March 18, 2025 • 40 mins
Disney is known for unforgettable customer experiences, but what if you could bring that same magic into your own business? Vance Morris, a former Disney leader turned entrepreneur, shares how the company’s systems, attention to detail, and customer-first mindset can help small businesses stand out. He explains how to create a consistent experience, build strong customer relationships, and turn everyday interactions into something memorable.
We also talk about the power of systems, the role of storytelling in marketing, and simple ways to wow customers without breaking the bank. If you want practical, straightforward strategies for improving customer experience, this episode has plenty of ideas to put into action.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janice Hostager (00:04):
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
(00:29):
When you think of companies withamazing branding and
unforgettable customerexperience, near the top of your
list is probably going to beDisney, and for good reason.
They were among the first toinclude an experience as part of
their brand.
And isn't it cool to think itall started with a cartoon mouse
and some stories and just grewfrom there.
When I mention Disney, you'llprobably think about memorable
(00:53):
movies or their theme parks, andwhen you go to Disneyland or
Disney World, from the momentyou walk through the gates, they
want you to have a memorableexperience.
So how do you take a clue fromDisney for your own business?
My guest today is Vance Morris.
Vance is a Walt Disney WorldResort Management alumni, having
(01:13):
spent 10 years as a leader inthe resorts.
But beyond the Disney brand,Vance is a serial entrepreneur
and has learned to harness whathe's learned at Disney to stand
out in his own business.
Today he's sharing the insidersecrets of how the Disney magic
of customer service and customerexperience can be integrated in
your own business too.
(01:34):
Here's my talk with Vance.
Hey Vance, how are you doingtoday?
Vance Morris (01:39):
I'm great, Janice, thank you.
I appreciate you having me on.
Janice Hostager (01:42):
Absolutely so.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground and how you got
started focusing kind of oncustomer experiences.
Vance Morris (01:51):
Sure.
Well, I'll blame it all on myfirst job, which was working for
the Walt Disney Company down inOrlando.
I worked for the mouse for 10years and it was really an eye
opening experience, but it gaveme the basis for everything I
was going to do further in mycareer.
You know I get asked a lot whatwas the number one thing you
learned at Disney?
(02:11):
A lot of people think that itwas you know customer experience
or how to pick up trash reallyfast, or you know how to keep
the place clean, and I hate tobreak it to people.
Actually, I learned that Disneyruns on systems and processes
and that they have a process foreverything.
You know, if you want to changea bus tire, they got a system
(02:32):
for it.
If you want to carry a tray ina restaurant, they've got a
system for it.
And all the systems are alsoare simple, because if they were
complex, the whole thing wouldfall apart.
And you have to think aboutwho's working there.
It's a lot of young people,teenagers, not exactly thinking
clearly all the time.
So if they didn't have a simplesystem, again the whole thing
(02:55):
would fall apart.
So I was like, well, this makesa lot of sense.
So I've carried that throughwith the jobs I've had and now
with the businesses that I own.
And I found that systems arevery they.
They give me a lot of freedom,they give the employees freedom,
and I noticed this at Disney isbecause if you follow the
(03:15):
process and you just learn itand it's like a muscle reflex,
it's just almost by rope, youjust do this, you do it that way
, and then it gives you thefreedom to be able to do all the
little nice things thatDisney's known for.
You know, okay, so you'recarrying your tray in the
restaurant, but then you, oh, Ineed to take a picture of the
(03:36):
guest for them.
So they put the tray down, takea picture.
I mean, it's all those littlethings that Disney's known for
the cast members can do, becausethey know their job so well
that it doesn't impact the job.
And I've noticed that now as abusiness owner that all the
systems I put in place in mybusinesses gives me freedom to
(03:58):
not have to be in the business.
So I think I've told you I ownthree home service businesses
here in Maryland.
And I put service systems inmarketing systems, operations
systems and I have a generalmanager who runs all that for me
.
I spend about 90 weeks, excuseme, 90 minutes a week on those
(04:21):
businesses, essentially cashingthe checks, kissing babies, and
I spend 30 minutes a week in ameeting with the GM.
So systems it just really wasan eye-opener for me that that's
what Disney kind of gave to me.
Janice Hostager (04:33):
Interesting.
So how does that translate intocustomer experience?
So everything that Disney doeslike every so take me through.
Like, what a typical role.
Maybe your role there orsomebody else's role there?
How did systems contribute tothat?
So give me an example.
Vance Morris (04:51):
Sure.
So one of the things that we dois what's called scripting, and
so I'll give you an examplefrom my carpet cleaning company,
and this ties into how tocreate an experience.
So one of the boring andmundane things we have to do in
the carpet business is get intothe home.
So I've created a completeperformance, a complete
(05:13):
experience, out of my techniciangetting into the home, and it
starts out in the street.
So we park in the street.
We don't park in the drivewaybecause, god forbid, I've got an
oil leak.
Now I got something else I gotto clean up.
And the technician gets out andhe's in a clean uniform because
he carries extra uniforms withhim, and he also does not smell
because I forbid smoking and heis not allowed to wear cologne,
(05:37):
because there's nothing worsethan a guy showing up inside
your house smelling like theMarlboro man who just took a
shower in Axe.
All right.
So and he gets his.
He gets, it's disgusting.
So you get, he gets his littlemat.
Um, he gets a little gift andhe walks up to the front door.
He lays down his mat and heknocks on the door because
(05:59):
friends knock, salespeople ringthe bell, takes a couple steps
back and he waits for thecustomer to answer the door.
Mrs McGillicuddy answers thedoor and he says Hi, my name's
Josh.
I'm here to create your healthyhome.
May I come in?
We don't just barge in, we askto be allowed in.
She says yes, certainly.
So he'll do an exaggeration ora performance of wiping his feet
on the mat and then he putslittle booties on his clean
(06:21):
shoes and he enters the home.
On his way in, he gives MrsMcGillicuddy a gift.
Now, it's not a big gift, but itis still a gift.
Now, when was the last time youhad a home service person, you
know, plumber or pest control orcarpet cleaner come into your
home and give you a gift beforethey did any work?
Never, probably, never, right,right.
(06:44):
So we give her a gift and it'snot expensive.
It's like five bucks.
It's a custom little blue box.
It's a bottle of spot remover,a bag of cookies and a little
note from me saying thank you somuch for allowing us into your
home.
Now that box does a couple ofthings for us.
One obviously, it separates mefrom everybody else out there
and that's what we want and itgives us.
(07:05):
People will talk about us.
They're like, oh my God, younever guessed.
Carpet cleaner gave me a gifttoday.
The other thing that it does isit starts a process called
reciprocity, so if I givesomething to you, you feel
compelled to give something backto me.
So when we started the gift, wenoticed a 26% increase in our
mid-tier package, which equatedto about $65,000 in additional
(07:28):
sales every year.
So that all in itself is ascripted, systemized process
designed to deliver anexperience.
So I hope that answered yourquestion.
Janice Hostager (07:42):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love that you were ableto just bring it right to the
customer too.
I think a lot of us havesystems in our own business.
I know when I very firststarted my design agency that I
used to have I used to go aheadand well, initially I would just
sort of put little sticky notesplaces and try, and you know,
(08:04):
kind of go through the processthat way.
But I found that, even if it'sjust me, I really needed systems
.
So I had, we, I developedstandard operating procedures or
SOPs for myself, but I neverreally thought about
implementing them for customers,you know.
So I love that you do that andI love that you include all the
(08:24):
details in it, because I thinkthat's so important, because
people notice those details andpeople, like you said, they will
go to Google reviews and say,wow, he even brought me a gift,
he wiped his feet at the doorand things that we wouldn't
necessarily think twice aboutdoing maybe as an individual,
but you've systematized them foryour entire company.
Vance Morris (08:46):
So that is very cool and you mentioned a key
word, which is details, and Ithink, no matter what business
you're in, you know payingattention to the details is
paramount and you know, if youwere to choose one detail that
you knew was going tosignificantly impact your
(09:08):
customer experience or yourprofitability, I mean, what
would it be?
And you know, I mean I consultwith a lot of different niches
and industries and the one thatkills me is the medical field,
and I'll go into an office orthe waiting room and they have
(09:28):
dusty house plants.
And I'm thinking to myself.
well, this is not congruent withthe medical profession.
You've got dirty stuff in thewaiting room, well, what's your
operating room or your exam roomgoing to look like, you know?
So you're planting this seed.
That detail is not congruentwith what you're, what you're
(09:49):
serving, um, and so those, allthose details matter.
I mean, you know, cleaningbusiness we're certainly in a
detail oriented business.
You know, my guys have to washtheir trucks every day before
they go out and drive aroundbecause, well, we're, we'd look
stupid if we drive around in amuddy truck, um, so you've got
(10:09):
to, those details have to befocused on it, and every detail
matters.
And the other thing is is thatevery detail is either enhancing
or detracting from theexperience.
There's no middle ground.
So it's either helping you orit's hurting you.
You can't have a wishy-washy,it's, you know.
If you've got a dirty window,well, that's hurting you.
(10:30):
If you've got, you know, niceflowers in the waiting room and
they're fresh, well that'shelping you.
If your front desk person, youknow, marge, is having a grumpy
day, that's hurting you.
I mean it's so.
Janice Hostager (10:46):
I mean all the details, they all matter and
they all either enhance ordistract.
That is so good.
You're absolutely right.
I love that quote.
Details either take away orthey give right Black or white.
So, and that is reallysomething you definitely see
when you visit, like a Disneytheme park.
For sure, I can remember goingthere with my kids when they
(11:07):
were really young I think it wasmy daughter's sixth birthday
and so they gave her a specialbadge or something to wear, and
everywhere she went they didsomething a little special for
her, like she might walk in agift shop and there'd be a phone
call from Mickey for her, orsomething that was engraved for
her, embroidered for her, orsomething like that.
So they are so good aboutdetails and I love that.
(11:29):
You have translated that intoyour own businesses.
Vance Morris (11:34):
Yeah, and you, you know I mean I cause I get the
question a lot.
You know they're like, you knowpeople, they'll poo poo the
whole thing about.
Well, you know I can't copyDisney.
You know I don't have aCinderella castle, I don't have
a roller coaster, I don't have atheme park and I'm like, well,
unless you do own a theme park,we're not trying to copy Disney,
we're trying to adapt whatDisney is doing into our
(11:56):
businesses.
You know so.
You know Disney has aparticular way that they answer
the telephone right.
So how can we answer thetelephone in our businesses?
That is different and excitingand provides a better experience
.
And I'll tell you the secret toanswering the phone these days
is answering it live.
Seriously, if that's thebiggest tip I give anybody on
(12:20):
this call, answer your phonelive.
You will separate yourself fromeverybody out there because
nobody's doing it anymore.
Janice Hostager (12:27):
That is true.
You either get a recording orvoicemail or something like that
.
Vance Morris (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Janice Hostager (12:34):
Yeah, so how should small businesses start
thinking about this?
Do they just kind of mentallywalk through the customer
journey map and kind of figureout, okay, what's that first
point of contact, and keep goingand I'm talking about, like it
could be coaches, consultants,photographers, so on.
Like what's the process thatyou'd recommend they go?
Vance Morris (12:53):
through.
Yeah, you're spot on, spot on,with journey mapping.
So take it from point one allthe way through the entire thing
till the end of the journey.
Every single point where you oryour business has a contact
with the customer, that's apoint on that map.
And then, once you have thatmapped out, you want to list it
(13:16):
and then prioritize what isgoing to give you the most bang
for your buck if you were towork on it.
So what is going to give youmost time saved, most money
saved, or most revenue generated, or most excitement or fun or
(13:39):
wow for the customer, which willthen fall into making more
money?
So you want to prioritize itbecause you can't, you can't, I
wouldn't start at the beginning,unless you're having a problem
with lead generation, then well,maybe you want to start there,
but identify where the problemsare and hit those first.
And I would, if you have a team, definitely involve your team
(14:01):
in this, because they're theexperts.
They do this job day in, dayout, every day, and just
brainstorm how do we make thisbetter?
No bad idea is a bad idea.
Just let it go.
Money is not an object.
Let's just see what we canthink of and then so when you
(14:22):
come up with it, I like to useagain a simple system, just like
Disney does.
Disney runs on three words whatto do, how to do it and why we
do it that way.
So let's just take answeringthe phone, for example.
I worked with an all-stateinsurance guy.
I can't remember, a big citydown south and there were
(14:44):
probably like 14 or 15 otherall-state agents in the city,
let alone all the otherinsurance people, and he really
needed to stand out.
So, you know, I kind of talkedto him about his personality a
little bit and what he liked,and he invited me to his office
and he was a real rock and rollfanatic.
So he had like gold records onthe wall and autographed guitars
(15:05):
and you know, posters of TheWho and Led Zeppelin and all
this stuff.
And I'm like, wow, this ispretty cool.
So we got into thebrainstorming session with his
team and one of his team memberssuggested that he become, you
know, the rock and rollinsurance agent.
Um, it was like, okay, that'spretty cool.
And we said, okay, well, you,well, where should we start with
(15:26):
that persona?
How should we get that out?
And she goes well, it'sprobably going to be answering
the phone.
I said okay.
So we started brainstorming howshould we answer the phone, and
an employee actually came upwith it.
So you know, when you call anyoffice, you're going to get
something along the lines of youknow, thank you for calling
Dave's Allstate, how can I helpyou?
(15:52):
We've all heard that from amyriad of businesses, but when
we implemented what she said, itwas amazing.
So now when they answer thephone, it's thank you for
calling Dave's Allstate, theagency that rocks.
You know now, I mean it's.
It sounds a little goofy thefirst 20 times you say it, but
it certainly separates him fromeverybody else.
Nobody can claim that, nobodycan copy that.
(16:12):
You know your marketing isdesigned to do two things
attract the people you want,repel the people you don't want.
And just by answering the phonethat way, he's sifting, sorting
and screening out people whowould make a bad customer.
And people are attracted tothat Um and so I mean that's how
we would.
(16:32):
You know, and that was like hisnumber one point was how we
answered the phone, and so nowthat became his standard.
So what do we do?
We answered the phone.
How do we do it?
You know, the agency that rocks.
Why do we do it that way.
Well, it separates us from allthe other, all state agents in
town and it brings us theclients that we like to do
(16:53):
business with.
And that why column is vitalfor the employees, because
that's where you get engagement,because most of the time,
employees are just told what andhow, they're never told the why
, and so if you want them to beengaged, they need to know.
Why do we answer the phone thisway?
Yeah Well, because you knowDave is.
(17:13):
He's a rock and roll fanaticand we need to be.
You know he wants to be knownabove and beyond all the other
agents in town.
So this is how we answer thephone, and they're like oh, okay
, it makes sense.
Janice Hostager (17:25):
So I love what you did with Dave, the Allstate
agent, I think.
So you really started with hisbrand right.
You figured out what made himunique, what made him stand out,
and really kind of spread thatto all the touch points, which
is exactly how I you know, Iused to do a lot of of logo
(17:48):
designs for people back when Ihad a design agency and they
would come and they would havean idea and I would start them
with all right, you know who,who are you, what are your,
what's your mission and vision,and really take them on a deep
dive into their personalbranding before I ever put pen
to paper.
And what was interesting aboutthat is that there were some
(18:12):
people that would push back onthat and say no, no, no, I just
want a logo it's not important,or the logo that looks like
everybody else.
So I really think that what youdo is brilliant in that respect
, because you are number onemaking them pin down their brand
right.
There's no other Disney outthere.
This all started with a mouse,right, and he grew that into an
(18:32):
empire.
So think about what is near anddear to you, what you can do or
what you do differently and howyou can set your business apart
with that, and then, like yousaid, take it to the next level,
walk through your customerjourney and spread it throughout
the entire business.
Vance Morris (18:52):
Yeah, 100%.
Janice Hostager (18:53):
So do you see, a lot of times when I get a
client they're a little nervousabout standing out, especially,
I think, if it's a brand newbusiness.
They want to look likeeverybody else, because
everybody else looks legitimateand they want to look legitimate
and I get it.
When you're first starting outyou don't know which way to turn
.
I'm assuming that's kind of abig mistake they make.
(19:20):
Do you have any other thingsthat you see that businesses
make or that businesses do thatyou feel like they could just
maybe improve it a little bit?
Vance Morris (19:30):
You know, I will start out saying that, you know,
while vanilla is the mostpopular flavor of ice cream in
the entire world, being vanillain your business will kill you.
That sea of sameness that,looking like everybody else, you
(19:54):
become a commodity.
That means you have no way toincrease your prices because you
can't separate yourself, youdon't have an experience, you
don't have anything to helpboost that.
I remember when yellow pageswere still a thing and I and I
was, you know, flipping throughthem cause I was going to be you
know, I'm going to have my adin there and every single carpet
cleaning ad had a picture of acarpet cleaning van.
(20:17):
I'm thinking to myself well,what does a van have to do with
carpet cleaning?
I mean, we assume you're goingto travel to the house.
Why put the van in there?
Plumbers do the same thing.
What does a plumbing truck haveto do with plumbing?
Absolutely nothing.
I mean, I think, like the firstguy who ever did a Yellow Pages
(20:37):
ad, just decided to put his vanin the picture and everybody
copied it.
Oh, I guess that's what we'resupposed to do.
Well, you know, look at whateverybody is doing and do the
opposite.
Seriously, I mean it's probablythe best advice I could give
you, because you do want tostand out and be that sore thumb
and don't do whatever, becauseyou're just going to blend in
(20:58):
and you're going to look likeeverybody else.
So you know when you're doingyour marketing.
Certainly you know.
I mean, obviously someindustries have regulations, I
get it.
But you want to be able to beso different that you stand out,
but you don't want to be sooutlandish that it's ridiculous.
(21:20):
Um, one of the things that Iteach my coaching clients and
when I work with the consultingpeople is um, there are two
words that you want to be ableto put in your marketing and in
your advertisements that willseparate you from everybody else
, and those two words are theonly.
(21:43):
So if you can put the words theonly in front of whatever you
want to say, you are now headsand miles above everybody else.
So my carpet cleaning businesswe are the only green and
non-toxic cleaner in easternshore Maryland.
Nobody else can claim that, it'smine.
You know they may.
You know some, and if somebodyelse does it, then I just change
(22:06):
it to.
We were the first, you know.
But if you can claim the only,that is a very powerful
marketing message.
Um, you know.
And if you, okay, you can'tclaim that and say, well, okay,
we're, we're the only umplumbing company with an on-time
guarantee.
Oh, wow, okay, you know.
So those two words themselvesthat'll help you stand out.
(22:30):
And you don't, I mean, and youdon't even really need to really
think of anything.
Just put those two words infront of something and you're
good to go.
Um, yeah, I think that somepeople I mean, you know they
they worry about what theirspouse is going to say.
They worry about what theneighbors are going to think.
They worry about what theirmother-in-law is going to think.
(22:50):
And what they should really bethinking about is A does it work
?
And B is it bringing money in?
And that's the only measurementthat you should be worried
about with your brand and withyour marketing.
If it's bringing money in,nobody else's opinion matters at
all.
You know your wife says, oh,that's a dumb ad.
(23:10):
Well, honey, you brought in$50,000 last month, you know,
all right.
Well, I still think it's a dumbad.
Well, okay, you know.
Janice Hostager (23:20):
Yeah, and that's something I take clients
through when I do their valueproposition.
I throw a little tag at the endsaying, unlike my competitors,
I will do blank and just reallytry to get them to really think
hard about how they candifferentiate themselves,
because oftentimes we're so busywith our day-to-day service
(23:41):
business or we're just doing allthe things all the time that we
don't really even have time toto sit and think about okay, how
can I stand out?
And I think it's especiallyhard, I always say with personal
branding, because it's hard forus to see our own business.
I always say a jar can't readits own label.
So I think, do you find it'shelpful to have somebody else
(24:05):
come in and help you with thatprocess?
Or how do you go about thinkingabout what it is?
Vance Morris (24:10):
Certainly.
I mean, I think that you knowif you have the financial
wherewithal to get a coach or aconsultant to come in to help
you, certainly, and you need toget one that kind of knows what
they're doing.
But you know, to work with youon those types of things so that
(24:31):
you have the right direction,so that you have the momentum
and that you have tangiblethings to implement, is vital,
and it's going to be faster.
You know, if you can spend alittle money, the implementation
and the results are going to befaster.
If you're going to bootstrapand grassroots it, certainly you
(24:51):
can still do that.
It's just going to take alittle longer.
I'm not saying it can't be done, it's just going to take a
little bit longer.
You're going to have to YouTubeit, you're going to have to
read a book, but it can still bedone.
But either way it needs to bedone.
Janice Hostager (25:06):
It does.
Yeah, absolutely so, um, talkto me a little bit.
So when I was prepping for this, I really did a deep dive into
what Disney does well, because Iknow that's kind of what you
base a lot of your programs on.
One of the things I think theydo really really well, and
obviously they do really well aswell, is storytelling, because
it all started with a story.
Do you see that businesses workwith stories kind of and build
(25:36):
their business around that,around a narrative?
Vance Morris (25:39):
Oh, certainly.
And we'd be silly not to usestories.
You know, just look at asociety today and you look at
what we pay a public schoolteacher and what we pay a
Hollywood movie star, right.
School teacher, I mean maybe 70, 80,000 a year.
You know, movie star, I mean,they got $70,000 just for
(26:03):
showing up in the park and a lotof the studio.
And so, as a society, we placea lot of value on entertainment
and, as such, we need, asbusiness owners, we need to
entertain and we can do thatthrough storytelling.
Now, does that mean you need todo once upon a time?
(26:23):
No, of course not.
Storytelling can come in theform of a case study.
It can come in the form of awhite paper.
It can come in the form of likewith my newsletters that I send
to my cleaning clients.
I shamelessly use my childrenin my marketing.
(26:44):
I mean I've done it my wholelife.
I mean by my kids were fiveyears old on up, and I tell
stories about my childrenbecause for me, that is creating
.
Stories allow you to create anemotional connection with your
customers and when you do that,you create this bond that is
(27:05):
almost impossible to break.
And if you only talked aboutwidgets and things and coupons.
There's no, there's noattraction, there's no
connection there.
So, real quick.
So my um, I mentioned uh, youknow I do a print newsletter
every month for my uh, for mybusinesses and um, my daughter,
(27:27):
Emma, uh, she's a.
I used to do ballet from thetime she was like five until 12
or 13.
And I, every year for herrecital, I took a picture of her
and her tutu and she would befront page of my newsletter.
You know Emma and her balletthing, and you know it got sent
out and I think she was like 10or 11 years old and we're in the
(27:50):
grocery store and this womancomes running, running up to us
and I'm like, well, actually shedidn't come run up to me, she
ran up to my daughter.
She said, oh my God, Emma, howwas your recital?
And my daughter and I looked ateach other and we're like who
the hell is this lady?
We're ready to go hide in thefrozen food section and I had to
think she's gotta be one of mycustomers.
Oh right, I had created aconnection with her.
(28:11):
She is never leaving me and mykids now have thousands of aunts
and uncles where I have made aconnection, an emotional
connection with them, where theywill find it painful to leave
my company.
So now, if I've created thisconnection, now, when I raise
(28:33):
prices, now when I want to try anew service, now when I want to
try anything, they are going tobe more apt to A go ahead and
say, okay, well, price increase,I have renoticed, needs to do
it and they'll also be morewilling to try a new service
because they're connected and Ican make a mistake, and they'll
(28:56):
forgive me because that's whatpeople do.
But if I didn't have that, ifall I did was hit them with, you
know, offer after offer andcoupon after coupon I mean,
nobody likes to be sold all thetime.
Can you imagine?
The only time you ever hearfrom a company is when they want
your money?
Right, I mean, you know youraccountant, the only time you
(29:16):
ever hear from him is when youget the invoice for him doing
your taxes.
That's not a relationship,that's here give me money, you
know.
Or the only time you hear fromthe department stores when
they're having a sale.
They want money.
So you've got to create that,that connection, and I think
something from your personalityI saw.
So you don't want to use yourkids, fine.
(29:37):
Maybe you're a fisherman.
Okay, do you know what?
Show pictures of your fish.
Maybe you like basket weaving.
Okay, great.
But let that kind of stuff showthrough, because you're going
to immediately connect with acertain population.
When I do public speaking, Iseed all of my speeches with
little parts of my life so thatI connect with different parts
(29:58):
of the audience.
I'll make fun of the fact thatI've been married a number of
times, because that will connectwith certain people in the
audience that have been marrieda number of times.
I talk about my kids, so thatconnects with people in the
audience that have kids.
I make myself human and thatcreates the connection.
I think so many business ownerstry to look like a corporation
(30:21):
and that's where they go wrong.
Janice Hostager (30:23):
Yeah, I agree, I think, especially now I see a
lot of clients wanting to turnto AI for everything, which I'm
okay with for like an outlinerfor ideas.
But when you're writing yourweekly newsletter, I recommend
that people send it out weekly.
You really want to pull in whoyou are personally and beyond
(30:45):
that, I like to throw in thingsthat my ideal customer likes.
For example, if they're acertain age, I'll know that they
grew up with certain movies,certain music, for example, and
I'll toss those in, just likeyou were saying, to connect with
your audience.
It's just to kind of sprinklein sort of some hooks, to kind
(31:06):
of you know, hooks is not theright word but something to sort
of help them relate to you sothat you have some common ground
right.
And I love that you do that inyour talks as well, because
that's super important.
When you are speaking to acrowd, they want to know that
you can understand them and knowwhere they're coming from.
Vance Morris (31:26):
Yeah, it's vital.
Janice Hostager (31:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So with AI, do you see thatthere's some other trends that
are shaping the future of likethis experience that customers
are having?
You know there's like this isall changing so quickly.
Vance Morris (31:43):
Certainly as a research tool, I agree 100%, you
know, and I mean I am not atech guy by any stretch of the
imagination, so you know, I meanI still have a flip phone for
Gus, okay, but you know I thinkthat yes.
(32:08):
And for developing, you knowthe systems and processes.
I mean to have your own customGPT to develop that stuff.
Yeah, it's going to save you somuch time, right, but to allow
AI to come in and do some of theservice functions, maybe I mean
(32:30):
like these chatbots that are onwebsites, I think that, okay,
that's great if it's a generalquestion, but on that bot there
needs to be a big fat buttonthat says get me to a real
person right now, and not hiddenand not in fine print, but get
me to a real person, and youknow.
(32:52):
Same thing with the telephone.
And I think I said it earlierIf you want to impress people,
answer the phone live, becausenobody's doing it, you know.
I mean, it's just there.
They have those phone treespress one for this and two for
that, you know.
Or it goes to voicemail.
If you're relying on voicemailfor your business, you've lost
(33:13):
that customer because they'rejust going down to the next guy
on the Google listing andthey're calling them.
They're not waiting for you toreturn a voicemail.
Get somebody to answer thephone line.
I mean it's the biggest pieceof advice these days that I can
(33:33):
give.
I'm a partner in a uh, in acall center, and when we were
doing the research for it, wecalled 4 000 home service
businesses 4 000 and we got thenumbers from Google
pay-per-click.
So these are people paying tohave their phone number
advertised.
17 percent answered their phonelive.
17% that means 80-some-oddpercent are flushing money down
(33:57):
the toilet.
They're paying Google fornothing.
I don't get it.
Janice Hostager (34:07):
That is really true.
I know I had a question about.
I had an issue with Google'stag manager last week.
It was like very frustrated.
I tried to Google the answer.
I kind of I finally hiredsomebody to try and figure out
who figured it out.
But that's the thing it's like.
If you have a question and I'mtrying to give them money, I'm
(34:28):
trying to give Google moneyright.
To run some ads, but I couldn'tconnect it with this client and
dah-da-da, but there was nobodyto call, there was nobody to
ask.
It's such a big conglomeratethat it does really get
frustrating when you have aquestion that no bot is going to
be able to answer, that noGoogle search is going to be
(34:51):
able to answer.
You just need to talk to a realhuman being.
And I agree.
I think that is a really goodinsight that instead of going
high tech, maybe standing out isgoing low tech.
Vance Morris (35:03):
I mean you're describing the sales prevention
department.
I mean, really you are.
I mean, that is you know?
People are literally shoving$100 bills at you and you're
saying no, no, no, go talk to mybot, I don't want your money.
Janice Hostager (35:20):
So I just have one more question and we'll wrap
it up here.
But so for small businessowners, what are some cost
effective ways that they canreally wow and delight somebody
like this.
Similar to what you do withyour carpet cleaning company or
what Disney does with theirentire experience or ecosystem,
Vance Morris (35:36):
and like I said, you know, I mean wowing doesn't
have to cost anything.
You know, I mean just heck, justsaying, you know, good morning
and smiling is, you know,sometimes enough.
You know, and actually I, Ithink I mentioned, you know,
I've I've just created a hotsheet 52 ways to wow your
customers without breaking thebank.
(35:57):
Um, you know, I, I think, um,one of the ways is, uh, that I
use is um handwritten thank younotes, um, and say you know what
would grandma do?
Um, and you know, and you know,now we've outgrown being able
to do it in-house, because we'redoing 75 to 100 a week.
(36:18):
That's a lot of handwriting,but I still do it.
In my consulting business.
If I have half a dozen businessmeetings a week, I'm still
writing half a dozen thank youcards and sending them out.
Nobody does it anymore.
The mailbox is empty.
So it's a great place to be forsmall businesses.
(36:39):
You know, I think littlesurprises are fantastic.
I think food is okay, but theproblem with giving food as a
gift is it disappears.
People eat it and then there'sno memory of it.
So if you can give somethingthat's got a little bit of
staying power certainly offeringa beta test of a new service
(37:04):
that you're pondering or a newproduct, saying, hey, find your
top five clients and say, hey,look, I'm thinking of offering
this service or providing thisproduct.
Can I give you some samples andjust get your feedback on it?
People love to be included inthat stuff.
Can you have a customer of themonth?
(37:25):
People love.
When we were growing up, my momalways used to love cutting my
picture out of the newspaper andtacking it up on the
refrigerator.
Trust me, adults love that too.
They love seeing their name inlights.
So how can you do that with youknow, with your customers, you
(37:48):
know, recognizing them?
You know, for anniversarieswith your company, I mean, I've
got people that are still withme 17 years later.
So when I have an anniversarywith my company, I'm looking for
um anniversaries with how longmy clients have been with me,
and I'll send anniversary cards,say, hey, look, we've been
together 15 years already, andyou know, and now I'll give them
a special offer.
(38:08):
Uh, so there's all sorts ofways you can, you know, do those
things and you can do.
I'm not saying not to do food,um, you know, and some, and
there's a place for it.
Um, we actually here inMaryland we have a steak cake.
It's called the Smith Islandcake.
Um, and they'll ship itactually anywhere and they'll
ship it anywhere in the US, um,but I will take my top five
(38:28):
customers every month and theyget shipped a Smith Island cake.
Five customers every month andthey get shipped a Smith Island
cake.
Now, when was the last time yougot a cake in the mail from your
carpet cleaner?
Probably never.
You know, it's impressive.
It's a box of cake and, oh, mygoodness, actually, down in
Texas I can't remember the nameof the company, but they have
the Brazos or Brazos pecan pie.
(38:50):
It's enormous.
This thing weighs like ninepounds, it comes in this wooden
crate and it's an amazing giftto give, either for a client or
for business.
But you know, and if you gotguys as clients, there's a
company called Man Crates andthey've got stuff.
That is just, you know, it'sall I mean.
(39:12):
Well, it depends on what you dofor a living, you know, but you
can get stuff that'sinexpensive, you know, and
sometimes just picking up thephone and say, hey, you know,
Mrs Smith, you know, I know I'mnot in the field anymore.
You know cleaning, you know I'msitting here high on the hog
and my throne, but I just wantedto call and check in on you.
Sometimes it's just a phonecall.
(39:35):
Yeah, that's really all it is.
Janice Hostager (39:37):
Yeah, and it doesn't have to cost a lot.
You don't have to go with thecake and the pecan pie.
Yeah, yeah, I love that, andyou do have a freebie.
You said was it 52 ways to wowyour customers?
Was that it?
Vance Morris (39:50):
52 ways to wow your Customer Without Breaking
the Bank.
Janice Hostager (39:53):
Love it, love it, and of course, we'll put the
link to that in the show notesfor today.
So, Vance, it was delightfultalking to you.
You have generated so manyideas in my brain now, so I need
to go quick write them downbefore I forget them and, of
course, most importantly,putting them into processes.
Vance Morris (40:11):
Right, Well, thank you, Janice.
I appreciate you having me on.
Janice Hostager (40:19):
Thanks so much.
So what did you think?
Did you get some ideas aboutways you can improve your own
customer experience?
I love his recommendation aboutbrainstorming with a coach or
your team, ways that you can wowyour customers, and I'd also
recommend starting with Vance'sfree download.
To learn more about anything wetalked about today, visit
myweeklymarketingcom.
(40:39):
Forward slash 99.
Thanks so much for joining metoday.
If you like what you heard,please subscribe.
See you next time.
Bye for now.
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
(00:29):
When you think of companies withamazing branding and
unforgettable customerexperience, near the top of your
list is probably going to beDisney, and for good reason.
They were among the first toinclude an experience as part of
their brand.
And isn't it cool to think itall started with a cartoon mouse
and some stories and just grewfrom there.
When I mention Disney, you'llprobably think about memorable
(00:53):
movies or their theme parks, andwhen you go to Disneyland or
Disney World, from the momentyou walk through the gates, they
want you to have a memorableexperience.
So how do you take a clue fromDisney for your own business?
My guest today is Vance Morris.
Vance is a Walt Disney WorldResort Management alumni, having
(01:13):
spent 10 years as a leader inthe resorts.
But beyond the Disney brand,Vance is a serial entrepreneur
and has learned to harness whathe's learned at Disney to stand
out in his own business.
Today he's sharing the insidersecrets of how the Disney magic
of customer service and customerexperience can be integrated in
your own business too.
(01:34):
Here's my talk with Vance.
Hey Vance, how are you doingtoday?
Vance Morris (01:39):
I'm great, Janice, thank you.
I appreciate you having me on.
Janice Hostager (01:42):
Absolutely so.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground and how you got
started focusing kind of oncustomer experiences.
Vance Morris (01:51):
Sure.
Well, I'll blame it all on myfirst job, which was working for
the Walt Disney Company down inOrlando.
I worked for the mouse for 10years and it was really an eye
opening experience, but it gaveme the basis for everything I
was going to do further in mycareer.
You know I get asked a lot whatwas the number one thing you
learned at Disney?
(02:11):
A lot of people think that itwas you know customer experience
or how to pick up trash reallyfast, or you know how to keep
the place clean, and I hate tobreak it to people.
Actually, I learned that Disneyruns on systems and processes
and that they have a process foreverything.
You know, if you want to changea bus tire, they got a system
(02:32):
for it.
If you want to carry a tray ina restaurant, they've got a
system for it.
And all the systems are alsoare simple, because if they were
complex, the whole thing wouldfall apart.
And you have to think aboutwho's working there.
It's a lot of young people,teenagers, not exactly thinking
clearly all the time.
So if they didn't have a simplesystem, again the whole thing
(02:55):
would fall apart.
So I was like, well, this makesa lot of sense.
So I've carried that throughwith the jobs I've had and now
with the businesses that I own.
And I found that systems arevery they.
They give me a lot of freedom,they give the employees freedom,
and I noticed this at Disney isbecause if you follow the
(03:15):
process and you just learn itand it's like a muscle reflex,
it's just almost by rope, youjust do this, you do it that way
, and then it gives you thefreedom to be able to do all the
little nice things thatDisney's known for.
You know, okay, so you'recarrying your tray in the
restaurant, but then you, oh, Ineed to take a picture of the
(03:36):
guest for them.
So they put the tray down, takea picture.
I mean, it's all those littlethings that Disney's known for
the cast members can do, becausethey know their job so well
that it doesn't impact the job.
And I've noticed that now as abusiness owner that all the
systems I put in place in mybusinesses gives me freedom to
(03:58):
not have to be in the business.
So I think I've told you I ownthree home service businesses
here in Maryland.
And I put service systems inmarketing systems, operations
systems and I have a generalmanager who runs all that for me
.
I spend about 90 weeks, excuseme, 90 minutes a week on those
(04:21):
businesses, essentially cashingthe checks, kissing babies, and
I spend 30 minutes a week in ameeting with the GM.
So systems it just really wasan eye-opener for me that that's
what Disney kind of gave to me.
Janice Hostager (04:33):
Interesting.
So how does that translate intocustomer experience?
So everything that Disney doeslike every so take me through.
Like, what a typical role.
Maybe your role there orsomebody else's role there?
How did systems contribute tothat?
So give me an example.
Vance Morris (04:51):
Sure.
So one of the things that we dois what's called scripting, and
so I'll give you an examplefrom my carpet cleaning company,
and this ties into how tocreate an experience.
So one of the boring andmundane things we have to do in
the carpet business is get intothe home.
So I've created a completeperformance, a complete
(05:13):
experience, out of my techniciangetting into the home, and it
starts out in the street.
So we park in the street.
We don't park in the drivewaybecause, god forbid, I've got an
oil leak.
Now I got something else I gotto clean up.
And the technician gets out andhe's in a clean uniform because
he carries extra uniforms withhim, and he also does not smell
because I forbid smoking and heis not allowed to wear cologne,
(05:37):
because there's nothing worsethan a guy showing up inside
your house smelling like theMarlboro man who just took a
shower in Axe.
All right.
So and he gets his.
He gets, it's disgusting.
So you get, he gets his littlemat.
Um, he gets a little gift andhe walks up to the front door.
He lays down his mat and heknocks on the door because
(05:59):
friends knock, salespeople ringthe bell, takes a couple steps
back and he waits for thecustomer to answer the door.
Mrs McGillicuddy answers thedoor and he says Hi, my name's
Josh.
I'm here to create your healthyhome.
May I come in?
We don't just barge in, we askto be allowed in.
She says yes, certainly.
So he'll do an exaggeration ora performance of wiping his feet
on the mat and then he putslittle booties on his clean
(06:21):
shoes and he enters the home.
On his way in, he gives MrsMcGillicuddy a gift.
Now, it's not a big gift, but itis still a gift.
Now, when was the last time youhad a home service person, you
know, plumber or pest control orcarpet cleaner come into your
home and give you a gift beforethey did any work?
Never, probably, never, right,right.
(06:44):
So we give her a gift and it'snot expensive.
It's like five bucks.
It's a custom little blue box.
It's a bottle of spot remover,a bag of cookies and a little
note from me saying thank you somuch for allowing us into your
home.
Now that box does a couple ofthings for us.
One obviously, it separates mefrom everybody else out there
and that's what we want and itgives us.
(07:05):
People will talk about us.
They're like, oh my God, younever guessed.
Carpet cleaner gave me a gifttoday.
The other thing that it does isit starts a process called
reciprocity, so if I givesomething to you, you feel
compelled to give something backto me.
So when we started the gift, wenoticed a 26% increase in our
mid-tier package, which equatedto about $65,000 in additional
(07:28):
sales every year.
So that all in itself is ascripted, systemized process
designed to deliver anexperience.
So I hope that answered yourquestion.
Janice Hostager (07:42):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love that you were ableto just bring it right to the
customer too.
I think a lot of us havesystems in our own business.
I know when I very firststarted my design agency that I
used to have I used to go aheadand well, initially I would just
sort of put little sticky notesplaces and try, and you know,
(08:04):
kind of go through the processthat way.
But I found that, even if it'sjust me, I really needed systems
.
So I had, we, I developedstandard operating procedures or
SOPs for myself, but I neverreally thought about
implementing them for customers,you know.
So I love that you do that andI love that you include all the
(08:24):
details in it, because I thinkthat's so important, because
people notice those details andpeople, like you said, they will
go to Google reviews and say,wow, he even brought me a gift,
he wiped his feet at the doorand things that we wouldn't
necessarily think twice aboutdoing maybe as an individual,
but you've systematized them foryour entire company.
Vance Morris (08:46):
So that is very cool and you mentioned a key
word, which is details, and Ithink, no matter what business
you're in, you know payingattention to the details is
paramount and you know, if youwere to choose one detail that
you knew was going tosignificantly impact your
(09:08):
customer experience or yourprofitability, I mean, what
would it be?
And you know, I mean I consultwith a lot of different niches
and industries and the one thatkills me is the medical field,
and I'll go into an office orthe waiting room and they have
(09:28):
dusty house plants.
And I'm thinking to myself.
well, this is not congruent withthe medical profession.
You've got dirty stuff in thewaiting room, well, what's your
operating room or your exam roomgoing to look like, you know?
So you're planting this seed.
That detail is not congruentwith what you're, what you're
(09:49):
serving, um, and so those, allthose details matter.
I mean, you know, cleaningbusiness we're certainly in a
detail oriented business.
You know, my guys have to washtheir trucks every day before
they go out and drive aroundbecause, well, we're, we'd look
stupid if we drive around in amuddy truck, um, so you've got
(10:09):
to, those details have to befocused on it, and every detail
matters.
And the other thing is is thatevery detail is either enhancing
or detracting from theexperience.
There's no middle ground.
So it's either helping you orit's hurting you.
You can't have a wishy-washy,it's, you know.
If you've got a dirty window,well, that's hurting you.
(10:30):
If you've got, you know, niceflowers in the waiting room and
they're fresh, well that'shelping you.
If your front desk person, youknow, marge, is having a grumpy
day, that's hurting you.
I mean it's so.
Janice Hostager (10:46):
I mean all the details, they all matter and
they all either enhance ordistract.
That is so good.
You're absolutely right.
I love that quote.
Details either take away orthey give right Black or white.
So, and that is reallysomething you definitely see
when you visit, like a Disneytheme park.
For sure, I can remember goingthere with my kids when they
(11:07):
were really young I think it wasmy daughter's sixth birthday
and so they gave her a specialbadge or something to wear, and
everywhere she went they didsomething a little special for
her, like she might walk in agift shop and there'd be a phone
call from Mickey for her, orsomething that was engraved for
her, embroidered for her, orsomething like that.
So they are so good aboutdetails and I love that.
(11:29):
You have translated that intoyour own businesses.
Vance Morris (11:34):
Yeah, and you, you know I mean I cause I get the
question a lot.
You know they're like, you knowpeople, they'll poo poo the
whole thing about.
Well, you know I can't copyDisney.
You know I don't have aCinderella castle, I don't have
a roller coaster, I don't have atheme park and I'm like, well,
unless you do own a theme park,we're not trying to copy Disney,
we're trying to adapt whatDisney is doing into our
(11:56):
businesses.
You know so.
You know Disney has aparticular way that they answer
the telephone right.
So how can we answer thetelephone in our businesses?
That is different and excitingand provides a better experience
.
And I'll tell you the secret toanswering the phone these days
is answering it live.
Seriously, if that's thebiggest tip I give anybody on
(12:20):
this call, answer your phonelive.
You will separate yourself fromeverybody out there because
nobody's doing it anymore.
Janice Hostager (12:27):
That is true.
You either get a recording orvoicemail or something like that
.
Vance Morris (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Janice Hostager (12:34):
Yeah, so how should small businesses start
thinking about this?
Do they just kind of mentallywalk through the customer
journey map and kind of figureout, okay, what's that first
point of contact, and keep goingand I'm talking about, like it
could be coaches, consultants,photographers, so on.
Like what's the process thatyou'd recommend they go?
Vance Morris (12:53):
through.
Yeah, you're spot on, spot on,with journey mapping.
So take it from point one allthe way through the entire thing
till the end of the journey.
Every single point where you oryour business has a contact
with the customer, that's apoint on that map.
And then, once you have thatmapped out, you want to list it
(13:16):
and then prioritize what isgoing to give you the most bang
for your buck if you were towork on it.
So what is going to give youmost time saved, most money
saved, or most revenue generated, or most excitement or fun or
(13:39):
wow for the customer, which willthen fall into making more
money?
So you want to prioritize itbecause you can't, you can't, I
wouldn't start at the beginning,unless you're having a problem
with lead generation, then well,maybe you want to start there,
but identify where the problemsare and hit those first.
And I would, if you have a team, definitely involve your team
(14:01):
in this, because they're theexperts.
They do this job day in, dayout, every day, and just
brainstorm how do we make thisbetter?
No bad idea is a bad idea.
Just let it go.
Money is not an object.
Let's just see what we canthink of and then so when you
(14:22):
come up with it, I like to useagain a simple system, just like
Disney does.
Disney runs on three words whatto do, how to do it and why we
do it that way.
So let's just take answeringthe phone, for example.
I worked with an all-stateinsurance guy.
I can't remember, a big citydown south and there were
(14:44):
probably like 14 or 15 otherall-state agents in the city,
let alone all the otherinsurance people, and he really
needed to stand out.
So, you know, I kind of talkedto him about his personality a
little bit and what he liked,and he invited me to his office
and he was a real rock and rollfanatic.
So he had like gold records onthe wall and autographed guitars
(15:05):
and you know, posters of TheWho and Led Zeppelin and all
this stuff.
And I'm like, wow, this ispretty cool.
So we got into thebrainstorming session with his
team and one of his team memberssuggested that he become, you
know, the rock and rollinsurance agent.
Um, it was like, okay, that'spretty cool.
And we said, okay, well, you,well, where should we start with
(15:26):
that persona?
How should we get that out?
And she goes well, it'sprobably going to be answering
the phone.
I said okay.
So we started brainstorming howshould we answer the phone, and
an employee actually came upwith it.
So you know, when you call anyoffice, you're going to get
something along the lines of youknow, thank you for calling
Dave's Allstate, how can I helpyou?
(15:52):
We've all heard that from amyriad of businesses, but when
we implemented what she said, itwas amazing.
So now when they answer thephone, it's thank you for
calling Dave's Allstate, theagency that rocks.
You know now, I mean it's.
It sounds a little goofy thefirst 20 times you say it, but
it certainly separates him fromeverybody else.
Nobody can claim that, nobodycan copy that.
(16:12):
You know your marketing isdesigned to do two things
attract the people you want,repel the people you don't want.
And just by answering the phonethat way, he's sifting, sorting
and screening out people whowould make a bad customer.
And people are attracted tothat Um and so I mean that's how
we would.
(16:32):
You know, and that was like hisnumber one point was how we
answered the phone, and so nowthat became his standard.
So what do we do?
We answered the phone.
How do we do it?
You know, the agency that rocks.
Why do we do it that way.
Well, it separates us from allthe other, all state agents in
town and it brings us theclients that we like to do
(16:53):
business with.
And that why column is vitalfor the employees, because
that's where you get engagement,because most of the time,
employees are just told what andhow, they're never told the why
, and so if you want them to beengaged, they need to know.
Why do we answer the phone thisway?
Yeah Well, because you knowDave is.
(17:13):
He's a rock and roll fanaticand we need to be.
You know he wants to be knownabove and beyond all the other
agents in town.
So this is how we answer thephone, and they're like oh, okay
, it makes sense.
Janice Hostager (17:25):
So I love what you did with Dave, the Allstate
agent, I think.
So you really started with hisbrand right.
You figured out what made himunique, what made him stand out,
and really kind of spread thatto all the touch points, which
is exactly how I you know, Iused to do a lot of of logo
(17:48):
designs for people back when Ihad a design agency and they
would come and they would havean idea and I would start them
with all right, you know who,who are you, what are your,
what's your mission and vision,and really take them on a deep
dive into their personalbranding before I ever put pen
to paper.
And what was interesting aboutthat is that there were some
(18:12):
people that would push back onthat and say no, no, no, I just
want a logo it's not important,or the logo that looks like
everybody else.
So I really think that what youdo is brilliant in that respect
, because you are number onemaking them pin down their brand
right.
There's no other Disney outthere.
This all started with a mouse,right, and he grew that into an
(18:32):
empire.
So think about what is near anddear to you, what you can do or
what you do differently and howyou can set your business apart
with that, and then, like yousaid, take it to the next level,
walk through your customerjourney and spread it throughout
the entire business.
Vance Morris (18:52):
Yeah, 100%.
Janice Hostager (18:53):
So do you see, a lot of times when I get a
client they're a little nervousabout standing out, especially,
I think, if it's a brand newbusiness.
They want to look likeeverybody else, because
everybody else looks legitimateand they want to look legitimate
and I get it.
When you're first starting outyou don't know which way to turn
.
I'm assuming that's kind of abig mistake they make.
(19:20):
Do you have any other thingsthat you see that businesses
make or that businesses do thatyou feel like they could just
maybe improve it a little bit?
Vance Morris (19:30):
You know, I will start out saying that, you know,
while vanilla is the mostpopular flavor of ice cream in
the entire world, being vanillain your business will kill you.
That sea of sameness that,looking like everybody else, you
(19:54):
become a commodity.
That means you have no way toincrease your prices because you
can't separate yourself, youdon't have an experience, you
don't have anything to helpboost that.
I remember when yellow pageswere still a thing and I and I
was, you know, flipping throughthem cause I was going to be you
know, I'm going to have my adin there and every single carpet
cleaning ad had a picture of acarpet cleaning van.
(20:17):
I'm thinking to myself well,what does a van have to do with
carpet cleaning?
I mean, we assume you're goingto travel to the house.
Why put the van in there?
Plumbers do the same thing.
What does a plumbing truck haveto do with plumbing?
Absolutely nothing.
I mean, I think, like the firstguy who ever did a Yellow Pages
(20:37):
ad, just decided to put his vanin the picture and everybody
copied it.
Oh, I guess that's what we'resupposed to do.
Well, you know, look at whateverybody is doing and do the
opposite.
Seriously, I mean it's probablythe best advice I could give
you, because you do want tostand out and be that sore thumb
and don't do whatever, becauseyou're just going to blend in
(20:58):
and you're going to look likeeverybody else.
So you know when you're doingyour marketing.
Certainly you know.
I mean, obviously someindustries have regulations, I
get it.
But you want to be able to beso different that you stand out,
but you don't want to be sooutlandish that it's ridiculous.
(21:20):
Um, one of the things that Iteach my coaching clients and
when I work with the consultingpeople is um, there are two
words that you want to be ableto put in your marketing and in
your advertisements that willseparate you from everybody else
, and those two words are theonly.
(21:43):
So if you can put the words theonly in front of whatever you
want to say, you are now headsand miles above everybody else.
So my carpet cleaning businesswe are the only green and
non-toxic cleaner in easternshore Maryland.
Nobody else can claim that, it'smine.
You know they may.
You know some, and if somebodyelse does it, then I just change
(22:06):
it to.
We were the first, you know.
But if you can claim the only,that is a very powerful
marketing message.
Um, you know.
And if you, okay, you can'tclaim that and say, well, okay,
we're, we're the only umplumbing company with an on-time
guarantee.
Oh, wow, okay, you know.
So those two words themselvesthat'll help you stand out.
(22:30):
And you don't, I mean, and youdon't even really need to really
think of anything.
Just put those two words infront of something and you're
good to go.
Um, yeah, I think that somepeople I mean, you know they
they worry about what theirspouse is going to say.
They worry about what theneighbors are going to think.
They worry about what theirmother-in-law is going to think.
(22:50):
And what they should really bethinking about is A does it work
?
And B is it bringing money in?
And that's the only measurementthat you should be worried
about with your brand and withyour marketing.
If it's bringing money in,nobody else's opinion matters at
all.
You know your wife says, oh,that's a dumb ad.
(23:10):
Well, honey, you brought in$50,000 last month, you know,
all right.
Well, I still think it's a dumbad.
Well, okay, you know.
Janice Hostager (23:20):
Yeah, and that's something I take clients
through when I do their valueproposition.
I throw a little tag at the endsaying, unlike my competitors,
I will do blank and just reallytry to get them to really think
hard about how they candifferentiate themselves,
because oftentimes we're so busywith our day-to-day service
(23:41):
business or we're just doing allthe things all the time that we
don't really even have time toto sit and think about okay, how
can I stand out?
And I think it's especiallyhard, I always say with personal
branding, because it's hard forus to see our own business.
I always say a jar can't readits own label.
So I think, do you find it'shelpful to have somebody else
(24:05):
come in and help you with thatprocess?
Or how do you go about thinkingabout what it is?
Vance Morris (24:10):
Certainly.
I mean, I think that you knowif you have the financial
wherewithal to get a coach or aconsultant to come in to help
you, certainly, and you need toget one that kind of knows what
they're doing.
But you know, to work with youon those types of things so that
(24:31):
you have the right direction,so that you have the momentum
and that you have tangiblethings to implement, is vital,
and it's going to be faster.
You know, if you can spend alittle money, the implementation
and the results are going to befaster.
If you're going to bootstrapand grassroots it, certainly you
(24:51):
can still do that.
It's just going to take alittle longer.
I'm not saying it can't be done, it's just going to take a
little bit longer.
You're going to have to YouTubeit, you're going to have to
read a book, but it can still bedone.
But either way it needs to bedone.
Janice Hostager (25:06):
It does.
Yeah, absolutely so, um, talkto me a little bit.
So when I was prepping for this, I really did a deep dive into
what Disney does well, because Iknow that's kind of what you
base a lot of your programs on.
One of the things I think theydo really really well, and
obviously they do really well aswell, is storytelling, because
it all started with a story.
Do you see that businesses workwith stories kind of and build
(25:36):
their business around that,around a narrative?
Vance Morris (25:39):
Oh, certainly.
And we'd be silly not to usestories.
You know, just look at asociety today and you look at
what we pay a public schoolteacher and what we pay a
Hollywood movie star, right.
School teacher, I mean maybe 70, 80,000 a year.
You know, movie star, I mean,they got $70,000 just for
(26:03):
showing up in the park and a lotof the studio.
And so, as a society, we placea lot of value on entertainment
and, as such, we need, asbusiness owners, we need to
entertain and we can do thatthrough storytelling.
Now, does that mean you need todo once upon a time?
(26:23):
No, of course not.
Storytelling can come in theform of a case study.
It can come in the form of awhite paper.
It can come in the form of likewith my newsletters that I send
to my cleaning clients.
I shamelessly use my childrenin my marketing.
(26:44):
I mean I've done it my wholelife.
I mean by my kids were fiveyears old on up, and I tell
stories about my childrenbecause for me, that is creating
.
Stories allow you to create anemotional connection with your
customers and when you do that,you create this bond that is
(27:05):
almost impossible to break.
And if you only talked aboutwidgets and things and coupons.
There's no, there's noattraction, there's no
connection there.
So, real quick.
So my um, I mentioned uh, youknow I do a print newsletter
every month for my uh, for mybusinesses and um, my daughter,
(27:27):
Emma, uh, she's a.
I used to do ballet from thetime she was like five until 12
or 13.
And I, every year for herrecital, I took a picture of her
and her tutu and she would befront page of my newsletter.
You know Emma and her balletthing, and you know it got sent
out and I think she was like 10or 11 years old and we're in the
(27:50):
grocery store and this womancomes running, running up to us
and I'm like, well, actually shedidn't come run up to me, she
ran up to my daughter.
She said, oh my God, Emma, howwas your recital?
And my daughter and I looked ateach other and we're like who
the hell is this lady?
We're ready to go hide in thefrozen food section and I had to
think she's gotta be one of mycustomers.
Oh right, I had created aconnection with her.
(28:11):
She is never leaving me and mykids now have thousands of aunts
and uncles where I have made aconnection, an emotional
connection with them, where theywill find it painful to leave
my company.
So now, if I've created thisconnection, now, when I raise
(28:33):
prices, now when I want to try anew service, now when I want to
try anything, they are going tobe more apt to A go ahead and
say, okay, well, price increase,I have renoticed, needs to do
it and they'll also be morewilling to try a new service
because they're connected and Ican make a mistake, and they'll
(28:56):
forgive me because that's whatpeople do.
But if I didn't have that, ifall I did was hit them with, you
know, offer after offer andcoupon after coupon I mean,
nobody likes to be sold all thetime.
Can you imagine?
The only time you ever hearfrom a company is when they want
your money?
Right, I mean, you know youraccountant, the only time you
(29:16):
ever hear from him is when youget the invoice for him doing
your taxes.
That's not a relationship,that's here give me money, you
know.
Or the only time you hear fromthe department stores when
they're having a sale.
They want money.
So you've got to create that,that connection, and I think
something from your personalityI saw.
So you don't want to use yourkids, fine.
(29:37):
Maybe you're a fisherman.
Okay, do you know what?
Show pictures of your fish.
Maybe you like basket weaving.
Okay, great.
But let that kind of stuff showthrough, because you're going
to immediately connect with acertain population.
When I do public speaking, Iseed all of my speeches with
little parts of my life so thatI connect with different parts
(29:58):
of the audience.
I'll make fun of the fact thatI've been married a number of
times, because that will connectwith certain people in the
audience that have been marrieda number of times.
I talk about my kids, so thatconnects with people in the
audience that have kids.
I make myself human and thatcreates the connection.
I think so many business ownerstry to look like a corporation
(30:21):
and that's where they go wrong.
Janice Hostager (30:23):
Yeah, I agree, I think, especially now I see a
lot of clients wanting to turnto AI for everything, which I'm
okay with for like an outlinerfor ideas.
But when you're writing yourweekly newsletter, I recommend
that people send it out weekly.
You really want to pull in whoyou are personally and beyond
(30:45):
that, I like to throw in thingsthat my ideal customer likes.
For example, if they're acertain age, I'll know that they
grew up with certain movies,certain music, for example, and
I'll toss those in, just likeyou were saying, to connect with
your audience.
It's just to kind of sprinklein sort of some hooks, to kind
(31:06):
of you know, hooks is not theright word but something to sort
of help them relate to you sothat you have some common ground
right.
And I love that you do that inyour talks as well, because
that's super important.
When you are speaking to acrowd, they want to know that
you can understand them and knowwhere they're coming from.
Vance Morris (31:26):
Yeah, it's vital.
Janice Hostager (31:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So with AI, do you see thatthere's some other trends that
are shaping the future of likethis experience that customers
are having?
You know there's like this isall changing so quickly.
Vance Morris (31:43):
Certainly as a research tool, I agree 100%, you
know, and I mean I am not atech guy by any stretch of the
imagination, so you know, I meanI still have a flip phone for
Gus, okay, but you know I thinkthat yes.
(32:08):
And for developing, you knowthe systems and processes.
I mean to have your own customGPT to develop that stuff.
Yeah, it's going to save you somuch time, right, but to allow
AI to come in and do some of theservice functions, maybe I mean
(32:30):
like these chatbots that are onwebsites, I think that, okay,
that's great if it's a generalquestion, but on that bot there
needs to be a big fat buttonthat says get me to a real
person right now, and not hiddenand not in fine print, but get
me to a real person, and youknow.
(32:52):
Same thing with the telephone.
And I think I said it earlierIf you want to impress people,
answer the phone live, becausenobody's doing it, you know.
I mean, it's just there.
They have those phone treespress one for this and two for
that, you know.
Or it goes to voicemail.
If you're relying on voicemailfor your business, you've lost
(33:13):
that customer because they'rejust going down to the next guy
on the Google listing andthey're calling them.
They're not waiting for you toreturn a voicemail.
Get somebody to answer thephone line.
I mean it's the biggest pieceof advice these days that I can
(33:33):
give.
I'm a partner in a uh, in acall center, and when we were
doing the research for it, wecalled 4 000 home service
businesses 4 000 and we got thenumbers from Google
pay-per-click.
So these are people paying tohave their phone number
advertised.
17 percent answered their phonelive.
17% that means 80-some-oddpercent are flushing money down
(33:57):
the toilet.
They're paying Google fornothing.
I don't get it.
Janice Hostager (34:07):
That is really true.
I know I had a question about.
I had an issue with Google'stag manager last week.
It was like very frustrated.
I tried to Google the answer.
I kind of I finally hiredsomebody to try and figure out
who figured it out.
But that's the thing it's like.
If you have a question and I'mtrying to give them money, I'm
(34:28):
trying to give Google moneyright.
To run some ads, but I couldn'tconnect it with this client and
dah-da-da, but there was nobodyto call, there was nobody to
ask.
It's such a big conglomeratethat it does really get
frustrating when you have aquestion that no bot is going to
be able to answer, that noGoogle search is going to be
(34:51):
able to answer.
You just need to talk to a realhuman being.
And I agree.
I think that is a really goodinsight that instead of going
high tech, maybe standing out isgoing low tech.
Vance Morris (35:03):
I mean you're describing the sales prevention
department.
I mean, really you are.
I mean, that is you know?
People are literally shoving$100 bills at you and you're
saying no, no, no, go talk to mybot, I don't want your money.
Janice Hostager (35:20):
So I just have one more question and we'll wrap
it up here.
But so for small businessowners, what are some cost
effective ways that they canreally wow and delight somebody
like this.
Similar to what you do withyour carpet cleaning company or
what Disney does with theirentire experience or ecosystem,
Vance Morris (35:36):
and like I said, you know, I mean wowing doesn't
have to cost anything.
You know, I mean just heck, justsaying, you know, good morning
and smiling is, you know,sometimes enough.
You know, and actually I, Ithink I mentioned, you know,
I've I've just created a hotsheet 52 ways to wow your
customers without breaking thebank.
(35:57):
Um, you know, I, I think, um,one of the ways is, uh, that I
use is um handwritten thank younotes, um, and say you know what
would grandma do?
Um, and you know, and you know,now we've outgrown being able
to do it in-house, because we'redoing 75 to 100 a week.
(36:18):
That's a lot of handwriting,but I still do it.
In my consulting business.
If I have half a dozen businessmeetings a week, I'm still
writing half a dozen thank youcards and sending them out.
Nobody does it anymore.
The mailbox is empty.
So it's a great place to be forsmall businesses.
(36:39):
You know, I think littlesurprises are fantastic.
I think food is okay, but theproblem with giving food as a
gift is it disappears.
People eat it and then there'sno memory of it.
So if you can give somethingthat's got a little bit of
staying power certainly offeringa beta test of a new service
(37:04):
that you're pondering or a newproduct, saying, hey, find your
top five clients and say, hey,look, I'm thinking of offering
this service or providing thisproduct.
Can I give you some samples andjust get your feedback on it?
People love to be included inthat stuff.
Can you have a customer of themonth?
(37:25):
People love.
When we were growing up, my momalways used to love cutting my
picture out of the newspaper andtacking it up on the
refrigerator.
Trust me, adults love that too.
They love seeing their name inlights.
So how can you do that with youknow, with your customers, you
(37:48):
know, recognizing them?
You know, for anniversarieswith your company, I mean, I've
got people that are still withme 17 years later.
So when I have an anniversarywith my company, I'm looking for
um anniversaries with how longmy clients have been with me,
and I'll send anniversary cards,say, hey, look, we've been
together 15 years already, andyou know, and now I'll give them
a special offer.
(38:08):
Uh, so there's all sorts ofways you can, you know, do those
things and you can do.
I'm not saying not to do food,um, you know, and some, and
there's a place for it.
Um, we actually here inMaryland we have a steak cake.
It's called the Smith Islandcake.
Um, and they'll ship itactually anywhere and they'll
ship it anywhere in the US, um,but I will take my top five
(38:28):
customers every month and theyget shipped a Smith Island cake.
Five customers every month andthey get shipped a Smith Island
cake.
Now, when was the last time yougot a cake in the mail from your
carpet cleaner?
Probably never.
You know, it's impressive.
It's a box of cake and, oh, mygoodness, actually, down in
Texas I can't remember the nameof the company, but they have
the Brazos or Brazos pecan pie.
(38:50):
It's enormous.
This thing weighs like ninepounds, it comes in this wooden
crate and it's an amazing giftto give, either for a client or
for business.
But you know, and if you gotguys as clients, there's a
company called Man Crates andthey've got stuff.
That is just, you know, it'sall I mean.
(39:12):
Well, it depends on what you dofor a living, you know, but you
can get stuff that'sinexpensive, you know, and
sometimes just picking up thephone and say, hey, you know,
Mrs Smith, you know, I know I'mnot in the field anymore.
You know cleaning, you know I'msitting here high on the hog
and my throne, but I just wantedto call and check in on you.
Sometimes it's just a phonecall.
(39:35):
Yeah, that's really all it is.
Janice Hostager (39:37):
Yeah, and it doesn't have to cost a lot.
You don't have to go with thecake and the pecan pie.
Yeah, yeah, I love that, andyou do have a freebie.
You said was it 52 ways to wowyour customers?
Was that it?
Vance Morris (39:50):
52 ways to wow your Customer Without Breaking
the Bank.
Janice Hostager (39:53):
Love it, love it, and of course, we'll put the
link to that in the show notesfor today.
So, Vance, it was delightfultalking to you.
You have generated so manyideas in my brain now, so I need
to go quick write them downbefore I forget them and, of
course, most importantly,putting them into processes.
Vance Morris (40:11):
Right, Well, thank you, Janice.
I appreciate you having me on.
Janice Hostager (40:19):
Thanks so much.
So what did you think?
Did you get some ideas aboutways you can improve your own
customer experience?
I love his recommendation aboutbrainstorming with a coach or
your team, ways that you can wowyour customers, and I'd also
recommend starting with Vance'sfree download.
To learn more about anything wetalked about today, visit
myweeklymarketingcom.
(40:39):
Forward slash 99.
Thanks so much for joining metoday.
If you like what you heard,please subscribe.
See you next time.
Bye for now.
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