chaz Wolfe: Yep.
[00:17:48] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so I went and ran the appointment. We landed that deal. I went back to my office. I shared the story with my team and I said, here's what I just realized. No matter how good of a job we do, it's not our customer's job to remember us.
[00:18:04] Clifton Muckenfuss: It's our job to make sure they can't forget us. And so that's why we have to continually, we meaning business owners, continually stay top of mind. And so what I'm having to do is work on the mindset of the entrepreneur
[00:18:19] Chaz Wolfe: Right.
[00:18:20] Clifton Muckenfuss: and say, listen, if we can focus on the key relationships and they refer people to us like them, those referrals are going to buy at a higher rate, they're going to close at a higher rate with less objections.
[00:18:34] Clifton Muckenfuss: Our average client value is going to be higher. Oh, by the way, the whole process drives down your marketing costs.
[00:18:41] Chaz Wolfe: Yep.
[00:18:42] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so that gap is profit for the entrepreneur.
[00:18:45] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. There's a, there's a bunch of value here, even for the high volume businesses. I've got a client that. His list has got to be a hundred, 150, 000 contacts paid leads over the course of the last like four or five years. And it's just like, and, and a lot of the conversation is marketing's not working, marketing's not working.
[00:19:09] Chaz Wolfe: It's like, Bro, if I had your list, do you even realize, you know, and so there's, there's power obviously in being able to reach into the marketplace and pull in a brand new name, there's major power there, right? There's predictability there. You can build a machine. I don't think either one of us are saying, don't go do that.
[00:19:30] Chaz Wolfe: But why would you put all that effort into spending money on this Person, this lead that comes through and then, and even if you get a chance to service them, never talk to them again,
[00:19:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yes.
[00:19:44] Chaz Wolfe: because this is what happens.
[00:19:45] Clifton Muckenfuss: It happens every day. And I mean, I coach business owners all across the country and, and it happens. We're working on the mindset first. Here's what I believe is much easier and much more fun to sell something to a friend. Then it is trying to convince a complete stranger to buy something from you that they may not even know they need or want. And so, ~uh, ~that's what I try to impart, you know, on our Building Raving Fans clients is, Let's, let's go tell the people that have already come through your process. Let's go tell them and express gratitude to them. Like, I believe if you've got the power and the ability to make someone's day, you absolutely should.
[00:20:31] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love that.
[00:20:31] Clifton Muckenfuss: And that's, and that's a life principle, not only business.
Hey Kings and Queens, Chaz Wolf. I want to talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort, we meaning myself and my team into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things. On social media on all the different platforms or even on the podcast mediums of apple and spotify We would love to be able to get our content into more hands more entrepreneurs So they can grow their business as quick as possible together We are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights So let's do this.
Let's help each other grow
[00:21:21] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're seeing, and it's funny too, because you've just humanized the entire business process. You've just said, yes, it's a marketing tactic. Yes. It's a lead. Yes. It's a sales process. Yes. It's a deal. Yes. It's money in the bank. Yeah. But what more than that is that this is a, a human that has a need.
[00:21:39] Chaz Wolfe: They saw potentially a solution to their problem. They created a, they filled out their information on a form, they were vulnerable enough to say, Hey, I need help with something. They connected with another human. And then that human, the, the entrepreneur now has an opportunity to connect to another human start building a relationship based on trust.
[00:21:57] Chaz Wolfe: And how can I help solve this problem if I can even solve this problem? And once I do get a chance to solve the problem, then. What, what leads after that, like this relationship can go to a lot of different ways, whether that's them hiring you again or referring, there's obviously a soul spider web of things that can happen.
[00:22:15] Chaz Wolfe: What do you think the entrepreneur right now who let's say, okay, we've, we've addressed the worst, like the guy that right now is not doing any of this. Okay. You, we just addressed that. Thank you. What about the guy or gal who's listening? You're like, man, I feel like I do some of these things. Well, But I know I can get better.
[00:22:32] Chaz Wolfe: What's usually that part in their client journey that's broken or fallen apart where you can kind of just go, this is probably it right here.
[00:22:39] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah, I think it's, I think it's the post fulfillment follow
[00:22:44] Chaz Wolfe: Okay.
[00:22:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: right? , like we've come in, we filled out the form, we've gone through the process, we've committed. We've now had a transaction happen in construction. Maybe that's a roof replaced, windows replaced, whatever.
[00:22:56] Clifton Muckenfuss: ~Um, ~I just think that most people again, stop right there, but it's the greatest opportunity. Because at a heightened level of excitement for having a roof replaced, windows replaced, whatever it is done, that's the perfect time to get something else from them. Not in a, not in a bad way or a negative way, but you've just delivered, assuming you've delivered an exceptional client experience.
[00:23:27] Clifton Muckenfuss: But if we've delivered on our promise,
[00:23:29] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:23:30] Clifton Muckenfuss: I'm expecting you to do something for me. And that, and that expectation is not you just paying your invoice. Like I'm expecting you to give me a, a five star Google review. I'm expecting you to give me a video testimonial.
[00:23:42] Clifton Muckenfuss: I'm expecting you to introduce me to two or three people that might benefit from a conversation with me or a member of my team. But I think people are just scared.
[00:23:51] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And, and so I'm glad you said that because it is fear. Or it's an aloofness of like, woof, there we go, we're over. And then now I go back to the machine again, but inside of two of my businesses,~ um,~ I I've owned some edible arrangements franchises for over a decade and that client experience, obviously we're, we're Get to partner with them and sending them, sending someone else joy on their behalf.
[00:24:14] Chaz Wolfe: Right. So it's actually a really cool opportunity, but all throughout the years, you know, ~um, ~when I asked someone like, Hey,~ um,~ we like that person, this list right here, they just ordered last week. Let's give them a call, make sure everything went smooth. If there's anything else we can do to, to bless them or help them facilitate anything else.
[00:24:32] Chaz Wolfe: And the hesitation or the fear or the scarcity in that moment is, but what if something went wrong. Right now, same thing in construction, right? Same. We, we, we really try to take our experience to the next level. We, in fact, it's remodel with Kings because the experience is different. That's literally our tagline.
[00:24:49] Chaz Wolfe: Okay. And so, but inside of that, there's been some projects where it didn't go right. Sub didn't do something right, or this, that, or the other. And. And so that, that it creates like a fear or a little bit of a gun shyness to that person who even if we knocked it out of the park, it's like, yeah, but I'm now nervous to ask for that because what if something went wrong?
[00:25:13] Chaz Wolfe: Fill in the blanks for us.
[00:25:15] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah, absolutely. And I would say to that, great. I want to know about
[00:25:21] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Why wouldn't you want to know about it?
[00:25:22] Clifton Muckenfuss: Exactly. I want to know about it because if in fact that is the case, I want to make sure that we don't have a broken process or are we absent a process? Do we need to hold someone accountable? Think about this Chaz, when you go to a restaurant, this, I worked in this restaurant back in the like two thousands.
[00:25:39] Clifton Muckenfuss: And,~ uh,~ the owner of that little Italian chatteria. Awesome lady. She would make a point. Every single person that left that restaurant. How was your experience tonight? In the four letter word, I will never forget this. She said, there's a four letter word that if a patron says to you, it is alarming,
[00:26:02] Chaz Wolfe: Fine.
[00:26:03] Clifton Muckenfuss: fine.
[00:26:05] Chaz Wolfe: It was fine.
[00:26:07] Clifton Muckenfuss: It was fine. Fine is really bad. And it's the same thing that I equate it to, Chaz, when I'm doing speeches to groups of people and delivering from stage about wow client experiences, I usually say, who in here would be happy with a satisfied customer?
[00:26:25] Chaz Wolfe: Hmm.
[00:26:26] Clifton Muckenfuss: Some hands go up because of course people are like, Oh, satisfied.
[00:26:29] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah. Yeah. To which I reply, how about to those of you that raised your hands? If I said that a satisfied customer is actually a liability. Would you believe me? Because a satisfied customer is not a raving fan. A satisfied customer, Chaz, is not going to be a brand ambassador or an advocate for you. So someone who says, Oh, everything was fine.
[00:26:59] Clifton Muckenfuss: And I've actually even called homeowners out about this. And I tell them the story of the Italian restaurant. You know, I learned a long time ago that when someone says something is fine, they're not actually being truthful. So please share with me exactly what's on your heart, because if it's something that I can control and I can,~ uh,~ help you solve,
[00:27:21] Chaz Wolfe: Right.
[00:27:22] Clifton Muckenfuss: I'm going to do that.
[00:27:24] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. That's cool.
[00:27:25] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so I want to know the information.
[00:27:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, in that moment, really the power is in not just the knowing, but then what you said that the, be able to take the next steps, not only for that client, but then to be able to go back into the business and reassess and realign so that it doesn't happen again. ~Um, ~we just even had a scenario just, we're in the middle of it currently,~ um,~ a mistake that our team didn't make, but one of our subcontractors made and it has eroded trust with the homeowners, not necessarily with us, but.
[00:27:53] Chaz Wolfe: We're the GC. And so, yes, it's us. And I had to have a really honest conversation with this homeowner. And I, I gave him space. I was like, no, no, no. I, I know there's other things that you want to say. I need to hear them. Right. And through that, it was like, okay, great. So here's, here's the moves that we can make.
[00:28:10] Chaz Wolfe: And here's the kind of the process that we have to follow. And, and, and I told him even then, I was like, you know, Even in this moment now, my a hundred percent goal is at the end of this. Not only do you have a beautiful project and you're elated with it, but that you say to me, you know what, Chaz, I don't know how you did it, but in that moment, I was super frustrated, but yet here we are.
[00:28:32] Chaz Wolfe: I'm a, I'm satisfied. I'm about to leave you a five star review and. I don't know how you did it, but well done. And he kind of smirked at that, going like, I don't know if you're going to get that. I go, well, I understand. And in this moment, I haven't
[00:28:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: Give me the opportunity. Yes.
[00:28:46] Chaz Wolfe: I haven't earned it yet. I said, but you know where I'm going with this.
[00:28:50] Chaz Wolfe: So. Just know that I'm coming full forces to be able to, to be able to earn that. It, everything that's within my control, obviously, what do you think is the kickback, the pushback when you're talking to an entrepreneur that's maybe not in this like mind, what, what typically do you hear? Like, Oh, I don't need to do that.
[00:29:07] Chaz Wolfe: Or like, what's the, what's the pushback that you get from some entrepreneurs?
[00:29:12] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah. I think the biggest pushback is. It's new, newer, right? Because not a lot of people are very vocal about relationship and referral marketing. Here's why. Because not a lot of people have figured it out.
[00:29:29] Chaz Wolfe: It's relationships.
[00:29:30] Clifton Muckenfuss: any and everybody can go start a digital marketing
[00:29:33] Chaz Wolfe: That's right.
[00:29:35] Clifton Muckenfuss: And listen, to the listeners here, and to you Chas, I'm in no way, Throwing stones at marketing agencies.
[00:29:43] Clifton Muckenfuss: I've got dear friends that own some of them ~Uh, ~but what i'm simply there's in all industries Not everybody is in full integrity,
[00:29:53] Chaz Wolfe: that's right.
[00:29:54] Clifton Muckenfuss: and it seems like in the, in the digital marketing space. I mean, I work with contractors every day.
[00:30:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yep.
[00:30:01] Clifton Muckenfuss: If I work with 20 of them, 19 of them have had a bad experience. And so I think that that's, that's part of it.
[00:30:10] Clifton Muckenfuss: The kickback is, I mean, yeah, I care about relationships, but like, what, what, like, what is that?
[00:30:16] Clifton Muckenfuss: It's through the education. So, really when, when I, when I book discovery strategy calls with people, I ask them the questions about their client experience.~ Uh, ~and so I want to know what they're currently doing, and I offer them advice for free.
[00:30:32] Clifton Muckenfuss: Hey man, you could probably do this, you could add this here, you could add this automation, you could add this. Try it. If it works, report back, but here's how we can help you bridge some of those gaps. And here's what relationship marketing can do for your business. Again, before I actually invested in it, guess what?
[00:30:51] Clifton Muckenfuss: I was just like them. And so when I say, Hey, I can, I, when I can look at a business owner and say, I've walked in your shoes, that's, that's a true story
[00:31:00] Chaz Wolfe: Right.
[00:31:01] Clifton Muckenfuss: because I had never heard of it. But then something pretty cool happened. I mean, we launched an internal nutty, the referral squirrel program where we were sending out stuffed animals of squirrels with, you know, ~uh, ~bandanas on them with our logo and gift cards and all of that.
[00:31:18] Clifton Muckenfuss: But here's what happened. We didn't see results immediately, but then our referral rate continued to climb, continued to climb. And again, for the last four to five years, I was there 60 to 62 percent repeat referral. Google reviews went from three in the first like five or six years in business. To over 100 and so it was pretty easy to determine the return on investment.
[00:31:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: And we spent less than 1 percent of top line on true direct response.
[00:31:48] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. That's cool. What do you think,~ um,~ you know, an entrepreneur would say again, knowing that 19 of the 20 have had a bad experience with a social media or digital marketing agency, what Is that, do you think that that client experience kind of maybe reflects some of the brokenness that we're talking about here, the, the transactional kind of spit in, spit out.
[00:32:09] Chaz Wolfe: And it's funny too, because as entrepreneurs, we think that that transaction is just going to help us. Right. But, and so we're drawn to the very thing that you're saying that most of us have had a bad experience with. Isn't that crazy?
[00:32:20] Clifton Muckenfuss: It, it, it absolutely is. And, and, and so I think that ~Uh, ~what happens in the, in the digital marketing space is any and everybody can do it. It's almost like business coaching.
[00:32:33] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:32:35] Clifton Muckenfuss: I mean, truthfully, but you're, you're starting to see, you're starting to see that industry,
[00:32:40] Chaz Wolfe: Oh yeah.
[00:32:40] Clifton Muckenfuss: you know, kind of, kind of fizzle out a
[00:32:43] Chaz Wolfe: always rises.
[00:32:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: Cream always rises. You're exactly right. But yeah, in that space, I think that it's, you know, over promised, they under deliver. ~Uh, ~but it's almost like. I hate to say this, like the insurance industry. And I, and I bring that up because I just had a conversation with a client yesterday, most insurance agents, they sell, they over deliver up front, they get a,~ uh,~ you know, a group of policies. Can you hear from them during renewal season? Hey, your renewals coming and you don't hear them. You don't hear from them throughout the entire process. I mean, I got insurance on a catamaran. I used to live on a catamaran and I got insurance on a, on a boat. So that's a, You know, 600, 000 boat. The agent up front was phenomenal. Anything that I needed after I paid for that policy up front, which was like 12 grand almost, it's like pulling teeth. And so again, I believe that too many people are just focused on transactional selling versus relationship based selling. And I've always sold. Based on relationships. And in fact, I can't solve your problem and I don't actually believe that I would enjoy working with you, I'm going to walk away from the deal to begin with. And I've walked away from nice projects where there wasn't value alignment.
[00:33:59] Chaz Wolfe: Totally. There's, there's a superpower in that. And someone might be listening and going, well, I just need the, I just need the next deal to survive. And, and I understand that, but there is power,~ um,~ in being able to say, no, this is a, this is not an alignment and I've turned down, Projects this year, I've turned down,~ uh,~ large, you know, ~uh, ~clients who want to be part of our group.
[00:34:19] Chaz Wolfe: It's just like, no, this is not a value alignment. ~Um, ~I have to protect what I've already built. ~Um, ~Which is part of those relationships you're talking about. Let's define, I mean, you, you've used relationship marketing. We've talked, you know, client journey. You've talked to fun stuff, like sending them, you know, cool things or, or staying top of mind.
[00:34:36] Chaz Wolfe: What does it mean to build a relationship with a client? Because someone might be hearing relationship going like, do I need to like, like sit down with them and like sing Kumbaya? What, what is this?
[00:34:50] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah. A relationship is, is really,~ uh,~ the existence of feelings between one or more people. And, and I'm not suggesting that you have to be best friends with these people. But it goes back to, like, our, our tagline is merging technology with, to enhance human connection, and it's about the way people deserve to be treated and how they deserve to feel.
[00:35:18] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so establishing that relationship is simply checking in with them. Like, my dad taught me something. God rest his soul. He passed away last year from brain cancer. But, you know, he told me something, Chaz, I'll never forget. He says, you know what, Sam, when somebody comes To mind when you think about someone, God placed them there for a reason and you must reach out to tell them.
[00:35:45] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Don't
[00:35:46] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so, man, don't delay. And so I, every single day, man, I send unexpected text messages and videos to people. They're never expecting it, but they come to my mind at various points. I let them know. of woman who is I appreciate them. So business is the same way. You've got to establish those relationships of just, Hey, I appreciate you. And guess what? It doesn't only matter for the people that did a six figure project with you, the person that worked their tail off to save two grand, to do a repair, they deserve the same level of gratitude. And that's what we talk about. Cheers. Being nice to people and being grateful
[00:36:33] Clifton Muckenfuss: I want to share something also you mentioned about walking away from the project about the value alignment.
[00:36:39] Clifton Muckenfuss: You know, I believe,~ uh,~ Chaz, that God has success intended for every single one of us. Peace is in every one of us and he has success design and intended for every single one. But we continue to chase after things. And people that he's trying to take away from us that project that we should have walked away from or that relationship that we should have walked away from, but we keep chasing after them and we keep getting met with resistance.
[00:37:11] Clifton Muckenfuss: And so if you take on a project or if you do something that doesn't feel right, that doesn't, you know, match the values, It's not going to go well. It is what I believe the probability of something going bad far exceeds the upside of it going well. And that's another thing I talk to entrepreneurs about Chaz is like, Hey, I know you, I got a client right now.
[00:37:37] Clifton Muckenfuss: He's in one of our group programs. He's like, man, if I don't, if I don't sell a job, I'm, I'm going to be out of business in a week. Hey man, keep doing the critical actions that you need to do every single day and trust the process. And guess what? He sold a 45, 000 job and he just sold another job. And so you just, you, you gotta stay in alignment with your values because if not, you're living out of integrity.
[00:38:04] Clifton Muckenfuss: And I do not believe that people are going to be rewarded,~ uh,~ if they continue to live out of integrity.
[00:38:09] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. It's interesting. ~Um, ~you know, when we chase, we don't know that we're chasing necessarily, but if you're, if you're, if you're. Values are not defined or really just you as an individual, whether it's company values or personal values. If there's nothing to compare what I'm in alignment with, then I'm okay with everything.
[00:38:29] Chaz Wolfe: I just accept whatever comes to me. And it's, it's interesting the way that you describe that, because it's not like, you know, things that aren't supposed to be mine go somewhere else. Sometimes they get put right in front of me. Cause it's like, what are you going to do? And if I take that project in this example.
[00:38:48] Chaz Wolfe: The one that I was supposed to have, I now don't have the capacity or I don't have the bandwidth or whatever. ~Um, ~I'm in chaos because I chose the wrong thing. And so inside of that is decision making and being able to make good decisions comes from, well, where am I headed? And I know you're big on core values.
[00:39:06] Chaz Wolfe: We haven't had time to get into that, but you've mentioned values really. Identifying where am I going? Like if I'm making this decision, am I doing this? Yes or no? Whatever this is project saying yes to this employee, like whatever decision I'm making, it's gotta be butted up against what do I want? And if that's clear, then it's like, well, this doesn't, does this help me get there?
[00:39:26] Chaz Wolfe: If it does, it doesn't, right? The, the, the client that says,~ um,~ yeah, well, everything's going to be great. But,~ uh,~ but at the second you, the second you,~ uh,~ mess up my, my husband's,~ uh,~ the attorney general, it's like, I don't know if we're a good fit, you know, not to say that we're going to mess up on purpose, but this doesn't sound like you want us to do a good job.
[00:39:44] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah. And it sounds like, it sounds like that's something you've used before.
[00:39:48] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. It's like, wait a second. So, ~um, ~that's a pretty obvious one, but, but my, what I'm saying is that even in the nuances of those moments, if you're clear, then it's like, oh no, this is an easy, no. Oh no, it doesn't matter how big the project is or how much money or how much whatever flash is. This is an easy no, because I already know that by saying yes, that means I'm going to have to say no to the actual thing that I want, right?
[00:40:10] Clifton Muckenfuss: Exactly. And you know, here's, here's something that,~ uh,~ when I'm, when I'm basing or when I'm making decisions. When it's, you know, business, life,~ uh,~ maybe financial, those types of decisions, I really kind of, I use three, three things to, to, to measure them by, right? First is values. Do they align with my core values?
[00:40:32] Clifton Muckenfuss: If not, I can't do it because of what I just talked about. Number two is legacy. If I make this decision, will my children and my wife be proud of me for making the decision? And then mission.
[00:40:51] Clifton Muckenfuss: Does it help me advance the mission? So values, legacy, mission. That's how I make my decisions in life. In business, financial, transportation, travel, all of it.
[00:41:04] Chaz Wolfe: I love it
[00:41:05] Clifton Muckenfuss: it's worked really well for me. ~Um, ~over the last five years, it hasn't always been perfect, man. I mentioned that earlier,
[00:41:12] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, there's
[00:41:13] Clifton Muckenfuss: my overnight success took 17 years.
[00:41:15] Clifton Muckenfuss: Let's put that
[00:41:15] Chaz Wolfe: yeah, and it's in the making for that, right? ~Um, ~the overnight success, 17 years in the making. ~Um, ~I want to, I want to ask you one last question here. ~Um, ~as we kind of end up, it's so interesting because you have Just this road of experience, the, almost the, the negative appearance of this troubled person and then, you know, successful business, obviously a marriage that has been fruitful, but now being able to see the results of using all of that good, bad, and different in other businesses.
[00:41:41] Chaz Wolfe: If you could roll back the clock and you talk to the younger Clifton, what would you whisper in that guy's ear?
[00:41:46] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah. Don't listen to what other people tell you that you can't do because for so long. I was always worried about the opinions of other people, even my family, what I've realized is that. The more people that tell you you're crazy and that you can't and that they won't means you're on to something. But for so long, I didn't know that. I didn't appreciate that.
[00:42:13] Clifton Muckenfuss: So if I could go back, I would tell the 18 year old, the 16 year old, the 13 year old, Hey, don't listen to what other people say.
[00:42:24] Chaz Wolfe: it's amazing. ~Um, ~Powerful words. ~Um, ~you're a powerful person though. We're going to put,~ um,~ all of your contact in the show notes, but give us just real quick, someone listening right now, where can they go to find you or interact with you on social? Get more Clifton.
[00:42:37] Clifton Muckenfuss: Yeah, absolutely. So on Facebook at Clifton Muckin Foss on Instagram, your small biz coach,~ uh,~ also on LinkedIn at Clifton Muckin Foss. And then of course you can check, check out building raving fans.com, clifton muckin fs.com. And I'll also leave your, your, your listeners with this one thing. So going on about three years now,~ uh,~ I've been sending out daily motivational, inspirational, encouraging text messages and emails.
[00:43:04] Clifton Muckenfuss: ~Uh, ~every Monday through Friday from eight, about eight o'clock in the morning. I've done it religiously for almost three years. So, you know, I'm not trying to put you in a funnel, not trying to sell you anything. I'm trying to help you in your day. And so if you were to go visit a daily dose of motivation.
[00:43:23] Clifton Muckenfuss: com, we're on a mission to impact and inspire millions.
[00:43:27] Chaz Wolfe: Perfect. We'll put that in the show notes as well. Easy to drop in there from the listener's perspective, Clifton, you've done amazing things. You've helped a lot of people. You even on this show, drop some amazing wisdom for us to be able to take away. If the listeners are interested in upping their game, building raving fans, or being just a better business owner, they know how to reach you.
[00:43:46] Chaz Wolfe: Thank you for being here, brother. Blessings to you, your family, all the hands that you're touching and all the businesses. Thank you so much.
[00:43:51] Clifton Muckenfuss: Thank you, Chaz. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 200 or Other very successful seven, eight, and nine figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 Kings specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling Kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas. That it ignites within us, the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and resonates with you, and you know, that you need people around you, sharp, qualified, other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings. com. Once you take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 Kings talk soon.

Clifton Muckenfuss discussing the importance of client retention and the concept of raving fans. He shares his journey to founding Building Raving Fans and the significance of coaching. Chaz & Discuss the the mastermind principle, the role of relationships in success, and common mistakes in building raving fans. The episode also explores the drawbacks of digital marketing and transactional selling, and the value of aligning business decisions with personal values.

Clifton Muckenfuss:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliftonmuckenfuss/

Website: https://your-small-business-coach.com/

Website: https://buildingravingfans.com/

Wecbsite: https://adailydoseofmotivation.com/

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

10% off Code: GATHERINGKINGS10