Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Clemens.
Hi Austin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up immersed in the real estate industry in Santa Barbara, CA. My father is a real estate attorney, helping UHNW clients purchase homes or commercial real estate, and several of my friends’ dads growing up were home builders. I cut my teeth sanding the incredibly intricate staircase in what is now Oprah Winfrey’s house :).
I studied mechanical engineering at Bucknell University and was immediately drawn to the business world post college, seeking to apply my creative thinking and problem solving mind. I ended up working in tech for a decade, helping the world’s top brands (Walmart, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, USAA, J&J, and others) with improving their customer experience.
Alongside working in tech I bought a small apartment building as was now a part time landlord, handyman, project manager, jack of all trades. During my years of owning this building I hired MANY home services professionals (HVAC, electricians, plumbers, etc,). While I would often get my problems solved by these technicians, the customer experience was ALWAYS bad.
I thought to myself: of all the places where an excellent customer experience is significant, where could be more important than in the sanctity and privacy of one’s home? Thus, Loyal Home Concierge was born–bringing the best customer experience to home management.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
To be completely honest, the road has been very, very humbling. In the early years Loyal Home Concierge, I was in the field for 8-12 hours every day, working on customer’s homes. Then I would take care of business admin in the evenings. It was a hit to my ego to go from being in the white collar world of regularly interacting with VPs of Fortune 50 companies, to now being a blue collar service provider. This began a process of stripping down my ego and removing unnecessary self focus, transforming me to better serve our clients now. Our main values at Loyal are humility and empathy. I’ve been living those since the beginning.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am most proud of the team we have at Loyal. The way they think on their feet to constantly go above and beyond for our clients never ceases to amaze me. This is one of the reasons we have near perfect client retention. My team members are highly intelligent, resourceful, capable, and incredibly gifted relationally. Since we are focused on delivering the best customer experience in our space, we need to be excellent communicators and always thinking of others more than ourselves. One of my greatest joys is to hear glowing feedback from our clients about how they felt cared for by our team members. I’m so grateful for our team.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
GRIT. I have learned that entrepreneurship, particularly in a services based business, is less about great ideas and more about consistent and persistent execution. I’ve always been a commitment guy. My dad taught us to “let our yes be yes and our no be no” and he always modeled that. Since Loyal is self funded we are not beholden to investors to force inorganic or inauthentic growth. Simply put, we exist for our customers’ benefit, and if we’re doing things right the business will continue to grow as it has since day 1.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://loyalhomeconcierge.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loyalhomeconcierge/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loyalhomeconcierge
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinsclemens/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AustinCommunityCapital
