{"id":632,"date":"2016-07-05T15:12:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T15:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.oclc.org\/next\/?p=632"},"modified":"2019-06-26T16:17:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T16:17:33","slug":"what-disney-taught-me-about-great-customer-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oclc.org\/next\/what-disney-taught-me-about-great-customer-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"What Disney taught us about great service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2016-07-05<\/a><\/p>\n

ALA Annual is always a great place to learn and meet people. As the Vice President of Management and Customer Operations at OCLC, I found that one of the highlights of this year\u2019s conference was the OCLC Symposium on how to deliver a great customer experience. Now, if you\u2019re like me, when you think about Disney\u2019s magic you don\u2019t think about parking lots or birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room that look like they\u2019re actually breathing. But it\u2019s exactly those types of details that make the Disney experience so complete, compelling and successful.<\/p>\n

Amy Rossi from the Disney Institute\u2014who admitted that she once moved to a new city and got a library card before a new driver\u2019s license\u2014talked to us about how Disney manages its\u00a0customer experience. She started out by making the great point that Disney and libraries are really in the same industry: the service industry. To Disney, entertainment and hospitality are side effects of great service. Likewise, people come to libraries for a lot of different reasons, but all libraries provide service.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of the other great insights Amy shared with us at the symposium.<\/p>\n

Fanatically overmanage the details<\/h2>\n

Amy explained that Disney\u2019s consistent results come from \u201covermanaging\u201d the details that are all too easy to ignore. Overmanaging isn\u2019t micro-managing, she explained. It\u2019s finding the details that are important to the customer experience and paying \u201cfanatical\u201d attention to them. She shared an example of Walt Disney himself overseeing the development of the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction. Walt asked his imagineers to build the audio-animatronic singing birds so that they appear to breathe. When told that no one would notice if the birds didn\u2019t breathe, Walt replied that guests would feel like something was missing without that detail. The challenge for libraries is\u00a0how do you know which details you can overlook because \u201cno one will notice\u201d?\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t know, you better be \u201covermanaging\u201d them.<\/p>\n

Define your customer experience<\/h2>\n

\"symposium01\"<\/a>But how do we identify those often overlooked details? Amy encouraged us to think of our library users\u2019 experiences the way Disney thinks about its guests\u2019 experiences, using a \u201cguest service compass\u201d in which they\u2019ve relabeled the cardinal directions as Needs, Wants, Stereotypes and Emotions. When you come to Disney, you need<\/em> to have a vacation experience. But you choose Disney because you want<\/em> magic. Disney is known for its ability to make magic happen, but I especially liked one of Amy\u2019s examples of how they make that magic personal. Thanks to a blend of magic and technology, the friendly ghosts at the end of the Haunted Mansion attraction may bid you farewell holding a tombstone with your name on it. And what\u2019s more joyfully magical than that?<\/p>\nDisney and libraries are in the same business: the service industry. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Amy also explained that it\u2019s important to know the stereotypes<\/em> about your organization, both positive and negative. People often negatively stereotype Disney parks as a place to wait in line all day, so Disney instituted Fast Passes to help you spend more time enjoying the park. And finally, Disney tries to understand the emotions<\/em> of guests so they can meet you where you are. You might want to be greeted with cheering, happy Disney cast members when you arrive at a park, but by the end of an exhausting day, you\u2019d probably prefer that they stay a little quieter. By understanding the emotions guests have at different points during their visits, Disney is ready to provide the services that the guests most likely need.<\/p>\n

Manage beyond the obvious touchpoints<\/h2>\n

When you arrive in one of Disney\u2019s parks, you\u2019re immediately directed to a parking space. On the way into the park, the tram drivers repeat your section and row number several times. But after a long day of fun, quite a few people forget. Disney understands that this happens, so they prepare their parking lot attendants to help. These cast members know the time each row was filled, so if you know what time you arrived, they can direct you to your row. Even if you were so excited that you don\u2019t know when you arrived, some of them can scan your ticket to see what time you entered the park to narrow your search.<\/p>\n

If you think about it, leaving the parking lot is one of the last \u201ctouchpoints\u201d Disney has with guests, so they overmanage it. A touchpoint is a single interaction that you have with an organization that can shape your experience. No one comes to Disney for their superior parking experience, but it shows how fanatical Disney is about the quality of every touchpoint between them and their guests because each one has an impact on the overall experience.<\/p>\n

Start with what you can control<\/h2>\n

\"symposium02\"<\/a>When I started talking with the librarians at my symposium table about the touchpoints in their libraries, we got pretty overwhelmed in a hurry. Just considering the initial entrance to the library alone\u2014the parking, the architecture, the signage, the staff members\u2019 greetings\u2014there are so many touchpoints with library users. And some of those touchpoints\u2014like the building architecture\u2014are so far beyond what most of us can control. So what do we do?<\/p>\n

Amy encouraged us to focus on our own sphere of influence, the things that we have the power to change. She gave an example of a woman who attended a Disney Institute workshop but didn\u2019t feel empowered to make big changes in her workplace. So, she did what she could: she started smiling at her coworkers when they walked by her desk. Within a couple weeks, her boss asked her to explain the major changes he\u2019d heard about in her division. When she said that all she\u2019d changed was how she greeted people, since that was within her sphere of influence, he wanted to hear for the first time about what else she’d learned during her workshop. By making a little positive change, she was able to spur interest in bigger, institutional changes.<\/p>\n

So what? Now what?<\/h2>\n

Amy raised more great points than I have space to get into here. I\u2019ll share with you in the future more thoughts about how we can apply Disney\u2019s customer experience ideas to libraries. And I\u2019ll let some of the librarians who were able to attend the symposium do the talking.<\/p>\n

For more insights that can help you transform the way you think about your customer experience, check out the Disney Institute Blog: Talking Point<\/a>. There is a lot of great information there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Question\u2026Symposium guests, share your favorite learning with hashtag #OCLCnext<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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