November 20, 2024 • 24 mins
Discover the secrets behind creating unforgettable customer experiences with Vance Morris, a seasoned expert in customer service and marketing strategy. From his humble beginnings on a newspaper route to mastering the art of service excellence at the Walt Disney Company, Vance unveils how these formative experiences have shaped his philosophy on premium customer service. We promise you'll uncover actionable insights on the importance of leadership buy-in and why viewing customer service as a core business approach, rather than just a department, is crucial for success. Vance passionately argues that every team member plays a role in delivering that Disney-like service magic, no matter the size of the business.
Listen in as we explore the fascinating shift in marketing strategies from the traditional corporate mold to a more engaging, personality-driven approach. Drawing inspiration from companies like Duolingo and Taco Bell, Vance highlights the power of storytelling and brand personality, even in seemingly mundane industries like dentistry. Learn about the balance between process adherence and flexibility, taking cues from Disney’s innovative "plussing" method. In today's competitive landscape, customer retention is key, and Vance shares his expert strategies for keeping your business top-of-mind through consistent communication. Don’t miss out on his personal anecdotes and free resources available to enhance your service strategy at deliverservicenow.com.
Here's what you'll learn:
📦 Customer service should be a method of doing business, not just a department.
💼 Owner involvement is crucial for successful customer service initiatives.
💸 People prefer to do business with individuals rather than faceless companies.
📈 Documenting processes can significantly increase a business's value and help maintain service quality.
💰 Retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.
🤖 Technology, especially CRM systems, is essential for managing customer relationships, and consistent communication keeps businesses top of mind for customers.
🚀 Customer experience is a key differentiator in a commoditized market.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Customer Experience and Business Growth
06:42 Strategies for Enhancing Customer Service
12:56 Maintaining Service Quality in Growing Businesses
22:34 The Value of Customer Retention and Communication
Vance Morris
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vancemorris/
Deliver Service Now - https://yes.deliverservicenow.com/dsninstitute
Brandon Amoroso:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonamoroso/
Web - https://brandonamoroso.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bamoroso11/
X - https://twitter.com/AmorosoBrandon
Scalis.ai - https://scalis.ai/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to D2Z, a podcast
about using the Gen Z mindset togrow your business.
I'm Gen Z entrepreneur BrandonAmoroso, founder of Electric and
now the co-founder of Scaless.
Today I'm talking with VanceMorris, who's a customer service
speaker and marketingstrategist at Deliver Service
Now Institute.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I appreciate it.
Brandon, Thanks so much forhaving me on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I appreciate it.
Brandon, Thanks so much forhaving me.
So before we jump into things,can you give everybody just a
quick?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
background on yourself, your career and sort
of what you're up to now.
Sure, I won't go back togrowing up in a log cabin.
That's probably a little toofar back, but we'll do the.
Actually, I was a guest earlieron another show and I talked
about having a newspaper route.
And you know, she asked wheredid you learn your customer
experience?
And I thought about it.
(00:51):
I said paper route.
And this is my theory on thedownfall of American society.
Not to get completely off topic, but kids don't do paper routes
anymore.
And when I had my route, it wasokay, put the paper between the
screen door and the storm door.
No, I want it under the.
It was okay, put the paperbetween the screen door and the
storm door.
No, I want it under the mat.
No, I want it in the garage.
And so I learned at an early ageto take care of customers, even
(01:13):
though I was only 12 or 13.
But we can fast forward a bit.
I spent a little over a decadeworking for the mouse down in
Orlando with the Walt DisneyCompany.
Decade working for the mousedown in Orlando with the Walt
Disney Company, primarily intheir resort division.
I did leave.
People do leave.
I started to realize I make alousy employee.
I just don't like to be toldwhat to do, so unsmartly had a
(01:39):
couple more corporate jobs,worked primarily in hospitality,
but I was fortunate enough tohave some really nice accounts.
One of them was the executiveoffice of the president of the
US, which was pretty cool tohave.
Nasa headquarters was anotherone, and then a whole bunch of
(02:01):
different restaurants and thingslike that.
So Rainforest Cafe, legalSeafoods, just to name a couple.
After getting fired a couple oftimes, if you go back to the, I
make a lousy employee.
Don't like being told what todo I said you know I'm going to
start my own business.
So in 2007, I started a carpetcleaning business, which I know
(02:25):
is what all small children dreamof doing when they're growing
up.
But I took all of my Disneyknowledge, all of the
experiences, all of themarketing and operations and I
put it in there and I reallycreated a premium level service.
To this day, our prices arevery similar to Disney prices
and we're about 35% higher thanour closest competitor.
(02:48):
So when we talk about creatingexperiences, there is a monetary
payoff in that.
People started asking me how theheck are you doing this?
And so I started coaching andconsulting.
And so I started coaching andconsulting.
Actually, take now.
(03:14):
Part of the great part of myjob is taking business owners
down to Disney for fullimmersion boot camps.
We're there for three or fourdays, spend some time in the
classroom, some time in thetheme parks, and at the end of
it they come away with ablueprint on how to Disney-fy
their business.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I like that.
The industries that youmentioned, too, I think, could
benefit a lot, at least from myexperience with the customer
service aspect of things youhave, when it comes to, you know
(03:47):
, working as a third party withsome of these business owners
who may or may not be, but I'massuming, pretty stuck in their
ways.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, well, they, well one.
I don't work with companieswhere the owner is not involved
in this process.
So if I get handed off to likean HR or training department, I
immediately stop and say, look,if you're not bought into this,
then you know this is not goingto work.
Well, I tried it once.
(04:13):
I got handed off to a trainingdepartment.
We came up with this grand plan, took about two months, went
and presented it to the CEO andhe said, yeah, no, we're not
doing that.
Ceo, and he said, yeah, no,we're not doing that.
So you've got to have buy-inwhen you're not only from the
CEO, but then you need buy-infrom the team that is going to
(04:34):
be implementing a lot of whatwe're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that internal stakeholder buy-in is
super important.
Even with the new business thatI started is selling to the HR
(04:59):
department executive.
Stakeholder buy-in is critical,not only for their ability to
affect change but for us to beable to make sure that the
company actually adopts thesolution and platform
effectively, Because if it's notcoming from the top down, then
it's really hard to get thatbuy-in.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, especially when they don't have an
understanding of what it iswe're actually doing.
So, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So what are some of the things that, if you're a
business owner and listening tothis, you know top three things
that companies aren't doing thatthey should be doing.
When it comes to that, you know?
Service aspect.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Well, do you want me to get like really tactical, or
you want me to kind of gostrategy level?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
We go strategy level and then we can deep dive on one
.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, I think you know, first and foremost, they
think customer service is adepartment and not a method of
doing business, and I thinkthat's one of the things that
separates a lot of companiesfrom well, not a lot a few
companies from the chafe that'sfloating around, in that
everybody is responsible for theexperience of the guest.
(06:12):
I just hosted my mastermindmeeting at a Ritz-Carlton in
Washington DC, and before wewere going back in, everybody
had a bathroom break and while Iwas in there I noticed a
gentleman, pretty well dressed,just wiping the counters down.
And we came in after the lunchbreak and he was the general
manager of the resort doing alittle presentation for us, and
(06:35):
I was floored and I said well,do your employees generally use
the restroom?
He goes yes, we encourageemployees to use the public
restrooms because that is thatmany more sets of eyes that are
on the problem, and I don't askanybody to do something that I
won't do myself.
(06:55):
So, again, you know, walkingthe talk is absolutely vital, I
think, for small businesses, oneof the things that really, as a
strategy, doesn't seem to workis pretending that you are
something you're not, and bythat I mean pretending that
(07:16):
you're this big company.
I had a guy.
He was a carpet cleaner and hehad a residential division, a
commercial division, ajanitorial division and one
other.
He was one guy and he even hada little phone tree set up, you
know press, one for commercial,two for residential.
(07:37):
They all went to his cell phone.
But what people don'tunderstand is that people don't
do businesses.
Don't do business withbusinesses, they do business
with people.
Um, so when you're trying toinflate yourself and do that um,
you're really shooting yourselfin the foot.
And then, tactically, on this,this unreal um is answering the
(08:03):
phone live.
Real is answering the phonelive.
There's no reason in this dayand age that your phone cannot
be answered live, especially ifyou are advertising your phone
number.
So I'm a partner in a callcenter and when we were setting
it up we did a little bit of aexamination of the marketplace
(08:25):
and we made 4,000 phone calls tohome service businesses in the
US.
17% of those people answeredthe phone live and these were
all phone numbers we got fromGoogle pay-per-click.
So customer businesses arepaying for their phone to be
(08:47):
advertised and they're notanswering it.
That just blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, I mean, there's just wasted money at that point
.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
We look at it.
If they hired a call center,the call center only has to book
two jobs for the average homeservice business and they've
paid for themselves.
Everything else is gravy.
So if you think you're going toanswer the phone while you're
on a job like if you're aplumber and you got your head in
the toilet you know you're notanswering the phone.
If you're a carpet cleaner, youcan't just stop working and
answer the phone because yourcustomer is going to get
irritated.
And if you let it go tovoicemail and think you're going
(09:33):
to return the call later, well,that customers already going on
to the next number in the liston Google.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I think the first thing that you mentioned
around, the people shop frompeople, not from businesses, and
the most successful startupsBecause there was a little bit
(10:08):
of a nuance.
When it's been around for awhile and it has some brand
reputation and legacy, then itmight not need to be as
founder-facing.
But any of the companies weworked with who had started 2019
or 2020 onwards, they had theirfounder at the forefront of
their website, their messaging,their materials, the whole
backstory of why the company hadbeen started, even sending
(10:29):
marketing emails and texts fromthe founder themselves, like
selfies of them in the warehouseor in a particular setting
where it related to why theystarted the company to begin
with.
And those were far moresuccessful than the businesses
that did not want to share orshowcase any of their personal
involvement with it.
(10:49):
And you see it on LinkedIn too.
If you post a post on LinkedInand you do it through your
personal account, it gets waymore reach than if you post it
through the business account,and there's just more and more
examples of that in differentareas Well, that's how Dollar
Shave came to life.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
was the owners doing those kooky videos on YouTube,
riding around the warehouse on aforklift and all that stuff?
They were the face andpersonality of the company.
That's really how it took off.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I think I watched that last week for some reason,
but it isn't that old, but itfeels like a lifetime ago when
they came out with that and thatwas one of the first businesses
that uh leaped into sort ofthat viral humor, led marketing,
and I think that's more andmore commonplace now.
But there was a hesitancy for along time, uh, businesses to
(11:47):
want to still look really likecorporate and professional.
And now you look at companieslike Duolingo or ClickUp or some
of these other ones that are onTikTok, basically as meme
accounts, even like the TacoBell Twitter, chipotle Instagram
I think there's a bunch ofexamples like that.
Chipotle Instagram I thinkthere's a bunch of examples like
that.
You know, that's what resonateswith the audience and it is
(12:12):
just been slower than one wouldexpect, I think, in terms of
adoption, but now it's sort ofthe norm for companies to try to
tap into that.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, even if you're not going to do TikTok and
Instagram and Twittering andwhatever else out there, at
least have your story on yourabout page.
You know, I mean that is.
I mean that is the personalityof the brand and unfortunately,
we are all in commoditizedbusiness, highly commoditized
(12:36):
businesses.
I mean, what's the differencebetween dentist A, dentist B and
dentist C?
I mean, there's only two waysto clean teeth, right?
So what separates each one ofthose dentists?
And it's essentially thein-office experience that each
of them provides.
Otherwise, it all just kind ofblends together.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
How do you manage, if you're a growing business, the
level of service when it's notjust you who's responsible for
it?
And I mean you worked at anextreme example.
You know, disney has tens ofthousands of employees, if not
hundreds, but, um, you know howdo they keep that level of
service across all of those teammembers?
Because if it's just you andyou're a solopreneur, that's a
(13:19):
lot easier to keep that servicelevel when you're the only one
that is needing to be heldaccountable versus, you know,
hundreds, if not thousands, ofpeople well, certainly so.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
One of the first things actually, I learned there
wasn't even really customerservice.
Uh, it was that disney ran onsystems and processes and all of
them are documented.
So when you know a know, a lotof times you know bosses will do
reviews and they'll say things.
Well, you know, johnny does itthis way, or Sarah does it this
(13:50):
way, and that's really unfair tothe employee because you should
be comparing them to thestandards.
So I have even solopreneurs whowant to grow beyond just
themselves and you know,envision having a team.
I say start documenting what itis you do, and it doesn't have
(14:10):
to be anything you know,extravagant.
Get a couple of Google Sheetsand just start or record it you
know on your phone and have ittranscribed.
But Disney runs on three words.
That's it.
What to do, how to do it.
And the most important one,which most people forget, is why
we do it that way.
So when we were designing ChefMickey's, which is one of the
(14:35):
character dining destinations,we had a what, how and why for
everything in the restaurant.
For everything in therestaurant, because the employee
needed to know what to do.
Take a reservation.
They needed to know how to doit.
Okay, here's the reservationsystem.
(14:56):
You click this, this, this andthat.
Why do we do it?
Well, because when we properlyuse the registration system,
excuse me, reservation system,we can ensure that the weights
are going to be very minimal andthat everybody's going to be
ensured to have a greatexperience.
So it's that why part of yourprocess and your systems that's
(15:18):
vital if you have employees.
But process and systems.
Actually, I read something acouple of weeks ago that if you
have documented systems in yourbusiness, whether they're
marketing systems, operationalsystems, service systems, etc.
Your business is worth 1.5 to2x more just because you have
those systems.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
The thing that I was very focused on with the agency,
because obviously it's a peoplebusiness, so one of the
toughest things for an agencyowner is to remove themselves
from the day-to-day of it, butthat's where the value comes
(16:00):
from.
If you ever want to exit thecompany, either as let somebody
else run it or to sell it tosomebody else, and those
processes is what allows you todo that.
Those processes is what allowsyou to do that.
That being said, one of thethings that I really focused on
was making sure that the teamunderstood that just because
there was a process doesn't meanthat you know that's the way
that it should be done until theend of time, and that you know
they can always change and beimproved upon, because I have
seen organizations where youjust get completely ground down
(16:24):
by process and you have noability to affect change either,
even if you're doing somethingand you're just like this makes
no sense anymore, and that canbe really demotivating for a
team member.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Which is why we have process improvement teams at
Disney where we revisit all theprocesses and we're like does
this still make sense?
Do we need to continue to dothis?
Do we need to do more of this?
Walt Disney actually is the guywho came up with the term.
It's called plussing, you know,constant process improvement.
(16:59):
How do we consistently andconstantly improve the show that
we're providing, whether thatbe through food service or
attractions or movies?
We don't just sit back on thosesystems.
So, yeah, I 100% agree with you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You mentioned the reservation booking system,
which leads me into a questionaround technology and how much
of a help or a hindrance thatcan be for these business owners
that you're working with Eithera lack of technology or using
technology that's not servicingtheir needs or the customer's
needs well and how that has animpact, and I'm assuming has
(17:40):
been even greater and greaterover the last five years here.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It is, and the one piece of technology that every
business needs to have whetheryou're one person or 10,000, is
a really good CRM or customerrelations management system,
because otherwise you're justyou don't know who's done what,
when you have no way of doingany real marketing to them, you
(18:08):
have no way of doing any realfollow-up.
You know so with our CRMs thatwe use I mean with our carpet
cleaning business, for examplewe know that it's been six
months since their last cleaning, and so we have a campaign that
automatically runs and sendsout the six-month reminder
postcard, and then it does it atnine months.
I don't even have to doanything the system just does.
(18:28):
it zaps it to the printer anddoing.
You know the mailings all goout.
It's also the place where youkeep notes for you know any
conversations.
You also keep likes anddislikes.
You know what are.
If they have regular requestslike don't park in the driveway,
just park on the street, okaygreat.
Well, if you have regularrequests like don't park in the
driveway, just park on thestreet, Okay great.
(18:49):
If you got to constantly writethat down or never write it down
, well then you're going toconsistently irritate your
customer because they've toldyou six times don't park in the
driveway and you're still doingit.
Well, if you don't have amethod for getting those
instructions to the guy who'sdriving, that's how you lose
(19:10):
customers.
So managing the customerdatabase and mining that for
information is paramount.
I mean, it's mission criticalthat you have one.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The easiest customer to get is the one that you
already had Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
They've already bought from you.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Service is the lowest hanging fruit and more often
than not, I feel like businessesforget about that and whether
it's because of technology orwhatever it may be the low
hanging fruit.
Like you're mentioning the sixmonth automation, I mean you
could disappear for months andthose would still go out the
door and would still be, youknow, driving the business
(19:53):
forward.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Well, 100% yeah.
And the other thing thatbusiness owners forget or never
get told is that it is extremelyexpensive to get a new customer
.
It is a lot cheaper to keep theones that you have Now.
For example, I just got mypay-per-click report from my
(20:14):
Google guy and while my clickcost was okay, for some reason
my customer acquisition cost wasthrough the roof.
It cost me $150 last month toget one new customer, and that
is an expensive deal, especiallyfor a carpet cleaner.
(20:37):
It only cost me $14 a year tokeep them through postcards and
emails and newsletters.
So, yeah, don't forget aboutthe ones you already have.
To get them to eithercross-sell them into something
else, remind them to do aservice that they should have,
(20:58):
promote new products to them,because they're the ones
especially if you've done a goodjob the first time they're the
ones that are going to continueto buy from you.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and in the service industry, word of mouth
is so, so critical to growth.
I mean, I'm pretty sure when Imoved to um, moved to Miami, say
, 90% of whether it was doctorsor dentists, contractors, uh,
plumber, cleaning services,whatever it may be I'm I'm not
even necessarily going to Googleto find that.
(21:29):
I'm reaching out to folks thatI know in and around the area
and then they're giving me whotheir best person is, and
they're not going to do that ifyour level of service is crappy,
so it pays off in so manydifferent areas.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, and it also, even if you had great service
but they've forgotten about youbecause you haven't communicated
with them after the initialsale, then I mean, it's not
customers' jobs to remember us,it's our job as business owners
to remind customers that weexist and the only way to stay
(22:04):
top of mind, especially if youhave I mean, let's just say you
have an annual service.
You know that's 365 days forthem to forget about you.
So you've got to stayconsistently in front of them so
that A when the time comes forthem to buy again, you're there
and they don't go on a Googlesearch.
Or when somebody asks hey, doyou know a good dentist?
(22:26):
Oh yeah, I just got my dentistnewsletter the other day.
Here you go.
So yeah, it's important.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah, the last week I tried to find the moving
company that I used to take somestuff from one place to another
a few months ago and I need touse a moving company again
rather shortly and I couldn't,for the life of me, remember the
name of it and of course, youknow, they never even really
communicated with me I think itwas primarily via text to
probably not even through abusiness phone number, through,
(22:56):
you know, the personal cellphone of whoever was doing that
move.
And, um, I did finally find it,but I mean, most people would
probably not have gone throughthe hassle that I went through
to to get to that point.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Well, it's crazy that you know there's businesses out
there that think they're oneand dones, you know, like a
moving company.
I mean, how often do you move?
Probably not too frequently.
So they figure, all right, wegot them once, that's it.
But you just proved the pointthat well, hey, I've got some
other stuff that I move.
I need to move from this pointto this point.
Love for you guys to do itagain, but I don't remember who
(23:33):
the heck you are.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I appreciate you comingon and sharing these insights
with us, but before we hop, canyou share?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
where people can find and connect with you online if
they want to learn more aboutyour business or just leveling
up their service in general.
Yeah sure, best bet's mywebsite, which is
deliverservicenowcom.
A whole bunch of free resourcesthat you can grab there, so
more than enough to keep youbusy for a while.
Actually, you can even downloada free copy of my book there,
so deliverservicenowcom is thebest place.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Awesome.
Well, again, I appreciate youcoming on.
For everybody listening, it'sBrandon Amoroso.
You can find me atbrandonamorosocom or scalistai.
Thanks for listening and we'llsee you next time.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to D2Z, a podcast
about using the Gen Z mindset togrow your business.
I'm Gen Z entrepreneur BrandonAmoroso, founder of Electric and
now the co-founder of Scaless.
Today I'm talking with VanceMorris, who's a customer service
speaker and marketingstrategist at Deliver Service
Now Institute.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I appreciate it.
Brandon, Thanks so much forhaving me on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I appreciate it.
Brandon, Thanks so much forhaving me.
So before we jump into things,can you give everybody just a
quick?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
background on yourself, your career and sort
of what you're up to now.
Sure, I won't go back togrowing up in a log cabin.
That's probably a little toofar back, but we'll do the.
Actually, I was a guest earlieron another show and I talked
about having a newspaper route.
And you know, she asked wheredid you learn your customer
experience?
And I thought about it.
(00:51):
I said paper route.
And this is my theory on thedownfall of American society.
Not to get completely off topic, but kids don't do paper routes
anymore.
And when I had my route, it wasokay, put the paper between the
screen door and the storm door.
No, I want it under the.
It was okay, put the paperbetween the screen door and the
storm door.
No, I want it under the mat.
No, I want it in the garage.
And so I learned at an early ageto take care of customers, even
(01:13):
though I was only 12 or 13.
But we can fast forward a bit.
I spent a little over a decadeworking for the mouse down in
Orlando with the Walt DisneyCompany.
Decade working for the mousedown in Orlando with the Walt
Disney Company, primarily intheir resort division.
I did leave.
People do leave.
I started to realize I make alousy employee.
I just don't like to be toldwhat to do, so unsmartly had a
(01:39):
couple more corporate jobs,worked primarily in hospitality,
but I was fortunate enough tohave some really nice accounts.
One of them was the executiveoffice of the president of the
US, which was pretty cool tohave.
Nasa headquarters was anotherone, and then a whole bunch of
(02:01):
different restaurants and thingslike that.
So Rainforest Cafe, legalSeafoods, just to name a couple.
After getting fired a couple oftimes, if you go back to the, I
make a lousy employee.
Don't like being told what todo I said you know I'm going to
start my own business.
So in 2007, I started a carpetcleaning business, which I know
(02:25):
is what all small children dreamof doing when they're growing
up.
But I took all of my Disneyknowledge, all of the
experiences, all of themarketing and operations and I
put it in there and I reallycreated a premium level service.
To this day, our prices arevery similar to Disney prices
and we're about 35% higher thanour closest competitor.
(02:48):
So when we talk about creatingexperiences, there is a monetary
payoff in that.
People started asking me how theheck are you doing this?
And so I started coaching andconsulting.
And so I started coaching andconsulting.
Actually, take now.
(03:14):
Part of the great part of myjob is taking business owners
down to Disney for fullimmersion boot camps.
We're there for three or fourdays, spend some time in the
classroom, some time in thetheme parks, and at the end of
it they come away with ablueprint on how to Disney-fy
their business.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I like that.
The industries that youmentioned, too, I think, could
benefit a lot, at least from myexperience with the customer
service aspect of things youhave, when it comes to, you know
(03:47):
, working as a third party withsome of these business owners
who may or may not be, but I'massuming, pretty stuck in their
ways.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, well, they, well one.
I don't work with companieswhere the owner is not involved
in this process.
So if I get handed off to likean HR or training department, I
immediately stop and say, look,if you're not bought into this,
then you know this is not goingto work.
Well, I tried it once.
(04:13):
I got handed off to a trainingdepartment.
We came up with this grand plan, took about two months, went
and presented it to the CEO andhe said, yeah, no, we're not
doing that.
Ceo, and he said, yeah, no,we're not doing that.
So you've got to have buy-inwhen you're not only from the
CEO, but then you need buy-infrom the team that is going to
(04:34):
be implementing a lot of whatwe're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that internal stakeholder buy-in is
super important.
Even with the new business thatI started is selling to the HR
(04:59):
department executive.
Stakeholder buy-in is critical,not only for their ability to
affect change but for us to beable to make sure that the
company actually adopts thesolution and platform
effectively, Because if it's notcoming from the top down, then
it's really hard to get thatbuy-in.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, especially when they don't have an
understanding of what it iswe're actually doing.
So, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So what are some of the things that, if you're a
business owner and listening tothis, you know top three things
that companies aren't doing thatthey should be doing.
When it comes to that, you know?
Service aspect.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Well, do you want me to get like really tactical, or
you want me to kind of gostrategy level?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
We go strategy level and then we can deep dive on one
.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, I think you know, first and foremost, they
think customer service is adepartment and not a method of
doing business, and I thinkthat's one of the things that
separates a lot of companiesfrom well, not a lot a few
companies from the chafe that'sfloating around, in that
everybody is responsible for theexperience of the guest.
(06:12):
I just hosted my mastermindmeeting at a Ritz-Carlton in
Washington DC, and before wewere going back in, everybody
had a bathroom break and while Iwas in there I noticed a
gentleman, pretty well dressed,just wiping the counters down.
And we came in after the lunchbreak and he was the general
manager of the resort doing alittle presentation for us, and
(06:35):
I was floored and I said well,do your employees generally use
the restroom?
He goes yes, we encourageemployees to use the public
restrooms because that is thatmany more sets of eyes that are
on the problem, and I don't askanybody to do something that I
won't do myself.
(06:55):
So, again, you know, walkingthe talk is absolutely vital, I
think, for small businesses, oneof the things that really, as a
strategy, doesn't seem to workis pretending that you are
something you're not, and bythat I mean pretending that
(07:16):
you're this big company.
I had a guy.
He was a carpet cleaner and hehad a residential division, a
commercial division, ajanitorial division and one
other.
He was one guy and he even hada little phone tree set up, you
know press, one for commercial,two for residential.
(07:37):
They all went to his cell phone.
But what people don'tunderstand is that people don't
do businesses.
Don't do business withbusinesses, they do business
with people.
Um, so when you're trying toinflate yourself and do that um,
you're really shooting yourselfin the foot.
And then, tactically, on this,this unreal um is answering the
(08:03):
phone live.
Real is answering the phonelive.
There's no reason in this dayand age that your phone cannot
be answered live, especially ifyou are advertising your phone
number.
So I'm a partner in a callcenter and when we were setting
it up we did a little bit of aexamination of the marketplace
(08:25):
and we made 4,000 phone calls tohome service businesses in the
US.
17% of those people answeredthe phone live and these were
all phone numbers we got fromGoogle pay-per-click.
So customer businesses arepaying for their phone to be
(08:47):
advertised and they're notanswering it.
That just blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, I mean, there's just wasted money at that point
.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
We look at it.
If they hired a call center,the call center only has to book
two jobs for the average homeservice business and they've
paid for themselves.
Everything else is gravy.
So if you think you're going toanswer the phone while you're
on a job like if you're aplumber and you got your head in
the toilet you know you're notanswering the phone.
If you're a carpet cleaner, youcan't just stop working and
answer the phone because yourcustomer is going to get
irritated.
And if you let it go tovoicemail and think you're going
(09:33):
to return the call later, well,that customers already going on
to the next number in the liston Google.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I think the first thing that you mentioned
around, the people shop frompeople, not from businesses, and
the most successful startupsBecause there was a little bit
(10:08):
of a nuance.
When it's been around for awhile and it has some brand
reputation and legacy, then itmight not need to be as
founder-facing.
But any of the companies weworked with who had started 2019
or 2020 onwards, they had theirfounder at the forefront of
their website, their messaging,their materials, the whole
backstory of why the company hadbeen started, even sending
(10:29):
marketing emails and texts fromthe founder themselves, like
selfies of them in the warehouseor in a particular setting
where it related to why theystarted the company to begin
with.
And those were far moresuccessful than the businesses
that did not want to share orshowcase any of their personal
involvement with it.
(10:49):
And you see it on LinkedIn too.
If you post a post on LinkedInand you do it through your
personal account, it gets waymore reach than if you post it
through the business account,and there's just more and more
examples of that in differentareas Well, that's how Dollar
Shave came to life.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
was the owners doing those kooky videos on YouTube,
riding around the warehouse on aforklift and all that stuff?
They were the face andpersonality of the company.
That's really how it took off.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I think I watched that last week for some reason,
but it isn't that old, but itfeels like a lifetime ago when
they came out with that and thatwas one of the first businesses
that uh leaped into sort ofthat viral humor, led marketing,
and I think that's more andmore commonplace now.
But there was a hesitancy for along time, uh, businesses to
(11:47):
want to still look really likecorporate and professional.
And now you look at companieslike Duolingo or ClickUp or some
of these other ones that are onTikTok, basically as meme
accounts, even like the TacoBell Twitter, chipotle Instagram
I think there's a bunch ofexamples like that.
Chipotle Instagram I thinkthere's a bunch of examples like
that.
You know, that's what resonateswith the audience and it is
(12:12):
just been slower than one wouldexpect, I think, in terms of
adoption, but now it's sort ofthe norm for companies to try to
tap into that.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, even if you're not going to do TikTok and
Instagram and Twittering andwhatever else out there, at
least have your story on yourabout page.
You know, I mean that is.
I mean that is the personalityof the brand and unfortunately,
we are all in commoditizedbusiness, highly commoditized
(12:36):
businesses.
I mean, what's the differencebetween dentist A, dentist B and
dentist C?
I mean, there's only two waysto clean teeth, right?
So what separates each one ofthose dentists?
And it's essentially thein-office experience that each
of them provides.
Otherwise, it all just kind ofblends together.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
How do you manage, if you're a growing business, the
level of service when it's notjust you who's responsible for
it?
And I mean you worked at anextreme example.
You know, disney has tens ofthousands of employees, if not
hundreds, but, um, you know howdo they keep that level of
service across all of those teammembers?
Because if it's just you andyou're a solopreneur, that's a
(13:19):
lot easier to keep that servicelevel when you're the only one
that is needing to be heldaccountable versus, you know,
hundreds, if not thousands, ofpeople well, certainly so.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
One of the first things actually, I learned there
wasn't even really customerservice.
Uh, it was that disney ran onsystems and processes and all of
them are documented.
So when you know a know, a lotof times you know bosses will do
reviews and they'll say things.
Well, you know, johnny does itthis way, or Sarah does it this
(13:50):
way, and that's really unfair tothe employee because you should
be comparing them to thestandards.
So I have even solopreneurs whowant to grow beyond just
themselves and you know,envision having a team.
I say start documenting what itis you do, and it doesn't have
(14:10):
to be anything you know,extravagant.
Get a couple of Google Sheetsand just start or record it you
know on your phone and have ittranscribed.
But Disney runs on three words.
That's it.
What to do, how to do it.
And the most important one,which most people forget, is why
we do it that way.
So when we were designing ChefMickey's, which is one of the
(14:35):
character dining destinations,we had a what, how and why for
everything in the restaurant.
For everything in therestaurant, because the employee
needed to know what to do.
Take a reservation.
They needed to know how to doit.
Okay, here's the reservationsystem.
(14:56):
You click this, this, this andthat.
Why do we do it?
Well, because when we properlyuse the registration system,
excuse me, reservation system,we can ensure that the weights
are going to be very minimal andthat everybody's going to be
ensured to have a greatexperience.
So it's that why part of yourprocess and your systems that's
(15:18):
vital if you have employees.
But process and systems.
Actually, I read something acouple of weeks ago that if you
have documented systems in yourbusiness, whether they're
marketing systems, operationalsystems, service systems, etc.
Your business is worth 1.5 to2x more just because you have
those systems.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
The thing that I was very focused on with the agency,
because obviously it's a peoplebusiness, so one of the
toughest things for an agencyowner is to remove themselves
from the day-to-day of it, butthat's where the value comes
(16:00):
from.
If you ever want to exit thecompany, either as let somebody
else run it or to sell it tosomebody else, and those
processes is what allows you todo that.
Those processes is what allowsyou to do that.
That being said, one of thethings that I really focused on
was making sure that the teamunderstood that just because
there was a process doesn't meanthat you know that's the way
that it should be done until theend of time, and that you know
they can always change and beimproved upon, because I have
seen organizations where youjust get completely ground down
(16:24):
by process and you have noability to affect change either,
even if you're doing somethingand you're just like this makes
no sense anymore, and that canbe really demotivating for a
team member.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Which is why we have process improvement teams at
Disney where we revisit all theprocesses and we're like does
this still make sense?
Do we need to continue to dothis?
Do we need to do more of this?
Walt Disney actually is the guywho came up with the term.
It's called plussing, you know,constant process improvement.
(16:59):
How do we consistently andconstantly improve the show that
we're providing, whether thatbe through food service or
attractions or movies?
We don't just sit back on thosesystems.
So, yeah, I 100% agree with you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You mentioned the reservation booking system,
which leads me into a questionaround technology and how much
of a help or a hindrance thatcan be for these business owners
that you're working with Eithera lack of technology or using
technology that's not servicingtheir needs or the customer's
needs well and how that has animpact, and I'm assuming has
(17:40):
been even greater and greaterover the last five years here.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It is, and the one piece of technology that every
business needs to have whetheryou're one person or 10,000, is
a really good CRM or customerrelations management system,
because otherwise you're justyou don't know who's done what,
when you have no way of doingany real marketing to them, you
(18:08):
have no way of doing any realfollow-up.
You know so with our CRMs thatwe use I mean with our carpet
cleaning business, for examplewe know that it's been six
months since their last cleaning, and so we have a campaign that
automatically runs and sendsout the six-month reminder
postcard, and then it does it atnine months.
I don't even have to doanything the system just does.
(18:28):
it zaps it to the printer anddoing.
You know the mailings all goout.
It's also the place where youkeep notes for you know any
conversations.
You also keep likes anddislikes.
You know what are.
If they have regular requestslike don't park in the driveway,
just park on the street, okaygreat.
Well, if you have regularrequests like don't park in the
driveway, just park on thestreet, Okay great.
(18:49):
If you got to constantly writethat down or never write it down
, well then you're going toconsistently irritate your
customer because they've toldyou six times don't park in the
driveway and you're still doingit.
Well, if you don't have amethod for getting those
instructions to the guy who'sdriving, that's how you lose
(19:10):
customers.
So managing the customerdatabase and mining that for
information is paramount.
I mean, it's mission criticalthat you have one.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The easiest customer to get is the one that you
already had Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
They've already bought from you.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Service is the lowest hanging fruit and more often
than not, I feel like businessesforget about that and whether
it's because of technology orwhatever it may be the low
hanging fruit.
Like you're mentioning the sixmonth automation, I mean you
could disappear for months andthose would still go out the
door and would still be, youknow, driving the business
(19:53):
forward.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Well, 100% yeah.
And the other thing thatbusiness owners forget or never
get told is that it is extremelyexpensive to get a new customer
.
It is a lot cheaper to keep theones that you have Now.
For example, I just got mypay-per-click report from my
(20:14):
Google guy and while my clickcost was okay, for some reason
my customer acquisition cost wasthrough the roof.
It cost me $150 last month toget one new customer, and that
is an expensive deal, especiallyfor a carpet cleaner.
(20:37):
It only cost me $14 a year tokeep them through postcards and
emails and newsletters.
So, yeah, don't forget aboutthe ones you already have.
To get them to eithercross-sell them into something
else, remind them to do aservice that they should have,
(20:58):
promote new products to them,because they're the ones
especially if you've done a goodjob the first time they're the
ones that are going to continueto buy from you.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and in the service industry, word of mouth
is so, so critical to growth.
I mean, I'm pretty sure when Imoved to um, moved to Miami, say
, 90% of whether it was doctorsor dentists, contractors, uh,
plumber, cleaning services,whatever it may be I'm I'm not
even necessarily going to Googleto find that.
(21:29):
I'm reaching out to folks thatI know in and around the area
and then they're giving me whotheir best person is, and
they're not going to do that ifyour level of service is crappy,
so it pays off in so manydifferent areas.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, and it also, even if you had great service
but they've forgotten about youbecause you haven't communicated
with them after the initialsale, then I mean, it's not
customers' jobs to remember us,it's our job as business owners
to remind customers that weexist and the only way to stay
(22:04):
top of mind, especially if youhave I mean, let's just say you
have an annual service.
You know that's 365 days forthem to forget about you.
So you've got to stayconsistently in front of them so
that A when the time comes forthem to buy again, you're there
and they don't go on a Googlesearch.
Or when somebody asks hey, doyou know a good dentist?
(22:26):
Oh yeah, I just got my dentistnewsletter the other day.
Here you go.
So yeah, it's important.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah, the last week I tried to find the moving
company that I used to take somestuff from one place to another
a few months ago and I need touse a moving company again
rather shortly and I couldn't,for the life of me, remember the
name of it and of course, youknow, they never even really
communicated with me I think itwas primarily via text to
probably not even through abusiness phone number, through,
(22:56):
you know, the personal cellphone of whoever was doing that
move.
And, um, I did finally find it,but I mean, most people would
probably not have gone throughthe hassle that I went through
to to get to that point.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Well, it's crazy that you know there's businesses out
there that think they're oneand dones, you know, like a
moving company.
I mean, how often do you move?
Probably not too frequently.
So they figure, all right, wegot them once, that's it.
But you just proved the pointthat well, hey, I've got some
other stuff that I move.
I need to move from this pointto this point.
Love for you guys to do itagain, but I don't remember who
(23:33):
the heck you are.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I appreciate you comingon and sharing these insights
with us, but before we hop, canyou share?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
where people can find and connect with you online if
they want to learn more aboutyour business or just leveling
up their service in general.
Yeah sure, best bet's mywebsite, which is
deliverservicenowcom.
A whole bunch of free resourcesthat you can grab there, so
more than enough to keep youbusy for a while.
Actually, you can even downloada free copy of my book there,
so deliverservicenowcom is thebest place.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Awesome.
Well, again, I appreciate youcoming on.
For everybody listening, it'sBrandon Amoroso.
You can find me atbrandonamorosocom or scalistai.
Thanks for listening and we'llsee you next time.
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