A little Mickey Mouse

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A friend of mine just returned form a holiday at Disney. There she attended a seminar presented by the Disney Institute, a training program for business professionals created by the folks who gave the world Mickey Mouse. The five-hour seminar, "The Disney Keys to Excellence," addressed topics such as leadership excellence, employee loyalty, managements creativity and customer satisfaction.

These guys really know something about dealing with large numbers of customers—or in Disney-speak, "guests." Each year Walt Disney World guests consume almost 9 million hamburgers, 7 million hotdogs, 9 million pounds of French fries, more than 275,000 pounds of popcorn and more than 46 million Coca-Cola drinks.

At the conclusion of the seminar, she received a copy of the book "Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service." The book explains the "practical magic" behind creating the "Disney difference" for customers by focusing on five key areas.

The Magic of Service. "Guestology" is the term Disney gives to the art and science of knowing and understanding customers through communicating with them. They use surveys to determine their guests’ feelings and attitudes while visiting attractions. They employ face-to-face surveys, telephone surveys, online surveys, comment cards and so forth to gather quantitative data.

At the center of Disney’s approach to customer service is its service theme: "To create happiness for people of all ages everywhere." This simple statement is the foundation for employee ("cast member" in Disney-speak) behaviour toward guests. It is also a litmus test for all management decisions. They see customers as part of the Disney family whose feedback is important.

Finally, all guest-related actions are measured against a clear set of prioritised service standards. The four service standards at Walt Disney World are safety, courtesy, show and efficiency.

The Magic of Cast. Disney CEO Michael Eisner writes, "Nothing so visibly defines Disney’s parks as the warmth and commitment of our cast members over the years, and the appreciation that guests feel for the way they are treated."

The investment Disney makes in training and motivating its employees is evident to every visitor. Cast members are friendly, approachable and helpful without being condescending or mechanical. From the shop clerks to costumed characters to groundskeepers, every worker is taught a set of behaviours, mannerisms, terms and values that are specific to his or her job function.

The Magic of Setting. In Disney-speak, your setting is wherever your customers meet you. Do your customers encounter you on the course, on the phone, on a website or all of the above? No matter, which applies, be aware that, as Disney puts it, everything speaks.

At Disney every detail from the doorknobs to the dining rooms sends a messages to guests. Great care is taken to ensure that the message is consistent with the service theme and standards and that it supports the "show" being created in each setting.

The Magic of Process. Every business has processes for serving a customer’s needs. Typically, processes involve both employees and the business environment.

Granted, you may not be faced with the challenge of moving tens of thousands of people through your facility each day, but your processes still have what Disney calls "combustion points," spots were a finely tuned process can break down. When that happens, something that was supposed to contribute to a positive customer experience begins to create a negative impression.
Disney works on eliminating or at least controlling combustion points by focusing on cast-to-guest communication.

The Magic of Integration. Does everything about your club work together to create a unified operating system? The cast, setting and processes at Disney are merged in pursuit of the service theme and service standards. The result is a seamless integration of details that together create an experience that exceeds the customer’s expectations.

Bob Leventi, from Disney was asked. "What advice would he give to managers in any industry"?

"Communicate with your customers. No one likes to be ignored", he says. "Management in the main seems to think that if they communicate with customers it will create more work when the opposite is actually true. If you provide information to people, even if it is not good news, at least they know. If it comes as a surprise they will not be pleased and that creates more work and a bad customer experience".

You may be asking, "Do I really have to please all of my customers all of the time? The answer is no—only the ones you want to keep. The Disney organisation has found a customer service formula that works for its guests and can work for your customers, too.

In a puzzling semantic twist, the name of America’s favourite rodent has somehow become a slang word for trivial, petty or overly simple, as in "What kind of Mickey Mouse operation are you running here?" This is even more incongruous given Disney’s reputation for quality and substance.

Frankly, you could do a lot worse than run a truly Mickey Mouse operation. In fact, your golf club can be a magic kingdom for your customers if you follow the principles that have made Mickey the mightiest mouse in the world. The quality of what your club offers long term will be remembered long after the price is forgotten.

Leventi says your mantra should be. "It's not my fault, but it is my problem."

Brilliant! I'm going to print that and put it in my office.