Fix Customer Service Before It Costs You

Most businesses don’t lose customers because of price, they lose them because the experience feels messy, slow, or forgettable. We sit down with Vance Morris to pull back the curtain on the Disney approach to customer experience and translate it into practical moves rent-to-own operators can use immediately, even with a small team and a busy day-to-day schedule.  

We talk about why great service is built on simple systems and SOPs, how to map the customer journey so you know where standards matter most, and how “plussing” keeps your playbook from getting stale. Vance shares real examples from high-volume operations like Chef Mickey’s, plus small-business stories that show how broken basics like a dead website button or a bad phone process quietly drain revenue.  

From there we get tactical: “good show, bad show” walkthroughs, customer feedback loops, secret shoppers, and how to borrow ideas from outside your industry without becoming a copycat. We also dig into decoupling price from the buying decision by stacking value through guarantees, service recovery, and a delivery experience that feels professional inside the customer’s home. Finally, we cover customer loyalty and retention marketing, including newsletters and consistent touchpoints that build a relationship instead of constant sales noise.  

If you want customers to choose you because they trust you, not because you’re cheapest, this conversation is your roadmap. Subscribe, share this with another operator, and leave a review with the one service standard you’re going to upgrade next.

Transcript

Pete Shau 0:06

Hello and welcome to the RTO show podcast. I'm your host, Pete Chao, and today, today we got a killer one. I have a great, great guest here that's going to kind of shed a little bit of a different light on this, something that I know that we need in the RTO business, and I know you need it too. So before we get into all this, make sure, guys, you subscribe to the newsletter. It is new and it is hot. It's actually really, really been good. A lot of information going out on there, stuff that we don't discuss on the podcast because we want to have some different source material for you. Remember to go to the website, rtoshowpodcast.com. And now let's get to it. Mr. Vance Morris, almost to say the man, the Vance Morris, who's got so much going on right now. Guys, uh, I gotta tell you. So as I'm going through this, I've got pages of notes because this guy's got a resume that is unbelievable from working some really big names in the business, including one of our Shark Tent dudes, and I'll tell you about that a little bit later, to authors, to kind of paving your own way and making it happen in the business. And kind of that's what we have are doing today to kind of help us out and figure out what we're doing in the RTO world as far as customer service and just making those memorable moments. Vance, how are you doing this morning? I am fantastic. Thanks for having me on

Welcome And Why Service Matters

Pete Shau 1:21

the show, Pete. Absolutely. So I wanted to get into a little bit of you so that our listeners, our viewers, they know exactly where you're coming from. So you started out in the Disney business and you kind of really made it a big part of it your own and then took that out and kind of spread your wings and even got better. How did that happen? Where did you get started from?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, well, um I had probably one of the easiest interviews at the Disney company uh known on this planet. Uh buddy of mine that I went to college with was a recruiter at Disney. Um I was sick and tired of living in western Massachusetts, so I called him up and said, Hey, you got anything for me? He goes, Yeah, come on down. And I kid you not, that was the extent of the interview. Um, probably not happening today, uh, but it was it's a it was it it was just an amazing uh way to really start. I was working in restaurants for a while, uh, but I was uh, like I said, a little tired of it. So I came and uh worked for the Disney Company for a little over a decade. Uh I was on the opening team of the Yacht and Beach Club Resort uh back in like 1990-ish. Um and just kind of progressed through everything from there.

Pete Shau 2:29

And I so you helped design and open Chef Mickeys. Is that right? Now, for those of you who don't know about Chef Mickeys, this is like a premiere thing that Disney does. Can you explain a little bit about that for me? I mean, you you you made that your own a really big deal now that has kind of transcended from when you started it to where it is now.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah, it certainly was. Um, so we uh we were

Vance’s Disney Start And Career Path

SPEAKER_01 2:54

looking at the at the concept. Chef Mickey's was actually an old restaurant in what they called the village marketplace, I think, uh like in the 70s. Um, and it had shut down, and we were renovating one of the restaurants at uh the contemporary resort, and we were lucky enough to uh get the title of Chef Mickey's for the new restaurant. Um, and it is uh and still is the premier character dining destination um um on the on the property. And one of the things we looked at, and that was our really our driving force behind this thing, was how do we get Mickey Mouse through 400 seats in 43 minutes and have it feel like it was a great experience? Um, and so that was those were our marching orders. Uh, we really had to take that and frame everything we did around that. Um, to give you an idea of the volume that that restaurant does. Uh, when I was there, we were probably about a $35 million a year restaurant with price increases and things like that. They are closer to $70 million uh right now. One restaurant. Yeah, it's it it's it's it's mind-blowing. I mean, if you think about it, your your average McDonald's is doing four and a half million, and you know, Chick-fil-A is right around nine million, give or take a few pennies. Um, so it was a there was a lot going on. Um and so to be on the design team of it, where you know, we worked with the entertainment division, we worked with, you know, obviously with food and beverage because this was a restaurant, um, and everything was designed around how do we get the mouse through 400 seats in 43 minutes and make it feel like it was a great time. You know, character dining, if you think about if you went to the Magic Kingdom and you had your little daughter with you and you wanted to get an autograph from, say, Cinderella, you had to stand in the hot sun for like a half hour. And so by the time you get up to Cinderella, you're malnourished, you're dehydrated, you're sweating, your little cherub is probably kind of getting cranky, you're getting cranky, and you get up to Cinderella and and it's time for Cinderella to go on break. Well, that's not a great experience. Um, and two, you're miserable. Uh so we flip the tables on that. And so with character dining, you're in an air-conditioned area, you're sitting down at a nice table, enjoying a great meal, and the characters come to you instead of you standing around waiting for the characters. So completely flip the script on how uh guests interacted with the characters.

Pete Shau 5:44

So it makes part of the dining experience like an experience altogether, not just food, but an experience altogether. And that's what helps change a $35 million a year situation to a $70 million a year. You know, guys, in the rent-to-owned business, that's one of the biggest things that I say is what's the difference between us and the next one, right? If everything is almost the same, and I'm not going to say everything's exactly the same, but you know, no credit needed, free delivery, and all that stuff, what makes us different than the next guy? And that's why Vance is here today, because those are super important things to like what can I do to make this customer experience absolutely better? Now, after your dining experience, after you did all that, you you went to work with names such as NASA? Like you worked with NASA, you worked with Legal Foods, and eventually a little bit in the White House, right? Is is that is that so you're taking this playbook. Now it it in everything that I've read and some of the things that you've said, you you took this Disney playbook and you took it with you. And not only did you prove from a large scale to a small scale, because you ended up leaving doing your own thing, your own business, and then showed and proved that the Disney playbook actually works, and now you are mentoring, teaching, and and letting other people know this is this is how you make it happen. What the Disney can you describe to me a little bit about the Disney playbook and and how that affects the day-to-day business?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah. So one of the big things that I learned at Disney was that it runs on systems and processes. Okay. They have a system for everything. You want to change a bus tire, you know, they got a system for it. Carry a tray in a restaurant, they got a system for it. And all of the systems are simple. Because if they were complex, the whole darn thing would fall apart. You got to think about who's working there, right? You know, it's a bunch of late teens, early 20s people. The last thing they're thinking about is, you know, safety and rides and working. They're thinking about, you know, tonight's keg party or complaining about the boss or whatever. Um, so they've got to be simple systems. Um and so, and if you think about it, systems are there to deliver a consistent result. Um, it's not there to stifle you, but it's there to deliver a consistent result. So if your systems are on a higher plane uh as far as guest experience is concerned, now you can pretty much ensure that your employees are gonna deliver the experiences that you're looking for. Without systems and processes, the whole darn thing falls apart. Um, I give a quick example, and it just happened this weekend. So on uh Friday, I had a bunch of kids in the house, and um

Systems And SOPs That Scale

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I was gonna order pizza for the family. I certainly wasn't cooking. Um so I went online. We have I live in a small town, we have three pizza places. Um one's good, one's okay, and one I would never order from. So I go to the good one, I hit the uh online order button. It's broken. Doesn't do it, doesn't work, doesn't do anything. Now, I should have known this because two months ago when I tried to order from them, the button didn't work then either. So this should tell everybody something. And if you have a website, make sure your buttons work. Go through it as a customer and make sure all the links are there. I mean, gremlins get in there, links break, I get it, but just make sure the stuff works. So I call them up, which is the next best thing, um, and they answer the phone, please hold, and put me on hold. I'm like, Did I even get the right place? I have no idea. Um so uh I'm on hold, I'm looking at my uh at my uh phone, and it hits four minutes, and so I hang up and I call back. Same thing. Please hold. I'm like, so this company, this pizza place, had no systems in place. One to answer the phone, two, what do they do when they're busy? Because obviously, I mean it's Friday night, I get it, they're busy, uh, but that's not an excuse not to deliver the experience. I mean, Disney's busy. I mean, geez, they got 70 million people coming through there every year. You know, we should be able to handle a couple of hundred on a Friday night. Um, and so they had no backups. This, this probably, and I'm not faulting the employee, I'm faulting the the employer. The employee was probably, you know, in the weeds, you know, just taking orders, didn't know what else to do, had no backup plan, the the restaurant didn't offer a backup plan. Um, and so I said, you know what? I'm taking my money and I'm going somewhere else. You got to remember, money goes where money is wanted. If if your company doesn't want money or has a bad relationship with money, money is not coming to you. It's going somewhere else. And so I called the second best pizza place. Their online button worked. So I ordered my pizza, walked over to the pizza place, got my pizza, came home. Um, then that's the example of systems and processes that, if they're broken, are going to get in the way of you creating experiences and you making money. You know, that's the whole thing. I mean, Disney is a master at extracting money from your wallet and leaving you feel happy about it and wanting to do it again and again and again.

Pete Shau 10:59

And so I got a question. Because when you're saying when you're saying SOPs, right, the standard operating procedures, that's that's really important. And I agree with you 100%. Uh, because we'll get into the good show and a bad show in a minute, and I and I and I would I love that that example. But when you're opening your business, is that when you create the SOPs or the standing operating position procedures? Or you know, as you go along, you're gonna see things, find things, learn things that you didn't know before. Are is it is it like a you start it and then you always add to it? When do you when do you really get down to the SOP so that you're you're you you have a lot covered?

SPEAKER_01 11:33

It never stops. It just never stops. So if you have the luxury of you're opening your business in a couple of weeks and you can start building these things, fantastic. That's probably best case scenario. But probably most of us on here are operators. We're we're in the business, we're in the weeds, and we're and we're doing our business every day. So what we have to do is we have to look at where are we going to start? And so we have, let's just take answering the telephone. Um, and so you would uh write down, well, first thing you got to do is map out your customer journey. It's not sexy, um, but it is vital. Okay, where does your company touch uh the guest or the customer at each point? So, you know, okay, do they make a phone call, do they do the website, do they come into the store, etc.? So you map out all of the points, and then you identify, okay, what's the most important point? What's going to get me the most bang for my buck? And this is where you start your standards. So you just take exactly what you're doing now and you write that down. So now you have an SOP. It may not be great, but you got one. And this is how we answer the phone. Then what you want to do is you work in iterations, okay? Disney, Walt Disney called it plussing. It's constant process improvement, okay? Constantly getting better. So you want to plus how you answer the phone. So I worked with a group of insurance companies, and um, there was this All-state

Build Standards With Constant Plussing

SPEAKER_01 13:02

agent in this fairly decent-sized city. Uh, there are probably like seven or eight other All-state agents in the city, plus all of the other guys, you know, it's probably 50, 60 insurance agents. Um, and when you called them up, they answered the phone, you know, thank you for calling Dave's insurance. How can I help you? So, I mean, every company in the world sort of answers the phone that way. So we had to lean into his uh personality. We had to figure out a way, okay, how do we answer the phone so that it is an experience? So I'm sitting in his office with his team and I'm looking around, and he's got gold records on the wall, uh, autograph guitars, posters of the Who, and all this stuff. I mean, he's a rock and roll fanatic. And so I'm like, okay, well, answering the phone is your number one thing. Uh, what are some ideas? And his um receptionist was the one that came up with how to answer the phone. Um, and so and she really leaned into his personality. So, like I said, normally you get, yeah, thanks for calling Dave's insurance. How do how can I help you? Well, they jazzed it up and they got their like best Wolfman Jack imitation going. And they say, Thank you for calling Dave's All State, the agency that rocks. Now, answering the phone that way, yes, it sounds a little corny the first 19 times you say it, but answering the phone that way does a couple of things. One, it separates you from everybody else out there. So you become the only rock and roll insurance agent out there. Um, and two, remember what your marketing is designed to do. It's designed to either um attract the people you want to do business with or repel the people you don't want. And so just by answering the phone that way, you sift sort and screen out anybody who'd be a bad customer. And so you take everything you do and you look at it. Okay, here's what we're doing right now. That's that's our current standard. Whether you think you have one or you don't, that's the current. And then you look at it and you brainstorm.

Pete Shau 15:05

How do we make this better? Let me ask you something. Are you getting everything out of your rent-to-owned business? If you're not an APRO member, then the answer is probably no. Look, advocacy is April's bread and butter. This is why they were created and what they do best. But here's the thing April membership is about way more than advocacy. April connects you to the movers and the shakers of the industry, people who've been there, done that, and they can help you do it even better. APRO's monthly webinars give you expert insights and actionable takeaways. It's like having a masterclass for your business every single month. Got questions about complex regulations or sticky situations? No problem. April's Legal Hotline gives you direct access to experts who have got the answers. That's a peace of mind that you can't put a price on. And let's not forget the resources, news, updates, and tools that keep you ahead of the curb. Scholarships for your team? Check. Disaster relief when you need it most? Double check. APRO is your ultimate support system in the rent-to-own world. So stop settling for less. With APRO members, get more. More support, more connections, more success. Head over to rtohq.org and join the APRO family today. Because in this business, more isn't just better. It's essential. See you at the top with APRO. When you're doing that, and I know, see, here's the thing, and I'm glad that we're talking about this because there, I know a lot of people, I'm sure you know a lot of people, right? And they they they bring together different ideas, different thoughts, different ways to do things. And I know guys that are great at doing tasks, right? That's what they do. You set in front of a task and then boom, they will knock them out. But the guy who creates the tasks is different from the person doing the tasks, right? The guy who creates the task is more like, I see a need, I need to do it, I'm gonna delegate it, I'm gonna put you off. Okay, as you're creating this persona for your business to be different, you have a couple of same businesses, and whether it's RTO that's the same RTO and you're trying to be different, or a restaurant that's trying to be different. How do you get somebody who is very logical, right? In their in their way of thinking, and like, I'm gonna open a business, I want my guys to answer the phone, I want them to be nice to the customers, and I want to take care of them. That's great. Now, mind you, I agree with that 100%. But like you said, if you're not gonna put a twist on it, you're gonna fall in the in the weeds of everybody else. So, but they're more of I know how to run the business, I don't know how to create this idea, this persona, this this thing that's gonna put me separate in the in in the as far as a personality. How do you how do you get that person to sit back and go, how do you create a personality for your business through your SOPs?

SPEAKER_01 17:37

You know, yeah. Well, so certainly if you don't have SOPs, your employees are gonna do whatever the heck it is they want to do, right? So if you don't tell them what to do and give them the script, they're just gonna figure it out themselves, and it's probably not gonna be something you like. Like, please hold. But not the way to answer the phone. And so well, I mean, it's it's it's what happened, right? I mean, this guy had no script, he had no SOP on how to answer the phone when it's busy. None. And so you mapping out your customer journey, you don't have to have rock and roll in your background for the personality. Your personality can be the level of service you provide, the um the level of um, what's the word I'm looking for, knowledge that you have. You know, do you become that guy that just knows things and people? So do you become a resource for your community? Because I'm guessing probably RTOs, they work within a community or or a town. I mean, they're not delivering 300 miles away. Correct.

Pete Shau 18:44

Yeah, we're five to ten. What's that? We're five to ten miles out. That's that's our bread and butter. I mean, we might every once in a while go a little bit further out, but our majority is five to ten miles out.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

So, so how do you become known for that guy? So you want to be able to become, you know, like I one of the businesses I own uh is a carpet cleaning business. Um, not very sexy. But you know, people call us up and ask, um, you know, hey Vance, do you know a good plumber? Hey Vance, do you know, you know, a good handyman? Because they trust us, because we've done a great job, and we probably hang out with people that have the same level, the same standards that we do. Um, and I know this is a little bit off kilter from the personality question, um, but we became known as that guy, we just know people. So, how do you become the center of influence in your community? You can certainly do this with with your rental centers. It's it's not it's not impossible. And I think that everybody has something that they're known for. All right. You know, maybe it's knitting, maybe it's fly fishing, maybe it's um, you know, just being a cheerful, bubbly person. Um, and so that becomes the personality of your store, regardless of whether you're in a franchise or uh you're independent. Um and so do you become known in your town for over-the-top incredible customer service? You just become known for that, you know, and then you be you get compared to every, or everybody else gets compared to you. You know, people go to the movie theater, they go to the grocery store, and they're like, you know, those dudes over at you know at Bob's uh rental center, uh, they got it down. You know, they greeted me at the front door, they said hello, they knew my name, they did this and that and the other thing. And I went to the grocery store and and and the lady grunted at me. You know, I mean, well, I mean, a lot of cashiers don't know how to talk. And if they do, they just use single syllables and it's you know, all right, it's fine. Um that's how Anthony and I communicate.

Pete Shau 20:59

What's that? That's how Anthony and I look at it, and just uh that's how we that's what we do it. No, I agree 100%.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Sadly, sadly, that's what happens, you know. So how do you be you you've got to become known for giving a top-notch experience?

Pete Shau 21:16

So taking that, and I and I love that idea, we become a top-notch experience. We have to kind of dissect it, starting with the SOPs and making sure that we have actually a lot of problems set so that we know how to take care of them. Now, what's the good show, bad show? Because here's the thing. After we explain a little bit, my my my issue is is that some of our owners are one to two, maybe three-store owners. Now, there are some that have 20, 40, and then you have the big ones that have 200 plus. But when you're running a, you know, a one to three, right, one to three store operation, it's hard to walk in the door and not have people change the way they are, right? So boss man comes to the door, whether it's one store or three stores, and all of a sudden we're somebody who we haven't been, right? Oh, Hey, how are you doing? And what's going on? And I want to make sure everything's right. And then they leave, and all of a sudden, the experience is back to back to normal. So when you're doing good show, bad show, how do you stop that from happening? So we I want to just get into that question as you describe what good show, bad show is, because I'm very curious on how to make that change so that we get it right. Certainly.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

So good show, bad show is actually looking at your um your stage. So Disney uses um uh theatrical and film uh anecdotes and things to describe. So when you're working at Disney, you are on stage uh and you're a cast member performing a role on stage. And so one of the things that's done at the beginning of every day is a good show, bad show walkthrough. You know, we're looking at, you know, are the windows clean? Does something need to be painted? Is a light bulb out, etc. I do this in my home service businesses. Um, you know, every employee has to do a good show, bad show walkthrough of their vehicle and then submit that. These days it's great because we can take pictures and everything's online, and you know, you can do a little video of your walkthrough, whatever. Anything that is considered bad show then needs to be reported so that something can be done and it can be repaired. So at Disney, we do the show

Good Show Bad Show And Accountability

SPEAKER_01 23:20

in the morning and uh we call all the departments to fix our stuff, and then in the afternoon, the afternoon um shift leader or manager will do another good show, bad show walkthrough. One, they check to make sure everything that was on bad show in the morning has been fixed, and then they do their own walkthrough. So it's constantly keeping your stage in tip-top shape and looking good. As far as the employees are concerned, you know, I there is, you know, I used to tour Michael Eisner around. He's the former CEO of Disney. Um, and when he would come on property, uh especially at Pleasure Island, um, I was the guy that had to walk him around. And he says to me, you know, Vance, I am really tired of the smell of fresh paint. Because people knew Eisner was coming, so they freaking painted everything to make sure it looked great for when Michael Eisner walked through. Um, so he tried to come unannounced, but that never worked. So you have to rely on either customer feedback, which I strongly recommend everybody has some kind of customer feedback uh system. Whether that's comment cards, whether that's something digital, whether it's an email online or something, um, you have that. And then two, secret shoppers. Um, and they don't even have to be expensive ones. It's just, you know, you can call up your buddy three doors down and say, you know, hey, can you, you know, I'll buy you lunch. Would you mind just uh coming in and uh just telling me what you experienced? So it's as easy as that. Um, you know, I'll I'll I come in unannounced in all of my businesses, um, and my guys know it. So, and we serve outside of, we don't even have a showroom. I mean, we go to somebody's house and we got to do our thing. And so I'll spot check every once in a while. I'll drive out to where we're working, and I'll make sure everything that I said was going to be a standard is actually happening in place. So it's more inspection, it's more having systems in place that are going to get you that information, but having some kind of review system, uh, having some kind of uh secret shopper service, uh really kind of indispensable in in a business that has a store or a showroom.

Pete Shau 25:38

So what I wanted to do is kind of understand when you do a good show, bad show, right? Um and you and you see these things, and how important is it when you come in and then having a fresh mind come in? How how important is it for this to happen on a regular basis? Now, I know that I would love to say we do it every morning. Guys, we're not doing it every morning, but let's say that we you know we have this. How often does that fresh perspective because we're gonna come in and we're gonna have our own ideas about it? And unfortunately, sometimes we have blind resignment like, hey, I know that that light's not fixed, but I ordered the light. I know that this spot is not fixed, but I I ordered that. How often do you have a fresh mind come in versus I'm gonna come in and do my own walkthrough, I'm gonna I'm gonna notate my stuff. You know, is it quarterly? Is it weekly? I mean, what how does the biggest bang?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah, I I I think at at worst case, worst case is quarterly. Uh best case is probably every other week. Um, because if you don't stay on top of it, that's when things slip. Um and so you want to notice, okay, you know, do you have dusty house plants? Do you have something that's detracting from the show? And let's say a quick word about details. Okay, so we're all in detail-oriented businesses. And every detail in your business is either enhancing or detracting from your show. So there is no middle ground, right? So if you got a dusty house plant, it's detracting from the show. If your paperwork is messy or your employee is wrinkled, um, those are all detractions. Now, one of those is not going to be a deal killer. But if you put two or three or four in a row, now the customer's like, what the hell kind of place did I just walk into? Um, so I would be looking, you know, fresh set of eyes if you could get, you know, a buddy, a secret shopper, um, you know, definitely customer feedback can be daily. Um, you know, and you know, do you have somebody who, you know, whether they rented something or not, do you have somebody at the end of the day that calls them up and says, uh, hey, you know, uh, we know you were in the store today. Uh could do you do you have a minute to tell me about how things went? And then you ask two or three questions, doesn't definitely not long, you know, the questions that are important to you and see how the customer responds. Um, that kind of information is is invaluable because it's instant. I mean, you don't want to wait a whole quarter to realize you've been doing something wrong for 90 days. You want to nip that sucker in the bud.

Pete Shau 28:14

So when you're when you have all these customer experiences come in, right, you're trying to be, you got your SOPs, right? Because you got to put that down. That is the basic foundation. Now you're building your experience off of that. What I wanted to know is because sometimes what we do, if we are, again, we're gonna go back to that logical thinking versus that that you know eccentric kind of person who can say, hey, this is good, this would be great, or that would be great, or I can paint, you know, something that doesn't look like you know, stick figures, right? They have they have a mindset for that. What they'll do is what we do, what what some businesses do have a tendency, they'll go shop around, right? They'll go and say, Okay, who does this? Who does that? But what we don't want to do is create an amalgamation of everything that's already out there, because then that again, we are just gonna look a better version of the same, right? It's gonna be we're just gonna be a different color packaging on a whole bunch of presents that look exactly the same. So as you're doing that and you go out and you see something that you like, okay, they're doing this right, or I go over here and they're doing that right. How do you tweak those things to get to be a little bit different in the sense that I'm not like everybody else, but they have some great ideas.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yep. Well, I think first and foremost is don't go looking what other rental centers are doing. Don't do it. Don't, don't do it. Don't do it, don't do it. Okay, go to go to Chick-fil-A and notice how Chick-fil-A, they have people that say, you know, good morning. Thank you. My pleasure. Uh, you know, and and have genuine customer experience. Um, you know, I went uh yesterday, uh, I don't know if you guys have them near you, I went to a raising canes, okay? It's fresh hot chicken, and that's how they announce your order is ready. I got fresh hot chicken for Vance, and you well, great. I mean, there's 26,000 chicken places, right? Right, right, right. Raising canes as their thing. It's fresh hot chicken for Vance, and it's ready to go. So look outside of your industry for some of the best ideas. I mean, if if you look at like uh drive-throughs for like McDonald's or the fast food places, I bet you there was like a McDonald's executive at the bank ready to make his deposit, and you know, those tubes that whoosh the money up over top of the tube. And he's like, How the hell do I get a milkshake into that thing? Right? So it's about adapting what other businesses are doing, not copying what they're doing. So look outside of your industry for for the best ideas. You know, if you if if you want a uh you know, if you want to work on your in-store greeting, great. Uh, you know, don't go to other rental centers, go to, you know, a restaurant, go to a Ritz-Carlton, go to a Nordstrom's and see how those things are happening. Um, you know, play it in the back of your mind, you know, when you just travel around with your family and you notice, man, that was that was pretty cool. How can I do that in my business? And then you just got to brainstorm. Uh you don't have to do the huge bells and whistles,

Borrow Ideas Outside Your Industry

SPEAKER_01 31:27

and it's all iterations. So if you're answering the phone, okay, maybe you don't have the whole rock and roll thing. Great. But right now, let's say your standard is to answer the phone in four rings. All right, well, next month we're gonna answer it in three rings, and then the next month after that, we're gonna answer it in two rings. Um, and then one of your standards could be we're never gonna have a machine answer the phone, it's always gonna be a human. Um, so that's there's nothing sexy about any of that, but it is a standard and it is a constant plussing of your standard because it's getting better and better over time. I like that.

Pete Shau 32:04

So what we do in life, right? A lot of people associate price in the shopping experience first and foremost, right? So if you're going somewhere and you see the dollar store, you're you're in your mind, you're thinking cheaper cost merchandise, you're not really expecting the kind of customer service that you would, like you said, like a Nordstrom or something like that. You're thinking, well, this is gonna, you know, this is gonna be bottom dollar. This is $199 here versus $599 over there. I'm just gonna walk in, expect bad shelves and whatever the case is. How do you get how in in today's economy, especially when everybody's worried about the price of gas and whatever's, you know, whatever's going on in the world, how do you get them? Because you've mentioned this, and a lot of what you do is to try to disassociate the cost with the shopping experience. How do you decouple those? And what is it, you know, what is the groundwork of that look like? Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

So, I mean, first and foremost, you have to be able to talk about and deliver uh value. Okay, so once you have a value proposition, um, it separates you from pricing because you can pretty much get price elasticity with the addition of value items. So again, I'll mention so one of my businesses, I said, is a carpet cleaning business. And you can drive around your town, look on a telephone pole, and see some guy advertising, I'll clean your whole house for $49. Um, that's what I'm competing against, right? But we don't compete on price. You go to my website, there is not a price on there because we we uh work based on value. So, what are the things that you can add and do that are going to increase your value aside from you know the $100 a week sofa or whatever it is? So, you know, do you have a uh guarantees and warranties are brilliant for this? So, do you have a on-time guarantee? Do you have a warranty? So, like in in my business, uh

Value Adds That Beat Price Shopping

SPEAKER_01 34:08

we have a uh a five-day and a 10-day whoopsie warranty. So if you if we clean your carpet today, in five days, if you you know knock over a glass of chocolate milk, give us a call, we'll come back out, we'll clean that spot. Um, you know, no charge. And then we've got a 10-day version of that. Um maybe one person a year will take us up on that warranty. It costs us absolutely nothing to issue it, it only costs us pennies when we actually have to go out and fix something. Um, but it sets people's minds at ease. It is a value add. Um, you know, how we take care of uh the home. So, I mean, you know, you you guys have, you know, delivery. Okay, well, what is your get-in-the-door and delivery experience? Okay, is it just a couple of guys that, you know, smell like the Marlboro man who just took a shower in axe because, you know, well, I mean, that guy has come into my house, it's disgusting. So, I mean, like for me, we forbid smoking and I forbid cologne. There's nothing worse than the Marlboro man who smells like axe, you know, coming in. Um, so that is part of your process. Those are part of your standards. Um, you know, do you uh lay down a uh logoed mat by the front door and and wipe your feet before you come in? Do you put little booties on? Do you put corner protectors and edge protectors? So when you're bringing in an entertainment center, you're not scratching or doing anything. Um, you know, so you become known for that. And there is a value to that entry into the home, that whole process, that you can put any price you want onto it because other people are not doing it. Um, I mean, my competitors know what I do. They don't copy it. I don't know, they're too dumb, too lazy, too poor, whatever it is. So you become known for how you deliver. Um, so I think though that's really one of the ways is you just look at how we are delivering what we're doing and how can we do it just a little bit better every week or every month and do it a little differently than everybody else is.

Pete Shau 36:21

So you talk about delivery experience building loyalty. Talk to me a little bit about the loyalty that you're talking about, because I, you know, we always want loyalty. And when we talk about bottom dollar, you usually people are gonna say, I'm loyal to the price, right? Whatever, if this price is 250, I'm going somewhere where it's 225. Oh, wait, that guy's $1.99. I have no loyalty to whoever. I am loyal to the price of the product. And what we're trying to do is not only decouple them from a price tag and say, hey, this is this is the value of it. Um, but you're also trying to deliver a loyalty that says, I'm not always looking at the price, I'm looking at where I want to be. And if they can fall in that realm, then that's where I'm gonna go every single time, whether it's a dollar more, whether it's two dollars more. And when we talk about that, you've got things like Publix uh supermarkets that absolutely do not have the best price, but I shop there all the time. You have places like Apple, and they and their their brand loyalty is probably second to none. People go to Apple, whether it's the whether it's the cheapest or most, it has nothing to do with it. Is this an Apple product? I know what to expect when I get there. This is what I want. And then, okay, well, I have to get, I guess I have to deal with the pricing afterwards. So when you talk about deliverable loyalty like that, can you talk to me a little bit about how we can get that in the RTO world and and and say, okay, if if my guys have that brand, that's where I'm gonna go to get it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Well, first and foremost, if you don't deliver a great experience, you really don't have a prayer at loyalty or retention. So that's really the first thing you got to fix. The other is how you market to your existing customers. And this is where so many businesses fall down. Um, you know, it and it's also expensive. So I, you know, I work with companies and I'll ask them, okay, do you have a marketing budget? And most of them will say yes. So, okay, great. How much of that is dedicated to customer retention? And they all look at me like I got three heads. They're like, what do you mean? You know, and so then I got to go through the math. I said, Do you know how much it costs you to acquire a customer? Most businesses don't know that very

Loyalty Through Retention Marketing

SPEAKER_01 38:25

vital number. You know, they might know cost of goods or, you know, price per gallon of gas and stuff like that, but they don't know how much it costs to get a new customer in the front door. And so for my home service businesses, it's $136 for me to get a new customer in the front door. That's the pay-per-click ad, that's the guy answering the phone, um, etc. $136. Only cost me $23 a year to keep a customer. $23. So every time I service an existing customer, I'm $100 more profitable. And so the thing that you have to do is not always be selling. I know it's counterintuitive, but would you go to a business that the only time you ever heard from them is when they wanted your money? Right. Yes. You know, they the only time you hear from them is when they're having a sale. Um and that's not a relationship, okay? That's transactional. So one of the things I recommend, especially, you know, in this world, because you have their address, is mail them something. And mail them something that is not overtly salesy. I mean, this market is ripe for newsletters. I mean, you mentioned a newsletter at the beginning of the show. Um, well, you're the rental centers can do newsletters, preferably in print, and you mail them. You can mail a newsletter for under a dollar, full color, four pages. And the newsletter is designed to entertain and stay in touch and continue the emotional connection that they created in your store. So it's not gonna have, you know, uh, you know, you're okay, box springs that have, you know, you know, 12 springs versus nine springs are better, or whatever. Nobody cares about that crap, right? One of the most sought-after sections of my newsletter is the stupid criminal stories. It's like readers digest light. I kid you not. I've been doing a newsletter now for over 14 years. And after about three years, I was like, I'm I'm bored with the stupid criminal story. So I took it out and I don't know, I put a recipe in there. We got phone calls saying, where's the stupid criminal stories? People were mad. They told me a couple of things. One, people are actually reading the newsletter, right? And two, um, well, now I know what they like, so I guess I'll put the stupid criminal stories back in. Um, and there's the the key thing is though, is that there's nothing salesy in there. The only sale item in there is hey, if you got a friend or neighbor that could use us, uh, you know, here's have them give us a call, something simple like that. But everything in there is designed to continue the relationship, to continue the emotional connection that we created at the beginning. How hard is that, in your opinion? It's not hard. It's not hard. You just got to get into it. Now, I mean, there are companies out there that, you know, I mean, like we have a done for you newsletter. So I actually have a whole done for you retention system. It's called retention system in a box. Um, so you you do the newsletter. Then you're thinking, okay, well, I I can't just not sell them something. Okay, fine. So then you send them a postcard. Once a month you send a postcard out, and that's got your offer on it. And then you send a weekly email. And the weekly email is just an article from the newsletter, your promotion from your uh postcard, and you put the two together. So now you're hitting your customers six times a month. That's not, and then it's you're not bombarding them with a daily email or you know, 10% off this all the time. It's you're delivering information, you're delivering entertainment. And by the way, yeah, we've got a promotion going this month. So it's a very holistic look at customer retention, and there's nothing in there that's just screaming, buy my stuff, buy my stuff. It's oh, we here's you know, seven ways to uh um create a healthier home this spring, or yeah, things like that.

Pete Shau 42:32

So it it it's uh seven key seven keys to profitability service recovery is what is what I saw. Is that what you're talking about? That part there? Yeah. So these things that that happen, because I I love the idea of taking things that aren't expensive and turning them to something that has value because value is the most important thing. And as you're you're coming across this, um somebody comes in, right? So I'm the one to three store operator, I come in, I'm making sure that you know I'm walking my store, my my all my clicks work, I'm making sure that everything's good. And every so often I have Bob or Jane or whoever come through and make sure that we're actually talking to the customer the right way and all that. When you're looking at other ideas, right? Because sometimes what we do, and I I I am guilty of this myself, is that I'm used to being at the front counter, I'm used to dealing with my guys, and I'm used to the situation. So even if I have an idea in my head, this is what the store should look like, this is how we should react to the customers, and this is what I think the SOP should be. I walk in and everything's checked and it's good. But sometimes what we do is we fall back on that and we say, This is my SOP, I come in and it's good. But now it's dated, right? It's a year, it's two years. And we're still going through that checklist because remember, we got some people that are just, hey, I created this and I'm gonna use it till the till the paperclips come out. So it's like, okay, I'm doing this. To get those fresh ideas, right? To to to put ourselves out of the situation. And go, I need to create something new. How would somebody do that? How does somebody go and say, okay, wait a minute, this is a little bit dated. I have to know that it has been the three-year mark. This is dated. I know I've got to start doing something different. How do you get people who are checklist oriented to go, uh, this is just I need something different now because this is where the market's at?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Well, certainly. So one of the things I didn't mention about, you know, creating those standards and creating those experiences is having a um uh a committee. I hate the word committee, having a working group, whatever, whatever you want to call it. But you get a couple of people together and you're gonna look at one or two or three of the standards, and you're gonna say, how do we make this better?

Pete Shau 44:43

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SPEAKER_01 45:32

And it's just continuous process improvement. Just get together with two or three of your team in your store and say, okay, you know, um uh you know when uh customers walk in, uh, you know, we say, Hey, welcome uh to ABC Store. Okay, well, how can we make that a little bit better? And they'll say, Okay, well, how about we just say welcome to ABC Store? Uh, my name is Jeff. Perfect. Now that's the new standard, and we run with that. And then maybe in two or three months

Fresh Eyes Committees And Field Trips

SPEAKER_01 46:03

we'll revisit it and say, um, okay, you know, how do we make the um the entry into the store uh better than what we're doing? Uh well, okay, well, how about we present them with a um, you know, a checklist. We just talked checklist. Uh, you know, okay, here's uh, you know, seven ways to make sure you get uh the sofa um you're looking for. Right? And oh, I didn't know there were seven questions I should ask about sofas. What are they? So now you've improved it and you just continually do that. The other thing is, is take your team out every once in a while. I mean, go to Chick-fil-A, you know, go to the mall and walk seven or eight stores and just tell them, hey, what do you see? Was there something you liked, something you didn't like? And then the didn't like stuff is okay, well, we're never doing that in our store. And the stuff you did like, okay, well, how do we adapt it?

Pete Shau 46:56

How far out of the realm do you go? If we if I'm selling furniture, right, because there's several different, there's several different types of rent to own. There is the traditional where it's uh, you know, it's furniture, appliances, electronics. You've got the tire and wheel now, where it's just tire or wheels or a combination of both. You've got the shed industry, you've got some other things that are going on. When you're when you're trying to look for those things, how far out of your industry do you go? I know you mentioned Nordstrom, but like it's like could I show up on a car dealer lot and go, this is, you know, let's find out how it goes, or how far out of the realm of your set box do you go?

SPEAKER_01 47:31

As far as it takes, you know, I mean, I don't consciously look for, okay, well, you know, today I'm I'm going to uh you know Burger King and I'm gonna see how do I take the Burger King standards and apply them to my mold remediation business? You know, that that doesn't enter my mind, uh, you know, to do it like that. It's you know, it's just walking around, you know, walking around town, going to different places. Um, and it just doesn't matter. It's like you just have to be of the mindset of how do you adapt what this company is doing into the rental center? And that's that's you know, that that's the question. You know, you see something you like, you know, you you sit down at dinner. Here's an easy one. Um I could it's called anticipatory service, okay? Um, and it goes like this. And and anybody can do this, okay? It works in any industry. So let's say it's a really hot day out, you go into a restaurant, you sit down, you ask for a glass of water, and they say no. Now we would all agree that's bad service. That's terrible. Yeah. Okay, so same hot day, you go into the restaurant, you ask for a glass of water, and they deliver it. Right? That's average service, right? We asked for something, they delivered it. No bells and whistles, no nothing. Fine. Get it, okay, that's okay. And you know, nobody raves about average, right? So if we're talking about word-of-mouth advertising, that kind of service is not going to get anybody talking about us. But let's say it's the same hot day, we walk in, and there at the host stand is one of the servers standing there with a tray with both still and sparkling water on it, saying, Hey, we know it's really hot outside. Would you like a glass of water? That's anticipatory service. So, I mean, these things can be done. I've got attorneys making lattes and coffee drinks for their clients because that was the experience they wanted in their law office. So instead of just saying, hey, can I get you a cup of coffee? They now present a menu and says, Okay, which one of these, you know, coffee drinks, you know, what's your favorite coffee drink? Would you like one of these? Oh, yeah, I like that one, you know, the espresso with the two pumps of this and the extra shot of potato juice and whatever else goes into the thing. It's just taking that. I got an oil change company, right? They installed a barista in the waiting room of the oil change company. And now, and they did a whole bunch of other things, but that oil change, those guys are charging 45% more than their closest competitor because of the service that they're providing. It's the same oil. There's no magic oil, right? Just they all buy it from the same place. But because there is a service process, and then of course we have the whole experience of in the waiting room, you know, they're charging more. So if you walked into a rental center and, you know, how are you guys dressed? Are they dressed in just a polo shirt and khakis? Okay, fine. That's that's average, fine. Great. You're labeling us, man.

Pete Shau 50:31

That's exactly the way we are. That's that's exactly the way we look.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

We're a polo right there. Polos and khakis, I get it. But do you okay, do you look at your at your uniform? Okay. If you want to get a higher price, well, you've got to elevate how you look and how you deliver. So is instead of polo shirts, is it Oxford shirts? Right? So they, you know, Oxford, you can press them and they look nice. Um, okay, maybe it's not khakis, maybe it's, you know, uh navy blue or black uh trousers, uh, whatever. They got a nice seam down on them, crease. You know, if we're providing uniforms, right, you well, if we gotta pay for the uniforms, we just pay for something a little nicer looking, right? I mean, that's what the oil change guy did. Oil change guy, I mean, they were, you know, they wore their oil change out, whatever the hell they were coveralls or whatever. Now the guys come out there, same uniform company, and those guys are wearing white shirts and black bow ties and little gloves when they come out and greet the uh customers um at the garage door. So it's just it's just looking at different things in a different way. And you know, I mean, just how do you how do you set your place?

Pete Shau 51:42

How does it look? Well, there's a couple, you know, I tell you what, Vance, this is amazing. Going into the end, just so you guys know, Vance has worked with some crazy names here that I just gotta tell you things that really have helped. Uh, number one, Dan Kennedy, who is a author of over 20 plus books. We've got Jack Cainfield, who actually literally wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul. Amazing book. If you haven't read it, you need to go out and read it. Lee Cockrell, who's he's done four books, but he's probably integral in what he does. And uh the Shark Tank himself, Mr. Damon John, you work with all these guys. These guys, it it I I would imagine it goes back and forth. They tell you something, you you tell them something. How I mean, I that's gotta be a good, I mean, coming into the end, that's gotta be a good feedback, right? I mean, that's gotta be a good loop for you guys.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Yeah, I mean it is. And we, you know, we we compare notes, you know. I I would like to say frequently, but when we do meet up, I mean we're getting together and we're like, okay, you know, what what strategy or tactic is is working now? What new product have you seen? Um, you know, what could be adapted into what we're doing? So yeah, I mean, you know, you don't have to be connected to a shark to to do this stuff, right? You just you just need to think a little bit.

Pete Shau 52:54

I tell you what, if they're taking his advice, I would too. I know you also do a service, you have a deliver service now. That's someplace that they can go.com. They can go on there and uh kind of take a look at some of the services that you have and some of the ideas that you do. Guys, I'm gonna tell you right now, I I love the idea of the anticipation of needing that service and being able there to take care of that. That's something that we definitely don't do. We can get better at uh dress the part and make sure we we do our best to decouple them from whatever mindset that they have as far as our pricing. I love that idea. Vance, it's been a joy having you on. There's so many things that we could talk about. We might have to set this up again because I just love the ideas. But if somebody wanted to reach out to you, they wanted your services besides deliver service now. Is there anything, any other way that they would reach out to you, or what would they get out of it if they're looking for it?

SPEAKER_01 53:42

You know, I mean, I'll I'll drop a gift for everybody

Resources Ways To Wow And Wrap

SPEAKER_01 53:45

because, you know, I want to make sure everybody feels um, you know, if you're missing some creative juices. So I came up with something called 52 Ways to Wow Your Customer Without Breaking the Bank. So it's 52 low or no cost ways that you can implement right away. And it's one wow for every week of the year. So I got you covered until 2027. Uh, and you can find that at wow52ways.com.

Pete Shau 54:08

Guys, go to wow52ways.com. Make sure you look up Vance Morris. You won't be disappointed. I promise, Vance, great to have you on the show. I'm gonna tell you guys, make sure that you get to the newsletter, make sure you go onto the website, but remember that we're everywhere you want to be. So it's Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube where you're gonna see this. Vance, thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate all your wisdom, all your knowledge, everything that you have. I'm gonna be looking a little bit more into that website, and I'm gonna tell you guys as always, thank you for coming up, get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.