Unlocking Disney-Level Service in an Automated World with Vance Morris

Vance Morris (00:03.00)

Disney is a storytelling company. They’re not attractions, they’re not, you know, just rides. Every one of their attraction tells a story. And that’s what separates it from Six Flags or your County Fair or any of the other amusement parks.

 

If, you know, you get put off to the next person and the next person and an amount of time goes by, now the problem is bigger because you’re aggravated, you’re irritated. And the compensation is going to have to be bigger because it didn’t get solved in the first place.

 

The experience level is one that creates word of mouth, it creates talkability. So, when you pull up to my client’s place, we designed it like a 1950-style service station.

 

Skot Waldron (00:54.00)

How many of you out there have heard of or visited Disney World or Disneyland or any Disney’s out there? What do you remember from that experience? Maybe it was standing in long lines. Sure. Maybe it was how much you paid for stuff. Sure. But I guarantee you also remembered how you were treated by the cast members. They call them the employees that worked at the parks. You remember how they conducted the experiment and how they created that experience for you. I guarantee that if you don’t go back to Disney, it’s not because you were treated like garbage. No, I bet it’s because of some other reason. Because the way they treat their people, the experiences they create are pretty dang impressive, y’all. It’s pretty impressive.

 

Vance Morris has a lot of experience with the Disney world. Enterprise and working there and some insights there, but he’s not there anymore. Actually, this is his bio, which is actually one of my favorites. I’m going to read it to you.

 

Vance is a Former Birth Control Factory Security Guard turned Disney Leader, turned Bankrupt Out of Work Executive, turned Carpet Cleaner, turned Successful Entrepreneur. What? Yes. Y’all. Vance is a great guy. Vance helps business owners get, serve and keep clients for life through creating experiences and response required marketing.

 

He creates us wow moments, those wow experiences that we all, I think need to create. We talk B2C, but we also talk B2B and it’s really important for us to understand that referrals, retention, the way that people talk about us, our brand that we are creating, our brand impression we’re creating in the minds of everybody we serve is a big, big, big issue. And we need to pay attention to all of it. And one way to do that is to listen to Vance. So here we go.

 

Vance, I am very interested in how you’re going to wow the audience today.

 

Vance Morris (03:24.00)

Well, first things first. Haaaa and the crowd goes wild.

 

Skot Waldron (03:31.00)

That is true. My whole audience right now can see them driving in their cars, working out on their treadmills, whatever they’re doing, like just cheering for you.

 

Vance Morris (03:40.00)

There we go. I love it.

 

Skot Waldron (03:44.00)

Wowing our customers, man. That’s a big deal.

 

Vance Morris (03:47.00)

Definitely. You know, it’s easier to do these days than ever before, because the bar is set so low. You know, I mean, we all go to restaurants or wherever and, you know, get lousy, maybe perfunctory service. I mean, there’s only a couple places I can go that I actually enjoy myself. So, to actually wow somebody is easier. You know, the simple things like answering the telephone live, preferably, sets you apart from just about everybody. Really just taking the time to listen to your customer also, because AI is not doing that so well yet. They don’t have empathy. They don’t know how to check your tone of voice.

 

So, I think the strategies and the tactics that we’ll talk about today should hopefully deliver the “wow” you’re looking for.

 

Skot Waldron (04:50.00)

Are you a customer service snob, Vance? Like I mean, when you go in, you’re just kind of like, are you picking it apart every single time?

 

Vance Morris (05:01.00)

Oh yeah, it’s a hazard of the job. Now, if I walk in and let’s just say it’s a restaurant, I walk in and it’s, you know, “hey, great to see you again.” “You know, Mr. Morris, how many of you are going to be for dinner tonight?” Now my guard is down, and I probably won’t do too much picking because they started off on the right foot. It’s what I call moment zero. You know, they initiated right from the beginning, and it wasn’t that, you know, they look at you like you got three heads and you’re interrupting them and they’re like two. That’s not exactly a great greeting. So yes, I do pick apart the service horrendously and write about it frequently.

 

Skot Waldron (05:48.00)

Yeah, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of you visiting any of my establishments, Vance. Very cool. I think that there’s a, let’s talk real quick. Let’s dig into the problem just for a second.

 

Vance Morris (06:01.00)

Sure.

 

Skot Waldron (06:03.00)

What are the things that irk you the most about businesses today out there? You know, I have a lot of corporate clients that listen to this show as well. So, it’s not always B2C. There’s a lot of B2B companies out there too, but like across the board, what are you experiencing right now? Are we seeing that is just like, stop it. My friends, please.

 

Vance Morris (06:30.00)

The overreliance on AI in customer service or customer experience is really doing a detriment to both companies. I mean, just before this call, I was on the phone, well, I was trying to be on the phone to take care of a $10 co-pay from an appointment I had at the doctor. I was on the phone for like 9 minutes because their AI couldn’t understand what it is I was trying to do, which was pay the bill. You would think that that would be it.

 

So, when I’m working with clients and my coaching members, I’m like, OK, if you’re to have AI answer your phone or a bot answer your phone, that’s fine. But make sure that option number one is, let me speak to a live person. Make that the easiest thing. Don’t bury it down in option number 32 because nobody wants to listen to all of that.

 

So, think there’s an overreliance. I’m not saying it’s not going to get better as you know, AI evolves, but right now it is not there. And so, I think that’s especially for the larger companies having that immediate access to a human is really going to set them apart.

 

Skot Waldron (07:48.00)

I was just this morning trying to book a Marriott stay and I’m just gonna call out the name. So, I hope Marriott’s listening. So, I go through, I’m going through the website, cause I know that that’s the way to do it. And for some reason I’m getting an error every single time. I went to an incognito window in Google, and it still got an error. So, I’m like, so again, I gotta call somebody. I call. I get the automated message.

 

You want to do this, do this, this, this, this. I was like, I just need a reservation. Is it a new reservation or it’s a new reservation? Well, you know, the best way to book that is online at marriott.com. Yes, I know. I just need to book a reservation. Okay. But I’m just letting you know, like it kept trying to make me go to the website and I was like, no, I need a person. And it was like, so frustrating, man. Immediately off the bat. I talk about brand a lot and I’m like, that creates a bad brand experience for me. Immediately, my first impression is like, you just confirmed how much of a pain in the butt it is to call you. Now, every time I want to call you, it’s a pain in the butt. And sometimes I have to call you and it’s already a pain in my butt.

 

Vance Morris (09:00.00)

Yeah, and you know, I mean, it’s a friction point. And what I call it, you know, that is the service prevention department, hard at work. And there’s which is very close, costly linked to the sales prevention department. They work hand in hand. And when you have experiences like that, I mean, unless you’ve got, you know, 10,000 million points and you’re going to get a free night somewhere. That’s enough for me to hang up and call Hyatt or, you know, somebody else other than Marriott. Which it’s sad because Marriott also owns, God, lost my train of thought, Ritz-Carlton. And sadly, Ritz-Carlton phones get answered by the Marriott system, unless you call the hotel directly.

 

So even a high-end brand is still subjecting its guests to exactly what you went through.

  

Skot Waldron (10:05.00)

Yeah, let’s talk about the, so I’m interested in this story you had presented to me earlier. About this, you call them the Disney of Oil Changes. Like, I want to what this is like. Okay. I just, I pull up into the thing. I just want him to change my oil. Okay. I don’t necessarily even want to get out of the car, but I got to get out of the car and go in and pay my thing fine, right? But I mean, I know I’m spoiled, but it’s kind of like, I just want to go in and get out. I want to check my tires, flash my lights, make sure it’s good. Okay, but how does somebody distinguish themselves as the Disney of oil Changes?

 

Vance Morris (10:52.00)

Sure, yeah. So, when this client contacted me, he was in a race to the bottom for pricing. He had a big-name guy, oil change guy, two doors down from him. So, every time they ran a special, he’d have to run one. And I told him, I said, there’s no competitive advantage to being second cheapest. So, your other alternative is to go up in price and in experience. The experience that we’re providing though, does not slow down and or take away from the actual changing of the oil. You still get in and out in the same amount of time that you would somewhere else. But the experience level is one that creates word of mouth, it creates talkability. So, when you pull up to my client’s place, we designed it like a 1950-style service station. So, four guys ran out, they all got little white shirts and bow ties on.

 

One guy squeegees your windshield, the other one’s checking the air pressure in the tire, one’s opening the door for you, putting the little seat condoms on so they don’t get everything dirty. And then one will escort you into the waiting room where there’s actually today’s newspaper. And there’s a barista waiting there ready to make your favorite coffee drink. And the barista is actually one of the oil change techs that just rotates through that position.

 

The result of all of that, we did a whole bunch of other things, but that’s kind of the main gist of it. The result is he’s charging 45% more than his competitor two doors down. His employee retention has gone through the roof because they are serving a few less people, but it’s less wear and tear on the building, less wear and tear on the employees. His least tenured guy is like 19 months now, which I guess in the oil change world, that’s like six lifetimes. And he’s got a customer list, like he knows the people that are coming in and communicates with his customers in between oil changes. And I can tell you that the big national chains don’t do that. So, people are paying for that experience of being treated like royalty, and they’re willing to pay for it. It may not be your oil change because you just want to get in and get out and you know, whatever you can get for 50 bucks. But there are people who will pay for the experience.

  

Skot Waldron (13:27.00)

I mean, I’m interested in the experience. Just for that, I’m curious about how they present themselves and how they differentiate, right? Coming from the brand background, I like to see some of that stuff anyway, and feel a little bit special rather than just like getting constant emails of like, hey, we’ve got a 19.99 special on this thing, and you just come on in, you know? At times I get it, it’s transactional, just give me in, give me out. But I think creating that experience, if nothing else is memorable, I mean, how often am I gonna talk about the express lube jiffy place down the street? How often am I gonna talk about this place? It’s kind of like, I may not go there all the time, but maybe I will, but I’m at least gonna talk about it. And then other people will go, that’s interesting. So, I think there’s another advantage to just retaining the customer as much as it is creating an experience that people want to talk about.

 

Vance Morris (14:28.00)

Yeah, and when I’m working with my customers and clients, I try to get them to have their clients say, oh my god, you’ll never guess what happened at, and then insert your niche or profession there. So, oh my god, you’ll never guess what happened at the oil change. You’re right. That conversation never happens at the dinner table. It doesn’t. Unless, again, you experience my client’s oil change.

 

Same thing here in Maryland, I own three home service businesses, one of them being a carpet cleaning business. And I often hear, because we see the threads on Facebook, it’s, “oh my God, you’ll never guess what happened when the carpet cleaner came today.” And the thing that separates our company from all of the others is we present the customer with a gift before we even get into the house. So, when was the last time you had a, you know, home service guy, the electrician or the plumber or anybody show up at the front door with a gift before they did any work, before they even knew if they had the job. I’m going to hazard a guess, probably none.

 

Skot Waldron (15:39.00)

I like it.

 

Vance Morris (15:40.00)

Maybe none. And I’m not talking just chip clips or pens.

 

Skot Waldron (15:43.00)

Chip clips. I love trip clips. I’ve got 400 of them in tumbler. I’ve got tumblers because the wazoo as well. Tell me. So, I just spent $400 million at Disney last two weekends ago. I was just there. It was a home of yours for a while. You got the opportunity to work and to be engulfed in the Disney experience and understand what that was. Now, as again, I walk around and I’m in awe at just the design and the detail of the experience and the way that you navigate and the way that they flow how they control that many people is incredible, right and the systems and the way that things work it blows my mind. Okay. But they create experiences and you get there and you’re like $20 for that balloon? Okay. You know, and then you’re like, and then it pops and then you’re like, Oh, okay.

 

Well, I mean, but the thing is like, how do they get it right? How does Disney just nail it? I mean, when Walt was dreaming up this thing, we were there and I was walking around my kids, I was going, do you think Walt Disney and ever like pictured what this would be right now? Like this thing, look at it. You know, that’s maybe he did. I don’t know, but it’s incredible.

 

Vance Morris (17:13.00)

Yeah, and you touched on a number of the things that make Disney different. It is a fanatical attention to, not just attention to detail, but a fanatical attention to detail. I was there a couple of months ago and sitting outside having coffee and I watched the guys are trimming the hedges. And then I saw a supervisor come behind that guy with a pair of scissors to trim the stuff that the big trimmer guy missed. That’s the fanatical attention to detail.

 

And if you remember, Disney is a storytelling company. They’re not attractions. They’re not, you know, just rides. Every one of their attraction tells a story. And that’s what separates it from Six Flags or your county fair or any of the other amusement parks, because they don’t tell a story. And you’re immersed fully in it and that all started with Walt. He said, we are first and foremost a storytelling company.

 

The other thing that every employee understands is that they got one mission. Now, I’m not talking about a mission statement. I’m sure Disney has one. It’s probably in a gold leaf binder somewhere in Burbank, but a simple mission that every employee can wrap their little brain around. And theirs is, we make people happy. That’s it. We make people happy. That’s our mission. So, if the little girl’s ice cream cone flops off on a hot day, the custodian knows that, got to make them happy first. So, they magically swoop in with the new ice cream cone, and then they clean up the one that spilled on the ground. So, you’ve got to have a strong mission. Everybody’s got one. It’s not the thing you sell. It’s kind of the byproduct.

 

So, you know, I work with a bunch of orthodontists. Typically, they are now selling self-confidence because now people will smile instead of walking around all tight-lipped and things like that. So, you’ve got to have a mission that is bigger than your job.

 

Skot Waldron (19:23.00)

I was working with an orthodontist a few years ago and they had a thing where, you know, they baked warm chocolate chip cookies. The office smelled like warm chocolate chip cookies, not like an orthodontist office. So, there was something really fun about that. And it was just like, but you’re selling sugar. I mean, you’re giving away sugar at this orthodontist’s office. Like, don’t you? And it was just like, it was part of the experience, and it was very memorable and people talked about it all the time. They had an oven in there and your part of the job was some of the admin staff was for baking cookies.

 

Vance Morris (20:00.00)

That’s the number one sense when it comes to memories, is smell. So, Disney knows this very well, because they’re always blowing different scents out into the streets or in the attractions. And your orthodontist is really smart. It doesn’t smell antiseptic. It now smells like home. And it relaxes people. They don’t think that, I mean, they know where they are, but they don’t consciously think that, oh man, it smells good. It smells just like when mom used to bake cookies. So, it really helps bring their anxiety level down too.

 

Skot Waldron (20:37.00)

It does. And I think that there’s something to consider with that. I mean, I think of the Ratatouille ride. If anybody’s ever been and you’re in the little card and you know, you go into one scene and then into one room and it smells like bread, you know, like freshly baked bread. And you’re just like, you know, it’s just that that memory is fantastic. And the story that it’s telling while you’re on the ride.

 

So, you know, I have a physical location. I can create that. What about service-based locations? What about people that have a lot of remote workers? What about businesses that you don’t go into their place of work? And I mean, how do we help retain? Because you often say that the money is in the customer experience. It’s not in the product. The product’s just the thing. But the customer experience is really where the money is. So how do we retain our customers for the long haul.

 

Vance Morris (21:41.00)

Yeah, well, certainly it is not always selling to them. That first key there, you know, there’s nothing worse than the only time you ever hear from a company is when they want to sell you something like your oil change coupons that come, you know, once a month. So, you’ve got to mix up the messages that you’re delivering. One of the best ways I think companies can execute that, whether it’s B2C or B2B, doesn’t matter, is a newsletter. Preferably print and in the mail.

 

Again, we’re going with that, you know, attaching all the senses. They got to touch it. They got to look at it. They got to think about, okay, am I going to read it or am I going to throw it away? And then the messaging in the newsletter is not about your widget or your thing because trust me, nobody wants to hear about my new, you know, carpet cleaning, succamatic 3000. Doesn’t matter to them. They don’t care, but they love reading about, by the way, I shamelessly use my children in my marketing. So, they love reading about my daughter’s ballet recital so much. So, we had a lady at the grocery store come running up to my daughter and said, “Emma, how was your recital?” She looked at me. She was like, who the hell is this lady? I don’t know. We’re ready to get around and hide now, to think up, she’s a client. She gets my newsletter. She’s watched my children grow up.

 

So, you’ve got to, in addition to the communication, you’ve got to create an emotional connection. But if you can’t create the emotional connection, they’ll be, you know, flitting through the wind at the next promotion. But once you have that, I mean, that lady is never leaving me. She’s going to either have to move or die before we stop serving her.

 

Something in the mail, I mean, the Postal Service has a much better deliverability rate than most email servers, if not all, still around 99%. 

 

I’m a firm believer of getting stuff in the mail. I actually will, when I’m trying to meet somebody for the first time, especially a prospect, I will literally send them, you they always say, let’s have a virtual coffee. I said, the hell with that. Let’s have a real coffee. So, I mail them as a little package. It’s got some notes and stuff in there, but I mail them a cup of coffee. It’s a little pouch. It’s then you open it up and you put it over your mug and you, it’s a pour over a coffee cup. So, it mails nice and easy. It’s a flat, but people are just like the guy sent me a cup of coffee. Nobody does that. My point exactly. You stand out. I’m trying to deliver some value, trying to show that I’m a little bit human. I don’t take myself too seriously. And I get more response than somebody who just sent an email because you don’t even know if they got the email.

 

Skot Waldron (24:27.00)

True. I wanna run through a few things here with you. These are, I always say they’re supposed to be kind of lightning round questions, but they don’t really count as lightning round because I often like, I’m super curious about your answers and I wanna know more. So, it’s like, they start out lightning, but then it just goes away. So, here’s what I wanna ask you.

 

I wanna know what you would say as one word, leaders misunderstand about customer service.

 

Vance Morris (25:01.00)

One word, oof. I usually say it’s not a department.

  

Skot Waldron (25:08.00)

I’ll take that. That’s three words.

 

Vance Morris (25:10.00)

It’s not a department.

  

Skot Waldron (25:12.00)

That customer service is not a department.

 

Vance Morris (25:14.00)

From CEO down to whatever the entry level position is, its customer service, customer experience is everybody’s job.

  

Skot Waldron (25:24.00)

Is it a training thing or is it a, I don’t know, a culture thing or a leadership thing? Like, what is it?

 

Vance Morris (25:31.00)

It’s all three of those. I mean, you know, when Walt started with the Disney parks, you know, I want people to feel like they are being invited into my home, which is why we call them guests, not customers. So, yes, it’s a leadership thing that then develops into a culture. And you have to train people in that. I mean, new hire orientation at Disney is a day and a half long. It’s called traditions. They don’t even talk about, you know, the 19 things in the manual that if you do any of one of them wrong, you’re going to get fired. They’re not talking about the HR stuff and I-9s and all that. They’re talking about, here’s how we point at Disney. Here’s how we say hello to a guest at Disney. Everything that Walt wanted comes out in that new hire orientation.

 

So, it’s all three. It’s employees or excuse me; CEO’s vision or owner’s vision translated into the company culture. And then as new people come in, making sure we reinforce and train on those cultural things.

 

Skot Waldron (26:36.00)

Here’s one for you. You ready? What’s the excuse you hear the most for bad service?

 

Vance Morris (26:46.00)

The excuse I hear mostly is they blame management.

 

Skot Waldron (26:52.00)

Like the frontline, the frontline people, blame them.

 

Vance Morris (26:54.00)

Frontline people. It’s the manager’s fault. It’s the unseen person in the back. It’s the cook’s fault. It’s the kitchen’s fault as opposed to taking ownership of, oops, I forgot to put your appetizer order in. My bad. Allow me to make it up to you. Can I get your refills on your drinks or maybe offer you some dessert at the end? I’d love a little bit of honesty as well as little bit of compensation.

 

Skot Waldron (27:27.00)

Ok. What’s a policy that you would kill? You’d kill policies altogether?

  

Vance Morris (27:33.00)

I’d kill policies.

 

Skot Waldron (27:34.00)

You’d kill policies altogether?

  

Vance Morris (27:36.00)

I’d kill policies. You do need to have guardrails. You know, I wouldn’t. Well, one policy I would kill is let me get my manager. That’s like the worst words you can hear.

 

Skot Waldron (27:52.00)

Why? What about that? What makes it so wrong?

 

Vance Morris (27:55.00)

Well, because if you have a problem, and you and I both had a couple of examples today, and mine escalated because I had to go to the next level up, you get more irritated and angry as time progresses with a problem. If a problem is addressed immediately and satisfactorily, you’re actually like, well, dang, that was pretty easy. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.

 

But, if you get put off to the next person and the next person and an amount of time goes by, now the problem is bigger because you’re aggravated, you’re irritated, and the compensation is going to have to be bigger because it didn’t get solved in the first place. So, I tell people, I had a dentist who notoriously late, always late, like 30 minutes late for every appointment. So, we gave the front desk person the authority to hand out a $5 coffee gift card every time somebody was late. And instead of just saying, the doctor’s running late, go sit down. It’s, “hey, you know, as usual, Dr. Smith is running behind, but we value your time. Here’s a coupon for a cup of coffee when you get out of the appointment.” Now that’s the customer service side of it.

 

The financial side of it was when we were sitting down in 30 days looking at his P&L and he wanted to know what the $3,000 in promotions were for that line item. And I looked him right in the eye said, that’s $5 divided by 3,000 every time you were late in the last 30 days. Corrected his behavior. He was like, became known as the on-time doctor. So yeah, yes, you have to have policies. I think they’re more guardrails, you know, work within this realm and you’ll be fine. But if you give a hard and fast rule for everything, and I’m talking customer experience, I’m not talking policies on, you know, clocking in or attendance or anything. I’m talking around the experience.

 

Skot Waldron (30:07.00)

What metric do you believe is, give me a metric that you really like to measure when it comes to customer service and then one that you think is a complete lie and garbage.

  

Vance Morris (30:20.00)

Repeat customers is the number one top metric. If you went to Disney today and when you were there a couple of weeks ago, 80% of the people in the Magic Kingdom right now have been there before. Only 20% are new. That’s a huge number. And so that’s one that I said, well, if it’s good enough for Disney, it’s good enough for me. So, I’ll use that ratio. So that’s what I try to attain. So, a repeat, either repeat purchase, you know, if you’re doing products or repeat use of your service is the best indicator to your delivering a great experience.

 

Net promoter score is good. It’s just not as telling. I don’t think it’s banned. The one thing that I would sort of discount are the comment cards that are given to you while the service person is standing right there. Like, you better give me all 5’s or I’m going to add 20 bucks to your bill or something like that. Those are bad. That’s what I would say.

  

Skot Waldron (31:32.00)

Okay, that I can agree with that. I try not to, a lot of my, about 90% of my clients are remote. So, I don’t ask them to, you know, rate me while I watch them on the screen. It’s a little awkward, little awkward. So, I try to avoid that.

 

What about this idea of great service? Finish this sentence for me. Great service only happens when leaders blank.

  

Vance Morris (32:05.00)

When leaders allow their employees to do what it takes to take care of the customer.

  

Skot Waldron (32:15.00)

Let me interrupt real quick, because I think this goes into what you were saying earlier too about the front desk office and giving them authority. The key word is authority to give those cards out. Because I was just talking to a client yesterday about delegation and how we give a lot of people a lot of responsibility without a lot of authority. And so that is where I think a lot of the things you’re talking about where, you know what, if the person sees the kid drop the ice cream cone, do they have the authority to go get another one and bring it to that kid, or do they have to go get somebody and get permission and then etc. etc. So, continue on your thoughts. Sorry to interrupt, but it just part that idea.

 

Vance Morris (32:51.00)

So, what I was going to say, I mean, you know, an extreme example would be Ritz-Carlton. You know, we mentioned them earlier. Every employee there has up to $2,000 of discretionary spending to solve any guest problem or to take care of a guest, even if no problem exists. So, you know, they and they don’t get questioned on it. I mean, they may be, you know, OK, could you have done it a little cheaper or not?

 

Nobody gets in trouble. They just have you tell the story. I mean, there’s a guy that left his book at home that he was reading. I guess a Tom Clancy book or something. And he just happened to mutter that at the front desk. He wasn’t really telling anybody, but he was just kind of ticked off that he forgot his book. But the front desk person was alert and on their break went to the bookstore two blocks down, bought him that book and had it delivered to his room. $22 just insured a customer for a lifetime. That’s the investment. People think I’m spending money. It’s not spending, it’s investing in the long-term retention of your customers and how well they’re going to talk about you and how much they’re going to come back.

  

Skot Waldron (34:14.00)

Give me a, what are some of your favorites, like wow experiences that you could, that we could all take away, that we could try immediately if we wanted to, you know, whether it’s a B2B company or B2C company. What are some of your favorite kinds of low hanging fruit things? I understand you have a 52-Tip wow guide that you give away as well. It could be part of that or not.

 

Vance Morris (34:44.00)

Yeah, no. I think, and this is what separates Disney from everybody else, is that they have figured out how to make an experience out of all the boring, mundane things we do day in and day out. So, they have made an experience out of answering the telephone or greeting a guest. And so, you have to look at your entire customer journey and identify points where you could create a wow.

 

Quickly, I mentioned the gift that we give. Anybody can give a gift. My carpet cleaning company does. But we’ve also created an entire wow sequence that goes with it. So, the boring thing, we have to get into the house. Can’t get in the house, we can’t do the cleaning. So, we’ve scripted the entire thing. And it starts actually when the guy drives up. We park in the street; we don’t park in the driveway. God forbid we got an oil leak. Now I got something else I gotta clean up. He gets out of the truck, and he doesn’t smell because I forbid smoking and you can’t wear cologne. Nothing worse than the guy who smells like the Marlboro man who just took a shower and acts standing in your kitchen. It’s repulsive. You know, he’s got a clean uniform because he carries an extra uniform with him in case, he gets dirty.

 

He goes up to the front door. He puts down a special mat, knocks on the door. We don’t ring the bell. And then, you know, Mrs. McGillicuddy answers the door. We say, “Hi, my name is Josh. I’m here to create your healthy home.” So that’s our mission. We’re not here to clean carpet. Our mission is, create healthy homes. May I come in? And then as we’re entering, we give Mrs. McGillicuddy the gift and we do an exaggeration of wiping our feet on the mat so that people see it. And we put our little booties on. That’s all, I mean, it doesn’t take long. It sounds like a lot.

 

But when you’re standing there, it’s like a minute worth of stuff. That’s turning an experience out of something that’s boring and mundane. And it really didn’t cost me much. I mean, even if I didn’t do the gift, it cost me nothing. But adding the gift, it’s under five bucks. And the reciprocity we get from the gift, we actually saw when we implemented the gift, we saw a 26% increase in our mid-tier package, which added about $65,000-$70,000 a year in top line sales for us. So, it’s not just nice stuff. It actually will give you a return.

  

Skot Waldron (35:05.00)

That’s awesome. That experience, I agree, it’s all the little things that are going to create the bigger impact over time and the so subtle things. You just want the customer, to the client, whoever you’re serving at the time to go, “huh”, like that’s it. Once you capture that, “huh”, then you’ve just differentiated yourself from everybody else. It’s that brand impression that you’re leaving. That they’re gonna remember. And that little experience is what you’re going for.

 

Vance Morris (37:42.00)

And then that’s just one part of the entire experience. We have a culture of referrals. People always say, “oh, how do you get your business?” People say, “oh, we’re referral only.” And all right, well, what do you do to get referrals? Do you have a system? And they’re like, no, don’t have a system. Well, how do you get referrals if you don’t have a system? So, you have to engineer referrals. So, from first phone call till the time the technician leaves their home, our customers hear about referrals nine times. It sounds like in order to do business with me, you must refer. It’s a condition of doing business. Now it’s said a lot more eloquently and it’s very under the radar. It’s not like give me a referral and make them write it down, but it is nine touches within the entire customer journey where they hear about referrals.

  

Skot Waldron (38:36.00)

That’s smart. That’s really smart. I’m trying to take notes in my own brain right now. That’s really good. Because again, I’m a referral-based business as well. A lot of things I do is through referral. And I was like; how many times do I actually mention it? I don’t think I do very often. Maybe at the end, you know, after I’ve worked with them for a year or two. And I’m like, by the way. That’s really smart. Really, really, I like that a lot. Thanks, man.

 

Vance, when we’re talking about the creating that Disney experience for our people, right? Again, some of us we don’t necessarily have people that come into a physical location, but we can create those magical moments, those ideas that stay in our minds so that when I am asked to pay obscene amounts of money to go to this place, that I pay it. And I don’t mind paying it because of the experience that I get and the magic that it creates. Because I was telling you this before the call, the first time I ever went to Disney, I told people I was a Disney hater because I went, I didn’t have any kids yet, my wife was pregnant, and I was like, why are people spending the amount that they could spend to go have a week’s long, beautiful vacation in Europe, for this. Like it’s hot. It’s standing lines. It’s like, it was crazy to me that I just didn’t get it. Then we had kids and then I went down there with our kids, and they were amazed and I was amazed that they were amazed, and I was, and I would just, it was thanks to now we’ve been several times, okay. Several times.

 

And that experience, now, do I love paying the thousands of dollars every time I go? I don’t love it, but I do it because of the amazing experience that I get. How do we, your biggest word of advice for those out there to create those experiences for our people?

 

Vance Morris (40:51.00)

You know, and I think one is the emotional connection that I talked about. Once you have that, it’s no longer transactional. It’s a partnership, it is less about the transaction than it is anything else. So, finding ways to create that emotional connection. I mean, you know, maybe you’re a fisherman or you like knitting, you know, bring those types of things from your world, your personality into the business. So many small businesses they think that they need to be viewed as a big business, like a corporation. But if they would just bring a little bit of the personality in, that will help soften and create that emotional connection.

 

Now Disney, one of the key things, and this is something that any of your listeners should and can do, is create a kiss goodnight. So you went to Disney, I don’t know what you were thinking, in July. You know, and you were there with your kids and you’re probably hot, sweaty, tired, dehydrated, malnourished, all the things that happened to you at Disney. And then the fireworks go off. And it’s like all of your stress kind of, everybody’s looking up at the sky going, wow ohh ahh, all the kids are whispering in their dad’s ear, “Dad, this was the greatest day ever.” And right there, you just, you melt, you’re toast, you’re done. You’re coming back and spending another 10 grand next month.

 

But Disney knows that because they have these fireworks or this kiss good night. So, every business can have their own version of the kiss good nights. Because if you remember primacy and recency, people remember what happened at the beginning, people remember what happens at the end, and they kind of forget the middle stuff. So, Disney knows that. And so, they want people to remember the good times which is the fireworks.

 

For us, it’s how we leave a home. Or at the end of a consulting agreement or contract, I’m sending the congratulations you’ve graduated gift. It’s usually a nice canvas print for their wall. So just a little bit of creativity and you can create that kiss good night, but I strongly, because that’s the last thing people will see until the next time, they see you and you want it to end it on a positive note. So that’s what I would do.

  

Skot Waldron (43:22.00)

Mmm, a kiss, good night. Well done, Vance. I appreciate it, man. Good, thanks for the insights, thanks for the input. So, can you tell people where to get that 52-Week thing?

 

Vance Morris (43:33.00)

Sure, yeah, 52 Ways To Wow Your Customers Without Breaking The Bank. You can find it at wow52ways.com

 

Skot Waldron (43:47.00)

A wow, for every week of the year.

 

 Vance Morris (43:50.00)

A wow, for every week of the year.

  

Skot Waldron (43:51.00)

That’s a gift. Thank you, man. That’s really good. I appreciate it. And people want to hang out with you. How do they do that?

  

Vance Morris (43:59.00)

Sure, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, Vance Morris. I’m the only Disney guy there. Or you can go to my website, which is also just as easy, www.vancemorris.com.

  

Skot Waldron (44:11.00)

Well done. Thanks Vance. Continue to wow those people out there. My listeners have been wowed because I think you’ve given some things for them to think about too. So, appreciate it, man.

  

Vance Morris (44:23.00)

Thank you for having me on, Skot. I appreciate it.

  

Skot Waldron (44:28.00)

Okay, I’ve got some thoughts. I’ve got some old night; my gears were turning in my brain as I’m thinking about what I need to do to further wow my own clients. I don’t know if I do enough. I’ve thought about this, I’ve read multiple books and I just, it just takes time and it takes effort and it takes all these things that we always complain about with all the other things that we’re trying to do in our businesses, in our lives.

 

And I think that if we just take a moment, it doesn’t have to be hard. Go download that 52-Wow guide like that. It’s stuff that’s not gonna break your bank. It’s stuff that’s really simple to implement and its things that we can all do. And that’s why Vance has been such a resource and such a guide for me on the show and for you hopefully as you take on some of the advice that he was giving. Create those good night kiss moments. What is it that you want to do to leave your customers, clients, whoever with a good impression?

 

With that thing that they can walk away going, that was cool. And then they tell somebody about it. Hey, guess what? Last week I was at this thing or hey, yesterday I was doing this thing or hey, I talked to this person. We want those moments to come out of their mouths and to somebody else’s ears because that is what creates brand loyalty, brand recognition and all the things that we work so hard for and to keep. So, thanks everybody.

 

 

If you want to find out more information about me or check out the show notes where there’s going to be more information and links to the things referenced in this episode, visit skotwaldron.com. And lastly, I’m asking for a little bit of love, just a little bit. So please take a moment, follow, rate the show. The algorithm is like that; it helps me get the word out. I really appreciate it.

 

Thank you. And until next time, stay Unlocked.