My family recently took a fabulous trip to Walt Disney World. I had visited Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Land many years ago, but this time was different. This was the first time I was experiencing Disney as an adult and as a parent of two kids. As a professional marketer, I was able to have a real appreciation for the brand experience.
Please allow me to walk you through my customer journey from beginning to end. It is exceptional that Disney was able to provide such a high level of service with every interaction on and off the resort.
- Our first point of contact came when we booked the trip on the Disney website. It is very easy to navigate and use. Choosing to stay at a Disney hotel was the right choice for our family, they incentivize you by showing all of the conveniences and perks you receive by staying at a Disney hotel.
- Next we received a personalized Knutson Vacation Handbook in the mail with instructions on how to make our trip enjoyable. My kids thought this was wicked!
- Later, we went back onto the website to select colors for each of our MagicBands. Walt Disney has these amazing Radio Frequency wristbands that allow you entrance into the parks, unlocks your Disney hotel room and they allow you to charge items that go directly onto your credit card. If your children are old enough you can even allow them to make purchases with their own bands. The bands have a self created security code so we felt very safe using them.
- As we got closer to our trip date we received a direct mail piece giving us our luggage tags. The Disney tags send your luggage on a special delivery service so you don’t have to pick your bags up in the Orlando airport. Disney will deliver your luggage to your room after your arrival…very convenient!
- Later, we went back on the website to book our “FastPass” so we wouldn’t have to wait in long lines to get onto/into the most popular rides & shows. This was one of our favourite perks because who wants to wait for hours in a line when you can “FastPass” it in a few minutes.
- Our last point of contact before we left home was when I called the customer service number to notify them of our flight change. The person was so attentive, he listened to what I had to say and we had a friendly, genuine conversation, much better than a crackly line trying to press phone keys to speak to a real human.
Once we arrived in Orlando the “magic” began! The buses, low water fountains for kids, and even all of the entertainment items that were displayed while you were waiting in line was so impressive. Of course everything was kid friendly but it was just so easy. I didn’t have to lug around a heavy purse all day because I could use my nifty MagicBand for everything we wanted to buy. Even when we bought something at a gift shop they delivered it to our hotel so we didn’t have to carry it around.
The most useful marketing tool that made our vacation so easy was the Disney mobile app. It allowed us to see wait times for rides, view hours of each park, we could change our FastPass selections, explore the resort, find Disney characters, see show times for fireworks/parades and it had a GPS-enabled map. When we woke up in the morning the first thing we did was look at the app and start to plan our day. Our kids loved using it too!
Our entire Disney experience from beginning to end was a positive one. I can honestly say that I only encountered one grumpy person throughout the 7 days that we were on the Disney grounds, which is remarkable. We came home from our great vacation and then received another surprise…. a personalized Mickey Mouse sketch to remember our vacation. My six-year old son loved everything and said “I want to live at Walt Disney World!”
I would give Disney’s marketing team a five start rating. We should all aspire to give our customers a “Disney” brand experience.