Janice Porter:
00:00:02
Rob, hello, hello and welcome to this week's
Janice Porter:
00:00:04
episode of relationships rule. My guest today, I I'm not even
Janice Porter:
00:00:10
going to tell you his name yet. I'm just going to read this to
Janice Porter:
00:00:13
you because I love this. Okay. He helps business owners get
Janice Porter:
00:00:16
serve and keep clients for life through creating experiences and
Janice Porter:
00:00:21
response required marketing. He's a former birth control
Janice Porter:
00:00:24
factory security guard turned Disney leader, turned bankrupt,
Janice Porter:
00:00:28
out of work executive turned carpet cleaner turned successful
Janice Porter:
00:00:33
entrepreneur. What a beautiful and interesting bio intro. So
Janice Porter:
00:00:40
welcome to the show. Vance Morris,
Vance Morris:
00:00:42
thank you, Janice, thank you. You know they say you
Vance Morris:
00:00:45
can't make this
Janice Porter:
00:00:46
stuff up. I guess not. I guess not,
Vance Morris:
00:00:50
even if I tried, I couldn't so well, let's
Janice Porter:
00:00:53
dig into that for a little bit. So I know that you
Janice Porter:
00:00:58
that you were a Disney employee for 10 years or so. But did the
Janice Porter:
00:01:03
birth control factory security guard come first?
Vance Morris:
00:01:07
Oh yeah, it does. That was actually my summer job.
Janice Porter:
00:01:11
Summer Job, yeah, okay, that's what I figured.
Janice Porter:
00:01:14
Okay. And then we invented,
Janice Porter:
00:01:19
and then when you were at Disney, which, of course, you
Janice Porter:
00:01:22
did say, Yes, some people do leave there. It is an
Janice Porter:
00:01:25
experience, I'm sure, an environment all unto itself. But
Janice Porter:
00:01:29
you worked specifically, I think, in the restaurant
Janice Porter:
00:01:35
experience. Is that correct? Can you
Vance Morris:
00:01:38
I worked in the resorts? Okay? The resorts,
Janice Porter:
00:01:41
okay, and how many resorts did they have at
Janice Porter:
00:01:44
that time,
Vance Morris:
00:01:46
at that Oh, good, gracious.
Janice Porter:
00:01:49
But when you say the resort, you mean like
Janice Porter:
00:01:52
Disneyland, Disney World. Do you mean those?
Vance Morris:
00:01:53
Oh, no. I meant like Grand Floridian,
Vance Morris:
00:01:56
contemporary, Polynesian resort, the actual hotels. Okay, got it?
Vance Morris:
00:02:01
Okay, yeah, when I got there, they were just opening up
Vance Morris:
00:02:05
Disneyland Paris, which was one of their other parks. But, yeah,
Vance Morris:
00:02:11
I spent all of my time, didn't, didn't work in the parks, which,
Vance Morris:
00:02:16
I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but the
Vance Morris:
00:02:19
resorts were, were enough for me. It really, you know, for me,
Vance Morris:
00:02:26
for a first real job out of college. I mean, I had worked in
Vance Morris:
00:02:30
a restaurant as a manager for year and a half, but Disney was
Vance Morris:
00:02:34
my foundation. And surprisingly, one of the first things I
Vance Morris:
00:02:37
learned there was that they are a highly, highly systemized and
Vance Morris:
00:02:42
process oriented company, and that's really to this day,
Vance Morris:
00:02:47
that's what I use in my home service businesses that I still
Vance Morris:
00:02:51
own to create those emotional connections with my customers,
Vance Morris:
00:02:56
to create the emotional connections with My employees.
Vance Morris:
00:03:00
But if it wasn't systemized, if there wasn't a process behind
Vance Morris:
00:03:04
it, there's no way that we could consistently deliver the kind of
Vance Morris:
00:03:09
experience and the kind of service that you know Disney is
Vance Morris:
00:03:12
known for, and that people have come to expect.
Janice Porter:
00:03:16
So couple of questions come to mind from
Janice Porter:
00:03:19
that, and one is that I know that for you would be, I would
Janice Porter:
00:03:23
think very fortunate experience to have that as your first major
Janice Porter:
00:03:28
corporate thing. My daughter had an experience here where she she
Janice Porter:
00:03:32
worked during high school as a server at this local restaurant,
Janice Porter:
00:03:37
but this restaurant was a chain, a Canadian chain, but had then
Janice Porter:
00:03:42
moved into the states, and then she got after that, when she was
Janice Porter:
00:03:45
at university, she started to get into management training
Janice Porter:
00:03:48
there, and every time she left to go do something else, they
Janice Porter:
00:03:52
say, You're welcome back anytime. And she got a really
Janice Porter:
00:03:55
good, solid foundation of sales and of systems and all of that
Janice Porter:
00:03:59
that's taken her through two businesses that she's owned and
Janice Porter:
00:04:03
a company that she's now a VP with. So I get that I think it's
Janice Porter:
00:04:07
a very special experience, and Disney, of course, being one of
Janice Porter:
00:04:11
the leaders in customer experience. The other question
Janice Porter:
00:04:14
that that, or that that was a comment, the question that comes
Janice Porter:
00:04:18
to mind is, having worked at Disney. What's your take on Are
Janice Porter:
00:04:25
you a TV watcher at all?
Vance Morris:
00:04:28
I have four kids, so the command of the remote
Vance Morris:
00:04:31
control is very rarely in my possession.
Janice Porter:
00:04:34
Okay, well, but what you know, I'm sure, is that
Janice Porter:
00:04:37
ABC is owned by Disney, and so are so many other companies.
Janice Porter:
00:04:40
Now, do you think that the Disney Experience is going to
Janice Porter:
00:04:44
come down through those different entities that they own
Janice Porter:
00:04:49
now? Because, I mean, there are the big, you know, the big five
Janice Porter:
00:04:51
conglomerates that own the world. Disney's one of them,
Janice Porter:
00:04:54
right? Do you think that
Vance Morris:
00:04:57
that that is a great question. And. Right? I
Vance Morris:
00:05:00
would like to think so, but it reminds me of I hosted my
Vance Morris:
00:05:06
mastermind meeting at a Ritz Carlton last month in
Vance Morris:
00:05:10
Washington, DC. Nice and Ritz Carlton is owned by the Marriott
Vance Morris:
00:05:15
Corporation, and we asked the guy, the general manager came,
Vance Morris:
00:05:20
actually came down to speak to our to our group, and we asked
Vance Morris:
00:05:25
him, we were like, you're the Ritz Carlton. You're owned by
Vance Morris:
00:05:28
Marriott. Why can't the rest of the Marriotts? Yeah, their level
Vance Morris:
00:05:33
of service up to yours. And you know, a lot of it has to do with
Vance Morris:
00:05:38
money. You know, to stay at a Ritz Carlton, you're looking
Vance Morris:
00:05:42
$800 a night, you know, for a Wednesday, you know. So you are
Vance Morris:
00:05:48
paying for that experience. And I think the same thing is true
Vance Morris:
00:05:51
at Disney in that when you're in the parks and in the resorts,
Vance Morris:
00:05:56
you are paying for the experience. And and I don't
Vance Morris:
00:06:02
think a lot of people associate the Disney company with ABC,
Vance Morris:
00:06:06
ESPN, and some of the other media that they that they're in,
Vance Morris:
00:06:13
certainly Disney plus, which, if you look at Disney plus
Vance Morris:
00:06:16
streaming, and you compare it to ABC, there's, I think they're
Vance Morris:
00:06:22
just the the entire look of that platform is very Disney esque
Vance Morris:
00:06:27
versus ABC.
Janice Porter:
00:06:29
So I agree, but I have to say that. So if I watch
Janice Porter:
00:06:34
something on ABC, and I guess I'm more observant than a lot of
Janice Porter:
00:06:39
people, but I see how. I'll give you a perfect example, Jeopardy.
Janice Porter:
00:06:46
Okay, so Jeopardy is on every night, and it is ABC, right?
Vance Morris:
00:06:52
I'm not sure I'd have to ask my mom. I don't
Vance Morris:
00:06:55
know.
Janice Porter:
00:06:56
Well, I'm pretty sure it is. But the point being
Janice Porter:
00:07:00
that they have category on there, usually, every once in a
Janice Porter:
00:07:06
while that they have live people do the the questions, okay? Last
Janice Porter:
00:07:14
night they had the woman, young woman, who is starring in the
Janice Porter:
00:07:17
new Moana movie. Okay, that's a Disney movie, right? They had
Janice Porter:
00:07:23
the the wicked stars do one the other night, and then that must
Janice Porter:
00:07:28
be whatever it's owned by Disney.
Vance Morris:
00:07:32
So that's a Disney production, yeah, right. So
Vance Morris:
00:07:35
those
Janice Porter:
00:07:35
things, everything Disney gets pushed
Janice Porter:
00:07:38
into, wherever it can. There are other things, but I would hope
Janice Porter:
00:07:44
that their from their staff perspective, from their working
Janice Porter:
00:07:49
their perspective, they would also do those things. So that's
Janice Porter:
00:07:53
why I asked that question. And I just think,
Vance Morris:
00:07:55
I mean, you really would think that that culture
Vance Morris:
00:07:58
would kind of filter down at least somewhat. Yes, yeah,
Vance Morris:
00:08:02
because, say that again, I said even Walt knew, though, that,
Vance Morris:
00:08:08
you know, they obviously, when Walt was alive, they didn't own
Vance Morris:
00:08:12
ABC, right? But he was able to get his TV show, wonderful
Vance Morris:
00:08:17
world, Disney on ABC, and he was literally the first infomercial
Vance Morris:
00:08:24
that you ever saw. Because, yeah, sure, he you know, they'd
Vance Morris:
00:08:27
have the skits and they'd have the the cartoons and the stories
Vance Morris:
00:08:31
and everything, but it was a big, giant advertisement for
Vance Morris:
00:08:35
Disneyland, and of course, the coming Disney World. And so they
Vance Morris:
00:08:40
still use ABC for that, you know, the Disney Christmas
Vance Morris:
00:08:45
parade. You know they that's broadcast on ABC. Yeah, I think
Vance Morris:
00:08:51
there's, I think there's still some synergy, but I agree with
Vance Morris:
00:08:54
you. I think that a little bit more could filter down.
Janice Porter:
00:08:57
Yeah, okay, so that being said, I know that you
Janice Porter:
00:09:02
like me. You're all about the well, like me, I'm very customer
Janice Porter:
00:09:06
experience. I noticed that, and I care about the customer
Janice Porter:
00:09:13
experience, and I know that you do too. And so you say, you
Janice Porter:
00:09:16
know, build a relationship centric business, and where's my
Janice Porter:
00:09:22
note? Here, just a minute. Okay, and so what I notice is that,
Janice Porter:
00:09:26
you know, we, we as business owners, generally speaking, I'm
Janice Porter:
00:09:30
talking generally that we, we're always looking for the new
Janice Porter:
00:09:33
client, but we're never focused on the ones we already have, and
Janice Porter:
00:09:37
what magic we can Disney term, what magic we can bring to them
Janice Porter:
00:09:42
if we look after them. And you you say that you mentioned
Janice Porter:
00:09:47
creating walk on burning coals loyalty like Disney. So what's
Janice Porter:
00:09:52
the secret to cultivating such deep connections with clients or
Janice Porter:
00:09:55
customers? In your perspective? Certainly.
Vance Morris:
00:09:58
Well, I just. A course for my members. And so
Vance Morris:
00:10:05
the numbers fresh My mind is 68% of customers leave a business
Vance Morris:
00:10:11
because they are ignored. 68% that is astounding. And if you
Vance Morris:
00:10:18
could chip away at that, 68% you know. I mean, we, I think we've
Vance Morris:
00:10:23
talked before. I mean, you know, the most expensive thing you can
Vance Morris:
00:10:25
do with a customer is actually acquire them. There's a huge
Vance Morris:
00:10:29
upfront cost to getting a new client or a new customer into
Vance Morris:
00:10:32
your into your business. It is infinitely cheaper to retain the
Vance Morris:
00:10:38
customer through nurturing, through I mean, I tell, you
Vance Morris:
00:10:42
know, my coaching members and my and my clients all the time,
Vance Morris:
00:10:45
it's not our customer's job to remember us. It's our job to
Vance Morris:
00:10:51
remind the customer that we exist. And so I am a and I know
Vance Morris:
00:10:57
we've talked about, you know, direct mail. I am a youth
Vance Morris:
00:10:59
opponent of using the Postal Service, and I believe, both in
Vance Morris:
00:11:03
the US and Canada, we got about a 99% deliverability rate, so
Vance Morris:
00:11:07
it's still pretty good. But you have to use things that are not
Vance Morris:
00:11:14
always a sales tool or an offer, because if the only time your
Vance Morris:
00:11:19
customers hear from you is when you want to sell them something
Vance Morris:
00:11:23
that's not a relationship, that's a you know, it's not
Vance Morris:
00:11:26
symbiotic. I mean, it is you shoving stuff down their throat.
Vance Morris:
00:11:30
Buy my stuff, buy my stuff. And so I find that creating that
Vance Morris:
00:11:37
that engagement, creating that emotional connection is where
Vance Morris:
00:11:43
most businesses fail, but I shamelessly use my children in
Vance Morris:
00:11:48
my marketing. Tell me more, my my my carpet cleaning clients
Vance Morris:
00:11:54
have watched my kids grow up. You know my daughter, she's 17
Vance Morris:
00:11:59
now, but when she was five, she did ballet, and so at the
Vance Morris:
00:12:03
recital, took a picture of her, put it in my newsletter and
Vance Morris:
00:12:06
said, you know, here's darling little Emma on her first you
Vance Morris:
00:12:08
know, you know, recital and you know, and I did that every year.
Vance Morris:
00:12:12
So every October, whatever it was, put a new picture of Emma.
Vance Morris:
00:12:16
So my customers watched Emma grow up, and we had a woman a
Vance Morris:
00:12:21
cost, I'd say a cost us, but approach us in a grocery store,
Vance Morris:
00:12:25
didn't even look at me. Went right to my daughter and said,
Vance Morris:
00:12:28
Oh, my God, Emma, how was your recital? I love it like, honey.
Vance Morris:
00:12:31
Let's go. We were hiding because this lady's nuts. Then I had to
Vance Morris:
00:12:35
think, oh, wait, she must be one of my customers and gets our
Vance Morris:
00:12:39
newsletter. And so when you make that emotional connection like
Vance Morris:
00:12:43
that, that walk on burning coals, yes, connection, that
Vance Morris:
00:12:47
woman is never leaving me until she dies or moves away,
Janice Porter:
00:12:52
I love that. It made me think actually, of a
Janice Porter:
00:12:56
cleaner. I used to have a housekeeper that she was young,
Janice Porter:
00:13:00
and I wish she stayed with it, because she was the best, but
Janice Porter:
00:13:03
what she had kind of a rosy, the Riveter type logo, kind of feel,
Janice Porter:
00:13:10
old fashioned kind of feel. And every time she came to your
Janice Porter:
00:13:13
house to clean or one of her people came, they brought cookie
Janice Porter:
00:13:17
dough, and they baked like half a dozen cookies in your oven and
Janice Porter:
00:13:20
left them on the counter. So you come home to that beautiful
Janice Porter:
00:13:24
smell of the cookies. And I like, oh, my god, that's
Janice Porter:
00:13:27
amazing, right? Brilliant, I know. And you could even choose,
Janice Porter:
00:13:32
you could choose from three or four types of cookies that that
Janice Porter:
00:13:36
you know you were your favorites.
Vance Morris:
00:13:37
So, yeah, you know when it comes to memories, sense
Vance Morris:
00:13:42
or smell is your number one sense? Yeah, and so, you know,
Vance Morris:
00:13:46
anytime I smell kielbasa, I think of my grandmother's
Vance Morris:
00:13:50
kitchen because she made it by hand. So you know that and
Vance Morris:
00:13:54
Disney uses odors and smells as well to evoke those same things,
Vance Morris:
00:14:00
because they know that memories are attached to that sense.
Janice Porter:
00:14:07
Yeah, I there's so many stories that are
Janice Porter:
00:14:09
positive and great stories around ways to put that personal
Janice Porter:
00:14:14
touch in your marketing, ways to get your clients to to
Janice Porter:
00:14:20
differentiate you from the others for your clients. So in
Janice Porter:
00:14:25
in your experience, when you were designing Disney's chef
Janice Porter:
00:14:29
Mickey's dining experience back in the day, what did you learn
Janice Porter:
00:14:33
about the importance of first impressions, and how can
Janice Porter:
00:14:36
businesses apply that today to client relationships?
Vance Morris:
00:14:40
Yeah, so we worked very hard, so we actually had a
Vance Morris:
00:14:44
mission, which is what every business should start with, not
Vance Morris:
00:14:48
a mission statement. Because, you know, most companies, if
Vance Morris:
00:14:51
they have them, the employees don't know what the heck they
Vance Morris:
00:14:54
are. Actually, most CEOs don't even know what it is. I'm sure
Vance Morris:
00:14:57
Disney has one, and it's in a gold weave bind. Were on a
Vance Morris:
00:15:00
pedestal and somewhere. But so we had a mission at chef
Vance Morris:
00:15:04
Mickey's, which was to get Mickey Mouse through 400 seats
Vance Morris:
00:15:10
in 43 minutes and make it feel like it was a great time. Now
Vance Morris:
00:15:15
you ask the questions, okay, well, why 400 seats? Well,
Vance Morris:
00:15:19
that's how many seats we had in the dining room? Why 43 minutes?
Vance Morris:
00:15:22
Because that is the average time a table for two would dine in
Vance Morris:
00:15:26
our restaurant. And if it took us longer to get the mouse
Vance Morris:
00:15:31
through the dining room, well, the table for two set longer.
Vance Morris:
00:15:36
And so now they're getting irritated because they haven't
Vance Morris:
00:15:39
seen Mickey yet. There's people waiting for the table now,
Vance Morris:
00:15:42
waiting longer. They're irritated because they haven't
Vance Morris:
00:15:45
seen the you know, haven't gotten in for breakfast yet. So
Vance Morris:
00:15:49
we had to design this system, and everybody had to have input
Vance Morris:
00:15:54
into it. You know, from the bus boys to the entertainment
Vance Morris:
00:15:58
department to the house. We even got the housekeepers involved,
Vance Morris:
00:16:02
and to design a system, and, like everybody, chiseled away a
Vance Morris:
00:16:06
little bit at the time. So, like the bus boys, were able to, you
Vance Morris:
00:16:09
know, shave like, 40 seconds off, and the housekeeping
Vance Morris:
00:16:12
department saved us a lot of time. And so the first
Vance Morris:
00:16:16
impression that people got when they visited us was that if they
Vance Morris:
00:16:22
had a reservation, they didn't wait much more than five minutes
Vance Morris:
00:16:25
before they got seated. Because, and that's a huge I mean, at
Vance Morris:
00:16:29
Disney, I mean, that's what you do. You wait for everything, you
Vance Morris:
00:16:33
know, and so, I mean, now if you didn't have a reservation, yes,
Vance Morris:
00:16:36
you still had to wait. But there were restaurants at Disney you
Vance Morris:
00:16:39
had a reservation, you could wait 2030, 45, minutes before
Vance Morris:
00:16:42
they got you. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, Well, why bother, right?
Vance Morris:
00:16:48
But So to us, that was very important, and which is one of
Vance Morris:
00:16:52
the reasons it was ranked as the top character dang destination
Vance Morris:
00:16:56
on the entire Disney property that and we then we were kind
Vance Morris:
00:17:04
of, we weren't tucked away and at the contemporary but we were
Vance Morris:
00:17:07
at one end. So we moved a couple of our cast members towards the
Vance Morris:
00:17:13
escalators and the elevators so that we could give direction.
Vance Morris:
00:17:17
So, oh yeah, chef make east, right this way. And then we
Vance Morris:
00:17:20
actually changed the the check in area to that spot because it
Vance Morris:
00:17:25
was, it gave us a little bit of a buffer between the line and
Vance Morris:
00:17:30
coming into the dining room, so we're able to separate that.
Vance Morris:
00:17:33
But, yeah, anything you can do to one eliminate the perception
Vance Morris:
00:17:38
of a weight, but you know, you only get one chance at a first
Vance Morris:
00:17:42
impression.
Janice Porter:
00:17:43
That's right, second nowadays, by the way.
Vance Morris:
00:17:46
Yeah, it is a split second. And you know, I
Vance Morris:
00:17:50
mean the pressure that Disney employees are under. I mean, you
Vance Morris:
00:17:52
think just about everybody who visits there, most of them have
Vance Morris:
00:17:57
saved their entire lives to come to Disney, yeah? So they have
Vance Morris:
00:18:01
huge expectations, yes, and so we have to meet, not only meet,
Vance Morris:
00:18:05
but exceed those expectations. And so each department had the
Vance Morris:
00:18:10
authority to do what it needed to do to make sure that those
Vance Morris:
00:18:15
first impressions were the ones that the guests were expecting.
Janice Porter:
00:18:19
Okay, so let's now fast forward, and you're
Janice Porter:
00:18:23
talking about, you have, I think, three businesses that you
Janice Porter:
00:18:27
still have right carpet cleaning. Are they all carpet
Janice Porter:
00:18:29
cleaning? Are they different?
Vance Morris:
00:18:31
So I have, in addition, I have a mold
Vance Morris:
00:18:34
remediation company and a oriental rug washing facility,
Janice Porter:
00:18:37
all sexy kinds of businesses. Oh, god, yeah.
Vance Morris:
00:18:41
Okay, so I dreamed of doing when I was growing up.
Janice Porter:
00:18:44
Yeah, exactly. But these are, these are
Janice Porter:
00:18:46
perfect, though, because they're service based industries and and
Janice Porter:
00:18:52
I'm sure that, first of all, you're dealing with the same
Janice Porter:
00:18:57
kind of thing people. There's, I can call, you know, 14 carpet
Janice Porter:
00:19:00
cleaners. But why would I call yours? So what do you do to to
Janice Porter:
00:19:05
get your staff on board with your because it's going to be
Janice Porter:
00:19:11
the Disney like experience, I'm sure.
Vance Morris:
00:19:13
Yeah. Well, for one, we do a lot of role play,
Vance Morris:
00:19:18
but the number one thing, though, is everything is
Vance Morris:
00:19:23
documented, so we have a script. So I took a lot of this from
Vance Morris:
00:19:27
Disney. So at Disney, you have cast members who perform a role
Vance Morris:
00:19:31
in the show, not employees working at a company. So the
Vance Morris:
00:19:37
terminology is very important. So I scripted all of the
Vance Morris:
00:19:42
different things that we had to do. So if you look at your
Vance Morris:
00:19:45
customer journey and all of the different touch points where
Vance Morris:
00:19:49
your company interacts with a customer, and you look at ways
Vance Morris:
00:19:54
to create an experience out of all those boring, mundane
Vance Morris:
00:19:58
things, like answering the telephone. Owner opening the
Vance Morris:
00:20:00
door, and so I'll give you a quick example. So we've scripted
Vance Morris:
00:20:07
how to get into the house. Okay, so we can't get into the house.
Vance Morris:
00:20:10
We can't do our cleaning. So it starts out actually, out in the
Vance Morris:
00:20:17
street. So our technicians park in the street. They don't park
Vance Morris:
00:20:20
in the driveway, because, God forbid we got an oil leak. Now
Vance Morris:
00:20:23
we got something else to clean up. Yeah, he gets out of the
Vance Morris:
00:20:25
van, and he's in a clean, crisp, new uniform, because he carries
Vance Morris:
00:20:29
extra uniforms in case he gets dirty on the job prior. He goes
Vance Morris:
00:20:34
up to the front door. He's got a special mat. He's got a tool bag
Vance Morris:
00:20:37
and a little gift. He lays the mat down, and he knocks on the
Vance Morris:
00:20:40
door. He doesn't ring the bell, because sales people ring the
Vance Morris:
00:20:43
bell. Friends knock. Takes two steps back from the screen door.
Vance Morris:
00:20:47
And this is long before covid, because the last thing you
Vance Morris:
00:20:50
wanted was a 250 pound, you know, six foot tall, Josh, nose
Vance Morris:
00:20:55
to nose with 80 year old missus McGillicuddy, you know. I mean,
Vance Morris:
00:20:59
we just scared the crap out of her. So it takes us two steps
Vance Morris:
00:21:02
back. Miss McGillicutty opens the door. Says, Hi, technician
Vance Morris:
00:21:05
will say, Hi, my name is Josh. I'm here to create your healthy
Vance Morris:
00:21:09
home. May I come in? We don't just barge in. We ask. And then
Vance Morris:
00:21:13
we do the performance. We exaggerate the wiping of our
Vance Morris:
00:21:16
feet on the special mat that we laid down. And then we put
Vance Morris:
00:21:19
booties on our clean shoes. When we get into the house, we give
Vance Morris:
00:21:23
Mrs. McGillicuddy a gift. Last time you had a home service
Vance Morris:
00:21:27
person, pest control, repair, somebody give you a gift before
Vance Morris:
00:21:33
they did any work. Yeah. Never, never. So again, that separates
Vance Morris:
00:21:38
us. Yes. Now the gift is Nothing extravagant. So, I mean, it's a
Vance Morris:
00:21:42
custom blue box. Inside of it is a bottle of our spot remover, a
Vance Morris:
00:21:47
nice bag of intamins cookies, and a little note from me
Vance Morris:
00:21:50
saying, Thank you for allowing us into your home. If you have
Vance Morris:
00:21:53
any questions, here's my personal cell phone number. That
Vance Morris:
00:21:55
is the script to get into the house.
Janice Porter:
00:21:59
And that's systemized. Everybody does that.
Vance Morris:
00:22:02
Everybody does it. It is constant and consistent
Vance Morris:
00:22:06
and and just go back to the gift real quick, you know? Because I
Vance Morris:
00:22:10
jokingly say, you know, Disney is a master at extracting money
Vance Morris:
00:22:13
from your wallet and leaving you feel happy about it. And that's
Vance Morris:
00:22:17
essentially what I show other businesses how to do. So when we
Vance Morris:
00:22:20
give the gift, right that it starts a process called
Vance Morris:
00:22:24
reciprocity. I give something to you. You feel compelled that
Vance Morris:
00:22:28
you're going to have to give something back to me. Yeah, we
Vance Morris:
00:22:32
do our sales presentation, we saw a 26% increase in our mid
Vance Morris:
00:22:36
tier package, which equated it to about 65 $70,000 in
Vance Morris:
00:22:40
additional sales just by implementing that little gift.
Janice Porter:
00:22:44
Wow, that's a great tip, actually. That's
Janice Porter:
00:22:47
That's absolutely and it kind of, if I take that into my world
Janice Porter:
00:22:51
of LinkedIn training, it's really about when we do outreach
Janice Porter:
00:22:56
and we're I use LinkedIn a lot to build new relationships and
Janice Porter:
00:23:00
to meet new people. And it's really prospecting as right? And
Janice Porter:
00:23:04
so I want to be able to give first and give value to
Janice Porter:
00:23:08
somebody, and that's exactly what you're talking about. So I
Janice Porter:
00:23:11
always want to care and offer them something of value before I
Janice Porter:
00:23:15
expect anything in return. So I think that's, that's a great,
Janice Porter:
00:23:19
great tip. Um, so,
Janice Porter:
00:23:27
we talked, we talked a little bit about personal touch in
Janice Porter:
00:23:32
marketing and direct direct response marketing, like you're,
Janice Porter:
00:23:38
you're, you've been around, I think you were probably, we
Janice Porter:
00:23:41
talked about Dan Kennedy, right? I remember he was the guru of
Janice Porter:
00:23:45
direct marketing in the day. And what today do you do to sort of,
Janice Porter:
00:23:53
is it all front end marketing or is it back end? Thank you. You
Janice Porter:
00:23:59
know type stuff.
Vance Morris:
00:24:00
It's both okay. So a lot of my front for for my
Vance Morris:
00:24:06
consulting company and for my home service companies, a lot of
Vance Morris:
00:24:10
my front end stuff, or customer attraction stuff, is trying to
Vance Morris:
00:24:15
find referral partners. Yes, okay, so I will, so instead of
Vance Morris:
00:24:21
mailing, you know, 10,000 postcards to a neighborhood, I'm
Vance Morris:
00:24:25
trying to find a real estate agent or a home inspector or
Vance Morris:
00:24:28
somebody who can refer multiple times to me. I love that traffic
Vance Morris:
00:24:32
cleaning business, and one thing that works for me is we
Vance Morris:
00:24:35
actually, I send them coffee in the mail so and they get a
Vance Morris:
00:24:41
little postcard. It says something effective. You know,
Vance Morris:
00:24:45
meetings, great meetings, start with great coffee, and they're
Vance Morris:
00:24:49
or great meetings are 100% more effective with great coffee. So
Vance Morris:
00:24:53
they get this card, and it comes in this nice envelope, and then
Vance Morris:
00:24:56
I literally send them a pouch of coffee that's actually. Be a
Vance Morris:
00:25:00
little pour over, portable pour over thing. I know we're a
Vance Morris:
00:25:04
podcast, but kind of looks like this, so it's black. I can nail
Vance Morris:
00:25:09
it delicious, cause one of my clients, he's a coffee roaster,
Vance Morris:
00:25:13
amazing stuff, but that opens so many doors, because who's
Vance Morris:
00:25:17
sending a, you know, oh, we should go out for coffee. Well,
Vance Morris:
00:25:20
you know, in the days of zoom, and nobody has time anymore, so
Vance Morris:
00:25:23
now we can have a virtual cup, and I've done exactly what you
Vance Morris:
00:25:28
said. I've given before. I've asked for anything. So we got
Vance Morris:
00:25:32
the cup of coffee, and then on, you know, on the customer
Vance Morris:
00:25:37
retention, or the back end, you know, my customers get at least
Vance Morris:
00:25:42
14 to 16 touches a year from us. You know, they get a monthly
Vance Morris:
00:25:48
newsletter from us in print, in the
Janice Porter:
00:25:51
mail, if the one that I just read, my first one
Janice Porter:
00:25:54
is any example, is hysterical. I love it. I love your sense of
Janice Porter:
00:25:57
humor in it. I didn't press the I didn't press the button
Janice Porter:
00:26:01
because I wanted to wait. I wanted to talk to you, and I
Janice Porter:
00:26:03
want to see it tomorrow, that's why. But, yeah, I wanted to just
Janice Porter:
00:26:08
leave it fresh for now and but, yeah, that's a lot, but it takes
Janice Porter:
00:26:13
that these days, doesn't it? It keeps you top of mind. And
Janice Porter:
00:26:16
that's really important. And you have to look at
Vance Morris:
00:26:19
the ROI. I mean, I have a whole reminder system
Vance Morris:
00:26:22
that I put in place, and they get an eight month reminder,
Vance Morris:
00:26:25
nine month, 10 month, yeah, up to two years, because so many
Vance Morris:
00:26:30
people give up. They send out, you know, oh, you know, if
Vance Morris:
00:26:33
you're a dentist or, you know, or proper cleaner, okay, let's
Vance Morris:
00:26:37
send out the 12 month. It's been a year, you should probably come
Vance Morris:
00:26:40
in and have your teeth cleaned. No, you should be sending
Vance Morris:
00:26:43
something out at nine months, 10 months, and accelerating that
Vance Morris:
00:26:46
revenue so that they come in sooner than 12 months. Right
Vance Morris:
00:26:50
now, you've accelerated the revenue. You know? The other
Vance Morris:
00:26:54
thing is, is lifting up the telephone. Oh, I know, a phone
Vance Morris:
00:26:59
call to a prior client. Now I don't recommend cold calling,
Vance Morris:
00:27:03
because that's just not nice, but to call a prior customer and
Vance Morris:
00:27:09
say, Hey, I was just thinking about you. I hope you have a
Vance Morris:
00:27:12
great Thanksgiving. Goes.
Janice Porter:
00:27:16
I mean, you know, I actually had our cable company
Janice Porter:
00:27:20
now, they've merged now, so it's never going to happen again, but
Janice Porter:
00:27:24
the cable company here, somebody actually called me out of the
Janice Porter:
00:27:28
blue and just said, Hey, we're just calling to say thank you
Janice Porter:
00:27:31
for being a loyal customer all these years. I just about fell
Janice Porter:
00:27:34
off the chair, right? But I know, I know, I know. But now
Janice Porter:
00:27:40
they've merged with Rogers, which is a bigger company, so I
Janice Porter:
00:27:43
don't think that's going to happen anymore, but, but those
Janice Porter:
00:27:46
things, you know, those things, mean so much when in this crazy
Janice Porter:
00:27:50
world. Okay, one last question around the customer experience,
Janice Porter:
00:27:54
and that is around recovery. So I know that you have this
Janice Porter:
00:28:00
recovery program that you talk about handling mistakes
Janice Porter:
00:28:03
effectively, and that's, I think, a big piece that we have
Janice Porter:
00:28:07
to be aware of. So how can businesses turn a service
Janice Porter:
00:28:11
failure into an opportunity to strengthen a client
Janice Porter:
00:28:14
relationship?
Vance Morris:
00:28:16
Yeah, definitely. I think one of the first things
Vance Morris:
00:28:19
is, is realizing the true cost of the mistake. So you know it,
Vance Morris:
00:28:26
I mean, okay, you know, if it's a burnt steak in a restaurant,
Vance Morris:
00:28:30
okay, well, it's a burnt steak, it's 10 minutes wasted. Let's
Vance Morris:
00:28:33
get them a new meal, no charge, and we can buy them around the
Vance Morris:
00:28:35
drinks or bring over, you know, a dessert or something. And
Vance Morris:
00:28:38
usually that'll smooth things out. Now, however, if you know
Vance Morris:
00:28:44
you had, you know the cable company coming, and they said
Vance Morris:
00:28:48
they would be there between eight and 12, and you waited and
Vance Morris:
00:28:52
had to take half a day off of work, and then they didn't show
Vance Morris:
00:28:54
up until four. Now, your boss is upset because you didn't come
Vance Morris:
00:28:58
into work. You took an entire vacation day, there's now a
Vance Morris:
00:29:02
greater cost to you that the company is not one doesn't
Vance Morris:
00:29:08
really seem to care about, right? But you have to
Vance Morris:
00:29:10
understand the total value of the problem. I mean, if you have
Vance Morris:
00:29:14
inconvenienced somebody to the point where they've got to, you
Vance Morris:
00:29:17
know, if it's an automobile, and you know, the mechanic didn't
Vance Morris:
00:29:20
fix it right the first time. Okay, well, now I gotta go take
Vance Morris:
00:29:23
another day off. I gotta get a rental car. Blah, blah, blah,
Vance Morris:
00:29:26
blah, blah, all that. And they're like, sorry, we'll,
Vance Morris:
00:29:30
we'll fix it again, but we're not paying for any of that other
Vance Morris:
00:29:33
stuff. So knowing that true cost gives you the frame of mind to,
Vance Morris:
00:29:41
okay, what do I have to do to what point do I have to go to
Vance Morris:
00:29:45
save this customer from defecting and or rescuing them
Vance Morris:
00:29:51
and bringing them back after they have, they have, and a lot
Vance Morris:
00:29:57
of it is giving your frontline employees. And the authority to
Vance Morris:
00:30:02
fix the problem. Yes, Carlton $2,000 every employee can spend
Vance Morris:
00:30:11
up to $2,000 no questions asked, to take care of a guest problem.
Vance Morris:
00:30:17
Nice. I'm not advocating that, because that's a lot of money.
Vance Morris:
00:30:21
But see, Whiz, could you, you know, could you get give them 50
Vance Morris:
00:30:25
or 100 bucks, you know, in leeway, and that you're not
Vance Morris:
00:30:29
going to yell at them for for spending. You know, it's just it
Vance Morris:
00:30:35
have, because when a problem goes longer, it gets worse, you
Vance Morris:
00:30:40
know. So if an employee can nip it in the bud, fix it, and the
Vance Morris:
00:30:43
customer's happy because they fixed it right away, time is
Vance Morris:
00:30:48
your friend. But when you say, I gotta go get a manager, I gotta
Vance Morris:
00:30:52
go find somebody, I gotta get permission. Now, time is
Vance Morris:
00:30:56
elapsing and time is no longer your friend, right? Because I
Vance Morris:
00:30:59
just get more irritated and irritated. Yeah, the problem is
Vance Morris:
00:31:04
solved, and it's going to cost you more once it gets to a
Vance Morris:
00:31:08
certain point, because you didn't have the ability to solve
Vance Morris:
00:31:12
it, or you didn't give the authority to your employees to
Vance Morris:
00:31:15
solve it immediately, like my guys, if we if we are going back
Vance Morris:
00:31:21
to do a reservist so say either one of my guys missed something,
Vance Morris:
00:31:24
or, you know, a lot of times a spot will come back after we've
Vance Morris:
00:31:27
cleaned, when the carpet dries, we get it. My technician knows
Vance Morris:
00:31:32
that he's supposed to go to the local grocery store buy a nice,
Vance Morris:
00:31:36
small bouquet or flower pot and bring it back to the customer's
Vance Morris:
00:31:42
house. Now we do that because, one, well, we're inconveniencing
Vance Morris:
00:31:48
the customer, because we've had to come back to nobody else is
Vance Morris:
00:31:51
doing that. And honestly, if you saw a 26 year old, you know, guy
Vance Morris:
00:31:57
standing there with flowers to come fix a little spot in your
Vance Morris:
00:32:00
carpet. I mean, they just melt. I mean, they're just like, Oh my
Vance Morris:
00:32:04
God, all right, come on in, you know, can I get you something to
Vance Morris:
00:32:07
drink? Okay, the spots over here. But you got to give your
Vance Morris:
00:32:11
employees that, that authority and that latitude. I mean, you
Vance Morris:
00:32:15
got to give them the guard rails. I mean, you don't want
Vance Morris:
00:32:17
to, you know, buying a whole florist shop of roses. Don't go
Vance Morris:
00:32:24
buy plastic. So give them the
Janice Porter:
00:32:26
Well, it's funny. I shouldn't really talk about
Janice Porter:
00:32:29
this, because I don't know if it's happening where you live,
Janice Porter:
00:32:32
but we have this whole eco thing that goes on all the time, and
Janice Porter:
00:32:35
so you can't get bags in in stores anymore, not even just
Janice Porter:
00:32:39
grocery stores. But, I mean, like retail stores, so, but you
Janice Porter:
00:32:43
can get a bag, but it cost you, and it could cost you anywhere
Janice Porter:
00:32:47
from 25 cents to $3 or whatever. For a bag depends if it's a can,
Janice Porter:
00:32:51
if it's a nicer bag, whatever. But I go to a store like
Janice Porter:
00:32:56
Athleta, which is owned by gap, like there, there's three, four
Janice Porter:
00:33:00
levels of gap, Old Navy, gap, Athleta and Banana Republic. You
Janice Porter:
00:33:05
go in and I spend $350 and then they say, Would you like a bag
Janice Porter:
00:33:09
that they're going to charge me $200 $2 for? I'm insulted, but
Janice Porter:
00:33:14
they're telling me that it's a law now, and I don't know if
Janice Porter:
00:33:17
it's a law, it might be discretionary. When you spend
Janice Porter:
00:33:21
few $100 that maybe you could cover that, I don't know, but it
Janice Porter:
00:33:25
drives me crazy. I understand at the grocery store when I have to
Janice Porter:
00:33:28
remember my bags from the car, but there's just some things
Janice Porter:
00:33:32
that I really find annoying. So anyway, I'm a customer service.
Vance Morris:
00:33:38
Bags were free before the laws, I know. I mean,
Vance Morris:
00:33:43
I always got paper because I use it to, you know, I use it to
Vance Morris:
00:33:46
start fires. I recycle my paper in the paper bag. And I, you
Vance Morris:
00:33:50
know, I get it. And then, then, like, then, then next Monday.
Vance Morris:
00:33:55
What I just got, I got, you know, I got five paper bags. Oh,
Vance Morris:
00:33:58
that's, you know, an additional 50 cents.
Janice Porter:
00:34:00
I'm like, I know, crazy. So anyway, it's just
Janice Porter:
00:34:04
different things for different reasons, I guess. But love this
Janice Porter:
00:34:07
conversation. I love talking about the customer experience,
Janice Porter:
00:34:10
and you've got some great ideas and and systems around making it
Janice Porter:
00:34:15
a wow experience, whoever the company is. And I can see that
Janice Porter:
00:34:20
you work with small business owners. You work with larger
Janice Porter:
00:34:22
companies as well right now. And through your mastermind,
Vance Morris:
00:34:27
I tend to, I tend to gravitate to the to the
Vance Morris:
00:34:30
entrepreneurs and the smaller companies. You know, I have some
Vance Morris:
00:34:33
street cred with them, because I own three small businesses as
Vance Morris:
00:34:36
well. But, but yeah. I mean, if you're serving customers either
Vance Morris:
00:34:43
in their home or in your office, I can probably help.
Janice Porter:
00:34:47
So one last piece of business advice for my small
Janice Porter:
00:34:52
business owners and entrepreneurs.
Vance Morris:
00:34:56
Well, I'm not much for sayings, but and I only have
Vance Morris:
00:34:59
one. And that is, you won't profit unless you implement so
Vance Morris:
00:35:03
pick something that you heard today, whether it's this
Vance Morris:
00:35:06
podcast, something else you heard, but pick something and go
Vance Morris:
00:35:11
and implement it. Do you gotta do something to affect any
Vance Morris:
00:35:15
change in your business? So otherwise, this has just been a
Vance Morris:
00:35:18
great 38 minutes of Janice and Vance bantering. Or are you
Vance Morris:
00:35:22
going to take something because there were some really good,
Vance Morris:
00:35:25
solid things you could go implement tomorrow if you wanted
Vance Morris:
00:35:28
to, so find something and implement
Janice Porter:
00:35:31
it perfect. So appreciate you being here. Vance
Janice Porter:
00:35:34
really enjoyed our conversation. I encourage my audience to go
Janice Porter:
00:35:39
and search you out, and where can they find you? And I will
Janice Porter:
00:35:42
put it in the show notes.
Vance Morris:
00:35:43
Is it or best place is my website, which is
Vance Morris:
00:35:45
deliver service now, com, perfect. Get a free download of
Vance Morris:
00:35:49
my book, the PDF. But so if you want to get grab, okay, don't
Vance Morris:
00:35:53
want to send Jeff Bezos any more money and order. I mean, you can
Vance Morris:
00:35:57
get it on Amazon if you want.
Janice Porter:
00:35:58
But okay, okay, fair enough. And your book, The
Janice Porter:
00:36:01
One systematic magic, perfect. I do encourage people to do that,
Janice Porter:
00:36:06
and thank you for being here. Thank you to my audience, as
Janice Porter:
00:36:09
always, for being here. And remember to stay connected and
Janice Porter:
00:36:12
be remembered. Thank.