EP059 Magic in the Details: Applying Disney's Common Purpose to Ecommerce
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[00:00:00] Darin Newbold: Well, good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name's Darin and as always my awesome sidekick, Josh is good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name's Darin and as always my awesome sidekick, Josh is here and we have, as always, a very fun bet. I am gonna say that this is the culmination. Of fifty-eight previous episodes for our fifty-ninth episode here. This is bringing all of that together. We're gonna bring in a little of Disney's magic, so it's the magic in the details.

[00:00:27] Applying Disney's common purpose to e-commerce. Josh, that's a heck of a title. 

[00:00:32] Joshua Warren: Do they have to listen to all fifty-eight episodes first if this is the Coleman? Absolutely. I mean, I'm assuming that's what everyone's been doing. Following along from the beginning. Duh. Come 

[00:00:40] Darin Newbold: on. Well, 

[00:00:42] we kick this one off, this one's all about Disney has a very.

[00:00:47] Purposeful, intentional approach to how it does service, exceptional service. And one of the things that they do is they define their common purpose and what it is and their, their common purpose. Disney's common purpose is we create happiness by providing the best in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.

[00:01:06] That's a heck of a common purpose. But that helps us in all of the things that we do. 'cause it's that guiding. Guiding light guiding principle to move forward with. So Josh, now how do we take that and put that into e-commerce implications and where does that all take us? Yeah. And while I still want to hear more from you about like how do they take that big common purpose and break it down into, I guess, more actionable things?

[00:01:32] Joshua Warren: 'cause like if I'm a Disney employee, which they call them cast members, I'm a cast member and I'm told, oh, create happiness, like. A lot of ways you create happiness and you're absolutely right. And so one of the ways that they do that is they created four keys, as they like to call 'em, and they're their four, their four guiding principles that go along with 

[00:01:52] Darin Newbold: Living out their common purpose.

[00:01:54] These four keys guide everything that their cast members do and how they act and behave with each other as well as anyone at the parks. And the four keys that they have are safety courtesy show. And efficiency. And as you study this, or if you've been through their exceptional service training, you'll know that those are in order and they're in an order of importance.

[00:02:17] And so safety is always first. And so until something is safe, you don't go past that to courtesy show or efficiency. Safety comes first. So now that we have those kind of key. Key principles and key basics, how does that then translate if we were to into an e-commerce type of situation? So I'm enjoying this because usually you go off script and stump me with questions.

[00:02:40] Joshua Warren: I've got a question for you, fire away. But first I will talk a little bit about how, um, my piece in all this recently took the family to Disney World, have some fun stories to share from that. 

[00:02:51] in each step, each of these stories, I realize that there is a takeaway for an e-commerce company. There's almost.

[00:02:56] Two levels of takeaways and there's the more operational one because obviously as an e-commerce company, you can have a common purpose. You can have four keys, you can train your employees on those four keys and you can provide exceptional service. But then also in the way Disney does some of this stuff, there's also some interesting takeaways for e-commerce.

[00:03:14] But um, I guess before we dive into that kind of. It's not really a question, but I happen to know that you led the process at Creatuity for implementing a, a common purpose, and I'm just, I'd be curious to hear you talk a little bit more about that or maybe how you see that show up in our work. Yeah, and so we took the, the principles that we, that Disney had, and we didn't wanna repeat them.

[00:03:39] Darin Newbold: But we also recognize that those are such great pillars that yeah, we ended up repeating a little bit of them, but what we did is for safety in, in, in an agency and in what we do and how that translates is. What I saw it is, is that's business first. And that's business first. Not just for us, but for our client.

[00:04:03] And so to really equal that out is, hey, we wanna make sure that in any transaction, anything that we're doing, the worst, the worst scenario it can be is it's a, it's a wash of good and bad. It's a break even. And that otherwise we focus on what is the most important thing for both creativity and for the client in that situation.

[00:04:24] And that sets the, 

[00:04:26] pillar going forward because then 

[00:04:29] having, having courtesy is definitely. Important and then having a diligence. And we took that diligence a little bit different than where they had show in their, uh, in their piece, but we wanted to be diligent in how we worked. But then we also wanted to be efficient, so we pulled a couple of them, but that provides what we do.

[00:04:49] And then how that looks is how we interact. And we always want to go through 'em in that order of, Hey, make sure that business first is taken care of. Then, hey, we're being courteous to our clients and to courteous to those that we're working with. Yeah. That's very cool. 

[00:05:05] Joshua Warren: a whole other, other part.

[00:05:06] Maybe that's, as you were joking earlier, I mean, that's our hundredth episode. Exactly. So, 

[00:05:10] very cool. And yeah, I know that's had a big impact here at Cree to D. I think it could have a, a big impact really for any of the e-commerce businesses out there of going through this process. Um, during the pandemic, Disney offered this as a remote training you could do, and that's how we did it.

[00:05:24] Unfortunately now you have to go to Florida or California and pay to attend one of the in-person classes. Uh, but there are some good articles out there that talk about how they set their common purpose that we'll link to as well. 

[00:05:37] Darin Newbold: Well, very good. So going to kind of the, the next piece of this 

[00:05:42] do we start to take these, 

[00:05:44] pieces and how do they start to look in real life or in encounters maybe that you had, because you and your family just were recently at Disney, and so we want to talk about that.

[00:05:55] Personalization beyond the, beyond the products. And tell us about a story, uh, impactful encounter I think you had with some Disney princesses. Wasn't so much me as my daughter. Okay. Who I think is a Disney princess in her own right. But, um, yeah, so I wrote a, a article on my LinkedIn that we'll link to if you want to get into really the details of each of these stories.

[00:06:15] Joshua Warren: Otherwise, we'll be here all day. But basically in this case, um. So I've joked before and told y'all before, rather honestly, that at times when I can't sleep, I read all sorts of interesting things like the UN guidelines on Ecommerce safety and things like that. That's just how my brain works and my brain, there's always a business component going.

[00:06:35] So we were at a dinner at Epcot, one of the Disney, Disney World Parks. Um, and it was a princess dinner because my daughter really wanted to meet the princesses. And I realized, um, Cinderella comes by the table. And she doesn't just stop for a photo, she actually gets down, kneels down, starts talking to my daughter.

[00:06:55] My daughter as only a four-year-old can asks some questions where I'm like, there is no way that this cast member staying in character is gonna answer this. Like at some point, she's just gonna be like, all right, kid, go back to your parents. I gotta get to the next table. She answered every question. And she like really, she got to the point where I'm like, there's other people waiting.

[00:07:14] There's other tables, but it didn't matter. You could tell that she was doing everything she could to make my daughter feel like she was the only person in the entire park and she accomplished it. And that made me realize as kind of the gears returning, I was like, you know, 

[00:07:29] the very best businesses are the ones that make you as the consumer feel like the only or the most important person.

[00:07:35] And so the very best e-commerce experiences are the ones that you take personalization to the level that you feel like this experience on this website was made for me. It wasn't made for some persona, it wasn't made for, know, males age this to that. It was made for Josh. Um, and now that we have the power of AI and can really tune that in.

[00:07:58] I think we can get to that level of personalization. 

[00:08:00] I think it's just so you know, whether you're a four-year-old or a Huh-huh year old. Like we are, feeling like you are the most important person this experience was made just for you. You're gonna spend a lot of loyalty and a lot of money with that brand.

[00:08:15] Darin Newbold: Yeah. And that's the key with the, with the ai, I, I started to have visions of minority report where you're walking through and they scan your eye and it's the exact image for you in a way. That's what we're looking at in kind of creating those experiences. And yes, it's a challenge when you're going from a real world environment to a online environment, but the little things can make a difference.

[00:08:40] So let's talk about those little things, kind of that magic of the attention to detail. Uh, another. Unforgettable, uh, moment that you had when in with photography with a guy, uh, Larry, it looks like, uh, and how that all played out? Yeah. I don't know why, but his name actually, I do know why. So one thing that we're not really covering today is Disney has a way that you can recognize their cast members when they go above and beyond.

[00:09:03] Joshua Warren: And especially being, being someone that had learned their common purpose, their quality standards. I actually was using their app to recognize cast members when I saw they were really nailing it. And you have to give their name, their name. Um, where they were working at and their hometown, which is on their name tag.

[00:09:19] So Larry from Okinawa, it was a photographer that, um, uh, you can read the full, full story in the article, but basically, um, had a very special day for my daughter in the magic Kingdom. Um, it was on her birthday and a celebratory birthday, and she was all dressed up as a princess and we hadn't really gotten.

[00:09:38] A good photo and she, I mean, she's a four-year-old. She doesn't like taking pictures. You tell her to smile and you get all sorts of goofy faces. Well, we're in front of the castle, which if anyone you know has ever gone to Disney World, you've seen a Facebook photo in front of the castle. Front of the castle.

[00:09:53] Everyone is there taking pictures. Everyone is there waiting in line to take pictures. And again, there's this situation of. This photographer, a lot of the Disney photographers, they'll snap a couple photos. Next guest, this guy stopped and said, Hey, I can tell it's her birthday special day. I'm gonna do everything I can to get the best photos of her.

[00:10:12] And got down on the ground, was shooting up at different angles. I mean, there was a long line for me and I could tell that he wasn't sitting there going, oh no, I need to get to the next cast or to the next um, customer. I need to move on. And it made me realize they must not. 

[00:10:28] Incentivize or penalize their employees based on like photos per minute or guests served per minute.

[00:10:34] They were all about kind of that, that attention to detail and letting their employees spend as much time as they needed to to really get that experience just right. That is amazing and 

[00:10:44] Darin Newbold: do you see that? How do you see something like that really presenting itself on an e-commerce website? And I know we have episodes that for those that are listening, you're gonna remember 'em, but.

[00:10:54] Maybe just as a quick, a quick reminder, what are some things that you would see Josh that would really hit that attention to detail? So obviously things like your product photos, um, and really having good imagery, good descriptions, all that. But I almost flip it beyond the website to your customer service experience as well.

[00:11:13] Joshua Warren: Uh, you. I know that in customer service environments, we wanna measure things and often we wanna measure tickets, closed calls resolved, things like that. But if you can, instead of having. Really rigid. Like go faster, go faster, go faster, and really rigid policies and processes. If you can do what Disney did and you build out, here's our common purpose, here's our quality standards.

[00:11:37] You are empowered to deliver the best experience possible within those boundaries. So your customer service reps, and 

[00:11:43] if you go back and you read. Anything from the early days of Zappos, Zappos did this really well and there's so many stories of, you know, if if they didn't sell the shoe someone was looking for, they would find it on another website for them, things that just went above and beyond. that's, you know, I I haven't heard those, those case case studies talked about in a long time. I haven't heard. Especially the, economic environment of the past few years. I haven't heard a lot of people talking about investing the time to make that connection with your customers, even in a challenging customer service interaction.

[00:12:13] Darin Newbold: that's, that's That's one of the experiences that Apple does when I was there. I mean, the surprise and delight, That's That's one of their key, key key principles is surprising and delighting their, customers 

[00:12:23] throughout the store. So yeah. That's a great way. Well, alright, as we, uh, as we kind of come around to, um.

[00:12:30] Moving forward here. What's another? We 

[00:12:33] scenario, which is, uh, now it's in my area. I like this one. Behind the scenes insights from Star Wars Rise of the Resistance Ride. Kind of you can hear Darth Vader in the background, I'm sure. All right, so if you are a Star Wars fan and a Disney World fan, and you have not ridden this ride.

[00:12:50] Joshua Warren: Skip ahead a few minutes in the podcast because there will be spoilers and it is a ride that I don't wanna spoil for anyone. But, um, I'll try to keep it high level. So basically this is a ride that, um, it's actually like three or four different rides in one. And you go from, and you are very much in the story, and you go from working with the resistance.

[00:13:12] To being captured by the first order to then the resistance breaks you out. There's a battle and, and things like that. And it's a lot of fun. 

[00:13:19] while we were on this ride, luckily it was our second time to ride it, 

[00:13:22] and it broke down and they told us, Hey, we're so sorry. Um, we're actually gonna have to walk all of you off the ride.

[00:13:30] We were basically in the middle of the ride, and so I'm thinking. I can't go that way. Can't go that way. So they took us backstage, so we gotta see some of the backstage magic and as they were walking us through these hallways and corridors backstage, you know I mentioned that parts of the rider with the resistance parts of the rider with the first order while the cast members.

[00:13:48] Wearing either a resistance or first-order uniform and it would really break the story if you're in the middle of the, the resistance base and there's just this first-order guy walking by going to his break. Right. Um, well back backstage I was able to see on the back of every door that opens out to where any customer, any park-goer might see it.

[00:14:08] There was a big sign that says door opens on stage, and then it actually would say resistance only or first-order only. If you were an employee that was playing a specific role, you couldn't just accidentally walk out the wrong door and kind of break the story and break the immersion. Wow. What an amazing, what an amazing event.

[00:14:25] Darin Newbold: And they think of, you know, talk about thinking of everything. I mean, this is like NASA level stuff and, uh, and the space shuttle. Well, would you see something like that? Um, really manifesting itself for our merchants out there in that level of kind of detail and that level of experience, even when things are going right or whether they might go a little sideways.

[00:14:47] Yeah. 

[00:14:47] Joshua Warren: Um, first of all, I think we all want websites to work perfectly for everyone all the time. That doesn't happen like that just doesn't happen. know, luckily if you work with the right partner and you have the right technology and processes. Problems should be few and far between, but they do happen.

[00:15:04] And so I feel like Disney, I didn't go into the whole process of how they very quickly got us outta the backstage area, addressed any questions or concerns or complaints that might've come up before they did and made us feel good about the ride breaking down. Like they had this whole playbook that they ran and it just made me realize that.

[00:15:23] You need to have the same thing for your e-commerce business where if someone, either an individual bad experience because of a systems problem or maybe a site-wide bad experience, know what you can do to make people feel good about your brand again. Um, the other piece though, on a more operational side, um, I feel like this is commerce call center today, today, but just liked that example of how Disney like.

[00:15:48] They have their common purpose, they have their quality standards, but they also just take the time. They realize what, what are some common ways that an employee could mess up? And what are some very easy ways that we can help them keep that from happening? So having those signs on the door, whoever thought of that, it's like, that's genius because somebody's distracted.

[00:16:07] Somebody's running late, something happens. It's one last check to make sure that you were providing that show from their four keys, and you don't actually disrupt that. And I feel like that's. That's the right balance and that's the balance that your call center. Your warehouse, wherever you're setting policies, give them your common purpose, your standards, but then give them some room, empower them, but then also have some things where you're like, you know what?

[00:16:35] If you push this button in the warehouse, it breaks these seven things. So we're gonna put a guard over that. Or if you get this type of customer service request, well we've learned that's usually fraud. So we're gonna have a little warning in our ticketing system for that. Like little ways you can help your employees deliver that quality service without, without being overbearing about it.

[00:16:56] Darin Newbold: Well, and it's something that I just thought of as you were sharing that is, gosh, have you ever rehearsed with your team what happens when stuff goes wrong? And what's kind of the battle plan? 'cause I guarantee Disney's rehearsing these things, they've gone through it, they know it, and they practice it over and over and over again.

[00:17:15] So that it's, it's just natural. That's how they operate and that's the way that, that's what causes it to, even when things break down, you still feel good about it because it was still so smooth and maybe it was even smoother than trying to get on the darn ride. It might've been smoother getting off of the ride because of a problem because they just handled it so well and you feel, Hey, this is pretty cool.

[00:17:36] I wanna write it again. So one last bonus item that didn't make it into the article. So that's a very new ride. And this is a whole, this is gonna become a Disney World podcast. I'm not careful, but, um, you can pay to get into a quicker line on some of the rides, and that is a ride that we had paid for the quicker line.

[00:17:55] Joshua Warren: Well, you have to use it within certain hours. And once those hours are up, you can't use it. You can't use it once. We didn't basically get to use ours, so as we were exiting, they said, scan your little, your tickets basically, and we're going to change this to where you can use it at any time today. Um, and you can use it on any ride.

[00:18:13] Our schedule was such that we didn't get to use it at all, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna have to, you know, go stand in line, ask for a refund. Call them, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Well, the Disney app, which all, they have everything tied together so they know who I am, where I am, what I've done.

[00:18:28] I actually, as the park was closing that night, got a push notification that said, Hey, we saw you weren't able to use this. We're so sorry this happened. We've already refunded your credit card. And they just took care of it. Wow. 

[00:18:39] Darin Newbold: That's awesome. Well, this has been a fantastic episode. We're kind of bumping up on our time, time here, but just a quick recap.

[00:18:47] Disney's principles, their personalization, their four keys, having that safety courtesy show and then efficiency, and it's interesting that efficiency is the last one, especially around your story about the photographer, and I can imagine those in line might've been saying, wow. We need to move efficiency up the process, but we really want to encourage you as merchants to, to look at these insights because they do make a difference.

[00:19:10] And a lot of times it's those little things. So any last, uh, reminders? Closing remarks for, for you, Josh, on. What we 

[00:19:18] Joshua Warren: need to take away. Just anytime you can provide an experience where your customer feels like they are the most important or only person in the world do it. That is what will build loyalty.

[00:19:29] That is what will build, larger carts, larger orders, larger lifetime value. So, 

[00:19:34] Darin Newbold: and there you have it. Well, with that, we are so happy to have you. Please, like, subscribe to our, uh, channel YouTube, like LinkedIn. Definitely check out. Josh's LinkedIn, uh, uh, article because that really goes into even more detail and really tells the story.

[00:19:49] So we thank you for joining us and as always, we'll see you next time here at Commerce today.

[00:19:53]