It starts with recovery

Choose your cast and train them right

You don’t build the product for yourself. You need to know what the people want and build it for them.
Walter Elias Disney

If your company isn’t omni channel or offering integrated solutions to your customers’ liking, you may find yourself scrambling for business. Today’s wide open access via phone, internet, mobile apps and traditional brick-and-mortar stores puts pressure on companies to have products or services available 24-7. And if you don’t? Well, it gives the saying “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” good meaning.

This is where recovery comes in. What is your company’s plan for recovery? You don’t have one? I was in the same boat.

POS failures in my current position has now forced me to develop a recovery strategy to try and win the business back (retain customer loyalty) with very little expense. As consumers change their behaviors, business owners have to adapt often with very little if any warning.

The recovery process is just as important as the manufacturing process which is just as important as the marketing process which is just as important as the selling process.

Disney’s Approach to Quality Service from the Disney Institute was my second favorite course. As I approach the 10th anniversary of partaking in this wonderfully immersive experience, I’m reminded of the portion of the class that dealt specifically with service recovery and how important it is to guest satisfaction.

When you have over 20 million (yes, that’s million) guests in a year, you have opportunities where your service doesn’t meet your standards or the expectations of your guests. Even if you hit it right 99% of the time, that still leaves 200,000 guest experiences that require some form of recovery. At 365 days a year, that averages out to around 55 service recovery incidents every single day. You would have to have a team that did nothing but work on guest recovery with numbers of this magnitude.

Since most of us will never see 20 million transactions in our lifetime, it does not lessen the dependency on having a program for recovery that every employee can implement at any time when necessary.

Stay tuned for more on some tips for making the recovery process a standard practice for your business.

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Hello September

Why wait until January to resolve to make a change?

  • “I find that waiting until an arbitrary time to start achieving my goals is the best way to do it.”
  • “I want everything to be perfect before I start.”
  • “The people with the most success wait until January 1 before making their resolutions. I’ll just follow the crowd because it works so well.”

Have you ever uttered those words or something similar? Has it really helped? A friend has challenged a group of us to start working toward our goals today – not waiting for the perfect moment or the perfect setting or anything dealing with perfection.

You’re going to fall. You’re going to want to quit. You might even think your goal is too high or too impossible. If it were easy, (come on, say it with me), everyone would do it.

So I’ve written my goals. I’ll figure out the steps along the way. I might have to make a few detours but I’ll keep my sight focused on the finish line. Along the way, I’ll draw on my training from the last 55+ years as a human and 10 years as a student of the Disney Institute. You want to be the best? Then why not learn from the best?

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney

Take the first step. Make good choices. Does the donut or the dumbbell help you more?

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Dreams of the future

How do we get everyone to do their best?

Had a great conversation with a mentor recently. Just hearing his voice brings back great memories.

I told him that I’m still holding on to one of my goals in spite of a (possible) age restriction.

Can’t let it deter me. Don’t let it deter you.

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Just a little suggestion

What is your favorite mode of transportation?

It’s not Hump Day. But if you’ve been to Walt Disney World and you know this scene, then the song should be running through your head.

You’re welcome.

And while you’re thinking about it, even with over 7 billion people on it, this world is kinda small after all.

Here’s a suggestion. Make today a nice day wherever you are. A customer pulled on the door this morning 30 minutes before our scheduled opening. I let him in and that set a positive tone on the day.

The last customer that came in was a Vietnam War veteran. He has several health issues and just wanted a good night’s sleep. He shared with me some of the things he experienced overseas and when he came home. It was worse here at home. But his attitude is great even in the face of a cancer diagnosis and his other health problems.

“If I can survive the war, I can survive anything.”

Thank you, Wayne, for your service and for making my day better.

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And in 15th place

From up here, things don’t look as grand.

On this day in 1908, the Grand Canyon National Monument was created.

It was the 15th national monument designation by the United States. But it’s been around for many years. What took so long?

Theodore Roosevelt described it this way

“The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world… Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”

You can still be great but only be listed 15th. It doesn’t change your greatness. Don’t let your worth be determined by a list.

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