Creating Disney Magic

At Disney, it doesn't matter what your job is. We all have the same purpose.  Take care of the guest. It doesn't matter if what you are doing for the guest is in your job description.  A culture of customer service doesn't happen by accident. It has to be part of your culture. It has to be repeated. People have to hear it over and over.  No matter what your job is, your purpose is to take care of the guests.  At Disney, our purpose was to make sure guests have the most fabulous time of their lives, no matter what your job title is.  When all 80,000 cast members at Disney World focuses on this purpose, a guest will have an unbelievable experience when they least expect it.  Imagine someone working in security being able to tell you what the specials are at the restaurant. Something like doesn't happen. Except it does at Disney. Taking care of the guest is baked into our culture.  Hire the right people. Train them. Explain expectations. Give them examples. And then let them take care of the customers. Hold them accountable. And role model what you want to see from employees.  Customer service is not a department. It is a way of doing business.  

Every organization has team members resign. Some of the people who leave are popular. Some of them fill an important role in the organization.  How you handle the resignation will have an impact on other employees.  Begin by telling the right people in the right order about the resignation. Doing so will eliminate the wrong story getting into the rumor mill. Within a couple of hours, everyone who needs to know should know. Then you can let other team members know.  Communicate quickly and keep it positive.  At Disney, I had senior executives leave the company for better opportunities. I didn't want them to leave, but people are going to do what is best for them and their careers.  Don't burn bridges. Always keep it positive whether you are the one leaving or someone left behind.  When I left Marriott, I told Bill Marriott first. Then I talked to my direct boss. I even helped them work on transitioning a new person into my role.  Marriott treated me well over the years. When I left, I wanted to treat them well, too. And I did not take any people with me to Disney, even though there were people who wanted the opportunity to join me at Euro Disney.  Remember, your career does not revolve around a single company. And you shouldn't expect anyone else to have their career revolve around your organization.

Your job is not to motivate employees. Your job is to hire the right employees. When you hire the right people they will motivate themselves.  Not everyone agrees with this idea. Some people feel the main responsibility of a leader is to motivate employees.  During my career, I have had obstacles, bad bosses, bad work situations, bad pay, lots of stress, bad work environments, and in all of those circumstances, I motivated myself.  You own your own motivation. You own your own development. And your attitude. No one else is responsible for your motivation.  At Disney, we hired people with the right attitude and gave them a professional, respectful environment to work in. Our job was to train them and development. But cast members owned their own motivation and outcome.  As a supervisor, if someone has a bad attitude, you will never motivate them.  As an employee, you will eventually run into a boss who doesn't like you and doesn't work well with you. You will still have to do a good job.  If you want to learn more about the ups and downs of my career, check out my book, Career Magic.  "Only you are responsible for your happiness and your health." - Sunshine Payne  

How you manage your time is how you manage your reputation.  Nobody is born disorganized. It is a learned thing.  With discipline, you can do the right things when you are supposed to do them.  Time Management Magic is not just a book, it is a way of thinking.  Most of my career success can be attributed to 3 things; organization, time management, and persistence.  But you can't just focus on work, you need to keep your whole life under control. If you don't take the time to plan the life you want, you will spend a lot of time living the life you don't want.  My book, Time Management Magic will help you understand the things in your life you should be working on. Your reputation is at stake.   

What if you are so busy you don't have room to fit in a new customer? It happens. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with our current workload it is difficult to fit in new customers.  But you should never leave it to someone else to get back to you. Put in a system where you get back to a potential customer without putting the burden on them.   If you leave it to a potential customer to get back to you, they will find someone else to do business with. Don't let a customer try a competitor before you even get the chance to serve them.  Make it easy to do business with you, and more people will do business with you.  If you put a system in place where you call back customers and keep communicating with them they will be willing to wait.  Don't string along a customer, but keep the contact alive.  Most people are so disorganized they will forget about you if you don't keep reminding them.  Don't just think about how busy you are right now and let them walk away. Consider the lifetime value of a customer.  Most customers, when they find someone great, will stay with you. Make sure people get the chance to experience how good you are.  If you keep these ideas in mind, people will be glad to wait for you: Make every customer feel special.  Treat people respectfully.  Be reliable and credible.  People will wait for quality.  Have the attitude that you are the giving one. Treat people special, even if they are not yet a customer.  If you can't serve someone, recommend someone else who can help them. Even if you don't make the immediate sale. People will remember how you treat them. Be the giving one. 

Is it better to get an education or the experience that comes with a promotion? Education pays off down the road. Take the opportunity to get an education over the chance for a promotion. Sometimes you have to make decisions that will pay off later. Passing up the temporary rewards of promotion in favor of getting an education is one of those times.  A promotion pays off now, with more money and responsibility. But you can get that and more if you get an education.   Promoting too fast can even take away the opportunity to get experience, exposure, and education to help you later in your career.  Do the hard things now so you can have a better life down the road. 

Early in my career, when I worked at Marriott, I begin working away from my office. A Library was the first place I worked away from the office.  At Disney, I used to leave my office and work at an unoccupied office or work from the California Grill when it wasn't open.  Now, I still do work away from my office, which is in my house.  There are too many distractions at home. My productivity has gone up while working from a local coffee shop. When you are working outside your usual setting, you get more inspired. For me, I get more energy.  Put yourself in the right environment to get the work done.  There are jobs where you can't leave to work in a different environment. But you could still consider doing paperwork, catch up work, or your planning time away from where you work.   Working in the right environment will help you move items from your ToDo list to your Done list. The more you get done, the better your life will become. 

Is it better to have experience with a Brand Name company or a bigger role with a small company? This is something to consider, especially early in your career.  When you have a brand name like Disney on your resume, people notice. If you have worked at Disney or Marriott, other organizations will know you have received a high level of training and know how to serve customers.  On the other hand, you may be able to get a better spot at a smaller company to gain experience. Leadership experience with any organization can be valuable.  Smaller companies can be risky, though. Are you willing to take on more risk? Or, do you want a more comfortable and stable job? Hilton, Marriott, and Disney provided brand name experience for me. But I was also willing to move for the right opportunity. So I had the best of both worlds; brand name experience with the chance to take new roles for the experience.  Don't worry too much about the first 5 to 10 years of your career. Get as much experience and exposure as you can.  No matter what job you take, do a great job. Focus on making yourself better every day. If you do that, it won't matter as much what job you have and which company you work for.  For more insight into my career, check out my book Career Magic. 

People are looking for experts to help them.  The more you know about your products, the more people will trust you.  Knowing everything you possibly can about the products you offer will lead to better customer service.  Product knowledge doesn't happen by accident. You have to be deliberate. Schedule time to get out in your operation and see what is really happening. Use your product in the way customers will use your product.  If you are going to make it happen, you have to schedule it. Do it on purpose. When you are done, schedule when you will do it again. Never let up on the pressure and pursuit to know more about your product and how a customer does business with you.  Knowledge will help you control the business. You will know what is going on and people will want to help you.  If you work with vendors and third parties, it is your responsibility to make your expectations clear and hold them to a standard.  Don't recommend a product, service, or person unless you have first-hand knowledge.  Click Here to get my free Morning Magic Planner.

 The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer.  Sure, people are going to take advantage of you. But overall, you still shouldn't make your policies too strict because a few people will take advantage of you.  Treat the customer like they matter to you.  Mr. Marriott told me, "Always give the customer the benefit of the doubt." Go in favor of the customer.  If you find a trend or something, in particular, getting abused and it becomes a problem, then you can make a policy dealing with it.  If a request is unreasonable, it may be time for the manager to get involved. But you will be better off given front line staff the ability to deal with customer requests.  Customers are more likely to continue to do business with you if you treat them with respect and make it easy to do business with you.  You will have to continue to find ways to get better faster. And find ways to serve customers in new ways.