Minding Your Own Brand

Would you dig through the trash for your customers?
By Dave Lubelczyk

Everyone is familiar with the extraordinary effort Disney puts into making your experience “magical”, but just how far will they go to be remarkable? A recent story from the news demonstrates the level of commitment each and every Disney employee has to being extraordinary.

While on vacation at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge resort, a Boston couple accidentally threw away the woman’s wedding rings. They asked employees for help, but were told that finding the rings was all but impossible. The employees did however assure them that they would do what they could.

Enter “Disney Magic”! Upon investigation of the problem, the executive housekeeper realized that their trash hadn't reached the industrial-size compactor yet. He and seven other employees emptied a trash bin and sifted through bag after bag of trash until they found the rings.

Even if this story didn’t have a fairy tale ending, it still would be amazing because of the remarkable effort that these employees put in to impacting the customer experience. What makes this example even more astonishing is that at Disney this is common practice. When interviewed, the executive housekeeper said "That's not the first time we've gone through trash - oh, no. We don't always find things. Many times we come up empty. But we didn't this time."

Everyday Disney employees constantly push beyond “very good” to provide extraordinary brand experiences. They don’t always come out successful, but they always try. They don’t say “oh what’s the use.” Instead, they do what needs to be done in order to make their guests’ visit extraordinary.

Disney is constantly being rewarded for the efforts of its employees. Beyond this family telling this story for years to come, a secondary level of word of mouth has already begun. I saw this story on the local news this morning and at the time of writing this article, a Google search yielded over 300 pages reporting this story.

The extraordinary experience these Disney employees created further connected this family and all customers to the brand and therefore has helped to recruit more brand advocates. Would you and your employees dig through the trash for your customers? Are you willing to do to what it takes to be extraordinary? If you do, you will make an impact and your advocates will spread the word.

Dave Lubelczyk is the president of IMAGEidentity, LTD which helps organizations achieve success by building advocacy through brand development and organizational development. He can be reached by phone: 508-259-9016 or by e-mail: dave@imageidentity.com.