[Music] hi Shannon Waller here and welcome to the inside strategic coach podcast with Dan Sullivan Dan today we're going to talk about how to create a first class experience and this has always impressed me about you since when we first met in 1991 this was always a value that you had you loved being in a first class experience you loved creating that for our clients and I have to tell you as from a team member standpoint it's pretty phenomenal to be a part of that but I want to talk today about what is the first class experience and how can other people gain this mindset or this value and and why it's so important so let's start off by talking about first of all what is a first class experience for you how do you define it well I think everybody Shannon has the experience of certainly in their personal life of going to a terrific restaurant or staying at a terrific hotel or anything in the what I would call The Experience economy where where you you go you're entertained you know a first class theatrical performance it could be a first class Outdoor Experience and what makes it first class is that you feel like the organization around the experience in other words whoever is in charge of putting it on has given special thought about how you are actually going to feel as you're going through the experience and when you have that sense that someone has really given enormous amount of thought to the experience and made sure it was really out of the ordinary very special very ordinary so that you would remember it later in your life and it seems to me that we all have those experiences but ever since I was young and I didn't grow up in those circumstances so the home that I grew up in I didn't think there was any real thought to that and that would be true of any of our relatives I just didn't notice anything that was really really special I had a remarkable experience when I was I'm just trying to think here I think I might have been about 12 or 13 years old I went to Cleveland so I grew up about 60 miles from Cleveland so this was the early probably around 1954 so I would have been 10 years old shows you the difference in time because I went with my mother and my sister so we drove in and when we got there we parked right at the what is called Public Square in Cleveland and there's at one time the building that stands on Public Square is called The Terminal Tower and for the longest time it was the highest skyscraper west of New York in the United States 4050 stories so you parked underneath and you came up and you came up through a hotel what happened to me when we came up through that hotel and it's the first time I had been in that hotel I was just blown away by the atmosphere and the environment of the hotel and this was still railroad days so the Terminal Tower was Cleveland's equivalent of Grand Central Station and then on the Public Square were the big department stores and that's where my sister and my mother were going and I made a deal with them uh when we got to the hotel level and I said I will not leave this room so it was the lobby of the hotel I just want to sit here while you go shopping and I'll be right here and you know I was a trustworthy young boy so I had some expense money and I went and I popped myself in a chair and I just watched what went on in this hotel and it was a grand hotel I mean it still exists not as Grand as it was 60 years ago but it's still quite a hotel right on the Public Square which has all been fixed up now the Public Square has gone through a real renovation in Cleveland and I just sat there for about 2 hours 3 hours and I ordered a sandwich and I ordered lunch and all the staff were in uniform and you know it was very clear to me that this was a wealthier class of customer than I had ever been used to and I just sat there and it sort of was like I connected with something that I wanted at the center of my life was very funny because I gave a speech in Cleveland about 15 years ago and Katherine Nur who's on our team she went with me so we didn't stay at that hotel but I took her to the hotel and I actually took her to where I was sitting it was a different chair a different sofa than 60 years ago and I told her the story and she could really see it she could really pick up why I had connected with this Grand Hotel I knew that defines something in the center of my life so much much later when we got to the point where we could start a company I said you know the number one rule is everything we do in strategic coach as far as the experience that starting with our team the experience they have of working at strategic coach and then the actual experience that our entrepreneurial clients have when they come to the workshops everything's going to be first class in other words we're going to design the experience that everyone has at strategic coach from how they feel treated from the first Contact to the end of the experience and continually so you know my life today when I travel I travel first class when I stay at hotels I stay at First Class hotels and I really investigate where the first class experiences are anywhere that I go so that's a la story but I think it's necessary for people to know that I've been at this forever and it sounds like you intentionally put yourself into other first class experiences to pick up oh here's a neat new idea over here or I think about some of the things that you've put in place around our particular building in Toronto everything from monogrammed napkins that people dry their hands on the flowers that are in every restroom even the pictures that are in the Stalls and you know the flowers in the front desk area it's designed to be a very warm welcoming friendly it's not super formal but it really is a first class experience if you're treated graciously Dan give the example of you at one point when clients due to traffic or whatever life circumstances showed up at the workshop late you were very clear with the team how you wanted them taken care of can you describe that yeah well first of all being late is stressful so I know that when they've come late that they're kind of stressed out in some cases they are kind of beating themselves up you know because they may have been late through their own lack of planning or whatever and then the other thing is they feel a little bit guilty coming in late so the first thing I wanted is that when if someone comes to the workshop late you give them maximum welcome and you take care of them you make sure they have coffee if the breakfast is out you make sure they have breakfast and then you give them personal instruction about where we are with the workshop and you just make them feel welcome and get them settled and there's no message coming from us that anything's wrong you know everything's right they're here and we want them to get integrated and rate into the thick of things as soon as they can but you know get relaxed first and get settled for first and it's the way I would want to be treated so to a certain extent first class is simply being very very aware of what it feels like to be treated extraordinarily well and taking note of that and then pass it on that if you feel great about this a first class experience other people are going to feel great about it too and I notice the real difference between any kind of business Enterprise that has a first class experience and others try to appear that they're giving a first class experience and one of the things I notice is that if you're giving a first class experience you don't really point it out I mean you're either giving a first class experience or you're not and people will notice that but there's a lot of establishments that will for example publish their standards and say these are our standards and I say well if you have to write down this standards so that people are aware that you have standards you probably don't have any standards you know and I can't stand it when you go into a restaurant and you know our code of ethics or our standards of hospitality I mean you shouldn't have to say that and I remember one of my role models way back in the 7s and 80s was the Four Seasons hotel which is a worldwide luxury brand now but they started in Toronto actually actually it's a homegrown Toronto chain and they were one of the first hotels in the world that had the telephone service that when you went to your room and you picked up the phone they would automatically know who it was they never said anything about that they had this phone system you know but you picked up the phone they said yes Mr suiban and you were immediately identified but you could go to any other chain hotel and they say we we have this brand new telephone system that's and I said you know if you have to say it you're not first class first class is just giving the experience without the commentary that's brilliant yeah so in terms of entrepreneurial companies why is it so important to focus on being first class what's the differentiation for you that you found you've talked about this a lot with gar clientele over the years why is this so relevant to entrepreneurs it's so personal for me it's where where I want to work you know I mean to a certain extent I'm just sharing you know with the team at strategic coach and also all of our entrepreneurs that this is basically how I like to spend every day I like to get up and everything is great you know where I live is great what the environment is where Babs and I live Toronto and Chicago it's a pleasure to get up in the morning and walk around our house you know we have as you know really great landscaping and we have a lot of support team members who are in our personal life housekeepers and groundskeepers and everything else but these simply reflect the environment that I like to live in and I would say at the office you know I have a cafe instead of an office in Chicago there's Bistro instead of an office because I don't really like offices I like being in a place where people are having snacks where they're having coffee where they're conversing so to a certain extent I'm not trying to make any message out of this other than this is who I am this is what my relationship with Babs is it's first class and we just want to wherever we can expand first class environment and first class treatment we want to expand it into everything so we're always finding new ways to actually do this you know but there is a point about it from a business standpoint if we're turning it into a lesson we charge top dollar for Coach compared to the marketplace we charge top dollar and I always say to the entrepreneurs if you want to charge top dollar don't compare yourself I never compare a strategic coach with any other coaching program I compare a strategic coach with other experiences where entrepreneurs write a check as big as the check that they're writing us and that would be a top notcho Hotel it would be a topnotch restaurant it would be anywhere any kind of store that they go to any kind of experience they go to and I said is the experience that you're having writing our check equal or better than it is when you write this size check to any other business establishment and I said that's what our clients are comparing us to they're not comparing us to other coaching programs I don't even know how other coaching programs actually operate because I've never seen them as competition my competition is people's memory of writing a check as big as they write to strategic coach and is the experience that comes with that check equal or better than all the other experiences they've had oh I love that standpoint Dan and a couple of other benefits I think I want to point out to that is that you attract first class people and that's both in of clientele and the team and you keep First Class People when people can operate at a really high level and when they can be rewarded for being generous and being gracious and being kind and have that be part of the experience that you're creating for people it's phenomenal to be part of that you're not nickel undyed the backstage of strategic coach is beautiful we've been making some improvements front and backstage which is always fun so it actually I think brings out the very best in people and since we're often talking about differentiation I think it's another way to differentiate yourself one point you've made in the past is that or ations that you dislike the most is where their backstage very disconnected from their front stage do you want to talk a little bit more about that well I think that the terms front stage backstage really brains the aspect of show business or theater into the discussion here and when I go to a theater to see a great play I want everything in the theater to match the performance that's actually on stage so it's clean it's everything is kept up all the staff are first class staff and there's just a consistency from top to bottom that the way things are handled backstage are of equal quality to the way that things are being presented front stage and if I get any sense that that's not true the front stage experience is ruined for example where the front stage people are going through the motions of treating you nicely but you have a sense that they themselves are not treated nicely backstage then I remember going to a famous restaurant which was renowned for its food and renowned for its service and they offered the possibility of being in the kitchen where the cooks were I've done that a couple times but I don't actually like the experience because the head chef the person who is famous spent most of the evening shouting had his cooks and shouting at the staff that things weren't good enough and never once during the 3 hours that we were in the kitchen did he ever come over and welcome us and it put me off that restaurant for the rest of my life I never went back to that restaurant and I said there's something phony here because he's presenting something and making you want to believe something about his front stage but the way he treats people backstage you know the general environment backstage and including not even welcoming the guests who were sitting I mean don't serve dinner in your kitchen if you're not going to make people feel special so first class is easier to remember because then if it's consistent from front stage to Backstage and it's consistent from bottom to top of people's experience then there's only one thing to concentrate on just making it the best and you're seeing things from other people's point of view that's really the key to all entrepreneurial success is just to see every part of the experience that people have with you from their point of view it's great because the next question I was going to ask you was how can people take action on this and I think that's one of the things they can do is literally walk in the front door as though you're a client in your business and experience it from their standpoint phone in you know and see how the phones are answered see what the email response is sign up for your own email system and your own marketing and see how it feels to be on the receiving end CU I think that's something and then the other thing you said Dan which I thought was really powerful was to build it backwards so identify the first class experience you want your clientele to have and then engineer everything from that standpoint and it's so easy because I know all of us have well I call it curse of knowledge here's a chip and Dan Heath term but we get so caught up in what we're used to in our day-to-day that we totally forget how other people are experiencing it would you add to that yeah you know one of my favorite role models in relationship to this is Steve Jobs the mission statement if that's what they call it for Apple dating from when Steve Jobs was in control is that we make beautiful technology that people love using and it's very very interesting I read an article back when Steve Jobs had come back because he was essentially fired at one time from Apple and then he went out and he brought back a tremendous number of insights and ideas that took Apple to being one of the most valuable companies in the world but one of the things they described that when they designed a new product they actually started with the box that the product was going to come in and he spent a lot of time and you know his team would say well we don't even know what the product is and he says let's start with the customer going home and actually opening the box then he worked backwards from the box back to the actual product and he defined each step of the process and what the experience of the client was and I remember when I bought my first iPod you know the iPod you had it for a couple years and then it was supplanted by another iPod and then eventually it was completely replaced by the iPhone but for the longest time I had my original iPod box because it was such a beautiful box and I would throw clothing away I would you know I would go through and throw 80% of what I had at the time that I purchased the iPod but I I just can't throw this out it's such a beautiful box and to me that's first class that his thoughtfulness there was a statement that when he designed the original iPod he says now let's see what it looks like on the inside and his chief designer and engineer said well they can't see the inside it's sealed shut and he says yeah but we'll know what's on the inside and so let's make the inside as beautiful as the outside and that shows the consciousness of Backstage front stage consistency and it's simple I mean if you just adopt the principle of design things the way that you want people to experience them then you'll have first class in every part of your experience especially if for some reason your clients do come backstage they have the same sense of first class when they come backstage as they do in the front stage experience that's designed for them that's perfect Dan thank you so much and it's fun for me to kind of dive a little bit more deeply into the whole first class experience and I'm laughing because I literally got two three weeks ago some brand new Apple products which I'm using daily and the boxes are still on my kitchen counter yeah I cannot bring myself to throw them away so that's totally true and again the consciousness of when an experience is designed for my enjoyment and it just goes through every single step we want more of that and we're willing to pay more for that and we want to engage more with those types of organizations so I think first class is both something to Aspire to but also very practical in terms of a business sense thank you yes thank you