From Trash to Triumph: The CanMonkey Growth Strategy | Blendi Muriqi & Alexander Shapiro

Alex Shapiro, CEO of CanMonkey, shares how the company scaled its vacation rental trash solutions through technology and quality service, expanding into pool cleaning and on-demand trash removal. Initially growing via word of mouth, CanMonkey overcame hiring challenges and improved customer service by transitioning from virtual assistants to in-house support.

Takeaways:

• CanMonkey started as a solution to take trash cans to the curb for short-term rental properties.
• The business initially grew through word of mouth and referrals, but it took off when a property manager reached out.
• Hiring and ensuring quality service was a challenge, but CanMonkey developed systems and processes to manage it.
• Technology played a crucial role in scaling the business, and CanMonkey built its own application to streamline operations.
• CanMonkey has expanded into other services like pool cleaning and on-demand trash removal. It uses technology and automation to manage trash collection for vacation rental properties.
• They have systems in place to handle customer service inquiries and have divided their markets into zones.
• They have faced challenges with different trash collection schedules in different markets and have created automations to handle these variations.
• They experimented with virtual assistants but found that bringing customer service in-house improved the customer experience.

Chapter:
(01:15) - The Idea and Early Days of CanMonkey
(04:30) - Start of Hiring New People
(10:59) - Learning Lessons from Expansion
(18:14) - Growing the Sales and Marketing Team
(22:15) - Transitioning into a Technology Company
(25:25) - Leveraging Human Capital for Growth
(29:43) - Hiring and Delegating to Virtual Assistants
(36:11) - Setting Clear Expectations During Onboarding
(38:27) - Scaling with a Tiered System
(40:31) - Turning Negatives into Upselling Opportunities
(41:34) - Building a Sustainable and Scalable Business

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