Your Fast Guide to Mickey’s Ten Commandments 1. Know your audience Don't bore people, talk down to them or lose them by assuming that they know what you know. 2. Wear your guest's shoes Insist that designers, staff and your board members experience your facility as visitors as often as possible. 3. Organize the flow of people and ideas Use good story telling techniques. Tell good stories not lectures. 4. Create a ‘come to me’ (the castle, the Epcot dome) Lead visitors from one area to another by creating visual magnets and giving visitors rewards for making the journey 5. Communicate with visual literacy Make good use of all the non-verbal ways of communication - colour, shape, form, texture. 6. Avoid overload Resist the temptation to tell too much, to have too many objects. Don't force people to swallow more than they can digest, try to stimulate and provide guidance to those who want more. 7. Tell one story at a time If you have a lot of information divide it into distinct, logical, organized stories. People can absorb and retain information more clearly if the path to the next concept is clear and logical. 8. Avoid contradiction Clear institutional identity helps give you the competitive edge. The public needs to know who you are and what differentiates you from other institutions they may have seen. 9. For every ounce of treatment , provide a ton of fun How do you woo people from all other temptations? Give people plenty of opportunity to enjoy themselves by emphasizing ways that let people participate in the experience and by making your environment rich and appealing to all senses. 10. Keep it up Never underestimate the importance of cleanliness and routine maintenance. People expect to get a good show every time. They will comment more on broken and dirty stuff.

Source:  A talk given by Marty Sklar, then head of Walt Disney Imagineering LEARN MORE ABOUT DISNEY IN PERSON FROM MICHAEL EISNER If you are reading this before May 2007 you may be in time to book a place at our European Customer Management World, held in London (formerly the European Conference on Customer Management) at which Michael Eisner, Disney’s larger-than-life former CEO, will be interviewed on-stage by Chris Daffy. For more info. Click onto our Home Page and click through to the conference information from there.

Your turn. In the spirit of raising performance thresholds in customer service, if you have a Fast Guide of your own to share with eCustomerServiceWorld's Best Practice community, email it to PhilDourado@eCustomerServiceWorld.com.