Delivering Magic: How to Create Unforgettable Customer Experiences | RR339 [ENCORE]

Rob, hello, hello and welcome to this week's

episode of relationships rule. My guest today, I I'm not even

going to tell you his name yet. I'm just going to read this to

you because I love this. Okay. He helps business owners get

serve and keep clients for life through creating experiences and

response required marketing. He's a former birth control

factory security guard turned Disney leader, turned bankrupt,

out of work executive turned carpet cleaner turned successful

entrepreneur. What a beautiful and interesting bio intro. So

welcome to the show. Vance Morris,

thank you, Janice, thank you. You know they say you

can't make this

stuff up. I guess not. I guess not,

even if I tried, I couldn't so well, let's

dig into that for a little bit. So I know that you

that you were a Disney employee for 10 years or so. But did the

birth control factory security guard come first?

Oh yeah, it does. That was actually my summer job.

Summer Job, yeah, okay, that's what I figured.

Okay. And then we invented,

and then when you were at Disney, which, of course, you

did say, Yes, some people do leave there. It is an

experience, I'm sure, an environment all unto itself. But

you worked specifically, I think, in the restaurant

experience. Is that correct? Can you

I worked in the resorts? Okay? The resorts,

okay, and how many resorts did they have at

that time,

at that Oh, good, gracious.

But when you say the resort, you mean like

Disneyland, Disney World. Do you mean those?

Oh, no. I meant like Grand Floridian,

contemporary, Polynesian resort, the actual hotels. Okay, got it?

Okay, yeah, when I got there, they were just opening up

Disneyland Paris, which was one of their other parks. But, yeah,

I spent all of my time, didn't, didn't work in the parks, which,

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but the

resorts were, were enough for me. It really, you know, for me,

for a first real job out of college. I mean, I had worked in

a restaurant as a manager for year and a half, but Disney was

my foundation. And surprisingly, one of the first things I

learned there was that they are a highly, highly systemized and

process oriented company, and that's really to this day,

that's what I use in my home service businesses that I still

own to create those emotional connections with my customers,

to create the emotional connections with My employees.

But if it wasn't systemized, if there wasn't a process behind

it, there's no way that we could consistently deliver the kind of

experience and the kind of service that you know Disney is

known for, and that people have come to expect.

So couple of questions come to mind from

that, and one is that I know that for you would be, I would

think very fortunate experience to have that as your first major

corporate thing. My daughter had an experience here where she she

worked during high school as a server at this local restaurant,

but this restaurant was a chain, a Canadian chain, but had then

moved into the states, and then she got after that, when she was

at university, she started to get into management training

there, and every time she left to go do something else, they

say, You're welcome back anytime. And she got a really

good, solid foundation of sales and of systems and all of that

that's taken her through two businesses that she's owned and

a company that she's now a VP with. So I get that I think it's

a very special experience, and Disney, of course, being one of

the leaders in customer experience. The other question

that that, or that that was a comment, the question that comes

to mind is, having worked at Disney. What's your take on Are

you a TV watcher at all?

I have four kids, so the command of the remote

control is very rarely in my possession.

Okay, well, but what you know, I'm sure, is that

ABC is owned by Disney, and so are so many other companies.

Now, do you think that the Disney Experience is going to

come down through those different entities that they own

now? Because, I mean, there are the big, you know, the big five

conglomerates that own the world. Disney's one of them,

right? Do you think that

that that is a great question. And. Right? I

would like to think so, but it reminds me of I hosted my

mastermind meeting at a Ritz Carlton last month in

Washington, DC. Nice and Ritz Carlton is owned by the Marriott

Corporation, and we asked the guy, the general manager came,

actually came down to speak to our to our group, and we asked

him, we were like, you're the Ritz Carlton. You're owned by

Marriott. Why can't the rest of the Marriotts? Yeah, their level

of service up to yours. And you know, a lot of it has to do with

money. You know, to stay at a Ritz Carlton, you're looking

$800 a night, you know, for a Wednesday, you know. So you are

paying for that experience. And I think the same thing is true

at Disney in that when you're in the parks and in the resorts,

you are paying for the experience. And and I don't

think a lot of people associate the Disney company with ABC,

ESPN, and some of the other media that they that they're in,

certainly Disney plus, which, if you look at Disney plus

streaming, and you compare it to ABC, there's, I think they're

just the the entire look of that platform is very Disney esque

versus ABC.

So I agree, but I have to say that. So if I watch

something on ABC, and I guess I'm more observant than a lot of

people, but I see how. I'll give you a perfect example, Jeopardy.

Okay, so Jeopardy is on every night, and it is ABC, right?

I'm not sure I'd have to ask my mom. I don't

know.

Well, I'm pretty sure it is. But the point being

that they have category on there, usually, every once in a

while that they have live people do the the questions, okay? Last

night they had the woman, young woman, who is starring in the

new Moana movie. Okay, that's a Disney movie, right? They had

the the wicked stars do one the other night, and then that must

be whatever it's owned by Disney.

So that's a Disney production, yeah, right. So

those

things, everything Disney gets pushed

into, wherever it can. There are other things, but I would hope

that their from their staff perspective, from their working

their perspective, they would also do those things. So that's

why I asked that question. And I just think,

I mean, you really would think that that culture

would kind of filter down at least somewhat. Yes, yeah,

because, say that again, I said even Walt knew, though, that,

you know, they obviously, when Walt was alive, they didn't own

ABC, right? But he was able to get his TV show, wonderful

world, Disney on ABC, and he was literally the first infomercial

that you ever saw. Because, yeah, sure, he you know, they'd

have the skits and they'd have the the cartoons and the stories

and everything, but it was a big, giant advertisement for

Disneyland, and of course, the coming Disney World. And so they

still use ABC for that, you know, the Disney Christmas

parade. You know they that's broadcast on ABC. Yeah, I think

there's, I think there's still some synergy, but I agree with

you. I think that a little bit more could filter down.

Yeah, okay, so that being said, I know that you

like me. You're all about the well, like me, I'm very customer

experience. I noticed that, and I care about the customer

experience, and I know that you do too. And so you say, you

know, build a relationship centric business, and where's my

note? Here, just a minute. Okay, and so what I notice is that,

you know, we, we as business owners, generally speaking, I'm

talking generally that we, we're always looking for the new

client, but we're never focused on the ones we already have, and

what magic we can Disney term, what magic we can bring to them

if we look after them. And you you say that you mentioned

creating walk on burning coals loyalty like Disney. So what's

the secret to cultivating such deep connections with clients or

customers? In your perspective? Certainly.

Well, I just. A course for my members. And so

the numbers fresh My mind is 68% of customers leave a business

because they are ignored. 68% that is astounding. And if you

could chip away at that, 68% you know. I mean, we, I think we've

talked before. I mean, you know, the most expensive thing you can

do with a customer is actually acquire them. There's a huge

upfront cost to getting a new client or a new customer into

your into your business. It is infinitely cheaper to retain the

customer through nurturing, through I mean, I tell, you

know, my coaching members and my and my clients all the time,

it's not our customer's job to remember us. It's our job to

remind the customer that we exist. And so I am a and I know

we've talked about, you know, direct mail. I am a youth

opponent of using the Postal Service, and I believe, both in

the US and Canada, we got about a 99% deliverability rate, so

it's still pretty good. But you have to use things that are not

always a sales tool or an offer, because if the only time your

customers hear from you is when you want to sell them something

that's not a relationship, that's a you know, it's not

symbiotic. I mean, it is you shoving stuff down their throat.

Buy my stuff, buy my stuff. And so I find that creating that

that engagement, creating that emotional connection is where

most businesses fail, but I shamelessly use my children in

my marketing. Tell me more, my my my carpet cleaning clients

have watched my kids grow up. You know my daughter, she's 17

now, but when she was five, she did ballet, and so at the

recital, took a picture of her, put it in my newsletter and

said, you know, here's darling little Emma on her first you

know, you know, recital and you know, and I did that every year.

So every October, whatever it was, put a new picture of Emma.

So my customers watched Emma grow up, and we had a woman a

cost, I'd say a cost us, but approach us in a grocery store,

didn't even look at me. Went right to my daughter and said,

Oh, my God, Emma, how was your recital? I love it like, honey.

Let's go. We were hiding because this lady's nuts. Then I had to

think, oh, wait, she must be one of my customers and gets our

newsletter. And so when you make that emotional connection like

that, that walk on burning coals, yes, connection, that

woman is never leaving me until she dies or moves away,

I love that. It made me think actually, of a

cleaner. I used to have a housekeeper that she was young,

and I wish she stayed with it, because she was the best, but

what she had kind of a rosy, the Riveter type logo, kind of feel,

old fashioned kind of feel. And every time she came to your

house to clean or one of her people came, they brought cookie

dough, and they baked like half a dozen cookies in your oven and

left them on the counter. So you come home to that beautiful

smell of the cookies. And I like, oh, my god, that's

amazing, right? Brilliant, I know. And you could even choose,

you could choose from three or four types of cookies that that

you know you were your favorites.

So, yeah, you know when it comes to memories, sense

or smell is your number one sense? Yeah, and so, you know,

anytime I smell kielbasa, I think of my grandmother's

kitchen because she made it by hand. So you know that and

Disney uses odors and smells as well to evoke those same things,

because they know that memories are attached to that sense.

Yeah, I there's so many stories that are

positive and great stories around ways to put that personal

touch in your marketing, ways to get your clients to to

differentiate you from the others for your clients. So in

in your experience, when you were designing Disney's chef

Mickey's dining experience back in the day, what did you learn

about the importance of first impressions, and how can

businesses apply that today to client relationships?

Yeah, so we worked very hard, so we actually had a

mission, which is what every business should start with, not

a mission statement. Because, you know, most companies, if

they have them, the employees don't know what the heck they

are. Actually, most CEOs don't even know what it is. I'm sure

Disney has one, and it's in a gold weave bind. Were on a

pedestal and somewhere. But so we had a mission at chef

Mickey's, which was to get Mickey Mouse through 400 seats

in 43 minutes and make it feel like it was a great time. Now

you ask the questions, okay, well, why 400 seats? Well,

that's how many seats we had in the dining room? Why 43 minutes?

Because that is the average time a table for two would dine in

our restaurant. And if it took us longer to get the mouse

through the dining room, well, the table for two set longer.

And so now they're getting irritated because they haven't

seen Mickey yet. There's people waiting for the table now,

waiting longer. They're irritated because they haven't

seen the you know, haven't gotten in for breakfast yet. So

we had to design this system, and everybody had to have input

into it. You know, from the bus boys to the entertainment

department to the house. We even got the housekeepers involved,

and to design a system, and, like everybody, chiseled away a

little bit at the time. So, like the bus boys, were able to, you

know, shave like, 40 seconds off, and the housekeeping

department saved us a lot of time. And so the first

impression that people got when they visited us was that if they

had a reservation, they didn't wait much more than five minutes

before they got seated. Because, and that's a huge I mean, at

Disney, I mean, that's what you do. You wait for everything, you

know, and so, I mean, now if you didn't have a reservation, yes,

you still had to wait. But there were restaurants at Disney you

had a reservation, you could wait 2030, 45, minutes before

they got you. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, Well, why bother, right?

But So to us, that was very important, and which is one of

the reasons it was ranked as the top character dang destination

on the entire Disney property that and we then we were kind

of, we weren't tucked away and at the contemporary but we were

at one end. So we moved a couple of our cast members towards the

escalators and the elevators so that we could give direction.

So, oh yeah, chef make east, right this way. And then we

actually changed the the check in area to that spot because it

was, it gave us a little bit of a buffer between the line and

coming into the dining room, so we're able to separate that.

But, yeah, anything you can do to one eliminate the perception

of a weight, but you know, you only get one chance at a first

impression.

That's right, second nowadays, by the way.

Yeah, it is a split second. And you know, I

mean the pressure that Disney employees are under. I mean, you

think just about everybody who visits there, most of them have

saved their entire lives to come to Disney, yeah? So they have

huge expectations, yes, and so we have to meet, not only meet,

but exceed those expectations. And so each department had the

authority to do what it needed to do to make sure that those

first impressions were the ones that the guests were expecting.

Okay, so let's now fast forward, and you're

talking about, you have, I think, three businesses that you

still have right carpet cleaning. Are they all carpet

cleaning? Are they different?

So I have, in addition, I have a mold

remediation company and a oriental rug washing facility,

all sexy kinds of businesses. Oh, god, yeah.

Okay, so I dreamed of doing when I was growing up.

Yeah, exactly. But these are, these are

perfect, though, because they're service based industries and and

I'm sure that, first of all, you're dealing with the same

kind of thing people. There's, I can call, you know, 14 carpet

cleaners. But why would I call yours? So what do you do to to

get your staff on board with your because it's going to be

the Disney like experience, I'm sure.

Yeah. Well, for one, we do a lot of role play,

but the number one thing, though, is everything is

documented, so we have a script. So I took a lot of this from

Disney. So at Disney, you have cast members who perform a role

in the show, not employees working at a company. So the

terminology is very important. So I scripted all of the

different things that we had to do. So if you look at your

customer journey and all of the different touch points where

your company interacts with a customer, and you look at ways

to create an experience out of all those boring, mundane

things, like answering the telephone. Owner opening the

door, and so I'll give you a quick example. So we've scripted

how to get into the house. Okay, so we can't get into the house.

We can't do our cleaning. So it starts out actually, out in the

street. So our technicians park in the street. They don't park

in the driveway, because, God forbid we got an oil leak. Now

we got something else to clean up. Yeah, he gets out of the

van, and he's in a clean, crisp, new uniform, because he carries

extra uniforms in case he gets dirty on the job prior. He goes

up to the front door. He's got a special mat. He's got a tool bag

and a little gift. He lays the mat down, and he knocks on the

door. He doesn't ring the bell, because sales people ring the

bell. Friends knock. Takes two steps back from the screen door.

And this is long before covid, because the last thing you

wanted was a 250 pound, you know, six foot tall, Josh, nose

to nose with 80 year old missus McGillicuddy, you know. I mean,

we just scared the crap out of her. So it takes us two steps

back. Miss McGillicutty opens the door. Says, Hi, technician

will say, Hi, my name is Josh. I'm here to create your healthy

home. May I come in? We don't just barge in. We ask. And then

we do the performance. We exaggerate the wiping of our

feet on the special mat that we laid down. And then we put

booties on our clean shoes. When we get into the house, we give

Mrs. McGillicuddy a gift. Last time you had a home service

person, pest control, repair, somebody give you a gift before

they did any work. Yeah. Never, never. So again, that separates

us. Yes. Now the gift is Nothing extravagant. So, I mean, it's a

custom blue box. Inside of it is a bottle of our spot remover, a

nice bag of intamins cookies, and a little note from me

saying, Thank you for allowing us into your home. If you have

any questions, here's my personal cell phone number. That

is the script to get into the house.

And that's systemized. Everybody does that.

Everybody does it. It is constant and consistent

and and just go back to the gift real quick, you know? Because I

jokingly say, you know, Disney is a master at extracting money

from your wallet and leaving you feel happy about it. And that's

essentially what I show other businesses how to do. So when we

give the gift, right that it starts a process called

reciprocity. I give something to you. You feel compelled that

you're going to have to give something back to me. Yeah, we

do our sales presentation, we saw a 26% increase in our mid

tier package, which equated it to about 65 $70,000 in

additional sales just by implementing that little gift.

Wow, that's a great tip, actually. That's

That's absolutely and it kind of, if I take that into my world

of LinkedIn training, it's really about when we do outreach

and we're I use LinkedIn a lot to build new relationships and

to meet new people. And it's really prospecting as right? And

so I want to be able to give first and give value to

somebody, and that's exactly what you're talking about. So I

always want to care and offer them something of value before I

expect anything in return. So I think that's, that's a great,

great tip. Um, so,

we talked, we talked a little bit about personal touch in

marketing and direct direct response marketing, like you're,

you're, you've been around, I think you were probably, we

talked about Dan Kennedy, right? I remember he was the guru of

direct marketing in the day. And what today do you do to sort of,

is it all front end marketing or is it back end? Thank you. You

know type stuff.

It's both okay. So a lot of my front for for my

consulting company and for my home service companies, a lot of

my front end stuff, or customer attraction stuff, is trying to

find referral partners. Yes, okay, so I will, so instead of

mailing, you know, 10,000 postcards to a neighborhood, I'm

trying to find a real estate agent or a home inspector or

somebody who can refer multiple times to me. I love that traffic

cleaning business, and one thing that works for me is we

actually, I send them coffee in the mail so and they get a

little postcard. It says something effective. You know,

meetings, great meetings, start with great coffee, and they're

or great meetings are 100% more effective with great coffee. So

they get this card, and it comes in this nice envelope, and then

I literally send them a pouch of coffee that's actually. Be a

little pour over, portable pour over thing. I know we're a

podcast, but kind of looks like this, so it's black. I can nail

it delicious, cause one of my clients, he's a coffee roaster,

amazing stuff, but that opens so many doors, because who's

sending a, you know, oh, we should go out for coffee. Well,

you know, in the days of zoom, and nobody has time anymore, so

now we can have a virtual cup, and I've done exactly what you

said. I've given before. I've asked for anything. So we got

the cup of coffee, and then on, you know, on the customer

retention, or the back end, you know, my customers get at least

14 to 16 touches a year from us. You know, they get a monthly

newsletter from us in print, in the

mail, if the one that I just read, my first one

is any example, is hysterical. I love it. I love your sense of

humor in it. I didn't press the I didn't press the button

because I wanted to wait. I wanted to talk to you, and I

want to see it tomorrow, that's why. But, yeah, I wanted to just

leave it fresh for now and but, yeah, that's a lot, but it takes

that these days, doesn't it? It keeps you top of mind. And

that's really important. And you have to look at

the ROI. I mean, I have a whole reminder system

that I put in place, and they get an eight month reminder,

nine month, 10 month, yeah, up to two years, because so many

people give up. They send out, you know, oh, you know, if

you're a dentist or, you know, or proper cleaner, okay, let's

send out the 12 month. It's been a year, you should probably come

in and have your teeth cleaned. No, you should be sending

something out at nine months, 10 months, and accelerating that

revenue so that they come in sooner than 12 months. Right

now, you've accelerated the revenue. You know? The other

thing is, is lifting up the telephone. Oh, I know, a phone

call to a prior client. Now I don't recommend cold calling,

because that's just not nice, but to call a prior customer and

say, Hey, I was just thinking about you. I hope you have a

great Thanksgiving. Goes.

I mean, you know, I actually had our cable company

now, they've merged now, so it's never going to happen again, but

the cable company here, somebody actually called me out of the

blue and just said, Hey, we're just calling to say thank you

for being a loyal customer all these years. I just about fell

off the chair, right? But I know, I know, I know. But now

they've merged with Rogers, which is a bigger company, so I

don't think that's going to happen anymore, but, but those

things, you know, those things, mean so much when in this crazy

world. Okay, one last question around the customer experience,

and that is around recovery. So I know that you have this

recovery program that you talk about handling mistakes

effectively, and that's, I think, a big piece that we have

to be aware of. So how can businesses turn a service

failure into an opportunity to strengthen a client

relationship?

Yeah, definitely. I think one of the first things

is, is realizing the true cost of the mistake. So you know it,

I mean, okay, you know, if it's a burnt steak in a restaurant,

okay, well, it's a burnt steak, it's 10 minutes wasted. Let's

get them a new meal, no charge, and we can buy them around the

drinks or bring over, you know, a dessert or something. And

usually that'll smooth things out. Now, however, if you know

you had, you know the cable company coming, and they said

they would be there between eight and 12, and you waited and

had to take half a day off of work, and then they didn't show

up until four. Now, your boss is upset because you didn't come

into work. You took an entire vacation day, there's now a

greater cost to you that the company is not one doesn't

really seem to care about, right? But you have to

understand the total value of the problem. I mean, if you have

inconvenienced somebody to the point where they've got to, you

know, if it's an automobile, and you know, the mechanic didn't

fix it right the first time. Okay, well, now I gotta go take

another day off. I gotta get a rental car. Blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, all that. And they're like, sorry, we'll,

we'll fix it again, but we're not paying for any of that other

stuff. So knowing that true cost gives you the frame of mind to,

okay, what do I have to do to what point do I have to go to

save this customer from defecting and or rescuing them

and bringing them back after they have, they have, and a lot

of it is giving your frontline employees. And the authority to

fix the problem. Yes, Carlton $2,000 every employee can spend

up to $2,000 no questions asked, to take care of a guest problem.

Nice. I'm not advocating that, because that's a lot of money.

But see, Whiz, could you, you know, could you get give them 50

or 100 bucks, you know, in leeway, and that you're not

going to yell at them for for spending. You know, it's just it

have, because when a problem goes longer, it gets worse, you

know. So if an employee can nip it in the bud, fix it, and the

customer's happy because they fixed it right away, time is

your friend. But when you say, I gotta go get a manager, I gotta

go find somebody, I gotta get permission. Now, time is

elapsing and time is no longer your friend, right? Because I

just get more irritated and irritated. Yeah, the problem is

solved, and it's going to cost you more once it gets to a

certain point, because you didn't have the ability to solve

it, or you didn't give the authority to your employees to

solve it immediately, like my guys, if we if we are going back

to do a reservist so say either one of my guys missed something,

or, you know, a lot of times a spot will come back after we've

cleaned, when the carpet dries, we get it. My technician knows

that he's supposed to go to the local grocery store buy a nice,

small bouquet or flower pot and bring it back to the customer's

house. Now we do that because, one, well, we're inconveniencing

the customer, because we've had to come back to nobody else is

doing that. And honestly, if you saw a 26 year old, you know, guy

standing there with flowers to come fix a little spot in your

carpet. I mean, they just melt. I mean, they're just like, Oh my

God, all right, come on in, you know, can I get you something to

drink? Okay, the spots over here. But you got to give your

employees that, that authority and that latitude. I mean, you

got to give them the guard rails. I mean, you don't want

to, you know, buying a whole florist shop of roses. Don't go

buy plastic. So give them the

Well, it's funny. I shouldn't really talk about

this, because I don't know if it's happening where you live,

but we have this whole eco thing that goes on all the time, and

so you can't get bags in in stores anymore, not even just

grocery stores. But, I mean, like retail stores, so, but you

can get a bag, but it cost you, and it could cost you anywhere

from 25 cents to $3 or whatever. For a bag depends if it's a can,

if it's a nicer bag, whatever. But I go to a store like

Athleta, which is owned by gap, like there, there's three, four

levels of gap, Old Navy, gap, Athleta and Banana Republic. You

go in and I spend $350 and then they say, Would you like a bag

that they're going to charge me $200 $2 for? I'm insulted, but

they're telling me that it's a law now, and I don't know if

it's a law, it might be discretionary. When you spend

few $100 that maybe you could cover that, I don't know, but it

drives me crazy. I understand at the grocery store when I have to

remember my bags from the car, but there's just some things

that I really find annoying. So anyway, I'm a customer service.

Bags were free before the laws, I know. I mean,

I always got paper because I use it to, you know, I use it to

start fires. I recycle my paper in the paper bag. And I, you

know, I get it. And then, then, like, then, then next Monday.

What I just got, I got, you know, I got five paper bags. Oh,

that's, you know, an additional 50 cents.

I'm like, I know, crazy. So anyway, it's just

different things for different reasons, I guess. But love this

conversation. I love talking about the customer experience,

and you've got some great ideas and and systems around making it

a wow experience, whoever the company is. And I can see that

you work with small business owners. You work with larger

companies as well right now. And through your mastermind,

I tend to, I tend to gravitate to the to the

entrepreneurs and the smaller companies. You know, I have some

street cred with them, because I own three small businesses as

well. But, but yeah. I mean, if you're serving customers either

in their home or in your office, I can probably help.

So one last piece of business advice for my small

business owners and entrepreneurs.

Well, I'm not much for sayings, but and I only have

one. And that is, you won't profit unless you implement so

pick something that you heard today, whether it's this

podcast, something else you heard, but pick something and go

and implement it. Do you gotta do something to affect any

change in your business? So otherwise, this has just been a

great 38 minutes of Janice and Vance bantering. Or are you

going to take something because there were some really good,

solid things you could go implement tomorrow if you wanted

to, so find something and implement

it perfect. So appreciate you being here. Vance

really enjoyed our conversation. I encourage my audience to go

and search you out, and where can they find you? And I will

put it in the show notes.

Is it or best place is my website, which is

deliver service now, com, perfect. Get a free download of

my book, the PDF. But so if you want to get grab, okay, don't

want to send Jeff Bezos any more money and order. I mean, you can

get it on Amazon if you want.

But okay, okay, fair enough. And your book, The

One systematic magic, perfect. I do encourage people to do that,

and thank you for being here. Thank you to my audience, as

always, for being here. And remember to stay connected and

be remembered. Thank.