Creating a Remarkable Customer Service Experience

Audio Transcription

Learn How To Create A Great Experience From The Business Coach : Podcast Transcript

Give your business the atmosphere it needs to win over your customers. Business coach, Clay Clark, teaches on how to create an experience to remember that will get your business up and going.

[music]

Host: And now, broadcasting from the center of the universe at the thrive15.com world headquarters, presenting the world’s only business school without the B.S with the [unintelligible 00:00:17] and entrepreneur Dr. Robert Zellner and of course world business administration entrepreneur of the year in your ear, play soft is the thrive show. On talk radio, 11.70. three, two, one boom.

Clay: All right. What’s up thrive nation welcome back to the Thrive time show during your drive time home. For many of you this is sort of like your audio dojo of mojo. Kind of your mobile library where you’re on your way home and you’re going, “I’ve had a tough day and I’m looking for something positive, something that can give me a little boost, something I can learn something, maybe a show where I can get that business school without the B.S.” Yes, you have found it. My name is Clay Clark and I am a business coach and I’m the former S.B.A. Entrepreneur of the year in your ear.

Normally I’m joined here by Dr. Robert Zellner but today Dr. Zee. is out expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire in a different country at this moment actually. You can’t really bring in a substitute for the entrepreneurial legend that is Dr. Zellner but you can do is you can bring in a helicopter guru. You can bring in a guy who knows something about taking your family in the air. Giving you an amazing life tour. We have today with us–we have the pleasure thrivers to have with us today Mr. Anthony Vin Diddy and this is the guy who is out there helping run the production services. It’s xmasflights.biz. It’s helicopter tours, right?

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: Now, first up how did you get into the helicopter industry? Were you just out kind of saying to yourself, “Someday, I want to fly helicopters.” Where did that come–what had you get into that industry?

Anthony: Well, I knew for a long time ago when I was young I wanted to get into the helicopter industry. I loved it. My father had been a pilot. I’ve known about helicopters since I was a kid.

Clay: When was the first time–how old were you when you first went in a helicopter?

Anthony: I was about 10 years old.

Clay: 10 years old and now it’s a business.

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: If somebody is listening right now we’re going to get in today’s training in just a minute but for somebody who’s listening right now and they go, “I don’t know if I want to become a helicopter pilot but I maybe do–I want to fly in the helicopter. I want to actually get up there in the air with the–I want to take one of those tours.” What is the lowest cost? If someone is in a budget this holiday season, what is the absolute lowest cost somebody can pay to get in the air with you and do an amazing tour of Tulsa?

Anthony: We can get them into as low as $30 a person.

Clay: $30? That’s like–I don’t know a Sam our producer can you buy a fitted, a flat bill hat for 30 bucks now?

Sam: I don’t think so.

Clay: You don’t think so. There’s just it. We also don’t think so. This is–thrivers, can you–are you going to remember that hat? No, you’re not going to remember that hat. You need to take your hat money this holiday season and divert it to the helicopter fund and–have you ever had everybody who’s got off the helicopter and said, “Okay I went up there to xmasflights.biz, I booked my ticket and I went up in the air and they didn’t come down slightly well.” Does it ever happen without slightly well?

Anthony: No.

Clay: It’s a done deal.

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: Thrivers who’re listening right now get up there, check it out, take it be a hero. Be a Holiday Hero. Take your family on an amazing light tour. Go to xmassflight.biz fill up the form, 30 bucks a person you’re up in the air.

Anthony: Yes. Absolutely.

Clay: You’ve got tour like an hour long tour maybe people can do two if they want to kind of upgrade a little bit too?

Anthony: Absolutely. We go anywhere from five to six minutes all the way up to an hour long flight.

Clay: Where are kind of things you going to fly over?

Anthony: We fly over things like Raymour.

Clay: The Raymour lights?

Anthony: Absolutely. Over the honor heights.

Clay: Really?

Anthony: Absolutely. Paragon.

Clay: Do you ever fly over the Arkansas River? Have you ever fly over the around the city of Beth building, can you do that?

Anthony: Yes. Part of one of our tours we actually take you downtown and we fly in and out of the buildings downtown. A lot of people love that.

Clay: You get me motivated.

[Laughter]

Clay: Okay, I’ll tell you what now Thrivers today we’re talking about the five S’s. I’ve been doing vocal exercises all day. Getting ready for this. The five S’s. We’re talking about how to create a remarkable customer service experience how to do it. There’s five ways to do it. If you’re driving home you shouldn’t text and drive, you certainly shouldn’t drive with your knees and then write while driving. We encourage you to take notes and if you missed a step go to thrivetimeshow.com where you can flip it, reverse it here back again. You can pause it, its thrivetimeshow.com you going to love it. Here we go.

The first S. is smells. Now what do you mean smells? Well, if you own a business people don’t realize this, my background is the former Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the year. It didn’t happen just me being lucky. Okay? On my first company called D.J. connection and we booked weddings. I just want to ask you this here Mr. helicopter guru. Do you think men or women typically plan the wedding? From your life experience what do you think?

Anthony: Women.

Clay: Yes. Women. I had to quickly recognize that my office needed to smell– that female smell which has got to be like potpourri and Sam’s Married he knows what I’m talking about. Where it’s all like there’s a roofer everywhere and it’s all this vanilla bean all these essential oils and all. I had to make my office–my office is at my house, I had to make my house smell like a chick palace. Like it was like a Bed Bath and Beyond or something. Then I had to change the music to like is a dude, at the time I was listening rap music or A.CDs just dude music. “couse I’m t’ n t.” The ladies they want like Michael Bublé- ‘Just the way you look tonight.’ I had to change the whole atmosphere to be total palace for the ladies.

The princess palace. Had a change my mojo and I get that smell game on it because when the brides would come to my house to book their wedding, they would reject the wedding because the couple–I’m not kidding I lost a couple deals over this. The couple that came before them, maybe was like a chain smoker or maybe just smelled like you’ve been working out all week. I didn’t have any smells going. See if you walk into a small office like a 10 by 12 office and it just smells like human body. When you go in your office smells like the human body it does not inspire confidence.

One day I was at Starbucks and I’m reading this book called Pour your heart into it, by Howard Schultz and I recognized, my office doesn’t have an intentional smell to it. In Pour your heart into it by Howard Schultz, he says, “We aren’t in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee.” He goes on to explain how the aroma has to be right. The decor has to be right. The whole atmosphere has to be right or people won’t want to pay a premium for coffee. I’m going, “Oh, my gosh what am I doing? I got I got to fix this game.” I had to get into total chick team, get into that inner estrogen and infix that. If you’re listening right now thrivers think about your business.

Think about your office think about your ideal and likely buyer. If you’re selling to men who are like bodybuilders make your office look and smell like body builders. I want to ask you though you’re up in the air, is it an exhilarating experience? How would you describe for some has never been up in the air, he’s never maybe smelled it, seen it, been around it. They’ve never been inside the helicopter, talk to me about it. What does it feel like for the person who’s up in the air for the first time?

Anthony: It is very magical for somebody for the first time. The smells are hard to explain. You just have to experience it.

Clay: Do you do pure music? Are you playing like some kind of–do you have kind of some music playing as you up there in the air or is it like holiday music or do you have no music at all. It’s so loud or what’s–?

Anthony: No, there’s no music being played. What you’re going to hear is you’re going to hear the blades chopping through the wind. You’ll hear a little bit of a whine haul noise coming through the turbine engine.

Clay: Do you have headphones on? You’re wearing some kind of headphones?

Anthony: No. there is no headphones in the helicopter and we do have them but on the Christmas tours we don’t use them. It is quiet enough that you can talk to the person sitting next to you, your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend or your children you can talk to them.

Clay: Are you giving people like a tour real like, “Ladies and gentleman if you look to the left there you’re going to see a sob farm which is Oklahoma’s number one tourist attraction a sob farm out there and–“ Do you do those little tour moves? Do you tell people about things?

Anthony: No, when the pilot is flying with the noise with him sitting in the front there is really not any way for him to turn around or to even talk loud enough, because he is constantly listening to the radio for traffic. There’s other helicopters up flying so he stays pretty busy keeping everybody safe.

Clay: You’re not going to go back and play chess with people while you’re up in the air?

Anthony: No.

Clay: Okay. Now if there’s anybody just now tuning in we have today a very special guest. We have Anthony Vin Daddy, Okay? This guy he works with production services. What do they do? They do helicopter tours all over Tulsa and this is the holiday season. I mean there’s never been a better time to get your body inside a helicopter than right now. You go to xmasflights.biz. You go up there and–did you say for 30 bucks we can do an entry level helicopter tour?

Anthony: Yes we can.

Clay: 30 bucks?

Anthony: $30.

Clay: I can’t buy a flat bill Tom Brady hat for that. I know I shipped one in for over 30 bucks. That’s a better beautiful deal. I’m almost overwhelmed by the glory of this deal. Now thrivers if you’re listening right now, we are talking today about the 5 s’s of how to create a remarkable customer service experience. If you’re listening right now, I want you to think about this little stat here for you, okay. I want you to Google it. I want you to believe I don’t know what I’m talking about. Go and Google through the phrase, Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter Score. I like to refer this as the not Promoter Score, okay. But on a scale of one to 10, I want you to rate how wowed your customers are, okay. Because, statistically if you look at the stats, you’re going to see it.

Most businesses never get into the wow zone, which is like a nine or a 10. So on a scale of one to 10, very few people get into a 10 where they wow the customer, and you know why? Because we’re only satisfying the customer. You have to ask the customer, “On a scale of one to ten how wowed are you?” If a customer says a nine or a ten, that’s a wow, that’s a net promoter score. That means your business is going to get word of mouth.

If you had to think about Thrivers right now, think about the companies that have a high net promoter score. Thrivers I what you think about this right now, if you had to guess, what are the companies in the world right now, that have the highest Net Promoter scores? What of the ones that do, because most companies don’t. I’m going to go ahead and give you some examples right now when you hear me you going to go, oh it’s obvious, that’s obvious, obviously I could have guessed that. One, is it Southwest Airlines or is it American?

Southwest for 500 points, bang. Is it QuikTrip or is it Shell, bing bing, QuikTrip. Is it Starbucks or is it well, you go, I knew that. But what is it about QuikTrip that makes QuikTrip better than shell? What is it about– someone’s listening going,” I own shell stock, quit saying that” okay fine, maybe you like shell bathrooms, you the only person in Tulsa who enjoys going in there, they’re giving you some kind of like a tire, it’s attached to a key, so you don’t run off with it, you walk in there and it smells like a third-world country. I’m talking about shell bathroom. Whiles we come back, we’re going to teach you to take your customer service to the next level.

[Music]

Advertisement: This show is brought to you by Adobe Creative Cloud. If you are a photographer, graphic designer, video editor, podcaster, business owner or just creative genius, this is for you. All of your creative tools, all in one place. Creative Cloud includes the entire collection of creative apps for desktop from favorites like adobe Photoshop and illustrator, to new tools like Adobe experience design. Check this out, you can create podcasts seamlessly in high quality with adobe audition.

Did you miss the exposure or looking to create a stunning and beautiful photo? You got to download Lightroom, okay, the latest release of adobe creative cloud is here with incredible new features in adobe Photoshop illustrator and all of your favorite apps, plus millions of adobe stock assets and new premium images are built right in. You can turn your brightest ideas into your best work, fast. Make sure that you check out adobe creative cloud at adobe.com, once again adobe creative cloud at adobe.com.

[Music]

Clay: All right Tulsa, welcome back to the left coast of the Arkansas River, you’re listening to the Thrive time show where we are broadcasting from a dojo of mojo within the friendly confines of the box that rocks. It’s Tulsa’s only, local business radio show, it is the Thrive time show, and it is the only business school without the B.S. you know how you went to business school or you went to college and some guys up there talking about chlorophyll and papyrus and humanities and psychology and then after two years of that, you finally get to start talking about business.

Then you graduate with a degree, and then you realize that no employers really care? That’s not what this show, this shows teach you specific things that you can apply in your life and in your business right now to make copious amounts of cash. If you implement what we’re teaching you, our goal is to help you have huge amounts of success. We only bring on the show, real business owners. These aren’t guys who are speculating about owning a business or running one or working in one. This is real business, it’s business time, alright it’s business time here, it’s business time on your drive time home here.

Today Thrivers, as we were thinking about, well who could fill in? Dr. Zeller is out expanding his vast entrepreneurial Empire. He’s not here, he’s actually out of the country expanding his empire. So we thought about, who could we have on the show? Who could we have on the show that can bring the funk in the fire that the Thrivers require? We decided we’re going to bring on Mr. Anthony Vendedi. This guy works with production services, and rumor has it you actually fly helicopters, is that true?

Anthony: Yes, I am in the process of learning.

Clay: You are learning the dark art of helicopter flying?

Anthony: Yes sir I am.

Clay: And you work with a company that– that’s what you do is you give helicopter tours

Anthony: Yes sir.

Clay: If someone’s listening right now, what is that cost? I mean if I say what does– tell me the steps. Whatever I’m listening right now and I want to schedule a helicopter tour for the holidays, what does it cost what are my steps?

Anthony: Well, your first step would be, you can get on our website productionairservices.com–

Clay: productionairservices.com

Anthony: Yes. Or you can go to xmas light, excuse me, xmasflights.biz.

Clay: Okay, so I got xmasflights.biz once I go there what happens?

Anthony: It brings up a page and it shows you all of our tours that we offer, we offer five different tours. It has prices, the length of each tour, and it gives description of where that particular tour takes you.

Clay: Now, if I’m listening right now to the business coach, and I’m a skeptic, I go, “I don’t know whether I really want to take a holiday light toour.” I’m tooting in because you’re talking about the five s’s. How to create a remarkable customer service experience. And I heard you’re training on ‘s’ number one on smells, and I love that I’m going to go back to my office tomorrow and be intentional about the smell of my business. Like I’m Starbucks, like I’m krispy kreme and they go, and so I wanted to stay tuned to see what– I want to stay tuned to see what the second ‘s’ was and so I’m going to give you the second ‘s’. It’s sights.

Thrivers, you got to make sure that your sites are awesome, the visuals. when you come in your building, Anthony, you’ve been in our building here, we’ve been intentional about the decor and kind of creating– how would you describe to anybody’s not been to this the Thrive 15 world headquarters how would you describe how kind it looks in here?

Anthony: Awesome.

Clay: You like it?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: What do you like about it? What kind of appeals to you?

Anthony: There’s so many things, different areas about it that just– when you put them all together it just creates one big just wow factor.

Clay: We tried to take the Southern California kind of Silicon Valley atmosphere, and combine it with that Oklahoma entrepreneurship, and create the Thrive 15 world headquarters. I know what we’ve built here very intentional about it, but your view is better. Your view, you’re inside a helicopter, tell me what we’re going to see if we go and we invest the $30 to take a helicopter tour for the holidays, we’re going to see up there?

Anthony: You are going to see just spectacular views. If you’re driving around on the ground and you look at Christmas lights and thought it was great, when you get in the air and you can see for miles, either direction, it’s amazing.

Clay: You’re blowing my mind now. What are like the top three? What are the things everyone just tuning in, what are the top three things you go, let me tell you what, you have to see a, b and c. What are some of those top three things that Tulsa has to offer that look great from the sky?

Anthony: Ramer, that is a pretty spectacular sight to see from the air.

Clay: I’ve heard on it– I don’t have the stats in front of me I don’t make up a statistic for you. But I’ve heard in the world, in the context of the world, Ramer has more lights per capita more Christmas lights per capita than almost any other location and in America. It’s huge, and so that’s got to be a spectacular sight. What’s another one?

Anthony: A lot of people don’t know this, but during the Christmas season, going downtown and flying in and out of the high-rise buildings downtown, that is a pretty spectacular view itself.

Clay: Also, I don’t know if you’d—as an entrepreneur, I’d love it if you would do a tour over a QuikTrip, and you just fly over there, let me kind of look around and see if I can see the mystery shoppers. I’m sure we’ll fly over some quick trips enroute probably.

Anthony: Absolutely, when we come into land and takeoff, we pass a quick trip every time.

Clay: See, that’s it is Thrivers, it’s a perfect trip, it’s the perfect trip. We’re talking about creating a remarkable customer service experience. I just want to give a big shout-out to all of the wonderful people who are working at Quiktrip. Let me tell you what, a lot of businesses close during the holidays, but our guys or our team in the red shirts and khaki pants, these homies just keep coming during the holidays we love QuikTrip.

I have a little QuikTrip story for you. Years ago, my business was in the absolute– it was in the toilet. It wasn’t doing very well, and Robert could you grab that book right there I want– because anyone watching on Facebook live. It’s the service profit chain, I want to just hold this up for the Thrivers here, and Robert had to make a cameo appearance here. If you know Robert you’re in for a visual treat here.

Here’s the thing is he said– I met with the– we’re talking about Chet Cadieux, this is like the president of QuikTrip. I talked to this guy, by the way I– Robert has never been asked to do this before the set’s falling apart but we’re sacrificing for the show here. But no, seriously I sit down with the president. I harassed this guy on the phone for years to get a phone meeting. I wanted to meet him, set up an appointment, so I called Valerie Painter. Valerie thank you so much for making this happen. I called over and over. I’m dialing, I’m smiling, I’m getting rejected but I am not being infected with negativities. I just keep calling.

Finally I find myself having breakfast with Chet Cadieux. I said, “My friend,” and I’m totally nervous. I’m like, “Ahhh mister chchchchcher,chhhchh, thththth.” He thought I was doing a remix or something,”Chikichaaa.” I’m like, “Hey what is the?” I asked him, I had notes of questions to ask. “What is the book that I have to read? If you had one book for me to read, I own a DJ company we’re doing about a thousand events a year, entertainment. I want to take this thing to 5,000. I want to go to the next level. I started this out of my dorm room. It’s profitable but I’m working all the time no time free. What’s the book?”

He says, “The Service Profit Chain.” I repeat The Service Profit Chain, and I have gone through it and I’m sure our special guests here sees it. I have highlighted this, I have dog eared it, I have taken notes, I have stapled business cards to it, and I have just. This book teaches you the customer service secrets to take your customer service game to the next level. The first tip, one of the first tips in the book is being nice to people is just 20% of the problem, just 20% of the game. You’ve got to have a check list and a system for everything.

Thrivers, when you take a helicopter up into the air, I bet you there is a check list. There’s a lot of switches you’ve got to hit. There’s a lot of things you got to do and I bet you if you forget a few things like I don’t know puttig gas in your helicopter. If you are listening right now and you’ve never never ever forgotten to fill up, put gas in your car. If you’ve never run out of gas then throw the first stone. If you’ve never driven away from the gas station with the thing still plugged into your — The hose still plugged into your gas tank throw the first stone.

Seriously it’s about making checklists, so you are wanting to design the perfect experience. The first part of it is the smell. Put it on the checklist. The second part is the sights you’ve got to put that on the checklist because when you are giving live tours you don’t want to miss a spot. Checklist helps us from forgetting those simple fundamental moves.

When we come back we’re going to help you take your customer service to a whole new level.

[background music]

Advertiser: Are you a business owner? You need to ask yourself right now, how are you backing up your files and important documents? Most businesses have no system for the files in their business. If this is you you got to use Drop box. At least sign up for one of their 30 days free trials. Real talk, it’s the secure file sharing and storage solution that employees and IT administrators trust.

You get as much space as you need at no additional cost. You get unlimited file recovery and versioning basically creating new versions, and valuable admin controls for secure sharing and collaboration with Drop box for business. You’ve got to check this out after using Drop box you will definitely feel more secure knowing that a virus or power surge can’t ruin your computer and your entire business. Try Full Access to Drop box business for 30 days. Head over to dropbox.com to get started. Again dropbox.com to get started.

[background music]

Clay: All right Thrive Nation welcome back to the Inspiration Station your audio dojo of mojo and Tulsa’s only local business radio show. It’s the Thrive Time Show Business School without the BS. My name is Captain Clay Tiberius Clark and I am a business coach and you are listening to your favorite radio station as you’re headed into the dark.

Thrivers today Doctor Zelner he could not be with us because he’s out expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire and thus I had to search. I searched high, I searched low, I searched even higher, I searched low. I went even higher and I found the guy who is learning to fly helicopters but who actually works for a company called Production Services. You are actually booking helicopter tours. This is the coolest job in the world. This is Mr. Anthony Vindetti. Sir, how are you?

Anthony: I am wonderful how are you sir?

Clay: Man I am pumped, I’m excited. If you just tuning in today we’re talking about how to take your customer service game to the next level. At first we talked about getting the — We’re talking about the five S’s, like Sam. S number one get those smells right be intentional, Starbucks always smells good right? Crispy Cream always smells good. Does your business always smell good or does it smell bad? You don’t want to smell like a human body that’s just it.

Number two, the sights. Those visuals you’ve got to have those strong visuals. Think about your visuals. If you went to an outback steak house, what color are the ceiling tiles? For 500 mega points here. Sam, Robert, rhetorical, identity not Mike. What are the ceiling colors at an outback? And they are, they’re black. You know why they are black because you won’t notice them.

Elephant in the room what color are our ceilings? That’s the thing we start thinking about. Oh my gosh we have a lot of customers coming cover the elephant in the room. What color are our ceilings? We have to think about these things. We have to be intentional. Think about your customer service experience. You must turn it into a checklist. I want to ask you this Anthony. If we’re talking about checklists, how essential are checklists for flying a helicopter in a safe way? How important is it for you to have a checklist?

Anthony: A checklist for a helicopter is essential. You don’t start a helicopter without going through the checklist.

Clay: Let me ask you there’s a book called the Checklist Manifesto that is written by a man by the name of Atul Gawande. If you’re listening, it’s fun to say Atul Gawande. Atul Gawande he is a bestselling author. He is a professor at the Harvard Medical School. Harvard the Medical school he’s sort of a big deal. He wrote this book called the Checklist Manifesto he’s also a surgeon.

He discovered that when surgeons, you’ve got to get this book thrivers it’ll blow your mind. Anthony I want to ask this question because this is a crazy. Surgeons when they are not using a checklist, what percentage of the time do they forget to wash their hands, or the patients skin, or to read the list of all the drugs that the patients are allergic to, and oh by the way could probably kill them? What percentage of the time do they forget without a checklist? If you had to just guess.

Anthony: I would hope none, 1%?

Clay: I encourage everyone to read the book, but thrivers let me tell you what. We’re getting up to the high 15’s high 16’s and if the percentage of people who die as a result of malpractice someone messes up. In this book he discovered and I don’t want to mangle the stats, but it’s a little less than 20% almost 20% of people who die. Die because the surgeon forgot to use a checklist.

That’s in his book, so what he found was that in helicopters. He talked in his book about flying airplanes he talks about in building buildings. Like huge skyscrapers in New York. You can’t build a big building, how do you build a building in New York if you are not using a checklist? You can forget a step, so why are we running our small businesses without a checklist? What’s wrong with us?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with us? Maybe we don’t know. Maybe we choose not to do it, but I want to ask you Anthony if someone was to try and fly a helicopter without a checklist what would eventually happen?

Anthony: Crash.

Clay: Okay, but with the checklist, the maintenance isn’t an issue, the quality isn’t an issue, the safety isn’t an issue. It’s just a no brainer at that point. The helicopter you have to maintain that thing constantly right?

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: Let’s talk about the safety. I have heard rumor has it that statistically it’s safer to fly in airplane that’s safe than to drive a car. I have seen the stats. Flying a helicopter is a safe deal when you do it right?

Anthony: Yes it is.

Clay: You guys when you book a helicopter tour for you guys it’s a safe experience. If people book a helicopter tour with you they could plan on a safe trip. I mean you’re not going to go, “Oh I wonder if we filled up with gas?” It’s going to be a safe thing?

Anthony: Yes it is. We have an incredible ground crew for the helicopters. They make sure that everything is spot on and ready to go for the safety of every person on that helicopter.

Clay: If somebody wants to take the challenge they go, “You know what? I want to go up in a helicopter. I want to do this, this sounds awesome.” By the way aren’t the holidays all about wowing your mother-in-law, your father-in-law, your wife? Are you married Anthony?

Anthony: I’m not.

Clay: You’re not. You have like a lady interest right now?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: If you weren’t in the helicopter industry wouldn’t that be like the ultimate wow move to surprise her with helicopter tickets over downtown Tulsa?

Anthony: It is, in fact we’ve had several people over the years that have gotten proposed to in the back —

Clay: They proposed in the back of the helicopter?

Anthony: In the back of the helicopter during the helicopter Christmas flight.

Clay: You’ve just given a guy a move right now. Someone is listening and they go, “That’s a move I’m going to do it.” Here is the deal, here’s the website you go to. You go to xmasflights.biz, xmasflight.biz. What you do is you go up to that website and you can book a ticket for as little as $30 a person. Is that right?

Anthony: That is correct.

Clay: For $30 a person you are going to go up in the air and see Tulsa as never before. Now thrivers if you are listening to this right now and you’re going, “I want to take my customer service to the next level I want to do it I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it, I want to do it, I’m doing it now.” Step number one go ahead, get out a pen or, “Does anyone even use pens anymore, what about a smartphone?” Fine you can use a smartphone. “I don’t even want to use a smartphone, I have an I Pad.” Fine I don’t care what writing device. If you’re going, “Can I use Net sketch?” Yes you can use Net sketch use anything you want to but write it down. Smells, what are the smells? What in the smell do you want your office to smell like? What do you want it to smell like? Okay write that down. Two sights. What are the visuals?

When we come back thrivers I’m going to talk to you about the visuals that you’re going to find inside one of my businesses called Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. I’m also going to talk to you about the sites that you’re going to see. If you go to Z66 Auction. That’s the auto auction owned by my partner and co-host Dr. Robert Zoellner. Thrivers, let’s take our customer service to the next level. Stay tuned.

[music]

Advertisement: For the professional-looking man out there, this is for you. Are you tired of waiting for hours in disorganized barber shops around town? Are you maybe looking for an upscale haircut experience instead of being treated like a little kid?

If either of these thoughts crossed your mind, then Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge is for you. The Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge is proud to offer a variety of packages in memberships for discerning men and regular customers who wish to maintain their tailored look, while receiving discounts off of services and products.

They’re going to bring you in. They’ll offer you a beverage, identify your style that you’re going for, get you a tailored haircut from one of the professional stylist, wash your hair, and then style it afterwards, so you could even go back to work. The experience is awesome.

They even do cool things for members like a free nape shave on Mondays, or a peppermint oil scalp massage on Tuesday. Check out one of the locations near you and book an appointment. You can check them out at eitrlounge.com, or just dial 918-877-2219. Seriously, you’re going to love it. 918-877-2219, or visit eitrlounge.com to book an appointment today.

Clay: All right Thrive Nation. Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show. This is the place that you go to learn how to start or grow a successful business. Now, here is the thing right now. This is the challenge. I know we’re at the holidays. It’s a magical Monday. So many people are excited about the holiday season, but I have a challenge I want to ask you right now Thrivers.

I want you to ask yourself. We’re very thankful. We had a great Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for in this beautiful country, but I want to ask you. I want you to get out a sheet of paper or at least mentally picture it, or somehow I want you to write this number down. On a scale of one to 10, if 10 is your life is absolutely where you want it to be, a 10.

You’re doing what you want to do. Or, you’re in the pursuit of what you want to do. It’s exciting to move towards what you want to do too, by the way. Don’t be mad that you’re on your way. But on the scale of one to 10, if a 10 is you know that you’re headed the right way, you love every moment of your life, you are going, “If I die today, I lived the life I want to live.”

Then, one is going, “Oh, I don’t like that question. We change the station real quick. I want to listen to a little bit of Britney Spears for a minute and maybe I’ll come back to this show.” One is you’re not happy with the way you’re going, and a 10 you’re so happy. To the 10, you’re going to the right and the path you’re going, “Oof, right where I want to go.” Left, you’re going, “Uh oh.”

I want you to rate yourself on a scale of one to 10. If you are not an eight or above, I want you to do something. I want you to go up to thrivetimeshow.com. We have the world’s best, and I say world’s best. How can I say world’s best? Come here, take the challenge. I promise you, it is the world’s best. It’s a money-back guarantee sort of a deal. It’s the world’s best business conference ever.

It’s a two-day workshop. It’s 15 hours. We will teach you time management. We’ll teach you Lee Cockerell. This is the guy who used to manage Walt Disney World Resorts. We’re going to teach you Lee Cockerell’s time management system. We’re going to teach you the public relations strategies used by Michael Levine when he was coaching with, by the way, Nike, Pizza Hut, I don’t know, Michael Jackson, Prince, all through.

Where can I verify all these things? Go to Thrive15.com. It’s the world’s best business school and you can learn more about it. Or go to thrivetimeshow.com. Here’s the deal. We have scholarship program available. A lot of people are going, “Hey, things are tight. This has been a tough year for me.” Guess what, if you have a dollar, $1, if you have a dollar, put your hands up with a dollar.

If you got a dollar, put the dollar in the air. If you got a dollar, then you can afford to come to the show because we literally have never, we have never, one time, turned down somebody because of lack of a financial capacity. We literally, we do one-on-one coaching with people who need it for existing companies but we are absolutely sold out.

We, as in Dr. Robert Zoellner and myself, we are and David Robinson, the NBA basketball hall of fame great, we are sold out to helping you get from where you are to where you want to be. We’re committed to it. If you come out to our workshop, we can help you. If you have a business and your business is maybe not going to the next level, you got two options you can do.

If your business isn’t going to the next level, if it isn’t moving up, if the sales are not moving up, you got two options. Option number one, you can get out to our workshop, you can subscribe to Thrive15.com, you could do that whole Thrive15 experience. Or option two, you can book a helicopter tour and he’ll take you up. We have a very special guest with us today.

This is Mr. Anthony Venditti with the production services. It’s xmasflights.biz. We’re talking about the Five S’s to Creating a Remarkable Customer Service Experience. S number one was Smells. Got to get those Smells right. Get a checklist and define how you want your business to smell. Because the goal is to wow the customer. The goal is to–.

If we don’t generate word of mouth, because people who aren’t loud are not going to go on Facebook and go, “Oh wow they’re awesome.” If you just minimally satisfy customers, they’re not going to refer you via word of mouth. Point number two. The sights, the visuals baby. You’ve got to have an unbelievable visual. I’m going to give you a notable quotable from Jeff Bezos.

This is the homeboy who officed out of his garage. For those of you who speaks Spanish, that’s el garaje. This is the deal, Jeff Bezos, he’s officing out of his garage. His mom and dad cash out their savings account. He spends $300,000 to start Amazon.com. This is what he says, he says, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job everyday to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little better. Try to make it a little better.”

I want to ask you this here Anthony, if somebody is listening right now and they want to wow their employees, they want to say, “Hey. For the holidays, I want to give my team the beautiful sights of Tulsa.” Do you do corporate tours? How does that work? If I’m an HR Director, I want to get my whole team up in the air. How do I? What are the steps?

Anthony: They can call us. We do chartered block time. We do corporate holiday tours that we can schedule.

Clay: Those are super affordable. You’re talking to as little as $30 a person to get them up in the air.

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: If maybe I’m booking 100 persons, do I get maybe a better deal?

Anthony: There can be. That’s on a base-to-base situation.

Clay: You’re an Oklahomey we can trust. If they go to xmasflights.biz, they can go up there, get in touch with you, and they could probably wow the whole office.

Anthony: That they could.

Clay: For anybody who’s listening right now who goes, “Okay. I’m strongly considering taking a helicopter tour for the holidays, but I must be sold. I need one particular move that’s going to encouragement, one benefit, I need one. What is the one thing in your mind that just, why does everyone need to do a helicopter tour at least once? What’s the move?

Anthony: Just the spectacular view. There’s just nothing more beautiful or exciting or exhilarating than seeing Christmas lights from the air when you can see them below you, around you, two miles in front of you.

Clay: Now, Thrivers, I will tell you this. When I first started my first company called DJ Connection into my dormroom, Anthony, do you want to guess where I would meet with a prospective brides and grooms, what my office location was? I didn’t have an office. I told people, “Hey, I’ll meet you at”, you should’ve guessed what restaurant that I suggest, what would that be, if you’d guess.

Anthony: McDonald’s?

Clay: That’s it. I did.

[laughter]

He’s like, “I was stupid. It was very stupid of you.” No, I used to meet people there and I would go in there and no matter what I said, this is what they heard, “Hi. Welcome to McDonald’s. I’m a disc jockey, and I’m here to meet you.”

Then, how did I dress? I’m meeting a bride and the groom who are potentially considering booking an entertainer for the biggest day of their lives up to that point. The man who by the way can ruin their event on the microphone. Who they need to trust to be the master of ceremonies. I am literally wearing, I got my logs boots on there, they’re like baggy. They’re baggy, baggy jeans on, got my logs boots, they’re kind of orange boots. I always wore a Wu-Tang Clan shirt because I want to keep it real.

The key to keeping it pouring is keeping it real. That’s kind of a thing. I was keeping it authentic. I was keeping it real. I’m telling you, if you met a guy at McDonald’s who’s wearing a Wu-Tang Clan rap shirt, baggy jeans, double hoop earrings, showing up late in a hand-painted Mazda MPV van, would you book that guy?

Anthony: Probably not.

Clay: That’s the thing. The marketplace wasn’t very nice [unintelligible 00:39:26] marketplace. The marketplace is just like no. You’re getting it probably not, you’re kind of a nice guy. The thing is, other people, I’m just telling you that no one would book me. I reached out to a guy by the name of Clifton Taulbert. If you Google Clifton Taulbert, Thrivers, this guy helped introduce the Stair Master into the marketplace.

His life, by the way, was made into a movie. It was called Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. You can buy the book on Amazon. It was [unintelligible 00:39:54] two thumbs up movie back in the day. He says, “Clay,” and I’ll never forget this, he says, you must dress the way you want to be addressed. I’m going, what was that? He goes, you got to dress the way you want to be addressed. My thought was, I’m self-employed and I’m a disc jockey. I will meet people at McDonald’s and dress how I want to dress because I’m the boss and I’m in charge of myself because I’m self-employed myself and I will do whatever I want myself and I will take my small check myself to my–.

Okay, what’s up Clifton? I would listen, I would learn over time but it was a thing, a hard lesson to learn so if you’re listening right now, Thrivers, get the smell game. Knock knock that. Make a checklist what’s to be done with having that crazy smell in bathrooms. I want to ask you, Anthony, you don’t have to name the company. You don’t have to be the bad guy. But are there certain bathrooms, certain gas station bathrooms in Tulsa that you don’t want to go to?

Anthony: Yes.

Clay: How does it make you feel when you walk in in a nasty bathroom, with a stained ceiling, tiles and floor with just copious amounts of urine everywhere? What was going through your cranium?

Anthony: I personally feel dirty for even walking in that bathroom.

Clay: Yes.

Anthony: It makes me feel not respected as a customer because they don’t have clean bathrooms for their customers.

Clay: Now, years ago, I was doing a networking event in downtown Tulsa and I was asked to speak for the downtown chamber for an event of some kind. I’m down there and this lady, I felt so bad. But she had a deli, she’s trying to promote this downtown deli. This is back in 2006-2007. She’s passing out cards for free sandwich, which I thought was a good move. But a couple of things I’m just trying to help you Thrivers listening right now, and I’m not ripping her, I’m just trying to help you, you understand, but the cards that she passed out had “sandwich” spelled wrong and it had, no I’m not kidding.

She’s inviting people up to her deli and you go to the deli and she’s got a sign and it’s like a sign, like a homeless guy would have, like a piece of cardboard that she’s wrote with a marker and she wrote “back after lunch”. Now she’s serves lunch, she’s back after lunch. Now, I don’t know if that’s necessarily the move that I would necessarily, I’m not your business Yoda but I’m not thinking that Yoda would say “Hmm.. key to success, what you must do is disappear during lunch. Disappear during lunch you must. Make sure have crappy business cards and you’ll be successful. Hmm…” That’s not what would happen. The thing is I had to pull her aside as a consultant because she asked me for my advice so I had to tell her that. Thrivers, listen up, let’s change our game.

Advertisement: This show’s episode is brought to you by MOZ.com. If you have ever considered the worldwide web as a viable strategy for your business, you got to check out out this tool. Online marketing is complicated but MOZ software makes it easy. Companies like 99Designs, Outerbox and Aaron’s, they all use MOZ because it works.

Explore organic search key words for your business, research Bing and Google searches, for your targeted keywords and link up MOZ local and Google my business. Seriously this tool is crazy powerful with the clarity it brings to online marketing for your business. Even if you’re just curious, start a 30-day trial with MOZ.Com today. It’s a game changer for your business. MOZ.Com, M-O-Z.com.

[Music playing.]

Voice-over: Broadcasting from the center of the universe. Featuring optometrist-turned entrepreneur Dr. Robert Zellner and US SBA Entrepreneur Of The Year, Clay Clark. This is the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.

Clay: All right, Thrivers, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show during your drive time home. It’s business school without the BS and yes, my name is Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA, it’s small business administration entrepreneur of the year, in you ear. I am here to help you start or grow a successful business. You could be listening to a myriad of programs. There is a plethora of programming available on the airwaves but you have chosen, because you are one of the elites who, you who are one of the elites in Oklahoma and you, my Oklahomie, have tuned in to the show because you want to learn how to better your life, take your life to the next level.

You tune in each week, each day actually, from 5 to 7, Dr. Robert Zellner, the successful, the very successful entrepreneur and tycoon, and myself. He is out expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire today, actually from a different country, kind of exciting thing for him. Can’t talk about all the details right now but he is expanding his empire and so I had to look around Tulsa.

I was looking to the left and I was looking to the right and I was looking down but the when I looked up, I saw like a vision, I saw [unintelligible 00:45:08] I saw Xmasflights.biz. I saw a helicopter in the sky and I said, “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a helicopter”? Yes, it is a helicopter. Who’s in it? It’s Anthony Vendetti. Anthony, how are you, Sir?

Anthony: I am wonderful, how are you?

Clay: Man, I am pumped up. Anyone just listening who doesn’t know what you guys do over there at xmaslights.biz, what do you do? What service do you provide to the Oklahomies and the Tulsans, and to our listeners.

Anthony: We provide a range of different things. We do air spraying. We do chartered block time.

Clay: Okay, let’s break that down. Aerial spraying?

Anthony: Spraying.

Clay: What does that mean?

Anthony: In Oklahoma word, crop dusting.

Clay: Oh, crop dusting. Okay. And then you do holiday light tours.

Anthony: We do holiday light tours.

Clay: So you get people in the air, you haul people in the air. So you haul-I for a day in a helicopter. Haul-i-day, hauliday. So you’re hauling a person in the helicopter for as long as they want. Right?

Anthony: For the most part, yes.

Clay: I mean, it’s all in the book, all day they could do.

Anthony: They can absolutely do it.

Clay: But the lowest cost is $30 to get going. If you want to get in the air, 30 bucks.

Anthony: Thirty dollars will get somebody in the air.

Clay: What does it feel like, when I’m in that thing for the first time? We’re talking about having, take your customer service experience to the next level. You know, we’re talking about the five Ss. How to create a remarkable customer service experience. S number one is smells, S number two is sights, S number three is sounds. What is the sound like when you’re up in that helicopter?

Anthony: You’re going to get to experience a few different sounds. You’re going to hear a whining and a howling noise from the turbine engines.

Clay: Is it whining like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe Trump won. He is a freaking, unbeliev —” Is it whining like wee-wee? How does it sound?

Anthony: It’s just you hear a jet noise.

Clay: Is it bovv-bovv-wow-wow Is it like that?

Anthony: No.

Clay: No wow-wows?

Anthony: No wow-wows.

Clay: Okay, well, all right, I’ll try every sound effect that I know. Does it ever go eee-eee? Does it ever do that?

Anthony: No sir.

Clay: Okay. All right, Thrivers, you’re not getting those kinds of sounds in the air but seriously, you can talk up there?

Anthony: You can.

Clay: It’s not super loud.?

Anthony: It’s not super loud. It’s not perfectly quiet but you can talk to the person next to — that you’re sitting by.

Clay: Do you play romantic holiday music or do you and sing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas—“. Do you ever sing up there while?

Anthony: No.

Clay: No. Do you ever play holiday music in the cockpit?

Anthony: No, we do not.

Clay: Okay, so you’re free to converse?

Anthony: You are.

Clay: Can people talk politics up there?

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: Can they talk religion?

Anthony: Sure.

Clay: You can talk about anything up there?

Anthony: Anything and everything.

Clay: No rules. You can be up there with your favorite super left liberal friend and your super right Republican friend and you’ll just be arguing and as long as you keep the seatbelt on, you’re good?

Anthony: Yes.

Clay: Okay, now again, if somebody wants to go on a program, they want to check it out, you just go to Xmasflights.biz and for as little as $30 per person you can get up in the air.

Anthony: Yes, Sir.

Clay: You’re not messing with me?

Anthony: I’m not messing with you.

Clay: That’s less money than I spent on my old Tom Brady hat. Are you sure 30 bucks?

Anthony: $30.

Clay: That’s it, he is absolutely sure. We’re holding him accountable to it. We’re teaching you the five Ss, to create a remarkable customer service experience. S number three is sounds. Thrivers, I want you to think about the last time you went to Olive Garden. Back in the day, I remember Olive Garden. I remember, I used to take, that was in high school I could go on a date. I didn’t want to be late for my date. I got my shirt tucked in and got my baggy jeans on kind of weird combo but I got that going on. Got my shirt tucked in, got a tie that doesn’t really fit, and but I’m on a date.

What you do when you’re a young man and you want to wow a woman. You take her to Olive Garden. What you’re hoping is you’re hoping that when you get her off guard, you’re hoping that the person that you’re with doesn’t, when you’re young, man, you know, dating in high school. At least for me, without the financial resources yet. You’re hoping that she’s going to be a petite lady, she goes, “I’ll just split it with you.” You’re hoping that, because you’re hoping you don’t gett a big bill.

The Olive Garden was a neat, neat atmosphere, a neat, neat mojo, the atmosphere was kind of almost high-end restaurant. You got the nice soup and salad and the whole deal but the music. Have you thought about the music, Anthony? What kind of music you typically hear at the Olive Garden, have you thought about that?

Anthony: Yes, I have.

Clay: It’s like that Italian kind of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, kind of mojo. Your opinion, why aren’t they playing like intense hip-hop. Why aren’t you walking in and some guy beatboxing and you know pff-ppoffreof Why aren’t they doing hip hop music there? Why is it Italian and your mind?

Anthony: A, because it’s an Italian restaurant. B, they’re trying to set a mood.

Clay: For the thrivers who are listening right now because we know that the bathrooms are dirty in some gas stations there are not quick trips. Why are the bathrooms always clean at the Olive Garden? And why are there other restaurants in town that can’t figure it out? From your perspective as a customer, why is one bathroom clean and one dirty? Just as a consumer, in your mind, what is going on?

Anthony: I think to take pride in their their their business. They want to give the customer that “wow” factor when they walk into their business.

Clay: I think anyone listening to this right now, unless your head is just super lodged inside your derriere, you want to have a successful customer service experience. What you have to do is you have to take the time right now to make a checklist. You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to go. These are all the steps that need to happen for my bathroom to be certified “clean”. You have to do it. If you want a book about this topic go out there and get the Service-Profit chain.

It’s a Harvard case study, Mr Chet Cadieux personally recommended the book to me. It absolutely changed my life. I’m just telling you’ve got to have this obsession with making a great customer service experience. Howard Schultz, this is the guy who’s the CEO of Starbucks, he says this about customer service, he says “When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose anything is possible.” Do you Anthony, do you go to QuikTrip a lot?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: Do you prefer QT?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: Do you, and I won’t ask you, but there’s certain gas stations that you typically try to avoid?

Anthony: Yes.

Clay: Do you feel like the other gas stations are intentionally trying to hire every jackass in the world and employ them to work there or do you feel like QuikTrip has a monopoly on good people? Do you think QuikTrip is better at training? From your perspective as a customer why are all the quote-unquote good people, there’s many good people, I’m seeing some really good people come and go right now as well, but why does quick trip seem to have all the great people from your perspective as a customer?

Anthony: Like I said before, I think QuikTrip takes pride in their business. They take pride in their employees, they spend the time, the money, the effort to properly train their employees.

Clay: I’m going to say this as a business coach if you’re listening, thrivers, they interview, they interview and they interview. They keep interviewing and if you’re listening right now and you have a business and it’s you and Flo and Beth, and you know that Beth doesn’t care about her job and Flo is irritated at Beth and you’re the owner, that means that two thirds of your workforce sucks like a Hoover. What you’ve got to do is you’ve got to purge the land. You’ve got to have more recruits coming in. You’ve got to interview people, you’ve got to, you can’t.

What happens is a lot of business owners, I see these business owners, I meet these business owners, I’ve coached business owners on how to start and grow successful business for well over a decade. This is what I hear a lot of times in small business, here we go, “Well, the thing is I’m trying to get Chanice and Gary motivated but you see, Gary, he’s going through some things right now.

He couldn’t be here today and Chanice, well, she called in sick and Bobby, Bobby is running a little bit late today because he had a tattoo and it got infected and then what happened was with Chanice, she was going to be late tomorrow, so I work basically seven days a week running my business and that’s what I do, I work seven days a week and you can’t find good people, because all the millennials, you see, all the millennials, Anthony, everybody who’s a millennial all they do is they’re on the Spotify, they’re sharing cars, they’re going to thrift shops, they’re a bunch of idiots, you can’t find any good people, I swear that’s the problem, Anthony, you can’t find any good people.”. Have you heard that people who feel like you can’t hire good millennials?

Anthony: Absolutely.

Clay: And you know what, I’m going to tell you this, there’s a lot of morons who are in their forty’s, there’s a lot of morons in their fifty’s, it’s like the millennial have a lockdown on morons, it’s just the thing is that you if you’re a business owner right now you’ve got to decide what is the culture that you want to make. Are you going to have a level 10, Harvard calls it a “net promoter score”, look that up, “net promoter score”.

Okay, are you going to have a level 10 business that wows people, are you going to have a QuikTrip bathroom? Or are you going to have, you remember Get-n-Go, back at the day Sam, our producer couldn’t go? That thing was nasty, when it was getting gone, when it was done, when it was out of business I was excited. I literally, the day it went into bankruptcy I literally came home and I’m like “Yes, soul clap.”, I remember coming home and I’m like “Yes, yes, they’re out of business, boom.”

I can’t stand Get-n-Go, every time I’d go they’d get my change wrong, the bathrooms are like a third world experiment. It was like a refugee camp, it was nasty in that place. I’m just saying, thrivers, you can decide right now, are you going to be one of these people who struggles or you be someone who thrives? The decision is up to you. Stay tuned. Thrive Time show.

Advertisement: Right now, how are you taking credit card payments for your business? It’s never been faster or easier to begin taking credit card payments for your business than with Square. You know, the little white square that plugs into your phone’s headphone jack? It’s awesome. This payment app is great for businesses such as food trucks, beauty salons and retail shops. The users receive a small portable card reader that they can attach to a phone or other mobile device to take fast and convenient payments.

The way it works is that it subtracts 2.75% of every time a card is run and it does it automatically. So if you sell sandwich for $20 you’ll see a net gain of $19.45 in your bank account the next day. If you enter the card by hand it costs three 3.5% plus 15 cents on top of that. They encrypt everything so you know you’re secure. They make it super clear to start and even offer bonuses for sharing with friends. You can learn more at squareup.com, it’s free to download and works on all devices and operating systems. Make sure that you go visit squareup.com.

Clay: All right, thrive nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show, where we’re broadcasting from the thrive15.com world headquarters on the left coast of the Arkansas River where there is just a little bit of a water in the river here at this point, just a little bit. There’s people who have now begun to live on the river banks, there’s people who have decided to just take a permanent residency on the river banks. There’s very little water at this point, but it normally isn’t very flowing. I say normally, 10% of the year it is a flowing river until they get that low water dam built, some people are saying “What is Thrive15 and what is the Thrive15.com World Headquarters?”

Well, first off get up there on Facebook Live, go to Facebooklive right now, look us up, Thrive15, you’ll find it. There we’re broadcasting from the Thrive15.com world headquarters and there you can see people in the background, you can see the office, you can see the team. It’s a 20 thousand square foot facility built for you. If you want to start or grow a business, we’ve built this for you. We do workshops every week, we do interactive training with people, we have an online school, the world’s best business school, it’s 19 bucks a month, thousands of people are up on that and we do in person, face to face coaching with clients who need that as well and so we have the whole system here.

It is the Home Office of the nerve center for Dr. Robert Zoellner. He’s the guy who owns the Z66 auction. He owns the Doctor Z Robert Zoellners optometry, a myriad of businesses. I’m involved with Elephant in the room, Men’s grooming lounge and Epic Photography and Make your life epic PR, et cetera. What people are asking is, they’re going “Okay. If you’re talking today specifically about the five S’s in creating a remarkable customer service experience, if that’s what you’re talking about today, then tell me, how do you guys get your smells right?”

I’m going to tell you, okay, so S number one, smells. Elephant in the room, if you go to the elephant in the room we’re intentional about the smells. It smells like essential oils. You go in there and it just smells great. We have the historic barnwood we’ve reclaimed in there, we’ve got beautiful decor, we have Edison bulbs. It just smells great. It smells like man. If you’re a dude you’re going, “I’m tired of these places that are kind of, they serve men and women I want to [unintelligible 00:58:21] kind of a Harley Davidson of haircuts, that’s where you go.

It’s the elephant in the room and by the way, for all of our listeners today, if it’s your first time, if it is your first time it is always $1. Your first haircut’s always a dollar and we have three locations to serve you. One in Broken Arrow at 65th and Lynn Lane over there behind Luis. One at 91st in Yale, right there next to Ludgar’s beautiful place and we have one at 16th in Boston, in that SoBo, that South Boston area in downtown Tulsa. We have the smell game on lockdown.

Now the sights, the sights. What are the sights? What are you guys doing for your sights? What kind of things are you doing for your sights, that are different than what other people are doing? Well, if you go to Dr Robert Zoellner, if you go to visit his Ottawa auction Z66 Ottawa auction, go to Z66aa.com you’ll check it out. My main man serves lunch and Anthony, we have Anthony on the show, this guy works with a great company in Tulsa today it’s called Production Services, for anyone who’s just tuning in here, Anthony, can you kind of explain what Production Services does, my friend?

Anthony: Yes, we’re a helicopter company, we do a handful, a mixture of things. We do Christmas light tours, we do aerial spraying, known as crop dusting.

Clay: You do all of it.

Anthony: We do[unintelligible 00:59:43] .

Clay: If you have a need for helicopter, what about photo shoots, somebody use your helicopter they go, they fly up there with you and they take photos?

Anthony: Absolutely. That’s part of that charter service or block time that you can buy.

Clay: For as little as 30 bucks a person you’re doing holiday light tours?

Anthony: We are.

Clay: Sick. That is sick like swine flu Thrivers. I want to quarantine myself after that. That was beautiful but I want to ask you this Anthony, why do you feel like a doctor Zoellner at his auto auction? Why do we at Zee 66, auto auction, why do we serve lunch to all the customers every single Friday? In your own opinion, we’re selling to used car dealers. Why do we serve them lunch?

Anthony: I think of it as an appreciation for those customers. You’re all about your customers.

Clay: Do we, you as a consumer. Let’s say you are a used car dealer and you come in there, are you expecting lunch? Do you feel like I should serve lunch or is it a bonus in your mind?

Anthony: That would be a bonus.

Clay: If you look at his sights, it’s in his business. You’re going to see the food. The smells, when you walk in and it smells like barbecue, as a dude do you love barbecue?

Anthony: I love barbecue.

Clay: Oh, men did you like– one of our sponsors is Oklahoma Joes. Have you had baked beans?

Anthony: I have not.

Clay: I’m not asking you to turn your American card. I’m just saying it could be called into question with the new administration. My understanding is that Mr. Trump, president elect Trump, if you don’t have an Oklahoma Joes receipt from a recent bean purchase you might be deported.

Anthony: I will change that up this week.

Clay: I’m telling you, you’ve got to check it out, it’s so good. Seriously, tell them you heard about that on the Thrive Time Show. You go in there, and when you walk in to the business and it smells like barbecue and baked beans. In it you see the spread of the food, and then you see a very clean facility, you see beautiful paint job everywhere, just looks sharp and clean. Does that make you more likely in your mind to want to come back and buy cars every week at the auto auction or less likely? From you, what do you think?

Anthony: Absolutely. When I see somebody that has put the time, energy, and effort into their business, it makes me feel comfortable and welcomed into that business. I’m going to be a return customer.

Clay:If you think of Crispy cream Thrivers, crispy Cream. My Kids love going to crispy cream. Do you ever go to Crispy Cream?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: I try to stay from there but I love going there. I try to stay away but I love going. When you go there, you either have to have that conveyor belt where they are making donuts. Have you ever watched that thing?

Anthony: All the time.

Clay: I think that that was a device made by Satan. It’s a calorie producing device by Satan but you go in there and it just every minute, it’s like another, every couple of seconds it’s another few donuts are done. Five more donuts are done. It’s like a waterfall of like glazed doughnut frosting stuff. The whole thing is just, but it smells great and you want to eat when you walk in. You don’t instantly get hungry?

Anthony: I do.

Clay: Check it out. One of our mentor at Thrive 15.com our online school, Thrive15.com, One of our mentors, his name is Lee Cockerell. If you look him up, L-E-E C-O-C-K-E-R-E-L-L. He’s the former executive vice president of Walt Disney world. By the way, he teaches all of our management courses. He managed 40,000 people at Walt Disney World. There’s 40,000 employees. There are 1 Million customers they serve a week.

Look it up. According to Forbes, there’s 52million people a year that are coming to these tours destination and they always keep the bathroom clean. They always keep the bathroom clean. The question is, is he’s like a rooster who’s running around just scaring people into doing their jobs or how does he do it? One, he has a checklist for the smells. It intentionally smells in a certain way in the Disney Campus. When you walk by, if you’ve noticed you’re always hungry at Disney World. Have you ever been to Disney World?

Anthony: I have.

Clay: Are you a perpetually hungry. It’s just like what’s that? It’s just like constantly hungry. It just smells good. then the sights, like individuals, everything is tidy. There’s signage everywhere. It makes sense. The landscaping is clean. It’s precise. It’s just detailed. It’s cleanly, it’s nice. Third, it’s the sounds. The sounds are a big part of it. The music creates the ambiance.

If you’re listening right now and you’re like in the row, that Suchi restaurant, this is kind the sound. [unintelligible 01:03:52] It’s up tempo. You’re just trying to have your Suchi but you kind of get sucked into the vibe and another egg roll, another egg roll. Some Suchi and another egg roll, some Suchi roll, and some Suchi and it’s an atmosphere that is conducive to eating in a restaurant . If you’re listening right now, what are your sounds in your business? Again, for any one just listening. If you go up in a helicopter can you hear well? What does it sound like up there?

Anthony: Yes, you can hear just fine. You’re going to hear wind noise through the chopping through the wind but it’s quiet enough that you can talk to your children, your girlfriend, your spouse .

Clay: Can you propose up there?

Anthony: We’ve had many proposals up there.

Clay: It’s quiet enough to propose Thrivers. It’ quiet enough to propose Thrivers. This is just. You want to go visit xmasflights.org. When we come back, we’re going to be talking about our next super move which is scripting the interactions. Scripting interaction coming up next.

Advertisement: Are you looking to start or grow business? Then you are definitely going to have problems and questions along the way. You will find the answers to all your business questions at Thrive15.com. Thrive15.com provides online video based business training taught by millionaires and successful entrepreneurs for less than a dollar per day. That’s less than your coffee daily budget.

It’s not classroom, it’s not get rich seminars. These are training broken in to 15 minute segments that give you the answers that you need. It’s business school without the BS. I dare you to try the 7 day free trial. Simply go to Thrive15.com and the first 100 people will also receive a free downloadable for how to optimize your website. Stop wasting your time and money, go to thrive15.com and get your business questions answered now.

Clay: All right Thrivers. Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show. We are broadcasting from the box that rocks within a beautiful and friendly confines of Thrive15.com world headquarters and yes we are continuing to give you that business school without the BS. My name is Clay Clark and the former United States Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the year. I’m a partner, founder, investor with elephant in the room, men’s grooming lounge, epic photography, they make your life epic. Consulting. It’s a massive PR and marketing firm and I’m the founder of Thrive15.com, the wold’s best business school. That’s why I have the financial freedom, and time freedom needed to do a radio show such as this. My whole goal is to help you start and grow a successful business.

Normally, I have a co-host on the show named Dr. Robert Zoellner and this guy is an Optometrist who really is an entrepreneur. He went from being an Optometrist to an entrepreneur. He went from being the Optometrist guy to a guy who owns an auto auction. He has also invested in a bank. He owns a thoroughbred horse breeding facility et cetera. He owns ADC Medical, he owns a sleep center. I’d go on and on.

The thing is, the guy has the midas touch. He knows how to start and grow a successful business. He’s normally with me but today he’s out of the country. He’s expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire. And so we looked to the left and we looked to the right and we looked down and we’re looking for a great person to fill in on the show and we found him. We found Anthony Vindetti with Production Services, a helicopter company. Anthony you’re doing holiday light tours. Is that right?

Anthony: That is correct.

Clay: Talk to us. We always like to encourage people to check out our sponsors and you guys are a great team here. If someone is texting right now, for $30 we can get up in the air and do a helicopter tour. Why would they want to do a tour? Why would someone invest 30 dollars and go up in the air and do a helicopter tour? Why would they want to do it?

Anthony: Because it is spectacular view to see Christmas lights from the air. It’s like nothing that you’ve ever seen before. It’s not like that driving around with mom and dad back in the day looking at Christmas lights. This is the new way to do it.

Clay: It’s not like when you’re in the car back in the day and your dad’s going, “Look over there, it looks like it’s a light. No that’s not a light over there, it’s like someone just left their garage open.” Okay. This is a real deal. You are flying above Reimer?

Anthony: We are flying above Reimer.

Clay: This is awesome. For someone listening again, they’re going, “When you say it’s $30, is it really $30 or is it like $30 like a third of the down payment? What does it really cost?”

Anthony: It is really $30. You go to the website or you come by and see us at 101 memorial, you pay the $30, you get on the helicopter, you go for a ride.

Clay: It’s so beautiful. That’s what makes you proud to be an American right there. It’s just beautiful. You don’t get to do a helicopter light tour in a communist country. You’re not going to do it in North Korea, you got to it in America. Today we’re talking about how to create a remarkable customer service experience. We’re specifically focusing on 5s.

S one, make a checklist for the smells. Make sue your office has an intentional smell. Make a checklist? I just want my team to remember. That’s dumb.

Step number two, sights. You need. I got to make a checklist for sights? What do you mean my sights? Your decor. One of the clients we work with is called Barbee cookies. Ever heard of Barbee cookies. You’ve been there?

Anthony: No.

Clay: Brother, you’ve got to get a Barbee cookies. Barbee cookies, it’s over there at 85 and memorial on the east side of the road. Do you have any kids?

Anthony: I do, I have three daughters.

Clay: Okay. You go in there and whatever the bill is I’ll reimburse you. By the way, the first time you go in it’s free for three first cookie. If you get like 27 cookies, maybe we’ll have to talk but I’ll reimburse you for anything you buy after the first cookie. The first cookie seriously it’s free for your first cookie. Just tell me it’s first time you’ve been in there they give you free cookie and by the way for all the listeners if you’re listening right now for all the listeners of the Thrive Time Show, your first cookie is a dollar. These are game-changing gourmet cookies but you go in there and they have a decor and they’ve invested the time to make the ambiance. Anthony, I want to ask you, do you ever go to Starbucks?

Anthony: All the time.

Clay: Can you describe for people who may be far from another planet, who haven’t been into a Starbucks recently. What is that decor look like? What about it appeals to you? Why go to Starbucks and not just go to a place where you can get a Styrofoam cup of coffee and maybe it’s a fourth of the price and it’s kind of nasty décor? Why invest in Starbucks?

Anthony: When I walk in it’s the smell that hits me, is just out of this world amazing.

Clay: Check it out, when you read the book Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz, he explains you’re not paying for the coffee, you’re paying for the atmosphere. Check it out. Remember when coffee, you’re old enough to remember. Remember when coffee, every coffee shop it was like a Styrofoam cup they’re like 99 cents?

Anthony: Yes I do.

Clay: Now it’s like $4 for a frappuccino latte with the hold the I want a soy Frappuccino with the little whip, with its like people like a science project now in the order but they’ve got people go into Starbucks they have these specialized drinks. It’s just a phenomenal experience. The 5s one is the smells, two it’s the site’s, three it’s the sounds, four it’s the scripting and the interaction. You’ve got to make a script. Thrivers, look at me you’ve got to write a script is one thing I learned from Lee Cockerel one of my mentors back of the day. This guy used to manage Walt Disney world resort. He said listen, “You’ve got to be your own Shakespeare,” and I’m going, “For thou what?” He goes no seriously you have to be your own Shakespeare. I say so thou is the Cockerel what, no he says listen seriously, I want you to pay attention.

I want you to script out when someone walks through the door what do you say? When you answer the phone what do you say? When they walk in what were the experience? What is the one where the walls look like? Where’s the smell look like? What is the atmosphere look like? What is the experience of the customer? We took all of that knowledge, all that thought, all that mojo, all that Disney swag and we brought in to be brought into our businesses.

When you go into the Thrive 15.com world headquarters on the left coast of the Arkansas River, you will come in you’ll experience an atmosphere that’s intentional. The temperature, it’s always 60 degrees in here always 60. Notice that I’m saying always 60 why? Because people are more awake. It always smells a certain way it looks a certain way the overhead music is certain way. When we come back Thrivers were going to teach you more about making amazing customer service experience.

Advertisement: This show is brought to you by Adobe Creative Cloud. If you’re a photographer, graphic designer, video editor, podcaster, business owner or just creative genius this is for you. All of your creative tools all in one place. Creative Cloud includes the entire collection of creative Apps for desktop from favorites like adobe Photoshop and illustrator to new tools like Adobe experience design. Check this out, you can create podcasts seamlessly in high quality with adobe audition.

Did you miss the exposure or looking to create a stunning and beautiful photo? You got to download lightroom okay the latest release of adobe creative cloud is here with incredible new features in adobe Photoshop illustrator and all of your favorite Apps plus millions of adobe stock assets and new premium images are built right in so you can turn your brightest ideas into your best work, fast. Make sure that you check out adobe creative cloud at adobe.com once again adobe creative cloud at adobe.com

Clay: All right thrive nation welcome back to your inspiration station. My name is Clay Clark and I am a business coach. I’m the former SBA entrepreneur of the year and I’m here joining you today talking about how to take your customer service experience to the next level. We always have special local Oklahomies, local Tulsa guests. Today, we brought on Anthony Vendetti. He works with production services which they do holiday light tours.

Okay, you get up in a helicopter. A helicopter, a helicopter you mean like in the air? Yes in the air, a helicopter that gives you two tours all over Tulsa. Anthony, for anyone one just listening, for anyone just tuning in, why does everybody owe it to themselves this holiday season to take a holiday light tour? Why do they need to do it?

Anthony: Again, it’s one of those spectacular moments you can’t get anywhere else. It’s great for first dates, long dates, husband or wife proposing. It’s just a spectacular event to do with a loved one.

Clay: I’m going to pile on, it’s affordable. 30 bucks and you’re up in the air man.

Anthony: $30 will get you up in the air.

Clay: Three zero and you could be a hero. You see what I did right there? Three zero and you can be a hero up in the air like you just don’t care get up there go to Xmasflights.biz. Three zero you could be a hero I’m telling you. Now here’s the deal thrivers. We’re talking about how to make a remarkable customer service experience in the 5’s. S one, make a smell. An intentional smell a smell checklist think about the smell of your office, think about the smell you’re looking for. Make a checklist how should your office smell?

This is one question I’d ask you I’d ask you right now if you’re listening right now in your am an entrepreneur ask yourself this question, what the smell is going on in my business? If you don’t have an intentional smell not good. You got to make sure you have an intentional smell. Pointer number two, sights. Make sure the visuals are on point. Have nice, framed images or have an intentional wall, have barn wood, have some kind of decor that makes sense. Don’t just– have you been to the DMV before Anthony?

Anthony: I have.

Clay: I’m sure there’s a one that you go to that has great decor and one that’s awesome that I don’t about, but the one that I’ve been to a lot it seems like it’s from like a science experiment from the 70’s with the experiment was what we’ll do is we’re not going to do any updates since 1970. We’re going to put in some really crappy tiles, some nasty wallpaper, we’re going to put in various frames that don’t go together and we’re going to have this nasty bathroom and then we’re going to charge people a fee to get the license. We’ll see what happens. Have you ever felt like you’re part of a weird science experiment you going to a DMV?

Anthony: Yes.

Clay: Do you have one you like? Do you have you found that you’re going that one is hot they really get it right?

Anthony: Yes, actually I have.

Clay: What’s the one you like?

Anthony: The one right here in Jinks.

Clay: Really, so we’re at where’s that located roughly?

Anthony: Right on Main Street right next door to McDonalds.

Clay: This just in tip of the day angels from heaven I’m saying, “You go to the one in Jinks that’s a nice DMV.”

Anthony: It is.

Clay: You’re given free tips about that kind of thing. Now moving on to move number three here okay get the site’s get the sounds you got to get the sound, the ambiance the overhead music get it right. Get the overhead music that is appropriate for your audience. Point number four, scripting. Okay, this is a notable quotable from Walt Disney he says, “If you can dream it, you can do it. But the way to get started check it out, but the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”. You mean I have to quit talking and start doing? Yes. You mean now? After the show but now. Yes you want to make sure you quit talking you want to get doing.

He says, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them”. You’ve got a good script out when someone answers the phone how’s it going to sound? When they greet someone at the door, how’s it going to happen? What’s the atmosphere? What’s the temperature of the building? What’s the décor? What’s the atmosphere? What’s the music? What’s the smell? What’s the culture? What’s the deal?

Okay, you got to think about all that put on checklist and make sure it happens every day. By the way, you’re going to have to fight with your team sometimes to make it happen my team is always like, “Can we make it 75 in here?” No, why? Because we have a consulting company and we want to create an upbeat atmosphere it’s always going to be 60. “But I’m cold.” Get a blanket. You ever been here and seen people with blankets?

Anthony: I don’t think I have.

Clay: There’s always somebody with blankets. Using the blankets. Okay, we have our show producer seeing people with blankets. Always running around there with the blankets. The thing is, if you go to a movie theater, why is it so cold? They’re trying to keep you awake. You got to think about that Thrivers. Now the final S is signage. If you go in to to Whole Foods they’ve got signage.

You can’t miss the special on Angus or the avocados they get that Whole Foods is probably the best signage I’ve ever seen. They’ve got great signage everywhere. It’s awesome. Second best signage I’ve ever seen, Starbucks. Those guys they have signage everywhere, they have really beautiful decor and presentation, it makes you want to have the beverage.

Sometimes I see a sign, and I’m like I’m trying to lose a lot of weight right now just try to eat healthy and then I see my the frappuccino with the chocolate drizzle that seems like low calorie right and then so next thing you’re ordering stuff you didn’t even want because the design is just so good.

Third is Jack Cooper Jack Cooper they make you want that Mercedes baby you go in there they got the signage and you’re just going, “Man if I drove home with that car I would feel like a million bucks.” It’s the signage. I want to ask you Anthony, if somebody’s listening right now and they want to take a light tour. They’re convinced, “Okay, I’m going to do it.” Where do they physically drive out to? How do they get out to you ?

Anthony: We are located at 101 and Memorial, just East of the [unintelligible 00:09:59] right there.

Clay: What is the name of your website? How can they learn more about your holiday light tours?

Anthony: It is www.xmasflights.biz.

Clay: I’ve got some logistical questions. I basically want to get into a few logistical questions, right? So here we go. Question number one, what time can I fly? Can I fly in the morning? Do I have to fly at night? What time can I fly? Boom.

Anthony: All of our Christmas light tours start at six o’clock in the evening, and usually run through ten o’clock at night, seven days a week.

Clay: Lets say that I- Okay, I’ll choose one of those seven days, I’ll play your game, I’ll do it. How many people can fit in to the helicopter?

Anthony: The jet ranger that we use, it will hold four people, plus the pilot.

Clay: What if I’m bringing my friend, and my friend, who weighs about five [unintelligible 01:20:48]. Then I’ve got a bunch of linebackers that I know from college. We’re all going to get in there together? How many people can we get get in that are, say larger people?

Anthony: Larger people, we’d just have to do that on an as is basis. Sometimes we have to sit them opposite of the pilot for the weight imbalance part of it, but that kind of thing. We also do have, what we call a long ranger and it will hold five people, excuse me six people plus the pilot.

Clay: What if I’m a father and I’ve got my wife, I’ve got my five kids so there’s seven of us. Can we fit in anything?

Anthony: Depending on how big some of your kids are.

Clay: We have some small kids. Very small kids. I don’t feed them, I save money.

Anthony: If you have a child that’s under a year old, or maybe a year old but smaller, yes it’s six people plus the pilot, but there are little kids that we can sit on your lap and still seat belt them in.

Clay: Final question I have logistically. Some motorcycles, they have a side car. It’s a side car off to the side of the motorcycle. You can ride in the car next to the motorcycle. Do you ever have a side car where you could ride underneath the helicopter like in a hammock, and just kind of swing like in one of those action movies? Can I do that?

Anthony: We don’t necessarily, but I’m sure we could work something out.

Clay: Okay, okay but thrivers listen if you want to check it out, what website can they go to to learn more?

Anthony: That is www.xmasflights.biz.

Clay: Now thrivers when you try to implement these systems, you try to get that signage up, it can be frustrating, because let me tell you what, everybody has their own marching to the beat of their own drum. Team mates don’t want to cooperate, they don’t want to do stuff, it can be frustrating okay? But you’ve got to get that signage right. You’ve got to make it so people can see you. They have to be able to find you. What kind of signage can they find or what kind of lighting can they find? If they’re looking for you and it’s dark, what kind of signage should I be looking for?

Anthony: You’re going to see all kinds of signs, up and down Memorial, down Sheridan 101st, there are yellow signs and they say Christmas Light Tours with our webpage and our telephone number. You can also look for the big bright spotlight that you’re going to see at 101st Memorial along with the helicopters coming in and out. It creates a lot of traffic.

Clay: Now thrivers I’m telling you what, if you’re just now tuning in, you want to check out xmasflights.biz. We got an unbelievable deal right now. He does holiday light tours in a helicopter and it’s $30. $30 can get you up into the air like you just don’t care. The big 3 Oh makes you a holiday hero. I’m just telling you, boom. Now thrivers, we’ve got a notable quotable I want to give to you.

This comes to you from Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines. He says, “You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you because you have a good idea”. That was big. Because the world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of the people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it. See that’s advertising, that’s marketing, that’s online ads. Why do we need to do online ads? Because you’ve got to get in front of the planet. This is Herb Kelleher, the founder and CEO of Southwest Airlines talking to us.

Now thrivers, if you want to take your business to the next level, I’m tired of my business operating in the financial toilet. I want to grow to the next level. I want to be successful. I’m going to give you three action items right now. One, go to thrive15.com. What was that? Go to thrive15.com. It is the world’s best business school. It’s 19 bucks a month but check it out. If you can’t afford 19, you can choose your own price. What? You can choose your own price.

Two, we have thrive15.com workshops. They are the world’s best business workshops. Every week, 15 hours, two days and you know what? We have scholarships. They are affordable for everybody. Go to thrivetimeshow.com and listen- Go there. Check it out, listen about it, watch videos about it, sign up for it. Its the Thrive 15 workshops. They’re interactive, they’re 15 hours. They’re awesome. The third move, you can go to thrivetimeshow.com and listen to this podcast and any other radio show broadcast over and over again or share it with a friend. Three, two, one. Boom.

[01:24:59] [END OF AUDIO]