This weekend, Heidi and I took Harrison to Disneyland for the first time. We never planned on taking him as a one-year-old, but when the grandparents graciously offer to pay for your hotel and admission, how can you say no? We had a great deal of fun on this trip (though I recommend not going over Labor Day weekend), but I must admit that I was disappointed in some of the changes I noticed at the Disneyland Resort.
For decades, the Walt Disney Company has been the model for other businesses who want to create a wow experience for customers. Their theme parks have been the pinnacle of showmanship, and they have a long history of going the distance to create magical memories. The core of this magic has always rested in the quality of their employees — more commonly called “cast members”. In Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service, the Disney Institute quotes past President and CEO Michael Eisner as saying,
“Nothing so visibly defines Disney’s parks as the warmth and commitment of our cast members over the years, and the appreciation that guests feel for the way they are treated.”
Unfortunately for Disney, our most recent visit was marked by a very apparent lack of “warmth and commitment” from cast members of all stripes.
Instead of attentive, cheerful parking attendants, I saw only disinterested, miserable people who could barely muster up enough enthusiasm to point to our parking space. I get more energy from the lot attendants at Cardinal’s games.
As we boarded the tram, I expected to hear the cheerful voice of the tram operator welcoming me to the happiest place on earth. Instead, I hear a barely intelligible list of rules barked out over the on-board speakers without the slightest hint of inflection. This is showmanship? Honestly, that experience was no more remarkable than listening to the guy running the DC Metro trains.
As we approached the gates, our bags are checked by the same impersonal robots who can’t even form a smile as they rifle through my son’s diaper bag. No, “Is this his first visit?” conversation, just a grunt and we’re waved through. Were these guys trained by the TSA?
The ticket-takers were not any more personable. The magical sound that the booth makes as I scanned my ticket was tarnished by the thirty-year-old booth operator named Marco who mumbles a depressed “next” to the rest of the line. Where’s the attention to detail?
Perhaps most appalling was the lack of showmanship I saw from the cast members inside the park. Most of the ride operators might as well have been Six Flags employees. The vast majority of them did not make any effort to create an experience — they just did their job. Oftentimes, they focused their attention on other cast members and chatted with each other as family after family passed them by. I even had a girl working the Fantasmic show interrupt me asking for help so that she could tell another passing cast member that she “got in trouble for talking to friends at work”.
Instead of coming to work to create WOW experiences, the cast members I saw this past weekend came for the sole purpose of punching a clock — and it showed.
I doubt seriously that anyone associated with the Disney Company will read this post, but if by some chance someone does, let me say this: I love Disney’s long and rich history of creating WOW experiences, and I want that drive to create magic to live on as my kids take their kids to your park thirty years from now. What I have seen in my last few visits is an obvious decline in the very heart and soul that sets Disney apart from other vacation destinations. If things don’t improve, then you will be relegated to the status of just another theme park — something that Walt Disney never wanted. I hope to see more effort from your cast members in the future. They will make or break your reputation.
What about you? Have you seen a decline in customer service at any of the Disney theme parks?
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