Marsha Lackey - Page 1 of 5 Inside the Magic Kingdom Marsha Lackey The Individual, the Organization, and Society ORGL 4223 12-07-2013
Marsha Lackey - Page 2 of 5 Everywhere you go it is easy to find people who are rude, self-centered, and have no basic regard for anyone but themselves. It didn t always used to be this way. There was a time when you could walk down the street and people were friendly and had genuine concern for others. This same type of attitude has invaded corporate America. This leads me back to a book that I read that has a clear emphasis on the customer and what customer service is all about. Inside the Magic Kingdom is an excellent book that shows how Disney has had such huge success. As I reflected on that, I realized how this book emphasizes many things that we have learned about in class regarding corporate culture, ethics, and how businesses have a responsibility to be good corporate citizens that leave a positive footprint on society. Many companies know how to keep the customer satisfied and coming back for more! However, Disney takes this to another level. This paper will introduce a few of the keys to Disney s success and will show how it is a socially responsive organization focusing on eliminating one of today s biggest societal issues: poor social attitudes and customer service. Many people think of competition as someone/something directly involved in the type of business or environment they are in. Disney believes that your competition is anyone who raises customer expectations because if someone else satisfies customers better than you, no matter what type of business, you suffer by comparison. (Connelly, 1997, p. 20) This is easy to understand when applied. How many times have you gone to your favorite restaurant and gotten terrible service from a rude waiter only to think back to the excellent customer service you got from the friendly clerk at the grocery store or the warm welcome greeting from the little old man at the main entrance at the local Wal-Mart? Every person wants excellent service regardless of whether it is at the grocery store or the local five and dime. When it comes to pleasing customers, Disney believes that is the little things that make all the difference. There are thirty-seven horse-head hitching posts located along Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. Each one that is in a high-traffic area gets repainted every night. The reason behind this is to keep the park always looking fresh for the customers the very next morning. A company that will pay that much attention to a hitching post will pay that much attention to anything that comes in contact with
Marsha Lackey - Page 3 of 5 its guests (Disney uses the term guest to denote a customer), because attention to detail is part of the company s culture. (Connelly, 1997, p. 29) Connelly emphasizes the need for all employees to be willing put into actions what they are being taught about customer service. It s not enough to just talk a good game; you have to be able to put the principles into practice that make a good game. For example, all cast members (Disney utilizes the term cast member to denote an employee) are strongly urged to stop whatever they are doing, if they can, and offer help whenever they see a guest in need. (Connelly, 1997, p. 40) If someone is trying to take a group photo, then the cast member should stop what he or she is doing and offer to take the photo so that all members of the party can be in that photo. Connelly refers to this as being aggressively friendly. Disney has cast members called super greeters whose sole job is to walk around the park with a laptop computer and make sure the guests are happy. Getting that information so quickly allows Disney to get that feedback to the cast members each week so that they can see how close they are getting to onehundred percent guest satisfaction. Disney has made it a point to always listen to the customers needs as opposed to listening to itself. The point here is that Disney has gotten really good at interfacing with the customer directly to find out how its doing. This is achieved through its cast members and not just by tired old methods such as flyers and mailed surveys. Letters from guests, happy or otherwise, are usually in response to a cast member. Every single letter from a guest is sent to a department called Guest Letters. Then it goes to the cast member s supervisor and depending on the type of letter, it may also be read to other cast members. When positive letters come in, this is used as a great opportunity to recognize cast members and celebrate their accomplishment. The desire to be appreciated is one of the deepest of human yearnings. (Connelly, 1997, p. 87) Negative feedback from a guest is handled as a tool to improve a cast member s performance. However, because of the culture that is set up in Disney, there are always more positive comments than negative ones. Too many companies yell at their employees for doing one thing wrong, but never celebrate the many other things they do right. This kills moral and motivation for any company.
Marsha Lackey - Page 4 of 5 Celebrate your employees accomplishments and the customer service attitude will be fostered in the company culture. It will become a habit, not a duty. Conclusion Many companies today suffer from a negative image because they retain employees that are abusive to customers. This is terrible for a company s success and it is companies like Disney that sets a positive organizational culture and expects nothing but exceptional attitudes and great customer service. Companies that hire and retain rude employees with poor attitudes only hurt themselves by allowing poor business practices as a part of their culture and are dooming themselves to poor outlooks on the future. This really is a societal problem that must be addressed with our younger generation. Too many people are learning inter personal skills in favor of texting on their phones. This is sad. I believe we all have a thing or two we could learn from how Disney does business in our organizations and in our personal lives.
Marsha Lackey - Page 5 of 5 References Connellan, T. (1997). Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney s Success. Atlanta, GA: Bard Press. Lawrence, A.T. & Weber, J. (2009). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy (13th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.