Great customer service experiences don’t magically happen, even customer experience experts at Disney, it takes a dedicated approach and pure hard work.
Disney is known in the customer experience industry for having mastered the art of the customer experience.
Bob Simmonds, Disney Destinations’ vice president of domestic travel operations, recently answered questions related to creating a “magical” experience in today’s era of customer management on Customer Management IQ – Call Center, Customer Service & Customer Relationship Management.
Q: Does being under the Disney umbrella add any extra challenges to how you handle customer experience?
Our Guests have very high expectations of the Disney experience. That helps us because the Guest is generally very excited to call us, but it also sets the bar very high and we take our responsibility very seriously as the longest (and typically first) experience a Guest has with a Disney Cast Member.
Q: What is one way the Disney Destinations call center is different from the average one?
We use “creating Magical experiences” or “Surprise and Delight” on all Guest interactions and reward our Cast by exceeding expectations in that regard.
Q: Call centers are often inundated with metrics and data. How do you decide which numbers are worthy of focus?
We recognize we are the most measured place within Disney. Even our Industrial Engineers tell us that. We try to limit the most important ones to the few that drive the customer service experience and relationship. Sales/Revenue is important, but those are driven through Guest and Cast satisfaction.
Q: How have new technologies such as social media and texting impacted your call center?
Social Media is just beginning to enter the picture and text messaging is on the horizon, but we are focusing more on supporting some of the new technologies being introduced in our Parks & Resorts called the New Generation Experience. We have added a new department with over 150 Cast Members in the contact center to support that initiative.
Q: Do you think the call center of tomorrow will be substantially different than it is today?
Not substantially different, as the role should be creating and maintaining the Guest relationship. We will just be using different [service delivery] tools.
Q: Lastly, if there are any pearls of wisdom you could share with the executives joining us at the Executive Leadership Forum, what would it be?
If you take care of the needs of your Cast (contact center agents) they will take care of your Guests (Customers). Your Guest experience will differentiate your business as much as your product offering. If you push your Guests too much to a self-serve model, I welcome you as a competitor. You must be where the Guest wants you to be when they want you to be there. You must “Own the Moment.”
My take? Continued exceptional customer experience depends on the customer service basics.
Even the most well-branded organizations with massive customer goodwill still need to focus on the basics of customer service in order to ensure that they will continually be able to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
The team at Customer Management IQ have done a fantastic job at being able to get the leaders in the customer experience industry to share what is working for them today and where they see customer experience going tomorrow. For more great customer experience and voice of the customer insights check out Customer Management IQ.
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