Do CMs treat people as they are treated?

dlpSteve

Mr Dedicated to DLP
Joined
Mar 13, 2003
Messages
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It always surprises me when I read people reporting that the CMs were bad as in the 10 times we've been to DLP we've had nothing but wonderful experiences with the CMs. On our last trip 2 weeks ago quite a few went above and beyond what would be described as their duties and made a special effort to chat with us and make sure we were happy with everything.

I'm certain it helps that we treat the CMs with respect and politeness too, and though they are there to do a job we are always as nice to them as we would be anyone else, regardless of their role 'to serve'. However, I often see people barking orders at CMs and treating them like general dogsbodies. While I've never seen a CM being rude to any of these ill mannered guests, I wouldn't blame them for not being a ray of sunshine when treated so poorly.

They are there to do a job, yes, but they are also human beings, and with the exception of a small minority I sometimes wonder if a perceived attitude is just an equal reaction to bad guest manners. I could be completely wrong but after spending 44 days in DLP over the last 8 years, with zero bad CM experiences and being witness to countless rude guests, it does make me wonder.
 
I think you likely have a fair point. I also think that most of the moaning comes from people who are more accustomed to US and UK customer service. I'm a world traveler and I do think that the French level of customer service is one of the lowest in the world (outside of CIS and some of the Baltics). I just laugh it off bc I know to expect it. What many people don't realize is that the CMs in Disney give excellent customer service by French standards.

Last year, only 1 CM in DLP really ticked me off. She was the girl with the Information badge on who stood in front of the big sign/map just past Main Street. My girls and I had a few questions regarding where the meet and greets were and she was overtly annoyed that we were disturbing her book reading by asking her so many questions. She was the only CM I had a real problem with the entire trip.

For the record, exactly 1 CM really ticked me of in WDW this year too. I locked myself out of our room at AKL (moron!) and she gave me crap about giving me a new key since the reservation wasn't in my name but in my 5yo daughter's name. She asked me why I did that and I told her that I used all of mine and my daughters' airline points to book a free stay for us. She then tried to make me feel bad about using my kids' airline points. Again, I just laughed it off and saved it brain as an amusing story.

ETA: Considering the hundreds or possibly thousands of CMs one is likely to encounter on a Disney trip, one or two grumpy employees is by all standards an very low percentage. Sometimes people forget that too.
 
I can quite honestly say I was polite throughout. there is no excuse for rudenessby an employee even if the customer is aggravated, imo. what happened to the customer is always right?

id get fired if I treated a client the way one cm spoke to me. maybe they just aren't paid enough to care...!

on that note though, the cms were only ever rude when I had a problem or complaint. I didn't encounter any random rudeness or laziness.
 
I can quite honestly say I was polite throughout. there is no excuse for rudenessby an employee even if the customer is aggravated, imo. what happened to the customer is always right?

id get fired if I treated a client the way one cm spoke to me. maybe they just aren't paid enough to care...!

on that note though, the cms were only ever rude when I had a problem or complaint. I didn't encounter any random rudeness or laziness.

Its a myth & I think its a wrong one, the customer shouldn't always be right because at times they aren't!. No excuse for rudeness though & CM's shouldn't be rude. I spent many years in customer service & got abuse/rudeness from customers who seem to think they should always be right. Believe me I have found that by treating someone who deals with complaints with polite, friendlyness goes along way. Not knocking you at all just making a general statement from my experience.

I'm like Steve & have fortunately never had a problem with a CM in my visits not saying it goes on but I have witnessed people shouting at staff which is 100% wrong no one deserves to be treated like that paid or otherwise.

I think some of the problem is a language barrier. Many think the CM's should automatically speak english even though they are in a foreign country
 

The CMs in Paris come from all over Europe so french customer service levels don't necessarely apply.
I've rarely encountered openly rude CMs in Paris but many times a general disinterest and absent friendliness together with a lack of english language skills (are there still countries where you don't have to learn english in school???). I can't really describe the feeling but as much as I like the fact that DLP is so near it just doesn't feel the same as in the US or Tokyo.
The CMs are less outgoing and adult visitors are less excited (you just feel that many of them just go for their kids and don't enjoy the visit)- it makes the whole experience somewhat dull.
It doesn't matter if french customer service is even worse, the whole Disney themepark concept requires a certain attitude (from CMs and visitors) in order to produce this Disney Magic and that's just not happening in Paris.
 
The language problem is one I find quite bizarre - while it is an American organisation, it is based in France and I wouldn't dream of visiting a foreign country without learning at least a few basics of the native language. I think it's incredibly arrogant for people to expect high levels of English speaking across the whole resort, even in Disney. Maybe it's our efforts to speak in French that prompts a good response from the CMS rather than the belligerent shouting in English that you see far too much of from guests.

Maybe we have just been very lucky, but from our experiences in Florida, Tokyo and Paris, the latter has given us the best CM interactions and service.
 
The only bad cm experience we've had was from an American cm working in DLRP. He was horrible.

Maybe a lot of it is just people 'having a bad day', happens to all of us now and again. Having worked for years in customer service roles I doubt it is always the fault of the cm, the public ain't easy to deal with and I can imagine staff at Disney come in for more abuse than most.

Some cm's probably shouldn't be cm's but hopefully the good ones more than make up for them.
 
I have never had a bad experience while interacting with any of the CM's at DLP. I always treat people the same as I would wish to be treaded and I always try and start a conversation in French but they always answer in English.

A smile an excusez-moi and a merci is a must in my opinion.

During our last trip some CM's went out of their way to make our trip more enjoyable.

These include the two CM's who came running over to us to Trade Pins while we were shopping in Constellations, and Ross who was our waiter twice once at the Blue Lagoon and then a few days later at Walts.

At The Blue Lagoon, where we had a Water Front table and he kept us laughing through the entire meal with his animal impressions each time a boat went past. His elephant and cockatoo impressions were very good.

But unfortunately he was not allowed to do them again when he was our waiter at Walts on our last day at the park. He asked us when we were going home and we told him today. And he came back to our table and surprised us with a complimenty half bottle of champagne which we drank as we watched the Parade pass by the window.
 
The language problem is one I find quite bizarre - while it is an American organisation, it is based in France and I wouldn't dream of visiting a foreign country without learning at least a few basics of the native language. I think it's incredibly arrogant for people to expect high levels of English speaking across the whole resort, even in Disney. Maybe it's our efforts to speak in French that prompts a good response from the CMS rather than the belligerent shouting in English that you see far too much of from guests.

Maybe we have just been very lucky, but from our experiences in Florida, Tokyo and Paris, the latter has given us the best CM interactions and service.

Sorry but I have to contradict you. You need english skills for about every job where you have to deal with foreigners why not for a job at Disney. I guess even french people have english lessons at school. While it's nice to speak the language of the country you visit it can't be a requirement or the choice of holiday destinations would be very limited. I don't speak japanese and still visited Disneyland Tokyo, it went perfectly well.


I speak french (learned it at schol as well as english and italian so I know that in most countries you come across foreign languages at school) and my husband grew up bilingually german and french (so it's not that we don't make an effort) we encountered numerous CMs that spoke french just as bad as english, as I mentioned before, they come from everywhere. While I don't expect anybody to be fluent in french, I expect at least moderate english skills as this language is much easier to learn.
Why anybody who is totally uninterested in foreign languages and dealing with people from all over the world, wants to work in the travel industry is beyond me.

But maybe it was just bad luck I encountered so many less than enthusiastic people in Paris. I'm going to give it another tray in January, hopefully I'll like it better than the last three times.
 
I must admit I have thought that too sometimes. Though it often seems people complain about some stuff that wouldn't bother me.

We have been 6 trips and never met a rude CM. On our last trip in September there was some fanatastic CMs. A few of them made my daughters day doing stuff that we wouldn't expect them to do.

We have also had no language barrier problems. We have spoken French and they speak English back. A few times we have asked directions and they have walked us there! I think the CM have to put up with a lot while just trying to do their job.
 
There have been complaints on here recently that CMs spoke French to each other while sorting out a computer problem. :confused3 I just wouldn't expect anything else. When people come to my school who speak, say, only Urdu, my colleague speaks to them in Urdu but then turns to speak English to me so that I can help her with their query. I would expect French nationals to speak French to each other in their own country. :confused3

Recent posts have made me scour my memory for grumpy responses from CMs and I have recalled a few - but nothing that really pinged an alarm with me at the time (we would react by looking at each other and smothering a laugh - once out of hearing we would go "oooh-ooh someone's in a bad mood") but there are a teeny tiny percentage of the interactions I've had with CMs over 20 visits.
 
Personally speaking, I've found that DLP's CMs are not as friendly or as helpful as WDW's CMs. Saying that, most have been pleasant and I can count the number of rude CMs I've met on one hand. Also, DLP's ToT CMs are way better than their WDW counterparts! :thumbsup2

There have been complaints on here recently that CMs spoke French to each other while sorting out a computer problem. :confused3 I just wouldn't expect anything else. When people come to my school who speak, say, only Urdu, my colleague speaks to them in Urdu but then turns to speak English to me so that I can help her with their query. I would expect French nationals to speak French to each other in their own country. :confused3

I thought that too. :confused3
 
I never had any unpleasant experiences with any CMs - most of those that we actualy spoke to (at hotel /waiting staff) were well up to the Disney Standard!!

Only one CM who was a little bit annoying was on TOT as she didn't seem to understand how to make up the groups for the elevator and those who were next in line somehow ended up waiting longer than those behind - that was reriding heaps on one day and never really understanding her logic.
HOwever there was another CM at TOT who was amazing at setting the atmosphere as he closes the lift door and spoke for way longer than the usual!
 
I have got picked on the ToT so many times:rotfl:
 
Mostly the CMs at DLP have been very friendly, charming and fun when my family have taken time to interact. Complaints are not well handled generally speaking and some of the "rules" are applied far too officiously (FP times for example).
I think some retraining at complaint handling would be great for CMs and also asking customers for feedback and then acting on it rather than asking the same questions over and over but doing nothing about it (eg character interaction lines).
The best CM interaction I've experienced was in California and it really is up a few notches from anything I've had elsewhere. CMs there were wonderful and this was peak summer season. They played games with everyone waiting for parades, asked families to pose with them for photos, recommended places to rest for families with tired toddlers and just overall loved their time at work.
A manager there arranged for us to sit in a special area in front of the castle to watch Magical as my DS couldn't cope with the crowds. It was an unexpected kindness and it made our stay so special. I wish I heard of CMs at DLP doing things like that - post here if you know of something special a CM has done :thumbsup2
 
Aww when my youngest was only four on our first trip he caught a really horrible bug [rotavirus] and wasn't able to do much at all :sad2: The one thing he did enjoy was sitting beside Pirate beach and one CM filled a little tin [one of those DLRP pop open ones...do you know the ones I mean?] with sand from the beach for him to take home with him :lovestruc . We still have it! We've only had good interactions with CMS [or I have forgotten/blotted out] any bad :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2: knowing me I've just forgotten :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

Kaye
 
My daughter was waiting to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and was waiting for about 20minutes before he was due to come out ready with her sword and pirate gear. He came out and got surrounded by people. A cm saw my daughter waiting and told us to stay where she was and brought him over to her.
Later we were entering POTC and a CM stopped my daughter and said "pirates enter the ride by the exit"
 
We had brilliant customer service a few years back at Inventions. DS had severe eczema and was bandaged all up his arms, and the waiters were so concerned about him, and after i explained in my stilted French what was wrong with him, they came back with a free half bottle of champagne!

On the same trip, I'd taken DS out of Inventions so he could bum shuffle down the corridor outside (he never learnt to crawl, he just bottom shuffled LOL), when Mickey came out of one of the doors in the corridor and crouched down to play with DS. It was so magical and I was really choked at this act of kindness. I wish I'd had my camera with me.

Oh and we had stayed 3 times in a row at HNY, and on our 3rd trip the man in the gift shop remembered us and the fact that Ds was a bottom shuffler!

ETA on that final trip, we were offered a free upgrade to a suite at the HNY. THe hotel was full, and they needed the room, so offered for us and the inlaws who were in the adjoining room to share a suite. We had to turn them down, as DS was too young and would have fallen down the stairs in the suite as there were no stair gates.
 
The other week I was there a CM was getting everyone to do the mexican wave up Main Street whilst waiting for the parade & was explaining in many languages & then getting the people who spoke that language to stand in the middle of the street to get the area they were in to participate.

A CM in the shop at SL setting off a singing Eeyore everytime we went by. ACM in the bar at the same hotel very friendly & attentive, got us paper for our scoring at our game of cards.

A CM saw we had waited for Stitch but he went off & then later came back we waited again but before he went off again she insisted he met with us
 
Well, I made a little sidetrack about the language part.....Well, you know, in Belgium, we must learn our two national languages : French and Dutch....English is just an other language to learn....like German or Spanish :confused3...So not every country has "English" like a mandatory courses.


But I must agree with most of you "when you work for a worldwide company, you must know the "basic" English".....
 












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