Every year, a major hospitality conference is held in Las Vegas, where everyone from receptionists to cleaning staff from large hotels meet to discuss trends and best practices in the industry. The best chambermaids or bell boys are also chosen and prizes awarded. While receptionists or bell boys are part of the so-called “front office”, i.e. employees who deal directly with guests, cooks or chambermaids are part of the “back office”, who rarely come into direct contact with guests.
During interviews with the winners in the cleaning staff category, the award winners were also asked whether they see themselves as front or back office staff. The answer was as clear as it was surprising. “Of course I’m front office,” said one of the chambermaids. And her reasoning made it clear why she saw it that way.
“When I come into a room to clean and I can see from the stuffed animals and other details that children are also traveling here, I first clean the room and make the bed, and then place the stuffed animals on the bed leaning against a cushion, put a small popcorn bag in between, switch the TV to a children’s program and add the remote control,” she explained.
“When the children return to the hotel room and see how their stuffed animals have apparently spent a great day in front of the TV without them, not only are the children delighted, but the parents are also delighted to see how their children have been made happy. I am front office, I give a performance to entertain the young and old guests.“
This delight is also the magic word that the entertainment giant Disney is always on the lookout for for its own products in services. Years ago, when I was still at SAP and Apple had just launched the iPad, I invited Disney to explain the app development process at Disney to our software developers. One of the Disney employees explained that they always tried to “put the magic in” at Disney. Whenever Disney developed a product or service, sooner or later the question arose as to how that certain something, that delight, could be added. This extra mile that Disney had to go to create a surprising splendor.
And this runs through the entire Disney portfolio. Stephanie McCarthy, Head of Marketing at the American construction company Talyor Morrison, had such an experience. She talked about a visit to Disney World in Orlando with her three-year-old daughter. When they entered Animal Kingdom, the zoo at Disney World, their daughter had to hand in the balloon she had just bought at the entrance because some of the animals were afraid of it.
As McCarthy writes, all parents know how this often works with young children only with great resistance and tears. Give up your balloon? However. After the visit, the balloon could be collected from Guest Services.
There, however, the balloon was not only simply handed over and reunited with its owner, at Disney they also handed over a small activity report with a description of what the balloon had been up to in the meantime. He played with other balloons, ate a snack, took a nap and sang along loudly to the song “Let It Go” with Elsa from the animated film “Frozen“.
It even looks as if the balloon has had a more exciting time in the balloon garden than its little owner. And that is the magic that Disney uses to delight young and old alike. This is the brand that Disney not only describes on a piece of paper somewhere on the wall, but is exemplified every day with such details.