Once your employees understand their purpose versus the tasks associated with their day-to-day job, empowering them with genuine authority will motivate them two-fold.• Human factor: Empowered employees are happier employees. Happier employees are more engaged in their jobs.• Service factor: Empowered employees are more driven to serve with their heart.Remember, empowerment is not improvisation. Genuine authority can be delivered to your employees and supported by equipping them to execute within clearly defined boundaries.How do you empower your employees? What impact has it made on your service experience?Continue reading →

Last week on Twitter, @ianjprobert reiterated a foundational service principle at Disney: “The importance of the guest experience can be summed up in two words: everything speaks."The thought behind the quote is simple, service is manifested everywhere your organization touches the customer. Those touch points might include the cleanliness of your storefront, the friendliness of your staff, even the smell your customer associates with your organization will affect their perception of your brand.So, how do you make sure each touch point is inherent of the level of service you wish to provide?• Understand that exceptional service requires meticulous planning• Develop a map indicating each customer touch point• Organize your people and infrastructure to support your designWhat seemingly small details (or touch points) make a di …… Continue reading →

Providing good customer service seems as simple as reacting to a Guest’s request. Suppose a Guest who wishes to purchase an ice cream bar tells the Cast Member which ice cream they would like, pays the Cast Member, and goes on their way. The transaction is complete, but what type of experience did that Guest receive?Now imagine a Guest who approaches a Cast Member and is greeted with eye contact and a smile. The Guest tells the Cast Member which ice cream they would like, and while the Cast member serves the Guest, they ask how their day in the Park has been. The Guest pays the Cast Member who thanks them for their purchase and offers to answer any questions or provide directions to their next Park adventure.The difference between a customer service interaction and a customer service experience is distinct. Instead of merely processing the transaction, the Cast Member is friendly, conversational, and seeks out ways to make the Guest’s experience a more enjoyable …… Continue reading →

This week marks the start of another magical run towards history — it’s not the Walt Disney World© Marathon, but it is sport related.Tonight the road to the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship will kickoff as the North Carolina A&T Aggies face the No. 16 ranked Liberty Flames. The game will be played during the evening, but as the tournament progresses, games will be played throughout the day. Naturally, organizations might begin to worry about the productivity of their basketball-enthralled employees.So how can your organization keep employees engaged during “the madness?” In a recent article by Dr. Bob Nelson of Recognition PRO, Dr. Nelson suggests leaders begin by asking their employees what the tournament means to them.For the fans:• Host an after- …… Continue reading →

Building and reinforcing a strong, positive corporate culture is a keystone of Disney’s success in Cast engagement and Guest happiness. From the moment that Cast Members apply with the Company, they are greeted with reminders of Walt’s vision that continue long into their employment, reminding them and inspiring them to uphold the culture. This is intentional, and drives a trickle-effect that Guests notice. Earlier this week, we discussed three values for culture change, the Disney way. You learned to keep it simple, by leaving room for individuality, make it global, and encourage all levels to buy in, and to make it measurable, by creating specific guidelines that can be assessed. There are, however, three more values that we uphold at the Company, to ensure that culture is made a constant priority: 4. Provide training and coaching. Incorporate the elements of the culture into employee training and ongoing …… Continue reading →

The creation of an organization’s core values must be closely tied to the mission and vision of the organization.  These values are the foundation from which employee behaviors and actions stem; they establish culture, and identifying them should be a team effort.At Disney, we take into account the values already at work in the organization, the values that will be required to support the new culture, and those that will be required to meet the service needs of our Guests. Here are three tips for culture-building the Disney way:1. Keep it simple. Everyone must feel comfortable with the culture. Leave room for individuality and personality.2. Make it global. Everyone at the site, including management, must buy in.3. Make it measurable. Create specific guidelines, and make them a part of the performance assessment process.Check back Thursday for three more Disney tips for culture-building. Share your bes …… Continue reading →

Yesterday’s D’Think Chat on Twitter emphasized the evolving role the customer experience, not just customer service (there is a difference), plays in creating and maintaining a brand’s image through a “people’s voice” style of marketing. That is, the word of mouth stories your customers will tell about their experience with your organization.Once the importance of creating an exceptional, emotion-inducing experience is understood and a vision has been created, the question becomes, “How do I get my employees to align with the customer experience strategy I envision?” Guest Host, customer experience expert, and Disney Institute facilitator, Stu Levine, shared the importance of training and top-down buy in from leadership.Echoing …… Continue reading →

Your service experience should be designed around the needs and wants of the _______________. You probably said customer without even thinking, and you would be correct. But in order to do this, you must have a deep understanding of who your customer is.Too many organizations limit themselves to a tunnel-vision approach while designing this experience. They think “We know they don’t like to wait in long lines” or “We know they expect us to answer the phone after so many rings.”But organizations must move past the obvious service criteria and begin to take a holistic look at the customer. Listening posts are essential in collecting the feedback required to develop and refine our service experience. At Disney, we collect Guest feedback from a variety of listening posts:Face-to-Face Research: This can be as simple as asking the location the Guest traveled from or what a Guest thought of a specific ride or event. Immediate fe …… Continue reading →