Wearing many hats, she’s faculty/entrepreneur in residence at Florida State University as well as a Walt Disney Imagineer — those are the folks who create immersive experiences at the theme parks and resorts. She’s also an adjunct faculty member at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
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The Disney Imagineers in Florida are all highly skilled, very inspiring individuals that are knowledgeable in their field, and that is what made this article so interesting. Mk Haley's advice for people like me is very accurate, because having multiple skills in various fields may be better in the long term because not a lot of millennials and people my age are going to follow in our parent's footsteps. As of right now, it seems unlikely that I will ever find a job that will keep me there for 25 years just because technology is growing so fast and by the time my skills have been utilized at a company, they have already hired the next person who knows the new programs. Hopefully, in an area like drama, it won't be hard to keep up with these constantly changing times, but you never know where you'll be in 5 years, let alone 25. For theme parks, however, it is about the guest experience and that is what Haley talks about the most in this article, because without guests, or in drama without an audience, are you even doing your job? You need someone to sell these things to.
The world is advancing in technology and new and innovative ways to do things. With all of the focus on technology, human interaction and decency can sometimes take a back seat. It is extremely important to remember that behind many of those computers that you are communicating with are humans as well and you need to give them the time of day. If your company takes time to focus on your customers and their feelings and thoughts, there is more of a chance that they will hire you again to work with because they had a good experience. If a company is really great but they do not treat people well, it is less likely that their customers will return and reference them to others. Human kindness can go a very long way in business and basically any area. Creating connections with your customers will definitely help your company prosper.
As someone who wants to work in themed entertainment and design for companies like Disney or Universal Creative, I was immediately drawn to this article. Theme parks are meant to be an entire experience, and companies will pull out all the stops to achieve this; hiring the best and brightest to make sure the environment, smells, sounds, and rides themselves all allow for full immersion into the world. None of these elements can be accomplished, and nor do they matter, without human interaction and customer service at the same bar that these artistic elements are at. What does it matter if the aesthetics of a space feel real and amazing if then you have a horrible customer experience? A customer’s feelings should be held at the same level as anything else. Theme parks can only truly accomplish their immersive feel if more attention is paid to all of these little things.
Disney’s thoughts about the “experience economy” can be related to almost anything that has to do with people. When reading this article I took some time to read through “Mickey’s Ten Commandments” and they are incredibly well thought out. The one that stuck out the most to me was the one that said to encourage people to move from place to place by providing “rewards” for doing so. These rewards help factor into the guest experience which is one of the most important factors of entertainment design because without a good guest experience there is no point in having an experience at all. I personally would love to design this kind of thing, but I don’t think that I would be able to take care of any personal face to face interaction because I am usually bad with interacting with people.
This attitude is really important for the sole reason that how employees treat customers can make such a difference for their experience. Vice versa, and that is ultimately why the “humans matter” attitude is so important. Even if the product is essential, considering the customer experience elevates the company to a whole new level. If someone has a good experience it makes them want to come back even more. Also when someone has a bad experience because of one employe, it gives the whole company a bad reputation. Even though the tennants she teaches are so basic they, somehow often fall through the cracks. In general, I wonder how she became an Imagineer and how she formed the connection with Carnegie Mellon. It is a really interesting place to be, because she has a job with one of the biggest companies in the world, but also has a side job in Pittsburg.
This article brought up an interesting juxtaposition between need versus want when dealing with customer service. Often certain companies will disregard making positive customer experiences as a priority because their consumers rely on their product in some way, rather than simply wanting the product. When considering this, healthcare comes to mind for me. The issue of affordable and comprehensive healthcare is one that should rely so heavily on customer service and a positive relationship between the healthcare providers and their consumers, yet often times this is not at all true as the article points out. It's baffling to me that we still live in a time where in some cases healthcare seemingly is considered a privilege rather than a basic human right. Personally I believe that healthcare companies should strive to pay as close attention to bettering their customer relations as the Disney imagineers do.
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