Having Engaged Employees Pays Huge Dividends
At Disney the promise is to deliver magic. A key ingredient of its success is the ability of its employees to deliver on the promise.
Well today, they certainly delivered on the promise – in spades!
How did they do it? A Massachusetts couple accidently threw away three platinum diamond wedding rings. While tidying up their villa as they prepared to leave the park late last week, Paul Campanale dumped a cardboard bowl, not knowing the container inside it held his wife Karen's engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings.When the couple called Disney to report the loss, park employees warned the couple that recovering the jewelry was all but impossible.
Disney just could have left it at that. But the promise is to deliver magic and Drew Weaver, the Executive housekeeper at the Wilderness Lodge, took the matter into his own hands when he realized that the trash from the Campanales' villa hadn't reached the industrial-size compactor yet. He and seven other volunteers donned protective clothing, emptied a parking lot bin and waded through bag after bag of rubbish to find the rings. And they did.The efforts of these eight employees not only brought happiness to the Campanales but the story has been told countless times over the news and the radio. I actually heard the story on the radio this morning.
What is the moral of the story? Engaged employees make the difference! When employees understand the customer experience promise, know how to deliver it, and are fully engaged and committed and do whatever it takes to deliver the promise – magical things can and do happen!
Comments
Great story, Judy. And it shows how powerful organizational culture can be.
Terry
Posted by: Terrence Seamon | April 22, 2008 09:03 AM