The Disney Institute - Be Our Guest: Revised and Updated Edition: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service

L ike most cast members, I love hearing from my friends and family after they take a Disney vacation. As the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, I want to know everything about their tripwhere they stayed, the shows they saw, the attractions they rode, the restaurants they visited, and the food they ate. But more than anything, I want to hear exactly how our cast members made them feel throughout their visit.

While we may be known for our castles, mountains, cruise ships, and hotels, I believe that one of the things that most sets Disney apart is our castand its their special, individualized, and unscripted interactions with guests that create the most memorable Disney moments.

Big or small, those interactions are often captured in the letters we receive from our guests every day. In fact, reading those letters is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. They dont always mention their favorite attraction, show, or meal, but they almost always tell us about a cast member who made their experience unforgettable.

This is true for guests I run into in the parks as well. They love telling me all about the cast members who have made a difference in their visit. But they also seem to have one inevitable question for me.

How does Disney do it?

Of course, my first answer is always, Its magic. This gets mixed reactions. Some accept this answer with a smile and give me a look that says, I knew you were going to say that.

Others, however, press harder for concrete answers, as they genuinely want to know the secrets to how we create that magic. Some of them have businesses of their own, with a workforce to motivate, customers they need to please, and products they want to be valuable and relevant.

They want to know exactly, step by step, what we do to make each person feel special throughout a Disney vacation. They want to know why our cast members are always smilinghow they maintain the enthusiasm, creativity, and ability to transport guests to a place of fantasy and adventure while simultaneously making them feel right at home.

Most are quite shocked when I tell them that it isnt a secret at all. In fact, we publish a bookthis bookdescribing precisely how we create and deliver a world-class guest experience.

And as you read through Be Our Guest, youll see that our magic is both an art and a science. We start with a great story and design ideas to create an experience. We implement training and processes like any well-run company to make sure that we operate safely and efficiently. And we rely on the intuitive hospitality and friendliness of our outstanding cast to make each guest feel like we have designed the place just for them. As a result, after several decades of practice, we have combined this art and this science to build a culture of world-famous storytelling and legendary guest service.

Creating the best possible experience for our guests to share with family, friends, loved ones, and colleagues is the essence of what we do, and it defines who we are.

Individual stories, attractions, and experiences may change over time, but the expectation to deliver a magical guest experience is timeless. It is our dream and our mission to keep that magic alive, to exceed those expectations, and to welcome people around the world to be our guests for years to come.

Sincerely,

Tom Staggs

Chairman

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Introduction

In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.
Walt Disney

W alt Disney harnessed the talents of his cast members (Disney-speak for employees) and inspired their hearts with his vision to create unparalleled entertainment experiences. He understood innately that the long-term success of his company depended upon his ability to motivate people, one day and one innovation at a time.

The year 2011 not only commemorates the 110th anniversary of Walts birth, it also marks another important anniversary for The Walt Disney Company: the 25th year of providing The Disney Approach professional development programs to organizations worldwide. Tens of thousands of business practitioners in virtually every industry and country have experienced Disney Institute over the past quarter century. They have found that Disney Institute programs do much more than provide a substantial learning opportunity. These programs inspire participants to see themselves, their organizations, and the world at large in an entirely new lightusing Disney best practices as their beacon.

From our earliest days, education has been a hallmark of our company. It was Walt himself who said, We have always tried to be guided by the basic idea that, in the discovery of knowledge, there is great entertainmentas, conversely, in all good entertainment, there is always some grain of wisdom, humanity, or enlightenment to be gained. This philosophy is deeply embedded in all Disney Institute programming.

When Tom Peters and Bob Waterman profiled The Walt Disney Company (then Walt Disney Productions) in their groundbreaking 1984 book and companion video, In Search of Excellence, corporate eyes turned to Disney as a company that sets the benchmark for best business practices. To facilitate the benchmarking process, the Walt Disney World Resort in 1986 created a program called The Disney Approach to People Management.

But the corporate thirst for information about the critical success factors that drive Disneys growth could not be quenched by one topic. So over the years, new programs were created around Disneys overall approach to business excellence, including creativity, leadership, customer service, and brand loyalty. In 1996, these professional development programs became the core of Disney Institute, and remain so today.

Since then, Disney Institute has worked with companies around the world, including many Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and philanthropic, educational, and health-care institutions. We have established a significant presence in the training world based on our abilities to appeal to leaders in a broad range of organizations and to customize our content into programs that uniquely connect participants to their own heritage, values, people, and guests.