Unlocking the Potential of Service as a Superpower
When a service employee poses the question, "What's in it for me?" the resounding answer is: EVERYTHING. Your team members deserve to understand that investing themselves in service is an investment in their own growth. However, conveying this message and convincing your staff that "great service serves the server first" can be challenging.
Simply put, you can show your employees how creating magical moments for customers can transform their careers and lives, just as Louie inspired thousands of cast members at Walt Disney World on their first day.
When a WOW moment in customer service occurs, it benefits both the customer and the employee simultaneously. Inspiring your team to make this connection is key to maintaining a culture of service excellence. Louie Gravance has had the pleasure of reigniting the passion for service excellence with bankers, nurses, claims adjusters, casino workers, and many others.
This power talk delves into what a WOW moment looks, sounds, and feels like, and why delivering them is beneficial for everyone involved. Participants will come to realize that every customer interaction is an opportunity not just to perform a task, but to define who they are willing to be.
Tools of Engagement: Inspiring Employees for a Common Purpose
I am deeply passionate about employee engagement. During my time at Disney World, it was both an honor and a responsibility to train and motivate tens of thousands of cast members around a shared narrative. While many of the techniques I used back then remain effective, others have evolved. Just as our customers have changed, so have the needs and expectations of our employees, necessitating new methods of engagement.
Today, neither your customers nor your employees want to be mere co-stars in your brand’s "show." Instead, they seek to have their actions—whether through purchases or performance—reflect their own successes as well as those of your organization. They aspire to be heroes of their own stories. Is it possible to align everyone's individual needs and goals with a common purpose? Absolutely, and I’m here to show you how.
Let’s delve into the four key quadrants of an engaged work culture:
Story: Reflect on this—have you been focusing on what you want your employees to do, or on what you need them to be? They will commit to your story as long as it clearly benefits them and defines their role within that narrative.
Language: This was the silver bullet in Disney’s training success. Achieve clarity, consistency, and discipline in your internal communications.
Behaviors: I will equip your team with the seven most crucial actions to become and remain engaged.
Recognition: Are you recognizing achievements based on what your customers or clients desire, or based on your own objectives? The way we recognize excellence is one of our most powerful tools and often the most overlooked.
Your organization can unite around a collective narrative. I'm eager to guide you through this transformative journey.
Crafting Remarkable "WOW" Service Experiences
Organizations are constantly weaving a narrative for their internal and external customers. Every transaction, regardless of the product or service, tells a story that engages all our senses. This narrative shapes customer expectations, influences employee satisfaction, and defines your brand essence.
What do we look like? What do we sound like? What do we smell like? What do we feel like?
Every team member contributes to this narrative with every interaction. Shouldn't it be the story you want to tell your customers every single day?
For over 40 years, Louie Gravance has captivated audiences on radio, television, film, stage, and in theme parks. He has also collaborated with corporate trainers in various industries, including medicine, retail, food, manufacturing, and automotive, as well as insurance companies. At their core, they are all in the business of show business.
This engaging and humorous talk can be tailored to suit your event and objectives.
THE TEN SKILLS of the SERVICE SUPERHERO
This workshop is the perfect companion piece with the keynote, “SERVICE is a SUPERPOWER!” We further explore the delivery of “magical” service moments consistently through the use of ten basic skills.
Serving with INTENTION, and serving with VISION are just two of the skills covered in this deep-dive into the practical application of the Disney service principles.
Participants will:
1. Learn ways of identifying the narrative of your business.
2. Create an intention statement aimed at supporting the goals of your event.
3. Isolate keywords that ground your customers’ experience.
4. Learn a fun exercise they can implement with their staff called, “Good Show/Bad Show.
5. Create an action plan for performance improvement.
6. Laugh a lot.
Aimed at leaders and managers tasked with modeling and inspiring service excellence, participants come away with a training template for sharing what they’ve learned back home.
Workshop
During this exciting and engaging session, you'll explore the delivery of “magical” service moments consistently through the use of ten basic skills. Serving with INTENTION, and serving with VISION are just two of the skills covered in this deep-dive into the practical application of the Disney service principles. You will:
- Learn ways of identifying the narrative of your business
- Create an intention statement aimed at supporting the goals of your store
- Isolate keywords that ground your customers’ experience
- Learn a fun exercise you can implement with your staff called, “Good Show/Bad Show"
- Create an action plan for performance improvement
- Laugh a lot.
Aimed at owners and managers tasked with modeling and inspiring service excellence, you will come away with a training template for sharing what you’ve learned back home.
WHAT WOULD “DISNEYFIED HEALTHCARE” LOOK LIKE?
(And What Would Providing it FEEL Like?)
Healthcare professionals of all types are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted from over two years an unrelenting pandemic. Some experts have even dubbed their condition as a type of post-traumatic stress of disorder caused by an overload of patients, high death rates, personal danger, and ever-shifting safety guidelines.
Perhaps it would be helpful to look at things a different way.
Isn’t it time to remind and re-enforce the superpowers healthcare workers have to create “magical service moments” that far exceed the significance of a theme park experience? In fact, aren’t these moments happening countless times a day and never recognized?
Author, speaker and former training designer for Walt Disney World, Louie Gravance asks the question, “What would ‘Disneyfied healthcare’ look and feel like? And what would it feel like to provide it?” This humorous and uplifting session explores ways healthcare teams can rediscover their service superpowers and the impact they provide endlessly to patients and co-workers alike.
Louie suggests the Disney cultural template of following the P.L.A.N.
Purpose
Language
Actions
Narrative-Shared
As he says in his book, SERVICE is a SUPERPOWER-Lessons Learned in a Magic Kingdom, “Every time we delight a guest or patient it makes us, the service provider, immeasurably stronger.”
Delivering WOW Service Moments Virtually
Forging the paths to delivering world-class service in a virtual world involves understanding a few foundational truths about the new arena:
1) We have all created avatars for ourselves that roam, shop, and explore in a virtual world seeking out the sources which serve us best. Whether we're aware of it or not.
2) Great brands can develop deeper bonds with their customers by becoming partners in personal publishing.
3) Customers will not value how an organization views itself as much as how an organization views THEM.
From his early work adventures as a Disney interactive street performer, Louie learned that creating “magical, Disneyfied moments” was about sharing the stage with the audience. To captivate their attention as an improvisational performer he referred to the audience constantly, drawing them with playful fascination.
In the highly humorous keynote, world-renowned customer service expert Louie Gravance will use career examples like this to show how the goal as service leaders is to use technology to enhance the emotional component of each transaction, rather than diminish it.
*VIRTUAL-Pay Intention | Setting the Stage for Your Company's Comeback
In my book, SERVICE is a SUPERPOWER—Lessons Learned in a Magic Kingdom, I outline the ten most important skills of a “service superhero”. The first, and most important skill, is Serving with Intention. An organization’s intention provides the context required for service excellence, no matter what they are providing or who they’re serving.
As your team re-enters the workforce after this challenging time it will be imperative to re-establish who you are and what you’re being for your customers and each other.
My years at Disney taught me that all business is show business. Allow me to offer the tools necessary to set the stage for a glorious comeback! Make sure your team is armed with all ten skills of the service superhero. And for goodness sake - PAY INTENTION.
August 15, 2024
Louie came recommended to us by someone else who saw him speak. As part of our vetting process, we show clips of speakers to a team of volunteers and they select speakers they want to hear more from. While they were lukewarm on most speakers, they were very excited to hear Louie more and immediately selected him to be our keynote. In working with him, he was a dedicated professional who cared about making our 100th anniversary show spectacular. He was warm with all of the team members, including the AV tech personnel, which is very smart. And his presentation received such high marks! He was energetic, engaging, and knew the right people in the audience to connect with. He made his talk an experience while never coming across contrived or silly. Entertainment and education rolled into one - exactly what we needed.
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