How Many Cast Members Do You Interact With Each Day?

Recently I had an opportunity to return to the Happiest Place on Earth to enjoy a day at both parks with my wife. We laughed, cried and enjoyed our way thinking about the many memories we had of being at Disneyland. The park was beautiful, and frankly, managed matters fairly well during the magnitude 5.4 Southern California earthquake centered around Chino Hills we experienced last week Tuesday.

Since I’m from Orlando, Florida, I typically visit the parks either with my clients when we experience a program or with my family for a few hours as an annual passholder. I don’t usually go from park opening to park closing. We don’t always make it to the Disneyland Resort as often as I would like so we wanted to spend as much time as possible.

When I was with the Disney we would tell our participants that guests typically experience an average of some 65 interactions with Disney cast members in any given day. From monorail hosts to jungle cruise skippers, from dining reservationists to restroom attendants, from Emporium cashiers to lifeguards, the total number of interactions should arrive somewhere at 65. More importantly, that during all of those exchanges there should be some truly interactive, memorable moments that build guest loyalty.

While we always stated those numbers, I never really saw the data as to whether that really happened. Do you really interact with more than 65 cast members in a typical day? I decided to try that out for myself on this visit to Disneyland. Here are the conditions of that visit:

• We were not staying in a Disney resort but off property, which removed some opportunities for interaction.
• We were going to park hop between Disneyland and Disney’s California Resort.
• We were going to arrive at opening and stay as late as we had energy, but we were going back to our hotel room for a break in the afternoon
• We would not count passing by any cast member, but we would count anyone participating in our experience such as helping us to queue, even if they were not giving us specific attention.
• We didn’t have children with us. And I know the park well. So we should acknowledge that we were fairly low maintenance and not altogether proactive in seeking out interaction.
• We would identify what observable standards that were demonstrated.

The surprising news is that we had more than 65 interactions! In fact, we had more than 75 interactions with Disneyland cast members. I won’t go into each in detail, though I have listed those on the end of the article. What I do want to share are the lessons I gleaned from this experience.

There is Always Room for Courtesy

There were some 27 cast members who exhibited some courtesy. And when I say courtesy, I’ve created a very low threshold of simply saying, “Please,” “How may I help you?” or “Thank you.” In a day of being in the park, that’s only one-third of the total interactions I experienced among Disneyland cast members. I can’t help but think that a little more courtesy would go a long way toward creating customer loyalty. Is it that hard for someone directing traffic in the middle of the fireworks to simply say “Please keep moving forward.” Rather than telling people to get off the railing while watching the Pixar Play Parade, could we offer an apology and direct them to some locations where they could comfortably view the parade? Are cast members concerned that saying that people will listen less to them? If they do, then they are misinformed, because the research shows that a little bit of courtesy creates more compliant behavior on the part of others.

There is Greater Room for Real Connection

In an entire day of interactions, there were only some six individuals who really went out of the way to say something other than what they said to some 500 people that day. I describe some of those later on, but some were as simple as offering to provide you a churro that was fresh and warm. There are huge opportunities here.

At Least Smile or Say Hi

In my entire day, there was only one individual who, while not required to serve me, actually provided me a smile or a simple greeting of hello in passing. That individual was a host I walked by as I cut through the dome at the entrance to Golden Dreams. I’ve spoken about this as being a requirement at The Ritz-Carlton. Their employees are expected to greet people in passing. Again, this is a huge opportunity that requires little investment.

You’re Never Too Busy to Interact

I don’t have a better example of this than a cast member working alone running the embarkment/dispatch of guests as they were boarding Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. He greeted every guest. He sought to interact with them, making some compliment or asking them a question about how their day was going while they were boarding—all the while being safe and efficient. A bellhop at the Tower of Terror was also doing so many things at once—and that operation was cranking in the boiler room, with no queue back-ups into the library area. Both of these cast members were taking it on. In short, just because there are a lot of people, doesn’t mean you’re too busy to interact.

Communicating = Interacting

One of the best ways to individually interact is to communicate. There was a huge line at park opening but they were bringing guests through efficiently (a few seconds between turnstile clicks). When I arrived with an electronic ticket (park pass) purchased online, he explained the procedure he needed to do to exchange that ticket, and apologized for software weaknesses in taking any longer than necessary. And yet I got through in less than 30 seconds. Still, he communicated his desire to get us through as efficiently as possible. On the other hand, I asked twice on two separate experiences of passing through security why there wasn’t a bypass line like at Walt Disney World. In neither experience did anyone bother to reply. In short, interacting means you communicate.

Everyone Interacts

I really like Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, but I don’t count their performance as being a true interaction. But a real moment for interacting came two-thirds through the performance when an earthquake came rolling through The Golden Horseshoe as well as all of Southern California. I’ve been through earthquakes before and understand the value of being under a desk of a doorway. But you probably haven’t been on the second floor of The Golden Horseshoe. If the show wasn’t on a roll, the balcony certainly was—literally. The lights went black. And the cast exited stage left. We were toward the rear and headed quickly down the stairs and out the door. I don’t know what happened afterward. But I wondered if the cast of the show shouldn’t have had a plan for what should be announced in the event of an emergency. I don’t want to judge these guys. They were as surprised as any of us. But they have a role outside of being part of the entertainment and show. That too are part of the interaction.

Communicate Non-Verbally When You’re Verbally Dealing With Others

If a greeter is having to deal with a guest in a 1:1 manner, they can still smile, give eye contact, as well as motion or wave to others while they are engaged in that conversation. And I have no problem with cast members interacting with each other. After all, part of what makes the magic work is when they work together as a team. But that shouldn’t interrupt the requirements of their role, and they should still seek to give eye contact to the guests. One example came while boarding the ships on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Two individuals were walking the treadmill while holding some discussion, I don’t know the topic. But there was still opportunity to gesture guests into each of their vehicles, or at least provide eye contact. Immediately following, there was another CM at the end of the treadmill ensuring that the front of the ship vehicles were in the closed position. We were very close to her in physical proximity but she didn’t give eye contact even though I did. Come to think about it. There were fairly few experiences where people gave eye contact, with the possibility of experiencing such declining as the number of guests being handled increased. Clearly there is an opportunity for simply better eye contact.

Those are my summary of the experience. Take a look at the data yourself in the following table, and consider trying this out for yourself. You don’t have to describe each situation, but just keep track of how many cast member interactions you’ve had. And then note which one of those were truly memorable.

Think about the number of interactions your customers go through. Chances are, they don’t go through as many as one experiences at Disneyland. But that probably means that each of those fewer interactions are even more important than ever.

What do you do to maximize those in a way that creates customer loyalty? Do your employees see the importance of creating as many 1:1 personalized interactions as possible? It’s the key to customer loyalty and it’s probably one of the most important parts of bringing the magic to your business.

See you at the parks,

Jeff