About This EpisOde

Today on Delight Your Soulmate Clients, we break down exactly how this company took me from stranger, to super excited, to totally turned off and questioning their integrity in under 30 minutes, and how they can (and should) fix it *today*

→ if you’ve been around me for a little while you probably know how much I care about the impact I will have on the world, it’s one of the reasons I am committed to highlighting businesses the are owned by women, owned by black, indigenous, and people of color, and businesses that serve a cause.
→ and it’s also come into my life much more deeply in terms of the world I am helping create for my daughter (who is turning 3 next week as I record this) and for her entire generation
→ It’s also why I focus in my business on serving coaches who have this same view of how they impact the world

→ given all of that, when I heard about this company called TerraCycle, (their tagline is: eliminating the idea of waste, and they take hard-to-recycle materials)

History: back in the day, companies were actually responsible for the recycling of the material consumed by the customers and clients

Right now, today, I know that like 91% of what we put into the recycle bin isn’t actually recycled (and there are a lot of factors that go into that like residents putting in the “wrong” materials, contaminated materials, etc.)

So I was so excited to learn about this company and get the opportunity to use them

BUT, let me tell you how turned off I was after 30 minutes on their website & getting ready to use their services.

So here’s what happened…

→ Aerosol can of hairspray (see episode 11 to hear all about that experience)

→ the company partnered with TerraCycle to allow me to recycle this aerosol can properly for free

→ I went on their website, and they actually very seamlessly lead me to all of the other things I can recycle via terracycle (especially the e waste I am very excited about- because my parents have some older laptops which don’t work anymore and old cell phones like the flip phone kind, and they missed the last e-waste recycling event when you have to go physically so they were excited to hear they could mail it, so if and when that happens, I will let you know and do an entire episode on it)

→ which brings me back to this story…. here’s the catch, ok, I went through and they were great at peaking my curiosity, however

→ All I had was one aerosol can…. So here’s the catch, I would be shipping a box (all of that carbon emission) to recycle one can…. And that made me kind of sit back and think

→ it wasn’t like I could add any aerosol cans (had to be this brand) and on other pages they actually talk about carbon emissions, and building up a stockpile before shipping, asking friends, etc.

→ then I went to my trusty friend Google

→ from the state gov website about recycling, found a site called earth911 that was sooooo detailed, literally told me what they accept curb-site (empty aerosol cans being one of them)

→ so now my options are:
1. TerraCycle – find a box, print out shipping label (super easy to get emailed to me), attach warning label to box, take to ups to have shipped for free
2. Make sure it’s empty, put in curbside recycling

→ I am still torn, and here’s how TerraCycle (who’s trying to make the world better at this) could have done better to relieve this pressure and just really cater to their ideal market

Terra Cycle, I know you can do such better work than this.

Here are your takeaways Terra Cycle:

All you have to do is this…

→ Make it clear from the start that all shipments should be “bulk” or at least multiples (like with aerosols there is a limit for safety, but I don’t think one total really helps in the grand scheme of things)

→ If the brand is focused on bettering the earth, needs to be crystal clear about the off-sets (like when to ship, this aerosol can going to recycling vs. landfill vs. Terra cycle) Tell me about the carbon emissions (and more) in all of those scenarios (a simple video with animations would be great)

→ help me know which is the best decision to make, and resources (like earth 911 if I should just put it curb-side instead of shipping in off and the impact of that)

Here’s what’s missing from the Client Delight™ Framework.

→ what I expected and what was promised (decision still not clear)
→ the excitement
→ guidelines

Once they have all 8 pieces in place, they’ll be good to go.

This is what I do with my clients, if you want to check it out go to ClientDelightFramework.com

Your Takeaways:

Here’s what you can implement into your business right now:

→ The last thing you ever want a client or even potential client to do, is to question your integrity

→ the example of my experience with this company, as much as I love & support what their intention is, in the back of my mind, I can’t get past this confusion & why they aren’t being the resource I expected them to be. And it’s really making part of me question if they are 100% committed to the goal they say they stand for.

→ not only am I confused and questioning, but it’s making me wonder how many people they have using this service who are sending shipments in that its actually creating more of a toll on the greater scheme of things, than a benefit

→ good news: they could easily fix it!

→ bad news: they haven’t and they honestly might not even realize they are doing it (because with so many businesses – it’s their baby and they aren’t seeing the holes in their client journey because they built it)

→ and the same thing stands for you, because here’s the thing, here’s your takeaway, how clients see you do one thing, is how they think you’ll do everything.

If you’re ready for an outside perspective, an expert set of eyes on what your clients are experiencing everyday, to pin-point the holes that you can’t see because let’s face it, you built it, then let’s hop on a call.

Book a call here to see if working with Kai is your right next step.

 Are you ready to up your retention + referral game?

Download your free checklist to get started right away at clientdelightframework.com