The Experience: The 5 Principles of Disney Service and Relationship Excellence

Chapter EightPrinciple 5: Exceptionals

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

—Walt Disney

Synonyms for the word exceptional include rare, extraordinary, excellent, and superior. We can't possibly expect to live up to these powerful words even with an above-average effort or level of execution. The secret behind the Experience is the relational expertise and execution that come from the people who own and are in charge of its delivery. As we have already stated, we would summarize this book as a tool for creating Ambassadors of the Experience, and it is impossible to deliver an Exceptional Experience without internal Ambassadors. If the management team and employees are not prepared, empowered, and responsible for the Experience, creating and executing the Exceptional become an impossibility. The Experience must be internalized within the organization and its people.

Why Exceptional?

Exceptional service cannot occur without each individual, department, and organization collectively raising the bar to establish expectations of excellence. Our research uncovered a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. In virtually every category, Exceptional employees (and Exceptional companies) that are happier and more fulfilled provide much better service, and are far ...