Learning on the fly

     I’m one of the many people walking past Whole Foods on campus with my earbuds in and a laser focus away from any eye-contact with people doing surveys- I dread the fifty questions game.  So here I am, with the shoe on the other foot, out pestering the Disney guests about their vacation experience.    Our team designed a utility survey based upon our findings from the peak experience surveys.  We set up a Survey Monkey questionnaire to see if we could determine if any of our recommendations might increase guest’s happiness.

    Earlier in the week when we were gathering peak experience surveys - I had encountered resistance from both guests and cast members.  When guests are hot, have been waiting in line for an hour, and just want to get their family some food - the last thing they want to do is play the fifty-questions game.  Thinking outside of the box a bit, we discovered that guests were more willing to talk on their bus ride back to the resort.  Once they have their day in, and are comfortable with some bus A/C - most people are more than willing to share their time with you.

     Feeling a bit overconfident, I attempted to obtain some info from the hotel's guest services.  I startled the check-in cast member, and was escorted to the hotel manager - where I promptly received this business card.  With future interactions with cast members and guests, I struck up a more casual conversation before heading straight into the questions which was very useful in the utility surveys.

     Finding the right balance of not being too aggressive, and also keeping the guest's needs and desires in mind paid off.  One guests in particular agreed to take the survey, but was obviously not excited about doing so.  Near the end, when I started asking questions about possible improvements - she lit up.  "That would be a great idea!" After taking the course, I can see how important mystery shopping, peak experience surveys, and a bit of marketing research can be.

-Chris