How to Develop Loyal Employees in a Residential Service Business (Part I)

Learn how to build loyal employees by connecting emotionally, leading by example, recognizing great work, and saying thank you regularly in your service business.

Does Your Team Feel a Personal Connection to Your Leadership?

KickStart: To keep good people long-term you must build an emotional bond with each employee.

Question: Which is more important to a residential services business? 1) Homeowner clients or 2) quality employees? I’ll wait while you ponder… 🫣

If you chose #2, “quality employees” WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER! 🐔🐔 NOTE: I have zero idea where this saying came from! 🤷‍♂️

Sure, without clients your company will quickly die. But without QUALITY employees it will be an agonizing “death by a 1,000 cuts”! Some of you are living this slow-motion demise right now. 😭

I hope you’ve finally made recruiting the Very Best People part of your everyday routine. If so, fantastic!

💡 When you surround yourself with solid, dependable, even great people, everything in your business gets easier—quality goes up, stress goes down, and customers notice the difference.

Sure, following my dictum to “pay 20% than the going rate” absolutely helps you ATTRACT good people. In fact, you must pay more if you want better talent. But here’s the uncomfortable truth most residential contractors learn the hard way:

High wages alone won’t KEEP employees loyal to you.

Not long-term. Not emotionally. Not through the inevitable business rough patches.

And again, you DO need great employees—because life is way too short to drag marginal workers along behind you.

So, once you’ve got a Very Best Person (VBP) on your team, your mission shifts from just attracting VBP's to actually keeping them. And the only way you keep great people is to…

Tie Your Employees to You (and your team) Emotionally!

Dollars (of any amount) don’t drive loyalty. Emotion does. Think about it. You see this emotional loyalty with your residential customers—and it’s even more true with great employees.

If you want loyal people, the kind who will go the extra mile and “take ownership” of their job like it’s their own business, you MUST build an emotional connection with each employee.

The easiest way? Make every worker feel like they’re part of your business family.

Here’s what worked in my home services business:

1. Lead by Example (Yes, Even When You Don’t Want To!)

Never ask a tech to do something you wouldn’t. Engage in “Servant Leadership” as in, don’t be that boss barking orders. 😡 Jump in on a tough job. Help carry equipment.

ProTIP: Cook (or cater) a monthly breakfast for your staff. BONUS! This much-looked-forward-to event will be a great opportunity to put my next point into action!

2. Publicly Recognize Your People 💐🪇🎈🎊🎉

Why do I beat this drum constantly? Because it WORKS! Public Recognition is the fastest, cheapest, and most powerful motivator you have. And yet most owners skip it! 🙄

Celebrate individual and team wins in front of your entire company. Brag on your people to customers. Call out great performance during morning huddles. 👏👏👏 Sincere recognition in front of others creates emotional glue.

3. Say “Thank You” More Often—And Mean It 💖

Not the generic “thanks guys.” Be specific as in:

“Jason, thanks for staying late to fix that squeaky dryer vent—Mrs. Green was thrilled.”

“Maria, thank you for calming Mrs. Martinez down. You saved the day. Well done!”

This specific thanks will supercharge your praise X 10! 😯 (X 20 if you can maneuver things to casually thank them in front of their coworkers!)

NOTE: Click HERE to review the why and how of thanking your residential clients.