Part III: The Call of Conscientiousness

This is the final post in our series highlighting the three essentials of stellar customer service and why they make a difference for hiring organizations such as attractions, theme parks, and other customer-focused industries.

In the first article, we examined the impact of Friendliness, highlighting how hiring people who are consistently friendly, empathetic, and approachable is the first key to service excellence.

With the second installment, we looked at Problem Solving, and the manner in which effective problem solving builds confidence in your brand with customers and team members alike.

In this week’s post, we’ll explore the final key to creating a stellar customer experience, Conscientiousness, and how it can keep your customers coming back for more.

The Third Key to Stellar Guest Experiences

Customers return to their favorite theme parks and resorts because they enjoy the overall experience and want to replicate the positive aspects of their visits. For team members who deliver these services day in and day out, the job can become almost automatic. Unfortunately, many employees lose focus on the customer and simply go through the motions in performing their tasks.

Finding and hiring conscientious employees helps to ensure that each guest and team member interaction is fresh. For our purposes, conscientiousness is the ability to incorporate that something extra into fulfilling even the most basic customer service interaction. Conscientiousness personalizes any transaction and moves it from mundane to memorable.

In the attractions industry, an example of a conscientious employee is a frontline team member who, when asked for directions, doesn’t simply spout a series of turns and landmarks to tourists, but accompanies the guest to ensure that they reach their destination.

Conscientious team members take personal pride in the performance of their tasks and see the uniqueness of each interaction as an opportunity to exceed the customer’s expectation.

Going Above and Beyond

Here are just a few ways conscientious employees help exceed customer expectations:

• Takes the time to ensure that customers’ concerns and complaints are properly understood.
• Carefully explains any special processes that are involved in providing service to the customer.
• Handles directly or refers customers who have problems which may be out of their normal area of responsibility.
• Assists other team members without being asked
• Looks for opportunities to go “above and beyond” what is required to exceed expectations and build customer loyalty.

The Wrap Up

In this series, we’ve explored the three keys to creating a stellar customer experience: friendliness, problem solving, and conscientiousness. Whether you are in the attractions industry, or other customer-focused business, hiring people who consistently demonstrate these attributes will help ensure that your customers walk away happy and will want to return again and again.

To make effective hiring a reality for your business, check out Employment Technologies’ EASy Simulation® Virtual Customer, designed specifically to measure the three essentials of customer service excellence.

  You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world.
But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
—Walt Disney

Clay Rivers has worked in the attractions and entertainment industry for more than 20 years. He is an author and writer whose works have appeared in The New York Times and the innovative Medium publication, The Mission.