How Disney's Secrets Can Elevate Your Business with Vance Morris

When you think of companies with amazing branding and unforgettable customer experience , near the top of your list is probably going to be Disney , and for good reason . They were among the first to include an experience as part of their brand . And isn't it cool to think it all started with a cartoon mouse and some stories and just grew from there .

When I mention Disney , you'll probably think about memorable movies or their theme parks , and when you go to Disneyland or Disney World , from the moment you walk through the gates , they want you to have a memorable experience . So how do you take a clue from Disney for your own business ? My guest today is Vance Morris .

Vance is a Walt Disney World Resort Management alumni , having spent 10 years as a leader in the resorts . But beyond the Disney brand , Vance is a serial entrepreneur and has learned to harness what he's learned at Disney to stand out in his own business .

Today he's sharing the insider secrets of how the Disney magic of customer service and customer experience can be integrated in your own business too . Here's my talk with Vance . Hey Vance , how are you doing today ?

A lot of people think that it was you know customer experience or how to pick up trash really fast , or you know how to keep the place clean , and I hate to break it to people . Actually , I learned that Disney runs on systems and processes and that they have a process for everything .

You know , if you want to change a bus tire , they got a system for it . If you want to carry a tray in a restaurant , they've got a system for it . And all the systems are also are simple , because if they were complex , the whole thing would fall apart . And you have to think about who's working there .

It's a lot of young people , teenagers , not exactly thinking clearly all the time . So if they didn't have a simple system , again the whole thing would fall apart . So I was like , well , this makes a lot of sense . So I've carried that through with the jobs I've had and now with the businesses that I own .

And I found that systems are very they .

They give me a lot of freedom , they give the employees freedom , and I noticed this at Disney is because if you follow the process and you just learn it and it's like a muscle reflex , it's just almost by rope , you just do this , you do it that way , and then it gives you the freedom to be able to do all the little nice things that Disney's known for .

You know , okay , so you're carrying your tray in the restaurant , but then you , oh , I need to take a picture of the guest for them . So they put the tray down , take a picture . I mean , it's all those little things that Disney's known for the cast members can do , because they know their job so well that it doesn't impact the job .

And I've noticed that now as a business owner that all the systems I put in place in my businesses gives me freedom to not have to be in the business . So I think I've told you I own three home service businesses here in Maryland . And I put service systems in marketing systems , operations systems and I have a general manager who runs all that for me .

I spend about 90 weeks, excuse me , 90 minutes a week on those businesses , essentially cashing the checks , kissing babies , and I spend 30 minutes a week in a meeting with the GM . So systems it just really was an eye-opener for me that that's what Disney kind of gave to me .

So I've created a complete performance , a complete experience , out of my technician getting into the home , and it starts out in the street . So we park in the street . We don't park in the driveway because , god forbid , I've got an oil leak . Now I got something else I got to clean up .

And the technician gets out and he's in a clean uniform because he carries extra uniforms with him , and he also does not smell because I forbid smoking and he is not allowed to wear cologne , because there's nothing worse than a guy showing up inside your house smelling like the Marlboro man who just took a shower in Axe . All right . So and he gets his .

He gets , it's disgusting . So you get , he gets his little mat . Um , he gets a little gift and he walks up to the front door . He lays down his mat and he knocks on the door because friends knock , salespeople ring the bell , takes a couple steps back and he waits for the customer to answer the door .

Mrs McGillicuddy answers the door and he says Hi , my name's Josh . I'm here to create your healthy home . May I come in ? We don't just barge in , we ask to be allowed in . She says yes , certainly . So he'll do an exaggeration or a performance of wiping his feet on the mat and then he puts little booties on his clean shoes and he enters the home .

On his way in , he gives Mrs McGillicuddy a gift . Now , it's not a big gift , but it is still a gift . Now , when was the last time you had a home service person , you know , plumber or pest control or carpet cleaner come into your home and give you a gift before they did any work ? Never , probably , never , right , right .

So we give her a gift and it's not expensive . It's like five bucks . It's a custom little blue box . It's a bottle of spot remover , a bag of cookies and a little note from me saying thank you so much for allowing us into your home . Now that box does a couple of things for us .

One obviously , it separates me from everybody else out there and that's what we want and it gives us . People will talk about us . They're like , oh my God , you never guessed . Carpet cleaner gave me a gift today .

The other thing that it does is it starts a process called reciprocity , so if I give something to you , you feel compelled to give something back to me . So when we started the gift , we noticed a 26% increase in our mid-tier package , which equated to about $65,000 in additional sales every year .

So that all in itself is a scripted , systemized process designed to deliver an experience . So I hope that answered your question .

I know when I very first started my design agency that I used to have I used to go ahead and well , initially I would just sort of put little sticky notes places and try , and you know , kind of go through the process that way . But I found that , even if it's just me , I really needed systems .

So I had , we , I developed standard operating procedures or SOPs for myself , but I never really thought about implementing them for customers , you know .

So I love that you do that and I love that you include all the details in it , because I think that's so important , because people notice those details and people , like you said , they will go to Google reviews and say , wow , he even brought me a gift , he wiped his feet at the door and things that we wouldn't necessarily think twice about doing maybe as an

individual , but you've systematized them for your entire company .

And you know , I mean I consult with a lot of different niches and industries and the one that kills me is the medical field , and I'll go into an office or the waiting room and they have dusty house plants . And I'm thinking to myself . well , this is not congruent with the medical profession .

You've got dirty stuff in the waiting room , well , what's your operating room or your exam room going to look like , you know ? So you're planting this seed . That detail is not congruent with what you're , what you're serving , um , and so those , all those details matter . I mean , you know , cleaning business we're certainly in a detail oriented business .

You know , my guys have to wash their trucks every day before they go out and drive around because , well , we're , we'd look stupid if we drive around in a muddy truck , um , so you've got to , those details have to be focused on it , and every detail matters . And the other thing is is that every detail is either enhancing or detracting from the experience .

There's no middle ground . So it's either helping you or it's hurting you . You can't have a wishy-washy , it's , you know . If you've got a dirty window , well , that's hurting you . If you've got , you know , nice flowers in the waiting room and they're fresh , well that's helping you .

If your front desk person , you know , marge , is having a grumpy day , that's hurting you . I mean it's so .

For sure , I can remember going there with my kids when they were really young I think it was my daughter's sixth birthday and so they gave her a special badge or something to wear , and everywhere she went they did something a little special for her , like she might walk in a gift shop and there'd be a phone call from Mickey for her , or something that was

engraved for her , embroidered for her , or something like that . So they are so good about details and I love that . You have translated that into your own businesses .

You know I don't have a Cinderella castle , I don't have a roller coaster , I don't have a theme park and I'm like , well , unless you do own a theme park , we're not trying to copy Disney , we're trying to adapt what Disney is doing into our businesses . You know so . You know Disney has a particular way that they answer the telephone right .

So how can we answer the telephone in our businesses ? That is different and exciting and provides a better experience . And I'll tell you the secret to answering the phone these days is answering it live . Seriously , if that's the biggest tip I give anybody on this call , answer your phone live .

You will separate yourself from everybody out there because nobody's doing it anymore .

And then , once you have that mapped out , you want to list it and then prioritize what is going to give you the most bang for your buck if you were to work on it . So what is going to give you most time saved , most money saved , or most revenue generated , or most excitement or fun or wow for the customer , which will then fall into making more money ?

So you want to prioritize it because you can't , you can't , I wouldn't start at the beginning , unless you're having a problem with lead generation , then well , maybe you want to start there , but identify where the problems are and hit those first . And I would , if you have a team , definitely involve your team in this , because they're the experts .

They do this job day in , day out , every day , and just brainstorm how do we make this better ? No bad idea is a bad idea . Just let it go . Money is not an object . Let's just see what we can think of and then so when you come up with it , I like to use again a simple system , just like Disney does .

Disney runs on three words what to do , how to do it and why we do it that way . So let's just take answering the phone , for example .

I worked with an all-state insurance guy . I can't remember , a big city down south and there were probably like 14 or 15 other all-state agents in the city , let alone all the other insurance people , and he really needed to stand out .

So , you know , I kind of talked to him about his personality a little bit and what he liked , and he invited me to his office and he was a real rock and roll fanatic . So he had like gold records on the wall and autographed guitars and you know , posters of The Who and Led Zeppelin and all this stuff . And I'm like , wow , this is pretty cool .

So we got into the brainstorming session with his team and one of his team members suggested that he become , you know , the rock and roll insurance agent . Um , it was like , okay , that's pretty cool . And we said , okay , well , you , well , where should we start with that persona ? How should we get that out ?

And she goes well , it's probably going to be answering the phone . I said okay . So we started brainstorming how should we answer the phone , and an employee actually came up with it . So you know , when you call any office , you're going to get something along the lines of you know , thank you for calling Dave's Allstate , how can I help you ?

We've all heard that from a myriad of businesses , but when we implemented what she said , it was amazing . So now when they answer the phone , it's thank you for calling Dave's Allstate , the agency that rocks . You know now , I mean it's . It sounds a little goofy the first 20 times you say it , but it certainly separates him from everybody else .

Nobody can claim that , nobody can copy that . You know your marketing is designed to do two things attract the people you want , repel the people you don't want . And just by answering the phone that way , he's sifting , sorting and screening out people who would make a bad customer . And people are attracted to that Um and so I mean that's how we would .

You know , and that was like his number one point was how we answered the phone , and so now that became his standard . So what do we do ? We answered the phone . How do we do it ? You know , the agency that rocks . Why do we do it that way .

Well , it separates us from all the other , all state agents in town and it brings us the clients that we like to do business with .

And that why column is vital for the employees , because that's where you get engagement , because most of the time , employees are just told what and how , they're never told the why , and so if you want them to be engaged , they need to know . Why do we answer the phone this way ? Yeah Well , because you know Dave is .

He's a rock and roll fanatic and we need to be . You know he wants to be known above and beyond all the other agents in town . So this is how we answer the phone , and they're like oh , okay , it makes sense .

You figured out what made him unique , what made him stand out , and really kind of spread that to all the touch points , which is exactly how I you know , I used to do a lot of of logo designs for people back when I had a design agency and they would come and they would have an idea and I would start them with all right , you know who , who are you ,

what are your , what's your mission and vision , and really take them on a deep dive into their personal branding before I ever put pen to paper . And what was interesting about that is that there were some people that would push back on that and say no , no , no , I just want a logo it's not important , or the logo that looks like everybody else .

So I really think that what you do is brilliant in that respect , because you are number one making them pin down their brand right . There's no other Disney out there . This all started with a mouse , right , and he grew that into an empire .

So think about what is near and dear to you , what you can do or what you do differently and how you can set your business apart with that , and then , like you said , take it to the next level , walk through your customer journey and spread it throughout the entire business .

I'm assuming that's kind of a big mistake they make . Do you have any other things that you see that businesses make or that businesses do that you feel like they could just maybe improve it a little bit ?

That means you have no way to increase your prices because you can't separate yourself , you don't have an experience , you don't have anything to

help boost that . I remember when yellow pages were still a thing and I and I was , you know , flipping through them cause I was going to be you know , I'm going to have my ad in there and every single carpet cleaning ad had a picture of a carpet cleaning van . I'm thinking to myself well , what does a van have to do with carpet cleaning ?

I mean , we assume you're going to travel to the house . Why put the van in there ? Plumbers do the same thing . What does a plumbing truck have to do with plumbing ? Absolutely nothing . I mean , I think , like the first guy who ever did a Yellow Pages ad , just decided to put his van in the picture and everybody copied it .

Oh , I guess that's what we're supposed to do . Well , you know , look at what everybody is doing and do the opposite . Seriously , I mean it's probably the best advice I could give you , because you do want to stand out and be that sore thumb and don't do whatever , because you're just going to blend in and you're going to look like everybody else .

So you know when you're doing your marketing . Certainly you know . I mean , obviously some industries have regulations , I get it . But you want to be able to be so different that you stand out , but you don't want to be so outlandish that it's ridiculous .

Um , one of the things that I teach my coaching clients and when I work with the consulting people is um , there are two words that you want to be able to put in your marketing and in your advertisements that will separate you from everybody else , and those two words are the only .

So if you can put the words the only in front of whatever you want to say , you are now heads and miles above everybody else . So my carpet cleaning business we are the only green and non-toxic cleaner in eastern shore Maryland . Nobody else can claim that, it's mine . You know they may .

You know some , and if somebody else does it , then I just change it to . We were the first , you know . But if you can claim the only , that is a very powerful marketing message . Um , you know . And if you , okay , you can't claim that and say , well , okay , we're , we're the only um plumbing company with an on-time guarantee . Oh , wow , okay , you know .

So those two words themselves that'll help you stand out . And you don't , I mean , and you don't even really need to really think of anything . Just put those two words in front of something and you're good to go . Um , yeah , I think that some people I mean , you know they they worry about what their spouse is going to say .

They worry about what the neighbors are going to think . They worry about what their mother-in-law is going to think . And what they should really be thinking about is A does it work ? And B is it bringing money in ? And that's the only measurement that you should be worried about with your brand and with your marketing .

If it's bringing money in , nobody else's opinion matters at all . You know your wife says , oh , that's a dumb ad . Well , honey , you brought in $50,000 last month , you know , all right . Well , I still think it's a dumb ad . Well , okay , you know .

I throw a little tag at the end saying , unlike my competitors , I will do blank and just really try to get them to really think hard about how they can differentiate themselves , because oftentimes we're so busy with our day-to-day service business or we're just doing all the things all the time that we don't really even have time to to sit and think about okay ,

how can I stand out ? And I think it's especially hard , I always say with personal branding , because it's hard for us to see our own business . I always say a jar can't read its own label . So I think , do you find it's helpful to have somebody else come in and help you with that process ? Or how do you go about thinking about what it is ?

But you know , to work with you on those types of things so that you have the right direction , so that you have the momentum and that you have tangible things to implement , is vital , and it's going to be faster . You know , if you can spend a little money , the implementation and the results are going to be faster .

If you're going to bootstrap and grassroots it, certainly you can still do that . It's just going to take a little longer . I'm not saying it can't be done , it's just going to take a little bit longer . You're going to have to YouTube it , you're going to have to read a book , but it can still be done . But either way it needs to be done .

One of the things I think they do really really well , and obviously they do really well as well , is storytelling , because it all started with a story . Do you see that businesses work with stories kind of and build their business around

that , around a narrative ?

And so , as a society , we place a lot of value on entertainment and , as such , we need , as business owners , we need to entertain and we can do that through storytelling . Now , does that mean you need to do once upon a time ? No , of course not . Storytelling can come in the form of a case study . It can come in the form of a white paper .

It can come in the form of like with my newsletters that I send to my cleaning clients . I shamelessly use my children in my marketing . I mean I've done it my whole life . I mean by my kids were five years old on up , and I tell stories about my children because for me , that is creating .

Stories allow you to create an emotional connection with your customers and when you do that , you create this bond that is almost impossible to break . And if you only talked about widgets and things and coupons . There's no , there's no attraction , there's no connection there . So , real quick .

So my um , I mentioned uh , you know I do a print newsletter every month for my uh , for my businesses and um , my daughter , Emma , uh , she's a . I used to do ballet from the time she was like five until 12 or 13 . And I , every year for her recital , I took a picture of her and her tutu and she would be front page of my newsletter .

You know Emma and her ballet thing , and you know it got sent out and I think she was like 10 or 11 years old and we're in the grocery store and this woman comes running , running up to us and I'm like , well , actually she didn't come run up to me , she ran up to my daughter . She said , oh my God , Emma , how was your recital ?

And my daughter and I looked at each other and we're like who the hell is this lady ? We're ready to go hide in the frozen food section and I had to think she's gotta be one of my customers . Oh right , I had created a connection with her .

She is never leaving me and my kids now have thousands of aunts and uncles where I have made a connection , an emotional connection with them , where they will find it painful to leave my company .

So now , if I've created this connection , now , when I raise prices , now when I want to try a new service , now when I want to try anything , they are going to be more apt to A go ahead and say , okay , well , price increase , I have renoticed , needs to do it and they'll also be more willing to try a new service because they're connected and I can make a

mistake , and they'll forgive me because that's what people do . But if I didn't have that , if all I did was hit them with , you know , offer after offer and coupon after coupon I mean , nobody likes to be sold all the time . Can you imagine ? The only time you ever hear from a company is when they want your money ?

Right , I mean , you know your accountant , the only time you ever hear from him is when you get the invoice for him doing your taxes . That's not a relationship , that's here give me money , you know . Or the only time you hear from the department stores when they're having a sale . They want money .

So you've got to create that , that connection , and I think something from your personality I saw . So you don't want to use your kids , fine . Maybe you're a fisherman . Okay , do you know what ? Show pictures of your fish . Maybe you like basket weaving . Okay , great .

But let that kind of stuff show through , because you're going to immediately connect with a certain population . When I do public speaking , I seed all of my speeches with little parts of my life so that I connect with different parts of the audience .

I'll make fun of the fact that I've been married a number of times , because that will connect with certain people in the audience that have been married a number of times . I talk about my kids , so that connects with people in the audience that have kids . I make myself human and that creates the connection .

I think so many business owners try to look like a corporation and that's where they go wrong .

You really want to pull in who you are personally and beyond that , I like to throw in things that my ideal customer likes . For example , if they're a certain age , I'll know that they grew up with certain movies , certain music , for example , and I'll toss those in , just like you were saying , to connect with your audience .

It's just to kind of sprinkle in sort of some hooks , to kind of you know , hooks is not the right word but something to sort of help them relate to you so that you have some common ground right . And I love that you do that in your talks as well , because that's super important .

When you are speaking to a crowd , they want to know that you can understand them and know where they're coming from .

Yeah , it's going to save you so much time , right , but to allow AI to come in and do some of the service functions , maybe I mean like these chatbots that are on websites , I think that , okay , that's great if it's a general question , but on that bot there needs to be a big fat button that says get me to a real person right now , and not hidden and not

in fine print , but get me to a real person , and you know . Same thing with the telephone . And I think I said it earlier If you want to impress people , answer the phone live , because nobody's doing it , you know . I mean , it's just there . They have those phone trees press one for this and two for that , you know . Or it goes to voicemail .

If you're relying on voicemail for your business , you've lost that customer because they're just going down to the next guy on the Google listing and they're calling them . They're not waiting for you to return a voicemail . Get somebody to answer the phone line . I mean it's the biggest piece of advice these days that I can give .

I'm a partner in a uh , in a call center , and when we were doing the research for it , we called 4 000 home service businesses 4 000 and we got the numbers from Google pay-per-click . So these are people paying to have their phone number advertised . 17 percent answered their phone live . 17 % that means 80-some-odd percent are flushing money down the toilet .

They're paying Google for nothing . I don't get it .

If you have a question and I'm trying to give them money , I'm trying to give Google money right . To run some ads , but I couldn't connect it with this client and dah-da-da , but there was nobody to call , there was nobody to ask .

It's such a big conglomerate that it does really get frustrating when you have a question that no bot is going to be able to answer , that no Google search is going to be able to answer . You just need to talk to a real human being . And I agree .

I think that is a really good insight that instead of going high tech , maybe standing out is going low tech .

52 ways to wow your customers without breaking the bank . Um , you know , I , I think , um , one of the ways is , uh , that I use is um handwritten thank you notes , um , and say you know what would grandma do ? Um , and you know , and you know , now we've outgrown being able to do it in-house , because we're doing 75 to 100 a week .

That's a lot of handwriting , but I still do it . In my consulting business . If I have half a dozen business meetings a week , I'm still writing half a dozen thank you cards and sending them out . Nobody does it anymore . The mailbox is empty . So it's a great place to be for small businesses . You know , I think little surprises are fantastic .

I think food is okay , but the problem with giving food as a gift is it disappears . People eat it and then there's no memory of it .

So if you can give something that's got a little bit of staying power certainly offering a beta test of a new service that you're pondering or a new product , saying , hey , find your top five clients and say , hey , look , I'm thinking of offering this service or providing this product . Can I give you some samples and just get your feedback on it ?

People love to be included in that stuff . Can you have a customer of the month ? People love . When we were growing up , my mom always used to love cutting my picture out of the newspaper and tacking it up on the refrigerator . Trust me , adults love that too . They love seeing their name in lights .

So how can you do that with you know , with your customers , you know , recognizing them ? You know , for anniversaries with your company , I mean , I've got people that are still with me 17 years later .

So when I have an anniversary with my company , I'm looking for um anniversaries with how long my clients have been with me , and I'll send anniversary cards , say , hey , look , we've been together 15 years already , and you know , and now I'll give them a special offer . Uh , so there's all sorts of ways you can , you know , do those things and you can do .

I'm not saying not to do food , um , you know , and some , and there's a place for it . Um , we actually here in Maryland we have a steak cake . It's called the Smith Island cake . Um , and they'll ship it actually anywhere and they'll ship it anywhere in the US , um , but I will take my top five customers every month and they get shipped a Smith Island cake .

Five customers every month and they get shipped a Smith Island cake . Now , when was the last time you got a cake in the mail from your carpet cleaner ? Probably never . You know , it's impressive . It's a box of cake and , oh , my goodness , actually , down in Texas I can't remember the name of the company , but they have the Brazos or Brazos pecan pie .

It's enormous . This thing weighs like nine pounds , it comes in this wooden crate and it's an amazing gift to give , either for a client or for business . But you know , and if you got guys as clients , there's a company called Man Crates and they've got stuff . That is just , you know , it's all I mean .

Well , it depends on what you do for a living , you know , but you can get stuff that's inexpensive , you know , and sometimes just picking up the phone and say , hey , you know , Mrs Smith , you know , I know I'm not in the field anymore .

You know cleaning , you know I'm sitting here high on the hog and my throne , but I just wanted to call and check in on you . Sometimes it's just a phone call . Yeah , that's really all it is .

Forward slash 99 . Thanks so much for joining me today . If you like what you heard , please subscribe . See you next time . Bye for now .