The MousePlanet Mailbag is a regular compilation of some of our reader feedback and writer responses that may be of interest to our readers. We encourage you to drop your questions, opinions, or comments to us in care of our mailbag.
In this week’s mailbag, MousePlanet staff writer Jeff Kober shares some letters he received in response to his January 10 article, “I’ve Lost My Car: Providing Service Recovery.” jMom writes:
I just finished reading your “Where did I leave my car?” article and have a great example of Disney CMs rising above and beyond to share.
I was at Disneyland in Anaheim for the first time since I got married and had a child. I was so excited to be there, and my 18-month-old daughter was loving the trip. She loved Snow White especially, and getting to meet her in person was a huge thing. So when my daughter asked for a set of the small princess dolls, I bought them for her. She held them so carefully throughout the day!
Unfortunately, while riding the train around the park, we all got sleepy and… she dropped one of her princess dolls. It was like watching a slow-motion scene in a movie as the princess (I think it was Belle) bounced down, down each step and tumbled off the train. Everyone who saw went “OH!” and my daughter cried.
When we got into the Main Street station, I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask if someone could look for the doll, who had a bright yellow dress and fell off onto the gravel right by the Indian Chief. I also explained that we were due to leave the resort in two hours and while I understood this was not their job, it would mean a lot to my daughter. They listened kindly and asked me to check back in an hour.
We came back over an hour later, and there was my daughter’s doll! They said they had 3 CMs looking in the area and I hope the smile on my daughter’s face made it worth their while! I thanked them a lot too. Everyone was so pleasant, as though it was perfectly normal to have a guest come up and ask them this kind of thing all the time.
I think my daughter would put this in the Hero category, and I agree.
Nicole M. writes:
I am writing in reply to your request for examples of Disney service recovery examples.
In March of 2007 my husband and I got married at WDW. We checked in on Sunday the 4th and were married on Tuesday the 6th. Upon check-in we found a small infestation of ants in our Board Walk studio. I immediately went into panic mode and started visualizing ants getting into my wedding dress (which would be stored in the room) and biting me on my wedding day.
I made my way down to the front desk coming up with more and more creative visualizations of how this ant problem would ruin my wedding. At the front desk I was greeted by Nicole. She was very understanding of my problem. The first thing she did was call maintenance and inform them of the problem. Next she asked them what would be done about the issue. Maintenance was going to put in some traps and some gel down to kill the ants. Nicole made note of this. Upon looking at my face she could tell that this would not be enough. I informed her that I was probably overdramatizing the situation but did not want my wedding dress to be near ants or ant gel.
She called over the manager. Together they worked to get us a different room. Within 25 minutes the situation was taken care of and we were giving a wonderful ant-free room that was right off of the lobby and allowed for us and the wedding party to come and go efficiently as needed.
I still remember Nicole and the manager that helped us out and know they were a key part in keeping me from becoming a bridezilla. This example fits in the FIX IT category however they will both be seen as heroes in my eyes!
Rhonda writes:
You asked us to share our experiences with Disney service recovery. I have one from March 2007 while I was visiting California Adventures with my daughter. She was so excited to finally be able to ride the Maliboomer, yes the Maliboomer, so excited in fact we rode three times that day. The next day that was a must-do on our list and off we went mid-day to go enjoy another round of Maliboomer fun.
Well when the CM put her under the stick she was suddenly too short! I was surprised, my daughter was bummed and the CM said to maybe try again in a few months. I simply asked if they had re-done the height indicator since yesterday as she rode three times yesterday. He said they are checked each morning to make sure they were accurate and would we like to go to the top and measure her there. I said sure so up the single rider line we went and wouldn’t you know she fit fine and the CM at the top said she could ride. I then nicely explained our situation and she said they go by the height at the bottom. I was then greeted by her lead who asked our story, nice guy shook my hand and introduced himself to us.
So after explaining that we did not want to just ride if she was truly too small, that I was just confused about what had happened he handed us two sets of back door passes good for today and tomorrow of our trip. He apologized for the misunderstanding and shook my hand again when I thanked him for his courtesy. I feel like it was the red carpet treatment for us in this situation, as the lead did not have to do anything more than just explain the rules and send us on our way. I wish I could remember this lead’s name as I would let you know who this nice CM was. So that is our story and we enjoyed a few back door rides with no wait for the next two days of our trip.
An Epcot cast member writes:
I just wanted to share an example of service recovery that I participated in. I was working at a stroller rental location early in the day when a guest and her daughter, about 4 years old or so, approached me to rent a stroller. The girl, who was dressed in a princess gown, was visibly excited, and her mother told me that they were going to a character breakfast.
The two rented their stroller, I pointed them in the right direction (with two fingers, of course), and they went on their way. About 20 minutes later, I saw the mother and her daughter come back–decidedly less enthusiastic. I found out that just as the two were approaching the breakfast location, the girl suddenly “spilled her protein” (the Disney phrase for “losing one’s lunch”) all over. I glanced down and noticed that she still looked a tad green, and was, in fact, holding her hands over her mouth and crying. The mother was also on the verge of tears.
Within 10 minutes, I was able to comp her stroller for that day (since she really didn’t get much use out of it) and, through Guest Relations, I secured lunch reservations at the same character restaurant later in the week. I also issued her a complimentary stroller ticket to use for when she came back for the breakfast. I took down their hotel information, and after they left I called Guest Relations again and arranged for an autographed picture of several of the characters that she would have met that morning to be sent to their room.
We also cleaned the stroller very, very thoroughly.
Roy S. writes:
I enjoyed your article “Providing Service Recovery.” I thought you might like to hear my story. Back in 1985 my wife and I visited Walt Disney World on a package plan called the Gold Key Plan. Under this Plan we were able to take advantage of unlimited recreation. Being an avid water-skier I had made reservations for a boat and a driver leaving from our resort, the Polynesian, on every day of our stay when the lake opened at 9:00 am. I had figured that Bay Lake would be a lot calmer in the morning.
After checking in we walked over to the Guest Relations desk to confirm our reservations. The CM in formed us that not only had they just then discontinued water-skiing from Polynesian but that they had backed up the Bay Lake opening time to 10:00. The only water-skiing now was out of the Contemporary and there were no vacancies in the morning hours.
Seeing our disappointment the CM told us to go out and enjoy the parks and she would see what she could do for us. She informed us to check for messages on our room phone. When we returned to the room in the afternoon the light was blinking on the phone. This CM informed me that there would be a boat and a driver waiting to pick us up at the Polynesian boat dock every morning at 9:00. We had the whole lake to ourselves except for a tall lanky fellow by the name of Goofy.
Disney fit in to the Hero category in my book. My wife and I stopped at guest relations to say hello to that CM every day of our stay. To this day I haven’t forgotten what this CM did for us and tell this story often.
Kelly Z. writes:
I very much enjoyed your article. I am a 15-year employee at Staples, Inc located at the home office. At one point during my tenure, I supervised a small team responsible for responding to complaints that customers would send to our top executives. We fielded issues that fell into each of the buckets you referenced. It did not take us long to change our consideration of this feedback from “complaints” to “constructive criticism”. As you mentioned in your article, people take the time to bring issues to your attention – not only because they need help, but also so the business can learn from and therefore improve their services. My superiors used to tell me that I had a knack for finding a balance between doing what is right for the customer, and doing what is right for the business. It was always my feeling however, that is was THROUGH doing what is right for the customer (no matter the size of the task) that you ultimately do what is right for the business.
I look forward to your next column! Thanks for your time.
