As a kid I was fortunate enough to get to go to Disney World. It is something that every kid dreamed of. It is something that my wife and I wanted to do for our son, and I am extremely blessed to have been able to take our son there for Spring Break this year. Not only is it a once in a lifetime experience, it is the “happiest place on earth”.
My wife and I were absolutely mesmerized by the countless levels of sophistication at every point of the customer experience. When you are at Walt Disney World, the difference is in the details, as they have thought of every thing. It has been 20 plus years since I was last there, and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to take my son there at a young age to create memories and experience all of the magic.
My wife and I were completely blown away by every detail and how easy Disney makes it for you on your vacation, from the planning to getting to the parks, to the experience, to returning home. Our time with our family is so precious that we wanted to capture as much time together as possible. During this trip not only did I pick up on some life lessons such as; patience, time management, the importance of family dinners, selflessness, and don’t take things for granted. I also learned some key marketing strategies and here they are.
How to Create Magical Marketing Moments like Disney
Create Magic from the Start of the Process
Create the magic for the consumer immediately. Once we booked our hotel, we received a mailed brochure that stated, your vacation start now on the front. When you opened it up, it our our arrival and departure dates, the hotel we were staying at, property information and park information. It got our family even more excited to go on our trip. 30 days before our trip we received our Magic Bands, creating yet another magical moment. When we arrived at the hotel, not only did the driver on the Magical Express make the ride enjoyable, the bellhops smiled and said hello when we arrived and asked if you needed anything or had any questions. From the moment we arrived, it felt like we left reality. A great first impression.
Personalize the Experience
From the first brochure we received after we booked our hotel, to our Magic Bands, to our Thank You email, everything had our name on it. Making not only my son feeling special but us feeling connected to our vacation. It felt like Disney put in the extra time to tailor our vacation to us, as they know that no two vacations are identical. Just by scanning our Magic Bands at the airport and the front desk, the response from the Disney representative was, welcome Haag family. Which made us feel welcomed and it was unique and personalized to us.
Make your Product Easy to Buy
With your Magic Band there is no need to carry around your wallet as you can purchase anything at Disney with your band as long as you know the pin. Swipe you brand to make your purchase. At the end of the day it was so easy to purchase anything that we wanted, or at least we were willing to pay for. Everything was connected to the band so there was no reason to carry anything additional. This made us as customers feel unique in each of our interactions even when it came to purchasing. Plus, we did not have to mess around with getting out cash or a card to pay for something. Think about this for a moment. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to pay for a haircut or gas without making sure you have the right amount of cash or getting out a card to be swiped. Let’s think about how we can make it easier for our customers to purchase or products or services from us.
Customer Service is Still Key
In today’s world, customer service is still extremely important. There are places I do not shop at or dine at because of poor customer service. No matter if we are marketer, sales person, hairstylist, waiter/waitress, cashier, etc, we should all take note of the Disney customer service. Every employee, no matter what their role was, they were there to make our experience great. They all had smiles on their faces and willing to answer any questions that we had. Actually, they were more than willing to provide us with information, always asking if we needed anything, how they can help, etc. Disney makes sure their employees top priority is taking care of the customer. As marketers, we need to look at our we can enhance our customers experience both online and in-person.
Create the WOW Moments
There is nothing greater than walking into the Magic Kingdom for the first time and seeing the castle. But at night, when the castle drastically changed with colors and illuminations during the light show, there were so many kids and adults saying ‘oooh’ and ‘wow’. It is a moment that adults and kids will both never forget. My wife and I not only both said ‘wow’, many times during the firewords show, we were an awe many times during our time at Disney. As marketers, we need to think about how we can create those wow moments for our customers. Granted we all do not have castles with a fireworks show to end the night, but in our interactions with our customers there are moments that we can make them say, ‘wow they went above and beyond for me’.
We all have the power to create magic for our customers, let’s all be more like Walt Disney and make it happen.
