ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020034
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
EMPLOYEES must have a conservative appearance. But they're also expected to creatively engage Disney "guests."
Disney World workers sport no facial hair or tattoos, and they're allowed just one ring per hand. They're expected to greet all customers with a smile and, when possible, think of a way to make them laugh.
Life for employees at the famous theme park was in the spotlight Tuesday at a seminar attended by 190 leaders of Roanoke-area businesses, governments and organizations.
A management expert from the Orlando, Fla., resort told how Disney World supervises its 40,000 employees and strives to please visitors, who numbered 20 million last year.
The training event, for which participants paid $175 to $225, was organized by the Roanoke-based Management Association of Western Virginia, a nonprofit organization that provides services to area employers.
The speaker, Leslie Bays, started work at Disney World as a Haunted House attendant when she was 18. Now, she teaches a Disney management program for executives. Walt Disney Co. describes the course as a profitable side business and a corporate community service.
The Disney strategy is a takeoff on common management principles that emphasize careful hiring and training of employees and customer service. It's a paradox, too. Employees adhere to strict personal appearance and behavior guidelines, but are graded on their creative interplay with park visitors.
They are taught to point a certain way - always with two fingers (less threatening than one) - but also are encouraged to go out and approach park visitors and show them a good time.
Disney gives them great leeway to appease disappointed customers, even to the point of paying for their plane tickets. Haunted House employees can temporarily shut off the moving attraction to let the feeble and infirm get on or to prevent an accident.
There is ample praise for those who do well, Bays said. A housekeeper scored points with her boss for leaving a surprise in a family's hotel room - all the children's teddy bears were tucked into bed. Another employee succeeded in soothing a child who was crushed to have missed meeting Captain Hook. The employee took a picture of Peter Pan dueling with Hook and wrote on the back that Peter Pan had punished Hook for missing the little girl. Then the employee sent the photo to the girl.
"Think about your front line," Bays told her audience at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel. "The people answering the phone. Do they personalize the service, or do they not?"
The resort is a unit of Walt Disney Co. of Burbank, Calif., which earned profits of $2.45 billion in its most recent fiscal year.
The company said 67 percent of its customers are repeat business. That's another Disney strong point - customer analysis, Bays said.
The company actually figured that park visitors will drop a piece of trash after 26 paces if no can is around. "So how many paces apart do you think we put our trash cans? Twenty-five paces."
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Leslie Bays, a Disney managementby CNBtrainer, talks about the Disney method at a presentation Tuesday in
Roanoke. color.