Retire Talk with Alison Abel
Retire Talk with Alison Abel is a podcast discussing all things RV. Each week, I will deliver enlightening & uplifting conversations with industry colleagues and experts in the area of Market Research, Marketing, Project Sales, Village Management and much more. I cant wait to share these relevant and relatable stories of people just like you and me who are doing great things in the RV environment.
Retire Talk with Alison Abel
Strong key partnerships are critical in your clients journey from deposit through to settlement
As a project sales manager for off the plan sales, at the beginning of any new project I deliberately immerse myself in getting to know the best of the best in the local area when it comes to what I call my extended team of professionals, a team that I personally meet with and handpick to ensure that our values are aligned in overcoming what i know will be roadblocks from purchase through to settlement for my clients.
On today's podcast, I'm talking with one of those extended team members, Nathan McCracken from Crackers Clear-out, a business that started as a result of Nathan's family, trying to go through the downsizing process for a family member and not being happy with the service that was provided.
Nathan and his team now proudly partner with retirement organizations and aged care providers in Sydney and Canberra providing a trusted service during the downsizing journey.
They understand that downsizing can be an emotional time choosing what to take and what not to take to a new home can be a stressful yet necessary part of the journey.
Hi, all it's only able here and I'm so excited to share retired, talk to podcast, discussing all things are the each week I will deliver enlightening and uplifting conversations with industry colleagues and experts in the area of market research, marketing, project sales, and marketing and village management, and much, much more. I hope you'll join me. Hi everyone. And welcome to another episode of the retire talk podcast. As a retirement living project sales manager for off plan sales. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a strong belief around educating not selling. And a part of that educational process is being able to uncover the roadblocks to purchase that I know many of my clients will have. How many times have you heard in the first meeting with a prospect I'm not ready to make the move yet. I've got so many things that I have accumulated over the years. It's going to take me years to sort through it all. Well, there's a roadblock right there. I don't know about you, but at the beginning of any new project, I deliberately immerse myself in getting to know the best of the best in the local area. When it comes to what I call my extended team of professionals, a team that I personally meet with handpick to ensure that our values are aligned in overcoming those roadblocks from purchase through to settlement for our clients on today's podcast, I'm talking with one of those extended team members, Nathan McCracken from crepitus clear out crickets, clear out, started as a result of Nathan's family, trying to go through the downsides process for a family member and not being happy with the service that they provided. They now partner with retirement organizations and aged care providers in Sydney and Canberra providing a trusted service during the downsizing journey. They understand that downsizing can be an emotional time choosing what to take and what not to take to a new home can be a stressful yet necessary part of the journey. Well, hi Nathan, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Thanks Ellie. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just start with the most obvious question around what is crackers clear out?
Speaker 2:Crack is clear out, specializes in home clearance, rubbish and junk removal, helping people downsize and prepare their properties for sale.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Now I know you have a, quite a unique story about how crackers clear out got started. Do you mind sharing that with us a little bit today?
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Clarence and rubbish. Certainly. Wasn't where I thought I'd end up in my career. Originally started as a travel agent of all things. My first job out of university, before moving into financial services and had a 20 year career in the commercial foreign exchange industry and basically helping importers and exporters pay for their overseas goods. It's about as far from rubbish removal as we could get.
Speaker 1:And tell me a little bit about that, because I know in talking with you previously, you had a family member that was going through the downsizing process themselves, and you were trying to find someone to assist with that and weren't able to, so just elaborate a little bit more on that story for me.
Speaker 2:Well, my parents were helping the estate of an elderly neighbor. Who'd passed away with no family remaining and they were left with the task of clearing out his property, 50 years of a lived in house and mum and dad were doing it themselves. They finding it really tough and really difficult. So my wife, Sarah, and I thought we'd try and find someone to help them do the job. We found someone, they got the job done, but just the whole process just didn't feel right. There was not a very pleasant experience for my parents in terms of the behavior of the rubbish removalist and the attitude towards the whole job. And we thought that we could do a better job, a different job. So we purchased a truck and crackers clear out was born
Speaker 1:Fantastic. And how many trucks you got on the road? At the moment,
Speaker 2:We have two trucks at the moment and continually looking to grow our fleet and the people that we have working with crackers clear up,
Speaker 1:Keeping you pretty busy at present.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's really, really busy at the moment with all people downsizing into retirement living and also general real estate in particular, keeping us very busy.
Speaker 1:Why would you say people are choosing to use your services crackers clear out when, as you rightly said, like a lot of people think that they can do it themselves. Why would they choose crackers?
Speaker 2:I think the distinction there L is that we see ourselves very much as a home clearance company, rather than just rubbish and junk. We understand that not everything that we take away is rubbish and junk. These are often lifetime memories, 50 years in a house or a family's growing up there. So I believe they choose us because we have the understanding and the empathy with the process they're going through and understanding that it's quite an emotional time as they make this life change and their new living arrangements.
Speaker 1:It's so important. And so true. What you're saying, Nathan, one of the key roadblocks to purchase that a sales front is the thought of having to downsize out of that family home that they have lived in for 40 plus years. It becomes a mental block for them. And I think, you know, certainly from my point of view, your services have really assisted me in my role, overcome one of those key objections from purchase really through to sediment. So they can walk me through a little bit about what the customer journey looks like for a customer that engages crackers clear out
Speaker 2:The customer that's looking to engage crackers clear out, has generally made the decision to move on. They're looking at putting their house on the market or just preparing the downsizing process as they look to move into retirement living. So they've made the decision to move. Now, what they need to do is at what do I need to take? What can I take? What is going to fit into my new environment, obviously beautiful new apartments. Sometimes the existing decor, they currently have this doesn't fit sizes might be too big. So they're looking at that process of how can I move on what we don't need? So they're already ready. They know they're moving. They now understand they can't take everything. And that's when they engage crackers clear out to help them with the process of moving those items on as part of a home clearance process.
Speaker 1:Would you say that all customers that you come in contact and looking for the same service or are they all looking for something quite unique in your service?
Speaker 2:I think one thing is really important that no two customers are the same, even if they're moving to the same retirement community and there might be a different life and care stages, they may have lost a partner. There may be a family situation. That's very different between these customers. We deal with everything from clearing, maybe a single allowance, right through to managing a hoarding situation where someone may have had their home turn into an uncomfortable environment. And they're looking to start fresh in that new environment, in the retirement living community. So everything from the single item, right through to those more extreme hoarding situations,
Speaker 1:I'm sure that your no different to anyone else throughout the COVID period, what have you found to be the main concerns and how he changed the way that you do your business as a result of COVID?
Speaker 2:I think the main concerns were really just what society was feeling in general. It is the unknown, it was people not knowing really what was going on. And we had the restrictions that were put in place through lockdowns and various other situations. Our team, we always wore the PPA. We're wearing the masks, we're utilizing sanitary processes to ensure that we're not putting our customers at risk where possible we're looking at contactless pickups where possible also we're doing things in a way where the customer may not be present in the room or the home, and even just our processes in terms of how we manage our trucks and our staffing levels. We'd often take a driver in each truck to have a two person crew on site to ensure that the social distancing was there. Uh, vaccination was very important for us and, um, all of our current Sydney staff were all fully vaccinated, which is very important to us that we're not putting customers in danger. And at the same time, the customers can have the competence to know that they're not going to be put at risk.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Nathan, how prepared does a client need to be when they first engage your services? What happens from that initial telephone call through to you till the time they engage you?
Speaker 2:We engage with customers at all stages of readiness. We have people who are ready for the home clearance. We have some people who may have just been told by their real estate agent that maybe some of this stuff needs to go or through the project marketing team like yourself, that do you know what? There's too much furniture here. It's not going to come through so we can navigate the entire process from that initial scoping of what needs to be done through, to share drooling through, to really getting it done. It's all manner of stages from the very prepared through to all right, let's do it today. I didn't realize I had that much stuff. When can you do it or on not looking to move until three months time, let's do it then. So we can handle all ranges of readiness.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, well in a perfect world, which we're quite often not in the perfect world. What would you recommend as being, I guess the best way for someone who's looking at moving into a retirement village to prepare for that move?
Speaker 2:Downsizing can seem very stressful. And I think the key thing that we've learned throughout the whole process is how important it is to work closely with the project sales teams like marketability to help them follow the timelines and processes that work, that understand for their specific facility and community that really engaging with the project team to make sure that they follow the timeline. So that is certainly one way which stress can be reduced.
Speaker 1:It's so important. I mean, we've had this conversation, I think quite a lot now, even the first time that I met you for me as a project sales manager, it's all about, I guess, having that extended team of professionals, we were never meant to do it all ourselves. So it's about bringing people in that can help at each step throughout that process to offer the best possible service that we can to our clients. And I think one of the ways that we've been able to do that in partnership has certainly been through, you know, the information sessions that we hold from deposit through to settlement. What was a little bit through, I guess, the active part that you play in those types of days and events
Speaker 2:Crack has clearly, that's been very fortunate to be involved with a number of these information sessions from the deposit of sessions through to the more follow through information days. We've had an opportunity to discuss the process with people who are purchasing retirement, living apartments, and we've been actively involved right from the start in those things. So often we'll do a presentation, but it's the conversations after the presentation. It's the lunches, it's the individual chats where everyone has a slightly different or slightly more unique situation to everyone else that we really get the benefit of sharing, how we might be able to help these people as they prepare to downsize
Speaker 1:Say, or what would you say the differences between, I guess you're over 55 market, those moving into a retirement village. And I guess just your general market, what's the biggest difference you see between those clients?
Speaker 2:One of the big things with the over 50 fives and retirement living community people is their real focus on the environment and how they really want to make sure that what we are taking away doesn't end up in landfill if at all possible. So there's a real environmental focus and a real necessity for us to demonstrate that we do try and reuse, recycle, and repurpose what we can. Other general sort of selling houses, the markets, it's more a disposable approach, but again, we still try to reuse, recycle, repurpose where possible, but it's that real deep focus on environmental impact with the over 50 fives that I really love working with the community.
Speaker 1:I think it's been such a special part or I guess the story that we've been able to tell of your service, where, you know, you may have been able to repurpose some of that furniture to houses of domestic violence, you know, where there's values aligned with the organizations that we're working with, or as you said, rather than just landfill, they're going to people in need, which I think has been, you know, really, really well received. Is it a once done experience for your customers?
Speaker 2:For some people, it is sort of a once and done service. We come in, we know what we need to do. And we remove as part of the home clearance and we then distribute the items appropriately and ethically. Other people it's might be when you're preparing a house for sale, they're listing it. We're doing a pre-sale clear out. It might be settlement day. Are there things here? Oh, we didn't realize about under the house. So we're back helping remove items that may interrupt a settlement in their new home. There's also maybe there, we brought too much stuff or it just doesn't fit here. I've had experiences at Gracewood where we've done. The pre-listing clear out we've done a settlement day. Let's make sure this all goes through smoothly. And we've also removed items from Gracewood when they've decided to upgrade their lounge and living room furniture. So right through the process from listing through to ongoing, we can help customers, whereas yes, but some people are just once and done as well.
Speaker 1:I think you touched on a really important key factor there, and it's about, uh, the relationships, not only between you and the sales team, but also, you know, real estate agents. How have you found that? I guess, working in conjunction together, those networking partnerships and what have you heard from the customer face as a result of that?
Speaker 2:One thing we constantly hear from the customers is that they feel that the project team understands their needs. And that's why you brought together the teams that you do to help in that facility, working with the agents, it really helps us sort of cement that relationship that we have there, where we can help and our relationships with the agents involved in the project. Marketing often extend beyond that as we're able to demonstrate a mutual benefit to each other, but it's really just that value of what the wider team can bring is what customers really appreciate, knowing that they can trust the jobs that's going to get done. And it's going to be done in a way that's both professional, empathetic. We have an interest in their story and it's not just a transactional relationship. Now, that's the one thing I really enjoy.
Speaker 1:That's a great entry into my next question. What is it that you most enjoy working with this market?
Speaker 2:I think it really comes down to, I really love learning about their stories. We come into a home and there are so many conversations starters that you see around the home that you may be removing. You can ask a question about anything and it's really, you see the customer's eyes light up. It might be a memory. It might be something special. And dear to them, it might be almost nothing. It's just an item of furniture, but I love connecting with the customers and having a chat as much or as little as they want about certain things. But because every job is so different, there's so many different conversations and different ways that we can connect. I love that connection.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. And I, for all of us, there's certainly stories or individuals that pull on the heartstrings over our careers. Is there one that you can think of at the top of your head?
Speaker 2:I've had one recently where there was a situation where we came into this beautiful person's home who was moving to a retirement living community and they were feeling uncomfortable about the state that their environment had become. And we just took it in our stride. And I think that's the most important thing. It was a over a number of days, we came back, we came and redid many of the items there. And we worked through a process where this resident was, they were happy. They were comfortable and realize that they had a lot of things that they couldn't take with them. And one thing we did, which I think was really special, was take some photographs of some of the items they weren't able or weren't comfortable in partying with. So we took a photo, we texted it to them on the spot and they had that visual representation of the items, which was really super important to them. So that was one that really did bring home how important it is. It's not just rubbish and junk removal. We're really helping people move home.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Well, how do you know that you've done a good job? What does a satisfied customer look like to you?
Speaker 2:If we take it back to our purpose as an organization, it's, it's all about stress relief and peace of mind at one load at a time. So what we're really seeing is the sense of relief that they're one step closer to achieving their goal of selling their home, moving into retirement, living community. They know that they've been respected throughout the process as well. That's something that when you can see the smile on their face, that they didn't have to go through this process alone or by themselves. And that there was an easier way to do it. That's what a satisfied customer looks like to us.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Well, values are really important. Being valued, aligned with those that you deal with is even more important. Can you tell us a little bit about your key values and how they really, I guess, into law with the retirement living sector,
Speaker 2:We have four key values at crackers, clear out I'll run you through the Malley, the first one positive impact. And really we want to give our customers a sense of relief and take a weight off their shoulders. We want to make a positive impact on their experience, but it's also environmental. We want to make a positive impact there in terms of how we manage the disposal or moving on of their items, but also for our partners like marketability, who we want them to know that we'll have a positive impact on their experience because you're entrusting with us and interaction with your customers. So again, understanding that the environmental impact is important to organizations, secondly, interested, trusted, and enthusiastic.
Speaker 1:I like this one. Excellent.
Speaker 2:Well, we did spend a fair bit of time working through and trying to document our values. And the main thing that we really sort of had here with this value is that we understand that everyone has a story we're aware of the surroundings in our home, but we're happy to have a chat as much or as little as our customers want to. And we enjoy what we do. Also. We'll happily give you tips and advice while we're on the job. But also for organizations that we partner with this value is all about. We enjoy being part of the bigger picture and helping our partners help their customers. And we appreciate the trust that our partners place in our business to deliver to their customers, our third value, professional and empathetic. We care about our customers in their unique situation. As we've said, no two are the same. Even if they are moving to the same community, we understand the emotion of downsizing and we make sure the process is as gentle and simple as possible and respectful. And that's why our team's always well presented. The trucks are clean and that's just an important professional aspect we like to do there. And in terms of working with our partners with professional and empathetic value is that you can be confident that we're giving your customers the best service possible. That's really important to us. And finally, we'll get the job done and we're reliable. We'll get the job done. It doesn't matter how big or small we'll move. Most things probably slightly bigger than a toaster through to anything sort of five-bedroom houses, yards, whatever garages, but for our partners, in terms of getting the job done, we take your deadlines seriously. We love to deliver on your trust and our business. And also we understand our place in the chain of making things happen. So that's why that's a really important value for us that we'll always find a way to get the job done.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing those with us, not team and choosing the right team again, a such a critical part of the bigger picture. It's one thing to be valued and aligned with the business partnerships that you're working with, but it's equally important or more important to also be values aligned with the staff that you employ and the staff that you work with. So tell me a little bit about your team and what they bring to the downsizing experience.
Speaker 2:People are the key I should say to business and how we deliver on our promise to both our customers and our partners, the people we look for. They're, they're happy, they're caring, they're hardworking, engaging, and ready to engage as little or as much as the customer really wants. I think that's the key thing here is that there needs to be the understanding and the empathy to realize how much engagement and what's appropriate. And what's not. So our team ranges from 18, 19 year old students through to we've had Quantis pilots who were working for us during the COVID lockdown. I have a professional dancer who works for us in between choreographing youth dance groups. And that's another story for a different time as well, but he's an amazing worker and highly talented individual. We've had travel agents who are out of work during COVID people on gap years. One of my staff has just left to join the Australian federal police. So we have a range of ages, range of life experience. And I think that's what really helps us deliver on our promise.
Speaker 1:How do you say connected?
Speaker 2:It's very much a lot of truck time as well with our team. There's a lot of bantered. Often we'll have multiple trucks on sites, so there's a lot of connection sort of through proximity, but also the technology that we use as well. But this is really, it's almost a little bit old school in that regard. It's spending time. You get to know these people. And again, there's the bands that you have within the work environment. There's also outside the environment. We care about each other as people. I think that's one of the key things too, that you, you take some interest in what interests our team and you can have a conversation. And I think that's how we stay connected as a group
Speaker 1:Testing. Well, I'm sure that's probably been a bit of competition in regards to, who's been able to find the strangest item in the plane up and clear outs. Can you share with us what some of those items have been?
Speaker 2:Well, Elliot you'd never know how many bowling balls are out there. There are bowling balls everywhere, all over the garages of Sydney and Canberra. It unbelievable number of bowling balls. We had a javelin from an athlete in the 1952 Olympics, which ended up on one of our trucks and, um, has been donated. We've had houses with 140 lawn mowers in the backyard, which the grass was a meter high, but we've had 140 lawn. But I think a ride on steam train. That was always an interesting one that was in a garage in the backyard. There've been so many different items that that's what we were saying before about if not conversation status, I don't know what is
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I may remember, I think you were telling me many months ago that there's even been occasions where you have found an item that the owner either didn't know that they still had, which has actually flooded back memories.
Speaker 2:Yes. That's one thing why we talked about the care that you need to take with this type of work is people go through their things, but some things often slipped through the cracks. We've had original photographs. We've had newspaper clippings from when one of my customers met the queen when she first arrived, but she was a five-year old girl meeting the queen many decades ago. So that there's books, there's there, there's jewelry. There's many things that we've found that we've been able to put back. And often every place there's usually maybe one or two things, oh, I didn't mean to throw that out. So that's why we're always taking care with what we do put out and having the team to be on the lookout for these things that might actually have some sentimental value for our customers.
Speaker 1:Well, in drawing to the end, let's spend a bit of time with you talking about your tips for de-cluttering and downsizing in preparation for retirement living. What would you top five tips? The
Speaker 2:Allie, I think the first one is plan early the earlier, you know, what needs to be done, the better your positioned to make that happen. Think, secondly, consider the real estate process. You're often having to sell a property to move into retirement living community. So you need to understand what needs to be done when a home clearance at the time of listing might be different to at the time of settlement. So understand and consider the real estate process that you're in. I think shoveling the deep clutter would be the third tip and we find that going room by room is the best way to do it. And then that way you really can tick off sections of the house that you've achieved that. And that's a great way to, to see the progress because often it really does feel like a giant mountain that you need to start with, but if you can chunk it down, that's the best way there. I think fourth would be to plan for the distribution or disposal of items that you won't be bringing with you as you're downsizing. And you may be able to take some things to an auction house. You might be able to sell them Gumtree or eBay donations or another way to dispose or distribute items giving away. And then if we can't do that recycling, and that's the key part of the planning for the distribution or disposal and the fifth tip is don't be afraid to ask for help and guidance at any time along the journey and be open to not knowing how to do something, ask the question. And if we don't know, we probably know someone who does and we can help throughout that process. The
Speaker 1:Strength of partnership again, right there, they ask some very good tips. Nathan's I thank you for sharing those with us. Well, is there anything that I haven't asked that maybe I should have? Yeah,
Speaker 2:I think we've had a pretty good conversation about the whole process here. And I think the key message from myself would be like to plan early work with your retirement living project team and make sure that you ask for help and guidance when you need it, because there is an answer and if we don't have it, somebody else will. And we feel very privileged to be in a part of the downsizing journeys of many of the new residents in your communities. And thank you.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm just so thankful for the service that you've provided them. It's been a mutually wonderful partnership and looking forward to working on many more projects with you into the future. And if anyone is wanting to get in contact with you and the crackers clear out team, what is the best way to do that?
Speaker 2:The two best ways would be phone. We have our one 300 number is 1, 302 5 7 6, 8, 8. Or you can contact myself directly on email Nathan at crackers, clear out.com.edu.
Speaker 1:Well, again, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you and we'll speak to you again. So
Speaker 2:Ellie really appreciated the opportunity to have a chat. Thank you.
Speaker 3:[inaudible].