Listen.
Do you hear that?
The lonesome muffled cry of……
No, not a whippoorwill’s lonesome cry.
Your employees.
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Just about every time I take a group to Disney for one of my Ultimate Client Experience Boot Camps, we get an opportunity to meet a real queen.
And not the sordid queens with sons embroiled in Jeffery Epstein scandals.
Not the guys dressed as girls queens
But a real, live queen that does not make you bow or curtsey, nor does she make her loyal subjects (employees) do it either.
Actually she is more of a reverse queen, one that supports her employees rather than ruling over them.
During my last boot camp, Debbi came out of the castle to talk to my attendees. That is one of the benefits of the boot camp, getting to talk to real Disney Leaders that do the work, every day.
This will take you to a funny picture where she tries to take a selfie with out group… Kind of a selfie fail.
Debbi is the Proprietor of Cinderella’s Royal Table, the character dining experience in the castle, and has well over 300 cast members under her direction and care.
My attendees are often amazed to hear her
number 1 management secret
Listening to your frontline.
Hearing their ideas, their concerns and what’s going on in their personal lives…every day.
It may seem like the most simple thing, yet it’s one of the most unpracticed habits across the board. New research from UKG found that 86% of employees feel colleagues at their organization are not heard fairly or equally – with 47% of teams claiming underrepresented voices are totally undervalued by their leaders.
A true shame, because when this habit is practiced with sincerity, everybody wins.
And that is how Debbi continually has one of the highest rated (and profitable) locations on Disney property.
She has a file…. a real one with 3×5 cards, not electronic, for each employee.
Now, these cards are not about tracking performance, attendance or longevity.
They contain far greater, more valuable information about the cast member:
- Favorite color
- Kids names
- Spouses name
- Spouses birthday
- Favorite food
- Favorite Disney character.
- And on and on and on…..
Armed with this information, Debbi not only has a good understanding of, and truly knows the employee, but she has a firm grasp on what her guests are thinking, saying and feeling.
You can spend thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars on traditional research methods that aim to understand more about your customers. Heck, Disney spends gagillions surveying guests.
But all Debbi has to do is sit down with a cast member, have a conversation (NOT a meeting) and ask what the guests are saying, doing and feeling. Debbi says:
It’s the cast members who are closest to serving the guests, who get an unfiltered view of how guests interact with our service.”
- Waiters, for example, have the best intel on what guests favorite dishes are and which are the least popular.
- Retail floor cast know why guests didn’t like certain garments.
- Hotel workers know the types of people that come through the door and what they’re looking for.
It makes sense, right? They’re the closest to the customer. They hear the feedback every day about that frustrating issue.
Well before any survey results.
Let’s face it. Being on the frontline is tough. Not everyone possesses the ability to provide customer service day after day, minute by minute. It takes patience, compassion and resilience.
At the end of the day, frontline employees want to feel valued and respected for what they do, and listening to them is a huge part of that.
Listening is just one of 7 habits of profitable companies, and it does not cost you a penny to implement.
But only DSNi Inner Circle Cast Members will get the other 6,
In addition to these 7 habits, I will also be revealing:
- Creating Hassle Free workplaces
- Disney’s 4 pillars for engaged employees
- Low and no cost methods of recognition and reward
- My secret “passport to excellence” for employee engagement that I devised while working at Disney World
And a whole lot more…..
But don’t dilly dally, this months Mouster Class goes into the DSNi vault at midnight on 1/31/22.
Check it out==> https://www.deliverservicenow.com/invitation/
