Customer Experience by Disney
Taking inspiration from competitors or businesses from other industries, or even completely different ones, is one way to look for solutions in business.
When Walt Disney visited Disney parks under construction, he would kneel down and look around. When asked about this curious habit, he replied that he wanted to see the park as a child to see and understand what feelings young children might have when looking at the park. Disney used what we now call empathy, or in short "stepping into shoes” user for a more complete understanding of needs, problems, but also choices and behaviors.
📖 In the book "Be our guest” by Michael D. Eisner, we find universal guidelines for what customer service should look like. Such principles were the foundation for building Disney World.
✅ Greet each guest – it could be a welcome email, a voucher for your first purchase, or a simple visit to the door by the customer service at the premises.
✅ Maintain eye contact and smile – In the US, everyone smiles at each other all the time. Who knows, maybe that's one of the secrets of their global economy?
✅ Respond to the customer's first needs – when they can't yet name them, when they're talking about a problem, when they have a lot of questions, or when they need guidance to find the right service. In e-commerce, a chatbox fulfills this role.
✅ If there is a problem with customer service, fix it immediately – you need to teach your employees that noticing and reporting a service problem at any level to the leader, even if it concerns the attitude of one of the team members, is not “snitching”, but rather improving the entire process for the benefit of the entire company!
✅ Remember your body language! – Posture, clothing, and facial expressions all impact the customer's experience of service. Even with the best sales techniques, a lack of confidence in your posture can reduce your chances of success!
✅ The customer should feel special – Customer service should focus on the positives, not rules, regulations, and potential drawbacks. Any issues related to the service, work, or personal life should never even be brought to the attention of the customer!
✅ Every customer should leave with the impression that they did a favor – so thank him when you leave for trusting him and choosing your company, as well as for every single transaction!
As you can see, when it comes to customer service best practices, we can learn a lot from… Disney, and it's worth applying them as a foundation in every industry. 💪
