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A formal report for my Business Communications class exploring a business facet from a company of our choice. I choose The Walt Disney Company and how their resorts manage customer relationships. Written on April 29, 2019.
An informal case analysis and memo recommendation report for my Strategic Management and Business Policy class exploring how Anheuser-Busch InBev can find continued success. Written on March 12, 2020.
HOW THE WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT MANAGES CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Recommendations for Anheuser-Busch InBev
INTRODUCTION
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The purpose of this report is to provide information and insight on how the Walt Disney World Resort manages customer relationships. The Disney resort has become the standard for other companies to base their customer relationship management strategy upon, due to their high levels of service and relationship excellence. Disney refers to their employees as cast members to instill the fundamental concept of “putting on a show” as they strive for perfect, practiced, and consistent customer interactions.
Additionally, specific strategic practices and how they all come together to form the globally-recognized level of Disney customer service will be explored in this report. The research for this report includes two website articles, an article from the CRM Magazine, and an eBook focused on achieving the highly sought-after Disney-level customer experience. The first topic discussed here describes ways in which cast members prioritize customer experiences.
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PART I—CUSTOMER PRIORITIZATION CREATES EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE EXPERIENCES
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During the employee training process, cast members are equipped with appropriate skills to ensure a consistent level of customer service. These skills range from extensive sensitivity training to simply company commitment. It is no secret that Disney is customer-centric, but to implement this, cast members are incentivized to adopt a guest point of view during complicated situations. As former Disney cast member Dennis Snow explains in an CRM Magazine article, “stupid questions from customers might not seem so stupid ‘when you look at them through customer lens, when you see what’s behind the question’” (Klie, 2016, p.13).
As cast members make conscious efforts to empathize and create intentional positive guest experiences, internal recognition programs are used to reward them. Cast members can be nominated for recognition by their leadership team, their co-workers, and even their guests. Awards can range from formal awards given out during ceremonies to informal awards that offer instant recognition to those cast members going above and beyond. Some awards are based on primary guest service standards which “include Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency” (Kober, 2016, para 19). Awards can simply be certificates highlighting customer service excellence, or they can have monetary value signifying the literal added value to the company that stem from positive cast member interactions.
Though the Walt Disney World Resort does strive for perfection, mistakes do happen, and guests can find themselves in undesirable situations. Disney recognizes these occurrences and has empowered cast members with the training and tools necessary to recover bad guest situations and transform them into positive guest interactions. For example, if a guest trips and spills their newly purchased ice cream all over their shirt, a witness cast member can offer their assistance cleaning, as the guest assesses their health. Then, that cast member can easily replace their ice cream, as well as offer a voucher for a new shirt at one of the Disney gift shops. An interaction like this would display to the customer that Disney does care about customer levels of satisfaction and overall experiences at their resort.
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PART II—DETAILS ARE CRUCIAL FOR SUCCESSFUL CRM
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The Walt Disney World Resort has spent a lot of time and money in detailing every building and its surrounding elements to ensure everything fits into the story they attempt to convey. Disney also ensures their cast members are viewed as accessible, “employees can become ‘language certified’, which means that they can wear pins which indicate what languages they speak, in turn making it clear to guests that they can assist them if necessary” (Gilliland, 2017, para. 10). Cast member interactions with guests are just as important to the overall experience Disney strives to create. Every day cast members must actively choose to have a welcoming attitude towards each and every guest. Cast members cannot passively view their guests as just more people. A passive cast member does no harm to guests, however, they also do not add value to the Disney guest experience. Cast members must choose to see every guest as individuals who deserve to experience the magic Disney has to offer. To best achieve this, hiring managers must choose prospective employees who want to represent the Disney company in the highest regard through their acts of customer service.
During the training process, new cast members must learn to become aware of their tone when interacting with guests. Such a small detail can easily make guests feel dismissed and may discourage them from asking simple questions in search of assistance. To combat this, cast members must realize the importance of all of their actions, even just the way they say things, and how that could negatively impact the customer relationship. Disney has strategically implemented a strict code of appearance for their customer facing cast members. This promotes a sense of unity to their guests, as well as internally promoting cast member pride in their appearance which will ultimately translate in how they treat and interact with guests.
Initial impressions are extremely important when guests attempt to form a company-based opinion. Frontline cast member interactions play a huge part in how guests base their opinion on the Disney company as a whole. To steer that guest opinion towards a positive one, cast members must treat every guest with consistent levels of excellence and service.
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PART III—CAST MEMBERS RESPOND RATHER THAN REACT
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The cast members at the Walt Disney World Resort are trained to think through situations carefully so that they can respond with the correct course of action every time, rather than immediately and impulsively react. Bruce Loeffler and Brian Church (2015) describe responding to guest situations as the most important factor in crafting the Disney experience.
"The power of a response has major influence on the customer relationship strategy: The Response is the point at which we find the hallmark of customer service and the Exceptional Experience. If your employees’ reaction time, tone, and talent do not match up with every other aspect of an excellent Experience, everything is rendered useless. It can take vast amounts of effort to build up a relationship with a consumer, but only one negative Response to destroy it." (Loeffler & Church, 2015, p. 176)
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Without appropriate responses from cast members, the customer relationship would significantly suffer. To avoid this, cast members take the time to absorb all relevant information with any given situation and then carefully respond to all parties involved in order to continue their commitment to the Disney service standards. Proper responses also show guests the level of respect and consideration cast members have for them. Cast members can comprehend complex situations and are trained to respond appropriately to keep customer relations intact.
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CONCLUSION
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This in-depth look at Disney customer relationship practices clearly display why they have found great financial success, why their customer retention rate is high, and why their customer base is so loyal. By studying these standard Disney customer relationship tactics, other companies across a variety of industries can find success by mimicking the Walt Disney World Resort customer relationship strategy.
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REFERENCES
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Gilliland, N. (2017). How disney world has mastered customer experience. Retrieved from https://econsultancy.com/how-disney-world-has-mastered-customer-experience/
Klie, L. (2016). Former disney exec urges a customer-centric view. CRM Magazine, 20 (7), 13–14. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=116617614& site=eds-live&scope=site
Kober, Jeff. (2016). Reward & recognition at the walt disney world resort. World Class Benchmarking, Retrieved from worldclassbenchmarking.com/reward-recognition-at-the-walt-disney-world-resort/.
Loeffler, B., & Church, B. T. (2015). The experience: the 5 principles of disney service and relationship excellence. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsebk&AN=971994&site=eds-live&scope=sit
Date: March 12, 2020
To: Professor Gonzalo Molina Sieiro
From: Gabriela Lobo
Subject: Memo for AB InBev for continued success
Recommendations for Anheuser-Busch InBev
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AB InBev has found success in the past through a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions. AB InBev currently consist of a combination of three originally independent companies: the Belgium Interbrew, the Brazilian AmBev, and the American Anheuser-Busch.
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AB InBev has also been successful in acquiring other competitors in the market, such as their acquisition of SABMiller in 2016 for 100 million.
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Although AB InBev is sometimes referred to as “The King of Beers” and are clearly successful, it is imperative to continue pushing for innovative ways to generate more success and not become too comfortable in their position.
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AB InBev is known for their bold mergers and acquisitions within the beer industry; however, looking forward with their major competitors being so large, this is no longer a realistic option for growth.
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We recommend AB InBev to create partnerships with extremely profitable and major theme parks that dominate the entertainment industry, such as The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and NBCUniversal Parks and Resorts.
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By becoming an exclusive beer distributor within these very busy parks, AB InBev will streamline a consistent and reliable revenue based solely on these partners.
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Not only will this allow AB InBev to rely on this avenue of stable and secure income, but this can also allow a great increase of consumer prices on their products within these environments, due to the nature and familiarity of theme park pricing.
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Theme park guests are usually on vacation with enough disposable income to worry less about prices and more about how a product will elevate their experience within the theme park which will in turn signify more profit for AB InBev.
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If AB InBev is able to secure a deal with these major theme parks which explicitly give exclusive rights to their beers within the gates of the parks, this will serve as a huge advantage over their competitors.
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Theme park goers will grow accustomed to the AB InBev brands and will develop a loyalty towards them which in turn can lead to these guests actively choosing an AB InBev brand over a competitor’s when given the choice outside the theme parks.
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A partnership with these beloved theme parks will also allow for the opportunity for synergistic and creative marketing campaigns, promoting theme park goers to buy an AB InBev beer at the parks to enhance their fun.
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This partnership can also lead to new product developments of new beer flavors and specially themed around a theme park symbol, sold only within that specific park which can lead to compatible results.
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There is great opportunity for international growth within these theme parks as there are locations around the globe if AB InBev is able to partner with them in the near future and create synergies with these beloved brands.