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Podcast #64

“Customer Lobby”

Featuring Patty Kampmann

Intro: Welcome to Profiles In Prosperity. The leading podcast for residential service contractors, sponsored by Service Roundtable and hosted by David Heimer.

David Heimer: Hi everybody. This is David Heimer, welcome to Profiles In Prosperity. This is going to be a great interview. Patty Kampmann has joined me today. Patty is the president of Customer Lobby. Customer Lobby is a vendor partner of Service Nation. So we’ve had a number of meetings with Customer Lobby and with Patty. She’s relatively new to Customer Lobby and she’s relatively new to our industry. She has an amazing resume, chief product officer, senior vice president of business development, CEO, member of the board of directors, vice president of operations and all this comes from a variety of industries of companies. Patty, on top of all of that, as you might’ve guessed, is a really smart and impressive woman, and I think she’s going to be a real positive force in our industry. So I think it’s particularly interesting to talk to somebody that is kind of outside of our industry or is relatively new to the industry and they bring a fresh perspective. So I’m really looking forward to this. So Patty Kampmann, welcome to Profiles In Prosperity.

Patty Kampmann: Thank you, David. I appreciate the warm welcome and also delighted to be here.

David Heimer: Tell me a bit about Customer Lobby.

Patty Kampmann: Absolutely. It all started in 2008 when online customer reviews began to emerge as the definitive source for consumers to discover businesses. Customer Lobby was founded as a way for local service businesses to take advantage of that trend through the development of powerful, easy to use software that automated the get reviews process and publish the reviews directly to Google and other sites that were important to the client in order to boost their online presence. And we did this for seven years, helping thousands of businesses bring in more customers and revenue. But we soon realized we could do so much more to help local service businesses. So in 2014, we expanded our focus beyond reviews and launched a complete life cycle solution for customer engagement. We leverage the latest technologies to help businesses of all sizes, automate their direct mail marketing campaigns and have since added email and text channels as well.

The beauty of Customer Lobby is that we think with an organization invoicing or SSM system and analyze the customer data, using sophisticated proprietary algorithms to determine the right group of customers to target at the right time and with the right marketing message to achieve the company’s business goals. Essentially removing all of the guesswork and dramatically improving marketing effectiveness. And because we’re connected with the client system, we can tie their marketing spend directly to jobs. One, so they have precise, actionable data on the impact their marketing dollars have had on their revenue and how to best utilize their spend by customer segment and marketing channel.

David Heimer: That is very cool, very sophisticated stuff. So who is a typical client of Customer Lobby?

Patty Kampmann: Customer Lobby had deep roots in field services, particularly HVAC, plumbing and electrical. Our clients are growth-oriented and deeply care about developing relationships with our customers. They recognize that the return on investment associated with marketing to existing customers is exponentially greater than the spend associated with new customer acquisition. Our solution has been designed to plug into a business of any size. Many of our clients do not have an internal marketing team or dedicated marketing resources. Our software is very easy to use, so you don’t need to be a marketer in order to create a professional-looking campaign associated with the right customer segment or analyze the results.

David Heimer: That’s very nice. What a tremendous advantage to be able to operate this as an automated marketing tool and not have a huge marketing staff. So really you’ve leveraged the power of automation to get great results without paying for a lot of people, fantastic stuff. So what are the main benefits for a client of the Customer Lobby?

Patty Kampmann: I touched on a few already, data-driven, customer segmentation, results that are tied directly back to revenue and software design for marketers and non-marketers alike. Also key is the fact that the communication be it a postcard, email or text is highly personalized, not generic at all. Since we sync with the client system, we use the data to speak directly to each customer by name, with a message based on their unique transaction history. But I would say our core differentiator is the powerful combination of technology, plus the human touch we provide. Our clients have access to a dedicated customer success team member that helps them optimize their marketing spend based on their revenue goals and maximize their investment In Customer Lobby software. We work in very close partnerships with our clients every day. We try to learn and understand their business as well as they do and make sound recommendations. So we can be a trusted advisor in helping them achieve their growth goals.

David Heimer: So it sounds like Customer Lobby has gone through some pretty big changes even before you joined. Can you tell us about the growth and what changes have happened in the company and what you see going forward?

Patty Kampmann: I can. Customer Lobby made a concerted effort to establish a regular cadence of one-on-one outreach to our clients and prospects about how we were perceived in the industry and areas of opportunity with our application. And we have used and continue to use that kind of feedback to improve our sales practices and also our software. We work every day to maintain a strong reputation in the industry and deliver best-in-class tools for field service companies based on their stated needs. As I shared earlier, our company’s built on quickly identifying industry trends and translating them into meaningful solutions that help businesses grow. So customer centricity is at the heart of this effort and it’s one of our core values. So much so that we use customer centricity as a primary measure of individual and team performance across each functional area in the company, not just customer success.

David Heimer: So you’re relatively new to our industry. When did you join Customer Lobby?

Patty Kampmann: So, I joined Customer Lobby at the end of March. And obviously, this was during a very challenging business cycle.

David Heimer: Great timing.

Patty Kampmann: In many ways, it gave me a different viewpoint on the industry. And I’ve been incredibly impressed by the resiliency and resourcefulness of the business leaders with companies in the field service space. I’ve witnessed real tenacity to continue to drive growth. Not just maintain their business, but really grow it against the many headwinds that they’re facing. I’ve also seen a real dedication to customer service and an understanding of the power of retention marketing central to that has been a commitment to actively engaging customers and developing their business and brands through leveraging our software. And that’s something I’m very honored to be helping them with.

David Heimer: So I did a little research on you on LinkedIn before we did this, and you have done some really impressive volunteer work with some great organizations and was wondering if you’d be willing to tell us about any of those.

Patty Kampmann: Thank you for that. And it’s work that I’m very proud of. I am committed to the workforce and regional economic development with a particular focus on poverty alleviation. My personal philosophy is to give people a hand up, not a handout. I have directly seen the transformational experience securing a job has on individuals with high barriers to employment. Such as people experiencing homelessness, the disabled, refugees or individuals who have come into contact with the social justice system. And in turn, the secondary impact securing sustained gainful employment has had on breaking generational poverty and lifting up low-income communities.

So my philanthropic and volunteer work centers around local national and even international organizations that provide skills, development, job placement services, technology tools, and training. That’s so important to advance in today’s society. And also direct investment in small businesses, particularly women-led or minority-owned that has difficulty in securing traditional means of financing. Truly rewarding work. But I have to say a bit selfish too because every day I get to learn from individuals who are against all odds achieving success. And I learn from them every day, they have limited resources and very real challenges to overcome. And it’s just awesome to see and learn how people can dedicate themselves to improvement, leverage the tools they have available, lean on others for help when needed and really achieve what they set out to do.

David Heimer: It’s a great thing. And at some point in time, since you’re relatively new to the industry, I’ll have to introduce you to the Joseph Grow Foundation. It’s one of our industry charities. That is the charity for Service Nation. And I think you’ll find that really intriguing, useful organization. So that’s if you like it a lot. If our listeners wanted to learn more about Customer Lobby, what would be a good way for them to do that?

Patty Kampmann: The best way would be to reach out over email. We have an email dedicated to organizations that are looking to find out more about Customer Lobby. It’s called getstarted@customerlobby.com. Let us know a little bit about your organization and what your needs are and we will be sure to respond very quickly with additional information about our software and also schedule a demo if that’s what you are interested in doing in terms of the next step. You’re also welcome to go to our website, www.customerlobby.com. We have a lot of information there, not only about our product, but also educational resources, webinars, white papers, and other information that you can use that can help you think about your business in new ways. There’s also forms that are available on the website that you can complete to request a demo in that way as well.

David Heimer: Sounds great. Patty Kampmann thank you so much for doing this with me. This is really interesting stuff. I think what your company does is valuable and I know a lot of our members have really appreciated the systems that you’ve put together for them, the results that they’ve gotten from it. So thanks for that. And thanks for working with us and thanks for taking this time with us today.

Patty Kampmann: Thank you, David, I really appreciated the time.

Outro: We’re always looking for good ideas and interviews for our podcasts. If you have an idea or maybe you think you should be interviewed, just shoot an email to profilesinprosperity@serviceroundtable.com. That’s profilesinprosperity@serviceroundtable.com. If you think what we’re doing has any value, it would be very helpful if you would give us a great rating on iTunes. Thanks for your support. Hope to see you again soon. Bye.