Disneyfy Your Business for Success

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Vance Morris – Deliver Service Now Institute

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 “Customer Retention and Experience”
06:21 “Franchise Search After Corporate Exit”
09:15 “Flexible Franchise and Challenges”
11:13 “Contract Dispute Leads to Exit”
16:15 Grassroots Marketing Success Steps
18:55 “Recruiting College Students Effectively”
21:35 “Importance of Personal Thank You”
26:39 Mold Removal and Home Renewal
27:46 “Fogging Walls with Pencil Holes”
32:55 Networking Leads to Unexpected Opportunities
34:15 Disney’s Lesson: Attention to Detail
37:22 Kwik Trip vs. BP Station
41:35 Chick-fil-A Ownership Model Explained
46:12 “Building Fanatical Brand Loyalty”
48:42 Differentiation Through Office Experience
51:36 “Transforming Financial Advisor Client Experience”
54:29 Professional Technician Standards

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Podcast Transcription:

Vance Morris [00:00:00]:
So now she can charge whatever price she wants to charge, but she still was just a dentist. I said, we’ve gotta niche down. So I said, who do you like working with? She said, oh, I love working with the kids. I said, okay, great. Let’s just have you be a pediatric dentist. So now you work with them from, you know, 2 to 18. And after that, they— you don’t talk to them. And I said, okay, great.

Vance Morris [00:00:20]:
Now you specialize. So you’re gonna get a little bit more, um, elasticity in your pricing. You’ll be able to charge more cuz you’re a specialist. I said, but you need, you need something from your personality to really make this work. I said, what’s your favorite movie? And she says, Peter Pan. Great. So you’re going to be the pirate dentist. So she dresses up like Captain Hook.

James Kademan [00:00:40]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, The Bold Business Book, and LiveSwitch. Today we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Vance Morris of Deliver Service Now Institute. So Vance, how is it going today?

Vance Morris [00:01:09]:
It is fantastic, James. Hopefully we’ll drop a couple of golden nuggets today.

James Kademan [00:01:14]:
That’s, uh, that’s the goal here. So why don’t we start with what is the— oh my gosh, what was it? Deliver Service Institute? Deliver Service Now Institute?

Vance Morris [00:01:21]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:01:22]:
All right. What is that? What is that?

Vance Morris [00:01:24]:
That’s a great question. It is a place where, um, I teach business owners, entrepreneurs, uh, really about customer retention. Cause there’s a lot of gurus out there that are, you know, can give you, you know, 10,000 leads by Monday afternoon and, you know, you know, flakebook ads, Google, all that stuff. There’s not a lot of folks focusing on retention. Um, and then of course, in order to have retention, you’ve gotta have great customer experiences. So those are the two areas that I really focus on. Um, you know, showing businesses how to— word I’ve been using a while is Disney-fy. So taking all of the boring mundane things that we have to do day in and day out in the business, uh, finding a way to create an experience out of them.

Vance Morris [00:02:12]:
So that we become memorable, uh, we’re top of mind, um, and, uh, you know, people are doing that, uh, word-of-mouth marketing for us.

James Kademan [00:02:22]:
Nice. So tell me, how do you get involved in this?

Vance Morris [00:02:26]:
That’s a great question. Um, well, here in Maryland, I have, uh, 3 home service businesses, so I’m, I’m not one of those consultants that have never done anything.

James Kademan [00:02:36]:
I read a few books, right?

Vance Morris [00:02:38]:
You know, yeah, you know, I went to consulting school, I got the little, you know, thing. No, it’s not, not who I am. So I own 3 home service businesses here in Maryland, mold remediation company, Oriental rug washing facility, and a traditional carpet cleaning company. All very sexy businesses, I will tell you.

James Kademan [00:02:56]:
Yeah, super duper. Well, they’re based on dirt and— Yeah, right.

Vance Morris [00:03:00]:
Dirt and all the good stuff.

James Kademan [00:03:01]:
Right.

Vance Morris [00:03:03]:
So, you know, I— when I started those businesses, I’ve had them now for 19 years. Um, I knew that I was going to be aiming for an affluent client. I didn’t want to be, you know, scrubbing down and dirty rentals and things like that. I wanted to, you know, really have a premium service just like Disney, uh, for affluent clients. And so from day one, that is the direction that I went with my marketing, with the service, with the experiences. Um, after a few years, um, people started asking me, you know, Vance, you don’t look like you’re working too hard. Um, What’s your secret? How do you do it? Um, so I said, well, it’s really simple. This is actually the first thing I learned.

Vance Morris [00:03:44]:
I worked for Disney for 10 years. First thing I learned there was that Disney runs on systems. They got marketing systems, operation systems. You wanna learn— you wanna change a tire on a bus, they got a system for that. Carry a tray in a restaurant, they got a system for that. So all I really did was take all of that, put it into those businesses. Um,, and 7 years ago I actually was able to hire, uh, a GM and fast forward to today, I spend about 90 minutes a week on, on those 3 businesses.

James Kademan [00:04:16]:
Very cool. Very cool. And how do you— let’s just take these one by one, cuz I imagine you didn’t start all 3 of those businesses at the same time.

Vance Morris [00:04:25]:
Did not.

James Kademan [00:04:26]:
Nope. And I would imagine carpet cleaning came first.

Vance Morris [00:04:29]:
It did. All right. Yes. Um, and actually I, I, uh, started with a franchise. Um, you know, because I— it had a great proven concept. You know, I was new to business ownership. I’d been in, you know, corporate muckety-muck for 20-plus years. And so I needed something that had a system behind it.

Vance Morris [00:04:51]:
So I was with the franchise system for about 15 years and then jettisoned it and went out on my own. Along the way, you know, people— I hated walking into people’s homes And stepping over things that I could be cleaning, but I didn’t know how. When tile floors, wood floors, Oriental rugs. Uh, so I was like, well, might as well add Oriental rug washing. Nobody is doing it in our area. Um, and so we added that service. It was great. I already had a built-in customer base.

Vance Morris [00:05:23]:
All I had to do was go to them and market that service and boom, we were up and running. Um, and then about, uh, 6 years ago we added the mold company. Again, we had the existing customer base. I mean, I got 10,000 names in my database. Just had to market to them and say, hey, uh, we are now in the mold business. If you like this for cleaning, you’ll love us for mold. Well, not love us, but you know what I mean?

James Kademan [00:05:47]:
Yeah, right. Nobody’s in a good mood when they have mold.

Vance Morris [00:05:50]:
Nobody’s in a good mood for that.

James Kademan [00:05:52]:
So tell me a story with, uh, franchise. Let’s back up. I mean, we’re talking a long time ago, so yeah, way back when machine here. How did you choose which carpet cleaning franchise to use or to join? Because there’s hundreds, probably thousands of them. And that’s a, that’s a big, that’s a big ask to figure out what you’re gonna do. Cuz the equipment’s expensive. The capital outlay’s pretty intense. It is.

James Kademan [00:06:16]:
The theories and the marketing and all that kind of stuff. Some are well known, some are not. Tell me about that.

Vance Morris [00:06:21]:
So yeah, I worked with a, um, I didn’t know these things existed, but I worked with a franchise headhunter, um, after I left corporate, uh, world. And, you know, I really wanted to open a restaurant. Uh, but he, and he asked me, he says, do you have $2 million liquid cash? And I said, no, why? Because, well, most restaurant, even like a Five Guys requires, you know, $1.5 million liquid in cash. I was like, well, all right. What can I afford to do? And we looked at a number of different, um, service businesses, dry cleaning, uh, fruit smoothie, uh, uh, uh, truck, uh, food truck. Um, and then a couple others. And then, um, you know, he kept asking me about carpet cleaning. I’m like, dude, I barely vacuum.

Vance Morris [00:07:07]:
I don’t know anything about carpet cleaning. Um, and he said, no, I think, you know, with your match in the level of service and your Disney background, this company has a product that you can look any customer in the eye and tell them, yes, this works. Um, and I was like, all right. So I talked to them and by golly, yep. All of their products work as advertised. I mean, if you wanted to get the smell of dog pee outta your carpet, well, they had a product for that. And by golly, it

James Kademan [00:07:37]:
works.

Vance Morris [00:07:37]:
Um, one of the things I liked about that particular franchise is there was no marketing fund to pay into, so I didn’t have a percentage of sales going in. And the franchise fee was a flat rate per license. So it was $350 a month per license. I ended up— towards the end I had 6 licenses, but still it was only $1,800 a month. That’s not bad. I mean, there’s no 1 or 3 or 10% of sales. It was just flat.

James Kademan [00:08:09]:
And they split it up by zip code, or how do they, uh, there’s

Vance Morris [00:08:14]:
counties, uh, based on, um, uh, population. Um, I’m in a very rural area, so, um, I mean, I got 1,700 people in my town. Um, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. 3 traffic lights. Um, you know, 8 o’clock at night they all go to flashing yellow.

James Kademan [00:08:29]:
Sure.

Vance Morris [00:08:30]:
Um, but, um, so they grouped our— in our area they grouped a bunch of counties together and it was like one license for every 30,000 people or something, or one license for every 60,000, something like that. Um, and I just ended up gobbling ’em up as I grew.

James Kademan [00:08:46]:
Nice. Now let me ask you this. When you shop for a franchise, I imagine it’s similar to shopping for software or shopping for a new phone. The, what the salesperson says it can do versus once you actually get in there elbow deep and are using it, you find out that it’s not exactly the same or not as as good as you were hoping for. So was the system that they essentially sold you, was that more or less what you expected, or did you have to deal with some less thens?

Vance Morris [00:09:15]:
No, it really was. Um, and, and that was one of the reasons I chose it. And my advisor, uh, was like, look, this is a really flexible, um, uh, contract as far as franchising, cuz they didn’t tell us how to advertise in our market. Um, you know, again, I mean, marketing in a rural area versus marketing in a metropolitan city, um, two very different beasts. I mean, we had Yellow Pages until just a couple of years ago, um, you know, so they, they left us alone to do what we needed to do to build the business. Um, and so, yeah, no, it was really good. The last 5 years were, were rough. Uh, they got bought out by private equity, um, twice.

Vance Morris [00:09:59]:
Um, actually, once they got bought out by Home Depot Uh, cuz they’re the largest carpet retailer in the US. Uh, so they thought, well, we should probably own a carpet cleaning company, which is— they realized is really stupid because now their carpet sales went down. They weren’t selling as much carpet cuz we were coming in there and cleaning. Oh, shit. Um, so, uh, they, they sold us to private equity. Um, and then they sold us to a larger, uh, home service company that owns, I don’t know, 10 or 15 different brands.

James Kademan [00:10:31]:
Gotcha. Okay. So you got out pre-Home Depot buying?

Vance Morris [00:10:35]:
No, I was— I got in during Home Depot, um, which was fine by me. I didn’t bother me any. Um, you know, private equity, the first private equity was okay. Um, again, you know, they tried to do this, that, you know, try and up your purchases and do different things to try and squeeze more money out of you, but You know, I managed to the contract. I mean, when I was at Disney, we, we worked— it was a union environment, and the easiest thing I could do as a, as a Disney leader was manage to the contract. I couldn’t get in trouble. I could go wrong if I managed to the contract. So that’s what I did, uh, with this franchise.

Vance Morris [00:11:13]:
I managed to the letter of the contract, um, and they couldn’t, you know, they couldn’t say anything to me. Um, it was really the last couple of years that they Uh, they started changing the contract. They actually went to a, uh, brand marketing fund where they were expecting me to pay in, um, stuff that there’s no way I could even measure the effectiveness of the marketing. Um, so I said, look, I will stay with you if you exempt me from this brand marketing fund. Otherwise I’m out. And they said, nope, can’t, can’t do that. I said, fine.. And so over the course of 9 months, I let each one of my licenses expire, and now there is a big giant gaping hole in this region of the country, um, where I used to be, and they have yet to sell another license.

Vance Morris [00:12:01]:
Oh, interesting.

James Kademan [00:12:01]:
All right. Well, good for you for— Yeah. Having the stones to walk away from that. And I imagine your customer base didn’t care what the name on the van said.

Vance Morris [00:12:10]:
They really did. I mean, there might have been 3 or 4 that, oh no, we only will go with this franchise. And I’m like, We got the same stuff, same equipment, same chemicals. I mean, same people, but forget it. But, uh, yeah, no, we really didn’t. We saw maybe like a 2 or 3% drop in sales that we could really attribute to the name change, but it was, it was negligible.

James Kademan [00:12:33]:
Yeah, I suppose there’ll be attrition based on any change of any kind.

Vance Morris [00:12:39]:
Sure.

James Kademan [00:12:39]:
So, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what the carpet cleaning competition world is like around in your rural area, but I, Can’t imagine there’s a ton.

Vance Morris [00:12:47]:
Well, I mean, we bought out, uh, two of our competitors. Um, like one owner actually said, Vance, you outmarketed me. Um, and he had been around for 15 years and he just got lazy and complacent and stopped being aggressive in his marketing. Um, I’m, I’m scrappy, you know, I’m tenacious. I’m like a, you know, poodle on a mailman’s leg. I never took my foot off the gas when it came to marketing. So, you know, I started in ’07, ’08, so, you know, that’s when everything was imploding. Made it through the other two recessions.

Vance Morris [00:13:21]:
And because I had focused on affluent, uh, customers, they were not as affected by all of the turmoil in the markets as say, you know, middle or lower middle class were, you know, they were pinching pennies. People who, you know, who still had

James Kademan [00:13:37]:
money were still spending.

Vance Morris [00:13:40]:
Nice.

James Kademan [00:13:40]:
Let’s shift gears into the oriental rug cleaning.

Vance Morris [00:13:44]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:13:44]:
Are you removing the rugs and taking ’em to a shop or you clean ’em right there on site?

Vance Morris [00:13:49]:
Yep. That is the most effective, safest way to clean, especially anything of value. Uh, I mean, we’ve had some $70,000, $80,000 rugs in our shop. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, doesn’t take up a lot of square footage, so I mean, I didn’t have to really increase rent space or, uh, building space or anything like that. Um, it was all the same equipment. Um, pretty much except that we had to build a big giant, um, I call it a rug bathtub. So it’s a 12 by 18, 6-inch deep tub where we literally wash the rugs. It’s the way they’ve been doing it for thousands of years.

Vance Morris [00:14:26]:
They take it down to the river, they bang it on some rocks, let it rinse out and throw it on the line to dry. And that’s— Pretty much what we did. But wow. The great thing about the rug business, one, we, you know, we didn’t have to go anywhere except to pick up the rugs, of course. So like, you know, my employees love doing it cuz they can show up in shorts and a t-shirt and wash a bunch of rugs, make a lot of money, um, and not have to go anywhere. Um, and it was really a hole in the marketplace. There’s near me, I mean, the closest one’s 45, 60 minutes away in Washington, DC. Um, wow.

Vance Morris [00:15:01]:
And so there’s nothing closer. Holy cow.

James Kademan [00:15:05]:
All right. So I don’t know much about Oriental rugs. How— are there a lot of ’em rolling around in people’s houses?

Vance Morris [00:15:12]:
Yeah. You know, um, there are actually, and it’s not just Oriental. Um, I, I say that cuz people understand what that is, but natural fiber rugs, uh, you know, cotton, silk, et cetera. You know, back in like early 2010s, there’s this big push away from carpet and everybody was putting either hardwood floor, manufactured wood floor, or tile everywhere in the house. And then what did they do? They went out and they bought a rug to put on top of it because it’s, you know, nobody likes walk— they like stuff to squish in their toes, not, you know, not walking on cold tile. Um, so yeah, we, I mean, we’re still doing, I mean, we’re, we got 2 weeks worth of work in the shop right now and we always do.

James Kademan [00:15:58]:
Oh, that’s awesome. That is super cool. Tell me, you mentioned marketing. Mm-hmm. And that’s always a fun topic, right? For business owners. So how do you market, or how have you marketed successfully the carpet cleaning business and the oriental rug and mold remediation business? Sure.

Vance Morris [00:16:15]:
Um, so at the get-go, I mean, it was boots on the ground, grassroots. I mean, I was stuffing mailboxes. I, I mean, hanging door hangers, uh, you know, yellow page ads, ads in the local free newspapers. Um, and some of it worked, some of it didn’t. Um, it wasn’t until I got my own section of the newspaper, uh, that the print marketing really took off. And so what happened was for like, I dunno, like 3 or 4 Sundays in a row, I got the newspaper. And you know how they get all the coupons and flyers and everything? Um, well, they would take all that and I guess they printed it up during the week and then they would put it in between some blank newsprint. So on Sunday, all they had to do is throw that whole section in there.

Vance Morris [00:17:01]:
And I, I finally asked my sales guy, I’m like, could I print something on that? I mean, paper’s expensive, ink is cheap, you know, do you think I could print on it? Cuz you’re already using the paper, so. I’ll print on it. Um, and so that’s how I actually got a 4-page whole section just for my company. 4 pages, full color. I was paying— I think it was like $700 for 10,000. Wow. Um, and it was 4 full-page ads for all of my companies. And we ran it, we ran solid 6 years.

Vance Morris [00:17:40]:
Uh, with that, um, I think they’re— they were kicking themselves cuz they probably could have charged me a hell of a lot more than $700, but I convinced them. I was like, look, you’re already using the paper, I’ll just pay for the ink. Um, so, um, but they did away with that. So we had to go to, um, other areas. The other thing is, is still having boots on the ground. Um, I’ve got a, uh, salesperson. Um, their whole job is to go around to all of our referral partners. Um, all over our territory.

Vance Morris [00:18:11]:
Um, so it is face-to-face in real estate offices, plumbing offices, any business that is inside a res— uh, inside a home. Uh, we have a presence in their office and we’re in there and we’re buying donuts and we bring them candy. And, um, so it’s really a very big, robust referral network. Um, that’s probably generating 35 to 40% of our new sales. Um, the rest is coming from, um, our good friends at Google. Um, and, uh, as far as new customer acquisition, those are the two big ones that we do.

James Kademan [00:18:53]:
All right. So the salesperson, how tough was it

Vance Morris [00:18:55]:
to find one of them? Um, not as hard as you think. Um, so I— We have a local community college here. I went down to the marketing department and I said, hey, you got any people who are here either working in the, you know, going to school in the morning and off in the afternoon or vice versa? Um, literally interviewed a couple of, you know, college kids and said, look, I’ll pay for your gas. Um, all you gotta do is go visit, you know, these 15 places each day. Um, and you get You know, get paid hourly plus a commission for anything that— any sale we can attribute to you. Um, and so it’s, it’s, it’s worked great. Um, you know, there were a couple of duds in there, but I mean, the one we have right now, gosh, she’s been with us well over a year and a half now.

James Kademan [00:19:46]:
So. All right. And since you’re targeting the technical colleges, do they, once they graduate, they move on or do they stick around?

Vance Morris [00:19:54]:
Yeah. I mean, it— this is not a career choice, I don’t think. Um, although we did have a couple of moms, uh, who would work during the school day. So after they dropped their kids off at school, they’d come work for me for 4 or 5 hours, and then they’d be home by 2:30 or 3 to meet the kids. Um, so it’s not really a career position, but if you’re, if you’re got any creativity, you can find these people. Um, I mean, like, so we do handwritten thank you notes to all of our customers after each job. And that’s anywhere between 100 and 150 a week, depending on the season. Well, I don’t have time to write out 150.

Vance Morris [00:20:33]:
I mean, that’d take me 2 days, you know? So I went to the local senior center and I rented 3 grandmas. Oh, clever. And they now— what’s that?

James Kademan [00:20:42]:
That is clever.

Vance Morris [00:20:45]:
Yeah. So we, so they, uh, I pay ’em in donuts and coffee. And I mean, the three of they were getting together anyway, just, you know, to chit-chat and talk and everything. So now they’ve got a purpose. They, they spend 4 or 5 hours, the three of them. I, like I said, donuts, coffee. They do all of my handwritten thank you letters and we do that every week for them. They love it.

James Kademan [00:21:04]:
I love it. That is genius. Cuz they probably actually know cursive where they— mine is writing that even I can’t read it sometimes when I go

Vance Morris [00:21:13]:
back after I’ve written something. Right.

James Kademan [00:21:16]:
Yep. 100%. That would give the other, other thing like, oh, here’s a thank you note from someone that didn’t pass kindergarten.

Vance Morris [00:21:21]:
That’s great. Right. Right. Yes. Yeah. No, no, no crayon.

James Kademan [00:21:24]:
Yeah. That is impressive. I love it. Is that something that you decided to do on your own? You received a thank you note. So you’re like, hey, we should incorporate that. How do you get that idea?

Vance Morris [00:21:35]:
Uh, you know, I was, I, I’d always just been raised. It’s like, you know, what would grandma do? Or you make your mother make you do your grandma sends you $5 for your birthday. I always had to write a thank you card. Um, and it was just in the habit and I, I didn’t do it the first couple of years. Uh, but we’ve been doing it for at least 16 years now. I was, I just dawned on me, I’m like, oh crap, people are buying stuff from me. I guess I should say thank you. Um, so we just started, I, I did preprint them for a while and then I was like, well, that’s not very personal.

Vance Morris [00:22:06]:
So then I started handwriting ’em and then I got a, a service to handwrite ’em, but then they kind of flaked out. And I mean, the grandmas have been going great now for, geez, well over 3 years.

James Kademan [00:22:18]:
Oh, that’s incredible. That is incredible. Tell me about marketing the mold remediation company, cuz that’s, that’s a little different. That’s an emergency service rather than a maintenance service. Yep.

Vance Morris [00:22:31]:
Um, it, it is. I mean, we, we do very well actually with, uh, with Google.

James Kademan [00:22:37]:
Um, you’re talking about paid AdWords?

Vance Morris [00:22:40]:
Uh, yeah, pay-per-click. Yeah. Yep. Um, uh, those are expensive leads though, I’ll tell— I can tell you that. Um, I mean, they’re like easily $200 a, a lead. Yeah. Or, you know, it’s surreal. Um, so we hope to close them, otherwise we’re, you know, in deep doo-doo.

Vance Morris [00:22:59]:
Um, but again, we have a route. So the salesperson for carpet also does the mold route. Um, and we are in with homeopathic doctors. Uh, we are in with construction companies. So we’ve got two, uh, remodelers, um, that the minute they see mold, they call us. Um, and we’ll come in, take care of the mold so that they can continue, uh, doing the remodel. Um, and we’ve gotten some great testimonials from people. Uh, the process we use is a lot— is not like traditional mold remediation, which is today would be they— you rip everything out that’s got mold on it and then you rebuild everything.

Vance Morris [00:23:40]:
So it’s like $60,000, $70,000, $80,000. Um, and you really haven’t gotten rid of the mold cuz the mold’s in the air. Um, so our process is not, uh, there’s no, um, demolition with ours, so there’s nothing to rebuild. Um, we can get it done in a day versus 6, 10, 12 weeks, um, cuz we have a, a method called dry fogging. Um, and that is a license that I pay for cuz the technology is just amazing. Um, and so between the technology and we’ve got, uh, marketing materials from, uh, Army Corps of Engineers has tested our process. Um, so that’s really a big badge that we, we carry. And yeah, and again, just the creating relationships and maintaining relationships.

Vance Morris [00:24:32]:
So I mean, if we don’t hear from, you know, one of the builders and like even within like 2 or 3 weeks, you know, the salesperson is going out to their office and visiting with some chocolate or something. Interesting.

James Kademan [00:24:47]:
So you tell me about this. Would you call it fogging?

Vance Morris [00:24:51]:
Air fogging? Dry fogging.

James Kademan [00:24:52]:
Yes, dry fogging. All right. Tell me about that.

Vance Morris [00:24:54]:
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that.

James Kademan [00:24:56]:
Yep.

Vance Morris [00:24:57]:
It’s been around for a number of years. Not, not a lot. I think we were probably— we were in the first 50 licensees in the country. There’s now I don’t know how many hundreds, but it is a— it’s a parasitic acid. Not to get technical on you, but it’s essentially vinegar on steroids. Um, and it’s done in such a way under high pressure, uh, and it comes out a little nozzle and it is literally a dry fog. So you can put your hand over the nozzle, pull it away, and there’s no moisture. So people don’t have to put, um, you know, paper away.

Vance Morris [00:25:37]:
I mean, you can— paper— the fog touches the paper, it doesn’t change anything. Pictures on the wall.. So literally we leave everything in the house, uh, cuz we wanna treat everything. You don’t know where the mold is. I mean, just cuz you got some growing in your shower doesn’t mean it’s not flying around in the air somewhere else. Um, and so, uh, the dry fog takes to— literally, um, goes in and explodes the mold cells. It’s called denaturing. Um, literally killing the mold cell, um, and rendering them, neutral.

Vance Morris [00:26:11]:
So if you have a mold sensitivity, um, we, and we guarantee it for 1 year that you won’t have any,

James Kademan [00:26:19]:
uh, uh, mold regrowth. So is the idea that this is for— I’m picturing something that, like a house that’s been flooded from a hurricane or something like that where they got all kinds of black spores floating around or on the walls and stuff like this. Can it take care of something like that? Or is it something a little less dramatic?

Vance Morris [00:26:39]:
No, no. I mean, you, you, we do a, like I said, we do a lot of work with the homeopathic doctors because there are a lot of people with very high mold sensitivities. Uh, they can’t even live in their homes. Um, so with our process, because we treat the entire home, um, we get, um, you know, they, they can move back in same day and they are like, they’re fine. Um, you know, if we encounter a home that’s got, you know, black, green, white, whatever color mold is growing, uh, when we do the fogging, that mold is dead. I mean, deader than a doornail dead. Um, and we give them the option to say, look, we can clean it for you and charge you $300 an hour. Or if you got a teenager living at home, here’s how to clean it.

Vance Morris [00:27:24]:
It’s not gonna hurt ’em cuz it’s already dead and you can save yourself $300 an hour., and have your kid do it. Um, so I mean, there are some people that they just, they don’t wanna even see it. So, you know, we go in and we call it cosmetic cleaning. That’s really what it is. We’re just getting rid of, um, you

James Kademan [00:27:41]:
know, the dead mold and, and the discolorations. Interesting.

Vance Morris [00:27:46]:
Are you doing something behind walls or anything like that? Yeah. So we will, um, because it’s based on negative pressure, uh, or excuse me, positive pressure. Uh, we’ll drill little pencil holes, um, in between the studs. I mean, they’re like quarter inch big. Um, and when we’re fogging the room, the fog will go in through those, uh, holes and up into, uh, you know, the gaps between the studs. Um, all we gotta do is come by with a little bit of spackle and we’re done. All right. So it’s not ripping out an entire sheet of drywall.

James Kademan [00:28:19]:
And does that work on exterior walls

Vance Morris [00:28:23]:
that have insulation in them? Uh, yeah, because again, the fog is— I mean, insulation is porous, so the fog works its way in and will

James Kademan [00:28:32]:
kill anything that it comes in contact with. Huh. How interesting. I— this is so peculiar to me. I’ve never heard of something like that.

Vance Morris [00:28:40]:
It’d be— yeah, it’s called, uh, Pure Maintenance if you want to look it up. Yeah. Um, um, yeah, they, they’ve been great. We’ve had them, like I said, 7 years now.

James Kademan [00:28:53]:
Um, and we had zero callbacks.

Vance Morris [00:28:56]:
Well, that’s a good number. It is. I mean, it proves that again, you

James Kademan [00:28:59]:
know, it proves the system works. Yeah. Did you stumble upon this process and

Vance Morris [00:29:04]:
then start the mold business or was it— uh, actually one of my other carpet franchise friends up in New Jersey, uh, found it. Uh, he started it and he said, oh my God, I’m making money hand over fist. And I’m not working hard. Okay.

James Kademan [00:29:17]:
I like that.

Vance Morris [00:29:19]:
Yeah, that sounds good.

James Kademan [00:29:20]:
So that’s what I did.

Vance Morris [00:29:22]:
Nice.

James Kademan [00:29:22]:
All right. And do you, the way that you brand these 3 companies, are they all

Vance Morris [00:29:26]:
under the same umbrella or are they totally different? They are under the same corporation, uh, but they all have their own, uh, their own name. So we’ve got Maryland Mold Busters and then we have Eastern Shore Rug Cleaning and Eastern Shore carpet cleaning. So Eastern Shore is the area of

James Kademan [00:29:43]:
Maryland I live in. All right. So we’ve delved into your businesses, all that jazz. I never asked you, how did you decide to go off on your own versus keeping or continuing to work the corporate America gig? Uh, I got fired twice.

Vance Morris [00:29:58]:
Oh, well, that’ll happen. Okay. You know, yeah, I, I realized I make a lousy employee. I don’t like to be told what to do. And so, yeah. Yeah, I could have gotten another job,

James Kademan [00:30:09]:
but I don’t think I would’ve lasted very long. Right on. Right on. It happens.

Vance Morris [00:30:14]:
Did you work for Disney? Mm-hmm.

James Kademan [00:30:16]:
10 years. Little over 10 years.

Vance Morris [00:30:17]:
I’m sorry, how long?

James Kademan [00:30:18]:
Little over 10 years. Oh, that’s a little while. Okay.

Vance Morris [00:30:22]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:30:22]:
All right.

Vance Morris [00:30:22]:
Interesting. And was it— Yeah, it was a good run. Um, but, and I le— I mean, I left them on, on good terms. Um, and, uh, you know, I am living proof that you can leave the company and not curl up into the fetal position and, you know, wither and die. Um, um, but you know, I had been there 10 years and I’m just like, uh, there’s gotta be something else out in the world.

James Kademan [00:30:44]:
So I went out and looked. Right on. Did you, were you on location in

Vance Morris [00:30:49]:
either Florida or California?

James Kademan [00:30:51]:
Yeah, in Orlando. Yep.

Vance Morris [00:30:52]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:30:52]:
So you lived where it was nice and warm for a while and said, I’m outta here.

Vance Morris [00:30:56]:
I did. Yeah. I actually moved to Boston from, from Orlando. So, well, Boston’s a blast, so that’s—

James Kademan [00:31:02]:
yeah, it’s cold too. A little colder, but I don’t— I love Boston.

Vance Morris [00:31:05]:
So yeah, it’s fun.

James Kademan [00:31:06]:
Oh yeah, no, it’s a great town. That is cool. And you, so you start your business. When do you shift gears into offering essentially— I’m gonna use the word coaching. I don’t know if you do. Mm-hmm. Okay. When did you start offering coaching to

Vance Morris [00:31:19]:
other business owners and entrepreneurs? Uh, it was about 6 years in, so 2013. Okay. Um, you know, like I said, people were asking me cuz, you know, I mean, I was still working in the business then. Um, and actually at, at a lot of the, um, uh, supply houses I would go to get, uh, get our, our equipment and chemicals. Um, the people would laugh and the, the, they would say, here, here comes the guy who likes to clean, clean carpet. And, and I’m like, well, yeah, it’s easier. Why would I wanna clean dirty carpet? That’s more work. Um, you know, so, and because our marketing was designed you know, not just for the dirt and the stuff that you can see, because once you can see it, it’s already too late.

Vance Morris [00:32:05]:
I mean, you’ve worn your carpet, you’ve, you know, ground the dirt in, and now it’s, you know, more resurrection than it is cleaning. Um, so yeah, so I mean, our marketing was designed to— hey, before you see, you know, these little gray lines in your carpet, or, um, you know, hey, if you got pets and kids in the home, should really be cleaning every 6 months if you wanna, you know, maintain that expensive investment, uh, of

James Kademan [00:32:32]:
carpet in your home. Right. Interesting. So you, it sounds like you would set people up on a routine cleaning

Vance Morris [00:32:38]:
schedule or something like that. Yeah, we had a few of— we had a couple of programs. Uh, yeah, we had the Always Clean Club. Um, and we had, we had quite

James Kademan [00:32:46]:
a few people in that. All right. Very cool. Very cool. So you decide, hey, I’m gonna start coaching people. Are you targeting similar industries?

Vance Morris [00:32:55]:
Are you targeting something more broad? Um, I was for a while. I mean, I wasn’t really targeting any industry. Um, I just kind of fell into it. Um, and then I was, you know, going to conferences and, you know, introduced to somebody at a conference and they’re like, oh, well, you should come to this meeting. And, um, so I really just started kind of really networking in the, in the marketing world. Um, And, um, I got introduced to a business coach to orthodontists, uh, Dustin Burleson, great guy outta Kansas City. Um, and we were in a meeting together and I was telling him about my Disney background and then, you know, all of the customer retention experience stuff I did. And he looks me dead in the eye and says, you know what? I would pay you to take me and my coaching group through Disney.

Vance Morris [00:33:43]:
And so another part of my consulting business was born. I now, uh, 2 or 3 times a year will go to Disney with a, uh, with business owners and entrepreneurs. Uh, actually I’m going next week with, uh, 2 different groups. Um, and we spend 3 days full immersion in all things Disney. Um, you know, half the day’s classroom, half the day is in the theme park. Um, and at the end of it, people have a, a blueprint or a roadmap on how to Disneyfy their business

James Kademan [00:34:09]:
when they get home Monday morning.

Vance Morris [00:34:11]:
Interesting.

James Kademan [00:34:12]:
And what are some of the things

Vance Morris [00:34:15]:
that they’re learning from this? Sure. So a lot of it is really how to adapt what Disney is doing into a plumbing business or a real estate business, cuz you can’t copy what Disney’s doing unless you own a theme park or roller coasters or things. Um, one of the big lessons really is attention to detail. So if you’ve been to Disney, you know, they are fanatical about the details. I remember sitting there, it was one morning I was having coffee outside and I’m watching the, the horticulture guys out there with the big scissors and, you know, trimming up the hedges. And then like 20 minutes later, after he left, the supervisor for, for that, for the hedge trimming people came by with her own pair of scissors. And was, you know, going in there and detailing anything that he missed with the big choppers. I’m thinking to myself, damn, that is, that is some attention to detail.

Vance Morris [00:35:13]:
Um, and we’re all in detail businesses. So how do you look at that? And one of the things that I talk about a lot is that every detail in your business is either enhancing or detracting from the experience. There is no middle ground. So if you got dusty houseplants in your waiting room, well, that is not helping you. If you know you’re a medical professional, it’s not helping you. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing. So it’s, you know, looking at all those small details, you know, for if you’ve got a fleet of vans on the road, you know, do you wash them every day? You know, are your technicians clean? Are— you know, do they not smell? You know, a lot of things that people just don’t think about, but it’s identifying each individual little detail. And then the other big thing is, is Disney is great at creating experiences.

Vance Morris [00:36:04]:
Um, and I’m not talking about the big expensive ones where you have to, you know, build Noah’s Ark in your waiting room or whatever. Um, I’m talking about simple things like answering the telephone or greeting somebody when they come into your place of business. Disney’s just figured out a way to make an experience out of answering the phone. And you call the Polynesian, uh, resort and they’re saying aloha, or you’re calling, uh, Disney Vacation Club and they’re saying welcome home. Um, and it’s just different ways to create experiences. It’s just all the little boring stuff that we do day to day, figuring out how to create an experience out of it. And that’s what really separates you from all of your other, uh, businesses in your industry.

James Kademan [00:36:51]:
Oh my gosh. So true. So true. I can tell you, I guess I’m reminded from listening to you, we have a local-ish, uh, convenience store here, gas station, uh, Kwik Trip. That’s— I mean, they’re Wisconsin-based, but I think they’re branching, branching out in other states around the Midwest. They have this whole see you next time that they say when you leave, and it’s just convenience store. And it’s interesting because the first One that came on the east-ish side of Madison where I’m located. There was a BP gas station that was there.

James Kademan [00:37:22]:
This Kwik Trip goes up and it’s probably got 3 times the pumps. That BP gas station was never busy. It had a subway in it, was kind of beat up. The BP gas station is easier to get to off the highway. Kwik Trip, you gotta go down another 8th of a mile or something like that. That Kwik Trip is bustling, probably like Disney World. That BP is still just tumbleweeds rolling by. So it’s interesting all because, I mean, the QuikTrip is cleaner, the people are nicer, it’s more organized, it has more to offer.

James Kademan [00:37:54]:
There’s nothing that the QuikTrip does that the BP has in any way that they’re doing better. Right. So it’s, it’s interesting because it’s still just gas station, right? Like some people just need to get gas and they move on with their life. You think the BP would still be busy, at least people getting gas, but it’s not. Have you seen Buc-ee’s? I have. Yes. There was— there’s talk of a Buc-ee’s coming near us.

Vance Morris [00:38:16]:
Yeah. You know, I mean, I was at the Buc-ee’s in, in, uh, near Orlando. 80 pumps. Yes. 80, 80, you know, and they got their own merchandise in there. You can buy the little Buc-ee stuffed thing. Uh, it’s a gas station, like you said. I mean, it’s a convenience store.

Vance Morris [00:38:33]:
Um, but what makes it so special? Clean restrooms, nice people. Um, you know, all of the stuff that you think people would— they do take for granted, but they don’t do anything about.

James Kademan [00:38:48]:
I think, I guess in that regard, the gas stations when I was a kid were typically dumpy. They were gross. You had to get the key at the hubcap to go use the restroom. Yep. And the people were behind glass or something like that. It just, it was not a good experience. Nope. Not even a little bit.

James Kademan [00:39:07]:
And now, I mean, I don’t know if visiting a convenience store is necessarily a good experience, but you don’t feel bad or you’re not like, oh my gosh, I have to stop for gas or anything like that. When you see that sign for Kwik Trip, or I imagine Buc-ee’s or something like that, you’re almost looking forward to it. Yeah. Where the other ones you’re like, I hope I don’t get chlamydia stopping at this gas station.

Vance Morris [00:39:29]:
Exactly.

James Kademan [00:39:29]:
You know, so it’s, it’s interesting. And from that point, I mean, I would dare say it’s common sense, right? Just be nice, have clean stuff. But most, uh, convenience stores in my

Vance Morris [00:39:44]:
experience don’t have that. Yep. Well, and it’s, it’s cultural too, James. I mean, you know, let, let take a— I mean, I’m sure you’ve got a McDonald’s in your neighborhood or in your area. Oh, they’re everywhere. Yeah. You know, and you probably have a Chick-fil-A. You know, in, in your area.

James Kademan [00:40:00]:
Mm-hmm.

Vance Morris [00:40:00]:
And you know, they pull from the same applicant pool, which is usually the local high school. And so there’s not like any mystery into how they’re hiring or, you know, where they’re getting their people, same high school. But McDonald’s can barely get them to grunt at you when you pull up to the drive-through. And Chick-fil-A has a way of getting ’em to say please and my pleasure and thank you. You know, the bathroom is clean there. I mean, I’ve never run into an

James Kademan [00:40:33]:
unfriendly person at a Chick-fil-A.

Vance Morris [00:40:35]:
Oh, interesting. You know, and they’re both fast food. Um, granted Chick-fil-A takes a little bit longer, but, um, you know, you look at the average sales of an average McDonald’s is like 4, 4.5 million dollars a year. Some of ’em are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Chick-fil-A, it’s closed on Sunday, so it’s only got 6 operating days. They don’t open 24 hours and Chick-fil-A’s are doing between $7 and $8 million a year.

James Kademan [00:41:03]:
Are there— it’s that big of a difference.

Vance Morris [00:41:05]:
It’s that big of a difference.

James Kademan [00:41:08]:
It’s like 1.5x a McDonald’s.

Vance Morris [00:41:12]:
Wow.

James Kademan [00:41:12]:
How peculiar. Okay. I had no idea it was that big of a deal or big of a difference. Yeah.

Vance Morris [00:41:15]:
I mean, and they’re just selling chicken

James Kademan [00:41:17]:
sandwiches, just like McDonald’s.

Vance Morris [00:41:18]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:41:18]:
It’s still fast food. It’s nothing like, yeah, it’s not Thanksgiving dinner or anything. Interesting. How peculiar. And I imagine the buy-in, if you wanted to franchise or become a franchisee, or Chick-fil-A versus, uh, McDonald’s, is there

Vance Morris [00:41:35]:
a big difference there? Huge difference. Um, so Chick-fil-A, you can actually get in, uh, you can only own one. I think there’s only like a handful of people that own more than one, and you don’t actually even own it. You’re— kind of leasing it. Uh, so it’s like a $5,000, uh, investment, um, uh, for the owner to buy in, or the proprietor. I can’t remember what they call them. Um, and you know, you’re expected to run and manage that store. You’re not— you can’t be an absentee owner.

Vance Morris [00:42:08]:
Um, you know, whereas if you want to start a McDonald’s, I mean, again, you’re up into that $1 or $2 million liquid cash. They’re probably expecting you to open you know, 6, 10, 15 of them, um, in your area.

James Kademan [00:42:21]:
Uh, so it’s very different, very different business model. Interesting. So the Chick-fil-A, you’re almost buying a job.

Vance Morris [00:42:31]:
You are. Okay. You are. I, uh, now I don’t know what the exit is. I mean, they might have, you know, a good exit plan, you know, profits or whatever. Um, but I mean, the GM of a, of a Chick-fil-A, I mean, they’re making nice six-figure salaries, you know. All right. All right.

James Kademan [00:42:49]:
And they’re off on Sunday. Sure.

Vance Morris [00:42:50]:
And all the chicken you can eat, right?

James Kademan [00:42:54]:
Chicken you can eat. Tell me, the Deliver ServiceNow Institute—

Vance Morris [00:43:00]:
tell me about that name. Sure. This is actually very peculiar in that if you make an acronym out of it, D-S-N-I, and you try and pronounce

James Kademan [00:43:16]:
that, Sounds like Disney.

Vance Morris [00:43:17]:
Oh, would you look at that? Would you look at that? D-S-N-I. So, um, it took me a while to come up with that, trust me. Um, but, uh, I don’t call it the Disney Institute. It’s, you know, Deliver ServiceNow Institute. But, uh, people will, um, will say Disney. I say, yes, that’s right. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, it’s, um, that was the, the down and dirty way I came up with the name.

James Kademan [00:43:41]:
Sure. Oh, that’s pretty clever. I like that. That is the first time I’ve ever heard of a business named in that regard, taking the pronunciation of an acronym

Vance Morris [00:43:50]:
and then working it backwards. Oh, that’s— that is— yeah, it took

James Kademan [00:43:53]:
some time, but we got there. Tell me, as far as Disney goes, I have to admit I’ve never been to Disney. I don’t even have much interest in going to Disney. I’m just not a fan of lines.

Vance Morris [00:44:05]:
So that’s— Well, you know, you can

James Kademan [00:44:07]:
pay to avoid the lines. You know, it’s funny that you say that because I have a friend of mine, his wife is a Disney travel something or other. I don’t know, they go to Disney so often that she became a, a pyramid scheme salesperson for Disney.

Vance Morris [00:44:23]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:44:23]:
Uh, and I guess you pay extra to avoid the lines, but you just pay extra to end up in a

Vance Morris [00:44:29]:
shorter line, I believe. Is that— uh, well, no, there is actually the, if you hire a private guide. Um, they will take you and 9 of your friends and will walk you

James Kademan [00:44:41]:
literally to the front of every line.

Vance Morris [00:44:43]:
Oh, interesting. So they— every single year now, now it’s $6,000 for the day for this private guide. Um, but if you wanted to see all 4 parks and all the major attractions in all 4 parks with a private guide, you could do it in one day. Cause they’ll put you in the back of a big Escalade and they will, drive you. You don’t get to go through the front gates. You go through all the back doors of everything and they escort you right onto the ride. You do the ride, you get off

James Kademan [00:45:09]:
and you go do the next one. Huh. How interesting. So I guess the question that I have is, is Disney the end-all be-all when it comes to service like they were or are thought to be? Or is this like the Cadillac thing where people used to use the name Cadillac and now it doesn’t mean as

Vance Morris [00:45:26]:
much as it used to? I mean, I, I still think they’re a gold standard as far as experiences are concerned. There’s definitely been slippage, uh, since I’ve been there. Not saying it slipped because I left. I would love to be there. But it’s really, I mean, it is the farther and farther it get— you get away from the founder. So in this case, Walt, the more diluted the culture gets. Um, and so what we focused on 25 years ago is maybe, you know, 75% now, um, versus— and when I was there, we were probably 75% of what Walt focused on 30 years before that. Um, I mean, you can see that with McDonald’s.

Vance Morris [00:46:12]:
Um, you know, McDonald’s, you know, clean bathrooms used to be a marketing expense. It wasn’t even an operations expense. So the further and further you get away from, you know, Ray Kroc and, and the McDonald’s brothers, the— I don’t say the worst it gets, but the less pleasant, or maybe not top-notch. Um, but they’re still up there, you know. I think they, you know, they are up there with the Ritz-Carltons, the Four Seasons, um, Apple, um, Harley-Davidson. Um, I mean, these are all companies that just have a rabid fanatical fan base that— I mean, if you’ve run into a Disney fanatic, you know it. I mean, You know, they’re wearing Minnie Mouse outfits at the shopping mall. Um, you know, it’s, uh, um, but those are diehard fans and there is a lot to be said about being able to create that kind of culture with any customer, whether you’re a dentist or an attorney or whatever.

Vance Morris [00:47:09]:
Um, you know, that’s really where you wanna go. So if you went to Disney today, 80% of the people in the park right now have been there before. It’s only 20— 80%. It’s only 20% new. So that’s, that— I said, well, that ratio is good enough for Disney. That’s what I want to try to attain. So in my home service businesses, we’re in the low 70s, so we’re not quite there yet, but still very respectable. And that’s the benchmark I use when I’m working with clients, um, is we really should get you to the 80% mark because That’s where all the profitability comes in.

Vance Morris [00:47:46]:
As I mentioned earlier, you know, getting a new customer is expensive. Uh, like for my home service businesses, it costs me $135 to get a new customer in the front door. So, you know, pay-per-click ads, guy answering the phone, et cetera. About $135. It only costs me $22 a year to keep a customer. So the minute we serve an existing customer, I’m already over $100 more profitable because I didn’t have to go out

James Kademan [00:48:12]:
and get the customer again. Right? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Maintaining customers is way easier and way more— Oh, God, yeah. —beneficial. Yeah. I can definitely, definitely attest to that. Some of the clients that you’ve worked with, tell me, I mean, I imagine there’s different industries that you’ve worked with.

James Kademan [00:48:28]:
So tell me what are the industries that they’re in and what did they tweak with their systems and processes to achieve this level of customer service that people that aren’t in the know necessarily wouldn’t wouldn’t even understand or know, like,

Vance Morris [00:48:42]:
oh, that’s a thing. Yeah. Well, a lot of the, uh, people I work with, you know, they will work on their in-office experience. So maybe they’re a medical professional, maybe they’re a financial advisor. Um, and you know, I mean, if you go to the dentist, I mean, a dentist is a dentist is a dentist, right? There’s only so many ways to clean teeth, right? You know, it’s like the little whirry thing or the little squirty thing, and that’s kind of it. So what separates one dentist from another? It’s the in-office experience that they deliver. So one of my clients, um, uh, you know, most dentists take insurance. Well, the insurance reimbursements aren’t that great.

Vance Morris [00:49:21]:
Um, and she was, you know, she’s working 6 days a week. She’s just killing herself. She goes, you know, I says, Vance, I’m gonna— I’m barely even paying back my student loans from medical school. Um, and I said, well, you’re not gonna really make it with reimbursements from insurance. I said, have you ever thought about going private pay? She goes, yeah, I thought about it, but you know, makes me nervous. Um, and so I, we’ve talked about it, got her convinced to go private pay. So now she can charge whatever price she wants to charge. Um, but she still was just a dentist.

Vance Morris [00:49:52]:
I said, we’ve gotta niche down. So I said, who do you like working with? She says, oh, I love working with the kids. I said, okay, great. Let’s just have you be a pediatric dentist. So now you work with them from, you know, 2 to 18, and after that, they— you don’t talk to them. And I said, okay, great. Now you specialize, so you’re gonna get a little bit more, um, elasticity in your pricing. You’ll be able to charge more cuz you’re a specialist.

Vance Morris [00:50:16]:
I said, but you need, you need something from your personality to really make this work. I said, what’s your favorite movie? And she says, Peter Pan. Great. So you’re going to be the pirate dentist. And so she dresses up like Captain Hook. Um, her, uh, dental assistants all look like little Mr. Smees running around, and they all say in the office, say, “Argh!” all the time. Um, you know, there’s a, a shipwreck jungle gym in the waiting room, and she has got a line of kids out the door.

Vance Morris [00:50:49]:
She’s got a waiting list. And they are paying her prices. Here’s the cool thing. She dropped $170,000 to her bottom line by eliminating the 2.5 people that did insurance billing. She had 2.5 people on, on her team. That’s all they did was insurance billing. Wow. She got rid of them.

Vance Morris [00:51:11]:
She’s already 175 or 170 grand more profitable every year. And she was able to raise her prices. Well, that’s impressive. All right. Yeah. So, you know, so it’s those kinds of things now, you know, there are, you know, like I’ve got, you know, a couple of financial advisor clients and, you know, they can’t really be walking around like pirates. They gotta be taken a little more seriously. Um, but we still work on the in-office experience.

Vance Morris [00:51:36]:
You know, if you go to a financial advisor’s office, it’s usually a couple of dusty houseplants, some green shade, you know, um, lamps sitting around. And some grumpy, you know, receptionist named Marge sitting behind, you know, the desk. So I said, if you want to stand out, you’ve got to change that, especially if you want to maximize your fees and charge fees that you, you know, that you think you deserve. So one of my clients, he, since he’s been working with me for 3 years, he has 5x’d his management fees for the first year for a financial advisor. He’s quoting between— he’s quoting between $35,000 and $50,000 just in fee for the first year. And I said, you’ve got to have an experience that supports that fee. So one of the things we did with him is now when people walk into the office, one, they— everybody comes by appointment so they know who’s coming. The receptionist will stand up, walk around the desk, and say, hi, Mr.

Vance Morris [00:52:41]:
Smith, um, you know, Leonard will be with you in just a couple of minutes. Here’s our menu of, uh, coffee drinks and waters. What could I get you? So they have, uh, like 6 versions of still and sparkling water, and they have an espresso machine in the back, and everybody is trained on it. And you can get your favorite cappuccino, frappuccino, latte, extra potato juice, whatever thing you like to drink. Um, that’s a lot different than just walking in and, you know, offering a little Dixie cup of, you know, water from the sink. Yeah. Bottles over there. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:53:18]:
Yeah. Bottles over there.

Vance Morris [00:53:20]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:53:21]:
Interesting. So it’s offering that level of customer service to have the customer believe that they’re at a higher tier place.

Vance Morris [00:53:27]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:53:27]:
So they’re being charged higher tier prices. So they are. That makes sense.

Vance Morris [00:53:31]:
That makes sense.

James Kademan [00:53:31]:
Yeah.

Vance Morris [00:53:31]:
I mean, you’ve gotta have the value there as well., but if you’re, if you have the value, um, and you’re charging premium prices, it’s gotta feel like a premium experience.

James Kademan [00:53:45]:
Right. Yeah, definitely. It’s, it’s interesting how I guess I, I see a lot of businesses trying to offer, get their, try to go to the premium price first before they get the actual premium service. Yeah, that’s backwards. And I always think, you know, Uh, you need me more than I need you cuz you got plenty of other competitors here.

Vance Morris [00:54:07]:
Right. So, yeah, 100%. And you can do it in any business. I mean, I do it in my carpet cleaning business. I mean, one of the boring things we have to do is get into the home to, uh, provide our service. We can’t get in the house, we can’t do the service. And so I’ve scripted out the entire process of getting into the home. And, you know, it starts with we park in the street, we don’t park in the driveway.

Vance Morris [00:54:29]:
God forbid I got an oil leak. Now I got something else I gotta clean up. You know, technician gets out of the van in a clean, crisp uniform cuz he carries extra uniforms with him in case he gets dirty. Um, he doesn’t smell because I forbid cologne and I forbid smoking. And I mean, there’s nothing worse than a guy showing up in your kitchen smelling like the Marlboro Man who just took a shower in Axe. I mean, it’s just— it’s, it’s gross. Um, and so we go to the front door, we lay down a special mat, we knock on the door, we don’t ring the bell. Uh, when the customer opens the door, you know, uh, you know, we ask to be let in, we don’t just barge in.

Vance Morris [00:55:06]:
Um, we do an exaggeration of wiping our feet on the special mat we laid down, then we put little booties on our shoes. And as we’re going in, we give our client a gift. And when was the last time you had a carpet cleaner, water treatment guy, whoever, give you a gift before they did any service?

James Kademan [00:55:24]:
No, probably not.

Vance Morris [00:55:25]:
Other than a business card, no. Yeah, no. And then I’m not counting like a pen or a chip clip or something. I’m talking a nice box and, you know, inside the box that we didn’t do is a bottle of our spot remover, a little bag of Entenmann’s cookies and a note from me saying, thanks for letting us into your home. So that’s our process. That’s our experience. For getting into the home. And you just have to think outside the box on, okay, how do you make this a little bit better? How do you make this a little bit better? What’s the next iteration of how you’re

James Kademan [00:55:58]:
gonna perform, uh, your, your job? Nice. I love it. I love it. Are there, um, well, I guess tell me, Vance, as far as websites or anything like that that you have, I imagine you have a lot going on, so why don’t we just start list

Vance Morris [00:56:12]:
them off for you. Yeah, sure. Uh, I mean, you know, if you want to get in touch with me, vancemorris.com, um, nice and easy to get to. Um, and then I’ve got a, a gift for your listeners if they want it. It’s, uh, called 52 Ways to Wow Your Customer Without Breaking the Bank. So 52 low or no-cost ways, uh, one wow for every week of the year. So if you’re not feeling overly creative, um, and you can, uh, download that at wow52ways.com. Wow52ways.com.

James Kademan [00:56:47]:
Yep. 5-2. So the number wow52ways.com. Oh, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Vance, thank you so much for being

Vance Morris [00:56:53]:
on the show here. I appreciate it, James. Uh, uh, hopefully I, uh, served you

James Kademan [00:56:57]:
and your, uh, and your crowd. I would think so. Very much so. This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. My name is James Kademann, and Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, offering call answering and receptionist services to service businesses across the country, on the web at https://callsoncall.com. And of course, The Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us, available wherever fine books are sold. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, if you could do us a huge favor, give it the big ol’ thumbs up, subscribe, and of course share it with your entrepreneurial friends. Especially those friends that need help on systems and those that could bump up their customer service that they can charge more, essentially is what it comes down to, make the world a better place, right? I just feel, Vance, it’s interesting, uh, if customer service was bumped up everywhere and people had to pay a little bit more money to get that better customer service, I feel like everybody would end up being happier and better paid.

James Kademan [00:58:01]:
So 100%.

Vance Morris [00:58:02]:
I think so. 100%. I think so. I mean, I, I’ve even done this with oil change companies, you know. Oh, perfect. You know, I’ve got a guy, um, he owns 4 private, um, kind of like a Jiffy Lube, Quick Lube kind of thing, but he’s, you know, he’s independent. Um, and we Disney-fied his business. He’s charging 45% more than, you know, the Jiffy Lube 2 doors down from him.

Vance Morris [00:58:25]:
And people are lining up because again,

James Kademan [00:58:28]:
he’s delivering an experience. That is, you know, I imagine it’s one of those things that instead of you dreading or putting it off, getting your oil change on your vehicle, now

Vance Morris [00:58:36]:
people are almost looking forward to it. Yeah. Yeah. Cause we put a barista in his waiting room.

James Kademan [00:58:41]:
Well, now you’re talking, they’re going to get a coffee anyways. So might as well get it there.

Vance Morris [00:58:47]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:58:47]:
Exactly. I love it. Thank you, Vance.

Vance Morris [00:58:49]:
Um, can you tell us those websites one more time? Sure. Yep. Uh, https://vancemorris.com. And then if you want the free

James Kademan [00:58:59]:
52 ways, it is, uh, https://wow52ways.com. Perfect. I love it. Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night at the podcast link, found at drawincustomers.com. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome, and if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.