December 23, 2024 • 25 mins
Darren Ross is known for Hospitality and worked extensively with Jesse Cole as he started the famous Savannah Bananas Baseball Team!
Darren created his hotel management company, Service Freak Hospitality, LLC. His company now leases and operates the Magic Castle Hotel. Darren and his team have brought an ordinary looking and limited-service hotel, to being a multi-award- winning business based on high levels of customer service, and unique amenities. The hotel has been featured in multiple articles on customer service, podcasts, and books including the New York Times best seller, The Power of Moments by Chips & Dan Heath.
Darren gave a TEDx Talk in Santa Barbara, CA on the topic of customer service and has spoken to many companies world-wide including; Nike, General Motors Mexico, and Harcourts Realty in Australia.
https://www.servicefreak.com/introductions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Darren Ross (00:05):
Really focus on your words and the tone in which
they're set Oh. To elevateexperience.
Sam D'Arc (00:16):
Welcome everyone to the driving vision podcast
brought to you by the ZiglerAuto Group. I'm your host, Sam
Dark. Be sure to subscribe tothe podcast. Like it if you do,
and leave a comment. Hey,everybody.
Welcome to the driving visionfuture of Zach Today podcast.
With us today is Darren Ross.
Darren Ross (00:33):
I'm Darren Ross. I own a hotel management company
called Service FreakHospitality, and we lease and
operate the Magic Castle Hotelin Hollywood.
Sam D'Arc (00:41):
So Darren, you just spent an hour and a half with
team Ziegler, so you get acouple accolades. Number 1, you
actually went longer than mostspeakers go. They usually are
encapsulated. They're stuck inthat 60 minute time frame, and
you pull us out of our comfortzone in a way that's pretty
unique. You're one of the firstpeople that actually brought
people into activity.
You asked them to do things. Youasked them to get up and be
(01:02):
uncomfortable. You asked themto, like like, grab their
shoulder.
Darren Ross (01:05):
Yeah. That's always a touchy one. And clock
attendant, right?
Sam D'Arc (01:08):
And do things, right? To to to create movement as from
a speaker strategy standpoint.Why?
Darren Ross (01:16):
Well, I've seen a lot of speakers. Yeah. And, some
great, some not so great. Yeah.And I think that everybody in
your audience has probably hadthat experience also.
Yeah. And I don't want people tojust sit there and listen to one
person talk for an hour. Yeah.It's not that much fun.
Sam D'Arc (01:30):
Get engaged, yeah.
Darren Ross (01:30):
Get engaged. Yeah. And I want them to have that
little a little bit of pressurethat they have to be in tune
with the speaker and what'sgoing on. They're gonna have to
think Yeah. And work in teamsand I think it's just more
valuable for the audience as awhole.
Sam D'Arc (01:43):
Part of your message too has to do with movement, it
has to do with activity. So theMagic Castle Hotel in Hollywood,
California, a place that hasdeveloped a great reputation.
I'm gonna say something you mayget offended by, but I think it
makes a point. So
Darren Ross (02:00):
buckle up.
Sam D'Arc (02:01):
It's not like as a hotel, it's not a 4 seasons. Oh.
It's not a What? It's it's not.It's like I look at it and it's
like, you know what?
It's not a dump, but it's notand please forgive me.
Darren Ross (02:15):
You're
Sam D'Arc (02:15):
fine. It's not it's it's not a a top of the line
hotel, super expensive hotel.
Darren Ross (02:19):
No. And
Sam D'Arc (02:20):
yet despite physical facilities, you create an
experience for your customersthat is elite. That is
incredible. And isn't that partof the message here with Team
Ziegler regardless
Darren Ross (02:30):
of the
Sam D'Arc (02:31):
franchise, the brand, the physical facilities, the
customers, the place you are,like, you can make a difference
in a customer's life.
Darren Ross (02:38):
Absolutely. And that's and that's where we're
we're trying to do. We try tocreate these these moments for
people Yeah. And those momentsare in these memories. Yeah.
And we our goal is to have ourguests leave feeling compelled
to tell the world about thisunique experience they just had.
And that is like you mentioned,that that is part of our story.
That we're not this fancyfacility, we're not Four
Seasons, we're not a 5 starhotel. Yeah. And that's okay.
(03:00):
Literally on our website,there's a 5 minute video of me
explaining the hotel. And one ofthe things I say is if you're
looking for shiny and new, thismight not be the hotel for you.
Oh, interesting. And that'sokay. We want you to enjoy your
holiday.
Sam D'Arc (03:15):
Yeah. Yeah.
Darren Ross (03:16):
We don't want guests. We don't want people to
be disappointed. Yeah. We wannaunder undersell it and over
deliver it. And so when theycome up, they're delighted.
That's that's the goal.
Sam D'Arc (03:25):
Now you're in an area that's highly competitive in the
hotel space. Oh, sure. Yeah.Yeah. So people check out of
your hotel and end up, you gavean an example, end up going to a
Disney Resort Hotel, which isfamous for service.
Sure. And you out punted them.Right? And you tell the story of
delivering a product to acustomer. Right?
Yeah.
Darren Ross (03:43):
Well, this this particular guest was leaving as
they had little kids, and shesays, and we hear fortunately,
we hear this a lot. You haveruined the next hotels for my
kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
You ruined them. Yeah. And sojokingly, yeah, she said she
likes Marmite, and I went on toAmazon and bought some. I had
delivered to her hotel the nextday, which they loved. And that
created a memory.
Sam D'Arc (04:03):
So thinking about the automotive world, what are some
specific components of what youshared today that auto dealers,
our stores, could instantlyimplement to create an our
mission statement is to createan ultimate automotive
experience for our customers.And by the way, in doing that,
we create that experience foreach other. Right?
Darren Ross (04:20):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (04:21):
So what are some actionable things you could
recommend our stores or teams dotoday to create that experience?
Darren Ross (04:27):
Today. Yeah. Today, you could really focus on your
words and the tone in whichthey're said. Oh. To elevate the
experience.
On that.
Sam D'Arc (04:35):
Give me an example.
Darren Ross (04:36):
Instantly. Well, we talked today Oh. Yeah. About at
our hotel, we'd our welcomespeech, we have the one
mandatory line and then theemployees could could finish the
with the welcome speech whereverthey wanna finish it. Which by
the way,
Sam D'Arc (04:48):
your one mandatory line is, I wrote this down. I
love it. I love to see usimplement this. I'd like to take
a moment to tell you what apleasure it is to have you with
us.
Darren Ross (04:57):
I think it was very close, and
Sam D'Arc (04:59):
you're gonna
Darren Ross (04:59):
pass on that.
Sam D'Arc (05:00):
And by the way, in the Subaru world, to to our
Subaru stores, president ofSubaru COO, they just
implemented something where youput your hand over your heart
and you say, I'd love to. Andboth of those have a very unique
way of connecting with acustomer in a way that we don't.
Right? That's right. Is thatwhat that does?
Darren Ross (05:17):
Absolutely. And what and what it does and this
is a it is a couple of things.One, it's a show of respect for
for your customers. Yeah. Andpeople are not accustomed in
today's world.
I hate to sound like an old guy.Yeah. But in today's world where
everything is sped up and andwe're moving towards
self-service with technology,which is great. Yeah. But with
that, because it comes asopportunity to really stand out
(05:39):
by slowing down and showing therespect to your to your
customer.
And when we say, I just wannatake a moment to tell you what a
pleasure it is to have you withus. Mhmm. It might be awkward to
say at first, but it's notawkward to receive it. It's
really beautiful to receive itand moving to people. Yeah.
And I was I was saying in mytalk today that a lot of people
have tears in their eyes. Theyget emotional because they're
(06:01):
not used to people slowing downfor them. And slowing down for
your customer doesn't have tomean you take more time with
them. It's just the words andthe tone. Intentional.
Intentional. Connected. Yeah.Yeah. Beautiful.
Sam D'Arc (06:17):
Connected emotionally. Exactly. So
alright. So I took a crack atthe hotel. I'm gonna tell you
the second thing that I think isa challenge with this.
Here's the biggest challengewith doing this. It's beautiful.
It it delivers a greatexperience to a customer. It
connects employee to customer ina way that's neat. Here's the
problem.
It relies on an employee thatdoes it over and over and over
(06:40):
and over and over and over andover again. To deliver that over
and over and over and over andbe able to do it in an
intentional way and a connectingway. So how do you solve for
that?
Darren Ross (06:50):
Yeah. Well, it's hard, which is why everyone
doesn't do it. Yeah. It'smanual. It's one cost 1 customer
at a time.
Yeah. Right? We have meetings.We talk about things. There's an
incentive program built in forthem to create these stories for
our guests.
I talked about how we don't,give incentive to sell. Instead,
we do incentive to createmoments.
Sam D'Arc (07:11):
Four Seasons does that. That's the Ritz Carlton.
Ritz Carlton does that.
Darren Ross (07:15):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (07:16):
The the author of Unreasonable Hospitality
Darren Ross (07:18):
who I've heard speak has
Sam D'Arc (07:19):
a way of doing that. Yeah. It's so simple. Why why is
it that some people things canbe simple, but not easy. Right.
Why is it all about theexecution sometimes?
Darren Ross (07:32):
Right. Yeah. Well, Well, that's our Popsicle
hotline Yeah. Example. Yeah.
It's so simple. Yeah. It's sosimple and inexpensive, yet so
effective. Yeah. It's soeffective.
So we look
Sam D'Arc (07:44):
we look for those things. And and Share the share
the hotline because as you andme, I don't I have a question on
that.
Darren Ross (07:50):
Yeah. Yeah. That was why. So when I started at at
the hotel, there was this beigephone. I mentioned it's a
converted apartment building.
Yeah. There was a beige phone,which would have been like a
house phone. Yeah. It hadbuttons on it, and nobody ever
used it at the hotel. And wewere also at the time, I wanted
to start doing popsicles, and wewould just do it when there was
somebody out by the pool.
If we noticed them, we'd bringout a tray of popsicles, and
(08:12):
that was fun. And literally oneday, I'm driving to work, and
for some reason it just hit me.Yeah. And the beauty of being
able to order things online andhaving them in 2 days. Yeah.
I ordered this red phone. Yeah.It's a true hotline. Yeah. No
buttons, no dials, and wedesigned this colorful sign that
says popsicle hotline.
(08:32):
And all you do is lift up thered phone, and we answer
popsicle hotline. Yeah. Then thekid will ask for a popsicle. And
then a minute later, we'rewearing white gloves, silver
tray, and free popsicles
Sam D'Arc (08:43):
by the pool.
Darren Ross (08:43):
And what that does, it just creates a delightful
experience.
Sam D'Arc (08:47):
It's a
Darren Ross (08:47):
delightful experience. We have parents who
wanna capture the moment.They're like They're taking
movies. Oh, look. Our 8 year oldkid
Sam D'Arc (08:52):
is using a phone connecting
Darren Ross (08:53):
to a
Sam D'Arc (08:54):
wall with a cord.
Darren Ross (08:55):
It is so funny to say that. Idea how to use it.
That's exactly right. Thatliterally happens Yeah. All the
time.
Yeah. We have to the kids don'tknow. They don't know which end
to speak in. It's really
Sam D'Arc (09:04):
It seems to me as you describe this, again, going back
to the employee, the incentiveshave gotta be right. Because
going back to the popsiclehotline, I could see a case
where you get a kid, as kidsare, gonna keep calling that
thing every 2 minutes. Totally.And there's gonna be somebody on
the other end of the line withthe tray and the white gloves
that's gonna be like, here we goagain.
Darren Ross (09:25):
Here we go. Look at this kid. Yep. Look at this kid.
And they have
Sam D'Arc (09:28):
to go out with a smile, deliver Absolutely. The
tray of potash. It's showtime.
Darren Ross (09:31):
How do you solve for that? It's showtime. We we
do it. There are exceptionsYeah.
Sam D'Arc (09:36):
By the way. The customer's not right. To be
abused. Yeah.
Darren Ross (09:39):
Yeah. Right. Yeah. And we we draw the line there.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (09:41):
And and, you know,
Darren Ross (09:41):
we have free snacks at our hotel.
Sam D'Arc (09:43):
Yeah. We have free soda and ice cream.
Darren Ross (09:45):
Free soda and ice cream. We have snacks. People
will come to their desk atwhatever, 11 o'clock at night.
They want a KitKat bar. Theywant stickers and whatever.
We give it to them. But once ina while, there's a family or or
people who abuse it. Yeah. Andwe'll tell them. Yeah.
Because it's our hotel. We don'twe don't have we don't we don't
need to be abused. Yeah. Butthat happens, you know, again on
one hand. We don't have that.
Sam D'Arc (10:04):
Isn't it interesting, though? It's probably the
exception rather than the rule.Oh, absolutely. And too many
businesses, you mentioned, youyou know, every now and again,
you relook at this the freesnack thing, and you're like,
hey. You know, economically,this makes sense.
The outliers try to you know?But we always we always make a
bigger deal of the outlier thanit ends up being. And in
business, sometimes it's truththat we create a policy for the
(10:27):
outlier Yes. And it destroys itfor everyone else.
Darren Ross (10:30):
Right? Correct. That's that's exactly right.
That's exactly right. That's whywe haven't changed the, the free
snacks in I mean, I think we'redoing it for almost 20 years.
Yeah. We've been doing that.Yeah. But, yeah, some months, oh
my god. What do we spend on, youknow, KitKat bars?
Yeah. You know?
Sam D'Arc (10:43):
So you've been doing this for 20 years. You've
discovered the secret of serviceand extraordinary moments to
create an extraordinaryexperience. And then you've
traveled all over the world. Youjust came from Australia where
you presumably shared thismessage, TEDx and then other
places. Are there examples ofcompanies that have lit up and
changed their strategy andapproach as a result of this
advice and seen kind of areawakening?
(11:05):
And because I imagine as anemployee, the other thing this
does for me, it's exciting.Like, to It is exciting. Have
that popsicle tray, to give thefree treats and not have to log
every 99¢, you know, whatever.Like So exciting. At a human
level, we want to create thatgreat experience for other
people.
We wanna connect with otherpeople. We want to serve other
(11:26):
people. Right? Absolutely. Noware there examples of other
companies that Yeah.
Darren Ross (11:29):
I mean, the the sorry. The most exciting for me
is when there's an industrythat's not known for its
service. And then all of asudden, they're known for
service within their industry.Yeah. And that to me is super
rewarding.
The one comes to mind is a acompany called Fantastic IT who,
I've worked with. And they'vealways been a great company.
(11:50):
They've always been customerservice focused, but we took
them to the IT.
Sam D'Arc (11:54):
They're a bunch of technicians.
Darren Ross (11:55):
They don't care
Sam D'Arc (11:56):
about it.
Darren Ross (11:57):
Yeah. They don't care about it. Customer service.
Right? But they're actually cooland they speak they speak the
language to the customers.
Sam D'Arc (12:02):
They don't Okay.
Darren Ross (12:03):
They don't talk above them. Yeah. They they can
convert they can convert it.
Sam D'Arc (12:06):
Right. Yeah.
Darren Ross (12:07):
It's also what I found is the companies who hire
me to come, are the companieslike here Yeah. Who are already
doing a great job, who alreadyunderstand how important service
is. I'm not convincing peoplethat they should do things
differently and all of a suddenhave a different approach to or
a different mindset on customerservice. They have the mindset.
Yeah.
But maybe it's not somethingthat some of the So you alluded
Sam D'Arc (12:28):
to something today. Customer service in automotive
sucks. By and large, why isthat? Why is there a perception
out there?
Darren Ross (12:36):
When does that suck up?
Sam D'Arc (12:37):
Super hard and yet over and over again, the
industry, not our team, ourteam, hopefully, we deliver
above and beyond consistently.There's an industry stigma that
that we're terrible.
Darren Ross (12:47):
Yeah. I mean, from your perspective, we're all
about cars before it takes ittakes a long time. There's
always the stress of thenegotiation Yeah. Of the car.
Yeah.
I think that really stressespeople out a lot.
Sam D'Arc (12:58):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (12:58):
Some people aren't built for that. Yeah. You know?
So for me personally, that wouldbe it's always the the
negotiating Yeah. And then theprocess and then finance.
And then, like Yeah. It's a longprocess. It's not fun. It's fun
to get the car at the end, butit's not fun buying the car.
There's that stigma.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (13:13):
So you tried really hard today to not give us all
the answers, but have us act sothat we had some muscle memory.
Mike, I thought that was supergenius to have us say this
welcome speech because that'sstep 1 to getting a, hopefully,
team Ziegler, we implement andapply this. Give us the answer
though now. Thinking about yourprocess and our
Darren Ross (13:45):
I would Well, I think it should start doing
laundry. The hell out of
Sam D'Arc (13:47):
that thing.
Darren Ross (13:48):
I think it start doing laundry for your
customers. It just makes sense.You give free food.
Sam D'Arc (13:52):
You talk about a service reflex. From your
perspective as a car buyer, whatcould we do in the automotive
industry? Well, okay. If you
Darren Ross (13:58):
look at those examples Yeah. Like the free
snacks. Yeah. When you go to ahotel, what's your biggest fear
in the room? The mini bar.
Sam D'Arc (14:06):
Oh, no dirty sheets for me. But yes. Alright. Mini
bar. We'll
Darren Ross (14:09):
get No. I don't mind this. Okay. No. But wait.
For the mini bar prices. Yes.
Sam D'Arc (14:14):
Outrageous things. The cash
Darren Ross (14:16):
shoes about what? Yeah. It's like shopping at the
airport.
Sam D'Arc (14:18):
$30 for
Darren Ross (14:19):
a small
Sam D'Arc (14:19):
bag of nuts. Yeah. Exactly.
Darren Ross (14:21):
So that is a pain point Yeah. For people. And we
try to address that head on anddo the opposite. Yeah. It's
free.
Yeah. It's so great. So I wouldsay for your industry is take
those pain points and andaddress them head on, and to the
extent you can Yeah. Do theopposite.
Sam D'Arc (14:37):
Yeah. Do the opposite. Interesting.
Darren Ross (14:39):
And that's Yeah. That would that is what will
compel people Yeah. To keeptalking about it and keep coming
back.
Sam D'Arc (14:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So there's a there's a perception
long waits in line, Mike. Sowhat I think about. Right?
Darren Ross (14:48):
Attack that. Attack that. Exactly. Exactly.
Sam D'Arc (14:51):
Or a perception may be transparency. Attack that.
Make it more transparent.
Darren Ross (14:55):
Attack it.
Sam D'Arc (14:55):
So I'm trying to think totally. Because to me,
every hotel you walk into, youhave to pay for the nuts.
Exactly. What is the free nutsin automotive? Right?
Darren Ross (15:03):
Or what's the free popsicle? Right.
Sam D'Arc (15:05):
Or what's the free, you know, cookie or whatever?
Right. That service reflex.Mike, I think you have that.
Like, you've done such a greatjob in our auto group of
creating that service reflex,diamond drops.
There's no other auto group inthe country that you can write a
gratitude note, pass it to afellow employee or even a
customer or a fellow speaker.You received one today from
(15:28):
Mike, and it creates thatconnection. It lights you up.
Absolutely.
Darren Ross (15:32):
And and it and it
Sam D'Arc (15:33):
creates that extraordinary, moment. Mike, you
had a question.
Yeah. Darren talked about just taking a deep breath,
taking a moment, and slowingdown. And for us at Team
Ziggler, we need to do that withour employees as well and our
team members. Absolutely. Andtake a minute and notice what
they're doing and recognize themand rebuild re reinforce our
culture.
Right? Yeah. Yeah. The questionI had comes from the training
(15:53):
development side. It's how doyou onboard?
How do you get the right peopleOh,
Darren Ross (15:57):
that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. And really reinforce
everything you stand for.
Sam D'Arc (16:01):
In the hotel itself. Yeah.
Darren Ross (16:02):
It's it's funny. It's, people are sometimes
surprised that we don't have aformal training program at our
front desk. We don't. Yeah. Andit does surprise people, and
maybe we should.
I don't know. But it works howwe do it works for us. Yeah. And
we put a huge emphasis on theinterview process. Yeah.
And so the front desk team allget the second interviews. And
(16:26):
by the time they get to me, Ialready know that on paper
they're good. Other managerslike them. They want me to hire
them probably, you know. Butit's in that second interview
where I do a lot of the talking,because I'm letting them know
exactly what we stand for, whowe are as a company,
Sam D'Arc (16:47):
and You're selling the vision.
Darren Ross (16:48):
Selling the culture. I'm selling the vision.
And I don't mean this in a in anegative way, but I wanna, like,
really get them on the samepage. I don't wanna use the word
scare, but concern them a littlebit. Yeah.
And I tell him that it's reallyafter I tell him about the
awards and and the books and andall this, they they start paying
closer attention. And somethingI'll always say is it's hard to
(17:13):
get a job here.
Sam D'Arc (17:14):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (17:15):
Yeah. We're only as good as I know it's cliche, but
we're only as good as the peoplewe hire. Right. But it's hard
it's hard to get a job here.Yeah.
And, and then we hire them. Andthe goal is for them to start on
day 1, understanding the bar.Yeah. Understanding, not coming
in cocky and and and ready togo. Yeah.
But, like, being a little in thehealthiest way, nervous. Yeah. A
(17:36):
little nervous because it's your1st day of work and you wanna
perform. Yeah. And I always say,we'll know quickly if it's a
good fit or not.
Sam D'Arc (17:42):
Yeah. You
also have that sense of pride. Right? Like, hey.
Absolutely. I joined this team.
Darren Ross (17:46):
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (17:46):
And I wanna perform at a high level. Yes. My team
members and my customers.
Darren Ross (17:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I share with them too that
you'll be a big fish in a smallpond. Yeah. You know?
Yeah. It it was it's because wewe do have a reputation, and
and, people like people wanna bepart of that team. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (18:01):
Yeah. For sure.
Oh, great answer there. Darren Ross, service
freak. Right? Magic CastleHotel. If people wanna find out
more about you, how do they findout more about you and kinda
what you guys do?
Darren Ross (18:12):
You could email me. Email me.
Darren@magiccastlehotel.com.
Sam D'Arc (18:16):
Easy. That's super easy. Easy. One of the questions
you asked as we were in the roomtogether, and this will be kind
of our last question. I love toshare it all 3 of us.
It was a fun exercise. If memoryserves, you said, hey. Give an
example of some of the bestservice you've ever received.
Some of the worst. The worst forme, I went up I've shared this
on the podcast before.
I went up to a Starbucks, askedfor a coffee, and they said, our
(18:37):
coffee machine, whatever thatis, is broken. How does
Starbucks coffee machine,whatever it is Right. Not work?
And they said you can buy ourmuffins, but you can't have have
anything else. And it was justkind of, we're not gonna do
anything for you.
I was shocked by that. Right?
Darren Ross (18:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (18:50):
Starbucks, they create a high bar. Chick Fil A,
there was an experience setthere. I think for an
organization that traditionallysets a high bar and then they
don't meet it, that's a bignegative.
Darren Ross (19:00):
Oh, yeah. Fair? Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (19:01):
One of the best experiences, Saint Regis Hotel
Downtown Chicago. Great hotel,incredible restaurant,
delivering what you need beforeyou even think it. Right? And
that's that's an interestingability for an organization to
be able to craft that. I wouldsay I'm fascinated by what
you've done because you're not aRitz.
You're not a St. Regis. You're acompetitive hotel in a hugely
(19:26):
competitive marketplace.
Darren Ross (19:27):
Right.
Sam D'Arc (19:28):
And you've out punted. But but what what, what
are some examples of top servicethat that you've experienced?
Darren Ross (19:36):
Probably it's a good question. I should just
have these. Right? I should justhave them. No.
I should just have them.
Sam D'Arc (19:41):
It's what impresses you as someone that teaches and
preaches this. Yeah. Because youprobably go places and you're
like
Darren Ross (19:48):
I do. That is not that is not awesome. I do. Well,
it's funny. It's much easier forme to to to tell you a list of
companies that are leave mewanting more.
Yeah. Which is is a nice niceway to put it. But Well
Sam D'Arc (20:00):
well, let's talk well, before we go so COVID
ruined this industry, did itnot? It ruined it. Why is it so
easy to find all the miserablecompanies? And why does it seem
like service is a tougher thingto come by? It is.
Because it is.
Darren Ross (20:12):
Everyone good people cut staff. People people
pivoted and adjusted to to asmaller staff. Yeah. And the
customer is a loser. Yeah.
You know, it's it's it's really,really a shame. I'll give you an
example of, where I was so justdisappointed. Yeah. Okay. I'll
tell you a good one too, but Iwas staying in a hotel, really
high end hotel in Las Vegas.
I won't mention the name. Okay.It's like
Sam D'Arc (20:32):
super high end. Oh, you've gotta tell us this.
Darren Ross (20:34):
You know? We're gonna get this out of them. Here
we go. And I was going expectinga lot. Yeah.
And what I got, which is socommon, completely average.
Yeah. It was a long a long lineto check out.
Sam D'Arc (20:47):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (20:48):
Housekeeping wasn't wasn't really good. They didn't
show up when they sit when theysaid no. When they when they
said, they said they'd be there,they they weren't. Yeah. Their
little request, they weren'tdone.
Yeah. And it just left me withnothing. Yeah. Like, I was I was
paying a lot. Yeah.
And it was it was really, reallya shame. It was such a shame,
but those things are so commonwhere you go into a place with a
(21:09):
great reputation based on theirfacilities or their systems.
Right. But when it comes down tothe employee in front of your
face Yeah. They drop the ball.
Yeah. And what it really comesdown to is that employee on a
given day, on a given shift, ona given moment, is that
interaction, and that's it.Yeah. That's all I've got.
Company.
That's my view of the company.Yeah. And the same could be
(21:30):
said, you know, gosh,
Sam D'Arc (21:31):
what a for your dealerships. What a challenge
you've been to solve for as abusiness owner.
Darren Ross (21:35):
It is. And that's why I say it's a manual process.
It's really hard. It has to beevery customer every time. It
just has to be.
Sam D'Arc (21:41):
Mike, you gotta give us an example.
Darren Ross (21:43):
You know,
Sam D'Arc (21:43):
it's all about how they make you feel. Right? Yeah.
Yeah. How do you feel?
Yeah. And energy. But, yeah, oneone great one would be,
obviously, the high end hotelsand resorts and stuff, but a
local mom and pop golf shop, andit's called Maple Hill Golf.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You shared that before.
Darren Ross (21:59):
Yeah. Just with the way they make you feel, they
tailor the experience towardsyou.
Sam D'Arc (22:02):
They actually slow things down and take the time
Yeah. To get to know
Darren Ross (22:06):
you and use you by name
Sam D'Arc (22:07):
Yeah. And just really guide you. And they're not sales
y. They don't they don'tthreaten you.
Darren Ross (22:11):
They don't need to be. They don't
Sam D'Arc (22:12):
need to be. Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:13):
Yeah. I love that. I I wanted I don't wanna I'll
mention my positive one. I mean,we get all negative. Yeah.
Is, my favorite, that's not highend, it doesn't have to be, is,
Trader Joe's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ilove Trader Joe's.
Sam D'Arc (22:25):
I can't figure out Trader Joe's. I go in there and
I'm lost. I don't understand it.Oh, really? What is the deal?
Darren Ross (22:30):
Oh, it's great. They have limited limited
products. They have incrediblebuyers all over the world. They
find the most unique items.Yeah.
And what I love about it is Ilove that. I love that it's not
a huge grocery store. Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (22:40):
It's curated.
Darren Ross (22:41):
Yeah. Curated. Yeah. But what I love about it
is how the employees interactwith each other. Mhmm.
And always happy and casualYeah. And just they just seem
happy to be there.
Sam D'Arc (22:52):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:52):
And I love I love the vibe Yeah. Of Trader Joe's.
And then you check out, theyoften ask you, oh, this looks
good or have you tried this?
Sam D'Arc (22:58):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:59):
They're engaged. They're engaged. They're not
just they're not just watchingthe clock Yeah. Checking
checking you out. Yeah.
You're actually a part of theprocess, and I appreciate. I
don't I don't think they overdoit, but you know that they're
engaged. They're present. Yeah.And I really like that.
I love going there. I neverdread going to Trader Joe's.
Sam D'Arc (23:14):
There's a business out west. I'm from Utah called
REI. It's like an outdoor sportsplace, employee owned.
Darren Ross (23:19):
Yeah. I live across the street from 1.
Sam D'Arc (23:21):
Very similar.
Darren Ross (23:22):
Mhmm. And
Sam D'Arc (23:22):
I've always wondered if maybe it's the employee
ownership they're bought in. Youknow, I don't know how much they
make or how what it works rightinto it. There's some incentive
there. So I have a prediction aswe wrap up here today. Mike,
thank you for for making todaypossible.
It's interesting. There's adeficit of these sorts of
experiences, and I have aprediction for our audience. I
think these experiences will bethe the definition of, it'll
(23:45):
it'll become the stand thatwe'll see a resurgent of good
experience, in the coming yearsbecause people knew what a bad
experience was through COVIDYeah. And they so did not like
it. I think most people arewilling to pay a little bit
extra for better.
And right?
Darren Ross (24:01):
I fully agree. People people wanna feel good.
Yeah. People wanna feel happy.They wanna feel appreciated.
Yeah. They wanna feel heard.Yeah. And we try to capitalize
that on at the hotel. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (24:12):
And AI and technology, and as as great as
it is, those tools will help usbetter deliver to each other.
But at the end of the day, it'llbe a kid at a pool picking up a
popsicle phone asking. And it'llbe an employee who's lit up at
the idea of bringing out whitegloves and a tray That's right.
To deliver those popsicles. Andit'll be a company that cares
enough to deliver thatexperience.
(24:32):
So thank you
Darren Ross (24:33):
for being here with us, Gene. Thank you so much.
Sam D'Arc (24:35):
Thank you very much. To take away some of these
things. It's awesome to craftand create our own, ultimate
automotive experiences. We seekto deliver our best to our
customers. Mike, thank you forbeing here
as well. Yeah.
Darren Ross (24:45):
Thank you, Mike. Alright. So much. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sam D'Arc (24:50):
A special thanks to all who contributed to this
week's episode, including DarrenRoss and Mike Van Rhijn. Just
until next week, how are youdriving vision today?
Really focus on your words and the tone in which
they're set Oh. To elevateexperience.
Sam D'Arc (00:16):
Welcome everyone to the driving vision podcast
brought to you by the ZiglerAuto Group. I'm your host, Sam
Dark. Be sure to subscribe tothe podcast. Like it if you do,
and leave a comment. Hey,everybody.
Welcome to the driving visionfuture of Zach Today podcast.
With us today is Darren Ross.
Darren Ross (00:33):
I'm Darren Ross. I own a hotel management company
called Service FreakHospitality, and we lease and
operate the Magic Castle Hotelin Hollywood.
Sam D'Arc (00:41):
So Darren, you just spent an hour and a half with
team Ziegler, so you get acouple accolades. Number 1, you
actually went longer than mostspeakers go. They usually are
encapsulated. They're stuck inthat 60 minute time frame, and
you pull us out of our comfortzone in a way that's pretty
unique. You're one of the firstpeople that actually brought
people into activity.
You asked them to do things. Youasked them to get up and be
(01:02):
uncomfortable. You asked themto, like like, grab their
shoulder.
Darren Ross (01:05):
Yeah. That's always a touchy one. And clock
attendant, right?
Sam D'Arc (01:08):
And do things, right? To to to create movement as from
a speaker strategy standpoint.Why?
Darren Ross (01:16):
Well, I've seen a lot of speakers. Yeah. And, some
great, some not so great. Yeah.And I think that everybody in
your audience has probably hadthat experience also.
Yeah. And I don't want people tojust sit there and listen to one
person talk for an hour. Yeah.It's not that much fun.
Sam D'Arc (01:30):
Get engaged, yeah.
Darren Ross (01:30):
Get engaged. Yeah. And I want them to have that
little a little bit of pressurethat they have to be in tune
with the speaker and what'sgoing on. They're gonna have to
think Yeah. And work in teamsand I think it's just more
valuable for the audience as awhole.
Sam D'Arc (01:43):
Part of your message too has to do with movement, it
has to do with activity. So theMagic Castle Hotel in Hollywood,
California, a place that hasdeveloped a great reputation.
I'm gonna say something you mayget offended by, but I think it
makes a point. So
Darren Ross (02:00):
buckle up.
Sam D'Arc (02:01):
It's not like as a hotel, it's not a 4 seasons. Oh.
It's not a What? It's it's not.It's like I look at it and it's
like, you know what?
It's not a dump, but it's notand please forgive me.
Darren Ross (02:15):
You're
Sam D'Arc (02:15):
fine. It's not it's it's not a a top of the line
hotel, super expensive hotel.
Darren Ross (02:19):
No. And
Sam D'Arc (02:20):
yet despite physical facilities, you create an
experience for your customersthat is elite. That is
incredible. And isn't that partof the message here with Team
Ziegler regardless
Darren Ross (02:30):
of the
Sam D'Arc (02:31):
franchise, the brand, the physical facilities, the
customers, the place you are,like, you can make a difference
in a customer's life.
Darren Ross (02:38):
Absolutely. And that's and that's where we're
we're trying to do. We try tocreate these these moments for
people Yeah. And those momentsare in these memories. Yeah.
And we our goal is to have ourguests leave feeling compelled
to tell the world about thisunique experience they just had.
And that is like you mentioned,that that is part of our story.
That we're not this fancyfacility, we're not Four
Seasons, we're not a 5 starhotel. Yeah. And that's okay.
(03:00):
Literally on our website,there's a 5 minute video of me
explaining the hotel. And one ofthe things I say is if you're
looking for shiny and new, thismight not be the hotel for you.
Oh, interesting. And that'sokay. We want you to enjoy your
holiday.
Sam D'Arc (03:15):
Yeah. Yeah.
Darren Ross (03:16):
We don't want guests. We don't want people to
be disappointed. Yeah. We wannaunder undersell it and over
deliver it. And so when theycome up, they're delighted.
That's that's the goal.
Sam D'Arc (03:25):
Now you're in an area that's highly competitive in the
hotel space. Oh, sure. Yeah.Yeah. So people check out of
your hotel and end up, you gavean an example, end up going to a
Disney Resort Hotel, which isfamous for service.
Sure. And you out punted them.Right? And you tell the story of
delivering a product to acustomer. Right?
Yeah.
Darren Ross (03:43):
Well, this this particular guest was leaving as
they had little kids, and shesays, and we hear fortunately,
we hear this a lot. You haveruined the next hotels for my
kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
You ruined them. Yeah. And sojokingly, yeah, she said she
likes Marmite, and I went on toAmazon and bought some. I had
delivered to her hotel the nextday, which they loved. And that
created a memory.
Sam D'Arc (04:03):
So thinking about the automotive world, what are some
specific components of what youshared today that auto dealers,
our stores, could instantlyimplement to create an our
mission statement is to createan ultimate automotive
experience for our customers.And by the way, in doing that,
we create that experience foreach other. Right?
Darren Ross (04:20):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (04:21):
So what are some actionable things you could
recommend our stores or teams dotoday to create that experience?
Darren Ross (04:27):
Today. Yeah. Today, you could really focus on your
words and the tone in whichthey're said. Oh. To elevate the
experience.
On that.
Sam D'Arc (04:35):
Give me an example.
Darren Ross (04:36):
Instantly. Well, we talked today Oh. Yeah. About at
our hotel, we'd our welcomespeech, we have the one
mandatory line and then theemployees could could finish the
with the welcome speech whereverthey wanna finish it. Which by
the way,
Sam D'Arc (04:48):
your one mandatory line is, I wrote this down. I
love it. I love to see usimplement this. I'd like to take
a moment to tell you what apleasure it is to have you with
us.
Darren Ross (04:57):
I think it was very close, and
Sam D'Arc (04:59):
you're gonna
Darren Ross (04:59):
pass on that.
Sam D'Arc (05:00):
And by the way, in the Subaru world, to to our
Subaru stores, president ofSubaru COO, they just
implemented something where youput your hand over your heart
and you say, I'd love to. Andboth of those have a very unique
way of connecting with acustomer in a way that we don't.
Right? That's right. Is thatwhat that does?
Darren Ross (05:17):
Absolutely. And what and what it does and this
is a it is a couple of things.One, it's a show of respect for
for your customers. Yeah. Andpeople are not accustomed in
today's world.
I hate to sound like an old guy.Yeah. But in today's world where
everything is sped up and andwe're moving towards
self-service with technology,which is great. Yeah. But with
that, because it comes asopportunity to really stand out
(05:39):
by slowing down and showing therespect to your to your
customer.
And when we say, I just wannatake a moment to tell you what a
pleasure it is to have you withus. Mhmm. It might be awkward to
say at first, but it's notawkward to receive it. It's
really beautiful to receive itand moving to people. Yeah.
And I was I was saying in mytalk today that a lot of people
have tears in their eyes. Theyget emotional because they're
(06:01):
not used to people slowing downfor them. And slowing down for
your customer doesn't have tomean you take more time with
them. It's just the words andthe tone. Intentional.
Intentional. Connected. Yeah.Yeah. Beautiful.
Sam D'Arc (06:17):
Connected emotionally. Exactly. So
alright. So I took a crack atthe hotel. I'm gonna tell you
the second thing that I think isa challenge with this.
Here's the biggest challengewith doing this. It's beautiful.
It it delivers a greatexperience to a customer. It
connects employee to customer ina way that's neat. Here's the
problem.
It relies on an employee thatdoes it over and over and over
(06:40):
and over and over and over andover again. To deliver that over
and over and over and over andbe able to do it in an
intentional way and a connectingway. So how do you solve for
that?
Darren Ross (06:50):
Yeah. Well, it's hard, which is why everyone
doesn't do it. Yeah. It'smanual. It's one cost 1 customer
at a time.
Yeah. Right? We have meetings.We talk about things. There's an
incentive program built in forthem to create these stories for
our guests.
I talked about how we don't,give incentive to sell. Instead,
we do incentive to createmoments.
Sam D'Arc (07:11):
Four Seasons does that. That's the Ritz Carlton.
Ritz Carlton does that.
Darren Ross (07:15):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (07:16):
The the author of Unreasonable Hospitality
Darren Ross (07:18):
who I've heard speak has
Sam D'Arc (07:19):
a way of doing that. Yeah. It's so simple. Why why is
it that some people things canbe simple, but not easy. Right.
Why is it all about theexecution sometimes?
Darren Ross (07:32):
Right. Yeah. Well, Well, that's our Popsicle
hotline Yeah. Example. Yeah.
It's so simple. Yeah. It's sosimple and inexpensive, yet so
effective. Yeah. It's soeffective.
So we look
Sam D'Arc (07:44):
we look for those things. And and Share the share
the hotline because as you andme, I don't I have a question on
that.
Darren Ross (07:50):
Yeah. Yeah. That was why. So when I started at at
the hotel, there was this beigephone. I mentioned it's a
converted apartment building.
Yeah. There was a beige phone,which would have been like a
house phone. Yeah. It hadbuttons on it, and nobody ever
used it at the hotel. And wewere also at the time, I wanted
to start doing popsicles, and wewould just do it when there was
somebody out by the pool.
If we noticed them, we'd bringout a tray of popsicles, and
(08:12):
that was fun. And literally oneday, I'm driving to work, and
for some reason it just hit me.Yeah. And the beauty of being
able to order things online andhaving them in 2 days. Yeah.
I ordered this red phone. Yeah.It's a true hotline. Yeah. No
buttons, no dials, and wedesigned this colorful sign that
says popsicle hotline.
(08:32):
And all you do is lift up thered phone, and we answer
popsicle hotline. Yeah. Then thekid will ask for a popsicle. And
then a minute later, we'rewearing white gloves, silver
tray, and free popsicles
Sam D'Arc (08:43):
by the pool.
Darren Ross (08:43):
And what that does, it just creates a delightful
experience.
Sam D'Arc (08:47):
It's a
Darren Ross (08:47):
delightful experience. We have parents who
wanna capture the moment.They're like They're taking
movies. Oh, look. Our 8 year oldkid
Sam D'Arc (08:52):
is using a phone connecting
Darren Ross (08:53):
to a
Sam D'Arc (08:54):
wall with a cord.
Darren Ross (08:55):
It is so funny to say that. Idea how to use it.
That's exactly right. Thatliterally happens Yeah. All the
time.
Yeah. We have to the kids don'tknow. They don't know which end
to speak in. It's really
Sam D'Arc (09:04):
It seems to me as you describe this, again, going back
to the employee, the incentiveshave gotta be right. Because
going back to the popsiclehotline, I could see a case
where you get a kid, as kidsare, gonna keep calling that
thing every 2 minutes. Totally.And there's gonna be somebody on
the other end of the line withthe tray and the white gloves
that's gonna be like, here we goagain.
Darren Ross (09:25):
Here we go. Look at this kid. Yep. Look at this kid.
And they have
Sam D'Arc (09:28):
to go out with a smile, deliver Absolutely. The
tray of potash. It's showtime.
Darren Ross (09:31):
How do you solve for that? It's showtime. We we
do it. There are exceptionsYeah.
Sam D'Arc (09:36):
By the way. The customer's not right. To be
abused. Yeah.
Darren Ross (09:39):
Yeah. Right. Yeah. And we we draw the line there.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (09:41):
And and, you know,
Darren Ross (09:41):
we have free snacks at our hotel.
Sam D'Arc (09:43):
Yeah. We have free soda and ice cream.
Darren Ross (09:45):
Free soda and ice cream. We have snacks. People
will come to their desk atwhatever, 11 o'clock at night.
They want a KitKat bar. Theywant stickers and whatever.
We give it to them. But once ina while, there's a family or or
people who abuse it. Yeah. Andwe'll tell them. Yeah.
Because it's our hotel. We don'twe don't have we don't we don't
need to be abused. Yeah. Butthat happens, you know, again on
one hand. We don't have that.
Sam D'Arc (10:04):
Isn't it interesting, though? It's probably the
exception rather than the rule.Oh, absolutely. And too many
businesses, you mentioned, youyou know, every now and again,
you relook at this the freesnack thing, and you're like,
hey. You know, economically,this makes sense.
The outliers try to you know?But we always we always make a
bigger deal of the outlier thanit ends up being. And in
business, sometimes it's truththat we create a policy for the
(10:27):
outlier Yes. And it destroys itfor everyone else.
Darren Ross (10:30):
Right? Correct. That's that's exactly right.
That's exactly right. That's whywe haven't changed the, the free
snacks in I mean, I think we'redoing it for almost 20 years.
Yeah. We've been doing that.Yeah. But, yeah, some months, oh
my god. What do we spend on, youknow, KitKat bars?
Yeah. You know?
Sam D'Arc (10:43):
So you've been doing this for 20 years. You've
discovered the secret of serviceand extraordinary moments to
create an extraordinaryexperience. And then you've
traveled all over the world. Youjust came from Australia where
you presumably shared thismessage, TEDx and then other
places. Are there examples ofcompanies that have lit up and
changed their strategy andapproach as a result of this
advice and seen kind of areawakening?
(11:05):
And because I imagine as anemployee, the other thing this
does for me, it's exciting.Like, to It is exciting. Have
that popsicle tray, to give thefree treats and not have to log
every 99¢, you know, whatever.Like So exciting. At a human
level, we want to create thatgreat experience for other
people.
We wanna connect with otherpeople. We want to serve other
(11:26):
people. Right? Absolutely. Noware there examples of other
companies that Yeah.
Darren Ross (11:29):
I mean, the the sorry. The most exciting for me
is when there's an industrythat's not known for its
service. And then all of asudden, they're known for
service within their industry.Yeah. And that to me is super
rewarding.
The one comes to mind is a acompany called Fantastic IT who,
I've worked with. And they'vealways been a great company.
(11:50):
They've always been customerservice focused, but we took
them to the IT.
Sam D'Arc (11:54):
They're a bunch of technicians.
Darren Ross (11:55):
They don't care
Sam D'Arc (11:56):
about it.
Darren Ross (11:57):
Yeah. They don't care about it. Customer service.
Right? But they're actually cooland they speak they speak the
language to the customers.
Sam D'Arc (12:02):
They don't Okay.
Darren Ross (12:03):
They don't talk above them. Yeah. They they can
convert they can convert it.
Sam D'Arc (12:06):
Right. Yeah.
Darren Ross (12:07):
It's also what I found is the companies who hire
me to come, are the companieslike here Yeah. Who are already
doing a great job, who alreadyunderstand how important service
is. I'm not convincing peoplethat they should do things
differently and all of a suddenhave a different approach to or
a different mindset on customerservice. They have the mindset.
Yeah.
But maybe it's not somethingthat some of the So you alluded
Sam D'Arc (12:28):
to something today. Customer service in automotive
sucks. By and large, why isthat? Why is there a perception
out there?
Darren Ross (12:36):
When does that suck up?
Sam D'Arc (12:37):
Super hard and yet over and over again, the
industry, not our team, ourteam, hopefully, we deliver
above and beyond consistently.There's an industry stigma that
that we're terrible.
Darren Ross (12:47):
Yeah. I mean, from your perspective, we're all
about cars before it takes ittakes a long time. There's
always the stress of thenegotiation Yeah. Of the car.
Yeah.
I think that really stressespeople out a lot.
Sam D'Arc (12:58):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (12:58):
Some people aren't built for that. Yeah. You know?
So for me personally, that wouldbe it's always the the
negotiating Yeah. And then theprocess and then finance.
And then, like Yeah. It's a longprocess. It's not fun. It's fun
to get the car at the end, butit's not fun buying the car.
There's that stigma.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (13:13):
So you tried really hard today to not give us all
the answers, but have us act sothat we had some muscle memory.
Mike, I thought that was supergenius to have us say this
welcome speech because that'sstep 1 to getting a, hopefully,
team Ziegler, we implement andapply this. Give us the answer
though now. Thinking about yourprocess and our
Darren Ross (13:45):
I would Well, I think it should start doing
laundry. The hell out of
Sam D'Arc (13:47):
that thing.
Darren Ross (13:48):
I think it start doing laundry for your
customers. It just makes sense.You give free food.
Sam D'Arc (13:52):
You talk about a service reflex. From your
perspective as a car buyer, whatcould we do in the automotive
industry? Well, okay. If you
Darren Ross (13:58):
look at those examples Yeah. Like the free
snacks. Yeah. When you go to ahotel, what's your biggest fear
in the room? The mini bar.
Sam D'Arc (14:06):
Oh, no dirty sheets for me. But yes. Alright. Mini
bar. We'll
Darren Ross (14:09):
get No. I don't mind this. Okay. No. But wait.
For the mini bar prices. Yes.
Sam D'Arc (14:14):
Outrageous things. The cash
Darren Ross (14:16):
shoes about what? Yeah. It's like shopping at the
airport.
Sam D'Arc (14:18):
$30 for
Darren Ross (14:19):
a small
Sam D'Arc (14:19):
bag of nuts. Yeah. Exactly.
Darren Ross (14:21):
So that is a pain point Yeah. For people. And we
try to address that head on anddo the opposite. Yeah. It's
free.
Yeah. It's so great. So I wouldsay for your industry is take
those pain points and andaddress them head on, and to the
extent you can Yeah. Do theopposite.
Sam D'Arc (14:37):
Yeah. Do the opposite. Interesting.
Darren Ross (14:39):
And that's Yeah. That would that is what will
compel people Yeah. To keeptalking about it and keep coming
back.
Sam D'Arc (14:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So there's a there's a perception
long waits in line, Mike. Sowhat I think about. Right?
Darren Ross (14:48):
Attack that. Attack that. Exactly. Exactly.
Sam D'Arc (14:51):
Or a perception may be transparency. Attack that.
Make it more transparent.
Darren Ross (14:55):
Attack it.
Sam D'Arc (14:55):
So I'm trying to think totally. Because to me,
every hotel you walk into, youhave to pay for the nuts.
Exactly. What is the free nutsin automotive? Right?
Darren Ross (15:03):
Or what's the free popsicle? Right.
Sam D'Arc (15:05):
Or what's the free, you know, cookie or whatever?
Right. That service reflex.Mike, I think you have that.
Like, you've done such a greatjob in our auto group of
creating that service reflex,diamond drops.
There's no other auto group inthe country that you can write a
gratitude note, pass it to afellow employee or even a
customer or a fellow speaker.You received one today from
(15:28):
Mike, and it creates thatconnection. It lights you up.
Absolutely.
Darren Ross (15:32):
And and it and it
Sam D'Arc (15:33):
creates that extraordinary, moment. Mike, you
had a question.
Yeah. Darren talked about just taking a deep breath,
taking a moment, and slowingdown. And for us at Team
Ziggler, we need to do that withour employees as well and our
team members. Absolutely. Andtake a minute and notice what
they're doing and recognize themand rebuild re reinforce our
culture.
Right? Yeah. Yeah. The questionI had comes from the training
(15:53):
development side. It's how doyou onboard?
How do you get the right peopleOh,
Darren Ross (15:57):
that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. And really reinforce
everything you stand for.
Sam D'Arc (16:01):
In the hotel itself. Yeah.
Darren Ross (16:02):
It's it's funny. It's, people are sometimes
surprised that we don't have aformal training program at our
front desk. We don't. Yeah. Andit does surprise people, and
maybe we should.
I don't know. But it works howwe do it works for us. Yeah. And
we put a huge emphasis on theinterview process. Yeah.
And so the front desk team allget the second interviews. And
(16:26):
by the time they get to me, Ialready know that on paper
they're good. Other managerslike them. They want me to hire
them probably, you know. Butit's in that second interview
where I do a lot of the talking,because I'm letting them know
exactly what we stand for, whowe are as a company,
Sam D'Arc (16:47):
and You're selling the vision.
Darren Ross (16:48):
Selling the culture. I'm selling the vision.
And I don't mean this in a in anegative way, but I wanna, like,
really get them on the samepage. I don't wanna use the word
scare, but concern them a littlebit. Yeah.
And I tell him that it's reallyafter I tell him about the
awards and and the books and andall this, they they start paying
closer attention. And somethingI'll always say is it's hard to
(17:13):
get a job here.
Sam D'Arc (17:14):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (17:15):
Yeah. We're only as good as I know it's cliche, but
we're only as good as the peoplewe hire. Right. But it's hard
it's hard to get a job here.Yeah.
And, and then we hire them. Andthe goal is for them to start on
day 1, understanding the bar.Yeah. Understanding, not coming
in cocky and and and ready togo. Yeah.
But, like, being a little in thehealthiest way, nervous. Yeah. A
(17:36):
little nervous because it's your1st day of work and you wanna
perform. Yeah. And I always say,we'll know quickly if it's a
good fit or not.
Sam D'Arc (17:42):
Yeah. You
also have that sense of pride. Right? Like, hey.
Absolutely. I joined this team.
Darren Ross (17:46):
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (17:46):
And I wanna perform at a high level. Yes. My team
members and my customers.
Darren Ross (17:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I share with them too that
you'll be a big fish in a smallpond. Yeah. You know?
Yeah. It it was it's because wewe do have a reputation, and
and, people like people wanna bepart of that team. Absolutely.
Sam D'Arc (18:01):
Yeah. For sure.
Oh, great answer there. Darren Ross, service
freak. Right? Magic CastleHotel. If people wanna find out
more about you, how do they findout more about you and kinda
what you guys do?
Darren Ross (18:12):
You could email me. Email me.
Darren@magiccastlehotel.com.
Sam D'Arc (18:16):
Easy. That's super easy. Easy. One of the questions
you asked as we were in the roomtogether, and this will be kind
of our last question. I love toshare it all 3 of us.
It was a fun exercise. If memoryserves, you said, hey. Give an
example of some of the bestservice you've ever received.
Some of the worst. The worst forme, I went up I've shared this
on the podcast before.
I went up to a Starbucks, askedfor a coffee, and they said, our
(18:37):
coffee machine, whatever thatis, is broken. How does
Starbucks coffee machine,whatever it is Right. Not work?
And they said you can buy ourmuffins, but you can't have have
anything else. And it was justkind of, we're not gonna do
anything for you.
I was shocked by that. Right?
Darren Ross (18:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (18:50):
Starbucks, they create a high bar. Chick Fil A,
there was an experience setthere. I think for an
organization that traditionallysets a high bar and then they
don't meet it, that's a bignegative.
Darren Ross (19:00):
Oh, yeah. Fair? Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (19:01):
One of the best experiences, Saint Regis Hotel
Downtown Chicago. Great hotel,incredible restaurant,
delivering what you need beforeyou even think it. Right? And
that's that's an interestingability for an organization to
be able to craft that. I wouldsay I'm fascinated by what
you've done because you're not aRitz.
You're not a St. Regis. You're acompetitive hotel in a hugely
(19:26):
competitive marketplace.
Darren Ross (19:27):
Right.
Sam D'Arc (19:28):
And you've out punted. But but what what, what
are some examples of top servicethat that you've experienced?
Darren Ross (19:36):
Probably it's a good question. I should just
have these. Right? I should justhave them. No.
I should just have them.
Sam D'Arc (19:41):
It's what impresses you as someone that teaches and
preaches this. Yeah. Because youprobably go places and you're
like
Darren Ross (19:48):
I do. That is not that is not awesome. I do. Well,
it's funny. It's much easier forme to to to tell you a list of
companies that are leave mewanting more.
Yeah. Which is is a nice niceway to put it. But Well
Sam D'Arc (20:00):
well, let's talk well, before we go so COVID
ruined this industry, did itnot? It ruined it. Why is it so
easy to find all the miserablecompanies? And why does it seem
like service is a tougher thingto come by? It is.
Because it is.
Darren Ross (20:12):
Everyone good people cut staff. People people
pivoted and adjusted to to asmaller staff. Yeah. And the
customer is a loser. Yeah.
You know, it's it's it's really,really a shame. I'll give you an
example of, where I was so justdisappointed. Yeah. Okay. I'll
tell you a good one too, but Iwas staying in a hotel, really
high end hotel in Las Vegas.
I won't mention the name. Okay.It's like
Sam D'Arc (20:32):
super high end. Oh, you've gotta tell us this.
Darren Ross (20:34):
You know? We're gonna get this out of them. Here
we go. And I was going expectinga lot. Yeah.
And what I got, which is socommon, completely average.
Yeah. It was a long a long lineto check out.
Sam D'Arc (20:47):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (20:48):
Housekeeping wasn't wasn't really good. They didn't
show up when they sit when theysaid no. When they when they
said, they said they'd be there,they they weren't. Yeah. Their
little request, they weren'tdone.
Yeah. And it just left me withnothing. Yeah. Like, I was I was
paying a lot. Yeah.
And it was it was really, reallya shame. It was such a shame,
but those things are so commonwhere you go into a place with a
(21:09):
great reputation based on theirfacilities or their systems.
Right. But when it comes down tothe employee in front of your
face Yeah. They drop the ball.
Yeah. And what it really comesdown to is that employee on a
given day, on a given shift, ona given moment, is that
interaction, and that's it.Yeah. That's all I've got.
Company.
That's my view of the company.Yeah. And the same could be
(21:30):
said, you know, gosh,
Sam D'Arc (21:31):
what a for your dealerships. What a challenge
you've been to solve for as abusiness owner.
Darren Ross (21:35):
It is. And that's why I say it's a manual process.
It's really hard. It has to beevery customer every time. It
just has to be.
Sam D'Arc (21:41):
Mike, you gotta give us an example.
Darren Ross (21:43):
You know,
Sam D'Arc (21:43):
it's all about how they make you feel. Right? Yeah.
Yeah. How do you feel?
Yeah. And energy. But, yeah, oneone great one would be,
obviously, the high end hotelsand resorts and stuff, but a
local mom and pop golf shop, andit's called Maple Hill Golf.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You shared that before.
Darren Ross (21:59):
Yeah. Just with the way they make you feel, they
tailor the experience towardsyou.
Sam D'Arc (22:02):
They actually slow things down and take the time
Yeah. To get to know
Darren Ross (22:06):
you and use you by name
Sam D'Arc (22:07):
Yeah. And just really guide you. And they're not sales
y. They don't they don'tthreaten you.
Darren Ross (22:11):
They don't need to be. They don't
Sam D'Arc (22:12):
need to be. Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:13):
Yeah. I love that. I I wanted I don't wanna I'll
mention my positive one. I mean,we get all negative. Yeah.
Is, my favorite, that's not highend, it doesn't have to be, is,
Trader Joe's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ilove Trader Joe's.
Sam D'Arc (22:25):
I can't figure out Trader Joe's. I go in there and
I'm lost. I don't understand it.Oh, really? What is the deal?
Darren Ross (22:30):
Oh, it's great. They have limited limited
products. They have incrediblebuyers all over the world. They
find the most unique items.Yeah.
And what I love about it is Ilove that. I love that it's not
a huge grocery store. Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (22:40):
It's curated.
Darren Ross (22:41):
Yeah. Curated. Yeah. But what I love about it
is how the employees interactwith each other. Mhmm.
And always happy and casualYeah. And just they just seem
happy to be there.
Sam D'Arc (22:52):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:52):
And I love I love the vibe Yeah. Of Trader Joe's.
And then you check out, theyoften ask you, oh, this looks
good or have you tried this?
Sam D'Arc (22:58):
Yeah.
Darren Ross (22:59):
They're engaged. They're engaged. They're not
just they're not just watchingthe clock Yeah. Checking
checking you out. Yeah.
You're actually a part of theprocess, and I appreciate. I
don't I don't think they overdoit, but you know that they're
engaged. They're present. Yeah.And I really like that.
I love going there. I neverdread going to Trader Joe's.
Sam D'Arc (23:14):
There's a business out west. I'm from Utah called
REI. It's like an outdoor sportsplace, employee owned.
Darren Ross (23:19):
Yeah. I live across the street from 1.
Sam D'Arc (23:21):
Very similar.
Darren Ross (23:22):
Mhmm. And
Sam D'Arc (23:22):
I've always wondered if maybe it's the employee
ownership they're bought in. Youknow, I don't know how much they
make or how what it works rightinto it. There's some incentive
there. So I have a prediction aswe wrap up here today. Mike,
thank you for for making todaypossible.
It's interesting. There's adeficit of these sorts of
experiences, and I have aprediction for our audience. I
think these experiences will bethe the definition of, it'll
(23:45):
it'll become the stand thatwe'll see a resurgent of good
experience, in the coming yearsbecause people knew what a bad
experience was through COVIDYeah. And they so did not like
it. I think most people arewilling to pay a little bit
extra for better.
And right?
Darren Ross (24:01):
I fully agree. People people wanna feel good.
Yeah. People wanna feel happy.They wanna feel appreciated.
Yeah. They wanna feel heard.Yeah. And we try to capitalize
that on at the hotel. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sam D'Arc (24:12):
And AI and technology, and as as great as
it is, those tools will help usbetter deliver to each other.
But at the end of the day, it'llbe a kid at a pool picking up a
popsicle phone asking. And it'llbe an employee who's lit up at
the idea of bringing out whitegloves and a tray That's right.
To deliver those popsicles. Andit'll be a company that cares
enough to deliver thatexperience.
(24:32):
So thank you
Darren Ross (24:33):
for being here with us, Gene. Thank you so much.
Sam D'Arc (24:35):
Thank you very much. To take away some of these
things. It's awesome to craftand create our own, ultimate
automotive experiences. We seekto deliver our best to our
customers. Mike, thank you forbeing here
as well. Yeah.
Darren Ross (24:45):
Thank you, Mike. Alright. So much. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sam D'Arc (24:50):
A special thanks to all who contributed to this
week's episode, including DarrenRoss and Mike Van Rhijn. Just
until next week, how are youdriving vision today?
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