Remember the last time you went to Walt Disney World? Now imagine for a moment that you’re back at “The Happiest Place on Earth.” How would you describe your experience? What stands out to you?
If you are like most people, words like “clean,” “friendly service” and even “magical” probably come to mind. That is by design, said 20-year Disney veteran Dennis Snow, a frequent speaker and author who visited Kaufman Rossin last week to share a few lessons from “The Mouse.”
Experience-based approach vs. task-based approach
If you want loyal customers, you have to approach business from an experience-based mentality rather than a task-based mentality, Snow said. No matter what industry you’re in, he said, keep in mind that you’re not selling a product, you’re selling an experience.
Snow shared three things that business leaders can do to create experiences that lead to customer loyalty:
- Look at everything through the lens of the customer.
- Pay attention to the details and remember that “everything speaks.”
- Create moments of “wow.”
Starting the conversation at your company
So where should you start? He recommended that business leaders first ask themselves and their teams a couple of questions to kickstart the conversations about service excellence at their companies.
Ask yourself: What three things do we want our customers to say and think about our company?
What you’re really thinking about here is what you want your brand image to be. An organization’s brand can be critical to its success. You want to create a brand by design, not end up with a brand by default.
For example, three things Walt Disney World wants its guests to say are:
- “It was a magical experience.”
- “They paid attention to every detail.”
- “They made me and my children feel special.”
Building a brand experience
Once you define those things for your company, then you need to figure out how to make them happen.
Ask yourself: What has to happen in the customer experience for them to say or think those three things about us?
Think about how you can build the brand experience that you envision. What behaviors and processes do you need to incorporate into your organization’s culture to transform the customer experience?
Snow emphasized that this doesn’t necessarily require any more time, money or staffing. Sometimes improving the customer experience can be as simple as reminding employees to greet every guest with eye contact and a smile. Little things can sometimes make a big difference in the eyes of your customers.
For example, Disney employees at all levels of the organization are trained on the importance of keeping the properties immaculate at all times, which means that even the CEO will pick up a piece of trash off the ground and throw it away – without thinking twice. It’s ingrained in each employee because it’s part of the company culture.
A culture of service excellence
Management can start to build service excellence into the company culture by incorporating what you want your customers to say and think about your company into the employee experience, including the hiring and selection process, communication and training, and accountability processes and tools, Snow said.
As you start to think about the ways you can improve customer service at your company, remember that even though it is often easier to take a task-based approach instead of an experience-based approach, that may not be the best option. If building customer loyalty is a priority for your company, you may want to follow Snow’s suggestions for prioritizing customer experience.
If you’ve already started to do this at your company, let us know how it’s working. Share your experience in the comments section below!
