When Phillip Carter was 25 years old, he spotted a dilapidated house that at one time had obviously been a beautiful home, and he decided to see if it was for sale.
When he asked the man at the bank if he could buy it, he challenged Carter to make him an offer. Carter said $8,000, and the man said, “Sold.” Carter immediately knew he had paid too much, and it became evident that he had no idea what he was doing in the process of actually buying it.
Despite that, he got a home improvement loan for $10,000 and fixed the place up, and two months later, he sold it for $58,000 — a $40,000 profit.
That’s when he knew he was on to something.
What started as one house is now a $20 million business called Texas Cash Cow Investments, where he serves as president.
Smart Business spoke to Carter about how he’s grown his business over the years.
What have been the keys to your success over the years?
My grandfather told me a long time ago that customer service is the best product you’ll ever have. I can’t tell you how true that is. There’s going to be competition in the marketplace for everything. But it comes down to treating your customers well. Customer service is a dying breed. We’ve built our whole company off of customer service. It takes a little bit longer to build your business that way, but you have customers for life. We have customers who buy with us over and over.
The market changes all the time. It’s providing customer service and owning all the businesses, quite frankly that’s why I own the investment company, the construction company, the property management company, the warranty company, because I can control my customers’ experience throughout the whole process. If we outsource any part of that, I couldn’t control their experience.
What’s the most important thing you have to do to have good customer service?
Communication is a big part. I talk to my customers often, and I form personal relationships with them and I meet with them and shake their hand. No matter how good the product is, [you have to] form that relationship with the customer, communicating with them and educating them. There’s a huge void of quality information out there in real estate right now.
When communicating, what questions do you ask to understand them better?
One of the first things we do is I have a conversation with them about what their goals are. Are they getting close to retirement? Are they young? We have several different types of products — long-term retirement or sell-it-in-a-couple-years to make a bunch of money. Get to know what their goals are.
What advice can you give other leaders to understand what their customers’ goals are?
Probably getting to know the customers and asking the questions. That goes back to the customer service, as well. Developing a personal relationship with your customers — that’s your future. You might have the best product right now at the time but there’s always competition and there’s always going to be stuff coming out. People will look at your product and people will try to duplicate it, but having that personal relationship and your customers’ best interest at heart and being honest and open with them, you’re going to retain that customer for a long period of time. They’re not going to go anywhere.
If another product does come out and you don’t have that bond with those customers or know them well, you’ll probably lose that customer. We strive to ensure that we keep in communication with them. It’s not just always about sales. We get to know them personally. Quite frankly, that’s where all of our business comes from is from referrals. We’ve never advertised. We’ve grown this to a $20 million company, and we’ve never advertised. It’s all through word-of-mouth. We’ve gone global, and it’s all through word-of-mouth.
How to reach: Texas Cash Cow Investments, (214) 683-0984 or www.texascashcowinvestments.info
