What your startup can learn from Disney

I had a chance to hear Bill Capodagli give the closing key note at a conference and subsequently read his book, The Disney Way. He managed 35k people, if I recall, and considered his competition to be Europe, not Six Flags or some other amusement park, as Disney World is branded a global destination. He stressed the importance of everyone partaking in the customer service role in the company (keeping the magic) emphasizing that the best marketing plans can be instantly derailed by a customer coming through the gates to a dirty bathroom stall. I guess you want your customers to be able to go back home and say "I had a great time PERIOD," versus, "We had a great time, but..."

>Dropped your ice cream cone? There is a Disney employee with a new one before you know it. Sure, it wasn't their fault, but it was their problem.

For some reason I really like this. It actually makes me feel better about any future customer issues I run across. "Just make them feel better and move on." I'm sure there are going to be situations where you can't simply apply this blanket approach, but this is gold.

Great article, and nobody hates Disney like I do (and I'm going there in a few months...).

They really do excel at that sort of stuff, and the "it's not my fault, but it's my problem" line is really motivating.

Really informative. Makes me want to go to Disneyland. :-(

Excellent art[s]icle!

The vast majority of businesses really could learn a lot from Disney. And I think it would make the rest of the world overall much happier and decrease anxiety... we wouldn't have to constantly worry about and counter which corporation is going to try to bend us over next. Great customer service definitely makes me feel my money is well spent.