New Counter service flow ? NOT

[Pirate-Jeff]

Disney tries to streamline dining process
By Leah Zanolla
Oct 6, 2009

Walt Disney World is using four of their quick-service restaurants as test locations for a new program called "The Basics." Their goal is to streamline the lunch process and make the experience more pleasant for guests, while still focusing on basic customer service. The test restaurants are Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, Columbia Harbour House, Pinocchio Village Haus and Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Guests are all directed to one entrance of the restaurant, where they are met by a greeter. They are given menus and then directed to the cash registers to place their orders. After they get their food, they are taken to an empty table by another employee.

This program is designed to keep people from sending one person to the register, while the rest of their party holds an empty table. At Pecos Bill's there is a sign inside the front door that reads, "Welcome. Our tables are reserved for guests who have received their food. Once you have received your food, we will help direct you to a table." According to managers of the quick-service restaurants, saving tables can clog up one-third of a restaurant's capacity at any given time.

Other changes made to the quick-service restaurants include self-ordering at Pecos Bill's and smaller stools without backs at the tables. Disney says these stools allow an extra chair to be placed at the tables, as well as to help keep the aisles clear.

Who thought this up?

Lets see at Pecos Bills everyone has to stand in the line. The line will be out to Main street. Stand in line again for a table. Only 1 working entrance This should be fun.

Maybe just maybe Disney should take the ropes down opening up all of the sections of seating at the restaurants.

 

[BradyBz12]

I saw this yesterday and also thought that this all just didn't add up to good customer feedback and improved "flow" ?

Seems to me you're going to get people trying to wedge their way in past the poor CM at the podium while s/he explains to the masses of annoyed people in front of him/her (some of whom don't speak English) why they can't go save a table while dad gets the food, or that they can't go sit down just to get out of the heat without buying food.

And I'm dying to see how they've redirected people through/around all the other entrances. That had to be a trick and a half!

I also couldn't quite see how this actually moves more people through the dining room - although I would trust that Disney has this equation worked out to the second.

They did say this will only be the case during busier times. Hoping we won't see it at all when we head down in 3 weeks.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Disney can say whatever they want about removing the backs of the chairs, but it's pretty obvious the objective is to make sitting at the table as uncomfortable as possible so guests will eat quickly and leave. I think I will talk to Bobby about this - I bet if they put an exposed nail in the seat of each of these chairs, it will be even more effective.

 

[DaveInTN]

You know, when you have small children the last thing you want to do is have the entire family standing in line. It is always more pleasant when my wife can take the kids and set up the table, and even start to feed the little one, while I get the food. Damn that Bobby and his lame ideas. Please talk some sense into him, Jim.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Usually if I get him loosened up with a Kungaloosh or two, he is a little more reasonable.

 

[I'mDownWithDisney]

You know, when you have small children the last thing you want to do is have the entire family standing in line. It is always more pleasant when my wife can take the kids and set up the table, and even start to feed the little one, while I get the food.

^Exactly.



Methinks this is going to suck.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

You know, when you have small children the last thing you want to do is have the entire family standing in line. It is always more pleasant when my wife can take the kids and set up the table, and even start to feed the little one, while I get the food. Damn that Bobby and his lame ideas. Please talk some sense into him, Jim.

I agree with you Dave.

Now that all my kids are teenagers, this new plan won't be such a problem for us. But, back when my kids were younger, I would guess that the chances of me getting away from the counter with my food and drinks and making it to the table without having something knocked out of my hands would be pretty slim. At these counter service restaurants, I would insist on the kids going to get a table, just because things are always so congested around the registers, and especially at the counters where you actually pick up your food. The last thing they need around there are a bunch of rambunctious, hungry children.

I will have to make a point of visiting one of these places to see how this experiment works in practice. It may not be as bad as it sounds.

TCD

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

As if the lines for ordering and receiving food werent crowded enough, now your entire party will have to jam in there.

Do these people ever think before they implement this stuff ?

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Do these people ever think before they implement this stuff ?

no.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Wouldn't you love to sit in on one of these planning meetings to see these geniuses discussing these ideas, getting all giggly and excited over their brilliant ideas and then going to TGIFridays after to celebrate their brilliance? I bet they're all about 22-24 years old, new college grads with crisp, button down shirts their mommies bought them for their brand new job with Disney. They all drive new beemers they leased when they got their job offer. In a couple years, they'll realize they aren't going anywhere with Disney and they'll get a job at Verizon or Comcast screwing customers their with more of their dynamic ideas.

 

[LONE-STAR]

Wouldn't you love to sit in on one of these planning meetings to see these geniuses discussing these ideas, getting all giggly and excited over their brilliant ideas and then going to TGIFridays after to celebrate their brilliance? I bet they're all about 22-24 years old, new college grads with crisp, button down shirts their mommies bought them for their brand new job with Disney. They all drive new beemers they leased when they got their job offer. In a couple years, they'll realize they aren't going anywhere with Disney and they'll get a job at Verizon or Comcast screwing customers their with more of their dynamic ideas.

 

[auntie]

What are they thinking?.. Idiots.

 

[LONE-STAR]

You know what the problem is all the people that come up with these ideas they have never taken a family to WDW.

 

[bama_ed]

This is a crock of crap!

Nobody believes this spin about "making the experience more pleasant for their guests". Even the Dis podcast team mocks Disney when any change (even prices increases) are "due to guest demand".

I haven't eaten the swill they serve at a Counter Service restaurant in the last several trips since I pack a picnic lunch and stow it in a locker. But this is "B"arbara "S"treisand. In a normal view, a family approaches the register area to look at the menu choices. Daddy wants a #1 with a Coke, Mom wants a #4 with a diet cola, Billy wants a #3 with a supersized Mtn Dw, and Sally wants a #4 with a pink lemonade. Dad tries to remember all this as he approaches a register, dumps the download of orders, pays, and then goes to a counter to await his overpriced swill. The family left after telling Dad their orders to secure a table.

Been there, done that, got that t-shirt!

What WDW management is doing is trying to reduce the time the tables are tied up by the family. This is queueing theory at its most elemental. This is NOT about improving the guest experience or even preserving what little guest experience there is in a Counter Service environment. This, along with the back-less uncomfortable chairs, is all about spending as little time as possible at the table so that it can be turned over and used again for more swill consumers.

WDW management has a choice: they can try to improve/lower the time it takes to take the order, receive payment, and fulfill the order. McDonalds drive-through window is a model of excellance most times of this. As I recall my experiences at Counter Service, it takes a minute or two as Dad to get to a machine/order taker to dump the orders, then it takes a few minutes waiting for the full order to be placed on a tray. Their second choice is to not attempt to improve themselves but instead inconvenience us more to cover up for their short-fall. Keep the family standing away from the tables and shuffle the whole group through the check-out and to the counter to await the luke warm junk.

Lately many of the changes Disney has made is not to improve the guest experience (regardless of their claims) but instead to improve their efficiency. In doing so it treats us more like cattle. The dumbing down of the Dining Plan is a perfect example. I could go on ad nauseum.

The way for Disney to improve their bottom line is to make everyone of Jim's new button down college grad MBA types spend 2 months during the summer working Counter Service in the parks, being a janitor on Main Street, or a waiter at Tony's. Listening and interacting with customers. But that makes too much sense......

Bama ED

 

[liv luvs disney]

We had a problem with my Mom, her scooter, and a CM at a CS restaurant a couple of weeks ago. After moving her scooter once just to please him, he asked us to move it again. I handed him the key and told him since we didn't move it right the first time, he could move it. He didn't and we left. At this same place, I had to return to the counter 2 times before my order was right. I knew when I walked away the first time that it didn't look right, but there were 50 people waiting on orders and I felt rushed. As soon as I set the tray down, I realized we had not ordered 4 hamburgers so I went back up to the counter. There were 4 other people there with with incorrect orders as well. It was mass hysteria (yet a "slow" time for Disney) and none of these people had their families in line with them. They were already at the table waiting on their food.

This is a dumb, dumb idea! I completely agree that the ignoramuses that came up with this are more than likely fresh out of college, don't have families, and have never eaten at a CS restaurant.

ETA: That was the most disgusting food I had ever eaten in my life. This was the first ime we did not get the DDP and the only meal we at the parks. I thought I would miss the food, but not after eating that. Not only did it cost me over $30, it was not fit to eat. We threw over half of it away and in 2 hours went back to the camper to eat.

 

[des1954]

I bet they're all about 22-24 years old, new college grads with crisp, button down shirts their mommies bought them for their brand new job with Disney. They all drive new beemers they leased when they got their job offer. In a couple years, they'll realize they aren't going anywhere with Disney and they'll get a job at Verizon or Comcast screwing customers their with more of their dynamic ideas.[/quote]

That's the kind of crap I had to put up with my last 10 years at Verizon.

This is a crock of crap!

Nobody believes this spin about "making the experience more pleasant for their guests". Even the Dis podcast team mocks Disney when any change (even prices increases) are "due to guest demand".

The way for Disney to improve their bottom line is to make everyone of Jim's new button down college grad MBA types spend 2 months during the summer working Counter Service in the parks, being a janitor on Main Street, or a waiter at Tony's. Listening and interacting with customers. But that makes too much sense......

Bama ED

I often SAID that my last 10 years at Verizon. These young "trailblazers" were going to turn the world upside down with their college edumacated thinking. The sad part is, the professors teaching them never worked in the real world and are only teaching "theoretical" processes. Yes Ed, this is a bunch of crap.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Disney needs to extend the "free" dining plan to year round - make it a permanent fixture, since they haven't been able to figure out that giving away food isn't the answer to a bad bottom line. It's like a school district spending a ton of money on a program that ends up failing, then deciding the problem was they didn't spend enough money on it, so they raise the program budget.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Disney needs to extend the "free" dining plan to year round - make it a permanent fixture, since they haven't been able to figure out that giving away food isn't the answer to a bad bottom line. It's like a school district spending a ton of money on a program that ends up failing, then deciding the problem was they didn't spend enough money on it, so they raise the program budget.

Holy Crap,,Jim, you just discribed our goverment at work !

 

[DaveInTN]

Holy Crap,,Jim, you just discribed our goverment at work !

That's exactly what I was thinking! If it wasn't so sad it would be hilarious.

 

[liv luvs disney]

Holy Crap,,Jim, you just discribed our goverment at work !

If it wasn't so sad it would be hilarious.