What you can learn from Mickey Mouse to accelerate your business
  
 "Information to assist with the realisation of goals"
          

Welcome to The Accelerator... To make the most of February we ask the thought provoking question What can you learn from Mickey Mouse to accelerate your business? Once you discover the answer your sales may rapidly increase! We review the book "The Power of Focus" by Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Cranfield and Les Hewitt.

Also in this issue...

Take Action
Book Review
Tip of the Month

What can you learn from Mickey Mouse to accelerate your business?

I recently had the opportunity to go to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida and was amazed at the efficiency, professionalism and marketing strategies used to make the customers experience an unforgettable one. This month I thought I would share with you the four major business learnings I took from my day at Disneyworld.

1. Exceeding expectations

First impressions last! When purchasing my entrance ticket I was greeted by a Disneyworld customer service representative and the tone was set for the day. I was greeted with a genuine smile and welcome to the park, informed of the layout, things to see and do and an overall schedule of how things run. The most significant thing that I became aware of during the day was the stated expectations and surprisingly how they were exceeded. All rides displayed signs indicating how long to expect to wait and on all rides we were on board for our experience at least 5 - 10 minutes less than advertised.

During the day on all the rides Disneyworld customer service representatives asked with a genuine smile  "how I was enjoying myself?"  leaving me with the feeling that I was the most important person at the park that day! An excellent feeling to leave a customer with especially when there were probably 10,000 other people there that day.

2. Timing

All activities in the park ran to an impeccable time schedule. If a show or activity was stated as starting a 10:00am it started at exactly 10:00am not 5 past or 5 to but at exactly the time advertised. It prompted me to thinking about all the extra things I could do in my business if I implemented a tight regime like the Disneyworld one. I have been trialling myself on small tasks to see where I could introduce the "timing" philosophy and have discovered that I am getting at least 30 minutes extra productivity by starting my work day at an exact time each day!

3. Merchandising and Ongoing Marketing

It's hard to get out of Disneyworld without spending money on Disney merchandise. The park is structured so that as soon as you exit a ride you come out into a merchandise store that carries merchandise in the theme of the ride.  An excellent sales technique! Placing the merchandise in front of the customer at the exact moment they are feeling great about their experience. (Lucky for me I was travelling with a sensible shopper or all my family and friends would be getting Disney products as gifts for the next ten years!)

Everything, and I mean everything is branded in the Disney theme. You can even get an ice cream in the shape of Mickey's ears! The biggest learning for me was the reinforcement of consistency, frequency and placement of your brand in front of the customer. Remember the saying "if you are not in front of the customer someone else will be". 

4. Attention to detail

Never before have I seen such extraordinary attention to detail as I saw at Disneyworld. Every ride, theme, garden and building had an incredible amount of detail. There was nothing out of place, no distractions, everything  was designed to keep your attention focused on having a good time. As a big picture person my attention to very small details is less than perfect so to take a lesson from Disney I am now delegating the detail tasks to ensure my customers receive the appropriate attention.

As an overall theme at Disneyworld I can summarise my experience as "Feel good, happy customers - it's all about the customer". It left me thinking long and hard about my customers and how they feel after an experience with Sue Henry. What can you learn from Mickey and his friends? How do you want your customers to feel?

Take ACTION!

Get into action with one of these ideas ...

1. Jot down the key points where your business excels in Exceeding expectations; Timing; Merchandising and Attention to detail.

2. Identify one improvement that you can make in each of the four areas.

3. Implement one of these before the end of the month.

Book Review

The Power of Focus.
by Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield and Les Hewitt

This amazing book has easy to follow strategies, action steps and an excellent range of ideas to implement to achieve the things that you really want. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was it's simplicity, there are no magic formulas for achieving the results you want just it really is a simple matter of CLARTY, FOCUS and ACTION.

I recommend you read this book, implement the ideas and watch your life transform and business grow! To order this book visit Mark Victor Hansen's  web site at www.markvictorhansen.com

Tip of the Month

Develop a System to capture your ideas

Carry a note pad...
Always carry a small notepad to jot down ideas, especially when you are out of your office or
attending functions. That way you can capture the ideas as they present themselves and
develop them when you get back to your office.

Create an ideas file...
As you think of an idea place the idea in the file. Once a month get the file out and create a
plan to assess and action these ideas.

One last thing...

"Keep your mind on the things you want and off the things you don't want"
- W. Clement Stone & Napoleon Hill

Have a great day!

Sue Henry