Ted Topping and the Disney Customer Experience

How did you become interested in the business side of Disney?

TED: Years ago, I read In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. Like many business people at the time, I was amazed to learn that new employees at Walt Disney World spent a week in orientation and training before getting anywhere near a customer. In the retail world that I worked in, new employees typically spent something like 45 minutes before they got onto the selling floor. And much of that time was spent completing the required paperwork.

In Search of Excellence made me aware that the people side of any business is a key driver of success, and that Disney was one company that really believed it.

Why is it worthwhile to benchmark Disney?

TED: My book, Start and Run a Retail Business, has stood out in the market through three editions because it does not sugar-coat the subject. The book's advice and strategies are based on 'best in class' companies because anyone operating a retail business today will be competing with the biggest and smartest retailers in the world.

In Perfecting the Customer Experience, Jeff Kober and I will also be sharing best-in-class business lessons. This is serious and practical stuff, even if it is in the fun environment of Disneyland.

Why is it important to experience service from 'the other side of the counter?'

TED: As part of the Innovative Merchandising workshop I lead for retail clients, we spend a full day mystery shopping in up to 25 stores. We become 'customers' instead of 'managers,' and experience first-hand what it is like to stand on the other side of the counter.

The inevitable conclusion for most participants: the logic and structure that defines the process of business - everything from spreadsheets to shelf allocations to scanners - merely supports the emotions that rule the selling floor.

This is especially true for retailers who have no choice but to follow the Best Service Strategy (Best Price and Best Selection no longer being valid options for most). Retail is truly a people business driven by emotions. The fact that Disney delivers an almost totally emotional customer experience makes it a great example to study.

Hasn't the notion of 'customer service' become hackneyed?

TED: In the current economy, many businesses ignore the need to provide superior customer service. Their reasons tend to focus on two areas:

1. It costs money that they do not have, and
2. There is little point in training people who will not be with them in three months.

That is how we get to the sort of cross-communication that we see in the Disney-Pixar movie Up.

When 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen first opens the door to 8-year-old Russell, the young Wilderness Explorer proceeds to offer every kind of assistance he can think of: "I could help you cross the street. Your yard. Your porch. Or something." None of which Carl wants, and the exchange ends with him closing the door.

Bringing this back to today's business world, the only service that works is the service that is appropriate to the customer who patronizes the business. It is that simple - yet difficult to provide consistently. As customers, we know there is nothing 'hackneyed' about service. It works today perhaps better than ever before.

Tell me how all that relates to Disneyland.

TED: The secret to Disney's success in delivering the world's most enduring and successful consumer experiences for the past six decades isn't promotion or pixie dust. It is an enthusiastic and motivated workforce operating on a solid foundation of delivery systems and customer-experience metrics - motivation, systems, and metrics that can be learned and implemented in any size business.

Are all of your customer-experience lessons from Disney?

TED: No, but we do stick with brands that people have probably experienced and know well. Most companies do not realize that the super-effective tactics of leading brands such as Disney, Apple, and Cirque Du Soleil can be learned and implemented in any size of business. In this upcoming Disney program, we will benchmark one of the world's most successful companies, and discover how quality (attention to details) and service (exceeding guest expectations) are built in, not separate from, the product being sold.

Jeff Kober
Performance Journeys, Orlando, FL
407-973-3219
Performance Journeys

Ted Topping
Creative Insights Inc., Vancouver, BC
604-685-7571
Ted Topping

Stuff Not to Skip

• Perfecting the Customer Experience
• Performance Journeys [Jeff Kober]
• Creative Insights [Ted Topping]