The Disney-Inspired Systems Behind Exceptional Customer Experience
Hosted by Jeff Walter, Founder and CEO of LatitudeLearning
Customer experience is one of those phrases that gets used constantly in business conversations, yet very few organizations truly operationalize it. Most companies talk about culture, customer service, or loyalty in broad terms, but struggle to turn those ideas into repeatable systems that consistently improve customer relationships and business performance.
That is exactly what made this Training Impact Podcast conversation between Jeff Walter and Vance Morris so compelling.
Vance Morris, Chief Experience Officer of Deliver Service Now Institute, brings an unusual perspective to the discussion. Before launching his consulting and coaching organization, Vance spent a decade at Walt Disney World focused on customer experience and operational systems. After leaving Disney, he applied those lessons to his own businesses, including a successful carpet cleaning franchise, an oriental rug washing company, and a mold remediation business.
Eventually, those experiences evolved into Deliver Service Now Institute, where he now helps organizations improve customer retention, create stronger emotional connections with customers, and build operational systems that drive long-term profitability.
What makes the conversation especially valuable is that it goes far beyond generic customer service advice. Instead, the episode focuses on the mechanics behind exceptional customer experiences and how businesses can intentionally design systems that separate them from competitors.
Early in the episode, Jeff raises an interesting point that many leaders wrestle with. Businesses often hear that strong systems and processes are essential for scalability and consistency, but highly proceduralized environments are also frequently associated with bureaucracy and rigidity.
Vance immediately reframes that assumption.
At Disney, systems are not designed to suppress creativity. They are designed to create consistency while freeing employees to focus on human interaction and customer engagement. Disney proceduralizes nearly everything, but those systems are constantly evolving through employee feedback and continuous improvement.
Disney refers to this process as “plussing.”
Instead of assuming a process is permanently correct, employees regularly contribute ideas about how experiences can improve for both customers and employees. That feedback loop prevents systems from becoming stagnant.
One of the most memorable moments in the episode comes when Vance explains Disney’s operational philosophy using three simple concepts:
What to do.
How to do it.
Why it matters.
According to Vance, many organizations only explain the first two. Employees are told what the process is and how to execute it, but rarely understand why the process exists in the first place.
That missing “why” is often what causes disengagement.
When employees understand the purpose behind a process, they become far more invested in improving it and delivering better experiences. Jeff immediately connects this idea to franchise operations, noting that high-performing franchise organizations are not built around superhero operators. They are built around repeatable operational disciplines that create consistent results across locations.
At the same time, those systems must remain adaptable enough to evolve with changing customer expectations.
The discussion becomes even more interesting when Vance shares how he applied Disney-inspired principles inside his own carpet cleaning franchise.
Rather than competing on price, he designed a theatrical customer arrival experience.
Technicians parked in the street instead of the driveway to avoid potential oil stains. They wore clean uniforms and carried backup uniforms in case they became dirty during previous jobs. As they approached the home, they carried a custom mat, wiped their feet in an exaggerated manner, and put protective booties over their shoes before entering the house.
Then came the moment customers never expected.
Before performing any work, the technician presented the customer with a small gift.
The gift included cookies, spot remover, and a handwritten thank-you note. It cost less than five dollars to produce, yet the impact was enormous.
Vance explains that after implementing the gift strategy, the company experienced a 26 percent increase in mid-tier package sales, generating an additional sixty to seventy thousand dollars annually.
The brilliance of the example is not simply the gift itself. It is the psychology behind the experience.
The process immediately established professionalism, trust, and emotional connection. Customers no longer perceived the business as a commodity carpet cleaning company. Instead, the experience felt premium, thoughtful, and differentiated.
Throughout the conversation, Vance repeatedly returns to the idea that emotional connection is what separates great brands from interchangeable service providers.
Disney creates emotional connection.
Harley-Davidson creates emotional connection.
Apple creates emotional connection.
Those companies are not simply selling products. They are creating identity, loyalty, and emotional attachment.
That emotional attachment allows businesses to escape pure price competition.
Jeff relates this concept to his own experience operating an ice cream truck during college. He observed that working-class neighborhoods often generated the highest sales, not because the products were unique, but because buying ice cream became an event and an experience for families and neighborhoods.
It was an affordable luxury.
That idea becomes a recurring theme throughout the episode. Customers are often willing to pay significantly more when the experience itself creates emotional value.
The conversation later shifts into the economics of customer retention, which is another area where Deliver Service Now Institute focuses heavily.
Vance explains that acquiring a new customer for his business costs approximately $136, while retaining an existing customer costs only $23 annually.
Existing customers also spend more money because trust has already been established.
That insight leads into one of the most important strategic ideas in the episode: businesses spend enormous amounts of money on acquisition while dramatically underinvesting in retention.
Vance points to Disney once again as a model. Approximately 80 percent of Disney visitors have been there before. That repeat visitation is what drives profitability and long-term growth.
To support retention, Vance built what he calls a “customer existence system.”
Every month, customers receive six separate touchpoints including a printed newsletter, a promotional postcard, and four weekly emails.
Interestingly, the newsletter itself is not designed to sell.
Instead, it exists to deepen emotional connection. The newsletter includes stories, personal updates, and entertaining content. Vance even shares how customers watched his daughter grow up through photos and stories included in the newsletters over the years.
Those repeated emotional touchpoints create familiarity and trust that competitors struggle to replicate.
The episode also explores customer journey mapping, which plays a major role in Deliver Service Now Institute’s consulting process.
When Vance works with clients, he maps every single interaction a customer has with the organization. Each interaction becomes an opportunity to create a better experience.
One particularly memorable example involves an insurance agency struggling to differentiate itself in a crowded market.
After learning the agency owner was passionate about rock music, they redesigned the phone greeting to say:
“Thank you for calling Dave’s Allstate, the agency that rocks.”
Simple.
Unexpected.
Memorable.
That small adjustment immediately gave the agency personality while helping attract customers who aligned with the company’s culture and style.
It also reinforced another major lesson from the conversation: effective marketing attracts ideal customers while naturally repelling poor-fit customers.
Strong brands are not designed to appeal to everyone.
Toward the end of the interview, Jeff and Vance discuss the challenges franchise organizations face when balancing operational consistency with adaptability.
Vance argues that many franchise systems become overly rigid and fail to listen to successful operators in the field who are discovering valuable innovations.
Jeff connects this idea to a story shared at the International Franchise Association conference involving Cinnabon. One franchise operator had quietly started selling smaller cinnamon rolls years earlier because local customer preferences had changed. That innovation eventually became part of the broader strategy that helped revitalize the brand.
The lesson is clear.
Operational systems matter.
Consistency matters.
But adaptability matters too.
The organizations that scale successfully are the ones that combine strong systems with continuous learning and humility.
The conversation closes with a broader discussion about authenticity in an AI-driven world.
As AI-generated content becomes more common, trust and authentic human connection become increasingly valuable differentiators. Technology can improve efficiency, but emotional connection still drives loyalty.
That philosophy sits at the center of Deliver Service Now Institute’s approach.
Businesses that create authentic, memorable experiences build stronger customer trust, stronger retention, and ultimately stronger profitability.
This episode of the Training Impact Podcast serves as a powerful reminder that customer experience is not accidental. Exceptional organizations intentionally design systems that create emotional connection, operational consistency, and long-term customer loyalty.
For franchisors, service businesses, and organizations focused on customer retention, the conversation offers practical insights that are both strategic and highly actionable.
As Vance says near the end of the episode:
“You won’t profit unless you implement.”
To learn more about Deliver Service Now Institute, visit:
https://deliverservicenow.com/
52 Ways to Wow Your Customers Without Braking the Bank – https://wow52ways.com/
For more from the Training Impact Podcast, follow us on Social Media:
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Jeff Walter (00:00)
Hi, I’m Jeff Walter and welcome back to the Training Impact Podcast, where we explore scaling channel performance through training infrastructure. My guest today is Vance Morris. Vance is the CEO, that’s Chief Experience Officer, of Deliver Service Now Institute. Vance spent a decade as a senior leader at Walt Disney World, where he focused on the customer experience. He then applied those lessons from Disney World to his own successful businesses, which ultimately led to the creation of Deliver Service Now Institute. Vance, welcome to the program.
program.
Vance Morris (00:29)
I appreciate
it, Jeff. hopefully we’ll drop a few gold nuggets for everybody today.
Jeff Walter (00:33)
⁓ well we’ve we’ve talked for a few minutes ⁓ prior to this and I’ve already learned a lot, so I’m I’m looking forward to sharing all that knowledge with with the audience. So so Vance, as the as my listeners know, usually like to say, you know, I I believe life is a journey. so you started the Deliver Net Service Now Institute. how how did you get to that point? What was the journey that led you to that creation?
Vance Morris (00:56)
It it
was convoluted, ⁓ no doubt. very convoluted. So I am living proof that you can leave the Disney company ⁓ and manage to stay alive. so I didn’t curl up in the fetal position or anything and curl under a table. and I took everything I learned there and I’ve applied it in, you know, large companies. ⁓ I was in ⁓ retirement living for a number of years, worked with a number of government agencies for a few years and really the
The the thing that permeated all of it was that, you know, the customer service or customer experience really relies on systems and processes. and that’s really what delivers that consistent high expectation at Disney. you know, they have a system and a process for everything. You wanna change a bus tire, you wanna carry a train, a restaurant, they got a system for it. And that system
allows the employees to have some freedom in their brain to actually do all of the nice things that Disney is known for doing. and so I was able to apply that to a lot of other companies. sadly along the way I I soon realized I make a lousy employee. ⁓ I just don’t like to be told what to do. so I decided I would start my own business, which was ⁓ which was the carpet cleaning, which was a franchise.
Had the franchise for 15 years, ups, downs, sideways, till the contract just got so hideously bad I had to get out. but I I recommend franchising for anybody who’s new to business. I mean, if you’re just getting out the military or you’re just, you know, you haven’t worked in a business before, franchises offer a great, you know, proven concept, a good model. there’s usually a good strong backbone to it. and ⁓
So that’s what I did and really took the time to put my own name on the franchise. So there’s a bunch of us around. but we were the ones that had the reputation of delivering the value, delivering the the high level of experiences. Certainly our product and our service was good. and along the way we opened up a ⁓ Oriental rug washing facility.
We added a mold remediation company to it about six years ago. so all of these kind of just built off of the existing customer list. that was kind of what was really the slingshot that got us got us moving. about seven years ago I was able to put the businesses on autopilot. ⁓ so I spend about ninety minutes a week on them now. sixty minutes in a meeting with the general manager, and thirty minutes I spend on the accounting. I
keep my fingers all over the checkbook. Nobody’s nobody’s getting a hold of that thing. and so I mean, I guess at 90 minutes a week I could sit around and drink beer and eat bonbons, but then I’d be, you know, kind of overweight. So I said, you know, let’s let’s help some other folks out. So I now consult and coach with other companies on their customer experience and customer retention.
Jeff Walter (03:44)
Well so so it’s interesting. Th there’s a a bunch of things that you threw there. It’s a interesting path. I always find it really interesting the the journey people take to where they’re at. and and yeah yes you know, it’s it reflects so much of their experiences. So cu there’s a couple of things I want to hit on. So the one of the first things you said was
Well customer the customer experience at Disney is at Disney World everything is proceduralized and it frees up the individual. Which I found that really interesting when you were saying that because it’s kind of the opposite of the perception most of us have.
The perception most of us have is that a highly proceduralized environment is bureaucratic and actually does the opposite of freeing us up. So help it seem to I got a little cognitive dissonance going on in my mind. So how just explain that a little bit more of how how why why it’s not a bureaucratic tyranny and why it’s actually freeing.
Vance Morris (04:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well,
first and foremost, the systems are are ever changing. ⁓ Walt Disney called it plusing. So constant process improvement. So there are, you know, ⁓ I hate the word meetings, but there are meetings with the employees at each Disney location about how do we make this process or system better for the customer or for the employee. ⁓
Jeff Walter (05:04)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (05:08)
So it’s not stagnant. So, you know, you think bureaucracy and you know, okay, it’s my way or the highway. Well, they’ve got a process built into it to keep it from getting like that. and so if you think about, you know, a process is designed to deliver a result. So if you’ve got a great process, you should be delivering a great result. It also frees up brain space. So it’s studies have shown it’s like anywhere between 15 and 20 percent. If you’re
Jeff Walter (05:21)
Okay.
Vance Morris (05:37)
Performing your job by just muscle memory by rote, you have that excess brain capacity to do other things. Now at Disney, they direct them to doing the stuff that Disney’s known for, you know, doing the autographs, taking pictures, you know, giving directions, all of that stuff. and for us entrepreneurs, those same systems and processes give us operational freedom in that.
We can come and go from our business as we please and not really affect how the business is running. so there’s really I mean, there’s two very strong arguments there that processes and systems that they don’t stifle unless you want to perceive them that way, but that’s you know, or you’ve got lousy processes, then you’re really screwed. but if you take you know, what you’ve got and you’re constantly looking at how do we make it better, what’s the next iteration, they they’re they’re vital to any company.
Jeff Walter (06:29)
Well I I I think so if I if I’m understanding, it it sounds like it’s the feedback loop that makes it non-tyrannical, right? ‘Cause there’s a d there’s a difference between me saying, Well, I’ve studied this fance and the right way to do this is A B C. And then you’re trying A B C and you’re like, That that ain’t working.
Vance Morris (06:37)
Definitely.
Jeff Walter (06:49)
You you try a variant and I smack you. Right? I’m like bad variants, right? Like back to work. Do. Stop thinking and just do. Right? But then if you include the feedback loop in and and and I as process owner, let’s say
Or boss or what we whatever you want to call the person who owns controls the process goes, Hey Vance, I I I it we’ve talked to a lot of people, it seems like A B C is the right way to do this. And you go, Well, it’s really A B D. You know, C, not so much. And then we go, that’s you know, and and then we and we get that feedback, then it’s like, ⁓
you have the ability to do that continuous process improvement, get your get your feedback in. You I ⁓ I I create a culture where our organization is not
We we we’re humble enough to know that we don’t know everything. And so a and then when you say, Hey, why are we doing B? I’m not saying, well, ’cause that’s the way we’ve always done it. We’ve always done A, B. Y we go, that’s a good question. Why do we do B? Right? And I go, well the reason we’re doing B is this and then you go, I never thought about it that way. That makes sense. Let’s do B. Right Is that is that kinda going back to that first is that
Vance Morris (07:36)
Right.
Yeah, and
you know, one of the things, you know, and Disney and myself, we run on simple systems because if they were complex, the things would just fall apart. ⁓ and so every process at Disney Disney runs on three words what to do, how to do it, and then what you just alluded to is why do we do it that way. So if you want to have employees engaged in the business, you gotta give them the why.
Jeff Walter (08:05)
Right.
Vance Morris (08:23)
⁓ you know, so let’s say it’s answering the telephone. So what do we do? We answer the phone. How do we do it? Whatever your way of answering the phone is. Why do we do it that way? Is the key thing to getting them one for compliance, two for engagement, three for process improvement. We do it this way because, well, it separates us from everybody else in our industry. you know, it sorts out anybody who’d be a bad customer, you know, we want to offer help.
Jeff Walter (08:23)
Yeah.
Vance Morris (08:48)
It’s that Y that’s really strong. So every one of your procedures or systems needs to have that Y column attached to it.
Jeff Walter (08:56)
Well that that’s I I I like that ’cause the the the the what and the how you always get the what and the how, right? And and if I think about like bureaucratic systems I’ve been in, you always get the what and how. This is what we’re doing and this is how you do it. But the why part is the part that opens up the and we’re doing it for this reason, which allows you to go, well, that how or that that what is not getting us the why.
And that’s where you can get that that that I like that. That really makes that simplifies it. So you said that was a di like a Disney paradigm, you does three things. That yeah. What, how and why. Huh.
Vance Morris (09:30)
Yeah, it’s three words.
Jeff Walter (09:33)
Just writing I I I like that a lot. I like that a lot. I’m gonna use that. That’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. No, I
Vance Morris (09:34)
And I’ve taken that and used it everywhere, you know. Yeah, please do. the royalty checks
could be sent to No, I’m just kidding.
Jeff Walter (09:43)
I will definitely give
you a royalty of every dollar I make off of that.
Vance Morris (09:50)
Just kidding.
Jeff Walter (09:51)
no, no, that’s fine. ⁓ no, no, I think that’s ⁓ well I think there’s pro because when when people hear about processes and and and that and it and it’s funny because ⁓ on Friday I’m speaking at the International Franchise Expo in New York. And and the t the topic of my my my my ⁓ my presentation is, you know, why do franchise locations have different you know, why why does performance differ?
And my thesis is ex is is what you just said, which is really interesting, is it’s not the high performing franchises are or franchisees are not the result of superheroes. It’s the result of hundreds of tasks and processes ru done routinely systematized and and done. And and I I I I just f I finished that up and I was like
And I had that nagging in my head like, well, what’s the difference between that and a bureaucracy? Why is it not tyrannical like a bureaucracy? And and that is that was critical insight. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Vance Morris (10:40)
Right. Yeah, you know, and I I mean in having owned
a franchise, you know, I mean, the the great thing about the one I was with is that they they left us alone for marketing. so we were able to market the business how we best saw fit for the marketplace that we were in. So, you know, you know I’m a live in a very small town. We got seventeen hundred people here, three traffic lights. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
And so up until even a few years ago, yellow pages were still viable. but they weren’t, you know, as a franchiser, they weren’t recommending yellow pages. Well, if you had another franchisee in a rural area that had no broadband, that’s probably a good place to be. and we could also set, you know, we had to while we had to use their system for cleaning. nobody told me how I had to utilize the system.
in the service to the customer. and what I mean by that is what’s that?
Jeff Walter (11:36)
No.
Yeah, I I was gonna say that’s that’s interesting. What do you mean by that?
Vance Morris (11:42)
So so let’s say so every carpet cleaner in the world needs to get into the home to do the job. We can’t get in the house, we can’t do the job. So we came up with the process of how to get into the house. We’ve scripted this thing out. I mean, it’s a theatrical performance. So and for us, we start in the street. We park in the street, we don’t park in the driveway. God forbid I got an oil leak. Now I got something else I gotta clean up.
Technician gets out of the car or van, he’s in a clean uniform, cause he carries extra uniforms in case he gets dirty on the job beforehand. He also doesn’t smell, cause I forbid smoking and I forbid cologne. Nothing worse than the Marlboro man who looks like he just took a shower and axe showing up in your, you know, in your living room. when he’s walking up to the front door, he’s got a little special carpet with him. He’s got his tool bag, he’s got a little gift. He goes, he lays his carpet down on the front porch, he knocks on the door, he doesn’t ring the bell.
Takes a couple of steps back, Mrs. McGillicuddy answers the door. We say, Hi, my name’s Josh. I’m here to create your healthy home. May I come in? We don’t just barge in. and then we do an exaggeration of wiping our feet. There’s the theater on our special little mat. Then we put little booties on our clean shoes. And as we’re going into the home, we give the customer a gift. Now, when was the last time you had a home service professional come to your house, you know, pest control, plumber, whatever, and they gave you a gift before they did.
any work. I’m gonna probably hazard a guess it hasn’t happened. and so that whole process had nothing to do with the franchise, had nothing to do with the cleaning process. It was just our customer experience process of getting into the home. And I mentioned the gift, ⁓ the gift does a couple of things. One separates us from everybody else out there because nobody’s copying me. I mean my competitors know what we’re doing. They’re either too dumb or lazy or poor or I don’t know.
Jeff Walter (13:08)
Uh-huh.
Never comes to my mind. Never. Okay.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (13:35)
⁓ but the the other thing that that gift did was it started a process called reciprocity. I give something to you, you feel compelled to give something back to me. So when we started that gift, which costs us less than five dollars to make, it’s just a custom little blue box. It’s got a bottle of spot remover, a bag of Entamans cookies, and a little note from me saying thanks for allowing us into your home. When we started that, we saw a 26% increase in our mid-tier package.
Jeff Walter (13:42)
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (14:02)
or an additional sixty five seventy thousand dollars a year in additional sales.
Jeff Walter (14:06)
For for that’s amazing. That’s Well, I I like I’m just listening to that whole thing. It’s well, and it’s interesting ’cause one i one of the things when I when when I present on Friday, this is really good. This actually the timing is really good.
⁓ well no, ’cause one one of the other things w I was gonna say is it’s it’s that, you know, it’s proceduralizing thing, but then it’s also no matter what franchise system you ’cause the the audience are potential franchisees, right? that at this particular event. And and so it’s like
what one of the other things is like, okay, it’s it’s not the superhero, it’s the processes. You gotta get the processes. And I was like, okay, but people hear that and they think bureaucracy and it’s not bureaucracy, it’s process. and and and and then but then the the other thing was like whatever brand you go with, whatever system you go with, they’re going to have a bunch of processes laid out and a bunch of processes that are you and a bunch of gaps. Like and like you just lay
that one that was like, well, you know, they didn’t lay out how to go to the front door. It’s like you park the car, you knock on a door. Like we’ve all done that. We know how to do that. I don’t have to teach anybody how to do that. But then you took it to the next level based on your experience. And you go, whoa, this is an opportunity to set the tone, to put them, to put the customer in a certain frame of mind, and and also increase it’s also interesting because you’re talking about that muscle memory.
Vance Morris (15:10)
Yeah.
Jeff Walter (15:26)
It it it also s sets the stage for the employee, for the that I’m a professional, I’m doing this, I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m expected to look a certain way, right? But I’m but I’m presenting a certain way because I’m a I’m a skilled professional. I’m not some schlep that just happened to get a carpet cleaning gig, right?
Vance Morris (15:48)
And that’s the problem with,
you know, a lot of companies is that you know, they they advertise and they price themselves as a commodity. And we all know that, you know, as a commodity, you don’t set your pricing. The marketplace sets your pricing. So we all travel around, we see on the telephone pole, you know, we’ll clean five rooms for forty nine dollars and you know, crap like that. you know, my guys don’t get out of the truck for anything less than two hundred.
so we don’t compete on price. And by having these experiences built in, right, we get what’s called price elasticity. You know, so my I there’s a a franchise right next door to me, and we were 40% higher in price than they were, and they literally in the next county over. And they’re like, How are you coming? How are you getting these prices? I’m like, Well, we because we’re doing the same cleaning. I said, I get it, but you know.
Jeff Walter (16:25)
Right.
Yeah.
Vance Morris (16:43)
You let your phone go to a machine, you don’t answer it live. You you know, you you you you don’t you wear a polo shirt and shorts and and you know, kicker boots and you just don’t look real professional when you get to the front door. I mean, it all the things that are you know, the franchise isn’t gonna tell you what to do, but it’s just okay, well how you know, how do you how do you wanna be perceived? And how you’re perceived is how you’re paid.
Jeff Walter (17:06)
Yeah. Well it’s it’s it’s also interesting ’cause I’m just thinking about what you’re saying, and forty percent is a big number. On the flip side, in absolute terms, it’s an affordable luxury. Right? Like like to to get treated at that notch above, to get the gift, to have somebody show up professionally, which also diminishes the you know
Vance Morris (17:14)
It’s huge.
Jeff Walter (17:30)
the stress of of the customer because they’re inviting a stranger into their house, right? Like like the whole thing, it’s it’s a it’s a much higher, it’s a it’s a huge premium percentage wise, but affordable luxury. Like I remember when I was an ice cream man, in college I r I I rented an ice cream truck. And our best neighborhoods were ⁓ working class neighborhoods.
Vance Morris (17:33)
A hundred percent.
Jeff Walter (17:51)
And I I for the life of me I was like, hey, you can go to your supermarket and get the same popsicle for half the price. Why are they com yeah, like I mean literally half the unit cost. And then what I realized is, it’s an affordable luxury.
Vance Morris (17:59)
Yep. A whole box of
Jeff Walter (18:08)
Yeah, like it was because it was an event in those neighborhoods, right? Like in other neighborhoods, more middle class, upper class, was like, okay, here’s a pop school, here’s, you know, give me a dollar here’s possible. But in those neighborhoods, it’s like the dad would come out after war after dinner. There’d be like the neighborhood kids all over. It wasn’t I’m buying it just for Jimmy, it’s like he’s buying it for the neighborhood, you know, his son or daughter and their friends.
And it’s an af it’s an event, an ex it it’s an experience. It’s a it’s an affordable luxury. And yeah.
Vance Morris (18:35)
It’s event. Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean you got the kids on their bikes
trailing behind the the truck, you know, sniffing in the exhaust and can’t wait for your next stop.
Jeff Walter (18:43)
Yeah.
Yeah, and and and and on the one hand it was a hundred percent premium, because it was twice what you could get in a store. But on the other hand it was thirty cents. Right? And it’s a it’s an affordable luxury, right? It’s it’s very very cool. Very cool. Well and and so g going on I’m I’m sorry to you know keep down but it’s really I’m really it’s really interesting how you innovated you took your lessons and innovated within a system. And
Vance Morris (18:57)
Exactly.
Jeff Walter (19:12)
to create a a better experience. So I think that’s because what one like I said, one of the other things I was gonna say is there are gonna be gaps.
And I think this is a if you don’t mind, I I’m gonna use this example on Friday of just just walking to the door and and going in on a home service business, right? Like that became a theatrical event that separated you from the competition. Not to mention all the other things, you know, having somebody answer the phone and all those other customer service, but just just a simple little thing like how how you look and appear and and and knocking and answering on the door. I mean the idea of throwing down your own carpet to rub to wipe your
Vance Morris (19:22)
Please do, yeah.
Jeff Walter (19:46)
your shoes on. That’s brilliant. That’s brilliant. That’s how. So all right, so so you so so you still have the carpet cleaning, you expand into other things. That that was interesting. And and so with delivery service now I I think I’m starting to get the idea. But when people engage you, what what are they what are they hoping to accomplish?
Vance Morris (20:05)
You know, they are one, they are trying to figure out where their leaky bucket is and why they’re they feel so busy, but they’re not profitable. And it’s because they’re consistently getting new customers. ⁓ and that’s that that’s where the big dollar, I mean, you know, besides your rent, acquiring a customer is an expensive thing to do. And it’s a number that every business needs to know. So for like us,
Jeff Walter (20:21)
Okay.
Vance Morris (20:34)
Costs us $136 to get a new customer in the front door. That’s the pay-per-click ad, that’s the guy answering the phone, whatever else goes into that. $136. It only cost me $23 a year to keep a customer. So the minute we clean for an existing customer, I’m $100 and some odd dollars already more profitable because I didn’t have to go out and get them again. They also have.
Jeff Walter (20:57)
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (20:59)
a higher spend. So our job average is higher with repeat customers. They, you know, they’re they’re they’ve already know like and trust you. So they’ll do the cross sales. They’ll accept the upsells because they already trust you. And there’s so many businesses out there that, you know, and we’re brainwashed by all of these, you know, pay per click and flake book ads, you know, that come out and, you know, ⁓ you need you know, I can get you 10,000 likes by Tuesday for forty bucks. And it’s like, well
That’s not what it’s all about. you know, and I take the take this from Disney. You know, if you went to Disney today, 80% of the people right now in the park have been there before. It’s only 20% new. I figure if that ratio is good enough for Disney, it’s good enough for me and my businesses. And so that’s the number that we try to attain to. My consulting clients, 80% retention or repeat customers is the number we try to attain. because that’s where.
The profit is. The growth is that twenty percent new. The profit comes from your eighty percent existent.
Jeff Walter (22:01)
Yeah, and and I think a lot of people understand that intuitively, but the the the the devil in the detail is the how, right? Like like ’cause everybody would you know, I I I I don’t think anybody would argue that point, right? And that a a repeat customer is a more profitable because I didn’t have to spend all that money acquiring them, w in whatever way. But but what’s why does eighty p why are eighty percent of the folks at Disney r
have been there before and and and get on, you know, the It’s a Small World ride again, which is the same s it’s a small world ride it’s been for the last fifty years. Right? I mean I would I remember going to that in nineteen seventy nine. Just hasn’t changed. ⁓ When I took my kids were younger it I I’m sure when I take my grandkids there it’s gonna be the same. ⁓
Vance Morris (22:41)
Yeah. Hasn’t changed. Hasn’t changed. I should say earlier this year. Hasn’t changed. Yeah. you know what I mean, Disney and Yeah. Yeah, Disney
and so many other companies, it’s it’s what I call an emotional connection. You know, Disney does it very well. They have an emotional connection to their guests. Harley Davidson, right?
I mean har you if you’re a Harley guy, you don’t go and buy Yamaha or Indian. You stake with heart. Apple. You know, if you’re an Apple for gee whiz, don’t even think about putting a PC in front of me. You know, if you look at Apple, I mean when they have a new I do hickey come out, I mean they got, you know, r line wrapped around the block six times trying to get the get the new product. You know, Dell comes out with a new computer and I mean there might be one person in the store and they’re probably not even there for the new computer. There’s no
There’s no attachment to the brand. And so we need to during our service or during you know the consumption of our product, we need to create that emotional connection. And then in order to keep customers either coming back or repeat buy purchases, we need to have a system in place to do that. so if you think about it, it is not the customer’s job.
remember us. It’s our job as business owners to remind the customers that we exist. And so you need to have a customer existence system. so we’ll, you know, we’ll look at I’ll ask my you know my my coaching and consulting class I said do you have a a marketing budget and most of them say yeah we we got a marketing budget I said okay great how much of that is dedicated towards customer retention they all look at me like I got three heads because they nothing.
⁓ and so once we do the math, you know, I think less people know about that math than we’re probably given credit for. I think there’s it’s very few. so you have to have a customer existence system or a retention system, and you have to consistently touch your customers, not physically but emotionally or through the mail, so that they will become good referral partners and they’ll come back. So
Jeff Walter (24:33)
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (24:51)
In any given month, we touch one client six times. So one client gets hit six times. We do a physical newsletter. So it’s something we do in print and we send it out. we do a promotional postcard that goes out two weeks later, and then they get an email from us once a week. And those are the six touches they get every single month. And those six touches equals
The $23 that I talked about. the newsletter being the most ⁓ expensive, but it is the best stick item that we’ve got. So newsletters are designed to continue that emotional connection. They’re not designed to sell. So we don’t have any coupons or offers or anything in the newsletter. It’s just it’s like readers digest light. Okay. There’s just stories in there that are designed to entertain.
I shamelessly use my children in my marketing. So there’s pictures of my kids in there. You know, my kids, yeah, we have customers who watch my kids grow up. you know, and it’s that emotional connection. So for instance, my daughter, ⁓ when she was younger, did ballet. And so I took a picture of her and her little tutu when she was five for her first recital. I put that in the newsletter and sent it out. And then I did that every year. So we picture her in the tutu, put it in the newsletter, send it out.
I think she was like 10 years old, something like that. And we’re in the grocery store, and this woman comes running up to my daughter and says, my god, Emma, how was your recital? Now we’re ready to go hide in the frozen food section. We we want to get at it. Then I had to think, wait, she’s got to be one of my clients, right? I’ve created an emotional connection with her. She’s never leaving me. She’s gonna either have to move or die before she stops using my company.
Jeff Walter (26:18)
Yeah.
Right.
Vance Morris (26:38)
And so it’s that kind of stuff you want to put in the newsletter. Then the postcard is pure promotion. Here’s our offer, you know, spring cleaning offer, whatever. and then the email, take an article from your newsletter, take the offer from the postcard, slap it together in an email, send it out.
Jeff Walter (26:53)
Very nice. Very nice. So so now so back to the institute. So you so so you you you took all that stuff that you learned over the years, you applied it to your own business, you know. I heard a new expression, you know, I used to use the expression, you know, eating your own dog food. And then over over the weekend somebody said, No, it’s drinking your own champagne.
Vance Morris (27:13)
there you go. I like that better. Yes.
Jeff Walter (27:13)
Which I like a lot better. And
so you drank your own champagne and and and to your point, very successfully, I mean, to put it on autopilot, to have those three businesses going on and and it’s taking, you know, ninety minutes a week and I’m like that’s like mini PE, right? It’s like meet with the meet with the general manager and then keep your fingers on you know, and control the f flow of cash. Right?
Vance Morris (27:37)
Yep, one hundred percent.
Jeff Walter (27:39)
And so so then you started the institute, the clients are asking you for for these things. What what does that engagement look like? Like when they when they bring you in?
Vance Morris (27:49)
Yeah, so for ⁓ my consulting clients, it’s usually a nine to twelve month engagement and I will go to their place of business. So I will go and if they’re a financial advisor, I’ll go and I’ll watch their their off in office experience and you know how does Marge, the receptionist, you know, greet people, answer the phone, what does she do? and then we map out the customer journey. it’s not sexy, but it needs to be done.
Jeff Walter (28:06)
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (28:17)
So wherever your company interacts with a customer, that is a point on your customer journey map. and you map out the whole thing from start to finish. So what’s the first point of contact you’ve got with the customer? Is it your website? Is it a phone call? Is it a visit into your showroom? Whatever it is. and you that goes on the map. And then you list out, okay, well, what do we do to create that service?
That becomes your existing. Then you just brainstorm on how do we make an experience out of that? You know, maybe it’s answering the telephones. I worked with some insurance guys, and this guy’s an all-state ⁓ agent, probably six or seven other all-state agents in his city, probably 40 or 50 other insurance agents. and he was having a tough time standing out. So I said, Well, okay, what’s the first point on your customer journey?
He says it, you know, the number one is answering the telephone, people calling for you know quotes and things like that. So we s decided we were gonna make a experience out of answering the phone. So his receptionist actually came up with a way to do it. so when I was working in his office, I noticed he was a rock and roll fanatic. I mean, he had gold records on the wall, autograph guitars. I mean, he was just a rock and roll nut. and so I said, you know, we should probably play into this a little bit. So his reception, you know, most people you’ll
The business, you they’ll answer the phone, thank you for calling Dave’s insurance. How can I help you? Yeah, I mean, we’ve heard that from 10,000 companies. It’s just or some version of that. So she said, you know what? I think we should just channel our inner wolf man Jack. and they now answer the phone. Thank you for calling Dave’s All State, the agency that rocks. you know, and it sounds a little corny the first 16 times you say it. I get it, but answering the phone that way.
Again, serves a couple of purposes. One, it certainly, you know, separates you from everybody else out there. He now owns being the rock and roll insurance guy. And answering the phone that way, you know, sift sorts and screens out anybody who would be a bad customer. So I mean, you know, your marketing is designed to do two things attract the people you want and repel the people you don’t want. And just by answering the phone that way, he is sorted out people that would just not become a good customer.
So it’s just taking each one of those points and figuring out, okay, what can we do that’s just a little bit better than what we’re doing right now? So maybe you’re not that inventive. Okay, fine. you know, maybe right now you answer the phone in four rings. All right, next month answer it in three rings. And then a month after answer it in two rings. Now you’ve got whatever percentage improvement in your phone point on the map. it’s just things like that, just constant process improvement.
Walt Disney called it plussing. you know, how do we plus the show? ⁓ and so how do we continue to make things better?
Jeff Walter (31:05)
It’s well I mean it it it’s i interesting ’cause on the one hand it sounds sh straightforward, on the other hand it’s it’s a it’s just a completely different way of looking at things. Right? And to break it down into that to that type of
Vance Morris (31:14)
Yeah. Yeah. And and and
and you know, a lot of the problems that I encounter when I’m consulting is that they’re what they’re portraying is not congruent with the pricing or the fees that they have. So we’ll take the financial advisor real quick. When I ⁓ f one of them out in San Jose walked into the office and Marge at the front desk said, can I get you a glass of water? I said, Yeah, sure.
Comes out with a little four-ounce styrofoam Dixie cup, probably of tap water. And I’m thinking to myself, okay, four-ounce styrofoam cup, and your minimum fee is fourteen thousand dollars. Seriously? So once we brainstormed, now when Marge greets you at the front door, she has one of those nice big fat steakhouse menus. And on one side is six bottles of still, the other side is six bottles of sparkling water.
Jeff Walter (31:44)
Right.
Vance Morris (32:08)
Which one of our waters would you like while you’re waiting? They had to give them water. It’s like a buck a bottle at wholesale. I mean, you know, the menu didn’t cost much to create. So creating these moments doesn’t have to be expensive. You just gotta kinda think outside the box.
Jeff Walter (32:24)
Yeah, well and y yeah, it’s interesting ’cause I was I was just on a call with ⁓ a gentleman about an hour or two ago and we were talking about ⁓ trust in the age of AI and how
There is you know, content generation is, you know, pennies of what it you you know, with AI, y you can pump out content, pump out content, pump out content. And we’re talking about, you know, you’re just getting flooded with content and you don’t know and and also with deepfakes, you don’t know what to believe. And the trust becomes the the the the trust really becomes the you know, the currency, right?
and and and the human contact. And so like I’m just listening to what you’re saying and then playing the conversation I had an hour or so ago in my head and going these are all things that are making you stand out, but you’re not doing it to stand out. You’re actually doing it to create a connection.
Right? You’re you’re you’re you’re doing it to make a human connection. You’re doing it to stay here’s who I am as a company. And you know, and and to your like that last one, the the water in a styrofoam cup says we’re the type of company that gives you water in a styrofoam cup, versus ⁓ or but I just I’d I’d love what you did with the chem dry door. I mean that that is so like
Vance Morris (33:14)
Okay.
Jeff Walter (33:39)
very reasonably cost, such a differentiator. Yeah, it’s like these these these and it and it’s saying this is who we are, right? We’re clean, we wipe our feet, we’re we’re we’re we’re we are honored to be in your house by giving you a gift. That’s a whole different experience. And it’s interesting in the age of AI and with so much electronic communication,
Vance Morris (33:42)
One hundred percent?
Jeff Walter (34:02)
You can apply those same standards like you do with your emails and and and all that because you gotta put the content in there. but but being authentic and doing it in a way that that is authentically your organization and that authenticity translates into trust. Does that
Vance Morris (34:16)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean,
as you you you alluded to it. I mean, you know, authenticity is the currency of the day, because of AI. and you know, well, you know, do I use it? Sure, but I use it internally. you know, I don’t it doesn’t supplant my thinking abilities, my writing abilities, or anything like that. it
I I mean I asked it the other day, ⁓ go look at my calendar for the last sixty days and tell me where I’m wasting time. And it came back with, you know, three or four ideas. Well, you spent twenty hours doing this and twelve hours doing that. I’m like, ⁓ crap, you’re not you’re right. So okay. You know, how do I get twelve hours of my life back? ⁓ so I mean there’s good use of AI and then there’s the slop that so much is out there.
Jeff Walter (35:02)
Yeah, well but just a and and I there’s tremendously good things, but it gets back to that creating trust and the human contact and the emotional thing. And you know, and and when you think about the customer experience, you create this genuine, authentic, like your your insurance rocks guy. It’s like, well that’s the type of agent you’re gonna have. Not for everybody, but definitely for some people.
And ⁓ that’s pretty cool. Pretty cool. ⁓ so what’s in the future for you ⁓ with the institute?
Vance Morris (35:34)
well we’ve got some new new Disney events coming up. so one of the fun things I get to do is I take business owners down to Walt Disney World for three and four day full immersion boot camps. so we’ll spend half the day in the classroom, half the day out in the theme parks, kind of seeing what we just learned in the classroom, ⁓ a whole bunch of curated experiences and things like that. And at the end of it, you have a blueprint on how you’re going to
Disnify your business ⁓ when you get home. So we’ve got one of those in October and I’ve got two on the books first quarter next year.
Jeff Walter (36:08)
that’s so so basically that’s really cool. So you go down there, you learn the principles of what we’ve been talking about and the principles of what your your institute is really focused on, and then go, Okay, let’s go see it in action. And then and then it’s like you you’re looking at you know, a a ride or a line or a a store or a just
Vance Morris (36:21)
One hundred percent, that’s it, right there.
Jeff Walter (36:30)
a character and you’re just looking at it not from the experience of the the store of the r ride but look at how they orchestrated the the customer experience.
Vance Morris (36:40)
Yeah,
it’s it it’s they are masters at extracting money from your wallet and leaving you feel happy about it and wanting to come back and do it again and again, hence the 80%. Disney ain’t cheap, you know, and they’re not shy about raising their prices. And you know, and a lot of the reason they raise their prices is they hope less people will come because it’s a better experience for the people who are there.
Jeff Walter (36:51)
Right.
Vance Morris (37:08)
And of course they’re a lot more profitable because they got less wear and tear on on the facilities and they got more money coming in. ⁓ you know, seems to make sense. for some reason people think that Disney is a right. ⁓ I have a right to go to Disney. Well, no, you don’t. If you can afford it, go. If you can’t, well, sorry.
Jeff Walter (37:21)
Ha ha ha.
Like a Lamborghini, but yeah, that’s not gonna happen. But well but it but it also goes back to the experience. And the experience it it’s that it’s that affordable luxury. It’s that it’s that, you know, I can take this up a notch and experience and and that experience is very satisfying to me. And before we before we go,
Vance Morris (37:29)
Yeah, whatever. Yeah.
Jeff Walter (37:47)
Any words of advice for, you know, the unique challenge on the franchise side, right? So you you sort from the franchisee side, but as the franchiseur,
Any advice for you know ⁓ those those folks you know if you if you f if you flip places, right, and now you’re on the the ⁓ franchise development side or or the ⁓ operations side, what advice would you give to them in terms of the the the well just what advice would you give them relative to what we’re talking about?
Vance Morris (38:14)
Yeah, I you know, first
and foremost, I imagine most of them have a franchisee board where you know the franchisees get together, you know, once a year, twice a year. a lot of that is for show and for and sadly a lot of franchises do it for contractual reasons, but they don’t take any action from the ideas that are coming from the actual franchisees that are in the field doing the work. I think one of the big
Jeff Walter (38:32)
Mm-hmm.
Vance Morris (38:41)
big things they can do is, you know, don’t just paper it over. Listen to what the franchisees are doing, the successful ones. you know, I I was never invited to be on the board. And I was always in the top half percent of revenue and pricing in the entire franchise. it’s probably because I I don’t play well in the sandbox. I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a reason there somewhere.
But it’s really, you know, I mean the pa
Jeff Walter (39:05)
You you obviously
have very ⁓ very solid opinions and and ideas. Yes.
Vance Morris (39:10)
Yeah, I do. ⁓ strong opinions. There you go. ⁓
but you know, it it’s really, you know, for them to look at the best practices from the operators and how do we incorporate that, not so much as forcing people to do it. I mean, I couldn’t imagine forcing anybody to approach the home the way I do, right? I mean, but if you want to do it that way,
Jeff Walter (39:22)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Vance Morris (39:35)
Here is a proven method that will increase your sales by twenty six percent that you know that you can use. I think having that information available. I also think franchise oars, you know, I I I get it with the contracts, but there is a this rigidity that and resistance to change. They well this is what made us successful. Yeah, well, these
You should still be listening to to others that are in the field because, you know, things change. And I r I really think that, you know, being able to change nimbly is a an attribute that many franchises are are are missing.
Jeff Walter (40:05)
Well and
Well, I I you know, I think that’s really important. one of the things about a month ago I was at the International Franchise Association Convention, or or annual conference I should say, and they the they had the former CEO of Cinnabon there. And she had taken over when Cinnabon was in a free fall. and you know p because people’s eating habits changed, right? And but to your point.
things in a free fall, she’s you know, all the market research says, you know, people don’t want these big buns, make them smaller. But the franchisees were resistant because I’m only selling, you know, a thousand buttons, and if I make them smaller and cheaper, then I’m gonna lose revenue. And it wasn’t until by and she’s doing everything she can try and change this around and a million things. But one of the key things that helped turn it around is it just so happened that the grandson of the founder
owned a bunch of units like in the Northwest and she happened to know him because of the gr he was the grandson. And and it turns out he had been selling smaller cinnamon buns for years. But whenever they did the corporate audit, you know, the compliance audit, he would take down all the signs and he wouldn’t sell the smaller bonds. And then as soon as the audit team left, he’d put it all up
To which she said, yeah, when she f when she finally talked to him, she was first two things. It’s like first, why do they know the audit team’s coming? So they can do that. That’s yeah. But but but but more importantly, to your point, you know, she talked to him and it’s like he was thriving because he had just because he’s in the marketplace. It’s that fine line. You you you you want to guard against brand drift, but at the same time the market is always evolving.
Vance Morris (41:32)
Yeah, well that’s true. Yeah.
Of course.
Jeff Walter (41:50)
Right? And so she happened to talk to him and and because of that relationship that they had, he was like, Aha. The here’s the proof of the pudding and then was able to use that to sell that idea to the rest of the franchisees, which she couldn’t force them to ’cause it wasn’t in the contract. But I she was able to sit there and go, Here’s somebody’s doing it and his business is thriving. So, you know, make the smaller bun, sell more units. And ⁓ and but but it goes back to what you’re saying, which goes back to the whole how
the what, how, and why, back to the beginning of the conversation, and and then being humble enough to to sit there and go, well, we figured it out in a point in time and we’re replicating that that that process. But the world is constantly changing. And who better to give us feedback on how it’s changing than the folks that are interacting with our customers? Like, you know, and then but then do that in an orderly manner to sit there and go, well
This is what we’re trying to do, this is how we’re trying to do it, this is why we’re doing it. Maybe some of the what or how isn’t getting to the why, and if we have an open dialogue, and then it’s more organic, and then it’s more evolutionary. And so that’s very cool. That’s very cool. I like that. Good. be b before we go, any anything else you want to share with everyone? You’ve shared a ton of I’ve I’ve learned I I took a bunch of notes, by the way. I kept turning over here, going, yeah.
Vance Morris (43:06)
I seem to have that effect
on people. I don’t know why. I think one of the you know, the big I don’t I don’t have many quote actually I only have one quote attributed to me, and it’s you won’t profit unless you implement. And so if you heard an idea today, either on this podcast or you read something or somewhere else, the only way you’re gonna move the needle is by implementing stuff. We all have plenty of information. We don’t have enough implementation.
Jeff Walter (43:08)
Yeah yeah.
Vance Morris (43:32)
So take something you learned and go try it out.
Jeff Walter (43:35)
That’s great advice to end on. Vance, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you or the institute, how would they how would they do that?
Vance Morris (43:43)
yep. ⁓ so ⁓ if you want, I I have a free gift for everybody. ⁓ it’s fifty-two ways to wow your customer without breaking the bank. so it’s one wow for every week of the year if you’re not feeling overly creative. and they’re all low or no cost things. And you can find that at wow fifty-two ways dot com. and you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. It’s the only social media I do.
Jeff Walter (44:04)
All right. My guest today has been Vance Morris. Vance, thank you so much for spending time with us. I I learned a lot and I really appreciate your time. And to everybody out there, thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time.
Vance Morris (44:13)
Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it.