November 22, 2024 • 23 mins
What if you could elevate your business by creating magical customer experiences inspired by Disney? Join us as Vance Morris, a former Disney food and beverage manager turned successful entrepreneur and business coach, uncovers the secrets behind his journey from the magic kingdom to the world of premium carpet cleaning. Vance explains how his Disney experience taught him the art of crafting memorable customer interactions, allowing him to target an affluent market with quality service. His story is filled with insights on how to build a business that not only survives but thrives by focusing on affluent clients and economic resilience, sharing key strategies that any service-based business, including medical practices, can implement.
Hear how creating emotional connections can transform your business, as we discuss using personal narratives in marketing to foster loyalty and engagement. Vance shares ingenious marketing strategies, including a financial planner's quirky yet effective method that captured unprecedented attention. We stress the importance of taking actionable steps to transform insights into business growth, encouraging listeners to engage with new ideas and reach out for support when needed. Whether you're drafting innovative strategies or seeking expert guidance, this episode promises a wealth of actionable advice and a fresh perspective on standing out in competitive industries.
Reach out to Vance directly via email: vance@chesapeakeservicesolutions.com
- Join Marketing 101 for Chiropractors Facebook Group here
- Learn more at EnricoD.com
- Book a free discovery call with Enrico to level up your business
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing
101.
We got a fun guest this week,Vance Morris.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I appreciate you having me.
This will be fun.
I agree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's just cool when you sent in your bio and
everything about what caught mewas the Disney stuff working for
Disney for 10 years and thentaking that experience and now
bringing it to business ownersand how they can cultivate an
experience in their business.
Talked about this a lot as Icoach in my business, especially
with doctors and chiropractors,but it's exciting to have your
(00:32):
perspective because you'recoming from it.
I'm always talking about Disney, you are all about it, which is
very cool.
So, yeah, thanks for being here.
Tell us a little bit about howyou got to, even before Disney.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
What got you into business, entrepreneurship, and
then how'd you end up at Disney?
Sure, Uh well, actually Disneywas the very first, uh, real
company I worked for.
Um, and I will tell you thatthe interview process went
something like this Uh, I wasworking in Massachusetts at the
time.
My old roommate was a recruiterfor Disney.
I was tired of the cold.
I called him up.
I said hey, what do you gotdown there?
How can I come interview?
(01:10):
He said, yep, come on down, gethere next month and we'll get
you working.
And that was the extent.
That doesn't happen anymore,but that was the extent of my
interview process to get itworking for Disney interview
process.
To get it working for DisneyDid spend 10 years with them.
(01:30):
I was my last job was food andbeverage manager of the
Contemporary Resort and I was onthe design team and operations
team of a little restaurantcalled Chef Mickey's.
So I don't know if you've everbeen to that, but it is what's
called a character diningdestination, so one of Disney's
pay-to-play places where thecharacters come to you and do
autographs and you don't have towait in the hot sun with all of
(01:53):
the other throngs of touristswaiting for Cinderella's
autograph when you're in a park.
I did leave after about 10years.
I was like I can't believe I'vebeen doing this this long,
Looking for a change.
I had a couple more corporatejobs.
Between those two corporatejobs, both in hospitality
(02:17):
realized I make a lousy employee.
I just don't like to be toldwhat to do.
Also, I would explain the twoex-Mrs Morris's I have, but hey,
that's a story for another day.
So after I got fired from mylast job this was in 07, started
a business that every small boydreams of doing, and it's a
(02:39):
carpet cleaning business.
But I knew that it was going tobe a premium level service,
because the affluent market isvery underserved by companies,
and this is across the countryand anywhere I come, you know a
lot of home service businessesfeel like they should be, you
know, be able to have anybody beable to afford them A lot of
(03:03):
medical practice.
Same way, I mean, you know wecan't charge this because then
you know we won't have customerscoming in.
And my first question to themis I was like well, what happens
when the economy goes in thecrapper?
If you're just advertising tomiddle class people, they are
the first ones to tighten theirbelts and they're going to
(03:26):
tighten it with you.
Affluent have a little bit morecushion, if not a lot of
cushion, and so if you're goingafter the affluent market,
they're going to be the lastones to grab onto their purse
strings and they'll probably bethe first ones to loosen them up
whenever whatever economiccatastrophe has happened.
(03:47):
So I knew from my disneyexperience that I could take its
marketing and its experience,uh, knowledge, put it into one
business, um, and and reallymake a go of it.
And we did uh to this.
I still own the businesses, uh.
So this is what, 17 years and mylast check, we are about 35%
(04:09):
higher in price than my closestcompetitor.
Love to say I clean carpet 35%better, but no, I don't.
And the cool thing with higherprices is you can do more for
your customers, you can providenicer experiences, you can
provide more holistic and morethorough experiences.
(04:34):
So, like for average, my guysdo three jobs a day.
Maybe Sometimes they only needto get to three.
Most of my competitors aredoing six to seven.
So if you think about the wearand tear on your body, wear and
tear on equipment and buildings,you know my guys would much
rather do two jobs a day, getpaid a heck of a lot more and
(04:55):
not have to worry about loadingand unloading vans all the time.
So, but then I branched outinto coaching and consulting not
only home service businessesbut pretty much any service
based business out there.
I do have a lot oforthodontists and chiropractors
and physical therapists asclients, and it's a lot of fun
working with them.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
That's great, that's fantastic.
And to take it something likehome services, I mean who would
have thought?
But I love how you hit theaffluence services.
I mean, who would have thought?
But I love how you hit theaffluence.
And it's something we justdon't like talking about because
we don't like casting people orputting them into boxes.
But we've learned a lot in thelast three years on what happens
when the economy turns.
(05:36):
And for you I know you were bornin 1991,- but, even since these
last few decades we've gone andI think experience plays a role
for you to be able toconfidently say that, because
you've seen it multiple times.
And me too, now that I'm in themiddle of my career, I'm now
like, oh, hang on a second.
Maybe a little bit more excitedfor the Republicans to take
(05:59):
over than most as a businessowner, because we've seen the
trajectories and stuff like that.
So these are ups and downs thatyou can play.
But yeah, we don't like, even inservice, especially in service
we don't like to say, oh, let'sjust hit the affluent because
we're going to miss out on allthese people.
Or our service side of ourheart wants to help these people
too, and we have to rememberwhen we talk about this we're
(06:20):
not not helping those people, weare just targeting and focusing
our marketing and our attentionto attract affluent clients.
So that was great.
You're the first one in twoyears to bring that up outside
of.
You know masterminds that I'vebeen in as a business owner, so
that's good for you for that.
So that's one of your, one ofyour.
(06:41):
That wasn't a faux pas Right,yeah, so let's, let's build on
that.
So let's use your, your homeservice businesses when you're
trying to trying to attract what.
What is an experience likeyours change compared to the
average carpet cleaning business?
What?
What does a client expect?
Experience, sure.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well.
So I need to give a term realquick and define it, and that's
Disneyfy.
And I've given it thedefinition of creating
experiences out of the mundane.
So we all have boring, mundanethings that we have to do in our
business every day to keep thething up and running Answer the
phone, send out proposals, youknow, greet clients or patients,
(07:25):
whatever it is.
Disney has figured out a way tomake an experience out of all
of those boring things.
So let's just say, in my carpetcleaning business, one of the
boring mundane things we have todo is get into the house.
If we can't get in the house,we can't do our cleaning and we
can't provide our service.
So the script looks like thisand it is scripted.
(07:48):
So every one of my guys, youknow, has a big old binder in
the van and if you ask themthey'll tell you.
So it starts like this we parkin the street, we don't park in
the driveway because, god forbid, I got an oil leak and now I
got something else I need toclean up.
He gets out of his van in aclean, crisp, new uniform,
because he carries extrauniforms with him in case he
gets dirty on the job beforehand.
He gets his magic carpet, hegets his tool bag and he gets a
(08:16):
gift and he goes up to the frontdoor, lays down the magic
carpet, which is just a logoedmat, and he knocks on the door
because friends knock,salespeople ring the bell.
And then he takes two steps backand we've been taking two steps
back longer than COVID wasaround, way before COVID.
Because the last thing you wantis a 250-pound carpet cleaner
nose-to-nose through the screendoor with a 90-year-old woman.
(08:36):
You just scare the crap out ofher and she'll never do business
with us.
So we take our two steps back.
Mrs McGillicuddy comes andanswers the door and we say hi,
my name is Josh.
I'm here to create your healthyhome.
May I come in?
We ask we don't just barge in.
Then we make an exaggeration ofwiping our feet on our special
mat and then we put booties onour clean shoes and we go in the
(08:58):
home.
Then we give Mrs McGillicuddythe gift.
Now, when was the last time youhad a professional home service
provider come to your homeplumber, pest control, whatever
and give you a gift beforeanything?
I mean, we don't even know ifwe have the job.
I'm hesitating to guess ithasn't happened unless I've
cleaned for you before in thepast somewhere.
(09:19):
And so that's the script justfor getting in.
Now.
This gift is nothing amazing.
I mean, it only cost me aboutfive bucks, but it's a custom
little blue box.
It's got a bottle of spotremover, a bag of cookies and a
little note from me thankingthem for allowing us into your
home.
And here's my private cellphone number if you have any
(09:42):
questions.
Doing all that does two things.
One, it generates incredibleword of mouth marketing.
So every interaction with yourbusiness should end with a
conversation that the customeris going to have with their
family.
So, if you think about it, ifyou've ever gotten your carpets
(10:02):
clean or maybe you got your oilchanged, did you go home, sit
down at the dinner table withthe whole family and say, oh my
God, you'll never guess whathappened at the oil change today
.
And that conversation just doesnot happen.
But with my cleaning business itdoes happen.
Oh my God, the guy brought me agift.
So it helps your word of mouth.
But also it starts a processcalled reciprocity.
(10:24):
So I give you something, youfeel compelled to give me
something back.
So when we implemented the gift, we saw a 26% increase in our
mid-tier package, which equatedto an additional $65,000,
$70,000 a year in sales.
So it's not just doingsomething nice and fun, we also
(10:44):
now have to monetize it.
And then, once we've monetizedthat, then we can go and find
another area to Disneyfy andmake that better and then be
able to monetize that.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I love it.
That's great.
Yeah, look at the look.
That's the experience that theyget.
I mean, at the moment they evenget started with you.
So that's fantastic.
So that's going to get a lot ofthe business owners thinking
about their experiences.
And I like how you said it'ssystematized to all the mundane
experiences, not just the onescript, and you're like that's
what makes us different.
Is we wipe our shoes on a magiccarpet and give you a gift.
(11:16):
You probably have that acrossall platforms.
I'm excited to hear about whathappens when they leave the
house.
Now, this is going to be great.
So, yeah, right, all the littlethings that make things
different and experience.
It's different because you canget an oil change, you can get
your carpet cleaning, you canget your roof change, you get
your house painted.
It's all the same stuff overand over again and we know what
to expect, but boy, can we talkabout a bad experience that will
(11:38):
spread like wildfire.
So doing these little thingspretty much mitigates negative
talk, because you're just doinga great, unless the product is
just bad then, which I highlydoubt Great, so that's one.
And then, when you're helpingbusiness owners, where do you
find a lot of the pushback isBecause, as a coach myself, I
feel like I've got great ideasand you may try and help the
(11:59):
clients and there's a lot ofpushback.
Where do you find a lot of thepushback in your clients?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
You know, a lot of times it's from the owner
themselves that they just don'tfeel like they.
It's not professional, it's not, you know, business-like to be
able to have our personalitiescome through in our business.
And nothing can be further fromthe truth because we're all in
commoditized businesses.
I mean, a dentist is a dentist,is a dentist.
There's only so many ways youcan clean teeth right.
(12:29):
I mean they either got thelittle brush or the little
squirty thing and that's kind ofit.
I mean I'm paraphrasing, butpersonality of the dentist.
Now, like I shamelessly use mychildren in all of my marketing,
(12:51):
my clients have watched my kidsgrow up.
So my daughter's been doingballet for I don't know well.
She stopped a few years agoshe's 17 now, but from four
years old till 13,.
In my newsletter that I sentout to my clients there was a
picture of every one of herballet recitals.
And one day we were in thegrocery store and somebody came
(13:13):
up to me, actually came up to mydaughter and said oh my God,
emma, how was your balletrecital?
My daughter looked at me,freaked out.
She was ready to go like run inthe fast food aisle and I had
to realize, you know what.
She's probably one of mycustomers and I have created an
emotional connection with herand she is not going to go
anywhere, she's never going toleave me.
(13:35):
Because we've created thatemotional connection and
business owners just can't seemto get out of the transactional
like, oh my God, I got to getthe next sale and that's the one
that I said, well, yeah, butyou also got to once you get
that customer, now you got tokeep them Because, I mean, one
of the most expensive things youcan do is get a new client.
(13:56):
I mean like Googlepay-per-click, gee whiz.
I mean my cost.
I was looking at the reportslast week In October.
My cost per lead was like 150bucks, like this is insane, but
it only cost me $14 to keep themonce I got them.
So a lot of the pushback comesfrom the owner, because when I
(14:17):
do group exercises with theemployees, with the owner, the
employees are actually kind ofgetting jazzed up Because they
usually have some of the bestideas on how to Disney five,
whatever area of the companythey're working in, love it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yes, you nailed it, it's always the owners.
They're the ones that arealways skeptical about
everything, which I guess is aprotectionary wall, because the
business is them.
I get it, but yeah, that's mytoughest thing to go over is
like trying to get people to trynew things.
We brought up something in ourteam meeting this week.
We're like hey, you know, emailmarketing has has exponentially
grown over the last decade, forsure, where we've gone through
(14:56):
this wave of people never usingemail and, you know, just just
not looking to it to now emailmarketing being great.
I said, hey, we have to go fromthese three or four emails a
month to 30.
And then my team was like, whoa, hang on a second.
And that was what all the fearsthat I think we're going to lose
a lot of unsubscribers.
I think we're going to lose alot of all this stuff.
I said they're not opening ouremails anyways, so let's just
(15:18):
bombard them.
And it's probably the leastoffensive way to contact people
is through email.
I think text is much moreoffensive and it's just funny
when you do that and try andpush through the barriers of
your team.
But but it has to be conciseconcise with the whole team on
that, otherwise it's never goingto work.
If you're, if you're, uh,carpet cleaning guys are like
I'm not putting on a clean suitevery time this is ridiculous
(15:41):
then it's never going to work,it's never going to fall through
and I'm sure you'd find a newcleaning guy Immediately, yeah,
immediately.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Right.
I mean they work the job everyday.
They know, they know yeah, See,that's the other thing that it
does is it creates employeeengagement.
So now the employees got alittle skin in the game and they
tend to stick around longer.
I mean I got guys in my carpetbusiness.
One guy's been with me over 10years.
(16:09):
That's like 92 lifetimes in thecarpet cleaning world.
I mean it's insane, Right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
For sure.
That's great.
Yeah, because they're excitedto make the customers excited,
right, so they want to.
It's nice to have happycustomers too.
Keeps your employees engaged.
If they're always being grumpycustomers, no fun.
Great, that's awesome.
Well, who's your ideal clientwhen you're working with them?
So far working?
You said you worked with thehealthcare industry, you worked
(16:35):
with service industry, youworked with home care industry.
Who's been your favorite?
Who's been the ones that justabsorb and grow?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Really it's going to sound weird, but I've got like
three financial planners thatare in my coaching group and
they have just, I mean, gone hogwild over doing this stuff.
Again, highly commoditizedindustry.
I mean you know, you got allthe franchises out there plus
all the independents.
(17:03):
I mean it's just everybodyseems to be a financial planner,
or claims to be one, and sothey have been fun to work with,
also because they have thefinancial wherewithal to invest
to make these experiences happen.
But really there hasn't been agroup.
(17:23):
I mean I work with a veryeclectic group.
I've got a farmer in Georgiawho sells meat through the mail
and she has been doing amazingthings.
I've got a guy who makesorganic shampoo, luxury shampoo.
He's been doing amazing things.
I mean it's just, you know it'speople that are stuck and they
(17:44):
just don't know what to do next.
They know that they've got agreat service or product.
They just don't know how tobroadcast that to the world.
So it is.
I mean it is a special kind ofperson.
You got to be able to be readyto be a little different, you
(18:05):
know.
I mean you know I used it, so Ihad.
I got this financial plannerguy to do this.
So I had him send a rubber footthrough the mail, just a little
rubber foot like four inchestall, and with it was a sales
letter that says I just want toget my foot in the door.
And then went on to introducehimself he's trying to get you
(18:26):
know a couple of CEOs as clients.
He got 100% response rate.
He said I don't know.
He said like 40 of these things, 100% response rate.
Now did they all become clients?
No, but boy did these peoplecall up and say, oh my God, it's
the funniest thing I've seen.
Oh my God, this was great.
So you gotta be prepared tostand out, because vanilla is
(18:49):
the worst.
Vanilla is the worst.
It's maybe the most popularflavor in the world for ice
cream, the worst flavor forbusiness.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
In business it is.
I think yeah, I like thevanilla analogy it's the
toughest place to play.
I think you're in the middleprice range, you're in the
middle of service, you're in themiddle of the competition,
you're in the middle ofmarketing and then you get the
middle client and it's just thegrind.
It's like this hamster wheel ofgrinding.
That's great.
What did going to the affluentmarket change for your business?
(19:19):
I mean less jobs per day,higher paid employees, better
services you can gift yourclients.
What has it done?
As far as revenue, I mean forme the math.
I'm like if you're doing twoand the average industry is
doing seven a day, how are youpossibly keeping up with revenue
?
What?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
did, it do for you.
Yeah, again, I mean our pricesare about 35% higher than my
closest competitor, so I don'thave to do as many jobs to
remain competitive.
I mean our talent, where thereare peaks and valleys in a lot
of businesses.
Like, for some reason, peoplesay the week between Christmas
(20:01):
and New Year's is supposed to bedead for carpet cleaners.
Right, I mean nobody wantstheir carpet cleaned while the
Christmas trees up schedules areall full because people know
who we are and they know that.
Well, if I don't get it cleanedon the 27th of December, it
(20:22):
might be another month or twobefore they can actually get out
here.
So you're building you knowthis, this demand, by creating
these experiences.
I want to be.
I only want Vance's company tocome out and do it.
I don't want anybody else,because I know of Vance's
company to come out and do it.
I don't want anybody elsebecause I know of what I'm going
to get.
So I mean profitability wise.
(20:43):
I mean you could double yourprices, lose half of your
customers and still be moreprofitable.
Yes, I mean, just do the mathAnybody.
Just double your price, cuthalf your customers and you're
still more profitable.
So I don't need like those guysthat are doing six jobs a day.
(21:04):
Well, it takes them two guys todo those six jobs.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I only got one guy.
Right, yeah, that's great,great stuff.
Yeah, that's great great stuff.
So the vance has the um thedisney, is it disney?
Fire, disney, what's the?
What's the name of your company?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I can't read my own writing it's all right, deliver
service now institute deliverservice now institute.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So he's got online courses.
He's got a whole back end tothis.
You can groups.
You can do a whole bunch ofstuff.
I'm sure it's structuredwonderfully.
Look into that.
Or contact Vance.
That's.
The whole point of thesepodcasts is to get out there.
But as the listeners are tuningout here, what's the biggest
advice you got for them movinginto 2025?
(21:50):
What do you think the movementis going forward for businesses?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, I personally think we all have enough
information.
I tell my coaching clients thisall the time you have enough
stuff.
You need implementation.
And I'm not a big one forsayings and things like that,
but I have one quote that's mineand it's you won't profit
unless you implement.
And so if you picked up oneidea from this podcast and you
(22:18):
don't do anything with it, wellyou know there's 23 minutes of
your life and you know it wasnice entertainment.
But if you take one idea andMonday morning you go and you
implement on that idea, nowyou're gonna see the growth.
Now you're gonna see the effectof actually, so you gotta do
stuff.
This doesn't going to see thegrowth.
Now you're going to see theeffect of actually, so you got
to do stuff.
This doesn't happen by osmosis.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
For sure.
Brainstorm this stuff, thinkabout what you can do in your
business.
I know you got two ideas rightnow just by listening to this.
Even if you're running on thetreadmill right now, now the
point is, do that, and if you'restuck, guess what?
Call Vance.
That's the whole point there.
That's great, reach out.
Thanks so much, man.
I really appreciate your time.
I'm going to ask you a ton ofquestions about my business.
So that's great.
Okay, certainly not a problem.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I appreciate you having me.
Thanks, take care.
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing
101.
We got a fun guest this week,Vance Morris.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I appreciate you having me.
This will be fun.
I agree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's just cool when you sent in your bio and
everything about what caught mewas the Disney stuff working for
Disney for 10 years and thentaking that experience and now
bringing it to business ownersand how they can cultivate an
experience in their business.
Talked about this a lot as Icoach in my business, especially
with doctors and chiropractors,but it's exciting to have your
(00:32):
perspective because you'recoming from it.
I'm always talking about Disney, you are all about it, which is
very cool.
So, yeah, thanks for being here.
Tell us a little bit about howyou got to, even before Disney.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
What got you into business, entrepreneurship, and
then how'd you end up at Disney?
Sure, Uh well, actually Disneywas the very first, uh, real
company I worked for.
Um, and I will tell you thatthe interview process went
something like this Uh, I wasworking in Massachusetts at the
time.
My old roommate was a recruiterfor Disney.
I was tired of the cold.
I called him up.
I said hey, what do you gotdown there?
How can I come interview?
(01:10):
He said, yep, come on down, gethere next month and we'll get
you working.
And that was the extent.
That doesn't happen anymore,but that was the extent of my
interview process to get itworking for Disney interview
process.
To get it working for DisneyDid spend 10 years with them.
(01:30):
I was my last job was food andbeverage manager of the
Contemporary Resort and I was onthe design team and operations
team of a little restaurantcalled Chef Mickey's.
So I don't know if you've everbeen to that, but it is what's
called a character diningdestination, so one of Disney's
pay-to-play places where thecharacters come to you and do
autographs and you don't have towait in the hot sun with all of
(01:53):
the other throngs of touristswaiting for Cinderella's
autograph when you're in a park.
I did leave after about 10years.
I was like I can't believe I'vebeen doing this this long,
Looking for a change.
I had a couple more corporatejobs.
Between those two corporatejobs, both in hospitality
(02:17):
realized I make a lousy employee.
I just don't like to be toldwhat to do.
Also, I would explain the twoex-Mrs Morris's I have, but hey,
that's a story for another day.
So after I got fired from mylast job this was in 07, started
a business that every small boydreams of doing, and it's a
(02:39):
carpet cleaning business.
But I knew that it was going tobe a premium level service,
because the affluent market isvery underserved by companies,
and this is across the countryand anywhere I come, you know a
lot of home service businessesfeel like they should be, you
know, be able to have anybody beable to afford them A lot of
(03:03):
medical practice.
Same way, I mean, you know wecan't charge this because then
you know we won't have customerscoming in.
And my first question to themis I was like well, what happens
when the economy goes in thecrapper?
If you're just advertising tomiddle class people, they are
the first ones to tighten theirbelts and they're going to
(03:26):
tighten it with you.
Affluent have a little bit morecushion, if not a lot of
cushion, and so if you're goingafter the affluent market,
they're going to be the lastones to grab onto their purse
strings and they'll probably bethe first ones to loosen them up
whenever whatever economiccatastrophe has happened.
(03:47):
So I knew from my disneyexperience that I could take its
marketing and its experience,uh, knowledge, put it into one
business, um, and and reallymake a go of it.
And we did uh to this.
I still own the businesses, uh.
So this is what, 17 years and mylast check, we are about 35%
(04:09):
higher in price than my closestcompetitor.
Love to say I clean carpet 35%better, but no, I don't.
And the cool thing with higherprices is you can do more for
your customers, you can providenicer experiences, you can
provide more holistic and morethorough experiences.
(04:34):
So, like for average, my guysdo three jobs a day.
Maybe Sometimes they only needto get to three.
Most of my competitors aredoing six to seven.
So if you think about the wearand tear on your body, wear and
tear on equipment and buildings,you know my guys would much
rather do two jobs a day, getpaid a heck of a lot more and
(04:55):
not have to worry about loadingand unloading vans all the time.
So, but then I branched outinto coaching and consulting not
only home service businessesbut pretty much any service
based business out there.
I do have a lot oforthodontists and chiropractors
and physical therapists asclients, and it's a lot of fun
working with them.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
That's great, that's fantastic.
And to take it something likehome services, I mean who would
have thought?
But I love how you hit theaffluence services.
I mean, who would have thought?
But I love how you hit theaffluence.
And it's something we justdon't like talking about because
we don't like casting people orputting them into boxes.
But we've learned a lot in thelast three years on what happens
when the economy turns.
(05:36):
And for you I know you were bornin 1991,- but, even since these
last few decades we've gone andI think experience plays a role
for you to be able toconfidently say that, because
you've seen it multiple times.
And me too, now that I'm in themiddle of my career, I'm now
like, oh, hang on a second.
Maybe a little bit more excitedfor the Republicans to take
(05:59):
over than most as a businessowner, because we've seen the
trajectories and stuff like that.
So these are ups and downs thatyou can play.
But yeah, we don't like, even inservice, especially in service
we don't like to say, oh, let'sjust hit the affluent because
we're going to miss out on allthese people.
Or our service side of ourheart wants to help these people
too, and we have to rememberwhen we talk about this we're
(06:20):
not not helping those people, weare just targeting and focusing
our marketing and our attentionto attract affluent clients.
So that was great.
You're the first one in twoyears to bring that up outside
of.
You know masterminds that I'vebeen in as a business owner, so
that's good for you for that.
So that's one of your, one ofyour.
(06:41):
That wasn't a faux pas Right,yeah, so let's, let's build on
that.
So let's use your, your homeservice businesses when you're
trying to trying to attract what.
What is an experience likeyours change compared to the
average carpet cleaning business?
What?
What does a client expect?
Experience, sure.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well.
So I need to give a term realquick and define it, and that's
Disneyfy.
And I've given it thedefinition of creating
experiences out of the mundane.
So we all have boring, mundanethings that we have to do in our
business every day to keep thething up and running Answer the
phone, send out proposals, youknow, greet clients or patients,
(07:25):
whatever it is.
Disney has figured out a way tomake an experience out of all
of those boring things.
So let's just say, in my carpetcleaning business, one of the
boring mundane things we have todo is get into the house.
If we can't get in the house,we can't do our cleaning and we
can't provide our service.
So the script looks like thisand it is scripted.
(07:48):
So every one of my guys, youknow, has a big old binder in
the van and if you ask themthey'll tell you.
So it starts like this we parkin the street, we don't park in
the driveway because, god forbid, I got an oil leak and now I
got something else I need toclean up.
He gets out of his van in aclean, crisp, new uniform,
because he carries extrauniforms with him in case he
gets dirty on the job beforehand.
He gets his magic carpet, hegets his tool bag and he gets a
(08:16):
gift and he goes up to the frontdoor, lays down the magic
carpet, which is just a logoedmat, and he knocks on the door
because friends knock,salespeople ring the bell.
And then he takes two steps backand we've been taking two steps
back longer than COVID wasaround, way before COVID.
Because the last thing you wantis a 250-pound carpet cleaner
nose-to-nose through the screendoor with a 90-year-old woman.
(08:36):
You just scare the crap out ofher and she'll never do business
with us.
So we take our two steps back.
Mrs McGillicuddy comes andanswers the door and we say hi,
my name is Josh.
I'm here to create your healthyhome.
May I come in?
We ask we don't just barge in.
Then we make an exaggeration ofwiping our feet on our special
mat and then we put booties onour clean shoes and we go in the
(08:58):
home.
Then we give Mrs McGillicuddythe gift.
Now, when was the last time youhad a professional home service
provider come to your homeplumber, pest control, whatever
and give you a gift beforeanything?
I mean, we don't even know ifwe have the job.
I'm hesitating to guess ithasn't happened unless I've
cleaned for you before in thepast somewhere.
(09:19):
And so that's the script justfor getting in.
Now.
This gift is nothing amazing.
I mean, it only cost me aboutfive bucks, but it's a custom
little blue box.
It's got a bottle of spotremover, a bag of cookies and a
little note from me thankingthem for allowing us into your
home.
And here's my private cellphone number if you have any
(09:42):
questions.
Doing all that does two things.
One, it generates incredibleword of mouth marketing.
So every interaction with yourbusiness should end with a
conversation that the customeris going to have with their
family.
So, if you think about it, ifyou've ever gotten your carpets
(10:02):
clean or maybe you got your oilchanged, did you go home, sit
down at the dinner table withthe whole family and say, oh my
God, you'll never guess whathappened at the oil change today
.
And that conversation just doesnot happen.
But with my cleaning business itdoes happen.
Oh my God, the guy brought me agift.
So it helps your word of mouth.
But also it starts a processcalled reciprocity.
(10:24):
So I give you something, youfeel compelled to give me
something back.
So when we implemented the gift, we saw a 26% increase in our
mid-tier package, which equatedto an additional $65,000,
$70,000 a year in sales.
So it's not just doingsomething nice and fun, we also
(10:44):
now have to monetize it.
And then, once we've monetizedthat, then we can go and find
another area to Disneyfy andmake that better and then be
able to monetize that.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I love it.
That's great.
Yeah, look at the look.
That's the experience that theyget.
I mean, at the moment they evenget started with you.
So that's fantastic.
So that's going to get a lot ofthe business owners thinking
about their experiences.
And I like how you said it'ssystematized to all the mundane
experiences, not just the onescript, and you're like that's
what makes us different.
Is we wipe our shoes on a magiccarpet and give you a gift.
(11:16):
You probably have that acrossall platforms.
I'm excited to hear about whathappens when they leave the
house.
Now, this is going to be great.
So, yeah, right, all the littlethings that make things
different and experience.
It's different because you canget an oil change, you can get
your carpet cleaning, you canget your roof change, you get
your house painted.
It's all the same stuff overand over again and we know what
to expect, but boy, can we talkabout a bad experience that will
(11:38):
spread like wildfire.
So doing these little thingspretty much mitigates negative
talk, because you're just doinga great, unless the product is
just bad then, which I highlydoubt Great, so that's one.
And then, when you're helpingbusiness owners, where do you
find a lot of the pushback isBecause, as a coach myself, I
feel like I've got great ideasand you may try and help the
(11:59):
clients and there's a lot ofpushback.
Where do you find a lot of thepushback in your clients?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
You know, a lot of times it's from the owner
themselves that they just don'tfeel like they.
It's not professional, it's not, you know, business-like to be
able to have our personalitiescome through in our business.
And nothing can be further fromthe truth because we're all in
commoditized businesses.
I mean, a dentist is a dentist,is a dentist.
There's only so many ways youcan clean teeth right.
(12:29):
I mean they either got thelittle brush or the little
squirty thing and that's kind ofit.
I mean I'm paraphrasing, butpersonality of the dentist.
Now, like I shamelessly use mychildren in all of my marketing,
(12:51):
my clients have watched my kidsgrow up.
So my daughter's been doingballet for I don't know well.
She stopped a few years agoshe's 17 now, but from four
years old till 13,.
In my newsletter that I sentout to my clients there was a
picture of every one of herballet recitals.
And one day we were in thegrocery store and somebody came
(13:13):
up to me, actually came up to mydaughter and said oh my God,
emma, how was your balletrecital?
My daughter looked at me,freaked out.
She was ready to go like run inthe fast food aisle and I had
to realize, you know what.
She's probably one of mycustomers and I have created an
emotional connection with herand she is not going to go
anywhere, she's never going toleave me.
(13:35):
Because we've created thatemotional connection and
business owners just can't seemto get out of the transactional
like, oh my God, I got to getthe next sale and that's the one
that I said, well, yeah, butyou also got to once you get
that customer, now you got tokeep them Because, I mean, one
of the most expensive things youcan do is get a new client.
(13:56):
I mean like Googlepay-per-click, gee whiz.
I mean my cost.
I was looking at the reportslast week In October.
My cost per lead was like 150bucks, like this is insane, but
it only cost me $14 to keep themonce I got them.
So a lot of the pushback comesfrom the owner, because when I
(14:17):
do group exercises with theemployees, with the owner, the
employees are actually kind ofgetting jazzed up Because they
usually have some of the bestideas on how to Disney five,
whatever area of the companythey're working in, love it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yes, you nailed it, it's always the owners.
They're the ones that arealways skeptical about
everything, which I guess is aprotectionary wall, because the
business is them.
I get it, but yeah, that's mytoughest thing to go over is
like trying to get people to trynew things.
We brought up something in ourteam meeting this week.
We're like hey, you know, emailmarketing has has exponentially
grown over the last decade, forsure, where we've gone through
(14:56):
this wave of people never usingemail and, you know, just just
not looking to it to now emailmarketing being great.
I said, hey, we have to go fromthese three or four emails a
month to 30.
And then my team was like, whoa, hang on a second.
And that was what all the fearsthat I think we're going to lose
a lot of unsubscribers.
I think we're going to lose alot of all this stuff.
I said they're not opening ouremails anyways, so let's just
(15:18):
bombard them.
And it's probably the leastoffensive way to contact people
is through email.
I think text is much moreoffensive and it's just funny
when you do that and try andpush through the barriers of
your team.
But but it has to be conciseconcise with the whole team on
that, otherwise it's never goingto work.
If you're, if you're, uh,carpet cleaning guys are like
I'm not putting on a clean suitevery time this is ridiculous
(15:41):
then it's never going to work,it's never going to fall through
and I'm sure you'd find a newcleaning guy Immediately, yeah,
immediately.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Right.
I mean they work the job everyday.
They know, they know yeah, See,that's the other thing that it
does is it creates employeeengagement.
So now the employees got alittle skin in the game and they
tend to stick around longer.
I mean I got guys in my carpetbusiness.
One guy's been with me over 10years.
(16:09):
That's like 92 lifetimes in thecarpet cleaning world.
I mean it's insane, Right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
For sure.
That's great.
Yeah, because they're excitedto make the customers excited,
right, so they want to.
It's nice to have happycustomers too.
Keeps your employees engaged.
If they're always being grumpycustomers, no fun.
Great, that's awesome.
Well, who's your ideal clientwhen you're working with them?
So far working?
You said you worked with thehealthcare industry, you worked
(16:35):
with service industry, youworked with home care industry.
Who's been your favorite?
Who's been the ones that justabsorb and grow?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Really it's going to sound weird, but I've got like
three financial planners thatare in my coaching group and
they have just, I mean, gone hogwild over doing this stuff.
Again, highly commoditizedindustry.
I mean you know, you got allthe franchises out there plus
all the independents.
(17:03):
I mean it's just everybodyseems to be a financial planner,
or claims to be one, and sothey have been fun to work with,
also because they have thefinancial wherewithal to invest
to make these experiences happen.
But really there hasn't been agroup.
(17:23):
I mean I work with a veryeclectic group.
I've got a farmer in Georgiawho sells meat through the mail
and she has been doing amazingthings.
I've got a guy who makesorganic shampoo, luxury shampoo.
He's been doing amazing things.
I mean it's just, you know it'speople that are stuck and they
(17:44):
just don't know what to do next.
They know that they've got agreat service or product.
They just don't know how tobroadcast that to the world.
So it is.
I mean it is a special kind ofperson.
You got to be able to be readyto be a little different, you
(18:05):
know.
I mean you know I used it, so Ihad.
I got this financial plannerguy to do this.
So I had him send a rubber footthrough the mail, just a little
rubber foot like four inchestall, and with it was a sales
letter that says I just want toget my foot in the door.
And then went on to introducehimself he's trying to get you
(18:26):
know a couple of CEOs as clients.
He got 100% response rate.
He said I don't know.
He said like 40 of these things, 100% response rate.
Now did they all become clients?
No, but boy did these peoplecall up and say, oh my God, it's
the funniest thing I've seen.
Oh my God, this was great.
So you gotta be prepared tostand out, because vanilla is
(18:49):
the worst.
Vanilla is the worst.
It's maybe the most popularflavor in the world for ice
cream, the worst flavor forbusiness.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
In business it is.
I think yeah, I like thevanilla analogy it's the
toughest place to play.
I think you're in the middleprice range, you're in the
middle of service, you're in themiddle of the competition,
you're in the middle ofmarketing and then you get the
middle client and it's just thegrind.
It's like this hamster wheel ofgrinding.
That's great.
What did going to the affluentmarket change for your business?
(19:19):
I mean less jobs per day,higher paid employees, better
services you can gift yourclients.
What has it done?
As far as revenue, I mean forme the math.
I'm like if you're doing twoand the average industry is
doing seven a day, how are youpossibly keeping up with revenue
?
What?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
did, it do for you.
Yeah, again, I mean our pricesare about 35% higher than my
closest competitor, so I don'thave to do as many jobs to
remain competitive.
I mean our talent, where thereare peaks and valleys in a lot
of businesses.
Like, for some reason, peoplesay the week between Christmas
(20:01):
and New Year's is supposed to bedead for carpet cleaners.
Right, I mean nobody wantstheir carpet cleaned while the
Christmas trees up schedules areall full because people know
who we are and they know that.
Well, if I don't get it cleanedon the 27th of December, it
(20:22):
might be another month or twobefore they can actually get out
here.
So you're building you knowthis, this demand, by creating
these experiences.
I want to be.
I only want Vance's company tocome out and do it.
I don't want anybody else,because I know of Vance's
company to come out and do it.
I don't want anybody elsebecause I know of what I'm going
to get.
So I mean profitability wise.
(20:43):
I mean you could double yourprices, lose half of your
customers and still be moreprofitable.
Yes, I mean, just do the mathAnybody.
Just double your price, cuthalf your customers and you're
still more profitable.
So I don't need like those guysthat are doing six jobs a day.
(21:04):
Well, it takes them two guys todo those six jobs.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I only got one guy.
Right, yeah, that's great,great stuff.
Yeah, that's great great stuff.
So the vance has the um thedisney, is it disney?
Fire, disney, what's the?
What's the name of your company?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I can't read my own writing it's all right, deliver
service now institute deliverservice now institute.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So he's got online courses.
He's got a whole back end tothis.
You can groups.
You can do a whole bunch ofstuff.
I'm sure it's structuredwonderfully.
Look into that.
Or contact Vance.
That's.
The whole point of thesepodcasts is to get out there.
But as the listeners are tuningout here, what's the biggest
advice you got for them movinginto 2025?
(21:50):
What do you think the movementis going forward for businesses?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, I personally think we all have enough
information.
I tell my coaching clients thisall the time you have enough
stuff.
You need implementation.
And I'm not a big one forsayings and things like that,
but I have one quote that's mineand it's you won't profit
unless you implement.
And so if you picked up oneidea from this podcast and you
(22:18):
don't do anything with it, wellyou know there's 23 minutes of
your life and you know it wasnice entertainment.
But if you take one idea andMonday morning you go and you
implement on that idea, nowyou're gonna see the growth.
Now you're gonna see the effectof actually, so you gotta do
stuff.
This doesn't going to see thegrowth.
Now you're going to see theeffect of actually, so you got
to do stuff.
This doesn't happen by osmosis.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
For sure.
Brainstorm this stuff, thinkabout what you can do in your
business.
I know you got two ideas rightnow just by listening to this.
Even if you're running on thetreadmill right now, now the
point is, do that, and if you'restuck, guess what?
Call Vance.
That's the whole point there.
That's great, reach out.
Thanks so much, man.
I really appreciate your time.
I'm going to ask you a ton ofquestions about my business.
So that's great.
Okay, certainly not a problem.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I appreciate you having me.
Thanks, take care.
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