From Disney to Mold Remediation: Engineering 5-Star Service in a 1-Star Moment with Vance Morris

What if your restoration company could deliver a Disney-level experience—even on a customer’s worst day?

In this episode of Restoration Pros Unplugged, Clinton James sits down with Vance Morris, former Disney leader, founder of Deliver Service Now, and owner of Maryland Mold Busters—to break down how service-based businesses can transform customer experience into their ultimate competitive advantage.

From systemizing service delivery to creating “wow moments” in high-stress situations like water damage and mold remediation, Vance shares practical strategies that restoration business owners can implement immediately to drive referrals, increase pricing power, and scale sustainably.

Key Takeaways:
- Why customer experience—not price—is your biggest differentiator in a crowded restoration market

- How to map and optimize your customer journey from first call to job completion

- The power of anticipatory service and building trust within the first 10 minutes onsite

- Simple systems to increase reviews, referrals, and repeat business

- Why answering the phone live could be the highest ROI move you make this year

- How to scale your business with systems—not more chaos

- If you’re a restoration or home service business owner looking to grow beyond $1M–$3M and stand out in a sea of sameness, this episode is a must-listen.

Learn more about how Deliver Service Now can help your restoration company grow?

https://deliverservicenow.com/

Looking to generate more high-quality leads that turn into onsite visits and jobs?

Book a discovery call with the Water Restoration Marketing team:
https://waterrestorationmarketing.com/discovery-call/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So how do you anticipate what they're going to be asking for and just give it to them before they ask?

SPEAKER_01 0:07

SOPs, um KPIs, ways for you to take the emotion out of managing people.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

You know, unless you live on my part of Maryland, it ain't ever happening.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

This is something that's very simple, actionable. You could literally go back, listen to the last two minutes of this conversation, and write out an SOP that your team can start executing today. Welcome to the Restoration Pros Unplug Podcast. In each episode, we're going to bring you insightful interviews and discussions with top restoration industry leaders. We're also going to delve into their business, the strategies that made them successful, and most importantly, the valuable lessons they learned along the way. I'm your host, Clinton James. I'm also the Chief Marketing Officer at Water Restoration Market. We're a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping restoration companies nationwide secure more high-value water jobs. Now, this show, it aims to provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to excel in the restoration industry. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. And welcome everybody to another episode of the Restoration Pros Unplug Podcast. I'm your host, Clinton James, chief marketing officer over at Water Restoration Marketing. Um, had a trip out to Disney World last year. My wife, I, uh some people that I'm in a mastermind group with. And it was my first time being at one of the Disney parks and just such an exceptional experience. People treated us uh like we were celebrities there. And I thought to myself, man, in restoration, the customers that you deal with, they don't call you on their best day. They call you when they're in the middle of a crisis, right? So uh I brought on uh a gentleman who has some experience uh as a leader over at Disney, uh, now owns a company called Maryland Mold Busters and also a carpet cleaning company in that market as well. He's also the founder of a company called Deliver Service Now, where they work specifically with restoration company, home service businesses on delivering exceptional customer experiences, uh, specifically turning that service um into a real competitive advantage for you in the market. So I want to thank you, Vance Morris, uh, for joining us today. Vance, I appreciate you being a guest on the Restoration Pros Unplugged podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Now, hopefully we'll drop some uh gold nuggets today for everybody, Clinton.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I I love that. So for the audience members that might not be familiar with you, give us a little background on your experience, um, obviously working at a big brand like Disney and what led you to not only working with uh mold or restoration companies, but also owning one yourself.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah. Uh so yeah, I spent a little over a decade working for the mouse down in Orlando. Uh I am living proof that you can leave the company and not uh die and wither away and hurdle up in the fetal position. Um had a few other high-profile hospitality jobs um after that. Uh Smithsonian Museum System, uh Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, et cetera. Um, along the way, I realized I make a lousy employee. I don't like to be told what to do, which is probably why a lot of us are where we are.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

That's probably half our audience fans.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, I get it. I get it. Uh and I got managed to get myself fired. So I figured, you know, let's just start my own thing. And so I started what every small boy dreams of doing when they're growing up, started the carpet cleaning business. Um, because why not? Seriously, though, I was looking, I was honestly, I was looking at hot um restaurant concepts. I just didn't have two million dollars liquid cash to dump into something like that. So I said, okay, well, what can I afford to do? And what can I do to position something as a premium offering, like Disney does? Sure. Um, and so I I was with a franchise for a little while, um, and I dumped the franchise about five, seven years ago. Um, but I knew that I was going to be targeting an affluent market. So in our area of Maryland, we've got everything from $50 million homes down to single wide trailers. Um, single wide trailers deserve clean carpet. I just didn't want to be the guy doing it. Uh fair. So we we targeted uh the affluent homeowners. Notice I didn't say renters, um, because you know, we've all been in those homes, and you're just like, this is gonna take forever, and they're gonna nickel and dye me, and they're probably gonna complain. Sure. So why go through all that? Uh so we grew that business, um, uh, added an Oriental rug washing facility um business line to it uh after about five years. Uh that is actually is about 30% of our business right now. Uh we are the only one within 75 miles that uh that actually does what we do with Oriental rug. So again, just tacking on to the existing customer base we already had. I mean, I couldn't stand walking into a house and walking over a rug or on a rug to get to the carpet. And I wasn't cleaning that. I mean, just ridiculous. Yeah. I was like, all right, well, let's clean that. Um and then uh about eight years ago, we added the uh mold remediation company uh to the mix again, utilizing the same customer list that I had already built. So I mean, we already had seven, eight thousand names in the list to launch the company. All we had to do was send one email. Um, and we got, you know, what did we got? We got like four prospects and two jobs out of one email just to our house list. Love that. Now it cost me nothing. I mean, cost a little bit to send the email, but um, you got to use the assets that you have when you're you know, and don't be shy about, oh well, I you know, they I may have done some restoration work for them. Um, they're not gonna know me for you know anything else. Well, that's not true. If you did a great job and you returned the home to you know its former glory, yeah, they they will call you for other things if you have other services. So um, and uh what what's happened over the last seven years um is I've been able to put the um uh the jobs, the companies on autopilot. I work about 90 minutes a week um on those companies. Uh I hired a general manager about seven years ago. Uh I told him to just manage the systems. Don't screw with anything, just manage the systems, the marketing system, operation system, uh, you know, etc. Um, and you'll be fine. So I meet with him once a week for 60 minutes, and we will go over uh, you know, stuff that happened last week, stuff that we we have coming up, um, and really giving him that's his opportunity to shine with new ideas. So it's not like we're set in Vance's way. It's just no, if we're going to change something that we know already works, how are we gonna just make it better? Um so once we talk about it, we go and we implement it, and and usually that's uh that's good enough. Uh the other 30 minutes of my week is spent on banking. I have will not let go of the checkbook ever. That's fair. Probably a good idea. Well, I mean, it's it's just it too much can go wrong. While I don't think any of my guys are stealing, um, I still want to make sure, you know, Reagan said it, trust but verify. Um fair enough. Fair enough. So here we are.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

All right. So you went from owning a successful carpet cleaning and mold remediation company, and now you work with other home service businesses and for the the sake of our audience here, restoration companies, on really improving the experience that they create for the homeowner, the business owner. Um, it's a little different though, right? It's really hard to apply. Let's take Disney, for example, what I think is like a magical experience, right? How do you apply that same system or strategy in a really high stress, like emotionally charged environment?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Sure. Yeah, it's a great question. And you know, we and we get that too, especially with the mold stuff. We don't do a lot of restoration, but what Disney's done is they have found a way to create an experience out of all the boring, mundane things that we have to do to keep the business up and running. Uh, they've just figured out a way to make it fun, you know, how to answer the phone, how to, you know, greet a guest. Um, they've got that all systemized, and 99% of the time, it's an experience calling Disney. Um, they all answer the phone differently at each resort. So if we take that, um how do we create an experience out of all the boring mundane things? First thing we got to do is map out the customer journey. This is not sexy, but it's vital. So, what is the first point of contact that the company has with uh the customer? Is it a phone call? Is it a web page? Is it a referral? Is you know, what is that? And that's the first point. Um, and then you map out everything that happens from there. Uh, you know, uh then we drive out to the um, you know, to to the home to do the inspection. But we got to do it from the customer's point of view. So it's not us driving, it's them waiting for us to show up. Okay. But that's actually a touch point, is they wait. So, okay, well, now what happens while somebody waits? Well, they can get buyer's remorse, they can second guess their their purchase. Is this company reputable? All sorts of stuff can go through their mind. So between first phone call and technician arriving at the home, what can you be doing to really really entertain them? Not with dancing bears and that kind of stuff, but entertain them because Disney, you wait a lot at Disney, right? When you were there, you waited for food, you waited in line for the ride, you waited for transportation. But Disney knows how to entertain you while you're waiting. You know, they've got, you know, little interactive things, they got characters walking around. So we need to do the same thing. So how do we do that? Well, one, if you've written a book, certainly, or at least a white paper or something that positions you as an authority, which I strongly recommend, um, you get that either in the mail or most likely they're local. You're not driving too far. Somebody can drive that over and say, hey, uh, you know, our inspector's uh gonna be here tomorrow, uh, but we wanted to make sure we got you some information, you know, today. Um, here's our book. Love that. I mean, who has a you know, what restoration company has a book?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Well, I don't, but is can you do that with all the technology that we have available to us today? Can we do that in a like a digital way? Can we send an SMS specific with a link to a video? Can we send an email out?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Um and I and where I was going to is you want to have a combination of media. Um, so you want to have online and offline. And certainly, you know, in a in a business that is 24 hours a day, yeah, you don't want to wait for somebody to show up with a book. I get it. Um, but when the technician or the inspector arrives on the spot, that should be something they have in their hands. But certainly, you know, uh introducing the the technician, uh not go glass, um, uh the glass uh windshield repair guys. Um, okay. Yeah, uh the the guys in the red truck. I can never never remember their name. Um, but they do a great job. They will send you a picture of the technician that's coming. So you recognize them when technicians in a uniform, you see their face, and if anybody else shows up at the front door, you know not to answer it.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Um man, I I really I really like that idea, right? Humanizing the business, humanizing the technician that's coming out to do the on-site visit. I think that could be really, really impactful. One of the things you said, before we get on.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

No, I would say before we get too far down the rabbit hole, one of the things that you just mentioned, it's kind of a mindset shift, right, for that restoration company owner, because they think from the time that you know that homeowner calls the person in the office or or who's on on call um and the dispatch time, the time it actually takes for that technician to get to do uh on site, um, hopefully it's an hour, hour and a half if they're in the middle of a water damage emergency. But I don't think most restoration companies look at the experience from the homeowner standpoint. They're just looking at windshield time, like right, how long is it going to take me to get John, the project manager, out to this house on the other side of town there? So um if you can create systems, like you mentioned before, where you're uh dripping out information that continue to build you as the authority for the service that they're calling about, humanize the technician and the people that are coming out to hopefully get them to sign off on doing work with you. I I really like that. I like it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

And you can automate all this. I mean, CRMs these days are powerful. And so, you know, the minute you assign this truck to this job, you know, the text message with the guy's, you know, picture goes right out. Um, and so yeah, looking at it from their point, now, of course, they're frazzled. Um, one of the things we offer uh for our mold uh remediation, um, depending on how long we're gonna be in the home, um, especially when we're doing any kind of demolition, we offer to put them up in a hotel. Now, it's built into our price, sure, but we show up and say, hey, look, you know, we're gonna be here about six or eight hours, uh, might be here overnight. Um, you know, we know that this is putting you out. Um, you know, here's a hundred dollar gift card to Red Lobster and, you know, uh a certificate to go to the Hampton Inn and spend the night. Um now normally, you know, insurance may pay for that eventually if you do insurance billing and stuff. Um but just being able to offer that right when you get there is you know really just sets the tone for what's going to happen following that. You're you're already anticipating their needs, and that it's what we call anticipatory service. You know they're gonna ask for something. Well, why you wait for them to ask? Just bring it. Um, I mean, I I I'll give the example, you know, you go to a restaurant, it's a really hot day outside, you go in, you ask for a glass of water, and they say no. We would consider that bad service. Absolutely. You take the same hot day, you go into the restaurant, you ask for water and they bring it. Okay, well, that's adequate. We got what we asked for. Anticipatory service is same hot day, we walk into the restaurant, and they're standing at the host stand is a waiter with a tray of both still and sparkling water saying, Hey, we know it's really hot outside. Would you like a drink before you go to the table? So, how do you anticipate what they're going to be asking for and just give it to them before they ask? They're gonna ask, can I stay in the home while you're doing this? You know, and if you know, no, well, here's the here's what we've already set up for you, and they're and they're blown away.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I love that. And you you mentioned systematizing these things, right? So, in most of the restoration companies that you've worked with in the past, um, do you feel like the the failure is a lack of systems or a lack of enforcement on those systems?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Uh both. And enforcement is is exactly what you need to do. Um, uh it's a strong word. I don't know that I'd use it around employees. Um, because, well, I mean, nobody likes to be told what to do, but they don't mind being reminded what to do. Um, you know, if you look at Ritz Carlton, they have, I don't know, 11 or 12 standards um that every Ritz-Carlton all over the planet, they have one standard every day that they review, and the whole planet does the same standard that day, and they just keep going through it. So it's a reminder. Um, and then you bring in examples and things. Um but yeah, the systems are vital. The systems are what's gonna give you freedom. Um, you know, I mean, that's I mean, I plugged in all those systems into my businesses, which allowed me to step away. Um, you know, I can step away for a week, a month, doesn't matter. The business doesn't rely on me to be there, and that's what systems do. Well, quick question for you on that.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

No, I was gonna say, so the other thing, uh, systems Disney runs on systems and they run on simple systems because if they were complex, the whole thing would fall apart. I mean, you have to remember who's working there, it's a bunch of 20 somethings. Last thing on their mind is work. It's you know, the keg party from last night, or you know, whatever. Um so if the s systems were were complex, the whole thing would fall apart. So Disney runs on three words what to do, how to do it, and why do we do it that way? That's how simple your system has to be. How do what do we do? Answer the phone. How do we do it? Thanks for calling, whoever. You know, why do we do it that way? Well, it separates us from all the other competitors. Uh, we set the tone for the the relationship as we're going forward, etc., etc. And you build that what, how, why into everything that you do, um, so that there is no, especially when you're it ensures the consistent delivery. Um so, and that's you know, no matter where you go at Disney, you're getting a great experience. Sure. Because it's systemized. So you're ensuring that your employees are delivering that experience. But the key thing is that those systems um then become your training manual. And if you're doing reviews of your employees, you're not comparing Bob to Sally. Oh, Sally does it this way. You should think no, you compare Bob to the standards. And Bob, hey, you do nine of these things, number 10, you need a little work on. So you don't compare people to people, compare people to standards.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I like that. SOPs, um, KPIs, ways for you to uh take the emotion out of managing people. Um but there are some some other components to that, right? So, like, how do you systematize something that feels like human, like like really the customer experience?

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Sure. Uh so one of the boring, mundane things that we all have to do is get into the home, right? That's if we can't get into the house, we can't do our our job. Come. So we've scripted out the entire entrance to the home. Um, and it's an experience. And I'll there's it's gonna take me longer to explain it than it actually takes to do it. So bear with me a second. So we park in the street, we don't park in the driveway. God forbid I got an oil leak. Now I got something else I gotta clean up. Technician gets out, he's in a clean, crisp uniform because he carries extra uniforms in case he gets dirty on the job beforehand. He also doesn't smell because I forbid cologne and I forbid smoking. Nothing worse than the Marlboro man who just took a shower and axe showing up in your living room. Amen. You know what I mean? Uh, but these are the you gotta you gotta spell these things out. Um, and then the technician, he gets, you know, if it's our carpet cleaning company, he'll get a special mat, his tool bag, and a little gift. He goes up to the front door. We knock on the door, we don't ring the bell because friends knock, salespeople ring the bell, we take a couple of steps back because the last thing you want is 250-pound Josh, who's six foot tall, nose to nose with 80-year-old Mrs. McGillicotty. We'll just scare the crap out of her. So we take a couple steps back. And when she answers answers the door, we say, Hi, uh, my name's Josh. I'm here to create your healthy home. May I come in? We don't just barge in. And then we do here's where the theater comes in. We do an exaggeration of wiping our feet on the carpet that we just laid down, and then we put little booties on our shoes um as we're walking in. We put a towel down, put our tool bag on the towel, and then we give Mrs. McGillicuddy a gift. Now, when was the last time you had a home service person come to your house, you know, pest control, water treatment, and they give you a gift, right? Never, you know, unless you live on my part of Maryland, it ain't ever happening. Um, and so giving the and it's not a huge gift. I mean, for uh, it's less than five bucks, but it's a custom blue box inside is a bottle of spot remover, a little bag of entoman's cookies, and a note from me saying, thanks so much for allowing us into your home. Now, it goes a lot quicker than I just explained it.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

No, but that's a that's something that like our audience, like, listen, if you're listening to this driving out to your next job site, right? Or you're listening to this sitting at your desk um going through resumes about the next project manager you're gonna hire for your restoration company. This is something that's very simple, actionable. You could literally go back, listen to the last two minutes of this conversation, and write out an SOP that your team can start executing today. So now working at Disney, you got all of these systems, processes, ideas um on how to create a great experience for the customers that you now work with on the on the mold remediation side. Is there anything from Disney any of those ideas that didn't really translate well into restoration?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Um well, we have to tone down the fun, you know, uh, because this is serious work. Uh, you know, we certainly don't joke around. Um, again, we're not there to offend anybody, and my sense of humor certainly is not anybody else's. Um, so those kinds of things. But from a systems point of view and a uh standards point of view, no, everything translates. Everything, you know, I mean, attention to detail. Disney is a master at attention to detail. I was sitting there having coffee one day outside um at the Grand Floridian, and the uh landscaping guy's coming by and he's snipping the bushes and you know, and he's really getting in. He's got another special pair of tweezers that he, you know, cuts the bushes. And then five minutes later, his supervisor walks up with her own little pair of scissors, and she's Like trimming the little pieces that she thinks need to be trimmed. That is a fanatical attention to detail. And we are certainly in a detail-oriented business. So we need to have that same fanaticism about the details that we have. You know, I mean, for us, we're a cleaning company, we're a mediation company, our vans should be clean. So we wash them every day before we get on the road. You know, they're like, oh, it's supposed to rain at noon. Don't care. Wash your van, you know. Um, so paying attention, you know, when you open the band, is it organized in there? Or does it look like, you know, your grandma's trunk after Christmas? I mean, it's a disaster. So all of those things are little attention to detail. You know, again, the no smoking, the no cologne. Um, those are all things that are in your control, and if it's important to you, should be part of the job.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Now, doing those things, there's always a cost associated with it, right? For your technicians to have multiple clean shirts in their service vehicle, for you to wash your trucks every day. Do, but do does doing that justify or allow you to charge more of a premium price for the service?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Certainly, 100%. I mean, if you look at um we use since we're talking Disney, we'll we'll use them as the example. Let's say you go to your local county fair. So I live in a really rural area, we still have county fairs, and it's like 20 bucks, all you can ride, and you get on these rickety rides, and you got a bunch of X Cons that are running them. Um, I mean, you know, you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Um, and it's 20 bucks, and you you you ride all night long, but there's no memory, there's no experience, it's just you get on the rides. You go to Six Flags, right? Uh, like a great adventure or an amusement park, and they're like 60 bucks for the day, and they probably have real employees that are, you know, don't have rap sheets. Um, the rides are probably safer, they're probably a little more exciting, but it's still only about 60 bucks a day. Then you go to Disney, it's uh minimum $180 for one day at Disney. Minimum. In California, it's already over $200. So what's the difference between Disney and the county fair? If you strip away the the music and the uh and the animatronics, it's a small world, is a really boring ride. I mean you're sitting in a little boat going in a circle, right? That that's it. But Disney can charge a premium because they know what they're selling, they're selling happiness and they're selling memories. You know, when grandma's getting ready to die, where does everybody take grandma? They take grandma, they plunk her in a wheelchair, they wheel her around, and they take pictures with grandma all over Disney. So we want to be able to tap into an emotion as well. You know, for us, it should be confidence or um, you know, thank God you're here. You know, it's a sense of relief. We're selling relief. So once you know what you're selling, now you have priced elasticity. So if you notice when I when I did the intro uh for the technician walking into the home, I said, we're here to create your healthy home. We didn't say we're here to clean or remediate mold. We're here to create your healthy home because we have a mission that's bigger than the job. The mission is the healthy home. We do it by cleaning and remediation. I like that. So again, that's important. It's got to be something simple that your uh employees can wrap their brains around. I know I know a lot of companies have um what do they call them uh mission statements. I defy you to ask any employee, what is the mission statement of your company? Most of the owners don't know. I mean, I'll walk into, you know, I'll walk into the office and Marge is sitting there at the front desk and I'll say, you know, I'm just waiting for the owner, and I'll ask her, I said, so what's your what's your mission around here? And Marge does this whole peacock head pecking thing, trying to look around me because the mission statement's on the poster behind me and she can't see it to read it. It's useless. Useless. I would agree. Simple, simple mission. It's all you need.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

So let's talk about the work that you're doing with deliver service now. So you will go into these home service businesses and help them put these kind of systems in place to make sure that the homeowners, the business owners that they're working with on a day-to-day basis have this kind of exceptional service, right? Um, can you share like uh what was the biggest challenge when you started working with like a restoration company owner wanting to implement these kind of systems? Because I imagine you probably got a little pushback initially from most of your clients.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yeah, well, especially on how do we afford this. Um, and so I mean, I tell the guys, I say, well, one, uh you can't just rely on Xactimate to price this job out. I mean, yes, you need it for, you know, how how long are you going to be sucking water and how many gallons and I I get all that. Um, but there are ways to uh put in fees that will elevate the the um uh the ticket in in price, um and have people feel like they're not being ripped off because of all of the attention that you're spending. So, like for for our carpet cleaning, I'll just use this as an example. We do three jobs a day per truck. That's it. Most of my competitors are doing between six and eight.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Now, I don't know what the hell they're doing. I mean, it takes us all day to do three jobs. Um, but we're also making 35% more um in as far as pricing uh than those guys. So they got to work eight jobs to make what we make in three. Okay. Um and so it's it's all about that experience that you're delivering, gives that price elasticity. Now, do we do it all at once? No. Um, you know, it's it's strategic price increases uh on certain things. Um sometimes it's across the board price increases. Um, I mean, if you're not keeping up with inflation, I mean you're already behind. So I mean, you should be raising at least three percent a year just to keep up with everything.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Um so uh yeah, so that's kind of is it traditionally the the the owner of the restoration company, the home service business that's pushing back, or is it the team members that actually have to execute on these new systems that you're putting in place?

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Well, once they realize that they're gonna be making more money, they're like, and and they don't have to really do more to do that, they just have to do it a little differently. They're like, the employees are the easy sell um most of the time. Um it's it is the owners, it's the head trash about, you know, nobody else is doing this, why should I? You know, and I'm like, well, it's exactly why you should be doing it, because nobody else is, you know. Um, if you you you just look at the entire industry and do the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Um, not when it comes to the actual work, but in the service.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Uh I think this kind of leveling up of your customer service and the experience for the homeowner is a great way for a restoration company because God knows every major market has way more restoration companies than they used to. But this is a really good way for you to differentiate yourself from the the big national franchise with the green and and orange trucks down the street. We don't we don't say their name on this podcast. So all right, a couple big questions for you. For that that owner that's listening to the podcast today, that they're stuck in that like one to three million dollar range. What's the first move that they should make to to level up their service and their experience for the the clients, the customers that they're working with?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yeah, you know, it's gonna be different for each. I'm not gonna be evasive on this, but um, give me a chance to to get to the point. Um, is to get to that level or to increase from that level, a lot of times it is we need some more volume. Um, and one of the things that I recommend all restoration companies have is at least one salesperson. Um, and most of them have half a salesperson, sometimes they have one, but they don't have a system for getting referrals. Um, they'll just go out and they'll visit the plumber and say, hi, we're here, here's some brochures, and then you know, it'll be three or four months before you see them again, and you're wondering why you don't get referrals from them. Um, so if you have a system in place, so right now we have about 80 referral partners um in our region, um, and they get visited a minimum of twice a month um by our salesperson. Now, salespeople, you see them coming a mile away and you're like, you know, they no, you cannot come in. No, you can't talk to the boss. What is this regarding? No. So what we do is we uh actually have uh we call it candy bowl marketing. Um, so we will go in, especially on the first visit, and we make a big production about opening up bags of candy, putting them in this bowl, and then we'll walk up to Marge at the front desk and we're like, you know, hey, we're from Maryland Mold Busters. Um, would you mind if we left this uh candy bowl here for either your employees or your customers that come in, they can grab a quick snack and we just want to put a couple of brochures in the bowl. Nine times out of ten, they say yes. Right. You know, one, it's no work for them. Right. Um, and two, it looks pretty good. Um, and we didn't try to sell them anything. Sure. And so we say, look, we're gonna be back in a couple of weeks to refill the bowl. Um, if by chance you run out of candy before that, there's a phone number taped to the bottom of the bowl. Call that number and we'll come right out and refill the bowl. We do this for about four to six weeks of just coming out and refilling the candy bowl. The candy bowl is our excuse for going into the office. Okay. Right? It's not to sell them anything. Now we do add some steps in there. So along the way, we'll drop off post-it notes or notepads. Uh, we'll drop off, you know, pens. Every every office needs office supplies. Sure. Um, so we'll drop those things off. And then once we get to about week six, um, we start asking, hey, you know, we've shown that we're reliable. We show that we should show up when we say we're going to show up. Um, you know, would you like us to do a little training uh for uh for your employees um on mold? You know, like real estate mold's the four-letter word. Um, but we can go and show them how it doesn't have to be, or how to recognize it, or what to do when somebody says they smell it, et cetera, et cetera. And they're like, oh, yeah, we'd love to have you do a training for our team, whether it's plumbers or you know, uh water treatment, doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

We're delivering value. And that's the key thing is to deliver value, deliver value, deliver value. Then you can make a soft ask. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

I like that. That again, if you don't have a business development rep already, a salesperson, you you need to get one. Uh, it's really the only way you're gonna scale your business. Uh, I'm uh my agency um does digital marketing and we consistently deliver calls from that homeowner, that small business owner in the middle of a water damage emergency. But I know I shouldn't be their only marketing channel. They should be out there cultivating those relationships with the property managers, the insurance agents, the realtors, anybody that automatically works with these homeowners that can facilitate uh referring some business to them. All right, three quick Can I go back to your original question?

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Oh, absolutely, Vance. So the original question you asked me is what's one thing that they can do? Answer the phone live. You're not now you're preaching to the choir. Now, I so I'm a partner in a call center. Um, and when we were setting the call center up, we called 4,500 home service companies, and we got the numbers from Google. So Google all the pay-per-click ads, um 19% answered the phone. That's insane. 19%. So these people are paying Google lots of money to advertise the phone number, and they're not answering the damn phone. And then, and you know what they're the customer's doing next, they're going down to their next listing because you didn't answer the phone. 100%. All right.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

So I I yell, I yell at the audience all the time about answering the damn phone, Vance. So they've heard this message before, but it's nice to have somebody else saying let me reinforce it for you.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

I mean, you're getting the leads, the least they can do is answer the phone for the leads that you're bringing in, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Agreed, agreed. So you've had a wealth of experience working in industries outside of home services, but it seems like the lessons that you learn were learned working for these hospitality brands is paid dividends. Um, most of the restoration companies aren't going to quit their day job and go work for Disney or Hilton or something like that. Is there a book you think that every home service business owner should read that would help them level up their their the experience that they provide for their team?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Well, aside from my book, Systematic Magic, certainly there is that. Um, then there is a phenomenal book written by uh the son of one of my old bosses. It's called Unreasonable Hospitality. Um, and it is absolutely brilliant. Um, I worked for the guy's father when I was um in DC, uh, and his book, and it's filled with little things that you can do or adapt. You know, like they've got one example is they have uh uh, you know, one of the restaurants, uh, there's only like parking meters outside, and the parking meters are only good for two hours, but their dining experience could be three. So they say, uh, don't worry about it. One of our hostesses will go out, just tell us you're you're make and model the car, we'll go out and we'll put quarters in the in the thing for you. Wow. That's uh now it cost them a dollar and quarters, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 36:01

But that's a great experience for that uh so but you you adapt that to the restoration world, sure. I I mean the the thing you mentioned about parking the van on the street as opposed to the driveway. I've never really thought about that, but that makes a lot of sense there. So um, all right. Um, what's a a simple system outside of the candy bowl with the the the sales reps there? What's a simple system that a restoration could uh because we only have a couple weeks left in the quarter. What's one system they could implement this quarter that would move the needle in terms of customer experience?

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Well, aside from answering the phone live, um say it again. I'll harp on that one. But um uh is I would put in a um uh do some kind of customer reactivation campaign. Um 100%, whether it'd be email or postcard, um definitely do some kind of just go to your database and I most restoration companies I work with have ancillary services that they offer to fill in the gaps when there's no crisis. Um so I'm like, hey, look, you know, uh we don't we're done with all the freezing pipes uh this year, so nothing's gonna be exploding. We want to, you know, the guys' wives want them all out and working. So we're running this special on window cleaning or piling grout cleaning or whatever. Air dudes, our guys busy. Yep. So you got an excuse, you know, you create you know, you create the then this time of year is great because at least in our area, we're not getting any more freezes. Um, and so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Now, with all of the home service business owners that you've personally worked with, coached, and and kind of helped them level up their systems. What do you think is one habit that really separates the top operators from everybody else? The implement.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

They actually will go out and implement. Um, and you know, we've got all got enough information. We don't have enough implementation. Um I like that. I like that. Well, it's true. I mean, we're all listening to podcasts, we're reading books, we get articles, we look at our flake book feed, you know, all this stuff coming in. Um, but very rarely does anybody do anything with the information. I mean, I think we dropped a couple of good nuggets today. Absolutely, 100%. Pick one. Just one and go do it and see how it moves the needle.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

I like that. Vance, um, great guest today. We really appreciate you giving us some time. Um, tell the audience if they're interested in reaching out to you uh to find out a little bit more about the coaching and implementation services that you offer. What's the best way for them to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Sure. Uh so uh the only social media I do is LinkedIn. So you can certainly find me there, Vance Morris. I'm the only Disney guy um floating around in there.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Well, we'll make sure we drop a link to all your socials in the podcast description.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

I appreciate that. Um, and then um uh the website is Deliver ServiceNow.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

All right. Uh anything else you want to share with the audience before we let you go today?

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Uh I'll just harp on the implementation and answer the phone live. There you go. Just drive that point home, dude.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Yep. I uh again uh preaching to the absolute choir here. So, guys, literally, one of the best ways that you can differentiate yourself from all of the franchises that are popping up in every corner of your service area is to make sure that you and your team provide an exceptional experience. Because God, this is not them showing up for Disneyland. Uh, this isn't the best day of their life. In a lot of cases, when they're experiencing emergency water damage, fire, and even mold, this is the worst of times for them. But that doesn't mean you can't level up your customer service to give that homeowner, that business owner a great experience working with your restoration business. So 100%. All right. Well, thank you, Vance. I appreciate you being a guest. And again, audience, we appreciate you guys joining us this week. Uh, if you like what you heard, please find us on social. We'll be launching that new Restoration Pros Unplugged website shortly. So be on the lookout for that. Um, we'll be back next week with more awesome conversations with folks like Vance, um, sharing pearls of wisdom and golden nuggets for you to implement in your restoration company. So thanks again, Vance, for joining us. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Restoration Pros Unplugged podcast. If you like what you heard today, be sure to subscribe, share, and also leave us a five-star review. We'll be back with more interviews and discussions with restoration industry leaders really so. In the meantime, if you're a restoration company looking to add more high value water jobs, you can reach me and my team at War Restoration Marketing.net. Again, that's War Restoration Marketing.net. I look forward to hearing from you so.