Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Miami International Airport has one of the poorest records of customer service among the largest airports in the country. When you consider the view of consumers for the overall industry, that's saying a lot. The airport served over 32 million passengers in 2006, with over 14 million being international.

An AP article reported scores were below average in "accessibility, check-in, security check, baggage claim and overall satisfaction; average scores in terminal facilities and food and beverage; and above average in retail services."

Fortunately for them and their passengers, they're taking action to correct it. They've chosen the Disney Institute to help train their people in better customer service. The Institute has been around since 1986.

With airports and Disney World having a lot of common issues like parking, retail sales and ground transportation, this makes a lot of sense.

The key aspects of Disney's training centers around strong attention to detail, removing of barriers that were essential to making guests happy, and keeping in contant communication with their customers to keep them informed.

The underlying quote that helps workers on their way is: "It's not my fault, but it is my problem." A simple and easy way to remember that can be used as a foundation to build on.

One practical example illustrated in the class is the way Disney positions its trash cans. They actually studied how many steps people took before they got rid of a hard candy wrapper after they opened it, before throwing it on the ground. After finding it out, they simply put their cans 27 steps apart in response to the data.

Another simple step they took, was they counted the number of people who entered the park as the way they took. Findings were many more went to the right than to the left, so they put their lockers and wheelchairs to the right of the park's entrance to meet that need.

The whole idea is attention to detail for the purpose of removing barriers is the key to bringing customers satisfying experiences. The vast majority of problems are practical in nature. Learning to identify and take care of practical problems is one of the missing elements from customer service.

While it's important to have friendly, outgoing people to serve our customers, practical steps must be taken to take it to the next level of excellence. I've known a number of business that have the right people but don't understand the practical details that separate great customer service from average or poor. It's all in the details. Just ask Disney.