Disney Books on Customer Service.

Disney Books on Customer Service, Book, 2004, Disney Editions, $10.95-$24.95.

The Disney Institute has established a significant presence in the training world for its ability to inspire leaders from many industries to find new and ingenious ways to unleash the creative energies of their workforce. Those industries include the one I work in, healthcare.

You might wonder what in the world Disney, that mega-corporation whose sole expressed purpose is to "create happiness," could possibly have in common with healthcare. A lot, it turns out.

Patients often judge the quality of their care by the things they know most about--the courtesy and sensitivity with which they are treated, for example, or the timeliness of their visits and cleanliness of the facility. While they take for granted the competence of their surgeon, if anything does go wrong, they are much less likely to sue if he or she was caring, communicative, and genuinely apologetic.

Studies are beginning to show that a positive patient experience can impact clinical outcomes as well. Patients having good experiences are more likely to keep appointments, more willing to address problems or seek timely treatment, and more apt to trust and follow physician advice regarding important lifestyle changes.

Lousy patient experiences

But most patient experiences are anything but positive. The New York Times series "Being a Patient" (August, 2005) revealed how long wait times, poor communication, dehumanizing treatment, and harried, overworked care providers are the current norm. Short-staffed and underfunded, today's hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctors' offices offer little in the way of satisfying their patients need for positive, reassuring care.

That's where Disney comes in. As people who have been to any of the Disney theme parks will tell you, the things they most remember are not the long waits in line or the crowds but the pleasant holiday they had. They talk about smiling guides, comfortable hotel rooms, and spotless walkways. They are awed by the little "extras"--the lot attendant able to help locate their parked car, the meal coupons extended when there is a service breakdown, the milk and cookies awaiting a tired child at the end of the day.

Maintaining that reputation takes an enormous commitment to staff selection and development, a strategy that is the hallmark of Disney human resource practice and one they willingly share with organizations worldwide through professional development programming offered by their corporate training arm, the Orlando-based Disney Institute.

Currently, close to 30% of Disney Institute students are from the healthcare industry; since the early 1990s, over 3,000 healthcare professionals have attended the Institute's core courses covering topics from Leadership Excellence to Quality Service, People Management to Organizational Creativity.

Many managers who have not attended the Institute have turned to a recent crop of business books written about the workplace application of Disney's "magic" to fuel their efforts.

Four books have been particularly useful in sparking the interest of the management team I work with: The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity, Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (with a foreword written by Michael D. Eisner), The Disney Way Fieldbook: How to Implement Walt Disney's Vision of "Dream, Believe, Dare, Do" in Your Own Company (companion to The Disney Way), and Fred Lee's If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently, named the 2005 Book of the Year by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

The ratings at the end of this review are an average for the four books. Click the links to each book below for publishing details and individual ratings.

The Imagineering Way

Overall rating: 3.5

The books are very different in their focus and approach. The Imagineering Way is a motivational book, a peek into the creative minds of the Disney Imagineers. Crammed into chapters like The Sky's the Limit, Unharnessing Creativity, and A Thousand Balls in the Air are quotes, sketches, advice, and random musings suitable for provoking discussion and igniting debate.

Innovative examples abound. The underlying assumption of the Imagineers is that they will undoubtedly accomplish any task set before them--the only question is how.

Be Our Guest

Overall rating: 3.5

Using the concept of "magic" as the organizing theme, Be Our Guest explores how "cast" (Disney-speak for staff), setting and process, and the ultimate integration of all three contribute to the delivery of services, Disney style. The book describes how adopting a unifying theme--Disney's is "We create happiness"--and core service values facilitates exceptional customer experience.

One example cited is the transformation of Disney's Polynesian Resort from lackluster to stellar performer. Guest satisfaction and repeat visits rose significantly after the local cast designed its performance culture and defined local values to reflect a Polynesian style of hospitality.

The Disney Way Fieldbook

Overall rating: 3.5

The Disney Way Fieldbook uses what we trainers call the "cookbook," or how-to model. Organized according to Walt Disney's credo of "Dream, Believe, Dare, and Do," it turns traditional strategic planning on its head, suggesting instead a four-step process utilizing that credo. The process as presented in the Fieldbook incorporates dozens of diagnostic, team-building, and operational exercises.

The authors freely adopt Disney terminology as well, referring to key players, plots, props, and scripts in the activity directions. There is even a debriefing "curtain call" outline at the end of each exercise.

If Disney Ran Your Hospital

Overall rating: 3.5

As the title suggests, If Disney Ran Your Hospital was written explicitly for the healthcare industry and so was the favorite of our team. Calling on his extensive background in hospital administration and as one of the designers of the Disney Institute's program for healthcare leaders, Fred Lee is able to use many industry examples to illustrate the application of the Disney point of view.

Each chapter is a mandate for changing the way healthcare traditionally operates to a more consumer-centric approach. Repeatedly, Lee urges his readers to create the ideal patient experience by focusing more on culture and leadership than strategy or implementation.

Each worthwhile

There is no way to compare these books. They begin with the same premise--that the Disney philosophy and way of doing things can create unparalleled customer experiences, anywhere, in any industry--but diverge quickly. They almost need to be viewed coliectively to get a full understanding of what makes the approach so effective. Only the Lee book addresses healthcare specifically. The others can be used by anyone wanting to understand and apply the Disney "magic."

Recommendation

Each of the books contains far more value than its modest purchase price would lead you to believe. While I frequently leaf through the pages of the Fieldbook when I want just the right activity to re-energize a departmental staff meeting, I also periodically pick up If Disney Ran Your Hospital for motivation and Be Our Guest for insight into the practical application of the Disney magic. And although Imagineering may be the least useful in an immediate, practical sense, its creative, playful pages continue to serve as inspiration when we become bogged down.

Review by Kathy Armitage

Product Ratings

Disney Books on Customer Service

Holds user interest  *** 1/2
Value of Content     *** 1/2
Self-Study Value     ***
Instructional Value  *** 1/2
Value for the money  ****
Overall rating       *** 1/2