Lack of Guest Experience?

Sorry I recognize that low paid humans. If Disney wants to provide above and beyond service they should pay their employees accordingly. Standing a chatting during a shift is going to happen the OP could have said: "excuse me how much is this?". I stand by my opinion.
 
Sorry I recognize that low paid humans. If Disney wants to provide above and beyond service they should pay their employees accordingly. Standing a chatting during a shift is going to happen the OP could have said: "excuse me how much is this?". I stand by my opinion.

When I was a "low paid human" this wasn't acceptable, don't know why it should be acceptable now. Then again the social norm at this point is just sad, everyone wants something for nothing and no one is accountable for anything they do.

You stand by your opinion (for now) when it happens to you, I am sure your opinion will change.
 
When I was a "low paid human" this wasn't acceptable, don't know why it should be acceptable now. Then again the social norm at this point is just sad, everyone wants something for nothing and no one is accountable for anything they do.

You stand by your opinion (for now) when it happens to you, I am sure your opinion will change.
I've worked retail thats what formed my opinion. I would never be offended someone didn't jump for me, if I needed assistance I would politely ask. IMO being understanding and kind and not getting heated or offended at little stuff like retail workers chatting is a pretty good way to be, I wish more shoppers especially somewhere like Disney would cool their jets a lil.
 
I worked retail and fast food. I worked many black fridays and none of my managers would have acceptable behavior like that. This was when I was in high school and college and I would assume age of the cast members the post was about fall into that category.

Don't see where he got heated or offended, the original poster let guest services know of the experience but did not specifically address the cast member.

Also, not sure if a "polite excuse me" would have been received very well as the cast member portrayed in the post did not appear to want any interaction with the guest.

Regardless you need to treat each guest and cast member with respect.
 


Sorry I recognize that low paid humans. If Disney wants to provide above and beyond service they should pay their employees accordingly. Standing a chatting during a shift is going to happen the OP could have said: "excuse me how much is this?". I stand by my opinion.
I do take issue with the assumption that only highly paid people should do their jobs well. I hope I am raising my child to give his best every day—at school, at play and at work.
 


I never said that. I do stand by all I have said. Work lives for everyone would be better if people had more kindness and understanding.
I agree people should be treated with kindness and understanding no matter what. However, the post I quoted previously

Sorry I recognize that low paid humans. If Disney wants to provide above and beyond service they should pay their employees accordingly. Standing a chatting during a shift is going to happen the OP could have said: "excuse me how much is this?". I stand by my opinion.

did say that at the rate of pay Disney offers there should be no surprise that employees hang around talking and do not service customers. The clear insinuation is that only those who get paid well should do a good job. The lives of everyone would also be better if employees did their best no matter job or rate of pay.
 
I agree people should be treated with kindness and understanding no matter what. However, the post I quoted previously



did say that at the rate of pay Disney offers there should be no surprise that employees hang around talking and do not service customers. The clear insinuation is that only those who get paid well should do a good job. The lives of everyone would also be better if employees did their best no matter job or rate of pay.
Nope, good job =/= going extra miles for no pay. Doing a good job means doing your job well, it doesn't mean doing extra. As you will see a lot on disboards a lot of people expect cast members to jump for them, take the non-stop waves of people and always be full of energy etc, it's not realistic. I am surprised that me empathizing with employees has upset so many people, how dare I lol So idk if you're misunderstanding me or what but going to guest services instead of politely asking for helo is, in my opinion, overreacting and entitled behaviour. CM jobs are hard a low paid, cut them some slack.
I don't know how else to explain that those who expect the sun on a silver platter always will.
Please don't tag me again :)
have a magical day
 
We just have different standards on how to treat retail workers :)
It has nothing to do with how to treat them. It has to do with what duties they are expected to perform as part of their job and what is and is not acceptable behavior. And I do not think all of the blame lies with the individual CMs here. It also lies with management and the whole training process when people are hired.
 
It has nothing to do with how to treat them. It has to do with what duties they are expected to perform as part of their job and what is and is not acceptable behavior. And I do not think all of the blame lies with the individual CMs here. It also lies with management and the whole training process when people are hired.
Well said, @disneysteve It appears as if I did not misunderstand pp’s statements as I was hoping to be the case...
 
We just have different standards on how to treat retail workers :)
I think that is because some people have never done this type of work before. I have been a merch cast member in the MK years ago. When things were slow cast members did interact with each other. I actually think guests get better service when cast members are able to communicate with each other. I know I didn't like selling at a cart because you are trapped in one spot. When at the carts you didn't have much back up in case something went wrong. Hopefully that has changed now with better technology to stay in touch. It was so long ago that we had to page if we had emergency or needed something. I do think that a bit of grace should be given to cast members. I've been there. I know the long hours that they work. As a college program cast member my shifts frequently would be over at 2:45 am. Grad night weekends were hard. We would go in for a shift starting at 10 pm and go until 5am. The next day shift would start a 9am and go all day. Also when I was on the cp we also were expected to attend classes on our days off. I guess my point is that there could be many reasons why a cast member may miss a guest needing help. Sometimes a cast member may be restocking the store and did not see the guest. Usually the restocking people aren't supposed to interact with guests so they might miss someone that needs help. To the guest it may appear that the cast member is ignoring the guest.
 
When things were slow cast members did interact with each other.

I guess my point is that there could be many reasons why a cast member may miss a guest needing help. Sometimes a cast member may be restocking the store and did not see the guest. Usually the restocking people aren't supposed to interact with guests so they might miss someone that needs help. To the guest it may appear that the cast member is ignoring the guest.
I think you're describing something different than what some of us are talking about.

If you're at a retail location and the store is empty, which can happen even at Disney World, that's fine. Enjoy the down time. Chat with your coworkers. But if there are guests in the store, they shouldn't be hearing about your plans for after work or what you did over the weekend or how many hours are left to your shift or the gory details of your recent surgery. I've encountered all of those things.

It's interesting that the CM doing restocking isn't supposed to interact with guests. That sounds so wrong to me. If I'm looking around the store and have a question, does that mean I'm not supposed to ask the guy stocking the shelves. Or do you just mean the CM isn't supposed to initiate interaction? Shouldn't they at least say "Good morning. Do you need any help finding anything?" I'm really curious about the policy on that.
 
I think that is because some people have never done this type of work before. I have been a merch cast member in the MK years ago. When things were slow cast members did interact with each other. I actually think guests get better service when cast members are able to communicate with each other. I know I didn't like selling at a cart because you are trapped in one spot. When at the carts you didn't have much back up in case something went wrong. Hopefully that has changed now with better technology to stay in touch. It was so long ago that we had to page if we had emergency or needed something. I do think that a bit of grace should be given to cast members. I've been there. I know the long hours that they work. As a college program cast member my shifts frequently would be over at 2:45 am. Grad night weekends were hard. We would go in for a shift starting at 10 pm and go until 5am. The next day shift would start a 9am and go all day. Also when I was on the cp we also were expected to attend classes on our days off. I guess my point is that there could be many reasons why a cast member may miss a guest needing help. Sometimes a cast member may be restocking the store and did not see the guest. Usually the restocking people aren't supposed to interact with guests so they might miss someone that needs help. To the guest it may appear that the cast member is ignoring the guest.
Once again @disneysteve responds with a thoughtful post as I am typing. I am too late on the draw, I suppose.

@Alicenwonderment if the discourse on both sides had stayed as level headed and well written as your post, I believe there would have been a lot less misunderstanding. As someone who worked retail and food service for many years in school and as an adult, I totally get your point and agree with your post content. As a retail manager at smaller companies who have had customer service legacies similar to The Walt Disney Co, I would have some very small coaching moments for some employees with situations described in your post, but those are for other posts and stories.

Neither the OP nor anyone who supported their disappointment advocated mistreating CMs. When posters voiced that customers deserve good service and job expectations include providing good service, the commentary quickly devolved. I am sorry you were made to feel that there is never a good reason for a worker to have an off day or a missed opportunity with guests. I don’t believe that anyone on this thread believes as such, either.
 
I do take issue with the assumption that only highly paid people should do their jobs well. I hope I am raising my child to give his best every day—at school, at play and at work.

VERY much this. I've always said no matter what your job is, it is important to the process. Do it to the best of your ability and with a pleasant attitude ~ especially in the service/retail industry. You should never demean a worker for how much they make, their job is important. Every job is important.

To answer the OP ............. yes I have seen what you see and honestly I think it's two fold.

(1) Disney is increasingly using temporary help aka CP kids there for mostly 4-5 months. They are barely trained and thrown out there. They work long hours and their only social time might be while working. They aren't picky and many show up that have never even worked a job, not prepared for work at Disney for sure. Some sign up only to have fun. They are currently building another large complex for them and unless they shut down Vista ... that means they are increasing this force that truly has no allegiance to the company.

(2) Talking to many of the full timers they are frustrated. The crowds are growing but there are no more CMs being added, only reduced. Many of the senior (often the most friendly) part time or seasonal workers aren't being given hours. So many of those faces that are there for all the magical reasons are slowly disappearing. And without adding bodies to the force, those there are worked to the bone. Custodial are maxed and tired and that is why we are seeing some dirty corners or bathrooms.

The guy at RnR might have just had a big mess with guests who refused to go to the right seats and slowed down the loading. Last trip we had folks fighting over seats and one who didn't want a single with them. CMs from both ends had to jump in and settle it. Had a Mom/Kid at Aliens creating a scene as they each wanted their own Alien. The lines were long and CM did their best to have them sit together .. then literally threw up her arms, rolled her eyes and let them do it. They don't have support to enforce processes. If you were next after those incidents you have agitated CMs.

One reason I'm not renewing our APs this year is the loss of JOY .... the parks themselves are still great (other than crowds) ... it is coming 100% from the other guests behavior .... and CMs are obviously tired of dealing with it. SW will make it worse. They have no power to deal with guests, some are worn out ... add this summer heat .... Disney has pushed them to their limits and there will be some that just can't keep that on stage smile. Unless they are truly nasty I just try to give them a break. And if I am next after a nasty guest, I say something positive to them, acknowledge what they deal with.
 
HopperFan, great post! I totally agree. A lot of the fault lies with Disney under-staffing and under-training and over-depending on CP kids who aren't invested in the job. And the over-crowding is out of control and there aren't nearly enough cast members overall, including CP, relative to the increased number of guests. That's got to be a huge stress on all of the front line CMs.

The bottom line as I've said in various other discussions on different topics is that the #1 problem at Disney is CROWDS. The place has gotten so insanely busy that they just can't manage it.

And yes, guest behavior has declined, but the crowding is part of that, too. Guests get frustrated by the long waits and constantly getting bumped into and feet run over and all.

Disney needs to find a way to still make the amount they want to make without bringing thousands more people into the parks each day. Even the hard ticket events like MNSSHP have declined in the past couple of years because they are over-selling them and a lot of guests have complained that they won't do it again because of that.
 
Sorry I recognize that low paid humans. If Disney wants to provide above and beyond service they should pay their employees accordingly. Standing a chatting during a shift is going to happen the OP could have said: "excuse me how much is this?". I stand by my opinion.

There have always been low paid humans, you’re not the first to recognize this, and some of those low paid humans worked hard to be promoted and receive better pay. I would imagine they didn’t get there by standing around ignoring guests. Low pay for an entry level job is no excuse to not do their job. When there’s three employees and one guest the guest shouldn’t have to go out of their way to interrupt a conversation if they need information. That’s what Amazon is for.
 
Nope, good job =/= going extra miles for no pay. Doing a good job means doing your job well, it doesn't mean doing extra. As you will see a lot on disboards a lot of people expect cast members to jump for them, take the non-stop waves of people and always be full of energy etc, it's not realistic. I am surprised that me empathizing with employees has upset so many people, how dare I lol So idk if you're misunderstanding me or what but going to guest services instead of politely asking for helo is, in my opinion, overreacting and entitled behaviour. CM jobs are hard a low paid, cut them some slack.
I don't know how else to explain that those who expect the sun on a silver platter always will.
Please don't tag me again :)
have a magical day

@SaraJR I’m sorry but just showing up at work and going through the motions is not doing a good job, it’s hardly doing a job at all. Working in food and retail for 14 years I have seen both types of employees, the ones that go out of their way to interact and the ones that ball up in a corner talking to friends and think punching in on time is doing a job.

Saying it’s unrealistic does nothing but enable lazy behaviors when there are plenty of people out there every day, not just at Disney, who are able to deliver a great experience every time and actually take pride in that thought. If you cannot, you shouldn’t be working at Disney, even for entry level pay.
 

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