Becoming the Pink Zebra: How CEO Ron Holt Created the “First Happy Moving Company” By Prioritizing CX Over Profit
11/30/23 • 40 min
This episode features an interview with award-winning CX leader Ron Holt, Founder of Pink Zebra Moving, the first happy moving company. Ron started Pink Zebra in 2020, and is the former CEO & Founder of Two Maids & A Mop, where he served for nearly 19 years. He specializes in franchise development, management, sales & marketing, and leadership. And in this episode, Ron and host Larry Fleischman discuss seizing an opportunity in the market, listening to the customer, and creating a truly remarkable experience.
Quotes
*”Sometimes I would lose competitive bid situations to folks who didn't have near the grit that I have. But the consumer made their choice. And so, there was a moment of reflection during those early years of where I had to really think differently about how I was going to grow the business. Obviously, hard work is always going to be a part of that recipe, but there has to be something else. At the end of the day, it's all about the consumer. What do they want?”
*”Most businesses, even today, don't understand that their business has to be unique and different. It has to be remarkable and memorable.”
Time Stamps
[1:56] Introducing Ron Holt, CEO of Pink Zebra Moving
[3:11] The journey of Ron Holt
[5:22] How did Ron address the challenges of starting a new business?
[7:21] How did Ron start Two Maids and a Mop?
[16:44] The birth of Pink Zebra
[20:59] How Pink Zebra offers a remarkable moving experience
[21:29] How does Pink Zebra make moving fun?
[22:45] The importance of customer engagement in the moving industry
[23:56] Scaling personalization in the moving industry
[30:03] The surprise box: A unique Pink Zebra offering
[38:00] The future of Pink Zebra and the moving industry
[39:38] The measure of success for Pink Zebra
About our guest, Ron Holt
Ron Holt is the Founder of Pink Zebra Moving, having started the company in 2020. He is the former CEO & Founder of Two Maids & A Mop, where he served for nearly 19 years. His specialties are franchise development, management, sales & marketing, and leadership. Ron has been ranked 6th in the 2017 Bulldog 100 Fastest Growing Companies, named by Entrepreneur Magazine as the 11th Top New Franchise in America in 2018, won the 2019 UGA Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, and recognized many other times for his outstanding entrepreneurship.
Thank you to our friends
This podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.
Links
Learn more about Pink Zebra Moving
This episode features an interview with award-winning CX leader Ron Holt, Founder of Pink Zebra Moving, the first happy moving company. Ron started Pink Zebra in 2020, and is the former CEO & Founder of Two Maids & A Mop, where he served for nearly 19 years. He specializes in franchise development, management, sales & marketing, and leadership. And in this episode, Ron and host Larry Fleischman discuss seizing an opportunity in the market, listening to the customer, and creating a truly remarkable experience.
Quotes
*”Sometimes I would lose competitive bid situations to folks who didn't have near the grit that I have. But the consumer made their choice. And so, there was a moment of reflection during those early years of where I had to really think differently about how I was going to grow the business. Obviously, hard work is always going to be a part of that recipe, but there has to be something else. At the end of the day, it's all about the consumer. What do they want?”
*”Most businesses, even today, don't understand that their business has to be unique and different. It has to be remarkable and memorable.”
Time Stamps
[1:56] Introducing Ron Holt, CEO of Pink Zebra Moving
[3:11] The journey of Ron Holt
[5:22] How did Ron address the challenges of starting a new business?
[7:21] How did Ron start Two Maids and a Mop?
[16:44] The birth of Pink Zebra
[20:59] How Pink Zebra offers a remarkable moving experience
[21:29] How does Pink Zebra make moving fun?
[22:45] The importance of customer engagement in the moving industry
[23:56] Scaling personalization in the moving industry
[30:03] The surprise box: A unique Pink Zebra offering
[38:00] The future of Pink Zebra and the moving industry
[39:38] The measure of success for Pink Zebra
About our guest, Ron Holt
Ron Holt is the Founder of Pink Zebra Moving, having started the company in 2020. He is the former CEO & Founder of Two Maids & A Mop, where he served for nearly 19 years. His specialties are franchise development, management, sales & marketing, and leadership. Ron has been ranked 6th in the 2017 Bulldog 100 Fastest Growing Companies, named by Entrepreneur Magazine as the 11th Top New Franchise in America in 2018, won the 2019 UGA Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, and recognized many other times for his outstanding entrepreneurship.
Thank you to our friends
This podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.
Links
Learn more about Pink Zebra Moving
Previous Episode
Speed Matters: How EasyPark Group Chief Customer Officer Scott Booker Stays Agile for High Customer Satisfaction
This episode features an interview with Scott Booker, Chief Customer Officer at EasyPark Group, a leading global parking tech company with the vision to make cities more livable. Scott has extensive experience in leading large organizations in travel, retail e-commerce, and the consumer marketplace. He is the former President of Hotels.com Worldwide and Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Copart. And on this episode, host Larry Fleischman and Scott discuss how he built a loyalty program at Hotels.com, creating different customer experiences for new customers versus loyal ones, and making an experience so easy and simple that customers don’t need to call in for support.
Quotes
*”If you don't disrupt [the industry] yourself, somebody's going to do it for you. And that's what Hotels.com was doing in the hotel space. They were disrupting. And I wanted to be a part of that.”
*”It's always cheaper to keep a customer than it is to go acquire a new one. How do you treat a new customer through customer service versus an existing one? Should they have a different service? We decided we would create a separate call center environment, customer experience environment, for those loyalty customers. They got a special number, they got special treatment. We would send out gift bags for our most loyal customers so that they felt like they were a part of something bigger.”
*”It's okay for customers not to have to call in. The best experience is the experience where it's so easy and simple that they don't need to call in. I think over the last 10 years, I've learned in my career how to build the most amazing experience where you don't need somebody to call in.”
*”If we can make it super easy for the consumer, then we're helping the city improve the flow of traffic through the city. And we're making it so much easier for somebody to live in that space because they can use a mobile app with ease.”
*”We need to fail fast and learn from it. How do we put something out there in an A/B test fashion without too much exposure so it doesn't risk the business, but in a way that we can test it on a micro level and understand what the impacts are?”
Time Stamps
[1:23] Introducing Scott Booker, Chief Customer Officer at EasyPark Group
[3:26] Learn about Scott’s background and path to CCO at EasyPark Group
[6:17] Hear about Scott’s first job out of school at Accenture
[7:12] What did Scott learn about customer experience while at Blockbuster?
[12:49] How did Scott fundamentally shift the CX at Hotels.com to drive growth?
[20:36] How did Scott create the loyalty program at Hotels.com?
[25:56] How do you create a low- or no-touch customer experience?
[31:33] What’s Scott’s take on striking a balance between automation and human interaction in the customer experience?
[34:02] What’s Scott’s appetite for risk? And how does he handle change management at speed?
[37:02] What’s in the future for EasyPark Group?
Bio
Scott Booker is Chief Customer Officer at EasyPark Group. He has held leading positions at large scale, digital marketplaces. Most recently at Copart, the number one global leader in online vehicle auctions. Prior to Copart, Scott had several leading roles at Expedia Inc., one being President of Hotels.com, where he led the company’s rapid global expansion. Scott also has profound experience developing transformational growth strategies.
Thank you to our friends
This podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.
Links
Learn more about EasyPark Group
Next Episode
Driving Change: Turo’s Trailblazing COO, Julie Weingardt
This episode features an interview with Turo’s Chief Operations Officer, Julie Weingardt. Julie brings with her 30 years of operations and contact center experience and has held executive operational roles at Startek, Sitel, and Sykes. Her expertise is in transforming customer touchpoints into powerful relationship- and brand-building tools through the use of highly efficient business practices. And in this episode, Julie and host Larry Fleischman discuss having a mindset of continuous improvement, fostering a customer experience that doesn’t require contacting support, the importance of female mentorship and much more.
Quotes
*”As things mature, there's always opportunities to challenge what's being done and to ask, is there another way, a better way, a smarter way to do something? Just because it's been done that way over and over again doesn't mean that you can't challenge it and see what other ways there might be to do it better or smarter.”
*”Let's face it. Consumers just want a product that works. No matter what it is, you don't want to have to contact support. So first and foremost, keeping that as the mission, when we continue to release new features and things, it just needs to work. And we need to test for that all the way through.”
*”Being a female in a male dominated world, so much of mentorship and business conversations at that time happened on the golf course. So, when we went to corporate events, while a lot of spouses who were female went and did spa days, I went to the golf course.”
*“It’s not only females who need female mentors. Males need female mentors too. How else are they going to understand the differences in what's needed in the world of business from a gender basis? Not only are females not good at asking for it, they're not good at offering it up to be mentors either. And so we have to continue to foster that type of mentorship and make sure that all of our young professionals are getting a good relationship from both males and females in their professional careers.”
*”We really know that how we're going to continue to win and dominate as we've been doing in this space is to just continue to win one customer at a time. It is always about iterating and reiterating over and over again on what we do and how we do it because it's about making that next customer experience even better.”
Time Stamps
[0:39] Meet Julie Weingardt, Chief Operations Officer at Turo
[2:31] How did Julie get her start in CX?
[7:41] How did Julie’s experience in ranching shape her leadership style?
[14:47] What was it like working for a BPO in the early days of CX?
[17:06] How did Julie become COO of Turo?
[21:47] What is the customer experience like at Turo?
[26:48] How do they solve a CX issue at Turo?
[28:15] How did business change through the pandemic at Turo?
About our guest, Julie Weingardt
Julie Weingardt is an operations executive who believes the most important customer interaction is the one that happens next. Julie strives to transform customer touchpoints into powerful relationship- and brand-building tools through the use of highly efficient business practices. With 30 years of operations and contact center experience, she is particularly skilled at developing and executing omni-channel operational solutions using combinations of internal and outsourced teams. Julie’s career background includes executive operational roles at Startek, Sitel, and Sykes. She attended the University of Northern Colorado and holds a certificate from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in Executive Leadership.
Thank you to our friends
This podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.
Links
Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
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