Another Example of Disney's Great Service!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352063,00.html

They searched through the trash to find the rings.

Do you think the folks at Breakers at Cedar Point would do the same thing? I doubt it.

-Sam

I'm still having a hard time figuring out whether this is actually a pro-Disney, or anti-CF topic.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer...

Other than that, it's something I've come to expect from Disney.

It's silly to speculate about what any park would do in that situation and then declare said park evil or otherwise inferior. You're flame baiting, and it's lame.

Disney has great service, but that's not really a reason to go against another park.

That said, the article doesn't mention what resort they were staying at. Pop Century or Grand Floridian, that makes a difference you know. *** Edited 4/22/2008 4:39:30 PM UTC by gomez***

Well, back in 1996 when Mantis was brand spankin new, we happened to be the last train on a summer night after the park had closed. A friend of mine lost a necklace/locket somehow on the ride. Thinking it fell in the "moat" workers at CP had their flashlights out, working extra (these were sweepers, etc...who I am quite sure were anxious to call it a day...it was clsoe to midnight) all helping to locate it. About 30 minutes later it was found floating.

So there you go.

Another example of Cedar Point's great service!!

Come on..this is situational. Every employee is going to act different.

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gomez said:
...the article doesn't mention what resort they were staying at. Pop Century or Grand Floridian, that makes a difference you know.

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It seems to imply they were in a Wilderness Lodge Villa:

"Back at the Wilderness Lodge resort, executive housekeeper Drew Weaver realized that trash from the Campanales' villa hadn't reached the industrial-size compactor yet."

They weren't exactly staying on the cheap. :)

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OhioStater said:
Come on..this is situational. Every employee is going to act different.

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Ding ding ding! We have our winner. :)

"Do you think the folks at Breakers at Cedar Point would do the same thing? I doubt it."

I take offense to that statement. You can't know what Breakers employees would or would not do. Let me share a story.

Dateline: 1994. The Monopoly "game" at McDonald's is at a height of popularity. I am notified that a guest is claiming that a housekeeper threw away his winning gamepiece that was for a new car. Red flags go up of course. Seriously, if you won a new car would that token leave your hand? Would you just set it down on the nightstand while you spend the day in the park? No, I don't think so.

But, said guest called down to the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. He was quite certain that we threw away his winning ticket and he was claming the park was at fault and threatening legal action.

So, instead of staffing this off to some unfortunate minimum wage worker, I donned protective gear (in this case rubber gloves) and literally dove into the hotel dumpster. (Now I would be more likely to staff that out these days.)

I went through piles and piles of garbage until, lo and behold, I found a bag of trash that was indeed from this guest's room. (Other items in the trash helped us identify it as his.) So, the suspense was overwhelming (not unlike the stench) as we cast aside various snotty tissues and tampon applicators until the unmistakable grin of Ronald McDonald appeared. There, right in front of my, was the McDonald's bag.

I gingerly separated the Big Mac wrapper from the ketchup stained napkins. I cast aside the fry container and the bar-b-q sauce and found...there in front of me...the game piece. Clouds parted, sun rays streamed in over the clang, clang, clang of the Corkscrew ascending the lift hill. The crowd that had now gathered peered in a little closer to see the results of my search. And finally, we had our answer.

The guest was not, in fact, a winner.

Providing good customer service has little to do with the employer and everything to do with the employee. Disney does set up an environment that makes cast members want to go above and beyond for guests but there are plenty of examples of bad service at Disney...and plenty of examples of good service at Cedar Point.

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Providing good customer service has little to do with the employer and everything to do with the employee.

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I couldn't agree more and I've been trying to share that line of thought for quite a while now. It doesn't seem that too many people believe that.

If it's not stressed by the employer, it's not going to be something the employees view as "mission-critical".

I just needed to disagree with Gonch...for a change of pace. ;)

On the flip side - you can stress it all you want as an employer, but the employee will still react as they so choose.

Customer service is an intangible. There's very few black & white guidelines. Obviously, the mission is to provide the best service for the guest - that can be (and will be) interpreted in countless manners by employees.

I also disagree with wahoo & Gonch, but I understand their point.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Obviously, the mission is to provide the best service for the guest - that can be (and will be) interpreted in countless manners by employees.

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As we witnessed with Pluto and various other mascot incidents at Disney. :)

I also have seen numerous examples of Cedar Point (CF), doing numerous things to go above and beyond for the guest. From closing a ride temporarily to search for my friends keys and cell phone (even though its not standard procedure), to myself walking around under Millennium Force's lift for an hour looking for lost articles.

And I've heard many other stories...

Disney is a great company, but they aren't the only company that hires employees who care deeply about their guests.

The thing about Disney is that they empower employees to enhance the guest experience. And, it doesn't matter what level the cast member is at. Housekeepers will notice stuffed animals in a kid's bed and set them up in different ways each morning for the kid to find when he/she gets back to the room. That has no cost (other than a few moments of time) yet has a tremendous impact.

I'm thinking of another time when a guest was checking out of my hotel and commented that they were regretful that they did not buy a hat (or some other trinket) for their child. They had no tickets to return to the park so they were going to forego it. I happened to overhear the conversation.

Now, Cedar Point COULD have some type of preestablished program in place to make something like that a simple fix. (Say I could call merchandise, have them send out a "runner" with the hat, collect the money at the hotel desk and credit it to merchandise.) Nothing like that existed.

So, I had the guest give me $20 and told him to go back to the room they had checked out of...informed housekeeping to leave them alone for the time being..and set out. I jumped in the hotel van and had the driver drop me off at the back gate. Then I ran through the park to the store he had mentioned, bought the hat and ran back out to the back gate. The van driver picked me up, took me back to the hotel and I went to the guest room with the hat in hand.

The guest was very appreciative. Did he ever come back? I don't know. But, I didn't give him a reason NOT to.

Now, none of my supervisors asked me to do this and, in fact, they may have been put off that I took the time to do so. But, it wasn't a complicated way to try and win over a guest. (It could have been easier...if the company had a smart system in place...but it wasn't impossible. I just had to WANT to do it.)

I have never had a bad customer experience at any Cedar Fair Park, especially Cedar Point. Yeah, some of their policies suck a$$, yet I never had a problem with one of their employees, ever. Every employee I have met has been willing to go over and above the call of duty even if I insist that it is not necessary. Now, are they as good as Disney? Probably not, but I do think that given the situation noted above that the employees at Breakers would do the same thing.

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wahoo skipper said:
Now, none of my supervisors asked me to do this and, in fact, they may have been put off that I took the time to do so. But, it wasn't a complicated way to try and win over a guest. (It could have been easier...if the company had a smart system in place...but it wasn't impossible. I just had to WANT to do it.)

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Exactly. And with a different employee in your shoes and all other things being equal - things might have played out very differently for those guests...at no fault of anyone above or in supervision of that employee.

*Ok, time for a confession.

I worked at Disney before I worked at Cedar Point. But, I think you have the type of personality that wants to assist guests or you don't.

In the same vein, I think you either have the personality that puts all of your effort into your job or you have the personality that just phones it in.

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Avalanche Sam said:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352063,00.html

They searched through the trash to find the rings.

Do you think the folks at Breakers at Cedar Point would do the same thing? I doubt it.

-Sam

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I guarantee the people at HB would do the same thing Disney did. A lot of people would. Quit your belly aching.

^^^I look at it a LITTLE differently. Not from the stance of "fault/blame", but more from the viewpoint of emphasizing the importnace of excellent customer service.

Will I fire you for NOT going the extra mile? Probably not.

Is the employee who DOES go the extra mile more likely to be the one getting raises and promotions? You bet your bippy! :)

P.S. edited for ^arrows^.... *** Edited 4/22/2008 7:31:23 PM UTC by rollergator***

While I was in Italy I was visiting a beautiful park (former base for Napoleon of all things) with a group of people. We were walking along near this long, picturesque fountain when, out of the corner of my eye, I see something fly into the water. At first I thought it was the nice looking couple down the way feeding the fish.

Well, that IS what they were trying to do but somehow, as the woman was trying to fling the remaining bread crumbs into the water, her wedding ring flew off as well. She was instantly in tears and her husband dove to his knees, frantically feeling his way around for the ring.

Now, it was probably 45-50 degrees out...and that water was even colder. I felt so sorry for that couple and just couldn't stand by doing nothing. So, I took off my jacket, pulled up the sleeves of my shirt, got on my knees and started dragging the bottom of this dirty fountain with my hands to try and help find the ring. I searched a good 20-30 minutes in vain while the group I was with grew impatient with me. These people didn't speak a lick of English and I spoke very little Italian but I just felt compelled to help. Alas, we didn't find it.

A couple of hours later, as we were leaving the park, the couple came running up to me speaking feverishly in a manner I couldn't understand. Then she thrust out her hand and there was the ring. I found out through a translator that after I left with my group the couple just sat down and the wife cried in her husband's arms. After some time passed the dirt we had stirred up on the bottom of the fountain settled and the sun revealed a tiny flash of light that caught the wife right between the eyes. She bent down and picked up the half submerged oject...and it was, in fact, her ring.

Again, I think you can be "directed" to provide good service. An employer can try to establish an environment (ala Disney) where it is more common and expected to go above and beyond, but either you have the personality to actually do it or you don't. I would argue that if you don't have the personality to begin with...a company asking you to do it probably won't significantly impact your willingness to do so.

But, I would again defend Cedar Point (and the Resorts in particular) by saying I saw plenty of good examples of good customer service that never got national headlines.