The Disney World resort complex in Orlando, Florida hosts 52.5 million visitors a year. That makes it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
We recently spent some time in Disney World – we stayed on-site at one of the resorts, we visited four parks, and we dined at many restaurants. And you know what we noticed? That the whole complex – from drive-in to parking, from check in to luggage delivery, from park entry to bus transportation – provides a consistently, high-level experience to customers. Sure, there are crowds and it’s hot and there can be lines, but you know what? Disney does a great job of keeping their eye on their business – to create a one-of-a-kind experience and hook visitors into becoming life long fans and customers. It’s even more amazing they can do this with the crowds, the lines and weather.
While we were there, we thought a lot about how Disney pulls the miraculous feat off. And we came to this simple conclusion: they pay attention to every single thing a customer could need, see or do, and they train their employees to provide quality interactions.
So here’s what we learned on how to delight your customers and keep a consistent experience from Disney:
Design Your Customer Experience: Disney clearly understands its customers, and it designs everything to feed into what its brand stands for – the tag line for the parks is “Where Dreams Come True.” From the signs in the park to the employee costumes to the ride themes, Disney creates a world that invites you in. The employees are friendly and attentive – I never saw one instance of someone with attitude or with a rude demeanor. They live to make Disney feel like a dream, and they certainly pull it off.
Sweat the Details: As business owners, many of us gloss over details that aren’t necessarily critical to the bottom line. And that may very well be the best approach, especially as you start and grow an early-stage business, but at some point, the details matter. The main thing I can point to at Disney is that I didn’t see one piece of trash on the ground the entire time I was there. Not only that, I didn’t notice anyone changing the trash nor were there any overflowing trash cans. So how do they do this? I have no idea, but they do. The whole place feels like a pristine fantasyland. Why? Because Disney makes it that way.
Acknowledge Mistakes & Make Them Right: No one is perfect, even Disney – shock, I know. When we checked into our suite, there were a few issues with the AC and getting access to the room. It was kind of a pain after the long trip down to Florida, and all of us were a little cranky, if I’m complete honest. But in the end, the issues got fixed, and we got seven bonus fast passes per person over our first two days. Seven! If you haven’t been to Disney lately, let me tell you – fast passes, which let you make a reservation for a specific ride time where you wait in a really short line, are a game changer. Getting seven fast passes is like finding gold! We totally forgot about any inconvenience because the Disney resort went above and beyond to make us for about it. It was great!
Impress When You Can: The atmosphere, look and employees are pretty impressive to begin with, but Disney goes above and beyond when they can to add even more of a wow factor. One example is the fireworks on Independence Day, which we experienced for the first time on our trip. Disney, of course, does fireworks every night at several of their parks, but nothing like what we saw on July 4. The firework show was twenty minutes long with a constantly lit up sky that made us all “oooh” and “aaah” every minute. I can’t even accurately describe it, but imagine the most spectacular display of fireworks lit up across all the sky you can see, and that’s it. Even though it was packed and hot during the holiday, I would tell anyone that it’s worth it just to see the fireworks. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Disney is so good at running its business that it has The Disney Institute, where you can go learn how it makes everything picture perfect for its guests. Even if you can’t go to take a course, you can certainly take some of the Disney ideas and figure out how to help your own business. How can you better design your customer experience? What details should you be looking at? Do you make your mistakes right? How can you impress your clients?