How to WOW Customers for Life: Disney Secrets for Main Street Businesses

What if your business could deliver Disney-level customer experiences—without Disney’s budget?

In this episode of The Disruptor Podcast, host John Kundtz sits down with Vance Morris, a former Walt Disney World leader turned entrepreneur and customer experience authority.

From cast member to carpet cleaner to consultant, Vance has built a career proving that small businesses can create “wow moments” that inspire loyalty, referrals, and repeat revenue.

Vance shares the lessons he learned during his decade at Disney, including why simple systems and processes, not expensive gimmicks, create lasting impressions.

He also reveals the biggest mistake most service professionals make: chasing new customers while neglecting the ones they already have.

Listeners will learn:

1️⃣ Why customer retention, not acquisition, is your most powerful competitive advantage.

2️⃣ How to apply Disney’s “systematic magic” to everyday customer interactions.

3️⃣ Practical, low-cost strategies for delighting clients—like handwritten thank-you notes, surprise gifts, or a simple follow-up call.

4️⃣ The mindset shift every professional services provider should adopt before pouring money into marketing.

Whether you run a law firm, a dental practice, or a home services company, this conversation will help you turn ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences that customers can’t stop talking about.

Resources & Links:

👉 Connect with Vance Morris on LinkedIn

👉 Download 52 Ways to WOW Your Customers Without Breaking the Bank

👉 Learn more about Vance’s work  at vancemorris.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview
• 0:47 Meet Vance Morris: From Disney to Carpet Cleaning
• 6:35 The Importance of Customer Retention
• 16:48 Creating Wow Moments in Customer Service
• 26:02 Practical Tips for Small Business Owners
• 27:54 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

John Kundtz: 0:01

How to wow customers for life. Disney secrets for Main Street businesses. Hi everyone, I'm your host, john Kundtz, and welcome to another edition of the Disruptor Podcast. For those that are new to our show, the Disruptor Series is your blueprint for groundbreaking innovation. We started the podcast in December of 2022 as a periodic segment of the Apex Podcast. Our vision was to go beyond conventional wisdom by confronting the status quo and exposing the raw power of disruptive thinking. By confronting the status quo and exposing the raw power of disruptive thinking and today's guest embodies that spirit Vance Morris went from Disney cast member to carpet cleaner to customer experience expert, proving you don't need the theme park budget to wow your customers. Today we'll explore how to turn everyday customer interactions into loyalty-building experiences, drive referrals, repeat business and long-term revenue.

Vance Morris: 1:12

Welcome to the show Vance I appreciate it, John.

John Kundtz: 1:13

Thanks, We'll have a little fun today. Yeah, we should. This is a great one. That's near and dear to my heart. But before we get going, tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your background, education, experiences, how'd you get here? Feel free to start anywhere you want, Sure thanks.

Vance Morris: 1:27

I would go back to the. I was a wee lad in a log cabin, but probably a little too far back for everybody, but lived up and down the mid-Atlantic Northeast area and spent a great deal of time working for a little company called Walt Disney World and that was my first real job, I think, out of college. I think I worked at a couple of restaurants beforehand, but nothing that would compare. And I had, I mean, for your first job out of school. I don't think there could be a better place as far as to create your base and your foundation for how you're going to kind of run your life and run your business life thereafter. And I found it to be fascinating I mean one. I was a young guy, not even married yet, not even the first time, or the second time.

Vance Morris: 2:17

Hey more than the third time, but we won't go there. What I learned immediately at Disney was not the whole everybody expects you to talk about. Oh, you pick up trash real quick and the place is clean and you know everybody's nice to each other and they're all rushing around to make sure that you have a great experience. And that's all true. First thing I learned really was that Disney runs on systems and processes and they are simple systems and processes, so if they were difficult the whole thing would fall apart, because you've got to remember who's running the rides and who's waiting on people. It's a lot of, you know, teenagers or retirees, and they don't want to have to do a lot of thinking. So let's make the job as easy as possible. You know the Whopper in, you know New Jersey tastes the same as the—no, they don't do Whoppers. Big Macs sorry, big Macs taste the same everywhere. Same principle. I am living proof that people do survive after leaving Disney after 10 and a half years there Spent a number of years in the retirement community business, spent a number of years in corporate food service.

Vance Morris: 3:27

So a lot of hospitality. I found that I make a lousy employee. I don't like to be told what to do so. Hence the first and second ex-Mrs Morris's extended there as well, and so I started my own businesses in 07, did what every small boy dreams of doing when they're growing up.

Vance Morris: 3:46

I started a carpet cleaning business, and one of the reasons I did that was one I was looking for something that I could do that didn't require millions of dollars in investment.

Vance Morris: 3:58

So restaurants were off the table. You know, even to get into a Five Guys franchise, you need a million dollars liquid cash, and all that Not for me. But I immediately positioned it as a premium level service. So we were not going after the coupon clipping crowd, we were going after the affluent market, which proved to be a smart move, if I do say so myself, because their expectations are a lot different. Really, it's a faster way to getting profitable Serve affluent people. If you serve poor people, you're going to be poor. If you serve affluent people well, you got a chance of moving up the chain. So I've had that business now going on 18 years, added a oriental rug washing facility to it, added a mold remediation company to it and back in 2013, I started coaching and consulting other companies on how to implement what I implemented. And, you know, create those moments of wow and create really create customers for life.

John Kundtz: 5:05

You know it's interesting and awesome. As we were prepping for this call, we discussed my experience with Disney. So my first career actually most of my career was with IBM and we used to go. We'd made our numbers. We would get to go to the 100% Club. A lot of times it would be down there. We'd go down there and have a big powwow with all the IBM salespeople.

John Kundtz: 5:25

They would always bring Disney folks in to talk to us about and this was 30 years ago before I would say the customer experience. Today, user experience and customer experience is sort of in the forefront of everybody just because of devices and apps and things like that, apps and things like that. But back then I think Disney was one of the first folks that really sort of stressed the importance of the experience, simple things as we talked about. They called them guests and the employees were cast members and, as you mentioned, the processes were simple, very much like what we used to do at IBM. Our processes were very simple. It was respect for the individual, best possible service to our customers, every task performed in a superior manner.

John Kundtz: 6:11

Those were our basic beliefs and it's funny, as you fast forward, those things still hold true and I think sometimes folks forget about that, and you just reiterated how you've been able to play that to your advantage, even in something as simple as a carpet cleaning business, although I'm sure it's not simple behind the scenes, but the business itself is fairly simple. People have dirty carpets. You go in and clean them, right. So, with that said, what are some of the biggest mistakes? You see, service You've been in the service profession business for a long time and what are some of the biggest mistakes? Service professionals, like contractors and advisors, lawyers, whatever the so your clientele that you advise and coach, when they are taking more traditional approach to what you call customer acquisition or customer service delivery.

Vance Morris: 6:57

Yeah, I think, first and foremost, what most of the people that work with me, my coaching members or my one-on-one clients. They forget about the customer that they already have and they are constantly focused on new, new, new, new, new. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't have new customers. You should, because you won't have any growth if you don't have new customers. But if you want to have profitable growth, you've got to retain and keep those customers. I mean, if you went to Disney Magic Kingdom today, 80% of the people30, which is pretty gosh darn good considering the industry average is, you know, 20%. We're doing really well and I think having business people focus on a system for keeping your customers, a customer retention system I'll ask them all the time I said you've got a marketing budget. I said, okay, is that primarily to get new customers? Yes, well, how much money are you spending to keep your customers? And they're you know, look at me like I got three heads and I do the whole hum and a hum and a hum and a thing and I break it down to them.

Vance Morris: 8:21

Getting a new customer is ridiculously expensive. Keeping one is relatively cheap. So you know some of the numbers. For my home service business cost me $120 to get a new customer in the front door $120. Now my minimum service is $200. So that leaves me $80 to pay the technician $200. So that leaves me $80 to pay the technician. Put gas in the truck. Insurance no-transcript. However, for me to market to my existing customers and keep them only cost me $22 a year, and that's direct mail and email. So I would much rather spend $22 a year per customer to keep them around.

Vance Morris: 9:12

They're easier to sell to because they've already bought from you. They have the whole know, like and trust. You know if you've got a new product coming out, they'll be the first ones to buy it. You want to cross-sell, up-sell, whatever You're just in. Client base is your goldmine and I just think too many businesses don't put enough emphasis on that. They feel like, well, I did a good job, they should remember me. And maybe a hundred years ago, when you were the only blacksmith in town, that might've been true, but these days it's completely. You got 20 blacksmiths in town. And so I tell people I said look, it is not your customer's job to remember you, it is your job to remind the customers why you exist.

John Kundtz: 10:02

That's great advice. And you actually iterated a statistic that I don't know the numbers, but your numbers are sort of right in line with the, and we used to say this at IBM all the time it's a lot easier to sell to your existing customers or clients than it is to go out and find new ones. And you prove that statistic and we used to use it all the time and it's funny. I don't know why, but people, I guess, tend to forget about that. Maybe the pressure is to grow the business and they figure the way to grow the business is new clients, new customers, as opposed to, you know, growing your customer base.

Vance Morris: 10:40

I got 10,000 likes on my last post. Great, you know you can't deposit a like in the bank. They'll just laugh at you if you show up with 10,000 likes and say, can I deposit for you? You know, I think we're just brainwashed into new, new, new, new, new. You know, I think we're just brainwashed into new, new, new, new, new. And you know these vanity numbers. And I can understand. Public companies need to have growth, number of users, number of products, et cetera but at the end of the day, bottom line is what dictates the profitability of the company, not the number of customers you can acquire.

John Kundtz: 11:18

I love that statement. If I had a dollar for every time I get an email for some guy that tells me he can make this podcast, get a thousand more downloads or this or that, I'm like that's fine, but that's not why I'm in business here and that doesn't put any money in my bank account. When you ask them how you're going to do that, they all look at you like you got three heads Pretty funny. So anyway, moving on as you advise your coaching clients and so forth, what mindset shift or habit do you wish they would sort of adhere to or adopt before investing more time? As you just mentioned, these traditional marketing tactics you know.

Vance Morris: 11:50

I think, first and foremost, they've got to embrace who. They've got to embrace their personality, especially in small business. I mean, we don't have the marketing budgets of Walmart, coca-cola, pepsi, any of these guys, and we probably never will, unless we have an incredible product. So in order to differentiate ourselves in highly commoditized markets I mean, a dentist is a dentist is a dentist. You know, there's only so many ways you can clean teeth. Well, what separates one dentist from another? They probably do the same job as well. What separates one dentist from another? The only thing is, is the in-office experience, or bringing in the personality of the dentist, the carpet cleaner, whoever you are, and so many businesses they think that, oh, I got to have the right name for my business. Well, how about your last name or your first name would be a great start, because that immediately separates you from everybody else out there, then allowing your personality to shine through.

Vance Morris: 12:55

So I, in most of my marketing, I shamelessly use my children in the marketing, and I don't care, they love it. I mean, they used to get kidded about it. But so, for example, my daughter, who's now 18, I used to do ballet, was from like five until 13. And we would go to the ballet recital every year and we'd get a picture of her and her little tutu you know the ones you send out to aunts and uncles and grandmas and I would take that and put it into my print newsletter that I sent to all my customers and I would do it every year. Here's Emma at age five, emma at age six and I think she was 10 or 11 years old, and we're in the grocery store and this woman comes running up to Emma and she goes oh my God, emma, how was your recital? And we look at each other like who is this lady? We got to go run and hide in the frozen food section and I had to think she's got to be one of my customers. She reads the newsletter. She has watched my child grow up from age five to whenever.

Vance Morris: 13:58

I've created that emotional connection with her, she is never leaving. I mean I got to do something horrible for her to leave my company. She's going to stick around until she moves or she dies. And that is the missing piece to most small businesses is creating that emotional connection and it sounds woo-woo but it really isn't. I mean, everybody makes their buying decisions on emotion and then they justify it with their brain so great you don't want to use your kids. Maybe you like fly fishing, or maybe you do knitting or whatever. Bring that kind of personality into your business. It's going to make you memorable. That's certainly going to separate you from all of your other competitors out there and you're creating that emotional connection which is basis for customers for life.

John Kundtz: 14:50

I mean it goes back to that. You know people buy from people they trust and they know. And if you go back to Simon Sinek's why, you know why you do something, not what you do, and you know they make the emotional decision first, as you mentioned. It's funny. It reminds me what you just talked about, as your daughter reminds me of a story here in Cleveland where there's sort of a similar business. They do flooring and you know they install floors and carpet and stuff like that. Actually the people that buy from them could then buy from you to clean them. But about 20 years ago it was two brothers running this business and one of the brothers put their daughter on. She had to be about eight or nine years old and she sort of closed the commercial right and they used that mantra for years and now she's an adult and she's now back on the commercials with her dad and her dad's brother and it's like we've all watched this little girl grow up, just like your daughter.

John Kundtz: 15:49

And you know what, if I needed flooring, that business is right on top of mind. And I think that's the other point you hit upon, especially today where we're just barred with information and social media. Madison Avenue has done a wonderful job of sucking us in and buying stuff we don't need, and so if you don't stay top of mind, by the next time they need their carpets cleaned because that's something you don't do every day right, they're going to forget about you. You so just nurturing that relationship and moving forward and staying top of mind and building an emotional connection, particularly if you're in a business, that's sort of local.

John Kundtz: 16:27

But even in a big business like ibm, I would get to know my clients and I would know their kids and what sports they were playing or whatever, and I would would compare it to mine and we would always, over the years, build pretty good relationships with those guys. They didn't always buy from us, but you know what. They trusted me and when they needed something, they would come back to me. So you've developed this so-called complete system for creating your wow moments. And let's talk a little bit. What makes those cost approach stand out, especially as you've mentioned time-strapped business owners, people without big marketing budgets.

Vance Morris: 17:04

It doesn't take a lot to wow somebody or impress somebody. Now, before we go through this, let me stress to everybody your product or your service better be tight and good or great. If you've got a crappy product or a crappy service, doing wow stuff is only going to accentuate that crappiness. So we're going to make sure that you got the basics down first. One thing creating these wows not need to be a huge investment of resources and money. You don't need a Cinderella castle, you don't need a roller coaster. You just need to have an open mind on how you want to do it. You know how do you greet people when they walk into your store, how do you answer the telephone. Each one of those moments on the customer journey is an opportunity for you to create an experience, whether it's wow or not, but create an experience around it, and that's what Disney has done so well is they don't do anything different than anybody else. I mean, they have hotels Well, there's millions of hotels out there. They have theme parks Okay, well, there's thousands of those out there. Hotels out there. They have theme parks Okay, well, there's thousands of those out there. What makes Disney different is finding each one of those points on the customer journey and figuring out a way to create an experience out of it, and Disney's got this down. I'll give you a quick example.

Vance Morris: 18:30

So in my carpet cleaning business, one of the boring, mundane things that we have to do is get into the people's home. We can't get into the house, we can't deliver our service, so we've created an entire experience out of getting into the home and it's completely scripted. All my guys know it and if they forget something, we know that we send them back to training. Here's the standard we use, and so it goes like this. It starts where we park, so we park in the street. We don't park in the driveway, god forbid. We got an oil leak Now I got something else I got to clean up. And he gets out and he's in a clean, crisp uniform because he carries extra uniforms on the van in case he gets dirty beforehand. He doesn't smell, because I don't allow cologne or smoking while you're on the job. There's nothing worse than somebody walking into your house that smells like the Marlboro man who just took a shower in X, I mean. It's just. That's disgusting.

Vance Morris: 19:27

He gets a little gift and he gets his magic rug and he goes up to the front door he lays down, you know, our special rug which is, you know, logoed foot mat where we'll wipe our feet. We knock on the door, we don't ring the bell, we take a couple of steps back and when the customer opens the door, we say hi, my name's Josh. I'm here to create your healthy home. May I come in? We don't just barge in and then, when we're invited in, we do an exaggeration of wiping our feet on the rug and then we put little booties on our shoes and as we're entering the home, we present the customer with a gift.

Vance Morris: 20:06

Now, when was the last time you had any home service professional, pest control, carpet cleaner, whatever give you a gift before they did any work? I'm going to hazard a guess it hasn't happened. So this does a couple of things for us, and the premise is you know, when you go to somebody's house for a party or whatever, you bring a bottle of wine, you bring some hors d'oeuvres or what have you. So we feel we're going to somebody's house, probably bringing something. So we invented the gift and it's a custom blue box and inside the box is a bottle of our spot remover, a bag of cookies and a little note from me thanking them for allowing them into their home.

Vance Morris: 20:44

Now this cost me less than $5 to do this box. Wow factor is huge and it also starts another process called reciprocity. I give something to you, you feel compelled to give something back to me. So when we implemented the GIF, we saw an increase of our mid-tier package by about 26%, which equates to about an additional $65,000 a year in sales, just by implementing that little $5 box and my competitors all know I do it. I've seen them hiding in the bushes watching my guys go into the front door and it baffles me that others don't do it. I think the reason they don't do it is they think they can't afford to do it, which to me then says you have a pricing problem and you have a value problem, but you know our prices. We command 36% higher prices than anybody else in our marketplace. Do we clean 36% better? Maybe? I'd like to think so.

Vance Morris: 21:52

But, we do provide an experience that no other home service provider is given.

John Kundtz: 22:00

That's great, it's all the perception of value is given. That's great, it's all the perception of value. And if somebody's about a $5 box, that means they're either commoditizing their services, so they're in the red ocean. You've created a blue ocean right, just by creating an experience that not only is memorable but is. I love the analogy of well, if I'm going to somebody's house for dinner, I'm going to bring them some flowers or a bottle of wine or whatever, right, I'm going to thank them for inviting me into their house and I'm going to help provide some value to the interaction or the exchange.

John Kundtz: 22:32

It's the same idea, especially and I don't think it matters whether you're in a business that goes people's houses or if you're in a business where people come to you or if you're in a business that's virtual, like a coaching or a mentoring business. It goes to just treat people the way you want to be treated, right, and I think people forget about that today. I mean, maybe it's our gray hair and we grew up with that. You know being hayward into us when we were kids in grade school, but it just. These are such political advices which it's sort of funny to me, and I'm glad we're having discussion, because I think people just sort of forget about it. I don't know if it's just the nature of the world or what.

Vance Morris: 23:10

I mean, I think they just they look at what every other business is doing and they so it's incestuous. I mean it's just, you know, and you got to break that cycle by doing something that is not prevalent in your industry. So you know, I mean, I think all great ideas come from outside of your industry. The drive-thru at McDonald's, you know they got the idea for. You know. The drive-thru from a McDonald's exec sitting getting ready to make a deposit at the bank, and you know that tube that whooshes up and flies your money over to the teller. He's thinking to himself, well, how do I get a milkshake into that thing? And so he. So you take an idea from one industry and you put it into a completely different industry, and now it's a breakthrough and we have to look at that. I mean, I'll never forget. You remember Yellow Pages. Well, you and I both remember Yellow Pages, and when I was first starting out, yellow Pages were still a thing. Do we have to describe Yellow Pages to your audience, or do they know what it is?

John Kundtz: 24:18

Hopefully they don't. If they don't, they can Google it. Put a link in the show notes to Yellow Pages.

Vance Morris: 24:22

Yeah, there you go. But as I'm getting ready to place my first Yellow Pages ad, I'm skimming through the existing ads and if you go to any plumber, electrician, carpet cleaner, every single one of them has a picture of their van or truck in the ad. What the hell's that got to do with anything? Nothing, we have shown. You have a vehicle to get to my house to do the thing. We don't need a picture of it, so it's wasted advertising space. You could be putting a testimonial in there. You could be putting, you know, a statement in there. You put a picture of your kid in there, right. But because everybody has used a van or a vehicle in their ad, they think, well, that's what I got to do, that's what everybody does, and you got to say, nope, look at what your industry is doing, and the complete opposite.

John Kundtz: 25:18

Again, they're all going into the red ocean, right, they're all swimming with the sharks and getting eaten alive and you know they're all men competing on price and that's just a you know, it's just a strategy that you know. You just got to figure out how to get out of there and I love the idea of going and looking at other industries trying to then apply it Part of why I wanted you on the show, because obviously, I spent a lot of time advising not-for-profits and startups and other entrepreneurs, mostly in the technology space. But this is a great conversation where we've expanded it, and I think some of these ideas and just some of these simple, practical things that we sort of maybe all know but forget to do on a day-to-day basis has been a great discussion and a reminder, I think, for those that are listening. Been a great discussion and a reminder, I think, for those that are listening. So, speaking of those that are listening, if you're like looking for some practical ways to improve your customer experiences, as we've been talking about, without, as mentioned, complexity or cost, vance has put together this fantastic resource called the 52 Ways to Wow your Customers. It's full of simple, actionable ideas and can be implemented right away. So I wanted to give a little plug to you for that, because I actually signed up for it. I get fancy emails and it's again. It's just simple stuff that doesn't take just takes some time to think it through and then apply it to your business.

Vance Morris: 26:40

I mean it's literally some of those ideas. I mean there's 52 of them, so you got one a week that you can implement. But I mean it's literally some of those ideas. I mean there's 52 of them, so you got one a week that you can implement. But I mean it's simple stuff like hey, how about you just pick up the phone and call five previous clients and just see how they're doing? Oh my God, that's heart shattering. You know, a handwritten, thank you note.

Vance Morris: 26:58

We actually one of the things we'll do in our home service businesses is we take our top five customers for the month and we mail them a cake through the mail. Now Maryland has a state cake. It's called the Smith Island Cake, so it's a famous cake around here. Smith Island actually is not too far from where I live and every month we send out five Smith Island Cakes to our top customers. Who sends a cake through the mail? I mean, unless it's your grandma sending it to you, for you know. So now does that cost a lot? I mean, in the relativist, I don't know, it's less than 50 bucks. But the other stuff in there is just almost no cost. You know, pick up the phone, handwritten. Thank you, note that kind of stuff.

John Kundtz: 27:46

Amazing, it's funny. The last cake I got in the mail was from my grandmother. Yeah, there you go. All right, let's wrap this show up. How do people learn more about you and where to find you? What are your socials? Sure, whatever you want to share.

Vance Morris: 28:01

Yeah, I think I'm the only Vance Morris on LinkedIn. Website is vancemorriscom, very easy to get to, and then that special report that you downloaded, the 52 ways to wow without breaking the bank you can get at wow52wayscom, so that would be the best way to connect Cool.

John Kundtz: 28:21

We'll make sure that there are live links in the show notes so that folks can go check you out, connect with you on LinkedIn, download your documents and hopefully learn a little bit more on how to serve their customers Well before we wrap it up, I'll give you the last word.

Vance Morris: 28:42

Oh boy. Well, I will tell you, it's all implementation. I only have one saying. I'm a very simple guy, so one saying is enough for me, and it is you won't profit unless you implement. You got to take action. So take one idea you heard today on this show, take an idea you heard somewhere else and by golly go implement it. Go do it, because you're not going to see any changes if you don't. So find something, do it, move on.

John Kundtz: 29:10

Great advice. As they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Exactly. Anyway, thanks, Vance. Again, I'm John Kundtz. Thanks for joining us in this edition of the Disruptor Podcast. Have a great day.