I’m very excited to announce something very wonderful. I am publishing my first book, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney.
It’s really dedicated to those who would love to make their work environment as polished and customer-friendly as a day at Disney. This book is a celebration of great business practices that can be applied to any service organization. You’ll see it from my eyes of having been both a Disney cast member as well as an expert in best in business practices of some of the world’s best performing organizations.
Just think about it! It’s the one Disney book that you can not only read at work, but can claim as a business expense! Why? Because it will tell give you solid ideas for making your business more customer-friendly. So enjoy it! At work!
Plus, when you purchase this book, you’ll have access to an online world of additional ideas and examples not only from Disney, but from those who have taken these great ideas and put them into practice back at the office. Whether you are in the private or public sector, you’ll find solutions that can take your organization to the next level. Just contact us at performancejourneys.com.
For me, it’s a personal milestone and I want to thank the great team at MousePlanet for having given me an opportunity to exercise the discipline of writing a column in order to eventually create a book. Many of us met many of you last Saturday at MouseFest in Orlando, where I was able to sign some of the first copies of the book. By the way, mention MousePlanet and you’ll receive 25 percent off a first-edition copy.
Having said that, I must put in a few notations. It isn’t actually my first book. It’s not even my second book really. But it’s the first book available to the public that carries my name with it.
You see, the first book I wrote was for my master’s thesis back when I was at school. That book was An Historical, Descriptive Study of Disney Educational Media as Informative and Entertaining. Terrible title. But it was my first serious work. And most important, it was about Disney. This thesis came about as a result of a wise and caring professor at school, who suggested after several badly failed attempts on launching my thesis, that it be about something I really, really liked, because I would eventually come to a place where only my passion for the subject would be the only thing that gets me through this.
So I lay on my bed one Sunday morning thinking about what I really had passion around. It was obvious! Disney! And since my emphasis was around training and development, why not showcase what Disney has always done around. That was a really great experience, in that it was an opportunity to use the facilities found at The Disney Archives. I watched hours of film, and studied files of correspondence. Ask me any question you have about Man in Space, Donald Duck in Mathematic Land and even Victory Through Air Power. All of which made great contributions to education in our society.
I will also mention a second book endeavor that didn’t carry my name. That was Be Our Guest a Disney Institute book with a foreword by Michael Eisner. We at The Disney Institute felt that a book was really needed about our programs. The programming I was responsible for was customer service. We wanted to play a role in writing that book, but were told that the “powers that be” wanted an outside writer. One was hired, and after a year of waiting, nothing occurred. They hired a second writer and that individual largely took the workbooks and leader guides I had written and placed them in a chapter format. It was a disappointing experience. Even the writer’s name on the book is not found on the book. And no one at The Disney Institute was individually credited. Plus I really didn’t think the writer understood the subject.
That’s why I’m really excited about this new title, this particular one in the series focusing on customer service. I say series, because my next step is to begin work on the next book in the series, The Wonderful World of Leadership at Disney. I’m excited that the upcoming articles here on MousePlanet will showcase many of those concepts as I write the book. We’ll learn lessons from Walt himself, from Roy, from Eisner and Frank Wells; from Bob Iger as well as Card Walker, Ron Miller, and Donn Tatum. We’ll even learn lessons of leadership from organizational heads like Judson Green, Al Weiss, Dick Nunis, John Lasseter and even Steve Jobs!
So 2009 is an exciting year. We’re look forward to what lies ahead and hope you do to. Meanwhile, enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you at the parks!
[To purchase your copy of The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney, please visit us at PerformanceJourneys.com.]
