Is Magic Part of Your Enterprise?

The Mickey Mouse Fan Club became a rage in the late 1950s, where they popularized the term Mouseketeer.   Walt Disney himself spoke as Mickey Mouse in each episode.  Mickey, the character, made his debut significantly earlier in 1928.  Now, Disney’s following is even more extensive.  If you log onto Twitter, Disney has 7.2 million followers, while on Facebook, they have 52 million.  Their tag line, "Disney magic right at your fingertips."  They continued with Walt’s philosophy that the magic is inside each of us. The Walt Disney World's guiding principle is to create a culture of magic in the company.  But how can your company include magic as a goal?

If you look at the definition, it implies mystical superpowers or sleight of hand.  But that is not the magic I am describing.  Synonyms would include wonderful, fascinating, enchanting, magnificent, and my personal favorite, fantabulous.  How do you make a S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal to be fantabulous?

It starts with Customer Service.  If your customer is a client, an employee, or a family member, what would it take for them to walk away from the interaction bragging about it for twenty or more years? An example, our family Disney Cruise in 1999.  At five years old, our youngest son needed to carry his tray of food from the buffet to our table.  My husband and I were corralling our other two young sons and our food to be seated.  The moment our youngest dropped his tray and before tears came flooding out of his eyes, a Disney cast member caught the mess, picking up the pieces only to deliver a new tray and food to the almost devastated boy.  It was so sudden.  None of the surrounding guests noticed the event, but it stayed with me after all these years.  Anticipating the needs of the customer is the lesson.

Did you ever notice that Disney World has no mosquitos? Those annoying little bugs can ruin a family outing instantly.  Having them would detract from the most magical place in the world.  So they solved the problem.  Being proactive, the cast members in the park created the Mosquito Surveillance Program to manage it all. It is a carbon dioxide trap system to analyze the population to determine how best to eradicate them. Exploring what can go wrong than making the goal specific and achievable is the solution.

Another frustration is finding your car after a full day at the amusement park.  Although the Disney parking lot is adequately marked and the tram driver repeats the lot numbers, guests still misplace their vehicles.  The solution, the tram drivers are instructed to note the time and location at various stops during their shift.  They turn in the data to customer service to provide a guest with information on their car location. Arranging for a customer's needs even though it is no fault of the company is a strategy.

After returning to the hotel, Disney adds another touch for the guests.  Anticipating that the parents are exhausted with children at their be-witching period, those couple hours right before dinner,  the hotel arranges for cookies presented in the room.  Adding another bit of magic to the wonderful experience of the stay are the small, thoughtful touches.

The takeaways from Disney are simple to apply to your organization's strategic planning effort:

1.       Anticipating the needs of the customer

2.       Analyzing what can go wrong than making the goal specific and achievable

3.       Arranging for a customer's needs even though it is no fault of the company

4.       Adding another touch of magic to the experience

How can you apply these simple goals to create magic with your client interactions?