Page 42 - The Apple Experience

4. Care. Disney provides a supportive environment where recognition and rewards

play an important role in motivating and retaining high-performing employees.
Disney cast members enjoy being recognized for their contributions, and leaders

have devised many creative ways of doing so. We’ll discuss recognition and praise

a little later in Part I. For now keep in mind that Disney, Apple, and other
customer service champions frequently honor the employee. One Apple Store

employee told me that a few days earlier the staff had gathered for a quarterly
meeting, which in most organizations is an hour or more of dull financial slides

that mean more to senior leaders than to frontline staff. In this particular meeting,
the management spent half an hour reviewing the numbers and the next two and

a half hours celebrating the staff with games, activities, food, and even a karaoke

contest. Management had turned the “meeting” into an event where the staff
could interact, have fun, and bond with another.

Walt Disney believed that every employee—each cast member—must

reinforce the brand’s values through their conversations and actions. Disney

guests should always be treated like family, and people who don’t get along

with the customer family have no role to play in the Disney show.

Are You Nice?

If you’re looking for a critically acclaimed Italian restaurant in Chicago, you

might try Spiaggia on Michigan Avenue. A Chicago favorite since 1984,

Spiaggia is the winner of the James Beard Foundation award for outstanding

service. What some perplexed diners have found unusual is that some waiters

have exposed tattoos on their arms and don’t quite fit the look one would
expect at a high-end restaurant. Yet even stuffy, hard-to-please critics

consider Spiaggia the best Italian restaurant in Chicago.

Andy Lansing is the president and CEO of Levy Restaurants, which

owns Spiaggia and twelve other restaurants in the Chicago area. Lansing says