Thursday, April 21, 2011

Disney Way “Magical Moments” Account of WDW’s Customer Service

 

It’s a Wonderful World
The micro details of customer service are what separate the winners from the losers in business

April, 2011

Kathleen Martin's picture

by Kathleen Martin

The first day she wore a Cinderella ball gown everywhere. But in the days that followed, disguised in sneakers and a T-shirt, people could still tell, just by looking at her, that she was a princess. “How are you this morning, Princess?” they’d say, bending down low in front of her.

My four-year-old daughter couldn’t have been happier. She beamed at the wait staff, at the people collecting garbage from the streets, at the shopkeepers. We were at Walt Disney World Resort, where it seemed everyone was transformed: into royalty, into Jedi Knights, into parents with unlimited patience. The Disney employees—people for whom the incredible magical production is, well, work—were also most curiously happy.

The entire week we spent there was populated with smiling helpful employees called “cast members” who raced to anticipate the needs of guests without exception. “The food looks good, but the desserts…I really don’t like carrot cake,” admitted my husband, when a staff member at a quick-serve restaurant saw him looking at the menu options. “They serve chocolate cake at the restaurant a little way down the street,” the waiter responded. “Why don’t you order your food, and I’ll run down there and get you some.”

Despite our protests that it wasn’t necessary, he did exactly that. Within 10 minutes, he had arrived back at our table, cake in hand. He had wanted our lunch to be perfect, and thanks to him, it was.

I needed to find out what was in the employee Kool-Aid.

“I really like my job,” said more than one person. Others said, “They spend a lot of time training us on the traditions of Disney; they let us make decisions to make things better for our guests; they put up our picture if they catch us doing something extra to help a guest, particularly if it’s a child; they try and make it fun for us.”

Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, the authors of The Disney Way, have built their careers on studying Disney. “Walt Disney insisted that every employee is the company in the mind of the customer,” they write. “Because Disney insisted that customers be treated like guests, great customer service has become a standard feature of the total package the Disney Company offers. And wrapped up in that package is a gift of creativity—in product, service, and process—that makes even jaded adults smile with childlike delight.”

Posted in several places around Disney World parks is this quote from Walt: “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse.” In other words, what he created came not from something cataclysmic or untouchable but from something common, coupled with a well-exercised imagination and a fine attention to detail.

In his best-seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a simple method, called the Broken Windows hypothesis, which New York’s Police Department used to fight violent crime. They relentlessly addressed small problems, such as broken windows and graffiti and people trying to skip out on subway fares. Crime rates dropped. They discovered that minor, seemingly insignificant quality- of-life crimes were tipping points for violent crime.

Perhaps something similar applies in business. If we relentlessly address the details—the seemingly insignificant aspects of customer service, for example— I think our businesses will become more successful. It’s the simple things that astounded me at Disney World, which are missing from so many of my daily customer-service experiences.

If cast members were talking to one another when I approached them, they stopped instantly and turned their attention to me. Every time. Although thousands of people cycled through restaurants I visited, I rarely saw garbage on the floor or an empty table that wasn’t quickly being cleaned.

One night, when we waited briefly in line at a restaurant, a cast member came over and sat down next to my children. She asked them about their day and drew them pictures of Mickey Mouse on napkins. I discovered later that her shift had already ended, and she had stayed those few extra minutes to make them feel important.

The experience was unforgettable, and it’s not rocket science. It’s possible for any company. As Walt would say—it’s just a dream away.

Kathleen Martin is a freelance journalist based in Halifax. She can be reached at masthead@ns.sympatico.ca

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