So one of my favorite places on planet earth is the magic kingdom and really any of the Disney properties. And it goes for the hotels, the cruise line, from what I’ve read, I can’t vouch for the cruise line because I’d never been on a Disney cruise, just jet, the restaurants, everything that relates to Disney.
So I was just there a couple of weeks ago and I always look at everything from an experience standpoint, but then also from a marketing standpoint. And I always like to try it. Anytime I’m doing anything or experiencing anything, I try and bring something back to give to you. A lesson, an idea, a thought. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t have Disney-like financial resources.
But there is one area out of everything else that I believe Disney shines on. And it’s not just creating magical experiences. Now that’s one of them. But what’s interesting, when I was looking at observing, I didn’t see a ton of happy people.
People hate waiting in lines. It’s warm there. They’re sweating, food’s expensive. Souvenirs are expensive. Now, not everyone is miserable by any means.
But the area that I feel that Disney really excels at, that you should look at for your business, is they’re able to anticipate their customers’ needs and plan for those things. So for example, they know that people are going to have random things with their kids, that they’ve gotten their hands that they want to throw out. So they want to make sure the park is clean. So they anticipate, and they actually know down to a science where to place the trash cans, how many people they need to be manning the streets and the attractions and things like that to clean up for trash so the place is spotless. But they’re anticipating that rather than being reactive. They even have their own underground system of trash and it’s insane. That’s on my bucket list to get to, to get one of those behind the scenes tours.
Now the trash thing is a really small example. So let’s look at some other examples with Disney. They rolled out the fast passes a couple of years ago because they knew that there were certain rides that people wanted to see. They wanted to cut back on, uh, waiting for every single ride. So rather than just rewarding some people, they’re rewarding everyone with, hey, you want some fast passes to, to really cut your line down by 70, 80, 90%. And they did that based on data and trends and feedback. So, uh, they obviously took a reactive approach thereafter, but now they’re more proactive with it. But they continue to anticipate those different needs and continue to refine and change the system.
They know that while you’re waiting, you’re going to be bored. So they’re anticipating that and then they turn the lines and things like that. As you’re going through into attractions for themselves. They anticipate that you’re going to be grumpy when the park opens up because you most likely had to wake up early be you’re then having to wait and some insanely long lines.
And if it’s magic kingdom, you’ve got to take a shuttle, the train thing, or a ferry boat. So there’s all these other things, they anticipate that you’re going to be grumpy. So they have extra people that are literally greeting you, more people than usual to aim to put a smile on your face. So they’re really anticipating anything and everything that you could want so that they can surprise and almost delight you.
So if I look at your business, are you being reactive or are you being proactive? What I want you to do is really take a look at the experience that your customers and your prospects are having. And I want you to really look at that sequence to see are you anticipating different things? So when you get a new customer, what is that process? Are you anticipating and addressing and answering their questions and things like that? Are you tackling all of those?
If not, what can you do to further improve that process? How can you surprise and delight? Are you sending a little welcome kit for example, or a care package or some treats in the mail when you get a new customer?
When you get someone that comes into your restaurant or your food establishment for the first time, what are you doing to surprise and delight them to continue to get them coming back, but again, anticipating their needs. If you know that you’re always going to have a wait at your restaurant, people are going to have to wait 10, 20, 30, 40 minutes. Why don’t you have something in the waiting area? I believe it’s a Roadhouse or one of the steak restaurants. They have peanuts in the waiting area. That little simple thing reduces the friction of the waiting time.
So yes, Disney is all about creating magical experiences and creating magic and there is a lot of magic in their parks, but they are insane when it comes to customer service and customer experience.
And I would challenge you that, and even myself.
This probably isn’t an area that you spend enough time thinking about. You focus most of your energy on acquiring that customer that you’re then forgetting about making sure that they have an amazing experience with regardless of what your business is. Funeral home – how could you have an amazing experience? Well, put yourself in the shoes of the family that booked the funeral home. No, it’s not going to be an amazing experience, but I would say that what can you do to provide a frictionless experience? The money stuff is already handled.
So there’s no discussion of money during any of the funeral stuff. Any drama when it comes to seating, is there going to be any issues with what family wants to sit where, you’ve handled that upfront and you’ve discussed it, you’ve planned out, the route and things like that. So you’re, you’ve already anticipated the traffic. So if you’re driving from the church to the cemetery – that’s been anticipated, there’s umbrellas if the weather’s bad.
So like all of those, you’re thinking through the experience. And then after the fact is well. But this whole Disney experience, they want to make sure that whatever they can do to make sure that you do have the best time possible and the best time possible might not mean that you’re smiling the entire time. Because it is tough when you’ve got a couple of screaming kids and it’s warm out and you’re waiting in lines. That’s tough.
But rather than trying to ensure that, they focus on ensuring that they’re removing friction, they’re anticipating the challenges you’re going to have, they’re anticipating the needs you’re going to have. You’ve got to start thinking more about the journey that your customers then start to go through of how can you plan that through. So at our agency, I shot, I don’t know, 15 videos because I realized that even though we did a lot of Q and a during our sales process, most of our new customers forgot everything that we said. So I shot a video of this is what you can expect here, anticipating and squashing those questions ahead of time.
Think about that and think about where in your business you can better drive a more frictionless experience for your customers on the front end and the backend.
