Page 96 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Never a Customer, Always a Guest 77

You can probably guess the results. In the first class, 50 percent of the
students dropped out or flunked. In the second class, every student passed with
a grade of C or better.
The point of this story is that perceptions really do become reality.

Perception Becomes a Grim Reality
The power of perception takes on a strangely disturbing cast in this story of a
railroad worker in California. The man was sent to check on some freight in
a refrigerated boxcar. While inside the car, the doors shut accidentally, trap-
ping him inside. When the man failed to check in at the end of the shift, a
coworker found him dead in the boxcar. The following words were written on
the walls: “No one is hearing my cries for help. My hands and feet are getting
colder. I don’t know how much longer I can last.”
The eerie fact of this story is that the boxcar had been sidelined on a
spur because its refrigeration unit was not working. The temperature outside
was in the eighties, and although the temperature in the boxcar was slightly
lower, it was nowhere near freezing. There was also plenty of air for the man
to breathe. So what happened? His perception of freezing to death was so
strong that it became reality.
Plumbing & Industrial Supply has a heightened understanding of
customer perceptions and a firm set of long-term beliefs. Thus, when an
elderly gentleman came to the retail counter area of the company one day, he
received a reception that is, we’re sad to say, not typical of most businesses.
The apparently lonely old fellow asked a lot of general questions and
didn’t seem as if he were a serious buyer. “My initial reaction,” said the counter
attendant, “was to return to my other duties of stocking shelves and processing
orders. However, having just attended a three-day retreat in which we talked
about treating the customer as if he were a guest in our own homes, I contin-
ued to converse with the man for about two hours.”
The following day, this seemingly unlikely customer returned to place a
$500 order. What’s more, he related that he had told his sons, who were taking
over his construction business, about the fine hospitality he had received the
day before. He assured the counter attendant that his company looked forward
to a long-term business relationship with Plumbing & Industrial Supply!
Walt Disney would have appreciated the counter attendant’s story, for he
always focused special attention on those who dealt directly with theme park
visitors—the ticket takers, the waiters, the security officers, and the people