Service Vs. Hospitality The “Be Our Guest” Attitude by Dennis and Danny Snow
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ne of the most popular songs from the Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast,” was the song, “Be Our Guest.” Belle, the heroine of the film, is enthralled by the magical preparations of a spectacular dinner as the animated candelabra, Lumiere, sings “Be Our Guest.” It’s a fitting song for a Disney film since the company has a long history of referring to its customers as “guests.”
Service Vs. Hospitality
2022 Issue 2
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Walt Disney’s philosophy at Disneyland was that they didn’t have customers, they had welcome guests. Keep in mind that prior to Disneyland, amusement parks were often dirty and unsafe places, staffed by gruff, surly employees. Walt’s vision was for Disneyland’s visitors to feel that they were guests in his home, and he expected every cast member to treat them that way. This wasn’t going to be a transactional or “service” mindset that you could find at any carnival where they simply take your ticket and you ride a ride. At Disneyland the focus is on the interaction and relationships (in other words, “hospitality”) with the guests and delivering an overall experience that makes every guest feel like they are family as opposed to just a visitor in the park. While Walt’s philosophy for service has remained in place decades beyond his passing, the details of the service philosophy have evolved to include the following guidelines: • Make eye contact and smile. • Greet and welcome each and every guest. • Seek out guest contact. • Provide immediate service recovery.
• Display appropriate body language at all times. • Preserve the “magical” guest experience. • Thank each and every guest. Let’s break each one of those items down because in reality, there’s no reason you can’t apply them to your own operation. Make eye contact and smile. Some of these are just so basic that you’d think they would be standard practice within every single organization. This is probably the easiest one on the list and requires little to no effort. Making eye contact with a customer shows you’re present and focused only on them. I’m not talking about getting into a staring contest. I’m talking about letting the customer know that they have your full attention. And a sincere smile says that you’re there to serve.
Greet and welcome each and every guest. Disney does this for hundreds of thousands park visitors per day combined across all Disney parks around the world. Now, they have an incredibly large number of cast members (employees) to help accomplish this goal, but this is a worthy goal for any organization to strive for. While it’s highly unlikely that every employee will be able to greet every guest that comes through your door, it’s important that someone greets them. If everyone on your team is on the lookout to interact and welcome a guest, odds are someone is going to make contact along the way. Seek out guest contact. This builds on the greeting of every guest. Have everyone on the team be on the lookout to engage your customers in one way or another. Disney cast
