S2E6 Turning Moments into Magic: Elevating Customer Experiences

Dive into the world of world-class hospitality and learn how the principles of unforgettable service can transform any business. Sarah Jenkins, who recently toured some of Europe's most iconic destinations, shares how the small details and genuine connections she experienced abroad have reshaped her approach to customer experience. This episode reveals why building deeper relationships with customers is essential in a market where loyalty is everything.

We discuss the power of empowering your team, looking at how great brands and businesses turn every touchpoint into a memorable experience. From luxury hotel vibes to practical tactics, we cover what it means to bring consistency, care, and thoughtful decision-making into your brand’s experience—because satisfied customers start with a well-prepared team.

Finally, we explore why personal touches and milestone celebrations can transform customers into lifelong fans. With insights on using love languages and learning from top brands like Zappos, you’ll discover actionable ways to elevate your customer service, create deeper connections, and stand out in competitive markets. This episode is packed with real, actionable ideas for anyone in the business of building loyalty and trust.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You have to understand the majority of
people walking around with a lotof stress on their shoulders.
So anything you can do to makethem feel good, and the more
often you can make them feelgood, is going to build that
experience, build their feelingstowards you, the relationship
Welcome everybody to thisepisode of Paid to Create.
I'm AJ Roberts and alongside meis Sarah Jenkins Yay, she's

(00:20):
back.
Sarah has been well.
She was in.
You were in Europe for.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I was.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Where did you go?
You went to a whole bunch ofplaces, right?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, we can't get to Barcelona with one plane ticket
, so I might as well take aplane ticket across the U?
S and then across the ocean andspend some time in London.
Hit a pub like you wouldprobably love.
Yeah, you're in London, andthen you went to Barcelona and
then our cruise took us to sevenplaces, or six places, france,
intensive, and then ended up inMonaco.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, and so I was.
I was asking Sarah um about hertrip and everything and uh, she
, you had mentioned about theexperience and just how
different it was.
And obviously you'veexperienced luxury, you've
stayed in beautiful hotels,five-star hotels over here.
You've eaten at beautifulrestaurants, we've stayed at

(01:06):
hotels traveling for businessand it's blown us away.
But you said it was justdifferent and I figured we'd
talk about that a little bittoday and kind of get into
customer experience.
And you know, I just heard aspeaker, will Will Girado.
I knew I'd screw his name up.

(01:26):
He wrote the book UnreasonableHospitality.
I heard him speak at thePatrick Bette Davis conference
and I was blown away at hisapproach to hospitality.
But we've been focused oncustomer experience since we
started working together withdifferent businesses in the
software company.
That was something we werealways emphasizing was like even

(01:48):
though we're selling a softwarecommunity experience, it's all
part of uh, making um, the, theoverall product.
It all goes into one.
It's not separate, it's notdifferent, it's not.
It's not like oh, we sell aproduct, you get the product,
and now there's nothing else, wehave to go deeper.
But you were saying just howdifferent it was and it was a

(02:10):
whole new level and opened upyour eyes to what exceptional
customer experience really is,so I'd love to hear more about
that.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I didn't even understand that there was going
to be a difference.
That's why the shock was soprevalent to me when we go to
walk in.
Besides, I've had many, manyexperiences with the highest end
resorts, the highest endrestaurants and hotels for fun,
but also for business and stuff.
So I'm used to all the posh,fancy stuff that you can get,
but this was a different level.
We did go to the Ritz in NewYork downtown and that was one

(02:44):
of the ones too.
But there's always a little dropin the customer service at some
point that you notice in allthe little tiny things, all the
little tiny details.
It's like you know, if we callahead to the Beverly Hills hotel
and say we're showing up, thenthey will call you by name.
When you pull up, they knowwhat kind of car you've got and
all that stuff.
So it makes the um, the service, exceptional until it's not
Like they're all.
I mean, we're all Americans, weall have the same language, all

(03:06):
the same, like high fives andstuff like that, which is cool.
But if you go over to, you know, London, and I was at the Four
Seasons in London and then I wasat the Hotel de Paris in Monaco
and it was incredible, like thetiny, tiniest detail, from the
exact little hair clips, thatthe women wear the matching
heels and uniform to the smile,and you know our pleasure when

(03:29):
they service you.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
It was just pristine in a way that I've never thought
we could have.
Yeah, so let's back up becauseI'm sure there's some people
that have not experienced it.
Not everybody's had thatopportunity for various reasons.
But let's just talk about kindof your U S experiences.
Um, you were sharing there's a,a four-star hotel close to
where you live and you've stayedthere during power outages and

(03:54):
things like that so that you hadrunning water and all the fun
stuff that go there.
But you were saying you know,when you don't know any better,
it's like like wow, but nowyou've had a different
experience.
But maybe just explain what thetypical experience is versus
like a, a regular hotel, like ahilton or something like that,
the four seasons or one of theseyou know upper, upper echelon

(04:15):
hotels.
What is that difference?
Because usually it's notnecessarily the rooms or the
food, the restaurants that arethere.
It's usually the way you'retreated, the different services
they offer, those kinds ofthings.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I think it's the training, I think it's the SOPs
and protocol for the staff.
It's like they're directed todo and say certain things and
act a certain way and they can'tdeviate In the US they can.
So when you go to even thenicest places, when you start to
be a little bit more regular,you start to make a little bit
more comfortable friends,they're immediately drop all the
protocol because you're justlike them, we're just friends
now, right, and it does kind ofrest the experience a little bit

(04:49):
.
When you're just being yourselfand then they start being
themselves, it's like well shoot, it takes away from the hotel's
ability to say this is ourstandard so it's a difference in
standards I think, so well, itsounds like I haven't been to
those hotels in Europe, but whatit's sounding like really is
just like consistency.

(05:10):
Huge, huge consistency.
So when we were on the boat wedid the cruise for all these
little places in France and itwas super, super fun.
But on the boat they had aconsistency issue.
So we were in the owner's cabin, we got the back quarter of the
boat, a living room, our ownbedroom.
It's the best thing you canbook on this cruise and you get
a butler and man.

(05:30):
The consistency is on what timeis this or when are we docking
here, or when can you go and askfor a taxi.
When you're getting off theboat they said, oh, you make
sure you ask us, we'll get you ataxi.
They're really hard to get inMonaco.
I was like, great, get up inthe morning.
We go down, like, hey, how dowe get a taxi for Monaco
tomorrow?
And they're like, oh, it's toolate.
What do you mean it's too late?
Like well, we you could havecalled before noon yesterday and
then we could have gotten itfor you.

(05:51):
I'm like, well, you didn't saythere was a time thing, cause we
put it in a piece of paper inyour room.
You put 19 pieces of paper inmy room't.
Care, I'm off the boat.
Like the consistency issue onthe boat was huge for me, and
the consistency issue when I sawthe amazing consistency in the

(06:11):
entire staff at the Hotel Monacowas crazy yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Do you think that comes down to?
Um, so cause you, cause staff,I think is key.
Like, one of the things with anexperience is you have to have
staff buy-in, right.
It's kind of like core values.
If the staff doesn't live bythe core values, they're useless
, right, and you have to bewilling to fire and hire based
on core values.
And unfortunately, you know, ifyou've had a company for a long
time and you start to add corevalues, you probably have people
that are great employees thatdon't fit the culture and you

(06:38):
have to make tough decisionswhen it comes to an experience.
The staff has to buy into that.
They have to feel empowered tobe able to do stuff in that
situation.
You know, and, uh, certaincompanies have this philosophy
there's no such thing as noright and they have to figure
out how to get around it.
It may be at a cost, anexceptional cost, but hey, we

(06:58):
can't give you a taxi, we canget your private driver.
You know things like that.
It sounds as if the staffweren't empowered in any way.
It was like.
You know, this is, this is theprotocol.
You missed the protocol.
I can't do anything like andthey don't have like a an
empowerment level to be able todo that versus, um, some of the
other experience you had sharedis kind of like they were like

(07:19):
absolutely, absolutely, Like,we'll take care of that, and
it's like you didn't know atwhat lengths they were going to
behind the scenes and so youeven checked in on some stuff
and they're like oh yeah, we gotyou taken care of
miscommunication or whatever.
But, um, that's what it soundslike, and it seems like on the
boat they're like the, thepeople who were there to serve
you.
They could only serve you tothe limits they knew was

(07:40):
available right and they didn'ttalk to each other.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
So we're on the boat and we, we.
They said, hey, will you get adiscount If you get like hair
and nails done?
Like if to book it like today,cause we get full?
I was like, okay, I have tobook it today.
I don't even know my schedule,but hold on, um, sure, let's
book tomorrow.
Uh, I'll do nails and we'llboth do a massage or whatever.
And they're like okay.
I was like, well, I bookednails and massage.

(08:03):
Well, are you going to miss thecaptain's dinner?
I was like, yeah, I'd ratherget my nails done than sit down
and have dinner with a stranger,I don't know, that's driving
the boat.
We'll get there.
Probably.
If I don't meet the captain,we're not going to dinner, we're

(08:25):
not going to tell him now,because he seems offended or
hurt.
And then I said, okay, great.
And then they called me and said, oh, we're missing you for your
nails.
Like I had him cancel them ormove them to tomorrow.
Well, what about your massage?
Like I had him move that too.
Well, we didn't get that note.
I'm like that's not my problemis it are you, do you have
availability for us tomorrow?
And they said, well, yeah I'mlike okay, great.
And the captain came by, or thebutler came back, that, and

(08:48):
goes, okay, great.
I heard you moved your nailsand I was like yep.
And he goes, the massage islike perfect.
We go down to our massages andthey're.
And I said, what about, are thenails after?
And they're like what do youmean?
I was like, oh, my word, eventhe person on the phone didn't
take note of when I need myfreaking nails.
I was like, forget it, you knowwhat?
I'll just have crappy nails,it's fine.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
So it's important this because it you know,
obviously you've paid a lot ofmoney to be in the cabin.
You're in to have the butler,to have the experience, like you
, maximize the experience, right, and um, you're able to do that
.
And unfortunately they have alot of, as Jordan Belfort would

(09:27):
say, ducks working for them.
Right, they just quack.
There's no Eagles, there's noleadership there, right?
Lack of breakdown ofcommunication.
All of that obviously comes fromthe top, because you know, and
I get frustrated at restaurantswhere they take your order and
they don't write it down, as ifit's a badge of honor that they
can memorize it.
Look, I don't care if you havea piece of paper and write it

(09:51):
down, but I care if I get atomato on my food because I
don't like tomatoes and I don'twant to have to pick it out.
Right, if the dish comes withtomato and you can't remove it,
I would rather you just tell me.
But when you don't write itdown I assume you forgot

(10:24):
no-transcript to enhance theexperience it's actually taken
away.
So how did you feel in thosemoments?
You know about the company andthe entire.
You know like experience youwere having.
You know, is it like I want toget off this boat as often as

(10:44):
possible.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
No, it makes me not want to do that one again.
I've done it twice, so I waslike I liked the experience the
first time.
We had the same sort ofinconsistencies in the first day
or two that me and Andy did it,and it was how do we control
the situation for our benefitnow, because they don't know how
to help us.
So then me and Ricky same thing.
It's like the same thing.
It's like the guy is knockingon the door going hello, hello,
we're like shut the fuck up.
Either just come in or leave.

(11:06):
Like so we had to be like hey,if you're gonna come in, just
come in and then knock on thebedroom door because we have a
living room.
Come in, you have to sit at thedoor and yell make us get up to
answer the door.
Like we don't want to.
Or knock and say, hello, wedon't answer, we'll call you if
we need you go away.
Like so we had to discover someof our own needs or wants
specific to their irregularitiesor their lack of consistency,

(11:28):
cause we're like we have to makethem the boat our own.
But then I said, okay, if thisis the highest level we can get
on this boat and we've got theselittle things that make it more
uncomfortable or more just likepushy.
Um, let's try something else.
Maybe in a year or two we'll doa different cruise, maybe we'll
go a little higher up and beone of the lower end customers.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
We's experienced your service at the highest level

(12:13):
one of the highest levels to bean advocate, right, you know.
And now you're like well, I'mgoing to shop around because I
want to do the experience, butnot necessarily with this
company.
And I think that's veryimportant, because I think
sometimes you add things to abusiness for um, systematization
, automation.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Free sales, offer nails and a discount first day.
Fine, don't script theappointment.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Exactly, and when you add stuff you have to be
careful that it doesn't takeaway from the core experience,
right, if your trip didn't havethose things right and it was
just on you and you called andthey're like sorry, we're booked
, you'd be like disappointed butlike okay, like move on.
But because of their inabilityto communicate and handle it, it

(13:00):
creates a negative emotion,negative feeling and,
interestingly, I was on amastermind call yesterday and we
were talking about buying anddifferent types of buyers and at
the level these guys are at, Iwas curious.
I'm doing research, so I wascurious, like you know, as
affluent people, like, how doyou like to buy services?
Like, how do you like, like, ifyou wanted to hire an agency,

(13:22):
what would you?
And they literally said when Ihave money to spend, I don't
want to jump through hoops tohave to give it to you spend, I
don't want to jump through hoopsto have to give it to you.
And so they were talking about,you know, these people that
have webinars you have to watchand then calls you have to book
and you know and and you can'tget on the calendar for two

(13:44):
weeks.
And these things are created tosystematize and to you know,
put you in front of a sales guyand to do all those things,
someone at a high level, that is.
Time is limited, all thosetypes of issues they deal with
on a daily basis.
They literally just want to beable to text you, ask you a few
questions and then move forwardor not move forward.
Their buying cycles are shortbecause they have the money to
invest and they understand speedto get results In this

(14:08):
situation.
Similar thing you're on thiscruise having this experience,
but you're given a deadline tobook results In this situation.
Similar thing you're on thiscruise having this experience,
but you're given a deadline tobook something.
So you do it hesitantly becauseyou don't want to miss out.
And then you're confronted withthe reality oh, actually you
just double booked yourself.
So now what do you want to do?
You shouldn't have had to makethat decision.
He should have said oh, we'resupposed to have the captain's

(14:31):
dinner tomorrow.
Let me talk to both sides,let's figure out.
We'll figure out what you cando.
Maybe we'll have to move it,whatever, but I'll get back to
you.
And you would have been like, oh, thank you.
You would have appreciated that, but instead it was put back on
you to make these decisionsright and oftentimes, if you
look at a buying cycle ofsomeone purchasing something
like I'm thinking of, likecountdown times and things like

(14:52):
that, they can be a benefit butthey also can be a negative.
Because people get buyer'sremorse, right, and if they're
pressured into something thatthey're not sure they want or
the refund is going to begreater, right, and having done
launches versus evergreenlaunches always have a higher
refund rate.
Why?
Because people buy for thepressure, they buy because of

(15:13):
the noise, the scarcity, andthen they get it and but they
have buyers remorse because theybought, maybe they weren't
ready impulse, not on actualdesire for, for the, for the
results.
My point is, with that is, youprobably would have been fine if
you didn't get your nails doneon the boat.
I'm sure, when you obviouslyyou've been on that trip before

(15:34):
but normally when you go to ahotel, normally when you go to
on vacation, your, your brainisn't where am I gonna get my
hair and nails done?
Because you're on vacation, youdon't have your regular people
like that's.
That's a regular thing that youdo, um so.
So when you're traveling, it'susually not something high on
your priority list.
Maybe if you're going out fordinner and it happens to be a
salon at a hotel, you're like,oh, I could book in and you know

(15:56):
these kind of things, but it'snot necessarily a top list
checklist.
That's a perk.
So I think it's important forpeople to think like that and
understand that sometimessimplicity is the key to a great
customer experience.
Simplicity is the key to agreat customer experience
because the less friction, theless moving parts, the easier it

(16:17):
is to maximize that, and thenyou can add stuff on.
So let's talk more about, likethe whole trip, because you're
on the boat but then you're inthese different places and you
ate at certain restaurants andthings like that.
How were those experiences incomparison?

Speaker 2 (16:29):
um, well, it depends.
Different parts of like.
Marseille is like a beautiful,huge french town, so if we went
um, english wasn't going backand forth very easily.
It's a bigger city.
So we sat down to eat.
There's a menu of like sixitems and we asked the guy like
uh, what do you think?

(16:49):
And he's like uh doesn't evenknow what we're saying.
But we're like this one, he'snot good.
And we're like okay, and it wasexcellent, it was a good choice
.
But we didn't.
We communicated without thelanguage, which was great and he
was really actually trying tohelp us, but he did not speak
any english.
We did not speak any french,which is cool because we picked
a france intensive uh.
But then the other one we wentto, we were couldn't read the
menu right and we're like shoot,how do we figure out?

(17:11):
Because ricky can't have milk.
So I'm like how do you figureout what has milk in it?
Can't look at the ingredients,you can't even ask them what is
milk in it.
We were googling googletranslate how do you ask for no
cow's milk?
and then we're in corsica andthey said I should have just
moved one after the other no, no, no, no, okay, no, no

(17:34):
prostitution, none Got it, it'sjust cheese.
It's fine.
But we asked him on the GoogleTranslate you know how can we
make sure there's no cow's milkin the dish?
We have a cow's milk allergy.
And then he actually wrote backon the translator.
You know, corsica cheese isactually made from sheep's milk
and goat's milk mixed.

(17:55):
There is no cows on the island.
We're like awesome.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
We got the best cheese ever.
Yeah, it gave you the freedomto be able to eat.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
And then we pointed two or three things we ordered.
He goes these are, they're big,big.
I said, okay, then we'll picktwo of them and they were
incredible food and we were sohappy.
Now I actually have on my list.
We went to the Verissimo Cheesein Del Mar to find the same
freaking cheese.
It was so good and it wassomething we can have in every
meal and it was delicious and wewere excited.
We're like their wine.
Their Corsica wine tasted kindof like watery, but then we're

(18:26):
like you know, with your lunch.
It's very tasty, it's verydifferent.
It's their wine and theircheese that we got to eat and we
were frustrated.
We couldn't even find arestaurant pick our menu items.
But then when we got it, it wasawesome.
It's a great experience.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
So you mentioned the wine there.
It just reminded me of Mexicoand how they chill their red
wine, and I believe some redwine is supposed to be chill.
I'm not a wine expert.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Chill, not cold.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
But yeah, like straight out of the fridge, like
a mall back, and I took a sip.
This is when I was drinking.
Uh, I took a sip of mobeck andI was like why is this ice cold?
But it was interesting because,like, in that situation, you
guys didn't speak the language.
It could have been a negativeexperience, right we was.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
We're starving.
We couldn't find a place to eat.
Like we don't want to go to oneplace that's crowded, because
everyone decided to go thenearest place to the dock, right
, and then we wanted to go.
We don't want to go to theplace with one person in it.
We're like we can't even speakto anybody.
But let's just figure it out.
And we're starving.
We finally just caved andpicked the place that was packed
full of people and it wasawesome food.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
But because but in that situation, because of the
waiter's willingness to bepatient and to have a different
approach and I'm sure they'vehad people before and they've
but I mean, in those situationslike it's frustrating, like I
get frustrated when my kid istrying to communicate to me in
English and I do not understandwhat they're saying and it's
really hard not to like to getupset, right, to stay calm and

(19:43):
be like use your words, likework through it, breathe, work
through it, especially ifthey're upset a little bit too,
and now the words like you'renot speaking English, like come
on, buddy, I want to help you,and so you're hugging them,
you're giving them love and atthe same time, you're still
trying to figure out whatthey're saying, it can be very
frustrating.
So I can imagine on both sidesyou're hungry, you want food.
It's frustrating.
Can't read the menu?

(20:03):
What the hell you don?
Came into our restaurant in ourcountry.
They don't speak our language.
Now look in america.
If that happens, people, youshould speak american right,
like these other countries.
They don't do that.
And so to have that experiencegave you a good experience at a
restaurant, despite a languagebarrier, despite a difficulty
that should have caused anegative experience.

(20:24):
It actually turned out beingpositive because not only did he
educate you to a fact thatallowed you to have freedom and
choice of food, but it also likehe interacted and worked with
you guys to get what you wantedand needed.
Um, were there any, anyexperiences that were like a
surprise, that like it wasexceptionally above and beyond,

(20:46):
to the point that you were likewhoa I, this is.
You didn't have to do like it'salmost like wait, this is too
much right that was monaco, okay, everything in monaco, and we
did the the hand thing.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
But even we couldn't get taxis from the taxi line,
like and the taxi line, becausewe didn't book on time, because
we didn't know about the timelimit, whatever.
Um, once we got the taxi,though, he put the charge up so
it doesn't ding, ding ding whenyou say you're where you're
gonna go.
That is the charge.
It doesn't move and there's notipping you can, but it's like
okay like lifted uber yeah, it'slike we're black or something.

(21:18):
Um, and then put our bags in.
Whatever we get to the hoteland there's a separate spot for
the bags to go that they canbring them through.
He drives down to that spotwhere the bags goes.
Let me get me your name's.
Got the bags, wrote the ticketbecause you made a drive you to
the front door, right there hegoes.
I'm happy to do it, Just getback in.
We're like no, we can walk tothe front door.
He's like are you sure?
Like just want to make sureyou're happy.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
We're like yeah, we can walk five steps.
I've never had a driver thatenthusiastic ever.
They pull over, get out.
I'm going on to my neck.
Obviously uber black or, or ifyou have a private driver, it's
different, right, becausethey're wearing a suit.
They hand you a card.
When you need something, giveme a call.
But, like in general, that wasa whole town and then we got on.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Um, you know anything we did.
We went back into the hotelsoaking wet, around the top of
the city bus tour and rickycannot stand in the lower level
of the bus because he's too talland it was packed, so we're
like we can't stay on the firsthe's like six, five or something
right he's six, seven six,seven he's 519, but we're in the
first level of the bus.
I'm like we have to go upstairsbecause he's too tall to stand

(22:20):
and there's no space, there's noseats and it's pouring rain.
So I was like I hate the rain.
I hate the rain.
Fine, I give you a team player.
We're going upstairs, upstairs,it's just a light drizzle,
maybe Cool.
So we're sitting up there.
I sit in this puddle.
I'm like now my pants are allwet.
I'm like, okay, I'm doing great, doing great, not going to

(22:46):
wreck our day.
And then get to the hotel andwe're talking about a
reservation that they didn'tconfirm it, or one of the
confirmation, confirmation,confirmation.
But apparently they put itunder Ricky's name instead of
mine.
You know, I made thereservation.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
You're checking your phone.
He's not paying attention.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
He probably did text him or call him and not me, but
we walked in soaking wet and theguy concierge she goes oh, um,
are you in?
Or we have umbrellas that we'dlove to lend you, or we can get
you a car instead of the citybus tour.
Like what would you like?
I was like a car, oh, okay.
So we actually did that.
The next day we booked aprivate driver to take us all

(23:21):
around the city.
He's like where do you want togo?
I'm like I don't know whenshould we go.
Go to this little spot, andhe's text you, I'll pull right
back around right here, thewhole city.
We got to do with a privatedriver, which was awesome, and
but when they offered me theumbrella, I was like it's too
late.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Thanks, though, appreciate it, soaking wet it's
interesting because if I was theowner of the cruise ship, I
would be looking at these thingsright like you're taking.
If I'm taking someone to sevendifferent places which is you
said you was destinations Iwould want a guide for each of
those places.
I would want ahead of timeexpectations, things you should

(24:00):
know.
Like you shouldn't get on theboat and be told, oh, if you
don't book today, you won't getit.
Like you should know before yougo, and in fact, before you go,
that at your level, the levelof investment I'm imagining that
it takes place.
For that, I mean, I've lookedat booking a Disney cruise for
me and the kids and I know howmuch it costs just for a nice
suite on one of those.
So a luxury cruise to all ofthese different places right Now

(24:23):
.
My point, though, is justsimply that they're missing
tongue in cheek, they're missingthe boat on what they could be
doing for the level of serviceyou have.
You literally should have had aconcierge person before the
trip, planning the trip with youand breaking things down and
like these are all areas ofimprovement, and the reason I
share that is in the bookUnreasonable Hospitality, one of

(24:48):
the big ahas I had because Imean, I've studied a lot of
customer experience stuff andgone through a lot of books,
like you know, first 90 day,first 100 days, things like that
.
That changed the way I thinkabout this stuff.
But one of the things Will saidin the book that legitimately
was like wait, I've neverthought of it like that.
He was like you have to look atevery interaction with a
customer, from the moment theybook a reservation to the moment

(25:12):
they walk in the door, to themoment they sit down, to the
time they finished it, likeevery single thing.
He didn't call it this, but Irealized these are conversion
points, right, and at every,every moment you have a
interaction is an opportunity tocreate a new experience.
Most people don't think likethat.
Right, and one of the things hetalked about was you know,

(25:34):
normally when you go in arestaurant they're stood behind
a stand, you know.
You say you have a reservation,they look on a list, they find
your name and then they tell youyou got to wait, right, like
okay, mrs Jenkins, hang outright here and we'll see you in
a minute and normally it'spretty quick.
Yeah, but that's not a greatexperience and I could be

(25:55):
misremembering precisely, butwhat he said in the book was
they got rid of that.
They would text to confirm theperson's coming in for their
reservation.
I don't know if they did reconto how to know who these people
were, but the minute you walkedin you were greeted by name and
you were immediately taken toyour seat.
There was no going back andforth with a host trying to

(26:16):
figure this out, trying to dothat.
But, as you're sharing and thereason I pause to point that out
if those listening like theyhave that opportunity in their
business from the moment someonegives you their email address,
what is the experience to thenthey become a customer, to then
become a repeat customer.
You have these opportunitiesand it's not like you have to do

(26:37):
a ton.
But when you look at what mostpeople do, what most businesses
do in general, it's basicallynothing.
So here you are on this luxurycruise and I'm sure it is 10
times better than like a regularcruise, right?
And yet, and yet it could be ahundred times better and they

(26:58):
would be and maybe they are booksolid because a little better
is better than the not.
But it's like being able tolook in these situations
objectively and say how do wemake it so that when someone
goes on this, when they get done, they're booking their next
trip because this is a must forthem?
And I think that's somethingmost businesses don't do,

(27:20):
especially if they have a singleuse product or a one-time
purchase.
It's not a membership, it's nota reoccurring application.
They have to continuously have.
You think that marketing andsales is up until the point.
Someone gives you money and thetruth is you are marketing and
selling forever because oncethat person gives you money,

(27:41):
what it's told you is they likeyou, they trust you, they're
willing to have a relationshipwith you and if they don't give
you money again, well, youscrewed up because you want to
do it again yeah either yourproduct sucks so bad they're not
going to give you more money,or you just didn't give them an
experience to give them a reasonto want to continue on their
journey with you at whateverpoint in time they could.
And if you think about it, someof the best brands in the world,

(28:03):
some of the most luxury brandsin the world, in like they have
like 20 30 year sales cycles Iwell, so we've got you know.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
At nordstrom's you can return anything, may have
all these cool brands, coolhigh-end stuff, like it's a cute
store with a great returnpolicy um, nordstrom's actually
has a really good book oncustomer.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
I think it's a nordstrom's way or something but
, they have a customer servicebook to experience book as well
generally very good customerservice, but then me and marcus
is twice that at least customerservice, like glove hand holding
.
Let me get you a room and asales rep to bring you your
sizes, your colors, what do youlike?
Do you need some champagne?

Speaker 1 (28:41):
oh yeah, there's nothing worse than trying
something on and having wrongsize and then having to put all
your clothes back.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
On, go back out of the room.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Go out of the room to find the other side.
Hope that nobody takes what youhave in the room out because
you don't want to carry theseven items.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, clothes back on .

Speaker 1 (28:53):
They're way not as good as the nice ones or you
can't get into them because allthe doors are locked and there's
no service rep there to helpbut they have a 30 day return
window and that's it.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
We got some stuff, um , delivered and it didn't fit
quite right and I just kind offorgot about it.
And after a month or two I waslike, hey, what do I do about
like returning this and gettinglike a different size?
The same thing, I like what Ibought, but let's get like a
size lower or higher.
It was lower at this point, um,but the guy was like, oh, no,
it's, there's no refunds,there's no returns.
I'm like what do you mean?
The tax one?
I haven't even worn it.
Like I just got it in the mailand I was out of town and now

(29:25):
I'm back and I tried it on.
It doesn't fit, it.
Spend three days.
I'm like, oh, that makes me notwant to shop with you.
But then I need that experienceagain.
I do go back.
I want the champagne, I wantthem to bring me four dresses my
size and try them all in one go, and I've got a dress for
dinner.
It's a very different high endexperience and that makes me
think maybe I'm not the customeron this boat they're looking

(29:46):
for.
Maybe I need to switch boatsbecause the expectation that I
have is not the standardexpectation of everyone else on
the boat.
Everyone else wants thecaptain's attention, everyone
wants to go on the 8 amexcursions.
I'm not even awake until 10.
Plus the time difference.
So like I'm not the one thatfollows protocol for them to
push, get your nails done for adiscount.

(30:06):
Maybe that's what everyone onthe boat does need.
They're all over 60.
They're all retired.
Nobody we met was under 60 orunretired.
They're like oh, what do you do?
I'm like, oh, you know I runsoftware.
I was like oh, what do you do?
I'm like, oh, retired, everysingle time.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
You probably love the Virgin cruise oh.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Adults only, and you know the Virgin brand.
Their experience is second tonone.
Nothing, so, yeah, right.
So I was like maybe I'm not theright customer for this cruise,
because I don't want to bepushed into making a decision on
a massage or nails and I don'twant to be pushed to have a
captain's dinner, as special asyou may sound it to be.
I don't want it.
White knight right out, I'm notgoing that's interesting you
bring that up.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
I hadn't thought about that.
But it is important too,because if, if that does meet
what their customers want, thenthat is the right experience,
and I think it is.
Now it might not be right.
We don't know, because we havenot sat down with the owners of
the cruise ship.
The owners of the cruise shipmight not even know what's going
on on the cruise ship.
I see that on undercover bossand shows like that all the time

(31:03):
, where they think they knowbecause they have protocols and
procedures, and then they goexperience it and they're like
what is going on here and thelocal manager or the person in
charge has shifted things forease or simplicity or whatever,
but actually ruined what wassupposed to happen.
So we can't, we can't say it'snot the experience they wanted
or it is, but at the same timesometimes you have an experience

(31:24):
a certain way and it is to bepolarizing, it is to push people
away that aren't supposed to bethere, so so they have a budget
and then they have a time limiton this boat and they didn't
think of nails and maybe thismaybe Agnes wants her nails done
, but she has a budget.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
So you're like, hey, there's a discount if you book
now, though, and we get bookedpretty quick.
So she's like, oh, okay.
If they get their hair andnails done like every Tuesday if
you don't push her to booksomething doing things nice for
herself, like that.
I don't think I'm the clientelethat that boats catering to.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, well, that's important too for you to figure
out when you go through.
Your experience, and I think Ithink that is something that
people need to figure out islike what kind of experience do
they expect?
And you also have to understandlike there's nothing really
truer than you get what you payfor.
Right, because when we look atbudgeting and this is something
that's important right, becausea lot of people listen and are
like, well, that sounds great,but I don't have all this money.
You have to have a budget.

(32:12):
You have to know, and even ifit's 5%, that you give free will
to create a better experience.
You can do a lot with a littleright, and so you do get what
you pay for.
And, of course, the more youpay, probably the higher
expectation is for an experience.
If you're just going toMcDonald's and grabbing a burger
, you're not expecting the guyat drive-thru to give you the
same experience.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Where are their white gloves.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Exactly.
But here's the thing If youwanted to compete like I don't
know what everyone's businessare who listens to this?
Obviously, but you are incompetition with other people
the easiest way to separateyourself is if everybody else
like, let's say, I was justconsulting with a construction
group they're all landscapersand things like that, and my

(32:55):
brother has been a landscaperand typically the employees show
up in jeans and whatever shirtthey want dirty boots, you know,
and it's a pretty standardworker.
Look right, same as the guys wesee on the side of the road
with their vest on.
Underneath is not a uniform,it's whatever they, whatever
t-shirt they want, whatever that.
If you wanted to separateyourself, right, you, you start

(33:16):
to have a uniform, you start tohave vans like versus a work
truck that looks like it's got.
You know, most work trucks getbeat to hell, right.
Well, what if you had a?
What if your work truck lookedpristine?
And and the reason I say thatis if you want to attract higher
buyers, they're going to expecta higher service.
But if you're also comparingpeople at a lower budget and one

(33:38):
company stands out because theyjust look more professional,
they look like they got theirstuff together, like, you're
probably going to pick that.
So, even if you don't have a bigbudget, I think it's super
important to look at what canyou do to create that experience
.
You don't have a big budget.
I think it's super important tolook at what can you do to
create that experience.
Uh, it could be as simple as um.
You know, for example, a lot ofpeople listen, obviously our
coaches and consultants andexperts and things like that.
That's our, our audience andour background.

(34:01):
Um, like, sign up for a coachingprogram and you you're doing a,
say, let's say, an eight weekcourse.
Well, there's nothing thatstops you sending them a journal
with your brand on and a penand maybe a coffee cup and stuff
like that, so that when they'resat watching your training,
they're taking notes in thejournal you gave them.
But it goes a little bit aboveand beyond just a virtual

(34:22):
experience.
Now you actually sent them agift, and gifts are one of the
easiest ways to create a betterexperience, one of the love
languages.
I've stayed in a lot of hotels.
We stayed in one in Mexico andthere's a free bottle of tequila
.
Were there any gifts like thatalong the way?
That kind of were nice littleextras that places gave.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Weird ones.
They said there's some fruit inyour room and then they'll
bring you a little snack in theevening.
But we didn't leave the boatmost evenings.
We just wanted to be back onthe boat and have dinner and
hang out with each other.
We played Trivial Pursuit in myroom for hours, Wild children.
I know we're just party hardyingand they said you get two
bottles of alcohol for your roomand we're like why?
They're like, well, in case youwant to have a drink, there's a

(35:08):
mini fridge with like somejuice or something in it and you
can pick what you want.
Bottle we have to bring youeach beverage.
I was like, oh, that seems likea huge waste of time and steps.
Okay, fine, we'll pick twobottles, and we went through one
in a week.
We're like we don't need to gomake our own drinks If we want
one.
We'll either go down to that orwe'll get off the boat and go

(35:29):
get a bottle of wine at thelittle store in France.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well, it might say something to their customer
avatar.
You went through one bottle.
They said two a night.
You went through one in a week.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I'm like, uh, you know we did buy the beverage
package.
We were at the Atlas Bar a lot.
We were very popular.
They loved us at the Atlas Bar.
We were playing games.
We brought our ipads to playgames in the atlas bar to get
served drinks like we'd likeanother one, while we play our
mickey mouse at the little atlasbar on the couch, ignoring
everybody and each other.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
We're like I was playing our game well, you know,
you should have tried to makefriends.
You could have found somepeople to play, like some.
I'm sure there was a lot of uh,cribbage and other games like
that.
We did, we got invited to play.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
There was a hand of and I said I have to ask there's
four nice little ladies playing, actually from canada.
They mentioned whittier and Iwas like, oh, I know the place.
Uh, and I said what, what areyou playing?
I'm like, oh, it's a game.
It's got all these rules, it'sno one's ever heard of it and
they're like you can playtomorrow if you want to come
down.
I'm like I kind of do.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I'm like maybe we should so maybe you were the
right avatar and for those whodidn't notice, she mentioned
Sarah is originally from Canada,so she like snuck that in there
, like oh, I know that.
Yeah, it is interesting thegifts that people give, and I
think that's something else Like.
So I've talked about thisbefore.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm a gifts person.
That's my love language.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, you're a great gifts person and I gift giving.
There's two ways to do it.
Businesses and most, mostpeople are used to corporate
gift giving.
Corporate gift giving istechnically promotional items
for the company that can bewritten off as marketing expense

(37:07):
, so they give you.
So if a company gives you a hatwith their logo on it, well
cool, you got a hat and youmight love that and you might
enjoy that.
You might like the hat and wearthe hat, but it's really a gift
.
You gave the benefits you,because now they're a walking
billboard.
So one of the things with giftgiving that if you are going to

(37:28):
do it, you really need to thinkabout like, like from the
customer, like what is an actualgift you would give a friend,
not what is a generic thing yougive all the customers.
And now don't get me wrong,people go nuts for t-shirts,
right, like when I was, when Iwas heavy in the fitness world
and go to the big.
You know I still go to theArnold to compete in the Olympia

(37:48):
and I was just at the Olympia.
People go nuts for a t-shirtand most of not even in their
size.
That's what's crazy.
It's like they're a double xl.
They get the medium and they'reover the moon because it's free
and it probably costs six bucksto make.
So so maybe people do go nutsover little things like that,
but I'm talking about thingsthat they're going to cherish
forever and actually becomeadvocates and and they're going
to tell other people and youknow, I've seen everything from

(38:10):
paintings to things like that.
But the reason this is soimportant is sarah mentioned.
She's a gift giver.
We all have our own lovelanguages.
If you're unfamiliar with thefive love languages, you're
missing out.
Not only is it going to helpyour relationship, but it'll
help you build your company,because you need to understand
that each person is one of thesefive language.
You're usually two one primary,one secondary.

(38:31):
Some people have a third but,like you're usually one of five
and it's gifts, words ofaffirmation, uh, quality time,
uh.
Acts of service and physicaltouch yes, um.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Every man Right.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Right, yes.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Secondary.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so it's one of those.
But so when you're, when yourun a business, and especially
if you run a digital business,right Quality time Well, you're
never with your customers, right?
Oh wait, where's is there sick?
What's?
Words of affirmation?
Like two of those the samethat's all right, did I say I

(39:08):
must've said words ofaffirmation?
So, yeah, words of affirmation.
If you don't talk to yourcustomers cause you sold them a
course that's pre-recorded, youdo look very handsome today.
Oh, thank you, I appreciatethat.
Gifts and quality time and actsof service and these things.
Like you have to understand youdon't know your customer's love
language, so if you want themto feel appreciated, loved,

(39:31):
cared for, you have to hit allfive of those, right, and
obviously it's different, but,like you have to do that with
your employees, you have to dothat with your customers and you
have to start thinking beyondjust the transaction, right, and
I think it's very important tosay that in today's world,
because we're shifting and Idon't know how accurate this
research is, but it seems likethey were saying about 60 of

(39:55):
online purchases come at therecommendation of an influencer,
right?
Oh, no, why is that?
Because the viewer has arelationship with the influencer
.
They follow the influencerslife, they, they read their
stuff and so that is one of themost influential voices in their
life.
Why is that important?
What does the influencer have?
They have a relationship withthe person you want, right?

(40:17):
And so if they buy your thingand you don't build a
relationship with that person.
They just go back to theinfluencer for the next
recommendation.
And I think it's very importantto understand that, like we've
really business has moved from atransactional world to more
like a relationship world.
People want to see companieswith a face, they don't want

(40:37):
blank.
Like we've said this before,people don't follow companies,
they follow people Right, andwe're moving to a much more
personalized world.
And, yes, we can automate a lotof this with AI, with
customization.
We can do a lot of stuff tomake personalization hands-off.
But, at the same time, if youwant to really build a

(40:59):
sustainable, long-lastingbusiness, you have to think
beyond just the transaction.
You have to move to therelationship.
To build a relationship, you'vegot to hit those five love
languages and I think that'ssuper important.
And the concierge, the butler,all these different things.
You know the concierge, thebutler, all these different

(41:21):
things.
They, they technically meetthose.
If you look at what they'redoing, you know the acts of
service going above and beyondthe free gifts, the words of
affirmation and confirmation nowand where they drop the ball.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
That's hitting with each other.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
They just needed one little system, software where
they could make notes on theaccount.
Um, cause, they gave us youknow nine papers every day about
where we were going and mayberecommendations to go to these
three or four restaurants thatare good, and then the
excursions all start at 8 am.
No, thank you.
But they did give you somelittle pamphlet.
But they could have said ifyou'd like blah, blah, blah,

(41:52):
help, come down to concierge orcall us or whatever, and we'll
recommend in person to yousituations that you want or need
, whatever.
I guess, like GoDaddy is reallygreat with their customer
service on the phone.
It's like hey, sarah, you knowwe noticed this.
Do you want to make it private?
Like we love that you've gotall these domains, you know, is
this enough domains for you?
Do you want to cut some out?
Like, do you want to save somemoney?
Like, service on the phone isamazing.

(42:18):
They're very upbeat and on yourside to help you.
Which, great On Etsy, when youget some little you know pair of
earrings that are handmade,sometimes they'll have a
handmade little card or a littleteddy bear, a little heart,
like thank you for your purchase, like you're helping a mom at
home, or whatever those littleextra things that people do in
customer experience, likecustomer service is one thing,
they just want to feel heard.
Most of the time they want tofeel heard or they want to feel
like you have an answer to theircomplaint, but customer
experience is that next, thatnext level.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Oh, I love how you said that.
I think that's very important,because everyone has customer
service.
Sure, customer service is theexpectation, customer experience
is all of the things that wrapthat into something that is
extra, yeah, something that isextra, yeah.

(43:03):
And so it's not necessary perse, but it's the thing that
separates you and allows you tobe successful over everybody
else.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
You notice every time , every time something does
something, customer experiencewise, that is extra than normal,
you notice.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Yeah, and I guess, if you look at the power of this,
you could look at Zappos,because Zappos competed with
Amazon Eventually.
I think Amazon owns them now, Ithink they probably they, but
they they've kept them as theirown entity.
Um, zappos still exists, buthow did Zappos compete with
Amazon or any of the otheronline shops?
Right, like Walmart, likeNordstrom all of these have
online buying options.
So how did Zappos separatethemselves?

(43:33):
Well, they had exceptionalcustomer experience and I've
gotten a tour there and gonethrough their trainings and
stuff like that and some of thestories they sell.
You know, like someone calls forcustomer support and and, um,
you know they're angry orwhatever, and the customer
service person ends up talkingto them for two hours and it is.
They're not upset about thepurchase.
They got all this other stuffgoing on and turns into a
therapy session or whatever, anda lot of business owners would

(43:54):
be like what a what a giantwaste.
And a lot of business ownerswould be like what a giant waste
.
But then that person doesn'thave a negative thing to say
about you and they're tellingeverybody how great Zappos is
and you know they're sellingshoes and clothes.
I mean, come on, but just,these are things you can get
anywhere.
You can get at the mall, youcan get here, so why would you

(44:15):
do that?
And it was the policies theyhad and the customer experiences
they have.
That all starts with theculture that they have for their
, for their team, and I thinkthat's something that we
mentioned earlier.
But I think it is important forpeople to understand that this
isn't customer experience, isn'tsomething you can tell your
staff to do and then you treatthem like crap, like you have to
have a work experience that isexceptional, so that then they

(44:36):
thinking and you have to empoweryour employees to be able to
create those things for thecustomers.
And you know one of the easiestways to do this and I think I
got this from the bookUnreasonable Hospitality.
But one of the ways to do thisis not for you to think of the
ways to improve your customerexperience, but actually have
the people who are in thepositions, in wherever it is on

(44:58):
the path of the journey, to comeup with the different things.
And if you let them sit for aday, you know four hours or
whatever in a workshop and comeup with all the ways we can make
this better.
And then you come together andyou say, okay, I'm going to give
you another hour and you needto come up with even more ways
to make.
They will, and you'll be amazedat what your employees can come

(45:24):
up with for you.
They're team members, like mostpeople take some form of
ownership for a company,regardless of whether they're an
owner or not, because this isthe place they spend eight hours
a day like giving their lifefor essentially payment, right,
and so this is what they'vechosen to exchange time for
money with you.
And so they want theempowerment, they want to be
able to make these, these, uh,choices and changes.

(45:44):
And when you do, when you don'tgive them that, you end up with
what you had, which is peoplebasically said I can't do that.
And you're like what do youmean?
You can't do that?
Like I can't get it, I can'tget a taxi.
So you had a horrible well, nota horrible, horrible day, but
you had an experience and I'mpleasant experience you'd rather
not have.
Nobody, male or female, wantsto sit in a puddle and get wet.
Like it's not a fun experience,right, because you got to

(46:05):
change.
Like I kept my attitude in checkbut then you find out I could
have had a driver I could havehad a free umbrella too a free
umbrella or a driver and no and,but nobody on the boat either
knew that or was empowered tomake that decision for you,
because they've been limited bywhat they are and you know it
could be a limit, like you'renot allowed to tell people that
this is, we have a deal with thetaxi company, we don't have a

(46:26):
deal with them, so don't youknow that?
We don't know what's going on,but my point is is that you know
those, that those on the boathave not been given the power to
go above and beyond in allsituations.
There is no request from acustomer that is unreasonable.
There is nothing they coulddesire that we can't get.
We might not have it on theboat, but the next stop we're

(46:47):
going to get it for them, andthere's things like that that
it's super important becauseI'll share an experience.
I think I don't remember whathotel it was in Vegas.
I think it might've been theNomad, or it could have been
what is now.
It was the Mandarin Orient, butnow is the Waldorf Astoria.

(47:10):
It was one of those two hotels,I think.
But I had purchased, I hadpurchased something and I had
purchased a shirt, and I noticedthat once I got it.
Once I got back I noticed therewas a big snag on it how weird

(47:34):
but I had no more time becauseof the conference I was at.
I was not going to be able to goexchange the shirt, get it back
in time to be able to doanything, and so I spoke to
concierge and I said hey, here'smy dilemma.
Is there any way that, if Icall the store and they have it
ready, someone could pick it upfor me?
I'm willing to pay whatever Ineed because I needed a shirt I

(47:57):
think I needed a shirt topresent with and.
But I didn't have time to go dothat and they did it, and they
just put it in the room and Icame back at lunch and was able
to get the shirt and do thepresentation.
I wish I remembered all thedetails, but that was one of
those times where I was like youcan do that for me.
You know, I had an unreasonablerequest take an employee, go to

(48:18):
a shop and exchange a shirt,and they did it.
And that's the kind of thingthat like again, like makes you
want to go back, makes you wantto have those experiences, and
this was like a decade ago.
That's why I'm fuzzy on thememories.
But you know, it's one of thosethings that I think when it
comes down to your business andit comes down to looking at what

(48:39):
you have.
It really is about being achampion for the customer and
looking at them and saying, lookand again, they have no idea of
your monetary situation.
They have no idea whetheryou've been saving.
Like you mentioned, a lot of thepeople on the cruise are older.
Those people could have beensaving for 20 years to go on

(48:59):
this.
This could be a dream, cause Iremember growing up, you know,
we didn't have any money.
Growing up, I the dream wasalways to be able to go to like
Disney world or Disneyland, likeyou'd see the commercials, and
it was like a dream, you know.
But flying from England comingover, that's like a $10,000 plus
trip.
My family never had that kindof money back then, right, and

(49:20):
so it was like the dream trip.
And and I you hear families whothey save up for for years and
years and years to be able to dothese experiences.
So you never know.
So it's always good to to tohave that in mind and and
operate from that place of that.
If this is the only time thisperson's going to do this, how
do we make it so that they areat least an advertisement
walking talking advertisementfor me, because they might not

(49:44):
be able to give me more money,because they might not ever have
it.
But that doesn't mean theycan't be our best advocate, it
doesn't mean they can't help usgrow as a company.
And I think if you take theseapproaches and you look at it
and you go okay this is what'sexpected.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Let's add this, and then let's add this, and then
let's add this.
I't I send a bottle ofchampagne to my top like longest
term customers?
I didn't think of it.
But yeah, if they'd gottensomething like that, they would
have expected that I thoughtabout them and cared about them
like I care.
That they were a customer youwant someone to.
If you were the customer, whatwould you want and what can you
do to even be happier?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
yeah, and you see this, uh, one of to.
I think it's important and Ithink a lot of companies are
doing this now and um, butcelebrating milestones of
customers, right, um, dependingon what it is that you that
you're, that you're selling.
But, like you see this a lotand you know a lot of people
have negative thoughts aboutnetwork marketing or MLM type

(50:56):
companies, and rightfully so,for different reasons.
But, like there's a lot thereyou could also learn, and one of
the things that they dophenomenally is championing,
celebrating.
Let's go for that, because I'mhaving Partying.
Yeah, they do a great job atcelebrating the victories and
the wins of of of people, and Ithink that's so important that

(51:19):
you can not only do it for your,for your team, for your
employees, but you can do it foryour customers too.
If you have a business likethat and it could just be as
simple as like someone finishesthe first module of your
training in your course, and youknow this, the screen goes and
the fireworks happen and it justgives you this good feeling of

(51:42):
accomplishment.
It doesn't have to be theseextravagant, expensive things,
you know, and if you're, let'ssay, you have a system that
doesn't allow you to have acelebration on the screen, well,
you know, when it tracks whatpeople watch and when they
complete it, it can send anotification and you could send
an email that has a little gifin it that does that.
So there's workarounds.

(52:03):
You don't don't don't belimited by your technology.
My point is is just look atthese opportunities to to make
people feel good in a worldwhere most people don't feel
good most of the time.
Right, because we have so muchgoing on.
Most people, they're so worriedabout themselves they can't
even imagine anybody else,because they're trying to figure

(52:24):
out how they're going to paytheir next bill or how they're
going to afford the field tripfor their kid or whatever.
You have to understand themajority of people walking
around with a lot of stress ontheir shoulders.
So anything you can do to makethem feel good, and the more
often you can make them feelgood, is going to build that
experience, build their feelingstowards you, the relationship.

(52:45):
And again, when you meetsomebody and you've never
interacted with them personallyfor whatever reason, and they
tell you you changed their life,that is a powerful feeling.
But you have to understand youhave the power as a business
owner to do that and you do thatby continuously looking.
How do we improve beyond theproduct?
They buy the product, service,whatever it is, and there's an

(53:09):
expectation Money is exchanged,service is delivered and unless
it goes above and beyond that,they're not going to tell other
people, They'll just be happyand they could be happy as a
client, but they're still notgoing to shout it from the
rooftops.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
No, the only people that do Yelp reviews are either
extraordinarily happy with yourabove and beyond service or
they're really pissed off.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
Most happy people aren'twriting, and that's the thing
with customer supportno-transcript, exactly, and so
it's a thankless job.

(53:47):
And so that's why it's soimportant to have these other
experiences and then get thefeedback from people you know,
and people are more likely toleave a positive review or do a
case study, testimonial, sharetheir story, if they're not just
like neutral on the service andI think about restaurants I go

(54:08):
to that have great food but likeaverage service.
It's like you go back there butit's not like you're dragging
your friends there.
When you have a restaurant thatjust blows you away.
And you think to yourself, likeif I'm say to my wife, hey,
let's take sarah and ricky out,like where do you want to go?
Like like we're looking atthere's certain places to go,
yeah, because we know that theexperience is there, which means

(54:29):
you're immediately going tohave a good time and it's going
to get everybody's going to bein a better, happier place, like
I I'm not saying, hey, weshould take, we should go to
applebee's.
You know applebee's is fine,has good food, but it's not
somewhere you go to like have anexperience with some, with
another, with another, withanother family, you know oh, I
think macaroni grill isunlimited bread yeah, exactly,

(54:51):
exactly.
Um, anything else on the tripthat surprised you or related to
customer service you think weshould talk about today.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
I think the handling of your employees the same thing
.
If you know there's five lovelanguages and you know that your
employees at least your toppeople that you talk to, if
you're a five person company or150, like we are, you still can
have those extras for youremployees, whether they get, you
know, the birthday card orflowers, whether they get you
know an additional day off ontheir birthday or whatever or
something else to celebrateThey've done an exceptional job.

(55:20):
They get granted an extra dayoff or something.
You touch them and thedifferent points that they need
it.
If it's a local company, maybetheir quality time, maybe it's a
lunch out with the boss One ofthose little things you make
your employees feel like you'vedone extra for them.
It actually makes them staylonger.
Your employee retention ischanged.
It saves you a ton of money.
You can spend a little bit ofmoney to show them appreciation

(55:41):
and then when they care abouttheir job, they're doing a
better job.
They're happier at work, justlike when your customer's happy
with you.
They're happy and they're notcausing more problems.
And more money, more customerservice tickets and all this
stuff, the more you can do, surethey're excited the employee
and the client.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
It goes back and forth.
It's a good thing to do anyway.
Yeah, I think it has to be acomplete culture shift where you
just embrace this experienceand you think about how do we
make all of these experience thebest they can be?
How do we make the workplacethe best place it can be so
people want to be here?
How do we make our customers,how do we make this experience
for our customers the best itcan be?
And you know, that's one thing.
The Chipotle CEO, who's now theStarbucks CEO, like he talked a

(56:21):
lot about making Starbucks likethe place to hang out again.
You know, putting a Starbucksinside of Vons while gives
people coffee changes theStarbucks experience.
There's a book, the StarbucksExperience.
So you know, when you changestuff like that, it can have the
negative.
And then you see what'shappening where they have to
shut down a whole bunch of stuff, right, and so it is a cultural

(56:43):
shift.
It's same as core values has tobe lived and breathed.
But in terms of the return andthat's why people struggle with
this Cause what's the ROI?
Right, it's hard to track howmany referrals come from someone
that you don't know is tellingpeople.
But it's not about that, it's apiss.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
They're going to your competitor.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
So like you've already lost them and then the
competitor gets them.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Now they're saying good things about the competitor
, bad things about you, you'venot only caused the negative
cause a ripple of negativeversus a ripple of positive, and
I know what I would rather have.
I'm sure you would rather havethe positive too.
I'd rather have a present.
All right everybody.
Thanks so much for listening.
Another great episode of Paidto Create.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
We'll see you next time Yay.