I’ve Been To Disney World!!

Ally, Mickey and my Wife

Last week, the wife and I accompanied our daughter and son-in-law and our two grandchildren (Luke, 16 months, Alexis, 8 years) to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for a vacation and birthday celebration (Alexis turned 8 while we were there).

Several observations about WDW:

1.  Florida is humid. Very humid. For me, one who is used to the dry desert heat, Florida was worse than a clam bake, with me as the clam. After walking only 50 yards, my shirt was soaked.  I wish Mr. D had decided to build his park near Phoenix—but then, it would have been only 5 hours away from Disney Land in the Los Angeles area, and that would have been a poor move from a business sense.

2. While much of the Disney magic is still evident, these hard economic times have hit Disney too. There were signs of delayed or cut-corner maintenance in our hotel and many of the waiting line areas did not have ventilation fans to cool off the patrons. (In Arizona, we use misters and fans to cool off people outdoors, but in the Florida humidity, misters would do no good whatsoever.)

3.  Certain parts of the older parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT) showed signs of wear, such as flaking paint, rust, cracks and the like.  On my last visit, in 2003, the park was pristine in every way.

Despite these small signs of economic stress, the staff— Disney calls them “cast members”— were true to form and exceptional in their friendliness and helpfulness, always exhibiting a cheerful attitude to all who came to them with questions or problems.  They are truly the best in the world at what they do.

And the Disney Magic is still there in huge quantities! For example, in the Magic Kingdom, the evening “Electric Parade” has now become the “SpectroMagic Parade”, but it still features Disney characters in LED-lit costumes and floats and my grandchildren were spellbound by it, as I was!

For Ally’s birthday, we ate at Chef Mickey’s (in the Contemporary Resort) and we were a little late due to bus transfers. As we were seated, our waiter came by and said, “Alexis, I have been expecting you! Happy birthday and welcome to Chef Mickey’s!” She was  stunned! Then, as we were nearing the end of dinner, we were visited by none other than Pluto, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, and, of course, the most powerful mouse in the world, Master Mickey himself! Alexis was in shock to meet them, as was my wife (a huge Mickey fan). Minnie Mouse even kissed me on the cheek. I have not washed it since.

One night, we took Ally to Cinderella’s Castle for dinner. Part of the package included a picture of her with Cinderella, with which she was awesomely impressed, but she did not know that we had dinner reservations. She had said all day that she wished she could eat there. Well, the photos are taken in a large anteroom before you ascend the stairs to the dining hall, and every few minutes, a royal page would enter the room with an official strut and utter in a loud voice, “Lords and Ladies of the castle, Cinderella requests the [NAME] party to be her guests at dinner. Princess [NAME] / Prince [NAME], will you accept?” We told Ally that we had to be invited by Cinderella to her dining table and she got a sad look. But a few minutes later, when the royal page announced our invitation to dinner, she could not believe her ears and her eyes grew as large as saucers!  She ran over to Cinderella and asked, “Could you eat at our table tonight?” Cinderella, carefully coached on how to handle all possible interactions, smiled with the grace of a true princess and said in fairy-tale voice, “I’d love to, my dear, but tonight I am dining with Prince Charming.” It worked.

I stopped by one of the caricature artists at the Animal Kingdom one day and thumbed through his book of backgrounds, looking for a telescope, but found none.  I said, “Can you do a sketch with a telescope in it?” He replied that he could, and he produced the sketch you see here. I have already scanned it and put it into my personal business card and have asked my astronomy club newsletter editor to use it instead of the “Uncle Sam” graphic we have used for the last few years for the President’s Corner section.

On the last night at Disney, Ally lost a tooth! Imagine her joy and surprise when she awoke the next morning to find a certificate signed by Tinkerbell herself at the foot of her bed, with fairy dust (glitter) running on the floor all the way to the door!

It never ceases to amaze me that a company has built a $100 billion dollar-plus empire out of a vermin-carrying rodent! But that is the Disney Magic.

I was privileged in 2003 to sit in on a seminar where the Disney HR department trainers taught us how they prepare the cast members for their jobs. Each cast member, be it a lowly janitor (the most trained cast member they have, by the way, since that is the one position most folks turn to for directions or help!) or the girl who dons the Minnie Mouse costume is given at least two weeks of training and orientation using what they call the Disney Compass.

The Disney Compass is a concept every business could use. Imagine a compass, like you use for finding directions. It has four main points—N (north), W (west), S (south) and E (east). In the Disney training system, these four points stand for cardinal virtues of what the Walt Disney Company stands for.

N is Needs. Everyone, they are taught, has needs. You have needs.  I have needs.  All God’s children got needs.  I need food, and water, and air, and shelter, and transportation, and so on. So do you.

W is Wants. Everyone also has wants. You have wants, I have wants, all God’s children got wants. I need food. I may have to settle for hamburger, but I might want prime rib. I need clothing. I may settle for a suit from J. C. Penney, but I might really want a $5,000 Armani original. I need a car. I may settle for a Honda Civic, but want a BMW. The list goes on.

What separates a need from a want, asks the Disney trainer? Money. We turn our wants into reality by trading enough money to satisfy them.

For the average Disney visitor (family of four) that means about $3,500 on a typical visit (counting transportation, hotel on the Park, meals, and extras). Disney also knows that their average patron comes back every 3.7 years (or so— the numbers may have changed a little since 2003).

So how does Disney get people to come back every 3.7 years and drop $3,500 every time they do?

By going to the S and E compass points.

S is Stereotypes. Disney does a superb job of inspiring their cast members that Disney Parks are not the stereotypical theme park. They are in a league all their own. I have to agree. I have been to many theme parks over the years, and none of them hold a candle to Disney. Disney is cleaner, Disney is more attuned to detail (witness the  hundreds of “hidden Mickey’s” in every Disney park, for example), Disney people are more pleasant to deal with (even in unpleasant situations) than any other park I have ever been to. I was told by the Disney trainer that led our seminar that Walt Disney World proudly has 17,000 janitors on the payroll. We all gasped, and then he told us that EVERY cast member is expected to pick up any loose trash he or she sees as they walk about their daily duties, and that even included the Disney CEO at that time, Michael Eisner. Disney tells their cast members that they cannot build repeat business at $3,500 a pop on a “me-too” park experience, and they really succeed at that!

Finally, E is the most important part of the compass. It stands for Emotions. Disney teaches their cast members that if they don’t touch the emotions of every guest that enters the park every day, they will not build the bond that brings them back every 3 or 4 years.

How good are they at touching the emotions of their guests? Let me give you an example.

We took our daughters (Sara, the one who went with us this trip, and her younger sister Julia) to Disney World in 1987 when Sara was 11. (At that time, Disney only had two parks: The Magic Kingdom, and EPCOT. Now they have five!) At that time, the Magic Kingdom had the Electric Parade at night with its cute (if not eventually annoying) little parade theme music. About halfway through the parade, as Pete’s Dragon was passing us, I felt a tug on my arm. It was Sara and she looked up at me and said, “Daddy, when we go home tonight, can we stop at the gift shop and get the tape with this music on it?” I said, “Sure, sweetheart,” and we did—at $19.95 for a cassette tape, at a time when you could get a Michael Jackson tape for $9.95! (We listened to that tape all the way home from Orlando to central Missouri…)

Now fast forward the film to 2002 and Sara’s wedding. When she had the wedding party enter the reception hall for the reception, she had the DJ play— well, would you believe she had the DJ play that Electric Parade theme song?

Think about it!  Disney had so ingrained itself into my little girl’s emotions at age 11 that on the happiest day of her life as a young adult woman, she played their music to celebrate her wedding. Wow!!!

What if every business did a stunning job of touching every customer’s emotions that way?

Better yet, what if your business strove to live by the Disney Compass? What could that do for your sales and success?