Originally Posted By MomluvsDisney I have to agree...there are too many people without basic customer service skills in customer service positions. I have long suspected that this is due to the pay offered in these types of position. Quality people deserve a higher pay scale then entry level pay (usually minimum wage) that is typically offered. In addition, so many younger folks these days feel so much entitlement. They consider it beneath them to put anything besides the bare minimum into their jobs. My grandfather taught me that no matter what the job is, you do it to the best of your abilities. Talking with some friends of my sister (very early 20's), jobs they have are just for now and why invest any time in them? I firmly believe if you are in a position that requires interaction with the general public, at the very least there should be civility toward the consumer. After all, we are there to spend our hard earned money. An excellent example used to be Target. I remember when Target insisted the associates called customers "Guests". The idea was that customers choose to shop at Target, so we should treat them as guests. I think part of the death of customer service can be attributed to people learning that a pushy customer got their way. So it is better to be pushy then respectful, otherwise you might get trampled on by the horrible counter/customer service person. I think the general public now has the impression that this is the only way to go. Of course there are many exceptions to this way of thinking. Notice though, I call these folks the exception not the rule. The lackadaisical attitude displayed by our younger work force coupled with the antipathy from the public for the "people" helping them, have created the situations we see today. I routinely run into both circumstances daily. I must admit that I tend to brush it off; otherwise it would drive me nuts. The disappointment is that Disney does not make a concerted effort to have the kind of person who reflects the best of the Disney ambience. It would take more money and time, both of which they are in short supply of. This is most likely due to bottom line thinking that prevails with them (as with much of this world). There are still wonderful people that embody the "spirit" that we all love to find at the DLR. I know that every one of us on this site could give multiple examples of a CM at the resort going above and beyond and how that made the trip! (in fact I remember not too long ago a discussion about just that!) I love running into people on both sides of the counter who demonstrate respect for the person they are working with. Even more wonderful, is running into someone who does something that helps someone else that is motivated by nothing (without the gain of a paycheck or the product being purchased). Whew...~~climbs off the soap box~~ LOL
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "I feel this is a reflection of society as a whole and it scares the life right out of me." I don't. Society as a whole is getting nicer. Violent crime rates have been dropping substantially since 1994. This year Los Angeles has had record crime lows. In everyday life people are pretty cool. People go to ridiculous limits to be courteous to one another, to the point of being annoying! Everybody is paranoid about being accused of doing the wrong thing and will always do their best to accommodate others. However, I believe the average well-meaning person can be pushed over the edge on their Disneyland vacation. The average person looks forward to their visit to Disneyland and is pretty optimistic overall. The average person can take quite a beating before they start flipping out, but if they start to feel that Disney is making a deliberate attempt to bilk them out of their money, they'll start getting vocal about it. The Disneyland guest is attracted to the park by picture perfect ads and visions of what their Disneyland day might look like. When they discover horribly unsafe levels of crowds, poor service, rude cast members (who themselves gave up a long time ago due to rude guests and poor management), broken down rides, and sky-high prices on top of everything, they start getting angry. Is it the right thing to do? No. Is it surprising? No. It's a negative feedback loop, where the guests blame the cast members, and the cast members blame management, and management blames anybody that isn't them. I'm not surprised that a busy day at Disneyland is a powder keg waiting to explode. I unrealistic capacity limits have a lot to do with this. Secondary are low wages and a drive for profit over the quality of the show. When I've gone to Disneyland in the past it was mostly on less crowded days but I have seen Disneyland at its worst, and I wonder why I ever put up with it.
Originally Posted By iamsally >>>>"I feel this is a reflection of society as a whole and it scares the life right out of me." I don't. Society as a whole is getting nicer.<<<<< You obviously have never been a substitute teacher. (That is meant to be light hearted.) >>>>I think part of the death of customer service can be attributed to people learning that a pushy customer got their way.<<<<<< Just last week my son and I were in line at Walmart. A cashier came and got us to go to her line. Another woman crowded in front of us. We told her that we had been waiting for 15 minutes and were asked to head this line. She started ranting and the cashier gave me a pleading look and told the woman, "Okay, I will take you first." I think she sized us both up and figured we were less likely to cause trouble. And we didn't. My best friend from high school and I try to go to Disneyland in June after school lets out. Once we had managed by luck to have the front seat on Space Mountain. As we started to load a man and his son crowded in front of us saying in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You don't mind if we take the front do you?" Well, we both bristled and said, "As a matter of fact, we do." (Assertiveness training only works if the people you are trying to intimidate are wimps.)LOL or Don't mess with teachers on summer break.
Originally Posted By GalDisney I am a brand spanking new CM at WDW. Since everything Disney, especcially Disneyland and wdw are my passion, this is more than a mere "job" to me. I am dedicated to Walt's philosophy and am dedicated to providing excellent guest service and spreading the magic.
Originally Posted By submarine-maniac GalDisney, I feel the same way. I have been a huge Disneyland fan long before I started working there and I really value the magic and try to spread it to others. By the way, where do you work at WDW?
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<gottaluvdavillains: If you don't like what they pay or the way you are treated why work there. Making excuses for bad employees is wrong.>> The whole employee issue is a combination of many elements. There are good and bad employees in every range of pay. Company attitudes can undermine morale of some employees while having no effect on others. However, when the majority of employee’s attitudes turn in one direction, negative in this case, you can generally look at company for the reason. In recent years, Disneyland’s strategies have not been in the interests of their CMs. While they have reduced the average CM wages, resulting in lower quality applicants, they have removed the CM lockers, required them to take their costumes home, put them in offsite parking, requiring them to toe rigid schedules and other restrictions. As a result, they have had to relax their qualification requirements just to get applicants. In other words, Disneyland has set itself up in a vicious circle that has no means of recovering without significant changes on their part. So, while there are some CMs that are naturally bad apples, just as there are some that are able to rise above the situation and remain upbeat, there are many that could be quality employees if company attitudes and policies were to change. And that’s what is going to be needed if Disneyland is to regain the overall employee attitudes that they had been able to develop during the first half of the park’s existence.
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<SpokkerJones: "I feel this is a reflection of society as a whole and it scares the life right out of me." I don't. Society as a whole is getting nicer. Violent crime rates have been dropping substantially since 1994. This year Los Angeles has had record crime lows. In everyday life people are pretty cool. People go to ridiculous limits to be courteous to one another, to the point of being annoying! Everybody is paranoid about being accused of doing the wrong thing and will always do their best to accommodate others.>> Well, since society as a whole is NOT getting better, it’s obviously your attitude that provides you with that impression. Violent crime is as consistent as the stock market. There is no definite consistent crime level indicator. And, with the economy sinking, there will be more crime. Attitudes have been taking a hit for years. Attention spans are getting shorter. Impatience is taking over. People are constantly preoccupied and are increasingly being diverted by distractions like internet gaming, online social networking, constant cell phone texting and numerous other short attention span disruptions. While some people may be paranoid, most aren’t paying enough attention to have that affect their attitudes (in any positive manner) towards others.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Yeah because if society was getting better there would be nothing good to show on the news :rolls eyes: <a href="http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm" target="_blank">http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/g...iort.htm</a> I think this attitude that everybody is getting ruder stems largely from the elitist view that "everybody else is doing the wrong thing, and not me." But if you really take off the blinders you'll learn that people on the whole are pretty okay.
Originally Posted By GalDisney Submarine-maniac, I am a Photopass Photographer at DAK and I see from your profile you are the same
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt I love the PhotoPass Photographers..they're so nice!! I had one of those Tinkerbell surprise pictures done where when you look it up on the website you are holding Tink!! How cute!!
Originally Posted By westsideCM99 Does anyone remember the TGS policy? If anyone is a current CM here can you tell me if that still is an active program? I'm not saying that all of the CMs are bad of course but its sad when more than half of them get a "less than satisfactory" mystery guest score during the Fall season of all things. As far as the comments made about society affecting customer service, my two cents is that the service that DLR provided used to be equivalent to say a 4 star hotel and long before that it could have been compaired to a world class luxury resort. Nowadays the quality seems to have dropped to that of the common fast food employee. So what has happened to the common fast food worker? Well, have you been to a Burger King or Jack in the Box in Southern California lately..? It's pretty scary.
Originally Posted By Zwitek I'm not a big fan of "blaming the customer" as some in the service industry are. I think both Corporations, and unruly customers are equally to blame for the decline in service standards. Corporations are to blame because they pay as little as possible, yet expect middle management to extract the best efforts possible from the low wage earners. Good managers can inspire people to work hard, even though they aren't getting much scratch. Managers can do this without being insincere manipulators, yet even the good managers understand that a low wage environment is not conducive to long term career paths for their direct reports. It's a stopover job. Unruly customers are to blame because they have been conditioned to understand that if they raise holy h-e-double hockey sticks, they'll get what they want. I've seen behavior that would make a five year old say, "damn, that's embarrassing." Adult tantrums in store are humiliating to not just the employee in front of them, but to everyone within earshot. I work with an amazing company, where 99% of the time ANY employee can solve any customer issue on the spot, yet they DEMAND to speak to a manager anyway, because they have this need to RANT. It's not just that they want their problem solved, it's that they want to dump on someone. They feel powerless, so they attack someone that cannot respond. It makes them feel powerful, important, a winner. Good customer service workers should not have to also have a degree in psychology. Good customer service people have a tremendous skill that should be valued by companies such as Disney. Not everyone is cut out to be in service. There are many incredibly intelligent people in this world that simply cannot relate to, work with, or serve, the public at large. Yet, with such a shortage of skilled workers in the service industry, nothing much is done by anyone to retain them, or prize them. Sure, a software engineer can make millions for a company, but it's the service people that keep the customers happy and returning to buy those products.
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<Zwitek: I work with an amazing company, where 99% of the time ANY employee can solve any customer issue on the spot, yet they DEMAND to speak to a manager anyway, because they have this need to RANT. It's not just that they want their problem solved, it's that they want to dump on someone. They feel powerless, so they attack someone that cannot respond. It makes them feel powerful, important, a winner.>> Well, there are times the, even though the employee has the ability to solve a customer’s complaint, they DON’T. Or, the employee becomes belligerent when the customer finds that their issue is not being handled properly. So, in those cases, it’s not unreasonable for the customer to request to speak to a manager. There are times when customers and employees have been unruly. When it becomes standard practice for either’s actions, they must be dealt with. You don’t want employees with an attitude in customer service positions, and you don’t want customers with attitudes either. While it’s a lot easier to deal with employees, there also needs to be a way to deal with unruly customers.
Originally Posted By Zwitek <<< Well, there are times the, even though the employee has the ability to solve a customer’s complaint, they DON’T. Or, the employee becomes belligerent when the customer finds that their issue is not being handled properly. So, in those cases, it’s not unreasonable for the customer to request to speak to a manager. >>> It is far more common now that customers simply demand to speak with a manager than it once was. Far too frequently I see customers just treat employees as "help" or peons, and not as someone that might be concerned that they are having a poor experience with a product or experience. More and more, the entitlement factor is creeping into mainstream society, and more and more, the public is becoming less restrained in their abusiveness to the person in front of them, regardless of the position held. Sad, but that's the honest truth. I personally have tried to leave the service industry several times, but I always come back because I truly love what I do, and I miss the personal interaction where I can make or break a persons day. Unfortunately, the level of crap that I see in one day, often far outweighs the joy that I get, and it's not because we aren't trying, it's just an increase in unreasonable behavior. Every little thing is a reason to complain (like we don't validate $1 parking). Things that are just modern inconveniences are now things that many decide to file complaints about. In all the years I've gone to Disneyland, the only time I visited City Hall to "complain" is when I made a day trip to the park from Northern California, and there was a power outage. I got to the park and the power went out. I didn't demand a suite at the Grand Californian, I simply asked if I could have a gift card or credit for a future admission (long before I had a season pass). I didn't demand my money back. It was something that was out of their control, and it was a minor thing for me. Others were blaming the City Hall folks as if they had done it on purpose solely to ruin their vacation. *sigh* Everything else simply rolls off my back, and it's not like I have an uber thick skin either. Disney, even with their low wage staff, mostly gets it right. More so than just about any place else. People that complain at Disneyland, (in my book) are just as likely to complain everywhere else.
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan ^^^^^ Of course, there are those people that start out by pushing the limits. But my experiences of needing to ask for a supervisor is due to the Customer Service rep just not being able to resolve the issue. Sometimes, they politely accede to my request. But there are times when they get hostile. I don’t know if it’s due to pressures by their management where they don’t want the issues to go beyond their level. Then, there’s the issue of customer service being outsourced. When my call is answered by “Roy” in India, I have no confidence in their ability to resolve any real issues. My wife ALWAYS asks for a US representative in those cases. Disney has, in the past, had both great and annoying customer service people. The annoying ones that really stick out are the company PR people (there are still some around) that always back up the company no matter how much it screwed up (often repeated in the form letter responses). So there are some examples where ordinarily pleasant people can sometimes get pushed to a point of hostile reactions.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Of course, there are those people that start out by pushing the limits. But my experiences of needing to ask for a supervisor is due to the Customer Service rep just not being able to resolve the issue. Sometimes, they politely accede to my request.<< There is of course, however, a huge difference sometimes between resolving the issue and acceding to a request. Is the issue resolved and someone now just wants financial compensation for their valuable "time?" That's one I frequently hear. I can't count how many times I've been told how much someone makes and how they ought to bill my company for their time. It's frankly a pretty silly response. If the issue isn't really resolved, then there's a problem. Of course, there's other times when the issue can be resolved but it might take time. Like Zwitek, I work for a great company that's empowered their employees more than most. But in today's "I want it all, I want it now" culture, telling someone it'll be fixed within 24 hours isn't good enough. I'm a manager who does get more requests than I ever used to, and I've just gotten used to telling people I wish I had a magic wand to solve their problem, but it isn't that simple. There's simply no perspective. I think Zwitek hit the nail on the head - people need to feel big and important by berating a total stranger they probably know can't give them what they demand. >>My wife ALWAYS asks for a US representative in those cases.<< Sorry, but this one struck a nerve. My company's call centers are all located in the United States. But we also employee many immigrants (like most call centers) and I'm am absolutely appalled at the treatment some of our representatives put up with simply because they have an accent. I work with people who speak English better than most Americans, but because they have an accent (typically Eastern European or Hispanic) they're yelled at, told off, and hung up on because someone thinks they aren't in the U.S. No one has a right to demand to not speak to a representative just because they have an accent. >>So there are some examples where ordinarily pleasant people can sometimes get pushed to a point of hostile reactions.<< Let's be clear. I'm not just a customer service manager. I'm a consumer myself. I know the frustration of dealing with giant corporations, being shuffled from one department to the next, being told "sorry, it's policy" as if the policy fell from heaven itself, etc., etc. I know how much of my time is wasted when a company makes a mistake (like a billing error) because I end up doing most of the work to get the error fixed. But there's simply no excuse for hostility. No one is "pushed" into a response, except for in the most extreme cases of violence or verbal abuse. One chooses how they respond to the form letter, or the 8th rep telling them the wrong information, or the third billing problem in six months. Someone who responds with anger and hostility to a customer service representative is someone who a) can't control their emotions appropriately and b) isn't rational enough to understand the person they're speaking with didn't cause their problem.
Originally Posted By Westsider westsideCM99 (nice name by the way), did you know that the Mystery Guest program was cancelled two months ago? At least for Attractions, we no longer have Mystery Guest shops. I can ask around to see if they cancelled it for Foods and Stores, but my hunch is that if they cancelled it for Attractions, it was cancelled for everyone. I bet the company that had that contract is really bummed. They must have made a fortune auditing every Resort location twice a month for the past 10 years. (Mystery Guests started around '98, as I remember. It was a Cynthia thing.) As for TGS, it no longer exists. But we do have No Strings Attached forms that do pretty much the same thing. Only Leads and managers have the forms though, and you need to get them to handle it. The average host/hostess doesn't have access to the NSA forms.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal We had Mystery Guest shops at the Main Entrance during Paul's time at the Resort, too. We definitely had Mystery Shoppers in '96 when I was at the Main Entrance, although I don't know if the same company was contracted through the whole time or if they changed. TGS (Total Guest Satisfaction) started in 1993 with a very small multi-area team. There were so few of us we'd meet in the Circle D conference room - it's tiny! The No Strings Attached programs added in a form for Guest recovery, which is probably a good thing in order to track items.
Originally Posted By dlkozy What's sad to me is that In-n-Out patterned it's employee/customer service system somewhat after Disney, and they shine in customer service whereas Disney does not anymore. They pay their employees well from the top to the bottom of the ladder. While they expect a lot from the employees, they reward for work well done. They seldom have a problem having a wait list of people who want to work for them and thus they are able to pick the cream of the crop. Looks like Disney needs to relearn what it once taught.
