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Episode #022: Getting Show Ready with Dennis Snow

In This Episode of The Buyer’s Mind with Jeff Shore:

Dennis Snow talks with Jeff about how to make sure you’re “Show Ready.”  Having worked at Disney for over 20 years, he knows a thing or two about customer service, sales techniques and leadership.  Whether you work “back stage” or “front stage,” you’ll learn some new sales strategies to connect with your customer.

Topics we’re going to cover on today’s podcast:

[2:09] Quote of the Day

[3:56] Sales Tip of the Day

[7:48] Can “Happy Service” be taught?

[11:30] What are the Disney Challenges?

[12:58] Commodity vs Experience

[17:22] Creating a Customer Environment

[19:28] Easy on the Customer or the Company?

[22:46] Changing Your Culture

[33:33] Motivational Summary

 

More about our guest Dennis Snow:

Dennis Snow has a passion for service excellence and has consulted with organizations around the world on the subject.  Dennis’ customer service abilities were born and developed over 20 years with The Walt Disney World Company.  In his last year with Walt Disney World, Dennis’ leadership performance was ranked in the top 3% of the company’s leadership team.  He is now a full-time speaker, trainer, and consultant, and is dedicated to helping organizations achieve their goals in the areas of customer service, employee development, and leadership.  He is also the author of two best-selling business books, “Lessons From the Mouse,” and “Unleashing Excellence.”  

 

Links from today’s podcast:

Homestreet Bank

4:2 Formula Academy  

Dennis’ Website

Read Full Transcript

Jeff: Let me ask you a question, is your place of business show ready? If the curtain were rising on opening night, what kind of reviews would your customer give? Let’s dive into that in today’s episode of The Buyer’s Mind.

Announcer: Welcome to The Buyer’s Mind, where we take a closer look deep inside your customer’s decision making mechanism to reverse engineer the perfect sales presentation. Now, please welcome your host, Jeff Shore.

Jeff: Well, welcome everyone to The Buyer’s Mind, where we address today to exactly what’s going on in the brains of prospects who are considering a purchase decision. It’s all about knowing the customer so well that that sale begins to roll out right in front of you. I’m your host, Jeff Shore. You can read the full bio in our show notes, or you can visit jeffshore.com.

And today, I’m just really thrilled that we’re gonna have a sub-theme today, we’re gonna be talking about getting show ready, but there’s going to be a Disney theme to today’s show. You’ll see why in just a little bit. We welcome our show producer, Paul Murphy. Murphy, give me a good Disney story. It’s one thing I’ve noticed, that everybody has a Disney story. Give me a good Disney story from your own experience.

Murphy: So a long time ago when my kids were small, I had the opportunity to take them to Disneyland, and what a magical experience, right? And the kids are five, seven, and nine, just the perfect ages to take them into that wonderful world of just all their childhood heroes, and memories, and everything. And my best memory was just one of my kids walking up to Buzz Lightyear and wanting to get an autograph from him, that was just wonderful.

Jeff: That’s awesome, that’s great, and as a parent you see your kid just on cloud nine and you go, “Okay, that just made the admission price so well worth it and more.” That’s fantastic. Well, today we’re going to talk to a long-time Disney veteran, and we’re gonna learn about what goes on behind the scenes at the house that the mouse built, but also what we can do to transfer some of those experience ideas into our own sales presentation. We’ll talk about being show ready.

And that leads us to our quote of the day, this is taken from a book called The Experience Economy by Gilmore and Pine, and it’s just a great quote. It says, “Staging experiences is not about entertaining customers, it’s about engaging customers. Staging experience is not about entertaining customers, it’s about engaging customers.” And so when we think about experience, the best experience is one where the customer feels like they are brought in. The sales presentation is not something that’s being done to them, it’s something that’s being done with them.

I read The Experience Economy when it first came out in 1999. I was enraptured with the idea, the concept of staging great experiences, not just about providing good service, but the concept of customer engagement takes things to an entirely new level. The sales presentation is not something we do to our customer, it’s something we do with our customer. And I want to be thinking about your own presentation as this journey of mutual purpose. Think side by side rather than face to face. You are arm-in-arm with your customer helping them to accomplish their goals.

Hey, be sure to stay tuned to the end of the podcast to learn about a giveaway. We’re giving something away, so stay tuned to the end. Well, we wanna let you know that the podcast is brought to you by our good friends at HomeStreet Bank not just a show sponsor, this is my lender of choice. I use HomeStreet in my last home purchase, and it was the smoothest transaction I’ve ever had. Professional, dependable, great rates, great service. If you’re a real estate professional you’re just gonna find better people to work with in taking care of your clients. So whether it’s banking, home loans, credit lines, you name it, go to homestreetbank.com. You can learn more, that’s homestreetbank.com.

Well, before we get to our interview I wanna bring you our tip of the day. And the tip today is ask yourself the question, “What would I do differently if I had to charge my customer $10 to go through my sales presentation?” Okay? And it’s kind of a weird thought but stay with me. Suppose that your customer would need to pay $10 in order to see your sales presentation. Now look, this would change everything, because if your customer actually had to pay, then it means that your sales presentation would not be about you, and it probably wouldn’t be about your company, it probably wouldn’t even be about your product. The only way that you could justify charging your customer money is if you provided them with tremendous value in your presentation.

You see, we tend to think that the value is in the product or the service that we are selling, but what if we looked at it and said, “No, the value is in the presentation itself, is in the experience itself.” That’s the idea, that’s the thought here. I’ll just give you a quick example. Now, it’s kind of an absurd example but it still holds true. If you wanna go to the Ferrari dealership at the Wynn Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, it’ll cost you $10 to visit a dealership. Now look, they’re selling cars, but you have to pay to go through the presentation.

Now, why do they do that? Well, obviously part of it is just to dissuade the thousands of people that would be walking through on their own, but part of it is because they recognize, “We’ve got something so cool that it’s worth people paying money to just to walk through our showroom.” So what would you do? What could you do in your own sales presentation that would be cool enough to be able to charge money to your customer? Think about it, it might just change the way you see the value you bring.

Before we get to our interview, I wanna tell you about an opportunity here, and that’s to be involved in our 4:2 Academy. Our 4:2 Formula Academy, this is an intensive training program specifically for real estate sales professionals where we’re using modern selling strategies and skills just for today’s buyers, just for today’s market. The 4:2 Formula is that core real estate principle that we talk about at Shore Consulting, but it’s gonna give you several days and actually spread out over the course of an entire quarter, a program that allow you to just transform your presentation. We’ve put so many people through the 4:2 Formula Academy, always with tremendous results. You can go to, jeffshore.com/events to learn more about the 4:2 Formula Academy.

Well, let’s get to our interview. Dennis Snow has a real strong passion for service excellence. He’s consulted with organizations around the world on that subject, and you know here in The Buyer’s Mind that’s you know that customer experience is so important to us, but Dennis’ customer service abilities were born and developed over 20 years with the Walt Disney World company. So he was in the inner workings of that amazing organization. Dennis is now a full time speaker, trainer, consultant, and his passion is about helping organizations achieve their goals in the areas of customer service, employee development, leadership.

He’s also the author of two best-selling business books, Lessons from the Mouse and Unleashing Excellence. I’m thrilled to have Dennis on the show. Well, Dennis and I will be together here in a very short time. We are both members of the Million-Dollar Speakers group at the National Speakers Association, so we’ll have that opportunity. Please welcome Dennis Snow. Dennis?

Dennis: Thank you, Jeff. I’m looking forward to the discussion we’re about to have.

Jeff: Hey, this will be fun. You know, when we think about Disney world, everybody has their thoughts about the Disney experience, and let’s face it, they’re probably very positive thoughts when you think about it and…

Dennis: For the most part.

Jeff: Yeah, I think so. Well, look at any organization, right?

Dennis: Right.

Jeff: But one of the things that I find so intriguing is that it’s branded as the happiest place on earth, and you’re dealing with people who are just so incredibly friendly, so what’s the secret there? Let’s start right there, Disney world just has these really happy friendly people, can that be taught?

Dennis: Well, it’s what they sprinkle in the food in the employees cafeteria. That’s the real secret, no.

Jeff: Got it.

Dennis: Well, I tell you, part of the answer is yes, but the beginning of that answer is hiring the right people in the first place. So one of the things… One of the questions I used to get asked all the time when I was working there is, you know people would say, “How do you get your people to be so friendly?” And the beginning of that is, well, you hire friendly people. So they put a lot of effort into bringing people that are wired to deliver a great experience. But then going into the training is, okay, so how do you take that raw talent that they’re bringing to the table and apply it in a Disney way?

So they put a lot of effort into, “Here are the expectations that we have as our viewer cast members.” They call their employees their cast members. “Here are the expectations that we have. This is what a great experience looks like, and this is the role that you play in that.” So they’re just constantly reinforcing that message of the role that every single cast member has in delivering that experience. And I mean that, from the moment you say, “I’m interested in working here,” to the moment you leave, that surrounds you the whole time.

Jeff: I would think in that on-boarding process, that there’s a certain degree of un-training that you would have to do just to try and get rid of any bad habits that employees have picked up from previous employers.

Dennis: Well, yeah, it’s interesting, that’s a very interesting point because one of the bad habits that Disney has to work very hard to get rid of in people is a feeling of empowerment in what they can do to delight the guests, because they may have come from an organization where, no, this is what you do, this is all you do, anything out of this little box you need to ask your boss about, and it’s very different at Disney, that we want the front-line cast members to have that empowerment, to if there’s a problem, if there’s a challenge to be the person that solves that so you don’t have to get management involved.

Because that starts a spiral, a downward spiral of, “Oh, you know these people can’t do what I need them to do, ” and then you get a manager involved, and it takes a while for the manager to get there. So, a lot of the un-training is some of those things that other organizations have built in into their culture that Disney doesn’t wanna have.

Jeff: I wanna get into the idea of how we create a great environment that makes… In our case, it makes it easy for a customer to buy, but before I do that I have to tell you I think back to my own Disney experience is, and you’ve seen it all I mean from the inside. You were one of the core leaders at the Disney Institute. You taught other companies Disney principles, you worked on all these different levels. I mean, way back in the day you were a driver on the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea drive, so…

Dennis: I was Captain Nemo.

Jeff: I love it, I love it, I love it. So you’ve seen it all. Come on man, the place can’t be perfect. Give us a backstage secret or two? The place, I mean, because otherwise it just ticks us off, right?

Dennis: Yeah, absolutely. And so, they have the same challenges every organization has. So have you ever been on any of the Disney Institute programs, by any chance?

Jeff: I have not. No, I’ve not.

Dennis: Okay, because in those you go backstage, and the beauty of that is, you see that they really do have the same challenges. That this person hates their supervisor, or this person just had an argument with their spouse before coming to work. I always joking, “I have seen Cinderella smoking a cigarette.” So they have all these challenges, you know, people who have attendance issues, people who have, you know, whatever it may be.

But here’s what makes it work, and this is what proves to me that it makes it work, is that when you see the cast members on stage, 99% of the time, nothing’s perfect, but 99% of the time they are delivering that outstanding guest experience. So, when you go backstage, what you see is the real issues, the same issues that every organization’s dealing with, but they have so ingrained the importance of the guest experience and every cast members’ role in delivering that, that when you walk on stage all that stuff stays behind, all that stuff stays backstage, and I’m very sincere about that’s how they make it work.

Jeff: Let’s chat about that a little bit deeper here because that’s actually… This is a phrase that we use at Shore Consulting a lot. We do… We put on a lot of events, a lot of programs, a lot of seminars, and we divide up, there are ten people at Shore Consulting and it’s divided into two groups, the front stage team and the backstage team. And the backstage team there is to make sure that the front stage experience is perfect, because the front stage is what the customer sees.

Is this a concept that you think should be more broadly adopted by all organizations to start thinking in the terms of theater? Because this goes back, I mean when you look… I read The Experience Economy back in 1999, and that’s exactly what they talked about, it’s a show. Do you think that this could be adopted by more organizations?

Dennis: Absolutely, everything is a commodity nowadays. Every product, every service for the most part, they’re commodities. The only differentiator is the experience and the experience is a show. There’s a… And I don’t care what the product or service is, there’s a show element involved in it. And so all efforts need to be directed in, “How do we put on the best show possible?” So certainly, you think about the front line folks that are dealing with the customers, obviously. They play a key part in that, but none of that can happen without the backstage folks. They’ve gotta be focused on, “How do I contribute to that onstage experience?”

So again going back to Disney, if you’re being hired for a role in a backstage job at Disney, you go through exactly the same training. It’s no different than the training that and onstage person goes because everybody is serving somebody, and they have to understand that ultimately, the idea is to make sure that that guest who has just spent a ton of money, you know, nobody’s ever gonna accuse Disney of being a nonprofit organization. They’ve spent a ton of money that when they leave, they have one thought in mind, “Can’t wait to get back.” So every single person, whether they work in front stage or backstage, they’ve got to have that in mind, and I think that applies to every industry.

Jeff: Yes, it is amazing to me because, look I travel a lot. I spend a lot of time at the Orlando airport and you look at the security line and the hall of Disney products that such trying to get through TSA is absolutely amazing.

Dennis: Yeah, they get you come and going, in between, everything.

Jeff: But it’s incredible because you think, if you’re gonna take a… If you live in Iowa, you’re gonna take your family of four into the Disney World for a week. And you want to stay at a decent place, and I’ve gotta fly down, you’ve got emails, you’ve got parks. We’re talking an adventure it’s going to cost you thousands and thousands of dollars, and at the end of the week, you have ears. It doesn’t make sense logically until you recognize that people will pay huge money for a great experience. And the magic of Disney is that those people walk away going, “That was so worth it.” Right?

Dennis: Yes.

Jeff: It’s beautiful.

Dennis: It was expensive, but it was worth it, yeah.

Jeff: Yeah.

Dennis: And to your point earlier about the experience, you think about it rides or commodities. When you think about thrill rides, Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, that you can get thrill rides everywhere, and so those are commodities. And so what we always stress, and I know they still stress there, is Disney’s not selling rides, they’re selling the experience, and that changes the whole mindset. So, from the moment you start planning your vacation to Disney, to the moment you leave at the end of your vacation, everything in between is the product.

So what you think about, that touches every single element, from the cleanliness of the place to the interactions that you have with the people that work there, the merch, the quality of the food, the merchandise that you buy. It’s no mistake when you get off of Pirates of the Caribbean, you know the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, that you happen to end up in a merchandise shop, selling that merchandise because you’ve just had a great experience on the ride, so now here you are in the middle of the shop, and when your child puts on that pirate cap, what parent is gonna say, “No, you can’t have that.” It sounds… It’s all very carefully orchestrated.

Jeff: Let’s talk about creating a great customer environment, because I think a lot of people are listening right now are saying, “Okay, well that’s all well and good if you work for Disney, but what about my store? What about my shop? What about my sales? What about my place of doing business?” If you could please unpack the idea of show ready, and if there’s a way to be able to unpack it right down to the end-user, even if organizationally we’ve not adopted the whole backstage, front stage show ready thing, but talk a little about this phrase that you love so much, show-ready?

Dennis: Yeah, show ready. So we’ve all been to, it could be a store, it could be a restaurant, it could be really any business, and you get there first thing in the morning or right before closing and they’re not ready for you. There’s stock in the aisles, they’re still filling the cash registers, they’re still organizing everything. They are not show ready for you. They’re in their team meeting, they are in their huddle, and yet there you are in the store or in the restaurant, and at that moment, you feel like an interruption to the operation.

And so, it’s a matter of when that first customer, that first guest, that first client comes in, they feel the valued. They feel that you are…that they are your foremost, you’re first in their focus, and that same thing at the end of the day. You know we’ve all experienced that you come in and they’re getting ready to close, and they’re just sort of upset that another customer came in. No, that customer needs to be treated just as well as everybody else. And so it goes back to that being show ready, and that includes the physical environment itself, that includes the attitudinal approach that we take with it that, “No, we are glad you’re here, and we sure hope you come back.”

Jeff: We talk a lot on The Buyer’s Mind about how to make it easier for customers to buy, about how to create an environment where it’s easy for people to purchase. And I think about environments like the Apple store where I can walk in, I can talk to somebody who will get me set up, I can stand there right there while she pulls out her own iPhone and slides my credit card on her iPhone. She emails me the receipt, that’s already in the system. They make it really easy for me to spend money. But your contention is, and I saw this is an excellent YouTube video on your website, that companies seem to be fixated on how to make it easy on the company. Is that a fair way to put it?

Dennis: That’s very… And most companies do that. The classic example that we’ve all experienced is, we have something in our home that needs to be repaired or we’re having furniture delivered, and they say, “Well, you need to be there between 1:00 and 5:00, or 8:30 and 12:30.” And so that’s process that’s really designed for the convenience of the company, not for the convenience of the customer. And what I think world class organizations do, service organizations, is they turn that around, and I call it, looking through the lens of the customer, designing your processes through the lens of the customer so that…so that it’s about them.

And doing so, going back to the point that you made just a few moments ago, is people buy from people that they like, and we like people who make it easy for us. And so the easier you can make the process, whatever it may be, the easier you to make the process, the more your customers are gonna like you for that, and obviously, the more…the greater the likelihood they’re gonna buy from you.

Jeff: I love that, because we, again, I just talk so much on this podcast about how to make it easier for people to buy, but now we tie it into the idea that likability is a wonderful byproduct that…that customers not only enjoy the process more when it’s easy to buy, but they enjoy the company more, they enjoy the representative more when it’s easy. Nobody wants to go through that very, very painful purchase process. When you walk into a place of business, what are you looking for?

Dennis: I wanna feel welcome, that’s the first thing. And so that comes down to simple things like, did somebody just at least make eye contact with me, even if they’re with another customer, did they let me know that they know that I’m there? The physical environment itself, is it clean, is it laid out properly, does it seem that they put a lot of care into the design of the place?

You mentioned the Apple store. I love the Apple store for all the reasons that I’ve just mentioned. When I walk in, I feel welcomed, and it just feels like a quality environment. And then, do they make the process easy? So those are the thing… You know, it’s funny, being a customer service consultant, I’m really a very easy customer. It takes a lot to tick me off. I’m just looking for the simple things, the basic things, but so that… Those basics are so rare nowadays.

Jeff: What advice do you have for somebody who’s listening right now and is just feeling like, “Dennis, I’m tracking with you, I’m all in. I would love to be a part of that type of organization, but the culture here in my company is just not conducive to that.” It’s… You know that they’re, that they are so aligned to the profit motive that they have forgotten the people motive. What advice do you have for people who work in an organization or feel like they work in an organization where it’s not conducive to that way of thinking?

Dennis: You mean other than finding another job?

Jeff: Yeah, well, no, no. Hey, listen, no, serious, Dennis, that is not off the table. If you want to start there, start there.

Dennis: If your values really do not align, then that’s the clear answer. And that happens sometimes, where they’re… It just is not the right fit, you’re never gonna be happy. And there’s nothing worse than getting up in the morning and go into a job or a company that you’re just not happy going to. That was one of the things that I would just feel so fortunate that I work with Disney, starting as a young person, to work with an organization like that, because I can imagine how it feels just get up in the morning dreading the day. So that would be first, but I do believe there are always things we can do regardless of the circumstances. There are always things that we can do.

And one of the things that, when I work with individuals or I work with organizations, to get this process started so that either we know we’re delivering a great experience or I know I’m delivering a great experience is, “What do we want our customers to say about their experience with us? Or what do I want my customers to say about their experience with me?” And I would say, “Choose three things, three things that any interaction that a customer has with you, that you would want them to say about that experience.” So for us at Disney, “Yeah, it a magical experience. They paid attention to every detail and they made us feel special.” Those three things, okay. Once you’ve identified those three things, then it’s a pretty simple matter of saying, “Okay, so what are the behaviors that I need to demonstrate that would lead our customers to say those three things?”

And it all kind of falls into place now, because now you’re thinking about, “Okay. What do…” You know, even if as an individual working in a challenging environment where the culture just isn’t really in alignment with what you wanna do, you can still ask those questions. What do I want my customers to say about any experience with me? What are those three things, and what do I need to do to make sure they say those three things?” So at least you know your performance is delivering an outstanding experience.

Jeff: And I will go back and just say, I know you don’t want to come on the podcast and say, “Boy, you know what? If you’re not happy, you should quit,” and that advice would be too trite anyway, but I’m totally with you on it. Life is short, and you know and especially if you’re the type of person who wants to be happy, or you want to be able to give the best of yourself and you feel like you’re working in an organization where you’re just not allowed to. Yeah, life is too short. It’s …

Dennis: One of the new best pieces of advice that I got when I was in college from a professor, it’s probably the most valuable piece of advice I got during college was, he said, “No matter what job you have, think about it as training for running your own company.” And you know, you can then take that advice, and even if you’re in a job that you’re not happy with, with that mindset, you’re thinking about, “Okay, if I have my own company, now I know what I don’t want to do. Now I know what shouldn’t be happening.” And so you look at every job as a learning experience. And even during my Disney career, being there for 20 years, I had some bosses who were not the greatest bosses in the world, but I learned something from them about what I didn’t want to do when I was a boss.

Jeff: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. We’re just about out of time. Let me ask you this. You think back on your Disney experience and are there any memories that really standout, or are there moments or experiences that you went through working for Disney that you’ll just never forget?

Dennis: Well, there was a moment that I think is just magic, and it shows me the power of what one person can do when they are really focused on creating that experience. And I was walking through the park, and I saw the character Snow White talking with the child, and it became obvious, even though I was a little distance away, it became obvious that the child couldn’t hear, that the child was deaf. And Snow White got down on one knee and started doing sign language with the child.

And she had taken it upon herself to learn sign language, and it was just one of those moments that for me you have to think about those parents of the child. For the child, yeah, this was great. But you have to think about those parents, that’s something that they’ll remember forever, and it’s something I’ll remember forever, but it comes down to the impact that one person can have on somebody’s life, and that will just stay… And there’s a lot of stories that I have, but that’s one that just touched my heart and stays with me.

Jeff: But that’s such a great story because it does, that does…it… Certainly that’s an outflowing of the corporate culture in this particular case, but it doesn’t have to be. That can be one person who’s taking it on themselves to say, you know, “What can I do to affect the lives of more people, that will reach to more people?” And that doesn’t have to have anything to do with Disney.

Dennis: I remember when my wife and I first got married, we spent every penny we had on a stereo system for our new apartment. The salesperson, I will remember it forever, because he knew, not only was this stereo going to be our sound system, it was gonna be our furniture, too. I mean, because this was all the money we had. But the attention, the focus, the questions, everything indicated that he wanted to make sure he got us a stereo system that was right for us, and that was 35, 36 years ago.

Jeff: That’s great, that’s awesome. Dennis, I can’t thank you… I know this episode is gonna be a huge hit because the story is so great anyway, the Disney story is so great. Your part in the story is tremendous, and you tell the story really, really well. Not only very informative, but a very entertaining discussion. So Dennis, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people reach you to learn more?

Dennis: Yeah, if they go to www.snowassociates.com, that’s my website. And they can always call our offices here in Orlando, it’s still in Orlando, at (407) 294-1855, and we’d love to spend time with any of your listeners.

Jeff: And we’ll put that in the show notes. And I would encourage people, when you go on Dennis’ website, snowassociates.com, go over to his blog page and scroll down to some of the videos that Dennis has recorded there. They’re interesting, they’re informative, they’re easy to watch, and you’ll walk away with some immediate thoughts and applications, so go there today. Thank you Dennis. We’ll talk to you at the convention here very, very soon.

Dennis: I look forward to it.

Jeff: Thanks. Boy, I’ll tell you what, Murph, that was amazing, and it is really interesting to hear from somebody who has really been through every aspect of the front line. I mean the guy was Captain Nemo in the submarine ride before he moved up through the ranks and eventually was a key player at the Disney Institute. What were you thinking? Did you want to sort of work at Disney there?

Murphy: I actually applied to work at Disney and I got rejected. And I don’t know, I wasn’t smiling enough, I don’t know what the problem was, maybe it was just bad timing, but I had to go work for their competitor.

Jeff: Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. But that’s the type of organization we all want, the organization that everybody wants to be a part of. I love the phrase, the experience is a show and of course, at Shore Consulting, we talk about that so much, about being on the backstage and being on the front stage. As somebody on staff at Shore Consulting, define that a little bit. What does it mean to you to be a part of that backstage, front stage experience?

Murphy: Well, interesting because being a part of the podcast, somehow I’ve slipped a little bit into the front stage, which is not my normal role, but for the most part backstage is there to provide support, to be there and help the front stage people do their job as well as they can. And so, I just look at my job as being that guy who helps make you look as good as you can.

Jeff: And that’s great, and I think it’s a great way to look at it. And the idea here is that, if you’re a backstager and you want to support the front stager, that’s great, but it’s still not about the front stager, it’s about the person that that front stage is in front of. So how do we transfer that all the way through? That’s really the question. And I think that we talked about it here from the question of, what is your experience like? I mean, even down to the idea that a very simple question of, “Does your customer feel like an interruption on your operation?” And how many times does that happen to you, where you have walked into a place of business, and somebody was chit-chatting over here, or they were busy with paperwork over there, and you could just tell immediately that you were an interruption, and you feel awkward.

You feel bad that you interrupted, and then you feel upset that you feel bad like, “Why should I feel bad? I’m the customer over here,” and yet it happens so frequently, and you’ve gotta check yourself and ask yourself, “What is that immediate experience? Is this a drop everything, ‘I am so glad you’re here,’ type of experience when somebody walks through the door?” I also love Dennis, those comments about the sense that, when things are easy not only does it feel right, that’s something we teach at Shore Consulting all the time, easy equals right, but easy also equals likable. They like you more if you make it easy for them to go through the experience, and then finally that wonderful piece of advice, choose three things that you would want your customer to say about the experience after the fact, that is so profound and a great way to be able to reset.

Well, we loved having Dennis Snow on the show, and it leads to just kind of a couple of final thoughts. And I have to tell you, I am sick and tired of the phrase, customer satisfaction. I hate this phrase, customer satisfaction, and I’ll tell you why. It gets overused so much, but it doesn’t really tell us anything. I’m a business owner. The idea that my customers would be satisfied, look, that’s just… That’s nuts to me. I’m satisfied with my pencil. I’m satisfied with the tuna sandwich I had yesterday. I’m not elated about these things. I’m not head over heels about these. These things don’t really matter to me, but when we talk about satisfaction, it really, I think, weakens the whole thing.

I wanna talk about elation. I wanna talk about customers who are just over-the-top thrilled with the experience. Even when I see an organization say, “We have a 92% customer satisfaction rate,” you know what that tells me? It tells me that 8% of your people are totally hacked, and the other 92% might very well be, “It was okay.” It’s elation or it’s nothing, but look at it from that perspective. It’s not, “How do I get this person to the rate, to a point of being satisfied? How do I get them to the point of being absolutely thrilled with the experience?”

Hey, at the beginning of the podcast, we told you there’d be a giveaway. Today’s give away is a copy of my book, The 4:2 Formula. Now, that book has some really powerful content that will help you to help your customer, and people who’ve been through our 4:2 Academy, which is based on the book, have said that it’s just transform the way that they sell and even transform their relationships, the principles are that powerful. The book is really written for a real estate audience, but it’s applicable to absolutely anyone. And for a chance to get a copy, just go to our Facebook page, like our page, and then find the quote from today’s podcast, and in the comments, answer #buyersmind. We’ll pick a winner at random from those comments, that’s all there is to it.

Well listen, if you’re loving the podcast, please subscribe. We’d really appreciate that. Our podcast is growing but it’s growing by word of mouth, so if you’re enjoying it, spread the word. But that’s a wrap on today’s episode of The Buyer’s Mind. Hope you enjoyed it. You can find everything you need at, jeffshore.com. Until next time, go out there and change someone’s world.


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.