RobDoc
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 14, 1998
- Messages
- 34,195
This morning, I had the pleasure of riding shotgun in the Owners Locker purple van for a couple of hours while John (jdvm) was making resort deliveries (and Brian was back at the office toiling away on the phone bank).
John picked me up a little after 8:00am and we were off to a delivery at the GF. John took the backstage route, behind the MK and past the fireworks staging area, before arriving at the GF gate. After identifying himself we were waved thru to the Bell area of the resort where the purple box was safely stored and logged into the GF system. We then went to the Concierge desk where the arrival of the guest was confirmed and a notation was added to the reservation as a reminder to the guest of the location of the locker.
After departing the GF, we made similar stops at PR, WL and SSR. At each resort, I was very impressed with the rapport OL has with the Bell staff and the operations staff there. Most greeted him by name and seemed to genuinely enjoy his arrival. In true Tom Sawyer fashion, John even allowed me to carry a couple of the lockers into the storage areas!
Since I did have a purple shirt (provided to all OL members for a photo contest promotion last fall), I was properly attired in OL "uniform" and was welcomed by the Bell staff almost as much as John!
During the trip, John was in constant contact with Brian back at the office. They usually have a bar code scanner which records the status of each locker and automatically sends out a message when a locker arrives at the resort, but John explained that the scanner is being upgraded with improved software - so he had to manually log the locker status and report back to Brian so that the messages could be sent to the owner of the locker.
After making our third delivery, John needed to make a run back to the OL office in Celebration, where Brian had prepared another locker for a short-notice delivery. Even though I was wearing my OL shirt, I was unable to get past security at the OL complex - consisting of the computer center, main offices and climate controlled storage facility. Due to the valuable items in storage at the facility, even John was unable to get me access to the area since he chose to respect the policies of the security team at the complex, but I was able to get a real feel for the physical plant while waiting in the purple van. I even got to visit with Brian for a few moments while John manned the phones.
We have been using the Owners Locker service for over a year now and never cease to be amazed and impressed with the level of creative thought, effort and implementation that John and Brian have put into this venture. They have systems in place to track all of the lockers, notify members when their locker arrives at the resort and when it arrives back at the storage complex. It is impressively obvious that they have spent a great deal of time and effort developing a strong working relationship with the Operations and Bell staff at each resort they work with - as well as spending a good deal of time and effort developing GREAT customer relations. They are truly a service oriented business and would far rather find a way to make something happen based on a customer suggestion than to say "No".
John picked me up a little after 8:00am and we were off to a delivery at the GF. John took the backstage route, behind the MK and past the fireworks staging area, before arriving at the GF gate. After identifying himself we were waved thru to the Bell area of the resort where the purple box was safely stored and logged into the GF system. We then went to the Concierge desk where the arrival of the guest was confirmed and a notation was added to the reservation as a reminder to the guest of the location of the locker.
After departing the GF, we made similar stops at PR, WL and SSR. At each resort, I was very impressed with the rapport OL has with the Bell staff and the operations staff there. Most greeted him by name and seemed to genuinely enjoy his arrival. In true Tom Sawyer fashion, John even allowed me to carry a couple of the lockers into the storage areas!
Since I did have a purple shirt (provided to all OL members for a photo contest promotion last fall), I was properly attired in OL "uniform" and was welcomed by the Bell staff almost as much as John!During the trip, John was in constant contact with Brian back at the office. They usually have a bar code scanner which records the status of each locker and automatically sends out a message when a locker arrives at the resort, but John explained that the scanner is being upgraded with improved software - so he had to manually log the locker status and report back to Brian so that the messages could be sent to the owner of the locker.
After making our third delivery, John needed to make a run back to the OL office in Celebration, where Brian had prepared another locker for a short-notice delivery. Even though I was wearing my OL shirt, I was unable to get past security at the OL complex - consisting of the computer center, main offices and climate controlled storage facility. Due to the valuable items in storage at the facility, even John was unable to get me access to the area since he chose to respect the policies of the security team at the complex, but I was able to get a real feel for the physical plant while waiting in the purple van. I even got to visit with Brian for a few moments while John manned the phones.
We have been using the Owners Locker service for over a year now and never cease to be amazed and impressed with the level of creative thought, effort and implementation that John and Brian have put into this venture. They have systems in place to track all of the lockers, notify members when their locker arrives at the resort and when it arrives back at the storage complex. It is impressively obvious that they have spent a great deal of time and effort developing a strong working relationship with the Operations and Bell staff at each resort they work with - as well as spending a good deal of time and effort developing GREAT customer relations. They are truly a service oriented business and would far rather find a way to make something happen based on a customer suggestion than to say "No".
