An Airport Hopes To Tap Into The Disney Magic

Many companies and corporations attend the Disney Institute courses to improve on their customer relations and management. This news article describes how the Miami Airport had some of its employees attended one of these courses after the airport was ranked poorly in a recent survey.

Last fall, the institute landed a tall- order contract: Miami International Airport. Traversed by 32 million travelers a year, the airport received the lowest customer satisfaction rating in the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates analysis of 61 airports in North America.

The airport was marked down especially for accessibility problems imposed by its protracted reconstruction and for baggage handling -- the two things travelers care about most.

Disney certainly has plenty of expertise in dealing with customers, or Guests as they like to call it.

A key tenet of the Disney ideology is that employees are empowered by their ability to provide good service, especially in situations in which the unpleasantness, such as a weather delay, is beyond their control.

Take ownership of a guest's concern, Pearsall says: Even if it's not your fault, it is your problem.

And boy, did Disney cast members themselves need all the training they got to handle the recent Disney Dining Plan debacle. Many on the front line with the customers certainly were not at fault for it, but it became their problem to handle.

Zz.