June 6, 2025 • 52 mins
Vance spent 10 years working for the mouse at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. He started his career at Disney on the Opening Team of the Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, and progressed through the management ranks as a Night Club Manager at Pleasure Island, Service Trainer aboard the Empress Lily, and on the revitalization team of the Contemporary Resort in the mid-90’s. It was at the Contemporary that Vance got his crowning achievement, Designing, Opening and Operating Chef Mickey’s, Disney’s flagship Character Dining Experience. After leaving Disney, (yes people do leave) he utilized his skills to rescue or improve many of America’s companies and government agencies. His clients included Legal Seafoods, Tyson, NASA, Rain Forest Café, Compass Group, The Executive Office of the President of the United States, The Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Tiring of corporate life, Vance opened his own Bricks & Mortar Business in 2007. After meteoric growth of his service business, other entrepreneurs began to seek him out for advice and counsel. This spawned his next business, Deliver Service Now!, consulting and coaching other companies on how to create and implement Disney style service and then apply Direct Response Marketing to profit from it. Vance Morris has shared the stage with many of the premier marketers and service professional in the world; Dan Kennedy, Joe Polish, Bob Brown, Lou Ferrigno, Dean Jackson, Charles Henning, Lee Cockerell, and Meg Crofton.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat. You readything to me?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh well, well say, oh well, not a bad stop.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'd just see smash it.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Event.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, Welcome back everybody. Our next guest, Vance Morris Will
Vance spent ten years working for the Mouse at Walt
Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He started his career at
Disney on the opening team of the Yacht and Beach
Club resorts and progress through the management ranks as a
(02:01):
nightclub manager at Pleasure Island, service trainer, provider on board
Impress Lily and revitalize a team of the Contemporary resort
in the mid nineties. It was the Contemporary that Vance
got his crowning achievement designing, opening, operating the Chief Mickey's
(02:28):
Disney flagship Character dining experience. So what we're going to
hoping to learn from today is how to build within
our own business, our own services, a customer centered experience
for those clients. So one, we welcome Vance to the
(02:50):
show and get started. H Well, welcome to the show. Vance.
(03:29):
You are the expert of experts in customer centered experiences
for for our businesses, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Well? I self crowned yes, well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
It was something I did for a software company I
worked with. I made sure that they tried to make
sure that the customer was at the center of the
whole experience, so that you know, it's been stick cater
to your to your client or customer. Otherwise they will
find somebody else who will, right, they will?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
They will. You got to you got to put a
titanium fence around your customers, keeping them in and your
and your competitors out.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So, uh, but do you if you learned it from
from some of the very best with with with your
experience at Disney?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I did. Yeah. Spent ten years working for the Mouse
down in Orlando.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, so describe that a little bit. What how did that?
How did that work out for you? Could you like
moved up the ranks? Right?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I did quite a bit. I was on the opening
team of the Yachton Beach Club resort back in nineteen ninety.
Really a great experience. I mean, opening anything at Disney
is just a tremendous serience. It doesn't matter if you've
been there, if you knew, or if you've been there
twenty years, you know, going in all the nooks and
(05:06):
crannies before any guest arrives is just completely eye opening.
One of the things I learned first, and it really
surprises a lot of people. There'n't anything really to do
with guest experience or picking up trash and keeping the
place clean. It is all about systems and process and
that's what Disney is really all about. During our training
(05:29):
I walked into the training room and they were just
stacks and stacks of binders everywhere, I mean four inches thick.
And you got to remember, this is before everybody had
a cell phone and before every desk had a computer.
And so I asked my boss, I said, what is
all this stuff? He goes, well, these are all the
SOPs and OgTs on how to open and operate a
(05:52):
Disney resort. And by golly, they had a binder for
every position there was, you know, valet, server, busboy, you
name it. They had a standard for it. I was
completely blown away by it and systems and standards. A
lot of people kind of they get itchy about that
(06:14):
kind of stuff because oh, I don't want to you know,
I don't have any freedom to do what I want.
And I'm like, oh, it gives you a certain amount
of freedom because if you are used to just doing
all of this stuff by rote, you're not really having
to think about it. It gives you the freedom to
do all of the nice stuff that Disney is known for.
(06:37):
And as a business owner, systems give you freedom as well,
because if you've got systems in your business and then
you have somebody manage those systems, but you don't need
to be in the business every day.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
That's a very good point. So instead of you know,
and that's why.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That's why I've set it up. You know myself, if
I'm here in Maryland, I have three home service businesses.
I got a molder mediation company or we're in a
rug washing facility, and a carpet cleaning company. And I
took all my Disney knowledge and I packed it into
those three businesses. And about seven years ago I put
a general manager in charge, and I said, run the systems.
(07:18):
Don't scream with anything, just run the systems. And right
now all I do is I spend about ninety minutes
a week on those businesses, cash the checks, kiss the babies,
and spend about ninety minutes a week working with the GM.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Wow, can't beat that one, So do you know one,
you know and all that, right, you know, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I mean it took time to get there, but you
know that is to me, that's the definition of financial
freedom is, you know, being able to come and go
from the business as.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I please, and when I do that, I have no
effect on the sales of the business.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Right, So what you might be your picture might be
the the oh, here's the owner and and visionary of
the business, but you don't have to be there for
the daily operation.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yeah, you know. And again going back to my Disney days,
you know, I mean Walt Disney couldn't be everywhere all
the time, so he had to have strong systems and
processes in place that would guarantee the delivery of a
great guest experience. And without systems to be able to
(08:42):
do that, you don't know whether you're going to get
a good experience or not. I mean, think about all
the places you visit to buy something or get service.
A lot of times you're not sure whether you're going
to get a good experience or not. And that's probably
because they don't have systems in place. So you know,
with Disney, you're going to get back consistency, and one
(09:06):
of the key things too. You know at Disney was
that we all had a mission, and every different department,
every different area of Disney had its own mission, and
the mission was always bigger than your job. So you
know your mission. You know, your job might have been
(09:26):
to sweep the streets or serve food, but the mission
was to make people happy. And that was really every
minimum wage employee could wrap their brain around that. And
so many businesses had mission statements and nobody knows what
the hell they are. At Disney, it was simple, we
(09:47):
make people happy. And so when we were developing Chef Mickey's,
which is the restaurant that I developed and operated, we
knew there a mission had to be centered around happiness.
The rest of our mission was we had to get
the mouse through four hundred seats in forty three minutes
and make it be a great experience and make people
(10:09):
happy because we had well, obviously four hundred seats and
table for two in our restaurant, talk about forty two
to forty five minutes to eat. And if they didn't
get to see the mouse, well, they sat there raided
and they got cranky, and then they extended our weight
and the people waiting to come in got cranky and
(10:31):
cranky people don't have fun, and if you're not having fun,
you don't spend money.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
That is very true. Now they having worked as a
as a chef four hundred, four hundred seats in a restaurant,
that's a bit daunty. I mean you, I mean, you
want to talk about one hell of a system just
to make sure that the food gets out on time.
(10:59):
Not only making for everybody gets to see the mouse.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We actually had a mirrored kitchen. We had an A
line and a B line and there were literally mirrors
of each other, and the A line cooked for the
even number tables. The BEE line the odd number tables
so evenly split. So it was literally like having two
restaurants in one area.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah yeah, but again.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That was the system in the process we had to
put in place to ensure we could get the mouse
through those four hundred seats.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, and have everybody eaten about forty two minutes, well at.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Least tables for two, because they were the ones that
would eat the quickest, tables for six or eight. You know,
they linger a little bit longer, so some of them
got to see the mouse twice, which is fine that
you know, tables for two turn faster, and so we
had to make sure that the mouse got through in
(12:07):
the amount of time.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
The table for two, well, I'm just thinking to myself
that the table for two is probably the most common.
The table for six or higher is is a bit
of an of an anomaly. One of the places I
(12:29):
cooked and you we had to know ahead of time
if you had a table greater than four. We needed
to know, yeah, that you were coming, so we could
make sure that we had, you know, the basics prepared
and ready to go. So yeah, yeah, So running a
(12:52):
restaurant seemed would seem to be different, very different than
running a carpet cleaning or oriental rug cleaning business. But
how many of the systems actually work out to be
about the same when you're trying to make.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
People, you know, I mean, at the end of the day,
that's what we you know, we wanted to make sure
our customers were happy the way we made them happy
cleaning their upholstery, cleaning their carpet. Our mission with those
businesses was to create a healthy home. Not so much
(13:35):
make them happy, but create a healthy home. And you know,
really the systems and processes were no different except the
actual widget and deliverable. You know, instead of carrying a tray,
we you know, carry hoses and whatnot. But the theory
(13:55):
and the strategies are identical. You know, how how do
you treat the home or the guest with respect? How
do you treat you know, your attention to detail, All
of these things are you know, go from one industry
to the next, there there's no difference. And you know
(14:17):
when you're looking at details, you know, every detail in
your business is either enhancing or detracting from the experience.
There is no middle ground. You know. So if you've
got dusty house plants in your waiting room, well that's
detracting from the experience.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
If you if you drive a van for work and
you go to people's homes and you haven't washed it
in a couple of weeks, well that's detracting from the experience.
I mean, we're a cleaning company, so we washed the
van every day before we go out. I mean, would
not be congruent if we showed up in a dirty van.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Oh, it's simply put, how's he going to clean my
house if he can't clean his own van? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, you know some of the lists of things on
on your on your resume NASA for instance, in the
UH it said something about the President of the United States.
So how did how did you wind up and what
(15:23):
did you do for them?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah? That was That was about twenty years ago. Now
I was still in food service at the time, and
our company had the contract for not the East Wing,
but the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is the old
old East Wing, so it housed all of the Vice
(15:50):
President's offices were in there, the military airlift was in
their UH Secret Service, and then we also had across
the street from the White House where as the new
Executive Office building. You gotta love how they named their buildings,
and that had Secret Service and a couple of other
departments and were responsible for catering and food service in there.
(16:15):
And I was also around that time, I was also
a food service director for the Smithsonian Museum System, which
was a lot of fun. Nothing like creating a dinner
party around the Hope Diamond. Talk about an incredible customer experience.
(16:37):
Certainly nothing like that in the world.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Wow, I I I probably forgot that they even had
the Hope Diamond. There was visiting or something there was
that it was visiting there. It was it's not permanently
housed there.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
No diamond is in the Natural History Museum, Washington, d C.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I just learned something. And a big fan of Smiths Smithsonian,
uh because of all the it's a it's a great
science museum, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And then Kennedy Center for the Performing Art same way.
You know, we we did a lot of work. Really,
it wasn't so much the main stage because if you
don't know, I mean Kennedy Center, it's got a lot
of like mini stages, you know, and smaller auditoriums, and
so that was where a lot of the work needed
(17:41):
to be done to kind of improve those experiences. But
you know, putting that stuff in the place was it
was very rewarding.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it's it sounds like a pretty rewarding thing to
to be able to do, you know. So, and so
it was all wrapped around food service, he said, though
at the time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
But I was also an employee at the time, and
I've discovered that I make a lousy employee. I don't
like to be told what to do, which is probably
why I went out of my own and it's probably
a why a lot of entrepreneurs business owners go out
(18:30):
is because they they know they can do it better.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's a common theme for for entrepreneurs, right, Uh no,
I can do that better then then they do. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
I will include myself in that. One is like you know,
you know, wonder the reasons why I created my own
(18:54):
company was because hey, I believe I can do this better.
Uh so yeah one, and from my point of view,
I do do do it better than what my employers
would have. Yeah. So you know, well, we've.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Got the freedom to be able to do what we
need to do. We don't have to go and ask somebody.
We just go and do it. Yeah, and if it works, great,
we re the rewards. And if it doesn't work, you're like,
well all right, you know it didn't work, I'll take
my liking.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah. So along with creating, like all the systems and
everything that there are, of course is going to be
centered around what that mission for for your business is
creating a healthy home or making sure everybody had some
semblance of a voice is how do you how do
(19:54):
you go about with all the systems finding the right
employees is that would share that vision with you and
would share that passion with you.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Sure, A great question.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
At Disney, and even now you know, thirty years later,
I hire people that have what I call a heart
for service.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
I do not hire people that have previous carpet cleaning
experience because I can teach that to you. And actually,
I really don't want you showing up with any bad habits.
So I'd rather teach you from the beginning and not
have any you coming to me with shortcuts and bad
habits that you learned on a previous job. But if
(20:42):
you can show up and having a heart for service,
I can't teach you to be nice. I can't teach
you to want to help people. I can't teach you
to show up on time and dress well. But I
can teach you all of the other things. You know,
how to clean the car part, how to carry a
train in a restaurant. So I look for people that
(21:06):
have that heart for service. Disney does this marvelously. You
know they do it. I mean they do it with
a lot of you know, pre employment testing, psychological testing,
things like that Myers Briggs and items like that that
you know. I tend to use a lot of scenarios
and what if situations and what would you do in
(21:28):
this scenario and really see how the the applicant will reply.
And I haven't been wrong yet. Well, I take that back.
The first couple of years it was rough. But right
now my shortest tenured employee is three and a half years.
(21:51):
My longest tenured employee is coming on twelve years. So
we just we don't have the turnover. And honestly, in
this industry, three years is like nineteen lifetimes. People just
don't stick around. But if you treat them well and
you pay them well, there's no reason for them to
(22:12):
go looking. And I firmly believe that if you include
them and get them engaged. You see, your employees have
to have a good experience. If they don't are not
having a good experience, there's no way in hell they're
going to deliver a good experience for your customers. It
(22:36):
just can't happen. So you got to start with your employees.
And that's where I start. You know, do I give
them equipment that works? Do I give them uniforms that
fit and are clean? You know, what is the work
environment like? You know? What are the benefits? Like? You know,
do we you know, do nice things for them every
once in a while you know, on Pizza Friday or whatever.
(23:00):
You know. I don't bribe them to do their jobs
because I don't think I need to do that. That's
what they get a paycheck for. But I do solicit
their feedback, Hey do you think we could do this better?
And if they have an idea, great, let's try it.
And I think that's important for employees to feel like
(23:21):
they not that they have ownership, because I think that's
a fallacy. They can't. You're the owner. They're never going
to have ownership unless you have employee ownership plans. But
they can feel engaged. And when you have that engagement,
they tend not to disappear on you. They tend to
(23:41):
stick around.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah. Yeah, you said said some pretty pretty important things.
That actually takes you from being the center of center
stage of the of the of that scenario. It puts
the employee at the center stage of it where they
feel engaged, welcome. You've created this culture where they're we're all,
(24:08):
where their mind counts.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah yeah, and you know, and they want to feel that.
I mean, yeah, I mean I've had some deads, no doubt.
I mean I had one guy steal one of my
vans and drive it to downtown Baltimore to buy drugs.
Am I still kicking myself for that one. Sure we
all make mistakes, but for the most part, we've done
(24:35):
We've done pretty well with how we how we've hired
and you know, I mean, you can't help what people
do on the outside. But you know, realizing that they
you know, they have a home life, they've got other
things going on. Uh, you know, it was really important.
You know, we wish wish them a happy birthday. You
don't know what their home life is like. If I
(24:57):
wish somebody a happy birthday, one of my employees, I
might be the only one that does that. I mean
they might go home to the dog and watch TV
because they don't have any friends and their family doesn't
live around here. M h. I mean, can you imagine me?
You know, I'm the only one the boss that remembered
the birthday. I mean, how impactful is that?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah? And that's that sort of thing could actually happen.
It doesn't matter what the industry is. That can actually happen.
Case in point is like you you moved from one
coast to the other coast and then into a new country.
(25:39):
It was gonna be around to wish you the happy birthday,
and and your boss remembers it. It makes you feel
warm and welcome, right, so it and it sounds like
on the client customer and you try to make them
feel warm, welcome and happy and give and deliver what
(26:02):
the what the mission is and on on the employee
and you're trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So well, I mean they're all part of the Sorry,
I go ahead finished.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
No, No, it's it's okay. Is that what because you're
also a consultant according to your resume, that is that
what you try to teach other business owners to do?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Yeah, I mean I don't. I am, by no means
a HR employee trainer, and I will never pretend to
be an expert in that area. I know enough to
be dangerous. I know enough to say that your employees
need to be having a great experience in order for
them to deliver one to their customers. But it is
(26:51):
all part of the same equation and they are all
equal parts. Uh so I'm not I didn't do too
well in math in high school. But I do have
an equation for a profitable future for your company, and
it starts with the QEE quality employee experience, and you
add to that q CE quality customer experience. I mean,
(27:16):
those are the first two parts, and quality employee experience
has got to come first, because again, if that doesn't
come first, they can't deliver. And then you add to
that quality business practices. But are all of those systems
and processes that I've talked about that helps keep things consistent,
delivering consistent experiences, and then that will equal a profitable future.
(27:41):
So you just got to nail those three things. And
I don't like to overcomplicate things. I really don't, you know,
So for me, three things is enough to remember in
a business. And if you can nail those three things,
you're gonna be just fine.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's somehow that that makes more sense than than the
guy saying, oh, you've got to create this thing over
here and then tie it to this widget over here in.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Well you know, let me Now, are there things that
fall underneath each Yes, of course, but they but everything
on the customer journey. And this is what I do
as a consultant when I'm working with clients. You know,
we look at the entire customer journey and where does
the customer interact with the company, and each one of
(28:32):
those points is a point that we focus on, and
we focus on it from the customer's point of view,
not from the company's point of view. So it's, you know,
what is the customer experiencing when they walk in our
front door, So not what we what we think they're experiencing,
what they're actually experiencing, and so we approach it from that.
(28:56):
And that's where RealD Webber hits the road. And so
that right there is both a employee experience and a
customer experience, because well, the employee's got to be there
to deliver the experience, and whether that's making sure the
door is unlocked and the waiting room has been vacuumed
(29:17):
and is clean and is inviting, and the heats on
and whatever, and then you know, the guest or the
customer is coming in and is experiencing this environment. The
two things go hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, you did just say something that I had a
bit of an experienced once as as a I spent
some time as a retail manager and one of my
employees said that they were cold and they wanted to
turn the heat up, and I said, no, we're not
(29:52):
going to turn the heat up. We'll find some other
way to get you warm enough. But ask why the
heat was isn't going to be turned up? And I said,
because the heat has to be at a certain level
so that it's warm and inviting and not too hot
and uncomfortable for our customers. Keeping you warm is important,
(30:15):
but I can't. I got to balance them both off.
So when you talk about that with with your waiting room,
is a how do you how do you balance things
out so that everybody, everybody is happy?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Well, you know, I mean, you know, I will always say,
you know, the customer is not always right, but the
customer is always the customer, and they need to come.
They need to come first when it because they're the
ones with the paycheck, you know, they are the ones
that are spending the money and allowing you to go
buy groceries and pay your rent and all of those things.
(30:57):
And would assume unless you just sit all day long,
or unless you have a malady it's an illness that
makes you susceptible to heat or cold, that within a
few degrees you're going to be as comfortable as the
guest coming in. But you are right, the temperature or
(31:19):
the environment has to be conducive to the guest and
has to be inviting to the guest, because if it's not,
I mean again, how many chances do you get to
make a first impression exactly one? And if you know,
if it's a blazing hot day out and they walk
in and it's kind of sort of cool but not
(31:43):
really invigorating, lee, oh my god, thank god the air
conditioning's on. Well, now they're kind of like they're not
they're not refreshed. Well, that's what we want them to feel.
We want them to feel thank god there is on.
It feels great in here. I'm fresh. Because if they
don't have that feeling they one, how long are they
(32:04):
going to stay in brows because now they're they're still
hot and sweaty from being outside, you know so and
you know, hot, sweaty people, cranky people. They don't buy,
they don't spend their money. So when they're coming in,
we've got to make sure that their first impression is
(32:26):
making them happy. I call it moment zero. That exact
moment when they come into your sphere is art. What
is the the emotion that they're feeling. Is it thank
God I'm here, or are is it well geez okay,
Well I'm here now, and okay, well there's a pair
(32:46):
of jeans over there, maybe I'll go look at them,
and well, I'm still really hot. I'm gonna go to
the next door and see if the air conditioning is
any better there. This is what's going through people's minds,
you know. So, yeah, that has to come first. And
you're right, I mean, dress your employee, have them wear layers, you.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Know, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Know, I mean when they give a little long way,
they can take a layer off.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, yeah, there, there, there, you have it, right, Yeah,
I was gonna see. The lighting was also important also,
Oh yeah, because it had to be Oh hey, I
feel that the same thing. There's a lot a lot
(33:37):
to be considered in that sort of thing. Right, To
make a customer feel.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
You have to create an environment that's conducive to the sale,
you know, the I mean, you've got to have an
environment that is friendly to service and friendly to sales.
I mean, so many businesses have what I call a
service prevention department or sales prevention department that they put
up roadblocks, they put up rules and and you know,
(34:05):
policies that get in the way of sales, and they
get in the way of good service, and usually it's
some corporate mukeety muck that just thought it was a
good idea, you know, to have you fill out a
form and triplicate and then have you fill it out
again when you don't really need to do that. And
(34:26):
so think about what's going on in your business and
what are some things that you've implemented let get in
the way of making a sale, you know, and what
are the overall things that create your environment for a sale.
You're absolutely right, lighting, definitely, temperature, smell. Smell is the
(34:48):
number one sense when it comes to memories. So what
does your place smell like? You know, when I work
with dentists, I'm like half the time the place smells antise.
I mean, nobody likes going to the dentist. So most
of them, I convince, go get a little toaster of them,
(35:08):
and you buy a bag of that cookie dough and
toss one cookie in there and cook it, you know
once every hour. The place smells like fresh baked cookies. Now,
now that's inviting. What are the senses? What are the
memories that fresh baked cookie is eliciting in the patients?
(35:30):
They're now not thinking about dentists they're now thinking, oh man,
I remember when Mom used to make the cookies, and okay,
well maybe they have cookies around here. I can actually
get one. So using you know, all of the senses,
you know, how do your chairs feel? What's the colors
that you're using, you know, in your waiting room or
on your uniforms or on your on your vehicles. All
(35:53):
that stuff matters.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Wow, it's okay. You ran into some details that I
would never have thought of as like, wow, fresh big
cookies in the dentist's office.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, I mean, Disney does this very well. Disney does
this amazingly. Well, you know, they came up with a device.
It's called a smelltizer. I kid you not. It's a smelltizer,
and they pump in odors everywhere. So if you go
on Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom and
(36:33):
you pick up that musty odor, you know, like you
like like you just went through you know, the tropics,
it's not because there's mold growing in the ride. It's
they're actually pumping that smell into the ride. You know,
same thing about Lot Advans. They're pumping that musty smell
(36:54):
in there. A lot of times on main street. They
can't be cooking cookies all the time because they just
beat they have a mountain of cookies and nobody buying it.
So they blow the smell of fresh baked cookies out
into mainstream and they do that in a lot of
different places because they know that the sense of smell
(37:16):
illicits memories.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
It either relaxes or excites you, depending on what they
want you want you to experience, because I'm sure on
the Pirate ride they want you to feel excited.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
And yeah, you know, and then when they you know,
when they have the little you know, rifle, one of
those that they're not pop guns, but the you know,
then seventeen hundred's guns that don't shoot one bullet at
the time. You know, the smell of gunpowder is muskets.
You know, the smell of gunpowder is going through It
(37:55):
just adds to the overall experience.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Amazing. It's It's something I would when think of in Uh,
I've I've told a couple of real estate agents to
throw in a tray of cookies, or you know, if
you're going to have open house, you throw in a
tray of cookies. You serve the cookies later, on but
you but you want that smell of the cookies to
(38:20):
be there. It's like I've yeah, but I would never
have thought, uh yeah. Some of the places where you're
talking about this is like, oh and in in the
end it makes sense, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
I mean like if I walk into a restaurant and
I smell bleach, I'm believe you know that's that means One,
that means I got a problem. Two it's disgusting and
I don't smelling bleach.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yah.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
You gotta be aware of that kind of stuff. Again,
that's a that's a sales prevention department item right there.
Why would your dining room smell like bleach. There's no
reason for it, you know, unless you got some other
issues somewhere that we need to worry about.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah. One of the places that that of course, everybody
has an adversity to go into the hospital. But one
of the reasons why that diversity is in places because
it smells freshly oxidized or bleached or something. It's like,
so you don't it's repelling. You be a good thing,
(39:37):
But I don't know, right, It's like you wouldn't want
that necessarily for your general doctors practice or as you
point out, probably not, you know exactly, you want something
that's a little more warm and inviting.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
And as to think of all that, you know, it
doesn't no matter what business you're in, you know, so
at any rate, yes, environment is extremely important.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
So it smell is also just as an important part
of decorating your office as the paintings, the artwork, the
color of the wall, the comfortableness of the furniture, the
color of the carpet and all that.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yep, yeah, it all works in concert with each other.
And you know, I mean, you have to do the
fresh baked cookie things. No, but you know, there's nothing
worse than walking into an office and you allow your
employees to eat at their desks and Marge at the
front desk just happen to give extra onions on her
(40:47):
subway sub Now the whole place smells like, you know,
subway onions. That's not helping things, It really isn't. So
they can owners can work against you as well.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah yeah, I was going to ask that as they
how things can actually work against you The bleach smell,
the onion smell in an inappropriate place. So the smell
has to be appropriate to the to the to the
experience and the environment. Yep, mm hmm. So what what
(41:28):
I mean. I've heard that, you know, Disney has what
they call Smile University, but I never thought that when
they talk about Smile University that it would be all
the systems, the the experiences and everything that you that
you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And yeah, they have. For employees, they go through the
new higher training is called Traditions, and it's a day
and a half and they literally learn all of the
traditions mora raise secrets about Disney, about the company, about
(42:11):
Walt himself. And when they do these classes, they're really
trying to make it so that Walt is in the
room with them. So they learn the Disney point, how
to point the Disney way, which is with two fingers
or three or full hand. You never point with just
one finger. They teach you how to be aggressively friendly,
(42:33):
which means, you know, you don't wait for a guest
to come to you. If a guest looks confused, you
immediately go up to them and say, hey, how can
I help you? You look lost? And so all of
the other things that you know, Disney is known for
picking up trash, you know, making sure that all the
light bulbs are on. You know, just all of the
(42:56):
things that makes Disney unique are really taught in that
day and a half and you do that before you
go to your workplace. So that's really at the you know,
at the at Disney University, is that tradition's class.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, So because you're starting to run out of time, Yeah,
you're creating the perfect customer experience. What would I feel
as I walked into into into one of your businesses.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Well, I'd like to think it's perfect. I strive for
excellence more and more than perfection. But we want to
bring ourselves and elevate ourselves from being viewed as a commodity.
So we're all in commodity businesses. I mean a dentist
as a dentist, as a dentist, they had all clean
(43:48):
teeth the same way. And if you're viewed as a commodity,
you have no control over the pricing. The marketplace sets
that price. But if you can offer an EXPERI variance,
now you have price elasticity. You can command a premium
price if you're offering that kind of experience. So one
(44:11):
of the experiences we have in our cleaning business is
how we get in the front door. So if we
don't if we can't get in the front door, we
can't do our job. And so we have this completely
scripted out. It's a complete system of getting in the
front door. And it starts in the street because we
park in the street. We don't park in the driveway
(44:31):
because God forget, I got an oil leak. Now I
got something else I got to clean up. A technician
gets out in a clean uniform because he carries extra
uniforms with him in case he gets dirty. He smells
good because I don't allow smoking, and I don't allow
you to wear a cologne. Last thing you want is,
you know, somebody showing up in your house smelling like
the Marlborough man who just took a shower in Axe.
(44:53):
You know, it's kind of disgusting. You know. He's got
a special mat with him and a little gift. He
goes up to the front door, it lays down his
special mat. He knocks on the door, waits for missus
McGillicutty to answer. She answers the door and says, Hi,
my name's Josh. I'm here to creat your healthy home.
May I come in. We don't just barge in when
we're invited in, we do an exaggeration of wiping our
(45:14):
feet on the mat, and then we put little booties
on our clean shoes. As we're entering the home, we
present missus McGillicutty with a gift. Now, when was the
last time you had somebody come to your house to
do a repair or do some cleaning and they brought
you a gift. I'm gonna probably have it. I guess
it ain't happened. But when we present the gift, it
(45:35):
does a couple of things. One well, separates us from
everybody else out there because nobody's doing it, which then
creates word of mouth and referrals because people will be like,
oh my god, now never guess what happened when the
carpet cleaner was here. The gift also starts a process
called reciprocity. If I give something to you, you feel
(45:56):
compelled to give something back to me. So when we
implemented the gift, we saw a twenty six percent increase
in our into your Package, or about a sixty five
to seventy thousand dollars annual increase in our sales just
by implementing the little gift. So that's just a little
snippet of what we do throughout the entire customer journey
(46:17):
that we look for creating service excellence. Wow.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Wow, you want to come clean my house? Right? I
mean I mean serious. On a serious note, though, If
somebody showed up my doorstep, laid down a mat to
wipe their feet, they put on clean booties to enter
(46:45):
my home, and then presented my wife with a gift,
you've already sold me. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Wow, it's and it's that easy. And the gift is
an extravagant it's a little four four dollars fifty gift.
It's a little custom blue box. It's got a bottle
of spot remover or a little bag of cookies and
a note for me thanking them for allowing us into
their home.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Wow. Amazing. So it works, It works. I just see
it working. So what are the best ways for people
to work with you and you know, get a hold
of you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Well, if you're looking to increase your customer experience and
you're looking for a little ways to wow your customers,
I've got a new hot sheet out and you could
find that at Wow fifty two ways dot com. It's
called fifty two Ways to Wow Your customer without breaking
the bank. So you got one while for every week
(48:00):
of the year. And you know, so, if you're stumbling
and bumbling and can't find a way to engage with
your customers, well I just gave you fifty two ways
and then the other place you can engage with me
is on my website, which is Vancemorris dot com.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Okay, I will be sure to put those in the
show notes, both of those links and Vance, it's been educational.
I think you've taught me, taught me myself a couple
couple of things, and I'm sure you're teaching our listeners
(48:40):
a lot of different things. So guys, if listening engage
with Vance, especially your entrepreneur you're trying to increase your sales,
because hey, we need sales so that we can pay
our bills and have a happy and free life. Go
to Wow fifty two ways or Vancemorris dot com and
(49:09):
find new ways in and hire Vance as a consultant
to to help your business grow. All right, Thanks Vance,
and thank you everybody for listening.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
But I don't know, say.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
This is days.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
A reason said me, little job in shots. We can't
try sur wait.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
So the show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please
(51:54):
contact us at depictions dot media for more information.
Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat. You readything to me?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh well, well say, oh well, not a bad stop.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'd just see smash it.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Event.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, Welcome back everybody. Our next guest, Vance Morris Will
Vance spent ten years working for the Mouse at Walt
Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He started his career at
Disney on the opening team of the Yacht and Beach
Club resorts and progress through the management ranks as a
(02:01):
nightclub manager at Pleasure Island, service trainer, provider on board
Impress Lily and revitalize a team of the Contemporary resort
in the mid nineties. It was the Contemporary that Vance
got his crowning achievement designing, opening, operating the Chief Mickey's
(02:28):
Disney flagship Character dining experience. So what we're going to
hoping to learn from today is how to build within
our own business, our own services, a customer centered experience
for those clients. So one, we welcome Vance to the
(02:50):
show and get started. H Well, welcome to the show. Vance.
(03:29):
You are the expert of experts in customer centered experiences
for for our businesses, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Well? I self crowned yes, well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
It was something I did for a software company I
worked with. I made sure that they tried to make
sure that the customer was at the center of the
whole experience, so that you know, it's been stick cater
to your to your client or customer. Otherwise they will
find somebody else who will, right, they will?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
They will. You got to you got to put a
titanium fence around your customers, keeping them in and your
and your competitors out.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So, uh, but do you if you learned it from
from some of the very best with with with your
experience at Disney?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I did. Yeah. Spent ten years working for the Mouse
down in Orlando.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, so describe that a little bit. What how did that?
How did that work out for you? Could you like
moved up the ranks? Right?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I did quite a bit. I was on the opening
team of the Yachton Beach Club resort back in nineteen ninety.
Really a great experience. I mean, opening anything at Disney
is just a tremendous serience. It doesn't matter if you've
been there, if you knew, or if you've been there
twenty years, you know, going in all the nooks and
(05:06):
crannies before any guest arrives is just completely eye opening.
One of the things I learned first, and it really
surprises a lot of people. There'n't anything really to do
with guest experience or picking up trash and keeping the
place clean. It is all about systems and process and
that's what Disney is really all about. During our training
(05:29):
I walked into the training room and they were just
stacks and stacks of binders everywhere, I mean four inches thick.
And you got to remember, this is before everybody had
a cell phone and before every desk had a computer.
And so I asked my boss, I said, what is
all this stuff? He goes, well, these are all the
SOPs and OgTs on how to open and operate a
(05:52):
Disney resort. And by golly, they had a binder for
every position there was, you know, valet, server, busboy, you
name it. They had a standard for it. I was
completely blown away by it and systems and standards. A
lot of people kind of they get itchy about that
(06:14):
kind of stuff because oh, I don't want to you know,
I don't have any freedom to do what I want.
And I'm like, oh, it gives you a certain amount
of freedom because if you are used to just doing
all of this stuff by rote, you're not really having
to think about it. It gives you the freedom to
do all of the nice stuff that Disney is known for.
(06:37):
And as a business owner, systems give you freedom as well,
because if you've got systems in your business and then
you have somebody manage those systems, but you don't need
to be in the business every day.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
That's a very good point. So instead of you know,
and that's why.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That's why I've set it up. You know myself, if
I'm here in Maryland, I have three home service businesses.
I got a molder mediation company or we're in a
rug washing facility, and a carpet cleaning company. And I
took all my Disney knowledge and I packed it into
those three businesses. And about seven years ago I put
a general manager in charge, and I said, run the systems.
(07:18):
Don't scream with anything, just run the systems. And right
now all I do is I spend about ninety minutes
a week on those businesses, cash the checks, kiss the babies,
and spend about ninety minutes a week working with the GM.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Wow, can't beat that one, So do you know one,
you know and all that, right, you know, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I mean it took time to get there, but you
know that is to me, that's the definition of financial
freedom is, you know, being able to come and go
from the business as.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I please, and when I do that, I have no
effect on the sales of the business.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Right, So what you might be your picture might be
the the oh, here's the owner and and visionary of
the business, but you don't have to be there for
the daily operation.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yeah, you know. And again going back to my Disney days,
you know, I mean Walt Disney couldn't be everywhere all
the time, so he had to have strong systems and
processes in place that would guarantee the delivery of a
great guest experience. And without systems to be able to
(08:42):
do that, you don't know whether you're going to get
a good experience or not. I mean, think about all
the places you visit to buy something or get service.
A lot of times you're not sure whether you're going
to get a good experience or not. And that's probably
because they don't have systems in place. So you know,
with Disney, you're going to get back consistency, and one
(09:06):
of the key things too. You know at Disney was
that we all had a mission, and every different department,
every different area of Disney had its own mission, and
the mission was always bigger than your job. So you
know your mission. You know, your job might have been
(09:26):
to sweep the streets or serve food, but the mission
was to make people happy. And that was really every
minimum wage employee could wrap their brain around that. And
so many businesses had mission statements and nobody knows what
the hell they are. At Disney, it was simple, we
(09:47):
make people happy. And so when we were developing Chef Mickey's,
which is the restaurant that I developed and operated, we
knew there a mission had to be centered around happiness.
The rest of our mission was we had to get
the mouse through four hundred seats in forty three minutes
and make it be a great experience and make people
(10:09):
happy because we had well, obviously four hundred seats and
table for two in our restaurant, talk about forty two
to forty five minutes to eat. And if they didn't
get to see the mouse, well, they sat there raided
and they got cranky, and then they extended our weight
and the people waiting to come in got cranky and
(10:31):
cranky people don't have fun, and if you're not having fun,
you don't spend money.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
That is very true. Now they having worked as a
as a chef four hundred, four hundred seats in a restaurant,
that's a bit daunty. I mean you, I mean, you
want to talk about one hell of a system just
to make sure that the food gets out on time.
(10:59):
Not only making for everybody gets to see the mouse.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We actually had a mirrored kitchen. We had an A
line and a B line and there were literally mirrors
of each other, and the A line cooked for the
even number tables. The BEE line the odd number tables
so evenly split. So it was literally like having two
restaurants in one area.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah yeah, but again.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That was the system in the process we had to
put in place to ensure we could get the mouse
through those four hundred seats.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, and have everybody eaten about forty two minutes, well at.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Least tables for two, because they were the ones that
would eat the quickest, tables for six or eight. You know,
they linger a little bit longer, so some of them
got to see the mouse twice, which is fine that
you know, tables for two turn faster, and so we
had to make sure that the mouse got through in
(12:07):
the amount of time.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
The table for two, well, I'm just thinking to myself
that the table for two is probably the most common.
The table for six or higher is is a bit
of an of an anomaly. One of the places I
(12:29):
cooked and you we had to know ahead of time
if you had a table greater than four. We needed
to know, yeah, that you were coming, so we could
make sure that we had, you know, the basics prepared
and ready to go. So yeah, yeah, So running a
(12:52):
restaurant seemed would seem to be different, very different than
running a carpet cleaning or oriental rug cleaning business. But
how many of the systems actually work out to be
about the same when you're trying to make.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
People, you know, I mean, at the end of the day,
that's what we you know, we wanted to make sure
our customers were happy the way we made them happy
cleaning their upholstery, cleaning their carpet. Our mission with those
businesses was to create a healthy home. Not so much
(13:35):
make them happy, but create a healthy home. And you know,
really the systems and processes were no different except the
actual widget and deliverable. You know, instead of carrying a tray,
we you know, carry hoses and whatnot. But the theory
(13:55):
and the strategies are identical. You know, how how do
you treat the home or the guest with respect? How
do you treat you know, your attention to detail, All
of these things are you know, go from one industry
to the next, there there's no difference. And you know
(14:17):
when you're looking at details, you know, every detail in
your business is either enhancing or detracting from the experience.
There is no middle ground. You know. So if you've
got dusty house plants in your waiting room, well that's
detracting from the experience.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
If you if you drive a van for work and
you go to people's homes and you haven't washed it
in a couple of weeks, well that's detracting from the experience.
I mean, we're a cleaning company, so we washed the
van every day before we go out. I mean, would
not be congruent if we showed up in a dirty van.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Oh, it's simply put, how's he going to clean my
house if he can't clean his own van? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, you know some of the lists of things on
on your on your resume NASA for instance, in the
UH it said something about the President of the United States.
So how did how did you wind up and what
(15:23):
did you do for them?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah? That was That was about twenty years ago. Now
I was still in food service at the time, and
our company had the contract for not the East Wing,
but the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is the old
old East Wing, so it housed all of the Vice
(15:50):
President's offices were in there, the military airlift was in
their UH Secret Service, and then we also had across
the street from the White House where as the new
Executive Office building. You gotta love how they named their buildings,
and that had Secret Service and a couple of other
departments and were responsible for catering and food service in there.
(16:15):
And I was also around that time, I was also
a food service director for the Smithsonian Museum System, which
was a lot of fun. Nothing like creating a dinner
party around the Hope Diamond. Talk about an incredible customer experience.
(16:37):
Certainly nothing like that in the world.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Wow, I I I probably forgot that they even had
the Hope Diamond. There was visiting or something there was
that it was visiting there. It was it's not permanently
housed there.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
No diamond is in the Natural History Museum, Washington, d C.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I just learned something. And a big fan of Smiths Smithsonian,
uh because of all the it's a it's a great
science museum, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And then Kennedy Center for the Performing Art same way.
You know, we we did a lot of work. Really,
it wasn't so much the main stage because if you
don't know, I mean Kennedy Center, it's got a lot
of like mini stages, you know, and smaller auditoriums, and
so that was where a lot of the work needed
(17:41):
to be done to kind of improve those experiences. But
you know, putting that stuff in the place was it
was very rewarding.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it's it sounds like a pretty rewarding thing to
to be able to do, you know. So, and so
it was all wrapped around food service, he said, though
at the time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
But I was also an employee at the time, and
I've discovered that I make a lousy employee. I don't
like to be told what to do, which is probably
why I went out of my own and it's probably
a why a lot of entrepreneurs business owners go out
(18:30):
is because they they know they can do it better.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's a common theme for for entrepreneurs, right, Uh no,
I can do that better then then they do. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
I will include myself in that. One is like you know,
you know, wonder the reasons why I created my own
(18:54):
company was because hey, I believe I can do this better.
Uh so yeah one, and from my point of view,
I do do do it better than what my employers
would have. Yeah. So you know, well, we've.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Got the freedom to be able to do what we
need to do. We don't have to go and ask somebody.
We just go and do it. Yeah, and if it works, great,
we re the rewards. And if it doesn't work, you're like,
well all right, you know it didn't work, I'll take
my liking.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah. So along with creating, like all the systems and
everything that there are, of course is going to be
centered around what that mission for for your business is
creating a healthy home or making sure everybody had some
semblance of a voice is how do you how do
(19:54):
you go about with all the systems finding the right
employees is that would share that vision with you and
would share that passion with you.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Sure, A great question.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
At Disney, and even now you know, thirty years later,
I hire people that have what I call a heart
for service.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
I do not hire people that have previous carpet cleaning
experience because I can teach that to you. And actually,
I really don't want you showing up with any bad habits.
So I'd rather teach you from the beginning and not
have any you coming to me with shortcuts and bad
habits that you learned on a previous job. But if
(20:42):
you can show up and having a heart for service,
I can't teach you to be nice. I can't teach
you to want to help people. I can't teach you
to show up on time and dress well. But I
can teach you all of the other things. You know,
how to clean the car part, how to carry a
train in a restaurant. So I look for people that
(21:06):
have that heart for service. Disney does this marvelously. You
know they do it. I mean they do it with
a lot of you know, pre employment testing, psychological testing,
things like that Myers Briggs and items like that that
you know. I tend to use a lot of scenarios
and what if situations and what would you do in
(21:28):
this scenario and really see how the the applicant will reply.
And I haven't been wrong yet. Well, I take that back.
The first couple of years it was rough. But right
now my shortest tenured employee is three and a half years.
(21:51):
My longest tenured employee is coming on twelve years. So
we just we don't have the turnover. And honestly, in
this industry, three years is like nineteen lifetimes. People just
don't stick around. But if you treat them well and
you pay them well, there's no reason for them to
(22:12):
go looking. And I firmly believe that if you include
them and get them engaged. You see, your employees have
to have a good experience. If they don't are not
having a good experience, there's no way in hell they're
going to deliver a good experience for your customers. It
(22:36):
just can't happen. So you got to start with your employees.
And that's where I start. You know, do I give
them equipment that works? Do I give them uniforms that
fit and are clean? You know, what is the work
environment like? You know? What are the benefits? Like? You know,
do we you know, do nice things for them every
once in a while you know, on Pizza Friday or whatever.
(23:00):
You know. I don't bribe them to do their jobs
because I don't think I need to do that. That's
what they get a paycheck for. But I do solicit
their feedback, Hey do you think we could do this better?
And if they have an idea, great, let's try it.
And I think that's important for employees to feel like
(23:21):
they not that they have ownership, because I think that's
a fallacy. They can't. You're the owner. They're never going
to have ownership unless you have employee ownership plans. But
they can feel engaged. And when you have that engagement,
they tend not to disappear on you. They tend to
(23:41):
stick around.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah. Yeah, you said said some pretty pretty important things.
That actually takes you from being the center of center
stage of the of the of that scenario. It puts
the employee at the center stage of it where they
feel engaged, welcome. You've created this culture where they're we're all,
(24:08):
where their mind counts.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah yeah, and you know, and they want to feel that.
I mean, yeah, I mean I've had some deads, no doubt.
I mean I had one guy steal one of my
vans and drive it to downtown Baltimore to buy drugs.
Am I still kicking myself for that one. Sure we
all make mistakes, but for the most part, we've done
(24:35):
We've done pretty well with how we how we've hired
and you know, I mean, you can't help what people
do on the outside. But you know, realizing that they
you know, they have a home life, they've got other
things going on. Uh, you know, it was really important.
You know, we wish wish them a happy birthday. You
don't know what their home life is like. If I
(24:57):
wish somebody a happy birthday, one of my employees, I
might be the only one that does that. I mean
they might go home to the dog and watch TV
because they don't have any friends and their family doesn't
live around here. M h. I mean, can you imagine me?
You know, I'm the only one the boss that remembered
the birthday. I mean, how impactful is that?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah? And that's that sort of thing could actually happen.
It doesn't matter what the industry is. That can actually happen.
Case in point is like you you moved from one
coast to the other coast and then into a new country.
(25:39):
It was gonna be around to wish you the happy birthday,
and and your boss remembers it. It makes you feel
warm and welcome, right, so it and it sounds like
on the client customer and you try to make them
feel warm, welcome and happy and give and deliver what
(26:02):
the what the mission is and on on the employee
and you're trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So well, I mean they're all part of the Sorry,
I go ahead finished.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
No, No, it's it's okay. Is that what because you're
also a consultant according to your resume, that is that
what you try to teach other business owners to do?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Yeah, I mean I don't. I am, by no means
a HR employee trainer, and I will never pretend to
be an expert in that area. I know enough to
be dangerous. I know enough to say that your employees
need to be having a great experience in order for
them to deliver one to their customers. But it is
(26:51):
all part of the same equation and they are all
equal parts. Uh so I'm not I didn't do too
well in math in high school. But I do have
an equation for a profitable future for your company, and
it starts with the QEE quality employee experience, and you
add to that q CE quality customer experience. I mean,
(27:16):
those are the first two parts, and quality employee experience
has got to come first, because again, if that doesn't
come first, they can't deliver. And then you add to
that quality business practices. But are all of those systems
and processes that I've talked about that helps keep things consistent,
delivering consistent experiences, and then that will equal a profitable future.
(27:41):
So you just got to nail those three things. And
I don't like to overcomplicate things. I really don't, you know,
So for me, three things is enough to remember in
a business. And if you can nail those three things,
you're gonna be just fine.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's somehow that that makes more sense than than the
guy saying, oh, you've got to create this thing over
here and then tie it to this widget over here in.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Well you know, let me Now, are there things that
fall underneath each Yes, of course, but they but everything
on the customer journey. And this is what I do
as a consultant when I'm working with clients. You know,
we look at the entire customer journey and where does
the customer interact with the company, and each one of
(28:32):
those points is a point that we focus on, and
we focus on it from the customer's point of view,
not from the company's point of view. So it's, you know,
what is the customer experiencing when they walk in our
front door, So not what we what we think they're experiencing,
what they're actually experiencing, and so we approach it from that.
(28:56):
And that's where RealD Webber hits the road. And so
that right there is both a employee experience and a
customer experience, because well, the employee's got to be there
to deliver the experience, and whether that's making sure the
door is unlocked and the waiting room has been vacuumed
(29:17):
and is clean and is inviting, and the heats on
and whatever, and then you know, the guest or the
customer is coming in and is experiencing this environment. The
two things go hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, you did just say something that I had a
bit of an experienced once as as a I spent
some time as a retail manager and one of my
employees said that they were cold and they wanted to
turn the heat up, and I said, no, we're not
(29:52):
going to turn the heat up. We'll find some other
way to get you warm enough. But ask why the
heat was isn't going to be turned up? And I said,
because the heat has to be at a certain level
so that it's warm and inviting and not too hot
and uncomfortable for our customers. Keeping you warm is important,
(30:15):
but I can't. I got to balance them both off.
So when you talk about that with with your waiting room,
is a how do you how do you balance things
out so that everybody, everybody is happy?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Well, you know, I mean, you know, I will always say,
you know, the customer is not always right, but the
customer is always the customer, and they need to come.
They need to come first when it because they're the
ones with the paycheck, you know, they are the ones
that are spending the money and allowing you to go
buy groceries and pay your rent and all of those things.
(30:57):
And would assume unless you just sit all day long,
or unless you have a malady it's an illness that
makes you susceptible to heat or cold, that within a
few degrees you're going to be as comfortable as the
guest coming in. But you are right, the temperature or
(31:19):
the environment has to be conducive to the guest and
has to be inviting to the guest, because if it's not,
I mean again, how many chances do you get to
make a first impression exactly one? And if you know,
if it's a blazing hot day out and they walk
in and it's kind of sort of cool but not
(31:43):
really invigorating, lee, oh my god, thank god the air
conditioning's on. Well, now they're kind of like they're not
they're not refreshed. Well, that's what we want them to feel.
We want them to feel thank god there is on.
It feels great in here. I'm fresh. Because if they
don't have that feeling they one, how long are they
(32:04):
going to stay in brows because now they're they're still
hot and sweaty from being outside, you know so and
you know, hot, sweaty people, cranky people. They don't buy,
they don't spend their money. So when they're coming in,
we've got to make sure that their first impression is
(32:26):
making them happy. I call it moment zero. That exact
moment when they come into your sphere is art. What
is the the emotion that they're feeling. Is it thank
God I'm here, or are is it well geez okay,
Well I'm here now, and okay, well there's a pair
(32:46):
of jeans over there, maybe I'll go look at them,
and well, I'm still really hot. I'm gonna go to
the next door and see if the air conditioning is
any better there. This is what's going through people's minds,
you know. So, yeah, that has to come first. And
you're right, I mean, dress your employee, have them wear layers, you.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Know, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Know, I mean when they give a little long way,
they can take a layer off.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, yeah, there, there, there, you have it, right, Yeah,
I was gonna see. The lighting was also important also,
Oh yeah, because it had to be Oh hey, I
feel that the same thing. There's a lot a lot
(33:37):
to be considered in that sort of thing. Right, To
make a customer feel.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
You have to create an environment that's conducive to the sale,
you know, the I mean, you've got to have an
environment that is friendly to service and friendly to sales.
I mean, so many businesses have what I call a
service prevention department or sales prevention department that they put
up roadblocks, they put up rules and and you know,
(34:05):
policies that get in the way of sales, and they
get in the way of good service, and usually it's
some corporate mukeety muck that just thought it was a
good idea, you know, to have you fill out a
form and triplicate and then have you fill it out
again when you don't really need to do that. And
(34:26):
so think about what's going on in your business and
what are some things that you've implemented let get in
the way of making a sale, you know, and what
are the overall things that create your environment for a sale.
You're absolutely right, lighting, definitely, temperature, smell. Smell is the
(34:48):
number one sense when it comes to memories. So what
does your place smell like? You know, when I work
with dentists, I'm like half the time the place smells antise.
I mean, nobody likes going to the dentist. So most
of them, I convince, go get a little toaster of them,
(35:08):
and you buy a bag of that cookie dough and
toss one cookie in there and cook it, you know
once every hour. The place smells like fresh baked cookies. Now,
now that's inviting. What are the senses? What are the
memories that fresh baked cookie is eliciting in the patients?
(35:30):
They're now not thinking about dentists they're now thinking, oh man,
I remember when Mom used to make the cookies, and okay,
well maybe they have cookies around here. I can actually
get one. So using you know, all of the senses,
you know, how do your chairs feel? What's the colors
that you're using, you know, in your waiting room or
on your uniforms or on your on your vehicles. All
(35:53):
that stuff matters.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Wow, it's okay. You ran into some details that I
would never have thought of as like, wow, fresh big
cookies in the dentist's office.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, I mean, Disney does this very well. Disney does
this amazingly. Well, you know, they came up with a device.
It's called a smelltizer. I kid you not. It's a smelltizer,
and they pump in odors everywhere. So if you go
on Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom and
(36:33):
you pick up that musty odor, you know, like you
like like you just went through you know, the tropics,
it's not because there's mold growing in the ride. It's
they're actually pumping that smell into the ride. You know,
same thing about Lot Advans. They're pumping that musty smell
(36:54):
in there. A lot of times on main street. They
can't be cooking cookies all the time because they just
beat they have a mountain of cookies and nobody buying it.
So they blow the smell of fresh baked cookies out
into mainstream and they do that in a lot of
different places because they know that the sense of smell
(37:16):
illicits memories.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
It either relaxes or excites you, depending on what they
want you want you to experience, because I'm sure on
the Pirate ride they want you to feel excited.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
And yeah, you know, and then when they you know,
when they have the little you know, rifle, one of
those that they're not pop guns, but the you know,
then seventeen hundred's guns that don't shoot one bullet at
the time. You know, the smell of gunpowder is muskets.
You know, the smell of gunpowder is going through It
(37:55):
just adds to the overall experience.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Amazing. It's It's something I would when think of in Uh,
I've I've told a couple of real estate agents to
throw in a tray of cookies, or you know, if
you're going to have open house, you throw in a
tray of cookies. You serve the cookies later, on but
you but you want that smell of the cookies to
(38:20):
be there. It's like I've yeah, but I would never
have thought, uh yeah. Some of the places where you're
talking about this is like, oh and in in the
end it makes sense, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
I mean like if I walk into a restaurant and
I smell bleach, I'm believe you know that's that means One,
that means I got a problem. Two it's disgusting and
I don't smelling bleach.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yah.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
You gotta be aware of that kind of stuff. Again,
that's a that's a sales prevention department item right there.
Why would your dining room smell like bleach. There's no
reason for it, you know, unless you got some other
issues somewhere that we need to worry about.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah. One of the places that that of course, everybody
has an adversity to go into the hospital. But one
of the reasons why that diversity is in places because
it smells freshly oxidized or bleached or something. It's like,
so you don't it's repelling. You be a good thing,
(39:37):
But I don't know, right, It's like you wouldn't want
that necessarily for your general doctors practice or as you
point out, probably not, you know exactly, you want something
that's a little more warm and inviting.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
And as to think of all that, you know, it
doesn't no matter what business you're in, you know, so
at any rate, yes, environment is extremely important.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
So it smell is also just as an important part
of decorating your office as the paintings, the artwork, the
color of the wall, the comfortableness of the furniture, the
color of the carpet and all that.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yep, yeah, it all works in concert with each other.
And you know, I mean, you have to do the
fresh baked cookie things. No, but you know, there's nothing
worse than walking into an office and you allow your
employees to eat at their desks and Marge at the
front desk just happen to give extra onions on her
(40:47):
subway sub Now the whole place smells like, you know,
subway onions. That's not helping things, It really isn't. So
they can owners can work against you as well.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah yeah, I was going to ask that as they
how things can actually work against you The bleach smell,
the onion smell in an inappropriate place. So the smell
has to be appropriate to the to the to the
experience and the environment. Yep, mm hmm. So what what
(41:28):
I mean. I've heard that, you know, Disney has what
they call Smile University, but I never thought that when
they talk about Smile University that it would be all
the systems, the the experiences and everything that you that
you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And yeah, they have. For employees, they go through the
new higher training is called Traditions, and it's a day
and a half and they literally learn all of the
traditions mora raise secrets about Disney, about the company, about
(42:11):
Walt himself. And when they do these classes, they're really
trying to make it so that Walt is in the
room with them. So they learn the Disney point, how
to point the Disney way, which is with two fingers
or three or full hand. You never point with just
one finger. They teach you how to be aggressively friendly,
(42:33):
which means, you know, you don't wait for a guest
to come to you. If a guest looks confused, you
immediately go up to them and say, hey, how can
I help you? You look lost? And so all of
the other things that you know, Disney is known for
picking up trash, you know, making sure that all the
light bulbs are on. You know, just all of the
(42:56):
things that makes Disney unique are really taught in that
day and a half and you do that before you
go to your workplace. So that's really at the you know,
at the at Disney University, is that tradition's class.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, So because you're starting to run out of time, Yeah,
you're creating the perfect customer experience. What would I feel
as I walked into into into one of your businesses.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Well, I'd like to think it's perfect. I strive for
excellence more and more than perfection. But we want to
bring ourselves and elevate ourselves from being viewed as a commodity.
So we're all in commodity businesses. I mean a dentist
as a dentist, as a dentist, they had all clean
(43:48):
teeth the same way. And if you're viewed as a commodity,
you have no control over the pricing. The marketplace sets
that price. But if you can offer an EXPERI variance,
now you have price elasticity. You can command a premium
price if you're offering that kind of experience. So one
(44:11):
of the experiences we have in our cleaning business is
how we get in the front door. So if we
don't if we can't get in the front door, we
can't do our job. And so we have this completely
scripted out. It's a complete system of getting in the
front door. And it starts in the street because we
park in the street. We don't park in the driveway
(44:31):
because God forget, I got an oil leak. Now I
got something else I got to clean up. A technician
gets out in a clean uniform because he carries extra
uniforms with him in case he gets dirty. He smells
good because I don't allow smoking, and I don't allow
you to wear a cologne. Last thing you want is,
you know, somebody showing up in your house smelling like
the Marlborough man who just took a shower in Axe.
(44:53):
You know, it's kind of disgusting. You know. He's got
a special mat with him and a little gift. He
goes up to the front door, it lays down his
special mat. He knocks on the door, waits for missus
McGillicutty to answer. She answers the door and says, Hi,
my name's Josh. I'm here to creat your healthy home.
May I come in. We don't just barge in when
we're invited in, we do an exaggeration of wiping our
(45:14):
feet on the mat, and then we put little booties
on our clean shoes. As we're entering the home, we
present missus McGillicutty with a gift. Now, when was the
last time you had somebody come to your house to
do a repair or do some cleaning and they brought
you a gift. I'm gonna probably have it. I guess
it ain't happened. But when we present the gift, it
(45:35):
does a couple of things. One well, separates us from
everybody else out there because nobody's doing it, which then
creates word of mouth and referrals because people will be like,
oh my god, now never guess what happened when the
carpet cleaner was here. The gift also starts a process
called reciprocity. If I give something to you, you feel
(45:56):
compelled to give something back to me. So when we
implemented the gift, we saw a twenty six percent increase
in our into your Package, or about a sixty five
to seventy thousand dollars annual increase in our sales just
by implementing the little gift. So that's just a little
snippet of what we do throughout the entire customer journey
(46:17):
that we look for creating service excellence. Wow.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Wow, you want to come clean my house? Right? I
mean I mean serious. On a serious note, though, If
somebody showed up my doorstep, laid down a mat to
wipe their feet, they put on clean booties to enter
(46:45):
my home, and then presented my wife with a gift,
you've already sold me. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Wow, it's and it's that easy. And the gift is
an extravagant it's a little four four dollars fifty gift.
It's a little custom blue box. It's got a bottle
of spot remover or a little bag of cookies and
a note for me thanking them for allowing us into
their home.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Wow. Amazing. So it works, It works. I just see
it working. So what are the best ways for people
to work with you and you know, get a hold
of you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Well, if you're looking to increase your customer experience and
you're looking for a little ways to wow your customers,
I've got a new hot sheet out and you could
find that at Wow fifty two ways dot com. It's
called fifty two Ways to Wow Your customer without breaking
the bank. So you got one while for every week
(48:00):
of the year. And you know, so, if you're stumbling
and bumbling and can't find a way to engage with
your customers, well I just gave you fifty two ways
and then the other place you can engage with me
is on my website, which is Vancemorris dot com.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Okay, I will be sure to put those in the
show notes, both of those links and Vance, it's been educational.
I think you've taught me, taught me myself a couple
couple of things, and I'm sure you're teaching our listeners
(48:40):
a lot of different things. So guys, if listening engage
with Vance, especially your entrepreneur you're trying to increase your sales,
because hey, we need sales so that we can pay
our bills and have a happy and free life. Go
to Wow fifty two ways or Vancemorris dot com and
(49:09):
find new ways in and hire Vance as a consultant
to to help your business grow. All right, Thanks Vance,
and thank you everybody for listening.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
But I don't know, say.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
This is days.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
A reason said me, little job in shots. We can't
try sur wait.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
So the show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please
(51:54):
contact us at depictions dot media for more information.
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