IAM2154 – Coach Helps Business Owners Get, Serve and Keep Clients for Life

Vance discusses his transition from being an employee to starting a carpet cleaning business and later venturing into coaching and consulting.

Vance explains the concept of customer mapping and how it is a vital tool for businesses. He emphasizes the importance of creating experiences and responses required marketing to enhance customer interactions and retention.

Moreover, he highlights that being a CEO means getting the team to actively engage in the business and finding the best way to utilize their skills.

Website: Vance Morris’ Xperience Service Systems
LinkedIn: Vance Morris

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Transcription:

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Vance Morris Teaser 00:00

I call it customer mapping. It is a vital tool. And you start at the very beginning. So what is the first thing that people will interact with your business? Is it a YouTube ad? Is it a postcard? Is it an ad in the newspaper and you start there and you do it from the perspective of your customer.

Intro 00:25

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:52

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Vance Morris. Vance, excited to have you on the show.

Vance Morris 01:00

And the crowd goes wild.

Gresham Harkless 01:02

Yes, absolutely.

Vance Morris 01:03

And there's a reason the crowd goes wild. It's because Vance- I'm happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:07

Thank you, sir. Yeah, the reason the crowd is going wild because Vance is doing so many awesome things. So of course, before we jumped in, I want to read a little bit more about Vance so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Vance helps business owners get, serve, and keep clients for life through creating experiences and response required marketing without working harder. He is a former birth control factory security guard, turned Disney leader, turned bankrupt, out of work executive, turned carpet cleaner, turned successful entrepreneur. And super excited to connect with Vance. We connected a couple of weeks ago, I think, and he's done some really phenomenal things.

So wealth of knowledge and information, but I was reading a little bit before this and he taught me a new phrase, which I don't know if he knows to disnify your business. And I think that's something that we're definitely going to drill down upon, but absolutely he's accomplished many things. Multiple Chem-Dry Franchises, franchises he's owned on the East Coast, a carpet cleaning business, he's applying business customer service principles to his own business. He's the author of 5 different books as well too. But one of the cool things I saw is he's been on stages over 40 years, including back in the 80’s when he was with his own band. So Vance, excited to have you on the show. You're doing phenomenal things. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Vance Morris 02:20

Yeah man, let's do this. Looking forward to it.

Gresham Harkless 02:23

Let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock. I know I touched on it. Here a little bit more on how you got started, what to call your CEO story.

Vance Morris 02:30

Sure. How I got started in, like in general. So yeah, in general. Yeah, with your business. Okay, so sure. Yeah. So we won't cover the birth control factory security guard because that really doesn't have any bearing except that I will guarantee I am the only one of those you will meet all day today. I did spend 10 years at Disney. So as a senior leader there in hospitality in the hotels, I left Disney, started to get the inkling that being an employee was not for me. So I got a couple more corporate-ish jobs in the hospitality world. I used to say I got laid off. I've now just proudly worn the badge of I was fired twice.

And I realized I just, I do, I make a lousy employee. I don't like to be told what to do. So born to be an entrepreneur, had I discovered it sooner, I'd be that much further on my journey. So in ‘07, I did what every small boy dreams of doing when he grows up. I started a carpet cleaning business. I took all of my Disney knowledge and I packed it in there. When I was doing this, I was looking for a business that was a commodity business that I could turn into a premium service. And so I think I was fairly successful in that. We expanded it to a oriental rug washing facility. So we're really gone with the high end. We've had some 50, 60, $70,000 rugs in the shop.

And that's where some really good money is. In 2013, 2014, people started asking me, so how do you do this? And I started telling them. And then I realized, I don't want to tell you for free anymore. So now I'm going to charge you for it. And so the coaching and consulting business started. So I've been doing that since about 2014. Been recognized a couple of times. So a little pat on my back. I was the longest reigning marketer of the year for the Dan Kennedy Group. So three and a half years, almost four would have been longer except COVID got in the way. So darn COVID. Yeah. So now I show businesses how to Disney-fy if you want to cover that word now.

Gresham Harkless 04:40

Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully that will be one of the most used words very, very soon because I think it's so awesome what you've been able to do. Can you take us through a little bit more on how you serve a client? What does that look like? How are you making that impact for the clients that you work with?

Vance Morris 04:52

Sure. So one of the exercises that I recommend everybody go through this is and it's called a bunch of different things. I call it customer mapping. Some people call it the journey map, et cetera. But it is a vital tool. And so that is the first thing I get. And you start at the very beginning. So what is the first thing that people will interact with your business. Is it a YouTube ad? Is it a postcard? Is it an ad in the newspaper? And you start there. And you do it from the perspective of your customer. So first the customer does this, then the customer does that. And all the way through the entire, we can again use dentists.

So from the time they see your ad to the time they make a phone call, there's a touch point to they get into the office, okay, there's a touch point. What happens in the office? There's a touch point all the way to whatever your customer retention strategies are and how you create experiences around those. So we take those and then we'll take, we prioritize them. I said, okay, which of these touch points is going to give you the most bang for your buck? Whether that be improved service, improved profitability, ease of experience for the customer, or even a better employee experience.

Because if the employees aren't having a good experience, they can't deliver one to your customers. So I worked with a bunch of insurance agents at one point. And one of the agents was a rock and roll fanatic. He knew gold records on the wall, autographed pictures, guitars, his whole office was decked out in rock and roll. And so we did the journey mapping session with his team and we actually had his team brainstorm, how are we gonna answer the phone here? How can we make answering the phone an experience for your customers? So after some going back and forth, the team I can't emphasize this enough, the employees came up with the way to answer the phone, not him.

So now, instead of answering the phone, thank you for calling Dave's Insurance, how can I help you? They answer the phone, thank you for calling Dave's Insurance Agency, the agency that rocks. Now, It sounds a little corny, I get it, but once you've said it a thousand times, it's just part of the day. And they say it with that radio DJ voice every time they answer the phone. So what does answering the phone that way do for the business? If you think about your marketing, your marketing is designed to do two things. One is attract the people you want to do business with and repel the people you don't want to do business with. So just by answering the phone that way, you're sifting, sorting and screening out people who would just make a lousy customer because maybe they're a stick in the mud, they're gonna be price shopping, or you're gonna get people that, oh, all right, that's pretty cool, all right, yeah, I like rock and roll, great, bring on the Led Zeppelin, let's sign an insurance policy.

The other thing is it's memorable. How many insurance agents, if you're shopping for insurance, you call 10, I guarantee you, only one of them is answering the phone that way. And that's what you want to do when you're creating experiences, is to make sure that you are doing something that nobody in your industry is doing. Yes, you have to do the boring mundane things. You do have to answer the phone. You do have to send email. But how do you create an experience out of that's gonna be memorable?

Gresham Harkless 08:30

Nice, I appreciate you so much in sharing that. Do you feel like that's part of what I like to call your secret sauce could be for yourself, the businesses or combination of both, but is it your ability to be able to of course execute on that, but I think also be able to a lot of the examples of things that you talked about is understanding that human part is really being able to drill down to the essence. Do you feel like your ability to be able to understand that and understand that in individuals is part of your secret sauce?

Vance Morris 08:56

Yeah, I think I've been asked, I've been told I am, I see everything. Literally, They're, oh, you got dust on your plants. That level of detail. And so talking with people, you just have to listen. And the other thing, and that's what people don't do. You have an employee meeting and one of your employees says, I had put my dog down yesterday, most places were sorry. That sucks. But how about sending them a condolence card? Wow. We're really sorry. We know pets are a big part of your life. Our thoughts are with you. I hear that kind of, we do that with our customers. Like we'll go into homes to clean up after fluffy dies and she's done peeing and pooping all over the house. We'll go in and they say, yeah, we finally got around to cleaning the carpet, the dog died and the technician, he has a sheep, on his sheep checks the box of pets and what's going on in there.

And when the sheep comes back to the office, the CSR says, oh, pets, oh, pet died. Then they know the next system is send condolence card. So that's the big thing I learned from Disney is there's a system for everything so that everything happens all the time. So there is very rarely a dog or a cat dying in my world where the owner's not getting a condolence card because we've systemized it. Same thing with birthdays for wives of employees. It's systemized. All you do is pop it on the, you don't need a big system, pop it on the Google calendar. Give yourself a week of notice. Boom, you're done.

Gresham Harkless 10:37

Yeah, that's absolutely huge to be able to see the forest for the trees for lack of a better term. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have. But what's something that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient?

Vance Morris 10:52

100% I script my entire day. From the moment I wake up, 4:30am, to the moment I go to bed at 8:30pm, every hour of my day if you looked at my calendar there's very little space in there. So 4:30 to 5:00, well 4:300 to 4:45, get ready, go to the gym. And gym goes until 6 am shower, great. Piece of toast, cup of coffee. And then, okay, at 6:30, I'm checking my newsfeed. At 7:00, I'm writing my daily email. At 7:15, I'm doing the… I don't have room for interruptions. And I actually have a timer on my desk that I use here's another so scripting your entire day is one thing because a project will take the exact amount of time you allow it to so if you have an open-ended you don't go into a meeting saying, okay, the meeting will end when the meeting ends.

No, the meeting's from 11 to 12. Great. So I am going to work on my newsletter from 11 until 12. I make an appointment with myself and then I put it in the little timer and the phone is off. I don't answer the phone. You can't, it doesn't ring. So I can't hear it. So that's gaining time back. I got time programmed in. I cook dinner every night of the week for our house because I structured my day in a way that I know I'll get all my work done so that I have time to cook dinner.

Gresham Harkless 12:22

Yeah, I love that. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget? This could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say It might be something you would tell a client if somebody took a trip with you to Disney or if you happen to a time machine you might tell your younger business.

Vance Morris 12:35

So I tell everybody this and because it's true and I like also because I came up with it but you won't profit unless you implement all the great ideas in the world are worthless until somebody starts doing something. I love it. Motion beats meditation any day.

Gresham Harkless 12:55

I love that. So I would ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEO’s on this show. So Vance, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Vance Morris 13:06

What it means, I don't think I've ever been asked that question, that is brilliant. I think primarily is getting people, your team to actively engage in the business. And what I mean by that is you can't force engagement. You're the boss you can tell them what to do, but doesn't mean they're in and I don't like the term ownership mentality. Disney tried that back in the early 90’s and it failed miserably because as a manager supposed to get ownership mentality of a multi-billion dollar a year company I understood what they were trying to do, but it was just poorly executed.

So how do you engage employees? Well, the phone answering example I gave earlier, the employees do it day in and day out. Give them some parameters and say, okay, come up with this. And Disney does this very well. They come up, the hourly employees come up with more solutions to problems that occur in the operations of the resorts or the parks than any manager ever will. And I got examples out the hoo-ha on that. So I really think, yes, we can say, CEO's got the vision, CEO's got the ideas, the entrepreneurial spirit.

And if you're a solo-opener, you probably need all that anyway, but you also need to, you also have to have an employee mindset of something's got to get done. But I think as the CEO is how do you get the best out of the people you have? Are they on the right seat on the bus? And I am not a management guru when it comes to people. I just follow that golden rule of doing to others. And I also realize I'm this I am not the smartest guy in the room. There's always somebody smarter. Ask the question, how would you do this? My off the cuff for you.

Gresham Harkless 14:57

I love that. A lot of times you always hear that definition lines with everything you've been talking about during the conversation, everything that you're doing. So absolutely love that actively engaged. Vance truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you, find out about the books, the trips, all the awesome things that you're working on.

Vance Morris 15:24

Yeah, I got a lot going on. And thank you so much for having me. I know trusting me with your audience is not an easy thing. Best way to stay in touch with me is through my website, deliverservicenow.com. And I have a free e-newsletter that has strategies and tips and tactics, not only on the experience, but on response required marketing as well. And then also, if you want more Vance, there is on that same page, you can actually get a free copy of my book, Systematic Magic. That's my flagship book. You'll get an ebook of it emailed to you immediately, no charge.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I truly appreciate that, Vance. You definitely didn't chase anybody away. If you did, they're going to Disney with you. So I already know exactly how that's working. But of course, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, just to make sure everybody can get a hold of you, find out about the newsletter, the books, all the awesome things you've been doing. But truly appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day. Thank you.

Outro 16:25

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNation.co. Also, check out our I AM CEO Facebook group. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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