Is Disney still as friendly as years ago?

[ols386]

On the contrary, I think the premise is very much the same. We use the excuse "will they should expect XXXX" because they work at XXXX to justify the bad behaviour.

Why do you think people go into retail stores and act up. Because we as a society tolerate it. Most people know if they go to a retail store and scream and holler 90% of the time regardless of store policy they will get their way.

People know if they go to Disney and even if the paid for a standard view, they will march to the front desk and the fun begins and pity the poor CM who stands up and says "I'm sorry, you got exactly what you paid for" (a bit more diplomatic than me of course)

NO one, no matter what your occupation, doctor, lawyer, butcher, baker maid or Indian chief should expect any thing but respect and decency when they step into their job.

And I'm not buying the "you shouldn't be in customer service if you don't want to be abused" line. That's bull.

You're generalizing when you say people go into a retail store and act up. Yes, some people do....certainly not everyone.

Regarding the 2nd bolded statement...that's not what I said. Go back and re-read my post. I said "if a person doesn't want to deal with the public, they should seek other employment". I did NOT say they should be abused...you conveniently put the word abused in there. You put words in my mouth....please don't do that. I do agree that we should all be treated with respect, unfortunately that's not reality. I cannot even begin to count how many times I was verbally abused in my occupation, over the past 30 years.

 

[portocall]

I have been going on a regular basis since 1977 and all I can say is we went in Nov and didn't run into one single unpleasant CM. Well, if they were, not to me and not where I saw it. Now, I have in the past run into a few... but I don't let it bother me when I

 

[DarthKTrava]

It is both the employee's and employer's responsibility to assure that the employee is doing their job correctly....which includes not being rude to guests (and I'm CERTAINLY not saying that ALL cm's are being rude, probably a very small percentage). If the employee is having a problem with any aspect of their job, then the employer needs to address that with the employee, and find a way to resolve it. But don't tell me that it is ok for the cm to be rude to a guest. If you beleive that, then I don't know what to tell you.

I happen to believe that customer service ranks right up there at the top. This includes being polite and helpful to guests.

And guests shouldn't think they should be rude to the CMs because they don't get everything they want.

 

[ChrisFL]

A lot of CM's are now college program/international program as well. This can be good and bad. I met a LOT of very nice CM's from those programs a few years back and still have contact with many of them.

However there can be good and bad from that. It's good to be able to attract fresh Disney loving people to work for a short time, a few months to a year, then go back to their home...but then they don't gain the knowledge and experience of the more experienced CM's. Plus it's more difficult to spot the "bad eggs" IMO when they aren't there long enough to judge them (deport them???)

Then again, more experienced CM's could get burnt out from all of the guests day in and day out, many pleasant, some unpleasant, putting on your smiley face all day can get tiring.

 

[waltsgirl]

We were just at the parks the week after Christmas and I was saying to my husband I don't see all the disgruntled, rude cast members that everyone writes about on the DIS.

It was still a magical place for us and the CMs that we interacted with were all polite. On NYE the CMs were all having so much fun, or at least seemed to be, and believe me if I had to direct all those people I would not be so nice.

 

[ols386]

And guests shouldn't think they should be rude to the CMs because they don't get everything they want.

Agreed!

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

I am of the opinion (and I am in customer service) that if you are respectful and nice to someone they will return it. Now if someone is having a bad day then this is not always true but I am still respectful because you never know if your one smile could change someone's bad day.

 

[disneydreamersx4]

OP here - Wow 4 pages of replies.....I need to go and read them, be back later

So pretty much going to Disney is what you make of it....go with a good attitude and hope that those around you have one too.

 

[luvsJack]

But remember we (customers) have gotten outrageously rude also. How many of us go through the check out line, cell phone glued to ear and fling items at the cashier? And god forbid she has to interrupt us to ask a simple question or better yet God forbid people actually have to stop yaking long enough to figure out how the cc swipy thing works.
Then we get an attitude when some thing rings up higher and we didn't catch it.

I laugh when I read of all the vents on the dis about guest who didn't get the exact room view they wanted because I can only imagine how they reacted at the resort. Sorry, CM's have my full sympathy. I have seen guest explode because of room views (even though they only paid for standard view).
My neighbors daughter was (she just graduated) in the college program at WDW. then she became a mousekeeper at one of the deluxes. She tells us all the time about moms who literally curse her out why? NO towel animals.

I always tell her to leave the room filthy with a couple of towel animals on the bed.

You are so right! Its not just the cm's at disney that have to deal with rude customers. The cashier's and fast food folks probably have so many that they cannot speak to because of the cell phone, for instance, they just quit trying.

When students come in to pay me their tuition, sometimes I want to say "PUT DOWN THE CELL PHONE!!" I can't ask them the proper questions and sometimes have to wait until they finish their call to finish the process! Very, very hard to smile and say "thank you" or "have a nice day" with all that going on. Sometimes you just really do want to growl at them.

I think its easy to forget that even if we are being pleasant to a cm at disney or the girl at the window at McD's, that doesn't mean the last 100 people were and we may be getting the frown and "less magical" treatment because of those other 100 that were hard to deal with. I will have to remember that myself the next time the person at McD's forgets to say "thank you".

 

[Goofycampers]

Disney used to be a corporate model for outstanding customer service. They had the Disney institute I think it was called. You don't hear much about it anymore....

 

[tammymacb]

I just turned 40 ( I still can't believe it ) and have gone to Disney at least yearly since I was 4. I'm an ex-Florida resident and a DVC member. I can say without a doubt that Disney is much less "friendly" than in the past.

Now I agree 100% that visitors can be blamed for some of that. But, I've seen behavior that is simply unacceptable.

This December, DH and I went down for 5 nights. We decided to get on a stand by line for Toy Story Mania. It was a looooooooooooooooooooooong line. Well, there was a family in front of us that was essentially non English speaking, a 30ish year old couple with a set of elderly ( parents?) the oldest man was in a scooter. When we finally got to the doorway that separates the main room from the stairs, we had to stop to let fast-passers go ahead. The loud ( and brash ) CM yelled for us to stop. The elderly man on the scooter kept going ( I have no idea if he couldn't hear, or couldn't understand ) but I'd say in his case he was not "ignoring" the CM or being a trouble maker ( and she was incredibly loud while doing this- NO one in the area got to miss his reprimand ). You would NOT believe the way she yelled at that man like he was a child. I didn't know him from Adam, and felt embarrassed for him. I can tell you if she'd spoken to me like that, she'd currently be unemployed. I still feel bad that I didn't find a manager and let them know how she treated this guest. It was extremely rude and uncalled for.

 

[sewer]

In some ways I think it's a little less friendly. I think it's a combination of CMs and guests. It has never prevented me from having a great time there. I kind of think that if you go to WDW with the attitude that you're going to have a great time, you will because you don't notice the bad things as much.

I have definitely seen a difference in the CM interaction with guests and a CM who wasn't very magical but even with that observation we still come back from every trip with moments of how a CM made our trip even better.

WDW is such a magical place and it's easy to hold onto the idea that the people who work there are magical too (and sometimes they are) but at the end of the day, they're people just like us, doing a job. Rude guests and corporate changes sometimes take a toll. You might see an occasional CM who is just bad at what they do but for the most part, the majority of them are still pretty great. IMHO

I agree, a lot of what goes on at the 'World has to do with the individuals going there. With that being written it only stands to reason the CMs sometimes get "crabby" after dealing with some of these people for hours! Anyway I treat the CMs with respect and focus on enjoying the time we're there.

 

[bicker]

Disney used to be a corporate model for outstanding customer service. They had the Disney institute I think it was called. You don't hear much about it anymore....

Actually, unless you deliberately close yourself to what Disney still represents, you do:

http://corporate.disney.go.com/media/news/Fact_Institute.pdf
http://www.rit.edu/news/?v=46984
http://www.learningtree.com/courses/D340qa.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/20/nation/na-disney20
http://www.trainingmag.com/msg/content_display/publications/e3i0b58482505417d4c0e19908eefdae16b
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2009/sb20091130_866423.htm

 

[GothTink]

On our trip last month, we ran into many unpleasant CM's (and lots of unpleasant guests, too). Even my 12 year old pointed it out ( and that's saying something!).

That was our experience this last time as well. Even my nine year old said something.