The Art of Exceptional Client Experiences with Entrepreneur Rebecca Simpson

Step into the world of a maven entrepreneur with our amazing guest Rebecca Simpson, and uncover how to weave the fabric of a successful business that leaves customers yearning for more. Prepare to be inspired as Rebecca walks us through her transition from retail to playing a pivotal role in her family's plumbing and heating company, and her latest venture, The Barn at Wind's Edge. Together, we'll explore the essence of a flourishing corporate culture and how a profound commitment to guest experiences can build unbreakable community ties.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make every customer feel like the guest of honor? In our conversation, we unlock the strategies that empower your team to exceed service expectations, highlighting the importance of a value-driven hiring process and the cultivation of a 'happy team.' From personalized gestures to comprehensive training, we dissect the art of creating memorable client interactions, and I'll share my philosophy on nurturing a team whose actions are a reflection of our core mission.

Dealing with the thorns of business, such as customer dissatisfaction, can be as telling as the successes. We discuss the 'take the heat' method, emphasizing the need for empathy in service recovery and the incredible power of a sincere apology.  The theme of understanding diverse perspectives emerges as a cornerstone for true financial success, a reminder that the heart of business success lies in treating people with genuine care. 

Mackenzie Kilshaw Co. offers comprehensive business coaching, and consulting tailored to your needs.  

With Mackenzie's award winning entrepreneurial expertise in strategy, leadership, business development, branding, website development, social media management, SEO, sales and customer service training and more, clients receive personalized guidance to drive growth and success. 

Let's make your business unforgettable!

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Chapters

• 1:19 Building an Entrepreneurial Business
• 12:27 Creating Exceptional Guest Experiences
• 20:51 Customer Service Training and Problem Solving
• 30:53 Handling Negative Customer Experiences
• 45:06 Business Success and Understanding Others

Transcript

Shauna Foster: 1:19

Winning is your guide to making it in business. Join our award-winning host and entrepreneur, Mackenzie Kilshaw, and special guests in casual conversations that will educate and inspire you on your business journey. Winning will help you learn the hard lessons the easy way, with guidance from celebrated entrepreneurs and business leaders. It's fun, it's informative, it's Winning Hello.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 1:45

Hello, welcome to Winning. I'm your host, Mackenzie Kilshaw, and my guest today is Rebecca Simpson. Hi, Rebecca, hello, hi, how are you?

Rebecca Simpson: 1:54

I'm really well, how are you?

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 1:56

Well, I'm good, except for I'm going to just confess I have a cough candy in my mouth because it's that time of year to get a cough. So I apologize if I have marbles in my mouth to everyone listening, Do you, Rebecca oh?

Rebecca Simpson: 2:08

Oh good, I have my water right here, because, you never know, it is that time of year and I might have a spontaneous coughing fit or something like that. So we're exactly.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 2:17

It is what it is right. So Rebecca started her entrepreneurial journey with the opening of her first business, Craving's Maternity and Baby, in 2006. And the initial success led to the expansion they had Craving Kids come on in 2011. In 2013, Rebecca actually joined her family business, which I we're going to maybe touch on that because I feel like me and my family working together probably wouldn't be so great, but so she went to her family's business i Plumbing, Heating and Electrical where she focused on corporate culture, employee engagement, customer service. It all led to their success, but we always talked before.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 3:04

Rebecca and I talked about if you're an entrepreneur, you're an entrepreneur. And so, in 2018, Rebecca took on her most exciting venture. She had dreamed up the barn at Wind's Edge, which is an upscale v event venue with delicious food, a really cool prairie aesthetic and every detail to make sure that her clients have the most unforgettable events, which I know because I've been there. It is a beautiful space and there was nothing like it in Saskatoon. So thank you for starting a new business that we can all enjoy, thank you. So, Rebecca, I gave a little bio of you, but why don't you just tell the audience who you are a little bit more about your entrepreneurial journey.

Rebecca Simpson: 3:52

Sure, so, as Mackenzie said, I'm Rebecca, I am currently the owner and I run the Barn at Wind's Edge here, just outside of Saskatoon. I'm a mom, two boys and one is 20, which is unbelievable. I 16. I know, I don't know how that's even possible and I was born and raised in Saskatoon. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Actually, I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My dad bought into Centennial Plumbing and Heating when I was in high school and he had his own accounting practice before that and then my grandparents had a wholesale company. So it is in my blood.

Rebecca Simpson: 4:43

I was in denial about being an entrepreneur because I saw what the life looked like. I hardly saw my dad at all growing up. He left before I woke up in the morning and then he would usually come home for dinner for I don't know an hour and then he'd go back to work and I thought that was kind of crazy. But I got roped in. So my former business partner, Jordana Jacobson. She had the idea to start a maternity and baby store and we knew each other but we weren't super close friends but we were at an event and she said do you want to start this business? And I was like I'll work for you but I don't want to own my own business. And then I thought about it for a day and kind of got on the one whole day.

Rebecca Simpson: 5:32

Yeah, so that's how that started. I think it obviously is in your blood. It is something that you either have or don't have, and when you are an entrepreneur, it is actually a lot more work, but you're always doing the things that I don't see. I shouldn't say that You're not always doing the things that you want, but you're always working towards the things that you want, and it is. I can't imagine working for somebody else now. I don't think I could, so yeah.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 6:06

Hey, I feel you, because we talked before, too, about if you have that entrepreneurial bug gene whatever you want to call it in you. It's really hard to stop it because you're always thinking I can make that a business, somebody should start this. My husband always says- I'm like somebody should make that into their business. He's like not you, because I'm always like you just always have that part of your brain that's like we need that. You see, something that's lacking. I mean, when you started the barn, like you saw, we don't have an event space like this. Somebody should start this. And it's going to be me, right, yeah, yeah, how did you? Yeah, like, how did you do that?

Rebecca Simpson: 6:50

I always wanted to have a party barn, but I mostly wanted it just for my own use. That was kind of how it started. My husband and I own some property just outside of town and I was always like you know what, when we, when things kind of settle down, we'll just build a little barn and have a little barn dominium on top of it and it will be like it's true and it's outside of town. So when our kids were little we were like, oh, it'd be perfect. You know you can't go away for the whole weekend to the lake, but it feels like it's outside city. So everything.

Rebecca Simpson: 7:23

I thought I would have this party barn and I would just host my own parties in the bottom part and kind of have a little apartment over top. And then it was like, well, you know what? There's not a lot of places other than hotels or the kind of traditional convention centers to host parties and have weddings and do different types of events. So a friend of mine she lives just right next door to where the barn is and I said to her you know, you really need to open a party barn. She works for the federal government and she was like, yeah, no, like I am not an entrepreneur, just yeah, I have no interest in that, but I love the idea. I think you should do it, and this is kind of the story of my life where?

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 8:17

What did I say? Somebody should do this and you did it.

Rebecca Simpson: 8:22

So my business partner and I eventually like, after we kind of talked about it, it's like no, really we need this. So we had to jump through a lot of hoops to work with the RM of Corman Park to get this re-zoned, and so we built a 12000 square foot party barn. You know, it grew a lot, kind of went from being this we would bring in an old barn and maybe spruce it up a little and have some parties there. And now it's like yeah, it's a big, substantial building that we designed specifically for mostly weddings, but we do other events. And that was five years, and so I guess the planning started, oh gosh, like six years ago now and we've six or six and a half years ago and we've been open for five years. But we had a little bit of a pandemic in the middle. So that put a kind of Imagine yeah, but we're back in business and we're busy and things are getting back on track, so it's good.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 9:29

Yeah, and one thing, too, that I love that you've done is I think most people think of it as a wedding venue, but you guys host your own events out there, where I know you've done different dinners and things and you have a lot of corporate events, so you've done a really great job of streamlining your revenue, like you're not just a wedding venue, you're a first venue for anything.

Rebecca Simpson: 9:54

Yeah, weddings are kind of our bread and butter, but it definitely has. Even though we are open all year, most people want to get married. Kind of May to even November now, actually everything's kind of moved, and then we do get some December weddings. So the first like four or five months of the year are pretty slow here. So we've started doing our own events, as you mentioned, and we do a lot of corporate events during the week, even during wedding season. So even though we designed the space specifically for weddings, we've took care of all the details for that. It is a nice space for other events too, so it's nice to do other things and meet other people, and then those people sometimes develop into either corporate clients or wedding clients. So it's good that way.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 10:45

Yeah for sure. Yeah, building that community is huge. One thing we didn't touch on, which I don't have even in my notes, but I want to talk about it, is community. You are really, really a strong supporter of the community in Saskatoon. Your whole family I don't want to just say you, but your whole family Silver Spoon Dinner in Saskatoon, which I've been doing many times and is always such a great event and a fundraiser. So do you want to talk a little bit about community? And even, how has that helped you now in your business?

Rebecca Simpson: 11:16

For sure I think, similar to my entrepreneurial roots. I come from a long line of Saskatoon community supporters. I don't talk about this much, but my grandpa was actually the mayor of Saskatoon before I was born.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 11:33

I didn't even know that, like just before I was born too.

Rebecca Simpson: 11:36

So A while ago. So I think that that's how like I just was born into that that it is your requirement to give back to your community, and so my parents are huge supporters both of our Jewish community and just the broader Saskatoon community and so, similar to growing up in family business the Silver Spoon Dinner and the Silver Plate Dinner we're kind of also our family's businesses. That was always fundraising for things. So, yeah, I just think it's super important. I've been given a lot of opportunities growing up in this community and a lot of support growing up in this community, so I do feel it is my responsibility to give back. While we're on the Silver Spoon Dinner topic, we do have an amazing event coming up in May the first Monday in May I think it's the sixth this year, but it is Candice Bushnell who is the creator of Sex and the City. So it's supposed to be an amazing one woman show and I'm just giving a little shout out to that because my mother would be very angry if I did it.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 12:54

So I would talk about it, so I need to share, Rebecca, your mom, Linda, is one of my favorite people. Speaking of community, but when I had my stores, your mom would always she oftentimes stopped into my store to ask K, want to do a donation or something? And I was like, of course I do. It's a great cause and at the end of the day, the donation usually helped me too right in my business to get people to know who I was and whatnot. But I always love to support it. And one of my favorite things was the handwritten note that your mom would send me after the event and we're going to talk a lot about guests and client experience in a little bit. But your mom sending me that note always just touched my heart because I knew that she genuinely appreciated me donating to the event or coming to the event, whatever it was, and that just fostered that relationship with her and I where I always would do whatever I could do to help her cause. And that's what it's about, right, like it's that building of a community.

Rebecca Simpson: 14:04

I learned from the best for sure. My mom has put her personal touch on the Silver Spoon Dinner for over 30 years and I think that that is almost like a lost art, the personalized handwritten note that she does send to every single donor. It is unbelievable like she writes hundreds, if not a thousand, letters every year and a message yeah like it wasn't just like thanks for your donation.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 14:33

It was Dear Mackenzie, yeah.

Rebecca Simpson: 14:36

So I definitely have taken, like I learned a lot about customer experience from my mom and Silver Spoon Dinner, even though it's not a business per se. We've been raising money as a charity, but you do want your guests to have an amazing experience at either a charity dinner or with your business, so I definitely learned from the best with her. And yes, I just. Everybody is just blown away by that, especially nowadays where you can use, I don't know, an app or something. You can use AI to do something. But this is all coming from her heart and it is as you said.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 15:16

It's it makes a big difference and it's evident that she actually cares, so 100% which I think is really a great way for us to lead into our topic today, which is client or guest experience. And it doesn't matter what your business is, right, it doesn't matter if you're seeing someone in person, if you have an online business, if you have a restaurant or a hair salon or, in your case, an event space, it doesn't matter. It all boils down to your guest or your client having the best experience that they can possibly have, sure, and so let's start with, first of all, why is this important?

Rebecca Simpson: 16:00

Well, as you mentioned, I mean any kind of encounter that you have, whether it's in person, online. You want that to be an experience there. You I've heard this before where you could say they say, like you can have an expense or you can have an experience. When people are spending money on something, you want them to have the good memories and a once in a lifetime opportunity, rather than just thinking like, oh, I spent this much money on something. So I think that that it's just any interaction you have with people. You want it to be a positive experience and and that's what I've, even though I've worked in a number of different industries I think that this is universal that you want people to leave whatever business you have with a great experience under their belt, and then, hopefully, they'll pass it on to other people and that they'll want to come back. So I think that that's a key for any business.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 17:08

I totally agree and it's how they feel right when they come in and they feel welcomed and appreciated. It's your mom sends the note, because that's your mom, but also you. I got, I get a personalized handwritten note from your mom afterwards. That makes me feel so great and the next time she asks me, I'm like yes, because I, I want to do it, because right, and I tell my friends you guys need to go to the Silver Spoon Dinner. You guys, we went out for this restaurant meal. It was fantastic, our waiter was so awesome. You guys got to go there right, like that's what it does for your business.

Rebecca Simpson: 17:44

It does and and it's just we do it as our jobs. You know, when you do something over and over and over and it becomes kind of just your responsibility, almost you forget that, especially in our industry, where it's weddings or other events. But just talking about weddings, for example, like this is one of the most important days of somebody's life and so you want that you have one chance to have that be the most amazing experience that they possibly can have and you want that to be the memory they have. So I think that that's just key is not getting kind of bogged down in the day to day and just remembering, like with empathy, that this is a huge event and a huge important and a big expense. You want somebody to have only good memories about it.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 19:06

So it's important yeah. I totally agree. So, talking about experience, what can you do as the owner of the business to ensure, make sure 100% that that client or guest receives an exceptional experience?

Rebecca Simpson: 19:25

So I think it starts so at the top me as the owner. This has been my number one priority and it has been right from the start. So I think that that's the biggest thing is the leader or the leadership team has to truly believe this. And then, as you are assembling a team, you need to make sure that you have people that share your values. So when you're hiring people, you need to make sure that they understand, but also not just understand, but live and breathe a culture of customer service and helpfulness and saying yes to people and wanting that, wanting to make this the best experience possible. It's really hard to offer a good experience if your team hasn't bought into that. So you need to make sure all the way from me as the owner down to not down to, but across team, everybody who has any kind of interaction with our clients, whether it's in person, online, over the telephone that they all believe that this is super important, and then they'll take that into consideration with every little step that they take.

Rebecca Simpson: 20:49

So I think that that's how it starts. And then with us, like for me, not only am I picking people who share values, but then we do a lot of training. So not only is there training with the actual physical job, like serving food or how to design a floor plan or how to create a contract for somebody, like there's actual physical jobs but on top of that there is the customer service training, and so we actually call ourselves the happy team. That's what we call our employee group, and the happy set stands for helpful, attentive, problem solvers, positive and yes-minded. And so in front of everyone's desks, the people who have desk jobs, that's like right in front of their faces, that when they're answering questions and when they're helping people, like, are they being helpful, are they being attentive, are they being problem solvers? So it's just like reminding you of what your job is like, not just the physical, it's a purpose, yeah.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 21:57

We're here. It's so funny to me the amount of people that ask me how to create a great experience for people and make sure that the customer service is off the charts good. And I asked them what kind of training they do for their team and they say, well, we show them how to work the computer system and whatever, and that's it. And I like my head blows off a little bit because I think it all start when you said that I love that and I agree it's having a team that believes it, the leaders showing it and living those values and that training that is gonna get you there. And when everyone's training the same way and you have like procedures for things of how to do things and everybody does it the same, that customer experience just goes way up.

Rebecca Simpson: 22:46

Yeah, I think a little bit on that note where you said everybody does it the same. I think that's a huge thing. That I've learned over the years is you can have procedures in place and you need to have procedures in place, but you also need to have the right team who can. Like we said in, one of our values is problem solving. So you can't have a handbook that includes every single scenario, because you would have a 10,000 page handbook and nobody would take the time to learn that. So what you really need to do is when it's value centered, when you can think of, like, why we do things, then people, if you've chosen the right people on the team, they may not have experienced that exact scenario, but they can go back and be like okay, so I'm supposed to be helpful, I'm supposed to be attentive, I'm supposed to do all these things. How am I supposed to deal with this situation that I've never seen before, but I need it to end up in a good experience. So, yes, you can train procedures, but you also want people who are humans, who can problem solve, and to me, that's like the number one value is problem solving. You can't really teach that.

Rebecca Simpson: 23:59

I feel like people either have that gene or don't have that gene, and sometimes, if it takes some time to develop your problem solving skills, but that's what differentiates us, I truly believe like everybody's gonna have a different scenario and it's how you handle those little hiccups or not even necessarily bad things, but I've never heard that before.

Rebecca Simpson: 24:24

Okay, well, what would be the implications of this? And I don't see why that would be a problem. So you want people who, yes, you want it to be a consistent experience for people, but you want it to be almost personalized. Everybody wants to be seen as an individual and everybody does have different needs and wants and expectations, and so if you can kind of tweak it a little bit to cater to each individual person, I think that's where you can get that exceptional experience that you wouldn't necessarily get when it's like okay, you have to do A, then you do B, then you do C, then you do D, and then you just repeat for every single person. So I think there's just that huge component of having people who really believe in the system but are able to think outside the box and think like what is the best, what will be the best outcome for both the company and the client and the experience.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 25:30

Yeah, that's such a great point, and especially when it's service-based, like yourself, because, like you said, things come up that you don't even realize are gonna could ever come up right, and you will have to, on the spot or on the fly, right now, figure out that solution. I'm assuming, too, that part of that kind of I'll say that perfect employee that you're looking for would also be calm under pressure and right, so that problem comes up to them and they're not just like, oh my God, what are we gonna do?

Rebecca Simpson: 26:03

Right, they can everybody has to be calm, because we want a great energy here too. These are exciting events that we're involved with, so you don't want people who are always very flat or not emotional about stuff. But it's also knowing, like, who on the team can handle this situation best, or who in this who like there may be five people and who will best serve this experience. So there's also just kind of a lot of self-awareness that's required.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 26:37

For sure. So when you're interviewing people, I'm assuming, then you're asking a lot of behavioral questions where what do you do when a problem happens, or how do you solve something, so that absolutely you know that they're capable right absolutely, and I think that it's good to actually use like the technique where it's like tell me about a time when you did this so that it's like you can just make up like a theoretical answer to that.

Rebecca Simpson: 27:07

I also just use my gut a lot and that's what I've learned in business and it's really hard to explain that to other people who aren't necessarily entrepreneurs that a lot of what I do just is on gut feeling and I know that doesn't necessarily sound super professional or you need to show some analytics with it. It's just like, yeah, are you? I can probably tell if you're a good problem solver just walking into my building because maybe the one door is locked or what do you do? Yeah, so I tend to just, yeah, go with the gut and yeah, go from there.

Rebecca Simpson: 27:48

But we have an amazing team. I have several employees who have been here right from the beginning and I'm just, I'm so fortunate because I have surrounded myself with the best of the best and it's so fun working with them as well. Like and that's the other thing is a happy, like what we call ourselves a happy team, like we are here. We want to be happy. It's a most of the time it's really joyful occasions that we are here for and that shows too when your staff are enjoying themselves. And if you're just doing a job and you don't like it. It's noticeable and it's really hard to give a good experience if you don't want to be somewhere.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 28:35

Oh for sure. And that's also a testament to you and your leadership, because part of why the reason they want to be there is you, right it's. You have that attitude and you have the leadership that they believe and understand why it's important, right. Yes thank you.

Rebecca Simpson: 28:52

It is true, I love coming to work every day and I love working with my team and you know, everybody has bad days and everybody, you know, can notice if they're not in their best mood and stuff. But I can really tell if I'm, you know, not presenting my best self, that the whole team like it. Just it brings everybody down. So it is super important as a leader to you know, emulate what you want everybody else to be like. So it's sometimes it's tricky. You know everybody has stuff going on and it's sometimes tricky to suck it up, but it's required and it really pays off and honestly, like this, the second I walk in here and I've got a great mindset and I've switched it on it, it it's, it happens. It actually is true. You can have other stuff going on and as soon as it's like, oh, I'm with my people, I'm having a great time and we're and we're planning somebody's wedding or we're decorating for this and it's, it's great, it's fun.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 29:57

Well, and how fortunate are you that you get to be a part of so many people's special events Like your wedding is one of the biggest things in your whole life, right, and that's really an honor to be a part of their special day.

Rebecca Simpson: 30:10

It certainly is, and I think that that's kind of again in the background, like when, when we're talking to our team and stuff, it's like remember the importance that you play, like somebody remembers this day for their whole life. Yeah, so, and you, like every single person here the dishwasher, the servers, the planners, the administrators, like everybody was involved. There's so many people involved in, you know, starting from a tour all the way to booking and then executing these events, to also after the event. So, like so many people have touched that event and made it happen and I think it's such an honor, like you said, to be involved in that.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 30:52

Yeah, for sure. You mentioned having a bad day, and it happens to everybody in business, Whether you're the leader or you're maybe that customer coming in. I just want to touch on this because I we don't often talk about the the negative things, but what happens if your client doesn't have a good experience?

Rebecca Simpson: 31:14

So luckily we haven't had that happen too much. I think that backtracking a bit, like I said, when you put the plans in place ahead of time, like if you can anticipate the issues that are going to arise, when you get to know your clients and you really like try to cater to them, you mitigate that a lot, but, like you said, it does happen from time to time. So the biggest thing that I've learned over the years is that you need to empathize with your, with the situation, like something that might not be a big deal to me, maybe a huge deal to them. And that's the part where it's like I, you, you don't need to put your own spin on it. If this affected them and they were upset by it, that's real.

Rebecca Simpson: 32:11

And I think that's the number one thing is just like acknowledging that this upset them or that this wasn't to their standard. Empathizing with somebody or trying to convince them that what we did was correct or that we followed the procedures, or this is how we always do it. That doesn't get you anywhere, and I think that that's a huge learning experience that just comes over time, that to empathize with somebody, regardless if you agree or disagree, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, you want them to be happy, and if they weren't happy, you're not going to convince them otherwise by just telling them all the things you did or what, whatever.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 32:55

Yeah, exactly.

Rebecca Simpson: 32:57

In a business group a long time ago, one of my colleagues had said that they use the acronym take the heat, and so they use H, e, a, t and H stands for here, e stands for empathize, a stands for apologize and T stands for take positive action. And I think I've always now used that kind of as a guideline. So actually listening to them, so for the hearing, it's like listen to the actual situation here, their side of the story. It is good to kind of get your staffs take on something and hear like your team side, but at the end of the day that doesn't actually matter. And then empathy, like especially with weddings, these are super emotional times. You don't know, like the family background, you don't know what went into all of this, you don't know all the details, and so just like honestly showing empathy for the situation and understanding that this didn't go as they wanted it to. And then obviously a huge apology and just like a sincere apology that it didn't go as planned, when somebody has an idea in their mind and it didn't happen that way. You did something wrong. So to take to do a real apology. And then last part is taking positive action and that is doing whatever you possibly can to correct this. So, and sometimes I think like what I might I don't want to say favorites, because I never like this Like as a business owner, this is like the most gut wrenching part of having a business.

Rebecca Simpson: 34:48

When you've disappointed somebody, especially when it's like they're spending a lot of money, they've put a lot of effort and time into this. It's like when you, when you've missed the mark, it feels terrible and I think that you want to always have that. When you've lost that empathy I guess it is and you don't really care anymore, that's when you probably need to get out. Like when you're not into it, it should feel bad if you've messed up like this. So when, when something like this happens, I always want to just ask, like, how can we make this right? I think that that's the best question that I've come up with that seems to work, because it's like some people just want to have, want to be heard, some people just want to vent and say, like you know, I'm really disappointed, this should have happened like this, and sometimes that's all it takes is that you just like listen and hear and say you're right.

Rebecca Simpson: 35:49

I'm really sorry. We tried and we missed the mark and often when people say like, when they tell you how to make it right, it's quite easy to fix and often times they'll it's usually less than what you were planning to do.

Rebecca Simpson: 36:08

I know this sounds weird, but, like you know, if you were planning to give a discount or you were planning to completely refund something, or you were planning to I don't know if it's a smaller event maybe you were gonna you know, I don't know give them something for free. Whatever, usually what they come up with is a lot less than what you were thinking. So and then it's specifically what they want, and at the end of the Transaction if you want to call it that they should be satisfied, because if you do what they say, then it should be solved.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 36:45

So I love that. I love that. It's so true. And it never is what you think, because I know for me in my business I'd be like like what can I do to make you happy? And they, you know, literally like well, next time I'm here, whatever you know, and it's not even a thing I'm like, oh yeah.

Rebecca Simpson: 37:04

I have an example. Like there was a mother of I believe it was the groom who's dress got snagged on one of our chairs. So there was like a a screw sticking out of the chair and she was really upset, like this is her son's big day, they had to do photos, her dress had a snag in it and she was visibly upset. And so, you know, in the moment I wrote her, I went up to my office, I wrote her a card and I just said I'm so sorry that this happened. Please let us know what we can do to fix this for you.

Rebecca Simpson: 37:43

And, like I was, I wasn't expecting a response that night. I just wanted to give her a little something and I happened to have, like I don't know I think it was maybe a gift card to Starbucks or something that I just put in there and like it was not nearly. I wasn't expecting that that was gonna solve the problem, but I just wanted her to know. Like we know, this is a big deal. I want you to know right away that we care about this and how disappointing that would be to how this happened. And she wrote the most incredible note the next day after the wedding she made she was fine after a while. You know it was on her hip and she was putting her hand on her hip for all the photos and stuff. Yeah, she was nobody else.

Rebecca Simpson: 38:27

And she just wrote back and she just said like how Impressed she was that we took it seriously and that we dealt with it immediately. And she said there's nothing you can do like that's all I wanted. I just wanted you to to hear and say sorry and that's what we did, and it was like I don't know. I mean, I felt kind of silly about giving the $10 Starbucks card or whatever.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 38:51

But that was a token. It was a token to be like we're here, like let's talk about this more.

Rebecca Simpson: 38:57

But no, she was able to, I think because of the way we handled it right away. She just was like you know what it's actually not she was. It was a big deal in the moment and then she was like you know what? This is the once in a lifetime I'm gonna have fun at my son's wedding. So it just it's honestly that acknowledgement I think that makes. That is the most important thing. I agree. Yeah, I really like happen but it does.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 39:26

And yeah, and we've all had experiences In just our own general lives that that wasn't what I thought, her it wasn't good service her the food wasn't good or whatever it was, and the ones that do just what you say you know what can we do to make it better and it's resolved. You kind of never think about it again, right, like okay, that's fine.

Rebecca Simpson: 39:51

Talking about it in a positive way, like it. Actually. ometimes in this you don't want to purposely make mistakes so that you can correct them. But the times that people have problem solved and corrected a problem, that's where you stand out actually. Well, exactly, you know, when you do the everyday things, those aren't remarkable, those don't stand out in any way. But when you have a problem and you can fix it and solve that you, it is more memorable.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 40:24

I agree. And the thing is if somebody says, oh, your sister had her wedding at the barn and how was it? And they're not even gonna talk about if there's something happened, they're gonna say it was fantastic because you dealt with it, it's resolved, doesn't matter. If you didn't deal with it and it wasn't resolved, they'd say, oh gosh, don't get married there because this happened and they didn't do anything. Right like we've all had that at businesses where you're like, don't go to that restaurant, I had a bad experience and they were like oh well, not our problem, w So it just shows that that unique and that hand touch, or that, you know, personal touch service really does go such a long way. For sure Is it important to be unique in your experience.

Rebecca Simpson: 41:14

I think, in some ways, like there's, I mean, in our culture, I think it's pretty standard, like how you have a wedding, there's certain steps you take and it's pretty consistent. But I think the inconsistent part that we are is that we want it to feel like your own. We want you to be able to put your own personal touch on your event. We don't want it to feel cookie cutter and, though we do this a couple of times a week, we want your day to look different, to feel different and to be exactly what you want. So, yeah, I think the uniqueness is that we can make it unique for you even though that's a prescribed event.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 42:00

Yeah, and well, that's what makes that experience so fantastic for people and really touch them and stick out because you are doing everything you can possibly do to make their day or their event the best that it can be for them, right.

Rebecca Simpson: 42:16

For sure, and I think, like a lot of having procedures in place and having things consistent is super important and that is what creates a great formula for an event. You want to follow those things. It's just when there's special requests or different problems that arise or different dynamics that you can think outside the box, that you don't have to say like, no, we absolutely can't do that, unless it's against the law. We're pretty open to things, so we've had some interesting requests and part of our happy team. The last one is the why for yes-minded. So we want to say yes as much as possible, as long as it's safe and within the law.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 43:08

We're not doing i illegal, but we're going to make you happy. That's awesome. But that's a part of your success, right? Because you do have that great customer service that leads into them having a great event, which leads into them talking about it and telling their friends to go there. Or maybe they repeat customers hopefully not for weddings, but they have a corporate event. They're like well, let's sit at the bar and we had our wedding there. My friend had their wedding there. It was so fantastic and that's how you win, right. That is how you are successful.

Rebecca Simpson: 43:41

Exactly, and we do. I just actually had a phone call today. We are doing an event here in-house and it was the mom of a couple who got married here and she wanted to buy tickets for her son and daughter in law for that event. So it's like we do get repeat customers in different ways. We haven't had any repeat weddings yet.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 44:05

Hey, that's also positive. All of our weddings are successful, so your marriage is successful. That's your new marketing tagline. Rebecca, you weren't too bad, but Well, you're on a good roll. Five years right, that's a pretty good odds, awesome. Do you have a most important lesson that you would share with people, or something that you've learned along the way that really resonates with you?

Rebecca Simpson: 44:32

Oh boy, I think the number one thing is just remembering that everybody is human and I'm a human. The people we deal with are human, our staff, they're all human, and I think that's huge. Everybody comes with baggage, everybody comes with expectations, everybody comes with stuff and at the end of the day, you're just a person helping other people, and often in business I think we forget that. I think when you get stuck in the procedural stuff or in the financial stuff, at the end of the day you're just helping people, and I think that goes a long way to understand that everybody's different and everybody just needs to be treated carefully too.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 45:31

Yeah, I don't know Kind of that kindergarten golden rule treat others like you want to be treated. That's kind of your whole.

Rebecca Simpson: 45:40

I think there's one step past that. You say treat others how you want to be treated, but I think it's actually treat others how they want to be treated. I think often we think that everybody thinks the same as us, and I think that that's part of when you make a mistake when what I come up with might not be what you want to solve the problem, you might have a totally different idea, just because that's who you are. So I think really listening is huge and then just understanding. These are just people and it's a huge responsibility and a huge honor to get to work with a lot of different people.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 46:21

I totally agree. I usually ask one thing that you wish you had known. Maybe that's the really listening to people, or is there anything else that you wish you had known? I feel like you've had so much experience now by now.

Rebecca Simpson: 46:37

When I first started with Cravings oh my gosh, we knew nothing. I still don't run numbers, and maybe this is a bad thing. But I am not a numbers person, I am a gut feel person and I feel like my business, the way I run my business and the way I believe business works, is very different than kind of the conventional beliefs. So when you're doing well and your numbers are looking good, I feel like that's the reward for doing the other things well, versus always looking at the numbers and then working backwards from there. So that has been a bit of a challenge to explain that to the bank, but it has served me well and I think that that's just. It's almost like the Simon Sinek, like what's your why, and it's like working backwards. That's super important.

Rebecca Simpson: 47:48

When I first started in business I couldn't pinpoint what it was that I really had a hard time, like explaining to other people or not having the analytics show something. You can't necessarily show everything analytically. When you're working with people there's that X factor. That is that feeling. That is a good experience. There's no way to show it. You can manipulate the numbers, you can talk about the statistics and all that stuff, but at the end of the day. There's just this little piece of I don't know. I don't have a name for it. It's like the X factor.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 48:39

I totally know what you're saying and I think it kind of comes back to you run your business with the belief and you talk and you're happy acronym and you're training, and I think when you do the right things and you have a really great handle on all of these things, the financial success follows, because you definitely need to keep an eye on things.

Rebecca Simpson: 49:12

The cash flow is super important, but you also can hire experts. Maybe that's the thing I the, maybe the piece that I wish I would have kind of bought into earlier, because I grew up in family business and my dad was my mentor. You know, at the beginning of my business, with Cravings, for example, you know I was doing the books and I was doing the cleaning and I was doing kind of all the different things and when you're first starting out, you don't really have a choice.

Rebecca Simpson: 49:49

But, for example, the books like my dad is a turn it accountant, that's in his DNA, it is not in my DNA Like that was the most painful thing I ever had to do and I would just leave it to the last minute and do it, and then I'd have to call my dad 12 times t an h And eventually, like he probably did it for me but pretended I was doing it. And when we find a bookkeeper, like that was the best investment we ever made and honestly, I'm sure it saved us so much money because I made so many mistakes and I was being charged like penalties on this and that because I wasn't doing it right. And that's not my area of expertise.

Rebecca Simpson: 50:40

And I think that that's key too is like everyone knowing what your strengths are and then surrounding yourself with people who have the places where you're lacking. Like have people on the team who have different skill sets and who enjoy doing different things, because then you know I don't have to do all the things that I hate doing. Obviously, as adults, you do some things we don't like. That's just life. But if you can have people who love making spreadsheets and love doing you know, the organizing background stuff, like great, and I think that that's key is just yeah, do get help with things that you are not good at, and that is like bringing you down. I think that you can then free up the time to do the things you're really good at and that bring you joy. Like you can't just do jobs that you don't like, you have to do more of what you like.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 51:39

I agree, I totally agree. I also try to do my own books huge fail. So I am all for don't do what you're not good at or you don't like, because it's not going to serve you.

Rebecca Simpson: 51:50

Yeah, and I honestly don't think it saves. It definitely doesn't save money in the long run.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 51:56

No absolutely not, because it's your time doing it. That time is also money, right.

Rebecca Simpson: 52:01

For sure. What could you be best using your time for, if you're? Really gifted at something else. That's what you should be doing instead.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 52:10

Yeah, I totally agree, Rebecca. I know that people are going to want to check out the barn and know more and maybe get to know more about you, so where's the best place for them to find you or to go to see more?

Rebecca Simpson: 52:23

For sure. So we are on Instagram. I don't know what our handle is probably @the barn at indsedge.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 52:31

Sorry I should have these written down in front of me. You probably told me to do that and I did it. It's okay, I'll have it in the show. I'll have it in the notes. Perfect, thank you.

Rebecca Simpson: 52:41

You're good at this, you help me out. We're on Facebook, we have a website, the barn at W and, yeah, we're out in the community too, and we'd love to have everybody here for an event sometime soon.

Mackenzie Kilshaw: 52:57

Thank you so much, Rebecca, for being on. I really appreciate you sharing and, I agree, customer services where it's at. So we'll be looking forward to seeing and hearing what people think about this episode. So thank you so much and for everybody listening, we'll see you on the next episode. Thanks for listening to Winning. Be sure to subscribe to get all of our new episodes. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media and leave a rating and review wherever you listen to Winning. To catch all of the latest from us, you can follow Winning Podcast on Instagram a Winning u podcast, facebook Facebook at Winning podcast Podcast and on Twitter at a Winning pod. Winning was created and is produced by me, mackenzie Mackenzie Kilschah Kilshaw. .. Kilshaw. Music, created Firby Summer Furby, editing by Seth Armstrong. Special thanks to Shauna Foster for voicing our opening and, of course, a huge thank you to this episode's guest. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.