- 2 days ago
How does Disney create customer experiences that people remember, recommend, and willingly pay more for?
Former Disney leader Vance Morris explains how business owners can use simple systems, clear service standards, employee engagement, and small operational improvements to deliver better customer service, build loyalty, and increase profitability.
In this episode of The Mason Duchatschek Show, Vance shares lessons from his decade inside Disney, including his experience helping launch Chef Mickey’s. He also explains how he later applied Disney-inspired customer experience principles while working with organizations including NASA and the Smithsonian.
You will discover why exceptional customer service is not created by good intentions alone. It requires repeatable systems that show employees:
What to do.
How to do it.
Why it is done that way.
The “why” is often the missing link between simply giving employees instructions and creating genuine employee engagement, ownership, and accountability.
Mason and Vance also discuss how small details can transform the customer experience. Examples include simplifying restaurant operations, helping an insurance agency stand out when answering the phone, guiding financial advisory clients to a difficult-to-find office, and turning an ordinary oil change into a premium service experience.
The conversation also explores the disconnect that can develop between executives, managers, frontline employees, and customers. When business leaders receive a sanitized version of what is really happening, customer service problems may remain hidden until negative reviews appear online.
You will also hear why loyalty programs do not automatically create true customer loyalty, how private equity cost-cutting can damage hospitality experiences, why post-sale engagement matters, and how to “Disney-fy” routine business processes without adding unnecessary cost or complexity.
Vance shares how his carpet cleaning company created a memorable arrival experience for less than $6 per customer. That system contributed to a 26% increase in mid-tier package sales and approximately $75,000 in additional annual revenue.
In This Episode, You Will Learn
• Why Disney relies on simple, repeatable systems and processes
• How explaining the “why” improves employee engagement
• Why frontline employees should help shape service standards
• How small details create memorable customer experiences
• Why premium service can reduce price-based competition
• How to identify customer service blind spots
• Why negative reviews may expose problems leaders never hear internally
• What genuine customer loyalty looks like
• Why post-sale customer engagement improves retention
• How to Disney-fy routine and mundane business processes
• Why answering the telephone can be a competitive advantage
• How low-cost improvements can increase sales and profitability
• Why implementation matters more than collecting more ideas
https://masonduchatschek.com/
Former Disney leader Vance Morris explains how business owners can use simple systems, clear service standards, employee engagement, and small operational improvements to deliver better customer service, build loyalty, and increase profitability.
In this episode of The Mason Duchatschek Show, Vance shares lessons from his decade inside Disney, including his experience helping launch Chef Mickey’s. He also explains how he later applied Disney-inspired customer experience principles while working with organizations including NASA and the Smithsonian.
You will discover why exceptional customer service is not created by good intentions alone. It requires repeatable systems that show employees:
What to do.
How to do it.
Why it is done that way.
The “why” is often the missing link between simply giving employees instructions and creating genuine employee engagement, ownership, and accountability.
Mason and Vance also discuss how small details can transform the customer experience. Examples include simplifying restaurant operations, helping an insurance agency stand out when answering the phone, guiding financial advisory clients to a difficult-to-find office, and turning an ordinary oil change into a premium service experience.
The conversation also explores the disconnect that can develop between executives, managers, frontline employees, and customers. When business leaders receive a sanitized version of what is really happening, customer service problems may remain hidden until negative reviews appear online.
You will also hear why loyalty programs do not automatically create true customer loyalty, how private equity cost-cutting can damage hospitality experiences, why post-sale engagement matters, and how to “Disney-fy” routine business processes without adding unnecessary cost or complexity.
Vance shares how his carpet cleaning company created a memorable arrival experience for less than $6 per customer. That system contributed to a 26% increase in mid-tier package sales and approximately $75,000 in additional annual revenue.
In This Episode, You Will Learn
• Why Disney relies on simple, repeatable systems and processes
• How explaining the “why” improves employee engagement
• Why frontline employees should help shape service standards
• How small details create memorable customer experiences
• Why premium service can reduce price-based competition
• How to identify customer service blind spots
• Why negative reviews may expose problems leaders never hear internally
• What genuine customer loyalty looks like
• Why post-sale customer engagement improves retention
• How to Disney-fy routine and mundane business processes
• Why answering the telephone can be a competitive advantage
• How low-cost improvements can increase sales and profitability
• Why implementation matters more than collecting more ideas
https://masonduchatschek.com/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:05welcome to the mason duke check show this episode is brought to you by workforcealchemy.com
00:12helping leaders improve hiring engagement and retention while uncovering people-related profit
00:18leaks hidden in everyday operations today's guest vance morris spent a decade inside disney
00:26helping launch chef mickeys and learning firsthand what keeps customers coming back again and again
00:34after disney he brought those same principles to organizations like nasa and the smithsonian
00:40proving that you do not need massive budgets to create unforgettable experiences today he helps
00:49small business owners disneyfy their customer service with practical real-world strategies
00:56and if you want stories examples and lessons that you can actually apply this conversation will
01:04deliver welcome to the show i appreciate it mason hopefully i'll drop some gold nuggets for everybody
01:09today i'm betting that you will so take us back to your days at disney what is one moment from
01:16that
01:16experience that taught you a lesson that you still use today you know it was actually one of the first
01:22lessons i got uh when i started with the company i was on the opening team of the yacht and
01:27beach club
01:27resort this was back in like 1990 and i was with the training manager and we walked into this uh
01:34this
01:35one of the ballrooms where they were doing the training and there were just stacks of binders
01:40everywhere i mean just i mean stacks but i mean this is before the internet so everything was done on
01:46paper
01:46back then and i asked him i said what are you know what are all these things he goes well
01:50these are all
01:50the ojts and sops for how disney um opens and operates its resorts and they had a binder for
01:58everybody the bus boys in each restaurant the the front desk guys the housekeepers everybody had a binder
02:06and i was just blown away by it you know you'd think my first lesson would have been how to
02:10pick up
02:11trash or smile at people or something like that but it was that disney runs on systems and processes and
02:17what i realized also is that they are simple systems because if they were complex the whole thing would
02:25fall apart so i learned that walking through step by step disney runs on three words it's what to do
02:31how to do it and why we do it that way and the third one why that's the one that
02:38most business
02:39owners miss when they're trying to train their employees or come up with systems and standards
02:45for their business because that why is where you get employee engagement now they understand
02:51why we answer the phone the way we do why we greet a customer the way we do so you've
02:57got to have those
02:58standards and they've got to be laid out simply and if you want employee engagement you got to have the
03:03why
03:03are you implying that because i told you so is not sufficient
03:07no that is not going to cut it you know yeah do as i say not as i do yeah
03:12that's not going to cut it
03:13at all so can you share maybe a specific story from disney where a small detail created a massive
03:20impact on the guests experience sure oh my gosh there's a lot of those well one i'll say you know
03:26we had a mission at chef mickey's and i think that's one of the lessons uh that i learned as
03:33well
03:33is that you know disney i'm sure has a mission statement and it's probably in a little gold leaf
03:39binder somewhere in burbank on a shelf and nobody knows what the heck it is but chef mickey's had a
03:45mission and our mission was to get 400 people through excuse me uh 400 people through 40 in 43 minutes
03:54and make it feel like it was a good time the reason it was 43 minutes was because that's the
04:00average time
04:01a table for two would dine with us and so we had to figure out a way to get mickey
04:08mouse it was a
04:09character dining destination we had to figure out how to get mickey mouse through the dining room
04:12in 43 minutes and see 400 seats and so we had to go to each and every department to try
04:18and figure out
04:19you know how can you help us with getting the mouse through and so we went to the bus boys
04:24and we said
04:25you know hey we got 43 minutes i got to get the mouse through the room what can we do
04:29to help you or
04:30what can you do to help with that mission and they were like well when we uh clean a table
04:36we've got
04:37the sugar boat and the salt and pepper shaker and a little table tent and the other little doodads
04:42on the table and it takes time for us to remove those if we just had a little basket that
04:49all that
04:49stuff was in it would really speed things up so we got the we got the bus boys baskets for
04:54all of the
04:55tables and all the sugar boats and everything went in there and now when they clean
04:58they've got to lift up that thing wipe and put the basket back down saved like i don't know 23
05:04seconds
05:04or something like that but we did that with every department and we went and asked okay how can you
05:09help us achieve our mission and so really a small detail like just a little basket for you know sugar
05:17and things like that really made an impact on the operations plus it let them know you paid attention
05:22that you cared well you know if you want employee engagement you gotta include them in the process
05:30so maybe what's an example of a time when something went wrong at disney and how the team handled it
05:36in
05:36a way that actually made things better well i mean we uh i've got an interesting story uh i was
05:44a duty
05:44manager at pleasure island which is it's gone now but it was disney's answer to adult entertainment uh it was
05:51seven nightclubs on a five acre island what could go wrong there right and so we had probably sounded
05:57like a good idea at the time it you know it did somewhere um well i mean the markup on
06:03booze is
06:03amazing so and it was financially it was a great it was a huge hit but uh we had a
06:09movie star i will
06:10won't name him but came in and i had to tour him around because that was part of my job
06:16um and a rough
06:17job right touring movie stars around someone's got to do it somebody's got to do it and we got to
06:21this one nightclub and he took a shining to one of the waitresses and he said i'd like her to
06:26come
06:26party with us for the rest of the night and i'm thinking to myself this is not going to end
06:33well
06:33and he went to offer i'll pay all of her tips for the whole night i'll give the club all
06:38of the sales
06:39she would have generated i mean he went on and on in my mind i think i'm not a pimp
06:44what the heck is this
06:45but luckily we had one of those standards things to fall back on which was if you work on the
06:51island
06:52you can't party on the island on the same night and so i i didn't have to tell him no
06:58in a gruff or a
06:59weird manner it was just hey we have this you know we have this standard and you know we can't
07:05just can't do it he wasn't happy about it but you know at least i had something to stand on
07:10so
07:11when you left disney and started working with organizations like nasa and the smithsonian
07:16what was a moment where you realized that these principles could work anywhere well geez you know
07:23when you're working with people you know and i know a lot of hr folks will will say that but
07:27if you
07:28have people and you serve the public pretty much anything at disney can be adapted now it's not copied
07:35because i work with a lot of small businesses and they're all like well why do i want to copy
07:39disney
07:40you know i don't have a cinderella castle i don't have a roller coaster you know what why do i
07:45copy
07:45them and it's not copy it's adapt so there are so many principles that disney has uh that can be
07:53adapted into any industry but can you give me an example from one something maybe a small company did
08:00yeah oh certainly so i worked with a bunch of insurance agents once and there was one guy i remember
08:06he
08:06was an all-state agent and there were like eight other all-state agents in his city plus all of
08:11the other guys you know the blue guys and the orange guys and you know whoever so it's probably
08:1560 70 insurance agents and he was having a hard time standing out um and we after some brainstorming
08:23we realized that answering the telephone was his number one way of getting customers and kind of
08:31testing him out and things like that but he needed a way to stand out so when i visited his
08:36office i
08:36went in and i mean he was just a rock and roll fanatic i mean he had gold records on
08:41the walls
08:41autographed guitars who posters you name it and his receptionist was the one that came up with the way
08:47to answer the phone he she says you know i really think we should lean into this rock and roll
08:52thing
08:52so you know if you call most companies these days you'll get some version of thank you for calling
08:58abc company how can i help you you know very boring mundane you know pretty much anybody can answer
09:04the phone that way so we wanted to get out of that so now the way they answer the phone
09:10is thank you
09:11for calling dave's all state the agency that rocks and they say it kind of with that little wolfman jack
09:16kind of saying now remember this idea came from an employee and i don't know if she knew that we
09:23were actually going to implement it but the idea came from her and yes once you say it 19 times
09:29or so
09:29the corniness of it wears off but by answering the phone that way they did a couple of things one
09:36they certainly separated themselves from everybody else in the industry he was the only rock and roll
09:42insurance guy in the city probably in the country and also by answering the phone that way we sifted
09:49sorted and screened out anybody that would have been a bad client for him so if you think about your
09:55marketing it's designed to do two things attract the people you want to do business with and repel
10:00the people you don't want so just by answering the phone that way he got rid of anybody that just
10:05would have been a dud of a client for him nice so maybe can you walk us through a real
10:11example
10:12of a small business that you help that transform their entire customer experience and what changes
10:17as a result of some of the other changes you made sure so i got a few of these so
10:22one of them was a
10:23financial advisor and you know financial advisors if you're not sure i mean i'm of the age where i get
10:29the postcard that says you know come to the free dinner and then they'll pitch you on whatever
10:34retirement plan and so my client was doing that but she had a huge drop off from the dinner to
10:41the
10:42first meeting so at the dinner they invite you you know come on in for an office visit we'll go
10:46over
10:47your financials and we'll come up with a plan for you so between the dinner and the the first meeting
10:53she lost a bunch of people and we found out that people weren't showing up because they couldn't find
10:59her office now she was granted she was in one of those big wonkin silicon valley office parks there
11:08were probably a hundred other tenants in the building she was up on the fourth floor signage
11:14was horrible uh and the building manager wasn't being very helpful i said well we kind of we got to
11:19fix
11:19this what can we possibly do so we decided that we would do a video and every one of her
11:26clients or
11:27prospects would get a video and it was we put one of her employees in a car and we videoed
11:33him driving
11:33in to the parking lot into the designated space with her name on it we showed them walking in the
11:40front door so they know what door to go into what button to push on the elevator what floor to
11:45push once
11:45they're in the elevator and then where to go when they're coming off the elevator and the big kind of
11:51wow moment was when they walked into the office now when i walked into the office the first time
11:57you know i they said yeah would you like a glass of water while you're waiting for your client i
12:01said
12:01yeah sure they came out with this little four ounce styrofoam dixie cup probably of tap water
12:07and i'm thinking to myself okay this is a premium service i mean she charges a lot of money for
12:11her
12:12financial consulting this is not very congruent so we changed that and we now i mean if you're going to
12:18offer water you might as well go all in on it so now when you get off the elevator and
12:23you walk into
12:24her office there is the receptionist standing there with a menu one of those nice steakhouse menus
12:30and there's six bottles of still six bottles of sparkling water in the menu and they asked what's
12:36your favorite water uh what can we get you nice and so now they have fun they've created they've
12:44eliminated the problem and they've created a wow moment that's a lot more congruent with who they
12:50are 100 now there's two more steps to this which um which we we found is that um if they
12:58had a certain
12:59amount of assets instead of um getting on the elevator and riding up the advisor would actually
13:08come down to the lobby and escort you up so you still got the video but you you were surprised
13:14by
13:14the advisor being in the lobby waiting for you and if you were in the uber uber top 0.1
13:21percent of her
13:22clients you didn't even have to worry about all that they just sent a car for you nice just sent
13:28a
13:28limo to the house picked you up there is no way you're getting lost um coming to this place because
13:33the car service is going to pick you up bring you right to the door and the advisor is going
13:36to meet you
13:37there to take you up to the office that's nice so can you maybe give me a story where a
13:44business
13:44thought they were delivering great service but a blind spot was really costing them customers
13:50yeah so you know that and that's one of the things that a lot of people there's a huge disconnect
13:55and
13:56this is where business owners go wrong and this was a study done it hasn't been updated but it's like
14:01two years old and they polled people and they said okay does this company provide great service
14:06and they asked the owners of the companies and 80 percent of the owners said yes we deliver great
14:12service when they polled the customers of those businesses only eight percent of the customers said
14:19that they deliver great service there's a huge gap now i also question why it was at only 80 percent
14:27i mean you'd think if you owned the business you would say yeah of course we deliver great service
14:34at least people were being honest with themselves uh to a point so there's this gap that we have to
14:40overcome one of the things that i like to do is it is create memorable experiences and at the end
14:48of
14:49any interaction with your company you should be you know the customer should be saying something to
14:53the effect of oh my god you'll never guess what happened when the carpet cleaner was here or you'll
14:57never guess what happened at the dentist's office today that's what you want to evoke and most times
15:04you know you don't go home to the dinner table and have that conversation with people oh my god you'll
15:08never guess what happened at the oil change conversation just doesn't happen so you have to
15:13and it's not saying that people are doing a bad job they're just not doing a great job and they're
15:19not
15:19being memorable so a example of how do you change that to being memorable is i've worked with a oil
15:26change company so kind of like a jiffy lube quick lube but he was independent and he had four service
15:32stations and he was constantly competing on price and he knew he was delivering pretty much average
15:39to below average service because it was get them in get them out how fast can we do it you
15:43know the guy
15:44down the street lowered his price he had to lower his price just a race to the bottom and i
15:48told him
15:49i said there's no competitive advantage to being second cheapest so you might as well i mean you can't
15:55use that in a headline right hey we're the second cheapest in town it just doesn't work but i said
15:59you gotta go the other direction let's go premium and really provide a service so what we did was we
16:07turned his oil change business into this like 50 style service station where four guys run out
16:13little bow ties and white shirts one guy squeegees your windshield the other one checks the air
16:17pressure in your tire one guy they have nice gloves on they escort you into the waiting room where
16:22there's actually today's newspaper and there's a barista waiting there to make your favorite coffee
16:28drink now this is at an oil change place the barista just happens to be one of the oil change
16:34technicians and they rotate the job throughout the week so the result of all this one he's charging 45
16:41more than his closest competitor for an oil change so i mean he's not using fancy oil it's just oil
16:47and um so he's increased his profitability exponentially yes his top line has gone his
16:55volume has gone down because you know people well i can get down the street cheaper great the people that
17:02are coming to him now and he's got a line out the door just about every day
17:06are people that appreciate that level of experience and now some people think to themselves oh i can't
17:14afford to do that but it really didn't cost him much to do this he already had uniforms for his
17:20employees so all he had to do was switch them right the biggest expense he had was the coffee machine
17:26that he had to install in his waiting room other than that it was no expense to create this wow
17:33moment
17:33hopefully that answered your question it's funny to say that because i actually did a blog post
17:37probably a year ago i was in wichita kansas and i went into a oil change place that was there
17:45they
17:45did their marketing did a great job they sent me coupons they stayed in touch with me he's like hey
17:50here's a coupon go so i took the time to drive there to get an oil change and there was
17:54one guy there
17:55and he was the assistant manager and he's like i'm sorry but none of our people showed up today
18:01like what's the value of my time so when you say i couldn't afford that that place couldn't afford
18:06it they're marketing people to a job they basically sent customers to a place to have a bad experience
18:10and to not get it right and i'm curious on a side note i'm kind of curious how you get
18:15and you would
18:16think it would be common sense but common sense isn't always common how you get some of these business
18:20owners if i saw if i saw what you saw and the business owner saying 80 of our customers say
18:27we're
18:27doing a good job and eight of them eight percent do i'm starting to think it's the emperor has no
18:32clothes the employees who work there aren't telling this guy the truth and he's got some delusional
18:37idea because there's a lot of in any organization i'm not picking on this one but in any organization
18:42there's a lot that happens between where the rubber meets the road and the boss hears about it and
18:47everybody in that chain between where the customer interacts with the frontline employee and the top of
18:54the food chain there's a lot of people who have invested interest in making sure the boss doesn't
18:58hear bad news because they'll get blamed or they'll get fired or whatever it may be so they give a
19:03sanitized version of of the truth they exaggerate what they're doing well they cover up what they're
19:08doing poorly and now you've got a boss who thinks that 80 of the people love us when it's eight
19:12right yep and you know one of the ways the simple ways to fix that um and i do this
19:18so i i think i
19:19mentioned i own three bricks and mortar businesses myself here in maryland i i still own a i have a
19:25mold remediation company oriental rug washing facility and a carpet cleaning company um i still
19:30own them had them for 19 years now so i'm not one of those consultants that just kind of spouts
19:35off
19:35about stuff i actually have the rubber hits the road thing but one of the things we did early on
19:41was implement um feedback cards or comment cards and they bypass everybody and come right to my house
19:51i love it yeah i know a ceo in springfield missouri her name's patty penny she runs a it's at
19:57one point
19:57was the largest female-owned business in the state of missouri i think at one point she was also in
20:03the
20:03top 83 in the inc 100 privately held businesses wow it's very successful business she gives out her
20:10personal cell phone number to every single client yeah every employee in the company knows that any
20:16client at any level can pick up the cell phone and call patty penny 100 and we do the same
20:21with um
20:22we give a gift when we enter the home and part of the gift is a little note for me
20:27saying you know
20:28thank you so much for letting us into your home if you have any questions here's my personal cell phone
20:32number that's accountability you know i think in 10 years i can count like twice that somebody called
20:40and one time was oh my god this guy was great and the other guy and the other time was
20:45well he got
20:46the stain out but then the spot came back can you send somebody back out sure of course but see
20:53you
20:53know just having that there i love what you're talking about like i said common sense isn't common
20:58i was i was at a hotel in vegas less than right around a year ago nice hotel and the
21:05customer experience
21:06objectively insufficient on multiple levels and i asked to talk to the person in charge and i said
21:12look i'm not one to rip people online because these are mistakes that are a matter of your systems in
21:17place and the way the processes don't deliver a good customer experience in fact they deliver the
21:22opposite and if you stayed as a guest in this hotel and experience you you would already know this
21:27and the people who above you would too but i don't want to just go online and rip you i
21:32want to help
21:32i'm not just a complainer i'm like here's a solution for this here's a solution for that here's
21:37and she looked at me with despair and just said mason those decisions are all made above me
21:44and the people that are involved in those decisions never come to this property they do not understand
21:50i do and i agree with you she goes but there is absolutely nothing that i have the power to
21:55change
21:55without them and the only way to get their intention is to write the bad reviews because that's the
22:01only way they'll ever hear anything and that's just sad state of affairs my gosh i mean how
22:09yeah unbelievable and that's never that stuff there's no erase button on the internet those
22:15reviews are going to stay there forever and we're basically got your employees saying go ahead please
22:21tell our bosses because they won't listen to us talk about a cry for help but what's the damage of
22:28that business the pain that that business is going to have to suffer for each one of those much less
22:32a
22:32whole bunch of those complaints getting voiced publicly because of tone deaf folks up top that
22:38aren't listening well and you know and sadly it's you know what i found a lot is that this happens
22:45a lot
22:45with private equity once they grab a hold of especially a hospitality business they're squeezing it for
22:52every nickel possible and the service just you know goes completely in in the crapper for lack
22:59of a better word let me give you a very specific example they wanted to charge me a 30 the
23:04local
23:05telephone fee exactly i've got a cell phone i don't need that well it's required it's part of the thing
23:13yeah yeah 40 to use a local telephone i don't need the local telephone i got a cell phone i
23:17can call
23:17anybody anywhere like well welcome to the 2000s right this was 2025 no i know i get it i mean
23:26you
23:26know it's those it's those uh resort charges that's exactly no idea what that thing covers but they're
23:32gonna charge you exactly what it covers it covers the pool it opens at 10 o'clock when checkout is
23:36at 11
23:37yeah right and it closes at 5 at night when checkout is at 3 30 in the afternoon those were
23:44on the list of
23:44the items yeah i got it so how do you know when a business is creating loyalty versus delivering a
23:52decent experience well they're one they go hand in hand if you don't have a great experience you're
23:59not going to have loyalty and i don't delude yourself with punch cards or you know these loyalty
24:06gimmicks because that's what people are sticking around for they they're only sticking around until they
24:11get that 10th cup of coffee and it's free that's not loyalty that's like hostage taking or bribery or
24:18whatever you want to call it loyalty is people will drive past two other options to get to you
24:24um i love that definition you know it is well it's true it is true no i got a guy
24:31i mean actually here
24:32in town a hardware store that i helped out and i wish i could take credit for my um my
24:39answer for
24:40them but it came from uh will uh i always get his last name wrong i wrote uh unreasonable hospitality
24:46will guerrera great book anyway um they were they're in town and they have no off-street parking
24:52and everything on the street is parking meters not two blocks away is one of those big lowe's home
24:59improvement stores and they got an ocean of parking and so they were getting you know people were driving
25:04i'm not gonna pay to park so we implemented and i got it from the book i'm firmly admit it
25:10um we put
25:12a coffee can full of quarters on the countertop a little note that says hey um you know here's the
25:18quarters to feed your meter uh we want to make sure that you know you stop and stay with us
25:23and we'll
25:24help you it will we'll feed the meter with the with the quarters for you we turned that into a
25:29marketing campaign and business just boom and people are honest it's not like they're grabbing
25:34fistfuls of quarters they literally will grab one or two to feed the meter for what they were doing
25:38that's the now people will stop there and not go on to the big guy because they deliver i mean
25:45the
25:45service in there is oh you need a hammer let me let me show you our hammers you know and
25:50then the guy
25:50escorts you over to the hammer section he goes okay this one's great for hanging pictures on the wall
25:54this one's great for driving a post into the ground i mean just the service is unreal but they
26:00had to overcome the parking issue to get to it so can you maybe share a time when a business
26:05tried
26:05to disneyfy their experience but got it wrong and what others can learn from it yeah well this would
26:11go back to a private equity held company you know we were staying at i had hosted my mastermind at
26:16a
26:16kind of fairly high-end hotel in annapolis maryland and one of the guys came down uh in the morning
26:23with a cup from his from his room and it was plastic now this is a 500 a night hotel
26:31and it had
26:32a plastic cup and not one of those little ones you know like you get at holiday inn that's got
26:37the
26:37cellophane and you got to tear it apart i mean this was a nice plastic cup but it said uh
26:43it had the name
26:43of the company and resort division or luxury division written on it and we're like this is not congruent
26:52i mean i at you know hampton inn gives me real glass you know this guy they thought it was
26:59great
26:59to have their name on a plastic cup that was a nice cup but it was plastic and it had
27:04and they had to
27:05emblazon it with luxury division on it there was nothing luxury about a plastic cup wow what is a moment
27:14in the customer journey that most businesses overlook but you've seen make a huge difference
27:20uh after the sale uh most businesses say oh got their money thanks and you should remember us
27:27because we did a great job and that is couldn't be any farther from the truth if it my rule
27:35of thumb
27:35is is that it is not the customer's job to remember you it's your job as the business owner to
27:41remind
27:42customers that you exist oh hopefully in your service or in the sale or use of your product
27:50you've created some kind of connection with your customer even big companies can do this i mean
27:56disney does it all the time everybody's got an emotional connection to disney they all have their
28:00story so we want to continue that because when's what's the best time when people are feeling great
28:06about your company is right when they bought something right you feel good because you got money they feel
28:11good they spent money they got their new product their whiz bang thing or they're getting the service
28:16and then that's where businesses stop and you can't stop there like i said it's your job to remind the
28:23customers you exist so immediately i'm actually writing i haven't told anybody about this but i'm
28:28writing another book and i may end up using that quote and i will be sure to give you credit
28:32for that
28:32that's i appreciate that thank you so much appreciate that everybody needs to hear that
28:39well you know i mean i ask i mean i work with companies i said do you have a marketing
28:43budget
28:4499 of them yeah we got a marketing budget i said great how much your budget
28:47is designed to retain customers now look at me like i got three heads you know and and then i
28:55try to explain
28:55to them that you do realize that serving an existing customer is a heck of a lot cheaper than going
29:01out
29:01and getting new ones all the time amen so i mean my carpet cleaning business cost me 136 dollars
29:09to get a new customer in the front door that's the google ad that's the guy answering the phone
29:14everything it takes to get somebody in the front door 136 bucks cost me 23 dollars a year to keep
29:22a
29:22customer so the minute we serve an existing customer i'm 100 bucks plus more profitable because i was able
29:30to serve an existing customer i didn't have to go out and get one new so do you have any
29:34tips or examples
29:35of how to create a memorable experience without adding a bunch of cost or complexity
29:40you just have to uh you just i say this and it's it's trite but you think outside the box
29:47i i coined a term it's called disneyfying and that's creating experiences out of all of the boring
29:54and mundane things that we have to do day in and day out to keep the business up and running
29:58disney's just figured out a way to create experiences out of answering the phone or greeting
30:03guests or anything like that so that's what we want to look towards you know the the insurance guy
30:09answering the telephone cost us nothing to change the way we answered the telephone you know we we've
30:16created a process for getting into the home for our carpet cleaning technicians now that's a boring
30:23mundane thing that we have to do if we don't do it we can't do our service so we created
30:28an entire
30:28process out of it and as i'm going through this in your mind tally up the amount of dollars it
30:35cost
30:35me to do this and it's going to surprise you at the end it ain't much so we park in
30:40the street we
30:41don't park in the driveway god forbid i got an oil leak now i got something else i got to
30:44clean up
30:44he gets out he's in a clean uniform because he carries extra uniforms with him in case he gets dirty
30:49on the job beforehand he also doesn't smell because i forbid smoking and i forbid cologne
30:55nothing worse than the marlboro man who just took a shower and axe showing up in your you know in
31:00your living room he's got a special carpet he's got his uh tool bag and his and a little gift
31:04he
31:04goes up to the front door he lays down this mat and then he knocks on the door he doesn't
31:10ring the
31:10bell because friends knock and salespeople ring takes a couple of steps back this is mcgillicuddy answers
31:16the door we say hi my name's josh i'm here to create your healthy home may i come in we
31:22don't
31:22just barge in and then when she opens the door for us we do an exaggeration so a little bit
31:27of theater
31:27of wiping our feet on the mat put little booties on our clean shoes and as we're going into the
31:33home
31:34we present mcgillicuddy with a gift now when was the last time you had a home service company
31:39never give you a gift not one time you know pest control plumber whatever probably never so we give
31:45her a gift and the gift is nothing extravagant it's a little custom blue box got a bottle of spot
31:51remover a little bag of entomans cookies and a note from me thanking them for allowing us into your home
31:56and you know here's my cell phone number we mentioned that earlier so the gift cost me less than five
32:02dollars the booties cost me i don't know 10 cents each so for under six bucks we have created this
32:09experience it did two things one it again separated us from everybody else out there because there ain't
32:14nobody doing that and my competitors all know i do it because i've seen them hiding in the bushes you
32:19know looking at my guys but two it started reciprocity i give something to you you feel compelled to give
32:26something back to me so we saw a 26 increase in our mid-tier package when we implemented the gift
32:33which equated to about 75 000 in additional sales every year so it doesn't have to be expected i mean
32:41you know like i said that was under six bucks i don't want anybody to think that i came up
32:46with that
32:46overnight this was iteration version one version 1.1 version 2 etc sure this probably took us close to a
32:55year to get this thing to where we are today and we just immortalized it in you know in our
33:02standards
33:02but first thing is is just think about a process that's just you got to do it it's boring and
33:09how can
33:10you Disneyfy it so i'm really curious to hear your answer to this question looking ahead what changes in
33:19customer expectations do you think will catch most businesses off guard um customers still
33:25expect somebody to answer the telephone it's funny you say i was that was a loaded question because i
33:31was i'm ready for this one but go ahead tell me why you think well you know so i'm partner
33:37in a call
33:37center and when we were doing our research we called 4 000 home service companies and we got their phone
33:43number from google ads so these are companies paying to have their phone number out there 17 answered the
33:51phone live that was it seven i don't know what 17 of 4 000 is only a few hundred people
33:57answered the phone
33:58live so all of the other companies lost the business because they're just going down to the next name in
34:05google okay well this one didn't answer great going to the next one so answering your phone live
34:11if you're going to use ai or a bot or a something to answer your phone i get it you
34:18know if you're a
34:18solopreneur you know you know you're you know maybe you're a one guy hvac person and you're in an attic
34:25and you you know you just can't answer the phone up there i get it and you need some one
34:30i would prefer
34:31most customers i think most customers do too you know get a service to answer your phone and if you
34:36can't
34:37afford that which it's actually relatively inexpensive you know and you gotta go with the bot option
34:42number one needs to be connect me to a human not option 13 you know that you know you gotta
34:49and you
34:49gotta listen to all 13 options because you don't know when the human option is going to come up
34:55it should be number one so literally not more than 26 minutes prior to us logging on to visit with
35:02each
35:02other today i was sitting across the conference table from person i work with and she was calling
35:08her insurance company and had it on speakerphone and it's like thanks for calling xyz insurance
35:15company your call is very important to us at which point in time i look at her mic i don't
35:19believe you
35:21and it said all of our agents are busy right now but your calls are important to us and we
35:26will make
35:26sure you get connected with the next available agent please hold not more than 10 seconds later
35:33there's a problem and there's a problem with our system goodbye geez like like your call is important
35:42to us no it isn't and i'll get someone else on the phone to talk to you in a moment
35:45i don't believe you
35:47it was literally i said that to her sitting across she was sitting across the conference table for me and
35:52i go i don't believe them and no they won't and sure enough disconnected goodbye click it happened
35:59today and and i i'm i'm it's sometimes doing the simple things well becomes exceptional when
36:07expectations drop and it's you know i would rather be known for doing something simple well than having
36:15things screw up i mean if you look at disney you know i mean they run on three words what
36:20to do how to do
36:21it and why we do it that way it's a simple system right i mean you think about who's working
36:27there
36:27right it's you know a bunch of teenagers early 20s people they're not thinking about work they're
36:32thinking about tonight's keg party right so if the system wasn't simple the whole darn thing would fall
36:39apart and that goes with any business uh you know i mean now you have fast food or wherever you
36:44gotta
36:44have a simple system because if it's complex it's gonna break so if you could give only one piece
36:51of advice to those who are joining us today what would be the most important piece of advice you
36:56could give and why uh well i am uh as we mentioned earlier a rubber hits the road kind of
37:03guy
37:04so pick one thing that you heard today whether it's on this podcast or you read a book or something
37:11and implement it we all have plenty of information there's not enough of the implementation
37:17i don't have any quote i created one quote that's the only one i stick with and it's you won't
37:23profit
37:24unless you implement that's the only thing that's going to move the needle so pick one thing that
37:29you've heard today and go and adapt it and try it in your business thank you if people want to
37:35know
37:35more about you your company and the work you do what are the best ways for them to find out
37:39more and to
37:40connect and interact with you yeah sure uh the only social media i do is linkedin so feel free to
37:46connect with me there i'm the only vance morris disney guy on the on the thing and then if you
37:51like i have a free gift for everyone it's called uh 52 ways to wow your customer without breaking the
37:58bank so it's one wow for every week of the year and they're all low or no cost ways to
38:03do that
38:04and you can find that at wow awesome thank you so much for joining us it's been an absolute pleasure
38:10i enjoyed every minute thank you thanks mason for having me i appreciate it
38:16y'all
38:17i'd love you
38:18i enjoyed it
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